Friday 31 July 2020

#tbt & #lostreview - Little Caesars Toronto in 2014




I'm short on time due to various projects but here is a quick #tbt & #lostreview from 2014 that I don't remember.


I went to Little Caesars and got a Hot-N-Ready Pepperoni Pizza, Crazy Bread, Hot Wings and Parmesan Wings. I didn't live anywhere near a little Caesars so I must have had a rental car. I'm also eating on a Styrofoam plate so that is super weird. The food looks good to me - saucy wings, greasy/buttery breadsticks, cheesy pizza.

Pro-tip:
I know lots of people don't like Little Caesars pizza. Sometime I hate it too. The key is to eat it IN THE CAR. Eat it while it's still fresh, not waiting to get home. When it get's cold, this pizza SUCKS. But when it's hot, I love it.

Celebrating National Chicken Wing Day 2020 with Wings 2 Ways: Sriracha Buffalo & Salt'n'Pepper

HAPPY NATIONAL CHICKEN WING DAY EVERYONE!!!


How did you celebrate?

I made wings. I knew I was going to make wings but it wasn't until an hour before showtime that I decided what we were going to have.

Wanna see how I did it?




Maybe I'm going to be getting back into the Youtube/WKTV thing again? What did you think?


This was the whole meal - wings, fries, and carrot coins with blue cheese dip. The fries sucked. McCain frozen fries. Would not get again. The blue cheese and carrot was good though.


The deep fried wings. Aren't they glorious on their own? I had to re-scrub down my deep fryer from the last time I used it, but it was well worth it. You cannot beat a deep fried wing.


Sauced and tossed. The only problem I had was that I over-sauced them, as well as sauced them too early, by the time we actually ate them they were a bit soggy. Delicious, but soggy.


Surprisingly, everyone's favourite wing was the Salt 'n Pepper. They did turn out perfect though - light but very crunchy skin, with the right amount of salt and pepper. What I did was eat the skin, then dipped the chicken in the Sriracha Buffalo sauce.



The actual photo of my plate of food. Well, round one anyway. Everyone had seconds of wings!


Do you know what was also good? Drizzling blue cheese on the Sriracha Buffalo sauce. Creamy on steamy!


So we had a great meal and I'm so happy we got to do it up right. What kind of wings did you have?

Wednesday 29 July 2020

HAPPY NATIONAL CHICKEN WING DAY 2020!!!



Pull down your mask and enjoy some wings today!!! May your mug be full, your wings saucy, and your bones picked clean - HAPPY NATIONAL WING DAY!!!


I know I will ...

FARM REPORT #5 - Tears & Smiles


Monday 27 July 2020

LOTW Meme Monday - COVID FOLKLORE WINGS







I know we are in Phase 3 here and people are back eating wings, but seeing all the cases going up again recently, I just can't risk my family or myself just to eat my favourite food. I still have frozen and homemade ... even if it's not the same as pub fried wings ... right Taylor?

#nonwingsunday = Sherwood Market BBQ Chicken Bacon Sandwich

Memories - July 24th 2019: Wing Buffet Never Meant to Be

Thursday 23 July 2020

SANDBAR ON THE BEACH Turkey Point ON 2014 - LOST REVIEW

It's another #tbt & #lostreview


This trip down memory lane comes from June of 2014. I was home visiting my folks in Southwestern Ontario, and we had gone for a country drive. We ended up in Turkey Point, a small village on Lake Erie known for it's beach and being a cottage town. It's also where my cousin Steve had for months re-modelled an older restaurant and had just opened the month before. We went, and I'm sure due to being busy, I never wrote this review. Once again, I have no notes, just my memories and these photos.



Steve has been in the chef game for several years, working in various kitchens including the time I reviewed his wings at Muir's back in 2010. It was great to see him get a chance to get a place of his own, creating a family business with his then girlfriend (now wife Carissa). Sitting in a prime location across from the beach, they renovated the interior, redid the menu, and has made the Sandbar on the Beach a year round destination.



We were there on a beautiful day and the patio out front was packed. The view is great, but most are there for the food.


Inside was less packed and we set up here. The place has a comfortable, casual beach feel to it. While we were there my Aunt Cathie was in, as was my cousin Becky, her husband Grant (a great musician who was playing live later that night - that's him in the red shirt at the bar) and their kids. It's very much a family affair there!



Steve's created a great menu with everything from burgers, wraps, fish and chips, and of course, chicken wings.  It's a great selection of flavours with both sauces and rubs.


To share my folks got what I am pretty sure is the Jalapeno Popper Dip: "Roasted jalapenos and Dr Pepper candied bacon in a creamy dip topped with a layer of panko parmesan bread crumbs and served with wonton chips." I remember it being good and goey with such unique textures - the wontons and the panko adding a crunch to the creamy dip. I don't think they have this on the menu anymore though.


My mom went with one of her staples at restaurants, a Buffalo Wing Wrap, served with fries and a dill wedge. It's a big wrap and full of Buffalo sauced crispy chicken and salad. I didn't try it, but it looked good.

My dad and I both got the wings - but I'm a little foggy on who ordered what. I think (I think), my dad got the dry rubbed Cajun wings with a side of Buffalo sauce, and that I got the Parmesan Pepper? or maybe it's Fire & Ice?


Both sets of wings came with veggies and dip, but I can't remember if this is blue cheese or ranch. It looks like blue cheese to me.



 The wings were large, Ontario grown wings, and they were pretty meaty too. They are dusted and deep fried so they had a nice crunch to them.


I'm pretty sure the above are the Cajun dry rubbed wings with a side of Buffalo sauce. While these definitely look like wings I would order, I think they were my dad's, because around this time he discovered Cajun rubbed wings and I think I suggested getting the Buffalo on the side to dip because we still like saucy wings.


You can see that the wings were well coated in dry rub and if you haven't had the combo of dry rubbed Cajun dipped in Buffalo, you should.


This second order of wings really has me puzzled as I don't remember ordering this and I don't know what it is fore sure. My guess is Parmesan Pepper, because those wings look coated in shredded Parmesan cheese. But the Parmesan wings are listed under dry rubs, and those wings are very creamily sauced. From my review at Muir's I know Stevie B wings are sweet Thai & Honey Garlic, and Bundy is usually Hot & Honey Garlic. I don't know about Fire & Ice ...




Looking at these photos I can tell those were some good, sloppy to eat kind of wings!


This is why I take much better notes nowadays. I'm going a little crazy trying to remember and no deal. And here's the sad thing, I haven't been back. Not intentionally, I just don't get down that way very often. But if you are ever down that way and looking for some good food, check them out; you won't be dissapointed!



Sandbar on the Beach
45 Cedar Drive, Turkey Point ON
sandbaronthebeach.com



NOTE: After re-reading my review, it may sound like I'm just trying to promote a business because they are family. That's not the case here, or in anything I review. While Steve is my cousin, and I'm proud of him, the food is good and the fact they are still going strong in 2020 shows that. 

Saturday 18 July 2020

LA CAGE BUFFALO CHICKEN WINGS - Quarantine Frozen Wing Review

"A must at La Cage, our Buffalo wings are spicy as hell!"


My outlook on frozen chicken wings swings all the time, especially with labeling and names. Sometimes I'm jaded and think only the worst of things, other times I'm optimistic, thinking 'this might be the one'. It's usually the former, but occasionally my patience and experimentation are rewarded. 


So while checking the grocery flyers one day I see that Costco has La Cage chicken wings on sale. Normally their wings are $19.99, but this week, they were on for $14.99. And for 1.8 kg of wings, that's not too bad a price. I went and I was a little excited; but there was still lot's to be worried about.



If you aren't familiar with La Cage, it's a line of products (in this case, chicken wings) based on the sports pub La Cage aux Sports (ie the Sports Cage) chain from Quebec (now seemingly shortened to just La Cage these days). They have a variety of flavours, but the one for sale at Costco is Buffalo.  Here is where my concerns came in. I've been to couple of La Cages, even I think the original one in Montreal. I was not a fan of the wings. Why would their frozen wings be any good?


So I like the box are - clean, simple, but still dark and edgy. The name and logo is the biggest part of the box, with four wings on a table piled up. And one garlic clove. Why is there a garlic clove? There is no garlic in Buffalo wings?


I find the back of the box a little funny. They are advertising the wings in a group party, but they are overshadowed by the other La Cage frozen foods you can buy; ribs, chicken bites, chicken burgers etc. I also like the honesty of the box: "This Package Contains Only Buffalo Chicken Wings" . But are they Buffalo wings? Really?



The second ingredient after the chicken is water. Then sauce. The water isn't part of the sauce. Water? But there's still water in the sauce. And the sauce doesn't even resemble Buffalo sauce. Here is the sauce ingredient list, and let me highlight some things that are highly questionable about a Buffalo wing sauce:

"water, vinegar, salt, sugar, modified corn starch, chickpea flour, tomato powder, corn syrup solids, palm oil, dehydrated red wine, canola oil, garlic powder, yeast extract, beet powder, onion powder, spice, natural and artificial flavours, citric acid, xanthan gum, guar gum, natural and artificial colours"
Chickpea flour? Tomato powder? Red Wine? I'm not saying that these ingredients might help make a tasty wing, but none of those things goes in Buffalo wing sauce.



As promised there are only frozen wings in the box. It's a big box and a big bag. I mean, it's 1.8kg!


There were about 35ish wings in the bag. I made two rounds of wings. One day I cooked about 17 of the wings as I usually do on parchment paper on a baking sheet. The next day I cooked the remaining 18 wings on a wire rack (more on this later).



The wings looked decent actually. They were a good size, nice colour, only a little frosting of ice from the bag. They looked slightly dusted (must be the chickpea flour), but not overly so. So even if they didn't seem to add up to be Buffalo wings, they seemed like they could be decent wings.



I cranked the over to 400 F and cooked them for about 30 minutes turning over half way. I even popped on the broiler as they recommended in the instructions. They didn't get crispy doing this, so the second time I did it by wire rack.



This was the recommended method in the instructions, but I didn't find this produced a more crispier wing at all. Actually it just created a bigger mess.


When they cooked up there was enough marinade and grease that seeped out and off of the wings, but that was to be expected. After a little trip under the broiler I did get little bubbles coming out which you can faintly see above.


Behold, my plate of wings. Actually this photo makes them almost look like deep fried Buffalo wings, but fried saucy wings they were not.


This photo you can see the tell-tale sign of baked wings, with the flat, caramelized patches of skin and sauce forging into one. The colour of this process creates patches of dark reddish-brown while the regular lighter chicken peeks around.


They were not a bad sized wing at all. Not small, but a healthy medium. They aren't that long, but a bit more girth to them. They aren't breaded, so it shows that these were pretty meaty morsels.


The skin was not crispy. This is not uncommon at all to pre-sauced wings. There's a slight crispy factor, but the skin on the wings was more gummy from the sauce. The meat was pretty tender, and these wings could be pulled apart with not much effort.



Now I ask you, do this look like a plate of Buffalo wings? No it doesn't. And it doesn't taste like it either. The flavour wasn't bad. It wasn't spicy, it wasn't rich and buttery and zingy like Buffalo wings, but it was tasty enough. It reminded me in both taste and ingredients to No Name Buffalo wings, or even the unique wings from Buffet Des Continents. It's kinda sweet, kinda not. There's a spice flavour but no spice heat. It's disappointing when they say "it's spicy as hell", and it's not, so what Hell are they referring to?



WOULD I GET THESE AGAIN?

Sure, on sale. I mean they aren't bad frozen wings, they just aren't Buffalo chicken wings. They're a decent size and have a decent flavour. The texture is on par with lots of other frozen wing products, but the meat was tender. I did buy another box later while they were still on sale and gobbled them up not long after. Because they are easy to do. Plus I just added my own sauce and it was much better. They also suggest putting them on a BBQ Grill and that would work too.

I also find it interesting that they have 5 other flavours to choose from at regular grocery stores (of course Costco only has one), but the actual menu at La Cage only has two current flavours (although this might have to do with COVID, I'm not too sure). Either way, these are worth it on sale, but I'm going to pass the rest of the time. 8/14



La Cage
cage.ca
In Grocery Stores
At Costco