WWWWWW #25 ~ Diva Q: Sweet and Sassy Chicken Lollipops

Yes, World Wide Web Wacky Wing Wednesday. WWWWWW. This is where I will surf the Web, and find other people talking about chicken wings. The world is full of chicken wing stories, wacky and otherwise. Recipes, restaurant reviews, eating contests or whatever. Today's Blog relating to wings in some shape or form:

Diva Q: "Life is too short for bad BBQ!"

Danielle Dimovski, aka Diva Q, is a Canadian grown true BBQ champ. She knows her way around a grill, a smoker or a bag of charcoal. I've been following her for a few years now and love what she does.

To get an idea of her level of skill, she is "only Canadian BBQ team to win 2 Grand Championships in the US and the only Canadian team to ever receive 3 180’s – Perfect Scores. For the last 2 years we have been the highest ranked Canadian Team in the KCBS." Just this past weekend she won 1st Prize for her "Sweet & Sassy Chicken Lollipops" which were showcased on Tuesday when Danielle was on the Today Show!

The Today Show Diva Q from Buzz Price on Vimeo.

Here she is with Matt Lauer.

After the drummette's have been 'lollipopized,' Diva Q sprinkles two layers of rub (one spicy, one sweet)

Then slow and low, the chicken is glazed with sriracha sauce, then BBQ sauce. Then repeat. Those look really good - no wonder they won!

Waiting for the Today judges . . . Danielle was robbed of victory here. I didn't taste any of the food obviously, but her's should have won. I can just tell.



Here's a shot of her doing some wings up on the grill testing a 'spice soak' vs her own 'brine'. Either way, some good looking wings!

I haven't had the privilege of sampling her 'Que, but I've heard good things, seen some fantastic photos, and her awards certainly speak for herself. If your not already following her, check out her blog, Twitter or on Facebook. Congrats again Diva Q!

THE CHESHIRE CAT PUB, Kanata ON

It's funny how things work out. My good friend Julianna from the good old days at the Chestnut (and some wing reviews on here) has been living maybe a 20 minute drive from me, and we have only seen each other once, back in like November 2009 since we both moved to the Capital Region. Well that was way too long a time and we decided we should have a mini-reunion ,catch up and get a bite to eat.





Julianna was up for doing a wing review, so I looked into somewhere to go in Kanata for wings. Not many places came up, and the few that did, I've reviewed. But just on the fringes of this suburban community were a few options. The first suggestion I had for Julianna was a little pub on the way to Carp ON (home of the Diefenbunker) and before I could even say the name, she was like "Is it the Cheshire Cat Pub?" I was like yes, and since we both heard good things, the decision was made without bothering with the others.

Just minutes from Kanata, in the hamlet of Huntley, the pub was renovated a few years ago from the 'Mulligan School' from the 1880's. If you go to their website you can check out the photos from the renovations. The grounds are great with lush greenery and a classic British telephone booth.

The inside the pub is tiny, rustic, and feels like you are in an old English pub. In fact they call themselves a "A Traditional English Pub". There is a lot of character inside, and a lot of patrons! Pretty impressive for a Monday at noon.

The weather was perfect though for sitting on the patio. Just a little bit of sun, a nice breeze and a very comfortable patio. I love the cottage/rustic feel with the old brick building, vines, big trees growing through the cobblestone ground. This automatically is one of my favourite patio's ever.

We had two servers who were friendly and knowledgeable. I didn't catch either of their names, but they were great. Even when there was a little ordering snafu, they quickly rectified the situation. There were lots of decisions to go over and food to be had. The menu is a great mix of classic British pub food like fish & chips, liver & onions, bangers and mash, and steak and kidney pie. But there is also North American pub fare like jalapeno poppers, sweet potato fries, and of course wings.

The ordering of food and my pictures here are a bit out of order. Above, the salad Julianna ordered was her meal that came out later. The deep fried pickles I'm sporting are an appetizer that came out first. But I review the wings last. And Julianna also got wings, so they too are reviewed last. So I will start with Julianna's meal that came out last along with my pickles that came out first, and the wings that came out first for Julianna and my wings that came out last as my meal. Got it?

One great thing The Cheshire Cat Pub does is locally sourced food. Julianna beverage was from a local brewery Hog's Back Beer. Her lunch was part of a special highlighting fresh Ontario strawberries in season. The salad was strawberry, watermelon, avocado with a balsamic vinegar dressing on greens. You might notice some chicken on there that was accidentally added. I was told it was a very good salad.

I'm a sucker for deep fried pickles. And these rocked. They were homemade, and came with a great buttermilk ranch (that's what it tasted like anyway) dip. Crispy, juicy, dilly. So good.


Not featured by photo, but some desert was also had. A piece of Strawberry-Coconut Cheesecake found it's way to our table. The coconut was in the crust, the strawberry (fresh Ontario again) on top of classic cheesecake. It was so good. When we told the second waitress how good it was, she said the other waitress and her were having that for lunch themselves.


The chicken wings came in a variety of sizes and flavours. I went with an order of ten. They come with carrot sticks and the menu offered a variety of dips, but mine was absent. But after our discussion on dips, I was happy to have them au naturale.

The sauced wings were nice and wet. There wasn't a pool of sauce, but each wing was almost perfectly coated.

The chicken was about a medium in size, but very meaty. And so juicy. These wings were clearly fresh, and they came hot from the fryer. They above are done Buffalo style, with no dusting and tossed just right. And the skin was crispy the way a wing skin should be. Both Julianna and I ordered wings (but in different quantities) and different flavours to do a bit of sampling.

HOT

This was my main dish. 10 crispy, hot saucy Buffalo wings. The sauce was clearly Frank's based, so it wasn't burn my mouth at all, but the taste was heaven.

SALT & PEPPER and HOT & HONEY

Julianna went with a kiddie order of 5 wings, which is great for sampling just a few. On the side she ordered Hot & Honey, just in case the sauce was too spicy for her. And it was. I was expecting a honey garlic with a bit of hot sauce, but it seemed like Frank's with some honey added - but Frank's was definitely the dominant flavour.




The base wings were tossed in salt and pepper. It looked like kosher or sea salt with fresh ground pepper. Crispy and seasoned, Julianna said she really liked these.

SUICIDE

I got a side of suicide with my hot, just in case the flavour wasn't very good. It too was Frank's based, but much more peppery. Possibly cayenne pepper added or Tabasco? An individual wing wasn't very hot, but eating a few in a row really put the burn on the back of the throat all the way down to the heart.

FINAL SCORE: I can't tell you how fresh, crispy, juicy and tasty my wings were. They may not have been the biggest, but the quality was much more important than quantity here. The Hot was just regular Hot, but it was just so good. Suicide had a peppery kick. Salt and Pepper were perfect for Julianna and while Hot & Honey was too much heat for her, it was a tasty flavour. The food was really fresh, the staff friendly and the atmosphere was great. I will definitely be coming back for wings. 7.5/10

It was great sitting on a patio on a beautiful June day, catching up with an old friend. It was too long, but worth the wait. Thanks for lunch Julianna!

The Cheshire Cat Pub

2193 Richardson Side Road, Huntley (Kanata) ON

cheshirecatpub.com

Wing Dip Poll Results

Just over a week ago, I was focused on what people like to dip their chicken wings in, if anything at all. We had a great turn out of 30 voters (myself included once) and well, the results are in:

The results were what I expected. Blue Cheese was the dominant choice; Sour Cream was at the bottom. Tied at the bottom was Dill (this surprised me, but perhaps this is a lesser known dip?). 2nd place we have people choosing NOT to dip, which surprises me, but really I don't dip my wings usually anyway. Very interesting - I'd love to know more reasons why people picked what they did.

Thanks to those of you who voted and commented. This was fun. Let's do it again some time soon!

I Survived the Ottawa 2010 Earthquake

Here is a quick photo of some chicken wings in the "Great Ottawa  Earthquake of 2010":

You'll notice the wings aren't really moving. That's because they didn't. Neither did much around here. 

If you didn't hear, we had an Earthquake near Ottawa that was felt in the West as far as Kitchener I hear and as far East as Montreal. About 5-5.5  I felt it here, and thought it was nearby construction blasting at the rock bed, but it was much louder and stronger. Then it kept going and stuff in the apartment was rattling and shaking. I was like, 'holy &%#!, it's an earthquake!' and decided to move to the doorway. It wasn't crazy and only lasted like 20 seconds. I would have taken pictures of the quake, but of what? I could just as easily shake the camera. 

 Eventually the news picked it up and so far no one hurt and it seems like minor damage here and there (broken windows, shaken old walls etc.). I was never scared (excited actually) and there have yet to be any aftershocks as of writing this. So it never felt serious, but watching news and Twitter made it entertaining. Some people very scared, others taking it as lightly as I did. 

Here is @ALL_CAPS and some of his hilarious tweets that got me through the crisis: 

• RT: Earthquake caused by massive concentration of bullshit at G20 meeting. #2012
• Thanks to the earthquake, I can measure the Speed of News. Twitter: 20 seconds Radio: 20 minutes Television: 35 minutes Newspaper: Tomorrow.
• Good to know that during a crisis, BBM will collapse. Where is your God now, BlackBerry users?
• Toronto's ego is having a hard time letting go of the fact that it wasn't the epicentre of the earthquake.
• I love how the earthquake has brought us all closer together…on Twitter and SMS. So not really closer together at all.
• I just went and burned my enemy's house down. Everyone will suspect the earthquake. #PerfectPlan

Here are some funny one's over at BlogTO: "Some of the Funniest Tweets about the Tremors"

It was a great distraction for an afternoon and I've heard the patios and pubs are filled downtown. No word if there are any pre-quake wing specials though. 

WWWWWW #24 ~ FaceKraft/The Face Styler: Casting Chicken Wings

Yes, World Wide Web Wacky Wing Wednesday. WWWWWW. This is where I will surf the Web, and find other people talking about chicken wings. The world is full of chicken wing stories, wacky and otherwise. Recipes, restaurant reviews, eating contests or whatever. Today's Blog relating to wings in some shape or form:

FaceKraft/The Face Styler: I play with faces, hair and style..and sometimes certain body parts.

Of course chicken wings are delicious. But can they be used beyond consumption? Yes, apparently they can. Shahnaz Bahar is a make-up artist for film and photography and scanning her work, she can do some amazing work. So what did she use chicken wings for?

Hmmmm, skewered wings. Looks like dinner so far.

Interesting. Propping the wings up so they can roast?

Ok, no longer cooking. Melting? No . . .

That's quite the marinade.

Final product: Wings, as well WINGS!

So she was using wings to make a mold to make wings! See her full post and photos Casting Chicken Wings - An experiment in prosthetics for special effects make-up back from 2009. Is there anything chicken wings can't do?

HAPPY FATHERS DAY 2010

To my father:



Thank you for introducing me to my very first chicken wing. Thank you for teaching me how to clean a wing bone of meat. Thank you for showing me how to eat suicide wings and inspiring me to eat hotter. Thank you for all the wings you have taken me out for. Without you, there would be no Lord of the Wings.

Thanks Dad.

Happy Fathers Day.
Remember to take your father out for wings today.

Which Dip with Your Wings POLL

Recently I had yet another pub in Ottawa serve sour cream with my wings. This boggles my mind. Blue Cheese is the traditional dip served with wings and veggies. Eventually places started using Ranch. A few unique places have Dill. And in Ottawa the norm seems to be Sour Cream. I did a little piece on dips a while back, but I want to know, WHICH DIP WITH YOUR WINGS?

Quizzes by Quibblo.com

Have you had any other kind of dips served to you with wings? Do you dip your wings or just your veggies? Write in the comments what you like/don't like! We'll keep checking for one week and lets see what what people think.

Blog Friends are eating wings!

Some of my online friends have been having wings recently!

foodiePrints was out at Patty Bolands having appetizers, and they just happened to sample some wings (I'm going to try an not judge for the 'honey garlic' ;) )

They do look big, fresh and tasty!

Also, Teena over at Teena in Toronto was also out recently. She went to the Twisted Kilt (what a great pub name!) where she was also having wings.

These too look really yum.

I may not have had wings lately, but I can live vicariously through some great bloggers!

WWWWWW #23 ~ High Cascade: Govy Gold Hot Wings

Yes, World Wide Web Wacky Wing Wednesday. WWWWWW. This is where I will surf the Web, and find other people talking about chicken wings. The world is full of chicken wing stories, wacky and otherwise. Recipes, restaurant reviews, eating contests or whatever. Today's Blog relating to wings in some shape or form:

High Cascade Snowboarding Camp

"LIFE IMPROVEMENT THROUGH SNOWBOARDING AND SKATEBOARDING." That's the motto of this snowboarding camp for kids in Mt Hood Oregon. It looks like a blast (even if I'm not a snowboarder) and have totally bought into the hype of the website. For about $1000-$2000 [USD] for a week you too can have lots of memories. And there is one memory I wish I could have:

Govy Gold - Hot Wings! When for supper the hungry snowboarders got hot wings. This is an awesome collage of people eating wings and their faces. Beautiful, just beautiful. And funny. I need to highlight the guy in the top middle who looks like he's going to cry . . . probably a medium wing. I don't know what Govy Gold refers to.


No other pages seem to have anything about wings, but here is their cool mascot that kinda looks like a marshmallow.

Return to The Georgetown

RIP - THE GEORGETOWN is NOW CLOSED

Yet another way over due post!


Last year I stopped into a sports pub down in the Glebe Old Ottawa South and had some great wings. The Georgetown Sports Pub's wings were so good I ended up naming them the Best Wings Ottawa of all the places I reviewed in 2009. But I had not been back since. A little worried that they might not be as good as they used to, or that I got good wings as a fluke, I wanted to go back and make sure that they still had game. Coming back from being out of town, and with LJ in tow, we were off to Georgetown.

The place was busy this time. A very interesting crowd mix which I would break down into 3 groups: students from nearby Carleton University, older/middle aged men from some sort of team (running? soccer? either way they were sweaty) and a couple of elderly gentleman at the bar (not together). In fact, the older man sitting at the bar with his laptop could just as easily have been the guy sitting at the bar in this photo from last time.

One of my favourite version of french fries, is lattice fries. If you are not familiar with lattice fries, they are a specially cut potato with criss/cross cuts, leaving little holes. They are usually crispy, with fluffy potato inside. LJ and I love these. We also love nachos. And The Georgetown combines them both.






'Southwest Spudachos' are "Corn battered lattice cut potato, topped with pico de gallo, chipotle ranch sauce, melted Monterey jack and mozzarella cheese served with a side of sour cream" and LJ added beef to the dish. They were crispy and cheesy, and didn't get too soggy despite the cheese and sauce.


I was re-sampling the wings this night. They were big and crispy, just like last time I had them. They are a large wing that is meaty, but they aren't tough or rubbery like some place with their 'mutant' wings.

I decided to try a couple flavours of wings (since it was wing night) and they had added more flavours since I was here last. Some of the new ones include:

• Spicy Thai
• Hickory Smoke
• BBQ Mild/BBQ Medium
• Frank's Sweet Heat BBQ
• Hot n Honey

Orange Sesame seems to be gone now. Then there are some "Imported Australian Spices" that are $0.50 extra:

• Lemon Myrtle
• Pepperberry
• Chipotle & Forestberry

There was also another new dry spice, Bone Dust BBQ. I went with a Hickory Smoke, Suicide and Bone Dust BBQ.

BONE DUST BBQ

I don't know if this is `King of the Q` Ted Reader's Bone Dust rub or their own recipe, but it was a tasty seasoning. It's hard to see it because the colour blends in with the crispy wing skin, but it is there.

The flavour was pretty mild. You really had to savour each bite to pick up the hint of this BBQ rub. I'd like something a bit more bold personally.

HICKORY SMOKE BBQ
Keeping with a slight 'que' theme I went with their regular BBQ sauce (as opposed to their mild/medium BBQ). I just had it on the side to accent the Bone Dust if it was too dry a dry rub.

I won't lie to you, as I write this a loooonnnnnngggg time after I had actually eaten them, I ah, well I don't remember the details of the flavour of this sauce. I know, my bad. Usually I have a 'taste of mouth' memory that can recall flavours and this time, no deal. I remember it was sweet, but clearly nothing overly memorable.

SUICIDE

For those of you smarty pants that remember when I went last time or just re-read the review now, you will note that I had suicide wings then. Yes I did. But I remembered that they didn't have a set recipe for suicide, so I decided to try it again.

It was a very different sauce this time. And I liked this one even more. It was very close to Moose Winooski's Forest Fire Hot, only hotter. They were sweet like BBQ, with a very nice kick of heat. Pepper seeds and chucks of jalapeno add to the flavour mix. I don't think I would classify the heat as 'suicide' but it was definetely a good kick.





The only thing I will never understand about Ottawa place with wings is the frigg'n sour cream. Not a worthy wing dip. But praise worthy wings. I really enjoyed the suicide sauce. A lot.  I'll be back again, and maybe I will sample one of their Australian flavours . . .

The Georgetown Sports Pub1159 Bank Street, Ottawa
georgetownpub.ca