I have never been a big fan of LaNova pizza, I'm more of a Mr. Pizza kind of girl. But I must admit, LaNova BBQ wings are the last word in my book. Tossed in that sweet, tangy sauce and then thrown on the grill fo a few minutes to produce a light char, they are magnificent. So we wanted to order some wings and pizza and thought it might be kind of ridiculous to order wings from one place and pizza from another. I have to say I was disappointed. LEt's rate the wings using my scorecard.
1. The wings were of normal size, not those nasty mutants.
2. We got an order of medium and one of BBQ. The medium couldn't even be considered mild, they had no flavor and worst of all, they had lots of undercooked, fatty bits. Wack. The BBQ was good but not remarkable.
3. THe blue cheese was terrible but at least I anticipated that and had Marie's easily accessible. Incidentally, Nicole put in a vote for Rootie's blue cheese. I'd like to do a blind taste test but we were too lazy to leave the house to pick some up.
4. The pizza was edible but also unremarkbale. I had to doctor it up with some banana peppers and blue cheese. LANova pizza, as usual, is just too goddamn doughy. And they don't offer the variety of flavored crusts. My favorite is still Mr. Pizza garlic crust with hot peppers and sausage. The non-meat eaters wanted mushrooms and although I love a good fungus, on pizza it just doesn't do it for me.
Anyway, I'm still on my quest for the perfect wing. I'm starting to suspect that it's in my very own kitchen.
Showing posts with label chicken wings. Show all posts
Showing posts with label chicken wings. Show all posts
Sunday, December 30, 2007
Monday, December 17, 2007
Chicken Wing Scorecard
I had a staff gathering on Friday night at Pearl Street Brewery and it occurred to me, as I lapped up the wing sauce, that I should create categories for scoreworthy components of a delicious chicken wing.
In a previous post, I had mentioned making it my winter's work to scour each and every wing joint in the WNY region. I will probably just limit that to Erie County unless there are some strong contenders in the far-flung Southern Tier. But I cannot just rush into this blindly. I must methodically document and reason, throughly research and create a standardized assessment through which I can objectively choose the superior chicken wing.
Incidentally, I liked the wings at Pearl Street. I thought their pizza and onion rings were pretty weak but the wings were mighty fine. So I will rate the Pearl Street wing by the categories I have devised. If I am missing a category, or you have some input on modifying my already-existing ones, let me know.
1. Size: Some people complain about small wings. I personally find the huge, hulking ones pretty creepy. I feel like they came from some genetically-modified, hormone-high chicken. Plus, I like a high skin-meat ratio. Not enough surface area on those big ones. So these wings were right in the middle, just fine by me.
2. Crisp: Underfry a wing and they are a soggy mess and those nasty veins are much too flaccid. Yuck. Overfry a wing and you have something that resembles a pork rind more than a chicken wing. They must be perfectly fried to avoid either one of those outcomes and be able to soak up the sauce and still retain a bit of that crispy exterior. Pearl Street did this marvellously.
3. Wing Sauce: It has to be Frank's Red Hot and butter, people! Cannot skimp on the butter. And oh my, they did not.
4. Blue Cheese: First of all, does it come with blue cheese? If not, they are not wings! Second, is it laden with blue cheese chunks? Is the mayonnaise base redolent with garlic? This isa downfall of most places, I often have to resort to bringing an emergency container of Marie's Extra-Chunky Blue Cheese. OK, I really get the light, which is pretty good too. Anyway, Pearl Street did not receive high marks in this category. The blue cheese was middle of the road, few chunks and had a sort of nasty, bulk mayonnaise taste.
5. Carrot/Celery: I don't think this category carries as much weight as the others but it's part of the experience. Many wing joints skimp here too, throwing a few anemic-looking celery sticks and dried out carrots on the plate. Kudos to Pearl Street; the vegetables were fresh and ample.
6. Double vs. Single: I don't know how else to describe them. You know, there are the wings with one bone and then the double-jointed guys. I used to favor the drumstick-like wings, now I think I prefer the doubles. I'll eat both but some people are fanatics about only eating one type or another. Cast your vote please.
I just read something about Swannie House wings being the world's greatest. That may be my next stop. If you'd like to join my on my adventures in chicken wing scouting, please let me know. Also, I'd like comments on your personal preferences and secret haunts.
In a previous post, I had mentioned making it my winter's work to scour each and every wing joint in the WNY region. I will probably just limit that to Erie County unless there are some strong contenders in the far-flung Southern Tier. But I cannot just rush into this blindly. I must methodically document and reason, throughly research and create a standardized assessment through which I can objectively choose the superior chicken wing.
Incidentally, I liked the wings at Pearl Street. I thought their pizza and onion rings were pretty weak but the wings were mighty fine. So I will rate the Pearl Street wing by the categories I have devised. If I am missing a category, or you have some input on modifying my already-existing ones, let me know.
1. Size: Some people complain about small wings. I personally find the huge, hulking ones pretty creepy. I feel like they came from some genetically-modified, hormone-high chicken. Plus, I like a high skin-meat ratio. Not enough surface area on those big ones. So these wings were right in the middle, just fine by me.
2. Crisp: Underfry a wing and they are a soggy mess and those nasty veins are much too flaccid. Yuck. Overfry a wing and you have something that resembles a pork rind more than a chicken wing. They must be perfectly fried to avoid either one of those outcomes and be able to soak up the sauce and still retain a bit of that crispy exterior. Pearl Street did this marvellously.
3. Wing Sauce: It has to be Frank's Red Hot and butter, people! Cannot skimp on the butter. And oh my, they did not.
4. Blue Cheese: First of all, does it come with blue cheese? If not, they are not wings! Second, is it laden with blue cheese chunks? Is the mayonnaise base redolent with garlic? This isa downfall of most places, I often have to resort to bringing an emergency container of Marie's Extra-Chunky Blue Cheese. OK, I really get the light, which is pretty good too. Anyway, Pearl Street did not receive high marks in this category. The blue cheese was middle of the road, few chunks and had a sort of nasty, bulk mayonnaise taste.
5. Carrot/Celery: I don't think this category carries as much weight as the others but it's part of the experience. Many wing joints skimp here too, throwing a few anemic-looking celery sticks and dried out carrots on the plate. Kudos to Pearl Street; the vegetables were fresh and ample.
6. Double vs. Single: I don't know how else to describe them. You know, there are the wings with one bone and then the double-jointed guys. I used to favor the drumstick-like wings, now I think I prefer the doubles. I'll eat both but some people are fanatics about only eating one type or another. Cast your vote please.
I just read something about Swannie House wings being the world's greatest. That may be my next stop. If you'd like to join my on my adventures in chicken wing scouting, please let me know. Also, I'd like comments on your personal preferences and secret haunts.
Wednesday, November 7, 2007
Seven Days without Pizza Makes One Weak
I hardly ever eat pizza unless I make it at home. Not because I don't love it but I'm a girl on her own and a pizza would take me some time to plow through. I have to wait until friends come home for the holidays and need their wing-pizza-chicken finger sub fix or, in this case, a series of work-related events.
Last Thursday, we decided to have a staff lunch, just the five of us, very cozy. We haven't done this since adding two people to our staff, so I was excited becuase this time we got to order TWO pizzas and deviate from the usual Low-Cal Veggie. Devan had his heart set on Laura's Old Fashioned, which is extra-thick crust, ample sauce and topped liberally with cheese and thick-cut pepperoni. Bill favors the Low-Cal Chicken Veggie, with spinach and artichokes. It took Just Pizza forever to get here and when they did, I was irritated because Laura's Old Fashioned looked like regular old pepperoni with a fancy name and a higher price. Oh how I was wrong! I especially loved the thick slices of pepperoni that cradled lovely puddles of grease. You can wrinkle your nose in disgust but it was damn good. Low-Cal Chicken Veggie was tasty but unremarkable. Actually, I liked the veggies but could have done without chicken. If meat is going to be present on a pizza, please let it be in pepperoni or sausage form.
Yesterday, I had a long meeting here so I ordered lunch for the group. It amazes me how everyone wants regular old pepperoni when there are exciting choices, like Stuffed Banana Pepper pizza, which is topped with banana peppers, ricotta and sausage. Anyway, I got one of those and one of the old standby, cheese and pepperoni. Now the pizza was once again from Just Pizza and the difference between last week's Laura's Old Fashioned and this week's cheese and pepperoni was vast. The sauce was too sweet and the cheese kind of flavorless. It wasn't bad but it was unimpressive. The Banana Pepper on the other hand, mmmmm. The ricotta was very creamy, the sausage ample and the peppers adding the perfect amount of kick.
This is when the tale becomes a little embarassing. We ordered pizza at Tasty Tuesday last night. True, I had already eaten dinner (pizza leftovers) and didn't really partake. Actually, I wouldn't have eaten any had they not ordered the mysterious Mister Potato Pie from Mister Pizza. But I had to try this. Starch on top of starch? It reminded me of those glorious french fry po-boys with lots of gravy in New Orleans. The pizza included wedges of potatoes that were a cross between baked and fried and they were amazing. Of course, there was also bacon, chives, three cheeses and a side of sour cream. I just had a bite to satisfy my curiousity and now I can't wait to have it again. Suki and I were already emailing this morning to plan a slumber party as an excuse to order it.
Although I've had no chicken wings on my week-long pizza adventure, I was inspired this morning by an article by Calvin Trillin, that appeared in the New Yorker in 1980, entitled "An Attempt to Compile a Short History of the Buffalo Chicken Wing." It's an entertaining article but its pretty dated so I thought I'd make it my winter's work to update it. This will include sampling wings at all the old classics, as well as the newcomers. I'm going to need some assistance with this task, one can only eat so many wings, so drop me a line if you're interested.
Last Thursday, we decided to have a staff lunch, just the five of us, very cozy. We haven't done this since adding two people to our staff, so I was excited becuase this time we got to order TWO pizzas and deviate from the usual Low-Cal Veggie. Devan had his heart set on Laura's Old Fashioned, which is extra-thick crust, ample sauce and topped liberally with cheese and thick-cut pepperoni. Bill favors the Low-Cal Chicken Veggie, with spinach and artichokes. It took Just Pizza forever to get here and when they did, I was irritated because Laura's Old Fashioned looked like regular old pepperoni with a fancy name and a higher price. Oh how I was wrong! I especially loved the thick slices of pepperoni that cradled lovely puddles of grease. You can wrinkle your nose in disgust but it was damn good. Low-Cal Chicken Veggie was tasty but unremarkable. Actually, I liked the veggies but could have done without chicken. If meat is going to be present on a pizza, please let it be in pepperoni or sausage form.
Yesterday, I had a long meeting here so I ordered lunch for the group. It amazes me how everyone wants regular old pepperoni when there are exciting choices, like Stuffed Banana Pepper pizza, which is topped with banana peppers, ricotta and sausage. Anyway, I got one of those and one of the old standby, cheese and pepperoni. Now the pizza was once again from Just Pizza and the difference between last week's Laura's Old Fashioned and this week's cheese and pepperoni was vast. The sauce was too sweet and the cheese kind of flavorless. It wasn't bad but it was unimpressive. The Banana Pepper on the other hand, mmmmm. The ricotta was very creamy, the sausage ample and the peppers adding the perfect amount of kick.
This is when the tale becomes a little embarassing. We ordered pizza at Tasty Tuesday last night. True, I had already eaten dinner (pizza leftovers) and didn't really partake. Actually, I wouldn't have eaten any had they not ordered the mysterious Mister Potato Pie from Mister Pizza. But I had to try this. Starch on top of starch? It reminded me of those glorious french fry po-boys with lots of gravy in New Orleans. The pizza included wedges of potatoes that were a cross between baked and fried and they were amazing. Of course, there was also bacon, chives, three cheeses and a side of sour cream. I just had a bite to satisfy my curiousity and now I can't wait to have it again. Suki and I were already emailing this morning to plan a slumber party as an excuse to order it.
Although I've had no chicken wings on my week-long pizza adventure, I was inspired this morning by an article by Calvin Trillin, that appeared in the New Yorker in 1980, entitled "An Attempt to Compile a Short History of the Buffalo Chicken Wing." It's an entertaining article but its pretty dated so I thought I'd make it my winter's work to update it. This will include sampling wings at all the old classics, as well as the newcomers. I'm going to need some assistance with this task, one can only eat so many wings, so drop me a line if you're interested.
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