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Friday, 29 June 2018
Wednesday, 27 June 2018
Return to THE FOOLISH CHICKEN - Ottawa ON
Please Note: I was using a loaner phone when these photos were taken & I'm not happy the way they turned out.
It was a sunny September when I decided to check out The Foolish Chicken back in 2007. The restaurant had just opened a few months before. I sampled some wings and some wedged fries and had a decent meal. It's now 2018 and I've wondered if things were any different in over 10 years.
LJ and I decided on a beautiful evening to go out for dinner, but we knew we wanted something different from one of our regular haunts but also not a chain eatery. I came up with a small lists and both LJ and I decided that The Foolish Chicken seemed to fit the bill.
The place was packed inside but were were still able to get a seat right away. This restaurant is a former house that's been converted to a dinning establishment that exists between a large government office area and the trendy neighbourhood of Hintonburg/Westboro. It's simply decorated inside with an atmosphere that isn't as high-end as some restaurants in the area that can appeal to both families and suits alike.
The menu is BBQ focused, but this isn't US Southern style BBQ, more of what I would call Quebec style BBQ with rotisserie and grilling as the basis of cooking, and not smoke and spices. Chicken is obviously the main thing on the menu, and I wanted wings, but the pork ribs were speaking to me. Both of us decided that the Chicken N' Rib Combos were the way to go.
My wife went with the 5 Chicken Fingers and 1/4 Rack of ribs with onion rings on the side (it also came with coleslaw and cornbread, which I'll talk about later). The chicken fingers were not what we were expecting in terms of size. They were like chicken tenders cut in half, so bigger than a chicken nugget, but about half the size of your standard chicken finger.
Now these may have not been big, but they were super crispy/crunchy. They had a very crunchy breading that you could hear when taking a bite. LJ thought these were really under-seasoned, but she is used to meat being highly spiced.
I went with Combo #4 - Ribs and Wings, with my sides being baked beans and sweet potato fries. You may be looking for the wings in the photo above, and so did I at first, but our waitress warned that there were wings, they were just under the large slab of ribs.
There were a lot of accompaniments with our meal, so I decided to quickly sum them up here:
- Beans - nothing special, like canned beans. They were warm but I would have like some bolder flavour.
- Sweet Potato Fries - these were great; crispy, sweet and salty. They went well with #5.
- Onion Rings - my fave rings are the battered (not breaded) kind like this. They were crispy but hard to chew through the onion.
- Corn Bread - a medium size slab of corny goodness. Moist but a bit stiff, it went well with some butter.
- Chipotle Mayo - I don't know if this was a mayo but basically it was. Spicy, creamy - a great dip for everything from fries, onion rings or even chicken.
- Coleslaw (not shown) - cream based - it was a bit bland and I didn't eat much of it.
As for the ribs, they were tasty. Braised then grilled, the bones were pretty much fall off the bone. The rib meat was tender, and there was a nice grilled bark. They use their own Dr Pepper BBQ sauce, which you can't really detect. It's sweet but also has a dark flavour to it. They are lightly sauced, but fortunately for someone like me who likes their ribs wet, they have bottles of sauce on the table.
But the big question - how were the wings?
Now I got wings in a rib and wing combo, but the regular order of wings is a pound, or what they estimate to be 8-10 wings. For my combo, it came with a 1/2 pound which was 5 wings.
Once I moved the ribs, I found my wings. I was a little saddened by the wings. Oh they looked good, but the 5 wings that were there were small. They were average meatiness in relation to the tiny length of the wing.
They were crispy though. The chicken was deep fried and had a nice, light crispness to the skin. The meat was also tender.
The Foolish Wings are sauced just enough that they are wet, but they aren't floating in sauce. They have only the basic sauces, and I went with Hot, which was cayenne based. They tasted good; crispy, tender and wet. I just think they missed a great opportunity to make a super hot "Foolish" wing, but not everyone is interested in food pain.
FINAL SCORE:
We both ate very well that night. LJ cleaned her plate, and she rarely does that. The food was prepared well, but lacks spice and boldness in both of our opinions. For me the ribs were tender and the sauce was tasty. The wings were nice and crispy, but were just dang small. We'll definitely go back - hopefully just not over 10 years later. 8/15
The Foolish Chicken
79 Holland Ave, Ottawa ON
foolishchicken.ca
Monday, 25 June 2018
Saturday, 23 June 2018
Friday, 22 June 2018
Office Summer Party Wings
Went to my wife's office Summer Party. They went to an escape room, then spouses could join at the Barley Mow. Walk in and I see wings - it's a good time to be alive.
Thursday, 21 June 2018
#tbt - Mandarin Buffet Wings
For some reason I keep forgetting to do a full review of Mandarin. Too busy with the buffet I guess
¯\_(ツ)_/¯ ... Next time, next time.
Wednesday, 20 June 2018
MEATINGS BBQ - Orleans ON
For the past year I've had a place out in Orleans on my radar to try, not only for wings, but the fact that it's a BBQ joint. I read good reviews online and after chatting to fellow wingstagrammer @ottawangs who gave them a very glowing review, I was convinced to check them out.
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| Photo from Meatings Facebook Photos |
I mention Orleans on occassion here on the blog and if you are not familiar, it is a bedroom community about 15-20 minutes East of Ottawa. Orleans doesn't have 'downtown' or a city centre - it has one modern strip where you will find your grocery stores, franchise restaurants, and your Walmart's and other big box retails. Then there is a mass strip of houses, and then the old main road where a lot of the older businesses and restaurants exist. This is where Meatings is.
The parking lot is gravel, uneven, and shared by a number of business behind Meatings. Things started off right when I got out of my car and I could smell BBQ. I walked around to the front, and there was a sign advertising $10 wings. I noticed their empty patio and considered sitting outside, but it was un-shaded and it was too hot out for me.
This BBQ joint is small inside, but it has a good atmosphere. There isn't a lot of seating - one long table in the middle of the dining room, with counter seats on the back wall and at the window. When I arrived at lunch, there was very few places to sit and a small line-up at the counter - very busy! The crowd is very loyal to Meatings. People sitting would tell people coming in what to get, or in one case a couple of folks came in to have a work-lunch, but because Meatings only takes cash or debit, they couldn't charge it to the corporate card. They left disappointed and vowing to return another time, but the other customers kept telling them they had to come and have the brisket, or have the chicken. They clearly loved the food.
When you enter, everyone grabs a menu on a large, heavy piece of wood (no one is stealing this!). I knew I was there for the $10 wings (normally $13) - but I had seen on their social media a deal for $17 you get 1lb of wings and a Whitewater Beer and you get to keep the glass. When I went to the counter I saw the sign, but was surprised when the girl taking orders didn't mention it. I also wasn't aware of the sauces on the wings, and didn't see the wings on the menu. She pointed out that they were under Munchies, and later I saw it, but it didn't really cover the sauces:
The menu just listed Dry Rub, BBQ or Hot, but she had a little sticky note with all the sauces. She was friendly and patient as I had to get her to repeat it twice (and she eventually just gave me the list) to keep track of it all. I wanted to take a picture, but there was no way for me to keep incognito and do so. I was impressed with all the choices and had a hard time choosing:
HOT | SPICY BBQ | BBQ (maple flavour) | HONEY GARLIC | JAMAICAN JERK |
SWEET CHILI | SRIRACHA LIME | CAJUN DRY | LEMON PEPPER DRY RUB
With my order taken, I headed to the window to sit down. I did grab a little mini bag of popcorn (the girl said I could). The popcorn was popped and coated in what I think is some of their BBQ rub - it was good and made for a nice little start.
Meatings has it's customers covered. They have paper towel rolls at each seating in lieu of napkins. There were lots of wetnaps too. There were bottles of Ketchup, BBQ (the maple sauced one) and Spicy Mustard. The mustard was good, and if you like maple BBQ, you'd like this sauce; I thought it was good but wouldn't get this for my wings.
I didn't have to wait long and my order of wings was brought out to me. I loved the presentation on the small metal tray with their logo'd paper. Plus they smelled real good. One thing I was disappointed with was that on their social media they advertise their Alabama White Sauce dip and it didn't come with the wings :(
Meatings does wings by the pound, and there are about 8 wings in their pound.
These wings were large. Jumbo wings. It's been a while since I've seen large wings like this. They are long, but they are also super meaty.
The wings are smoked, so the skin is not crispy, but they aren't trying to be. That's ok because the chicken meat is super tender. I sometimes wince at smoked wings because the flavour can be great but the meat is often tough, but these were probably the most tender smoked wings I have ever had.
The chicken flavour was on point. You had a rich chicken taste that was enhanced by the smoke flavour. Just on their own, these were delicious wing and drummettes. But then you add the sauce ...
... it was exactly what I was looking for. Sweet, slightly sticky, slightly spicy. It hit all the right notes. It paired well with the smokey chicken.
I couldn't stop eating them. I wanted to gorge on more and more. It was good 'que, and good wings.
All the while the staff kept checking in on me making sure everything was good in between my gluttonous mouthfuls. I had to give the thumbs up to indicate yes, I was doing very well.
When I finished, I was sad. I wanted more, but I stuck to with one order of near perfect meal. Despite the paper towel and wetnaps, I headed to the washroom to clean up fully (BBQ wings are a messy business). That's where I found little buckets with toothpicks, floss picks, and mints. Meatings really does care about it's clients!
FINAL SCORE:
I was really really impressed with these wings. Big, meaty, tender wings that had great smokey flavour that was sauced well in their Spicy BBQ that hit all the right notes with me. If the skin was crispy, these wings would be perfect. I had such a great experience at Meatings that I will definitely go back. Is it Wednesday again yet? 13.5/15
Meatings BBQ
2807 St Joseph Boulevard, Orleans ON
meatings.ca
Tuesday, 19 June 2018
Monday, 18 June 2018
belated #nonwingsunday = Blue Grilled Steak Doritos
I love Doritos, I love Jurassic
I do love the cross-over here. I was thinking about how I don't feel summer blockbusters have that same 'event' type feel like they used to. When Jurassic Park first came out, everything was Jurassic Park and you couldn't escape it. Now I see some promotional stuff, but it seems quick and over quick. I've seen some of the early blockbusters recently (Avengers, Solo, Deadpool) and they were great, but didn't feel like there was as much of a big event/zeitgeist feeling they used to. Oh well.
Sunday, 17 June 2018
Happy Father's Day!!!
Special thanks to the man who inspired me to eat hotter and hotter wings.
To all the dad's out there, hope you are getting all the wings you can eat today (hint hint hint kids - every dad loves chicken wings, except Vegan dad's, so give them vegan wings).
Thursday, 14 June 2018
Tuesday, 12 June 2018
Grilled Ketchup Dry Rubbed Wings
It was a beautiful day out so it was time to fire up the grill and make some wings. It was also time to do some experimenting in the Lord of the Wings Test Kitchen.
I thought I would try something completely different for this grilling experiment. Ketchup. Ketchup powder - popcorn seasoning to be specific, not the bottled kind.
I took a bunch of wings and I rubbed them in salt and pepper, as well as roasted garlic and pepper seasoning. I was using my building's open charcoal grill pit, but I put the wings on a BBQ mat to try and replicate my grilled 'fried' wings. Spoiler alert, it didn't work as it's an open pit with no lid. Bah!
Even with the mat, these wings still imparted that delicious smokey charcoal taste. I put too many on the mat and the area didn't cook evenly, meaning I had to constantly check and adjust wings so that they didn't burn.
After both sides were cooked, I started pulling wings to the edge to get them off the heat. Half of the wings I reserved to sauce with homemade BBQ sauce that had been in the fridge forever that I wanted to use up. The other half was getting the Ketchup seasoning treatment.
There it was - unadulterated Ketchup popcorn seasoning. Bought at Bulk Barn. It smelled artificially like ketchup and had a glorious pink look to it. You might think I'm being sarcastic, but I was thinking 'yum'.
I put my test wings from the grill in a bowl and added the powder on top. Interesting.
Then I tossed them up, and I noticed something; the powder began to melt! SCIENCE!!!
Now that looked like some dang good glaze! I couldn't believe it. They looked tasty to me.
The flavour was exactly what it was supposed to be: smokey chicken with that sweet, fake ketchup flavour. I know that sounds odd, but it doesn't taste like bottled ketchup. It's sweet and tangy and it worked really well with the grilled wings.
I'm going to add these to my wing repertoire. They just offer something different than a BBQ sauced wing. I think it would work with a fried wing, but it definitely goes with a grilled wing.