Pete Wells (Like Everyone Else) Is In Love with Oiji's Honey Butter Chips

Pete Wells, like many diners (and an Eater critic), is smitten with the honey butter chips at East Village newcomer Oiji:

They come to the table straight from the fryer, translucently thin and shimmering all over with honey and brown sugar melted into butter. Cayenne keeps the syrup from overstaying its welcome. They are crisper and more lovable than wet potato chips have any right to be.

Chefs, Brian Kim and Tae Kyung Ku, also impress the critic with updated Korean dishes like buttered rice and beef, and "As for the chicken, it's a genuine achievement. Typically Korean fried chicken has a hard, crackling shell, but Oiji's is dressed in a puffy, pale, blistered cloak that crunches like newly fried chicharrones." There are just a few misses including a somewhat "gloopy" soup of ground perilla seeds. Two stars.

This week, Wells also pens an ode to cooking on vacation and explains how he ended up where he is now: "Cooking was a hobby that metastasized into a career....These days, I need to take a vacation to get back to the thing that got me into this mess."