WING MACHINE - Toronto

One of the advantages of being back in Toronto temporarily is the ability to have not only hundreds of restaurants, pizza joints and other take-out goodness, but to be able to do so in a guilt-free environment. Not wanting to go out or go to the caf, I turned to the many options of take-out at my disposal. I didn't want pizza, or Chinese, or anything else. No, I wanted wings. And what better place to deliver wings, than Wing Machine.

It is a local chain of wing and pizza joints, connected to Pizza Panzerotto. Wing Machine rarely has any seating in any of its locations, just a bench or stool or two - this is really a delivery place. I still remember the first time I ordered from them way back in my first year of university. I was excited, and nervous, and very curious. Would they hurt? Would they be all they were cracked up to be? A delivery place dedicated to wings? The first time was good, but not great. I think it was hyped up in my mind a lot more than it was really worth. But here I am many years later and obviously still ordering.

From the moment the box arrived, I knew things were going to be good though. The fact that you could see the grease through the CARDBOARD meant there was definitely going to be some flavour to these puppies.

I knew I would probably want to have some food for a few days, so I ordered one of their many combo dinners. I went for the "Buffalo Chicken Drums" dinner which was 6 Buffalo Chicken Drumsticks, 1lb wings, 6 cheesy garlic bread sticks & 2 coke bottle s (591 ml). I also ordered a large suicide dip and a large blue cheese dip as well.

My room became filled with the smell of roasted chicken, spice and everything nice. The square box revealed a small feast of golden, crispy, poultry wonders. A Styrofoam container opened to the strong smell of saucy flavour; an aroma of flavour, excitement and pain all rolled into one where the six large chicken leg drumsticks laid to rest in their spicy juices.


For some reason, with a lot of food I eat, if I see the below red colouring to my food, I associate it with deliciousness. Spicy, full of flavour. With other cuisine, I sometimes have been led into a false sense of security by this colouring and found tomato or just plain flatness that just can't reach my craving. But I knew that this would be the real deal. If it can stain your fingers and ignite your nostrils, you can feel a little more assure that its going to be tasty meal.

I immediately tore into a chicken leg drumstick, that had been purportedly done in a Buffalo style. Could a chicken leg done like a chicken wing, but on a larger scale?

2007 THE SCORE 3.0: WING MACHINE – Toronto

STYLE:	baked, deep fried
PRICE:	$5.49 for ½ pound (light snack) $7.99 for ¾ pound (satisfying order) $9.98 for 1 pound (real meal) $14.97 for 1 ½ pound $19.96 for 2 pounds (family) $29.94 for 3 pounds (party)
SAUCES:	Dips: ($0.75 sm, $1.40 lg) § blue cheese § honey garlic § honey bbq § Cajun hot § Suicide Style: ($1 extra) § Buffalo § Jerk	1/1
HEAT:	burning – definite sensations in mouth from ‘Buffalo style’ and ‘Suicide’
SIZE:	Large - good size for take out wing	2/3
WETNAP FACTOR:	wings come dry – sauce is extra except for ‘Buffalo Style’ (2 marks for BS being wet)	2/3
CRISPINESS:	Crisp	2/3
FLAVOUR:	spicy, peppery flavour – non-traditional sauce for sure – no hint of ‘Buffalo’ in BS style, but its really good	2/3
SIDES:	n/a	*
CLEAN UP:	nothing	0/2*
WING NIGHT:	none- but lots of combos	1/1
OTHER:	n/a
TOTAL:	good take-out wings	10/16*

*adjusted to fit style of restaurant

Let's get a few things about Wing Machine out of the way before we get ahead of ourselves. First, WM bakes their wings. This produces a juicy wing that is ready to fall off the bones on a good day, or dry right out on a bad. Usually the wings have various spices and seasonings baked into the skin which can create a crisp skin, but not in the same way a deep fried wing would. Also, WM doesn't automatically put sauce on their wings; they have dips, and they usually cost extra.

With this in mind, I was curious how the "Buffalo Drumsticks" would be, considering that for a wing to be 'Buffalo' style, it must be deep fried, with a hot sauce/butter mixture dipped in. Unfortunately, WM deceptively used 'Buffalo' as a marketing gimmick, not an honest wing delivery. That being said, the spicy flavour used was certainly good and was worth praise in its own right. A drumstick was huge, meaty, and the spice caused my throat to swell for a moment and cough, the way a good wing should.

The regular wings are usually pretty small, but I was surprised to find bigger, meatier wings than I was used to from them in the past. The flavour of the chicken is tasty on their own, but I knew I had to order sauce, or dips, on the side to kick it up a notch. I had their suicide (it used to be called 'killer suicide') to splash on the wings. Because it is a peppery suicide, it inflames the senses, and burns well especially in the back of the mouth.

To work with the suicide, I also had blue cheese, which is not only traditional to wings, but would cut down on the heat that the suicide can deliver on. The blue cheese dip is their own unique creation; I would describe it almost as a tzatziki with blue cheese in its texture and flavour. Because of how thick and creamy it was, it had the ability coat the mouth, throat and stomach to reduce pain in the same way milk or sour cream can sooth an extremely hot wing.

My order also came with garlic bread. It was good in that way that Cheese Whiz is: yes its artificial but I like the artificial flavour. These were clearly NOT homemade bread sticks, but something that came out of a plastic package. They were good for soaking up the suicide, and thus, did their job. But unlike Little Caesar's Crazy sticks, I would never order these on their own.

FINAL SCORE: The chicken drumsticks were a fun and tasty experiment; they were in no way 'Buffalo' style, but the marinating sauce they were baked in was certainly good. The wings themselves were bigger than usual but just as flavourful. And the suicide packed a good punch, even if the sauce is extra. The wings aren't cheap, and can be tough on a bad night, but they are a sinful pleasure you might have to look into if you are hungry, need a wing fix, and don't want to go out on a Toronto Friday night. 10/16

Wing Machine
200 Elizabeth Street, Toronto
(and other chain locations)
wingmachine.ca

Chestnut Report SPECIAL REPORT: Reporting on the Special Chestnut

TONIGHT:
I come back to the Chestnut to check on the wings since I left; yes, I came back the very next day, they thought I was a goner but I just couldn't stay away. Stop trying.

THEN:

David Kim sits down with me to eat some wings; will his eating skills be a 'Tip of the Hat' or a 'Wag of the Winger?' I'll give you a hint, the terrorists won.

AND:

Finally, the dangers of multi-tasking.

I guess I better stop being 'Awesome' and 'Fantastic'.

"Sorry, egg fans, it's the chicken.
End of argument.
This is The Chestnut Report!"

Welcome back to our special series, 'Better Know a Chestnut Wing'. Tonight we bring you: "A Chestnut Report SPECIAL REPORT: Reporting on the Special Chestnut Report." Yes, we are looking at how we are looking at reporting the Chestnut Wing, The Fight'n Chestnut.

It's been several months since we had a Chestnut Report, mainly due to the fact I don't live at the Chestnut anymore. It is very hard to review Chestnut chicken wings when I don't live there. But I came back, and upon my arrival not only was I greeted with wings, but 'Favourite Wing Son Award'. What an honour, that I suggested be created, in honour of me. But with that award and the support, I realized i needed to announce on this special night my candidacy:

"Hail to the Chicken, Wing King's Hot Wing 2008 Presidential Campaign"

High on the natural capsicum of popularity, I was ready to reach out to the voters. Campaigning for both sides of the issues, good wings or great wings, I was ready to grab power and serve the needs of the chicken electorate. I was ready to show my true colours: "that I believe in wings, that I believe the people who eat wings. I'm going to tell it. Strong; bold; Bam! I'll put it out there. Deal with it or get out of the way." I love the wing nation, almost as much as it loves me.

I sat down with friend and staff member David Kim to go over the campaign and the The Fight'n Chestnut . A terrible blow was struck though when Dave told me I didn't get the nomination. I told him:

"Well, thanks so much, give my best to the people of the Wing Nation, and tell the other candidates I will see them in hell. Having the honour of just making it thus far. I mean, its all for the best, I'm so busy with the blog, and eating wings and travelling around and hanging out with all those friends that I have. WHY!?!?!? Why don't you wan't me in your race? Fine its your loss! I had a lot of great ideas no no no, no its too late, no one gets to hear it. Fine, I sung the praises of your wings Chestnut, but that's it, no more."

Then Dave told me that I didn't get the nomination because there was no electoral race. Which leads us to our next segment: "Tip of the Hat, Wag of the Winger"

WAG OF THE FINGER to David Kim for telling me I didn't get the nomination. It felt like being stabbed in the back with a broccoli spear.

A TIP OF THE HAT to David Kim for actually sitting down with me and having wings. Sure I may have lost the election that never was really happening and lost all the power I didn't really have

Another TIP OF THE HAT to Chestnut residence - for providing me with a giant plate of wings and suicide sauce. Big meaty wings, flavourful suicide sauce. But was it all a wing could be?



No. Thus another WAG OF THE FINGER to Chestnut for not serving crispy wings on this sitting. What happened? And you had gone through a bigger container of Honey Garlic sauce than suicide. Which leads us to

WAG OF THE FINGER back again to Dave, who admits "I like spicy food, but not spicy wings. I prefer honey garlic". NOOOOOOOOO! Dave, you're ON NOTICE!!!! You might have to even be added to my THREAT DOWN.

Now I didn't let the Honey Garlic menace to get me down, or the soft wings stop me from consuming a lot of wings. Sure, I could have just quit, but then I would be letting the terrorists win, and we can't have that Wing Nation.

I had to win, so I fought back with delish suicide, a sauce that wasn't afraid to by truthi about its flavour and its heat. Sure it could have been hotter, but the Honey Garlic hipsters would have been out forming a march or a sit in of sticky complaints.

When it comes down to it, you can have bad wings, or good wings done badly. Or good wings that went bad but then went bad, or bad good wings that might be good. Or bad. My point is this - make the wings crispier, get rid of the honey garlic. Dave, feel free to join me for wings again, but don't let me catch you with the honey garlic insurgency. And although I may not have won the Hail to the Chicken, Wing King's Hot Wing 2008 Presidential Campaign, I was happy just eating wings.

Hey. Nation, I'm having, too good a time to say good night. Lets have a deep talk over wings at a pub and then watch the sunrise. Too much? Too soon? Ya its cool. Good night.

Wahoo 2 Sports Bar - Belleville ON

RIP - WAHOO 2 is NOW CLOSED

It had been a quick weekend up to Ottawa with Mr P, him visiting Paul, and I seeing LJ. Mr P and I met up on a few occasions, but the biggest part of the trip had to be the actual road part of the trip. We left downtown Toronto at 5pm. We stopped for dinner in Oshawa, driving for what seemed like forever to find a place. The place we did eat at made us wait 45 minutes for food - so by they time we had reached Ottawa, it was about 30 minutes past midnight.

The weekend went by, and we left Monday morning. Heading to Stittlsville, everything from antique stores to the Diefenbunker were closed, prompting us to be on the road early. We travelled North to a ghost town known as Balaclava, and then South stopping at little shops along the way (see photos of the Balaclava and creepy dolls HERE). By the time we had finished running around in Belleville, it was 5pm. We didn't have lunch so we were quite hungry, but we spent a ton of time, like Oshawa, trying to find a place to eat. Having driven down the main road for the third or fourth time, we surrendered and went to a local sports pub.






Wahoo's Sports Bar was on the edge of town, with little to no competition around. Its roadhouse exterior and sports moniker made us think we were entering a jock-like environment in which we would eat quick and get out. Instead, we found the seniors hang out. Inside the seemingly small restaurant were 3 main rooms: the bar (where all the old men were), a games room (with two high schoolers) and the 'dining' room, with no one. We sat in the dining room which overlooked the Bay of Quinte.





The barmaid/waitress brought us menu's that had so much to choose from, our opinions of the place were certainly turning around. The decor was still pretty junky (crappy 90's tables and chairs, no effort into the place's appearance) but the food might have something to offer.

Jason went for the wrap sandwich - chalked full of chicken, bacon and goodness. He got it with onion rings that were cooked to my own desire, and the wrap was clearly large, almost the size of a Berlin special!



Of course, I went through the menu, ogling burgers, potato skins and other appetizers/dinner options, but of course, I went with the wings. Oh, and a Greek salad.



2007 THE SCORE 3.0: WAHOO’s Sports Bar - Belleville

STYLE:	dusted, buffalo style
PRICE:	6 for $5.99, 12 for $8.99
SAUCES:	§ mild/medium/hot/suicide § bbq § honey garlic § Caribbean jerk ($0.50 extra) § Death Wish ($0.50 extra) § Jack Daniel’s Sauce ($0.50 extra)	1/1
HEAT:	tingle - could feel it, but for suicide it was sad
SIZE:	large	3/3
WETNAP FACTOR:	dripping	3/3
CRISPINESS:	crisp	2/3
FLAVOUR:	good, sweet	2/3
SIDES:	veggies	1/3
CLEAN UP:	napkins, moist toilettes, bone plate	3/3
WING NIGHT:	Wednesday nights $0.40	1/1
OTHER:	n/a
TOTAL:	good – definitely worth stopping off the 401	16/20

The great thing about lowered expectations, is that when something good does come, its a welcome surprise. The vibe of the place didn't impress me, but the wings sure did. Big, meaty, crispy wings with the perfect amount of sauce. The dusting applied before deep frying gave it an extra crunch, and their more than decent size provided lots of wing nourishment for not an expensive price.


The sauce wasn't floating, but it certainly was enough to be slippery when holding. There was a sweetness to it, and very little heat. That was very dissapointing for their suicide. They did have a hotter sauce, Death Wish, but its just a commercial sauce you can buy anywhere.



To suppliment my hunger, I ordered a classic Greek salad. This was a monster of lettuce, cucumber, olives (one of my food nemesis') and of course feta. There was so much feta, it was a winter wonderland of a salad.

The Greek salad is overlooked all too often as a perfect accompanyment to almost any Western meal. Overshadowed by the Caesar, an excellent salad, the Greek makes up for the creamy richness found in its rival with feta and more veggies. Its a little tangy, and it won't leave your breath in a killer way when you are done.





FINAL SCORE: Despite its terrible name and less than desirable atmosphere, the food at the Wahoo is certainly enough to make this citizen of the Wing Nation want to come back if ever in Belleville. So if you are travelling East towards Ottawa, or West towards Toronto, take a stop at this great food emporium. 16/20





Wahoo's Sports Pub
449 Dundas Street West
Belleville, On

LOTW v2.0 - Welcome back!!

Welcome back to Lord of the Wings Blog version 2.0.!!! Working hard to bring you THE SITE for chicken wing knowledge;REVIEWS, RECIPES, NEWS and all things Wings!

The Wing King is back in business with new images, new icons, new reviews, a new scoring system and some funky new features. New New New!!!

Score 3.0:

• Some problems of scoring chicken wings have been fixed
• clearer information to be modified as places needed (ie pizza place wings vs pub scoring)
• probably not the last score as the science of rating wings is still being pioneered

2007 THE SCORE 3.0:

STYLE:	buffalo style, gourmet, frozen, pizza, Chinese, experimental, Colonel (kfc like)
PRICE:	$$ for how many wings
SAUCES:	More than 6 choices = 1 point	/1
HEAT:	Nothing/Tingle/Burning/PAIN* *(relative to Wing King’s tolerance) Scoville Units where available
SIZE:	§ Small =0.5/-1 § Medium =1 § Large =2 § Jumbo =3	/3
WETNAP FACTOR:	§ Dry = 1 § Wet = 2 § Dripping =3 § Drowning =1	/3
CRISPINESS:	§ Mushy/Rock Hard =-1 § Chewy =1 § Crisp =2 § Crunchy =3	/3
FLAVOUR:	§ Bad = 0 § OK =1 § Good=2 § Great=3	/3
SIDES:	§ Veggies =1 § Dip =1 § Fries =1	/3
CLEAN UP:	§ Napkin =1 § Wetnap =1 § Wing Bowl/Plate =1 § warm towel=1 bp	/3
WING NIGHT:		/1
OTHER:	1-7=Not worth it 8-11=ok 12-16=good 17+=GREAT	/20

Revamped Mini-Wing Reviews:

• Now organized by city, and alphabetical - not year and order restaurant visited in
• Date included to know how old review is (ie prices may have gone up since post)

NAME/LOCATION

COST:
WING NIGHT:
DATE/REVIEW:
WEBSITE:
RESULTS:

Wing Nights:

• New page detailing wing nights by night of the week
• Currently only listing for Toronto wing nights, but will expand in future

Review Map:

• Map for the Quest for the Perfect Wing
• a Google Map application that allows you search for wings anywhere in the world reviewed by the blog
• Blue pins = Reviewed Restaurant, Pink pins = Non-Wing Review places
• If the Wing King reviewed it, its on the map

Outlets:

• LOTWblog is everywhere so you can get your wing fix!
• Facebook friend!
• E-mail! lordofthewingsblog@gmail.com

Icon:

• "Jolly Roger" inspired, with a chicken skull, and fork/knife for the bones
• Letting Chickens know that "No Wing Will Go Un-eaten, No Drumstick Will Survive, No Chicken Will Be Safe . . ."

So check back often! Tell your friends! Tell me where to go for wings! And remember what the posters says: