Sorry for not posting, commenting or visiting other blogs in a while - but I've been very busy:
Back home to the Burg for a wedding of some close high school friends. Good times.
Dude is back from China and came to visit for a week (wing reviews will come)
Dude & I travelled to Algonquin Park (meeting Ricky & newbie Jon) for a camping bachelor party for the Groom to be, Brad. I nearly die hiking to the top of a mountain (I exaggerate, but only slightly).
Preparing for Brad & Amanda's wedding and other errands.
I'm hoping to get at least one review done tonight, but there is a lot on my plate these days. Please stick with me, and I will be back to reading about all your adventures soon too!
Adventuring on a few weeks ago on a Sunday afternoon brought me to Elgin Street, and I was in the mood for wings. I was also in a mood to take advantage of the wonderful weather (not hot, slightly cool, sunny) and sit on a patio. There aren't a lot of patio's on this strip, and one establishment I had planned on going to the only seats available were uncomfortably close together. Then I walked past The Mayflower, an establishment that from the outside, looks like it has been around for a long time and hasn't changed. I meandered onto the patio, took a table, and scanned the menu for wings.
RIP - The MAYFLOWER is NOW CLOSED but has become a food truck
The patio is nothing special, but the tables and chairs are better than plastic deck fare you find at many places. I never went inside, so I don't know what the interior is like. I looked around the patio and studied the crowd. Couples, friends, the elderly. And everyone was eating brunch. When I looked at the menu, it was a special weekend brunch menu. Crap. Was there wings to be had?
Yes, yes there were. I like breakfast, but moderately so. Most mornings food early in the morning can make me feel like puking. Growing up, weekend breakfast was always filled with bacon, sausage, eggs etc. Eggs Benny is my fave, but I can pass on waffles or pancakes, not that I don't like them, but they lend to the sweet side, and I'm more savoury. So while I do enjoy breakfast dishes, I will gladly skip breakfast foods for a good lunch. I'm quirky like that. I was happy to have more options.
There was a section of munchy and main course dishes, mainly burgers, clubs and other sandwiches. I was here for wings, but the price tag on them was pricey. So I reconsidered going with a nice club sandwich or something. But it just wasn't working for me. Eggs Benedict that went to one table looked great, but it was well after lunch, and I was far from a breakfast mood.
So I ordered an order of wings, which comes with a side of fries, 3 carrot sticks. No dip. Veggie sticks should come with dip. Not happy about that. Oh well.
I was happy that the fries were fresh cut. Not frozen. Crispy and delicious. Plain, but I can salt and vinegar fries the way I like them, with a side of ketchup for dipping. Although the vinegar came in packets rather than a bottle, which was odd and a bit wasteful, but oh well.
There were 12 wings in my order. They were medium sized wing with the chicken itself being a not overly meaty wing.
The chicken was naked (no breading or dusting) and deep fried well. The skin was nice and very crispy.
I ordered my wings hot with a side of BBQ sauce for sampling. The hot was straight Frank's Hot Sauce - no Buffalo butter here. This was ok but nothing exciting.
The BBQ sauce looked like ketchup, but was not quite as sweet. A little smokey, but just barely. It was definitely a bottled sauce as opposed to homemade. Good for dippin my fries into more than the wings.
FINAL SCORE: Decent wings. Good fries. More expensive than I would like to enjoy and I found no evidence of a wing night, so I doubt I would have them over say a club sandwich or eggs Benny. Stick to what they probably do better. Again, the wings were not bad at all, just not that much love in them. 5/10
There are many great side dishes to have with wings (yes wings are a main dish, not just an appetizer). Potato skins, nachos, deep fried pickles, or even just onion rings or fries.
But I was inspired recently to look locally for a wonderful side dish: poutine. Fries, Curds and Gravy.
I grew up in South-Western Ontario, where poutine was 'poo-teen' and was any fries covered in cheese and gravy. But having moved to Ottawa and so very close to the Quebec border, I have come to understand that poutine, good traditional poutine is much more specific, simple and guarded dish that means a lot to many people.
Poutine has been around since the 50's, and you can finds versions of it at chip wagon stands, restaurants, and even KFC, McDonald's, Harvey's and Burger King. But there has been an explosion of things poutine in the print and social media West of the nation's capital. The Toronto Star, Blog T.O. debates, the opening of two poutine establishments (Smokies & Poutini's)in Toronto, even a blog "Curdsade" devoted to finding good 'tine'. Real poutine is being discovered there, but the people of Quebec have been there done that. Or here in Ottawa @ Foodieprints.
But now, for the first time, I wanted to recreate this wonderful dish. As authentic as possible, but adding the Wing King flare. Poutine is awesome, but can it be, super-awesome?
Click on the picture below to go to WKTV video (I seem to have a copyright battle with YouTube constantly now. I cannot put the video on Blogger because "Embedding disabled by request" but I didn't request it. Who did? I don't know. I want to scream. Sorry for the inconvenience and please take the time to check it out)
WK's HOT WING POUTINE (personal serving)
INGREDIENTS:
potato (2),
poutine sauce (chicken gravy)
cheese curd (fresh! squeaky!)
hot wings, sauced, bones removed, shredded
Instructions:
Cut cleaned potatoes into fries (not too thin, not too thick), place into ice water, then dry.
Blanch potato by deep frying at approx 340 for about 2 mins. Remove, towel oil off, place in fridge for approx 1 hour.
Bring poutine sauce/gravy to a simmer.
Crank deep fryer up to 375 (highest on the fryer). Return fries and cook until golden and crispy (approx 4-8 minutes).
When frites are done, towel off oil again, then liberally salt and toss.
Plate fries. Add cheese curds. Pour gravy over top.
STOP HERE IF MAKING CLASSIC POUTINE. CONTINUE IF MAKING HOT WING POUTINE
Take hot wings (Buffalo style, or just hot or any kind of wing that is already cooked), remove bones and shred. (Note: one could use chicken thighs or other cuts, but it won't be the same).
Add wings to top of poutine and enjoy!
The players. It's oh so simple.
Cheese curd. This is cheddar and yellow - classic curd is white (like mozzarella). The store only had cheddar. Around Ottawa, St. Albert's is THE curd for poutine. Remember, fresh and squeaky!
Store bought poutine sauce. I did not want to make my own, so I went with the experts: St Hubert rotisserie chicken used to be all over Ontario when I was young, then they pretty much disappeared except for Quebec.
While this is simply a chicken gravy, the ingredients on the back was not the same as 'chicken gravy.' It's damn good too!
Cutting the potato. That's right, fresh cut fries (FCF). Just like a chip truck. I was also using old oil in the deep fryer, just like a chip truck.
Keeping the cut potato in ice cold water. Keeps potato from turning colour and helps remove starch. I guess.
Frites - the final stage. Golden, crispy with a pillow soft interior. I used table salt, but I should have Kosher or sea salt.
Good enough to eat as is. I've tried making FCF before to poor results, but the blanching/double fry method is the way to go.
Classic Poutine.
Hot Wing Poutine.
Fantastique! Crispy french fries, salty cheese curds, chickeny poutine gravy and spicy chicken and skin. It was heaven. Just before I took my first bite, I inhaled deeply and enjoyed the aroma of this dish. This is true Canadian comfort food.
What Would I Do Differently Next Time? As a straight poutine, this was right on. Nothing to improve other than fresher cheese curds and Kosher/Sea Salting of the fries maybe. As for making it a better Hot Wing Poutine, I would make the wings more wet with sauce, and maybe crumble bleu cheese on top.
A lot of people have gotten very gourmet with poutine (foie gras, Beer braised beef ) but I like it classic, or just the Buffalo chicken, or maybe bacon? Actually pulled pork poutine sounds good. Ok, there are lots of ways to go. Just remember that it's gotta be the Trinity ingredients: mozzarella makes this New Jersey Disco Fries. Stick to the Quebec stuff. Bon Appetit!
Check out this A&P (remember A&P?) commercial from the mid to early 2000's which was the inspiration for the begining of my WKTV episode. One of my all time favourites.
On one of my parents travels to the United States early this year, they were very kind to bring me back a bottle of hot sauce for wings. Ya, they know me.
I had not heard of Wing Master before as it is not a brand found in my local supermarket. Of course that doesn't mean one couldn't find it in a hot sauce specialty store. For now, it was an exciting import.
The bottle has sat on my shelf for a few months, waiting for the opportune time to sample. Tonight was that time.
The sauce is made by Pepper Palace, which is based out of Gatlinburg, Tennessee (Hey Chris, that's not too far from you!). I don't think this is where my parents picked it up though, but I think they picked it up in Florida (I don't quite remember). But hey, what a logo. They mean business.
What endured me to the sauce was the cute photoshop of the buffalo head on a chicken. But one glance at the ingredient list and you know it's not really a Buffalo sauce.
The sauce has a very interesting ingredient listing. First thing is hot sauce. This seems a little redundant, but they put in a hot sauce first into their sauce. This seems like some sort of time/paradox dealie that I'm not ready to get into. There are lots of peppers/spices (cayenne, habanero, red chile peppers and spices . . . ooh spices). Water is halfway on the list, which you know will make this both hot and thick.
Well it may not be a Buffalo sauce, but it looked like a quality hot sauce. But don't be mistaken, these are meant to be for wings. Not added to ribs or pasta or anything else. This is a chicken wing sauce, so I made wings in which to sample them.
The sauce is a very dark red, with flecks of what looks like pepper or some other spice. I knew it would have a 'dark' flavour just by the look of it. Yes I describe flavours with colour.
The smell was a mix of garlic and butter and spice heat. The nostrils didn't flare from the spice, but I was aware of it. The garlic/butter smell was not the most appealing smell from a bottle as I would hope. When I make homemade Buffalo sauce, and refrigerate the leftover sauce, the smell of the congealed butter and vinegar and cayenne sauce makes the same kind of smell.
I dusted my wings in flour/cornstarch, deep fried, then immediately tossed with 1/3 of my bottle of sauce. The dusting gave the sauce something to cling to. This sauce was made for wings.
The first taste of the sauce presented a lot of flavours; I could taste the butter flavour, the garlic, the spices. The heat was there from the start - it didn't overpower the flavour or knock me down in heat, but it never let me forget it was there either.
FINAL SCORE: This is a good hot sauce for wings. Not only does it have a lot of flavour but it also has some heat. I would label it as 'hot' rather than x-hot, but hey, that is me. I enjoyed my wings, but it isn't a sauce I would want to have on a regular basis. But hey, the wings were skinned and the bowl was licked clean. Thanks mom & dad. 3.5/6.
I like Taste T.O. - a blog about all things food in the Provincial Capital. They have lots of great info, up to date buzz, and well food. Plus, they have mentioned Lord of the Wings on many occasions.
Well not only do they have a new look, but this week they did an article on chicken wings in the city "When The Wing’s The Thing" by Porsha Perreault.
There are several interesting tid-bits about the article:
Porsha is not a "true-winger" - so the POV is someone who casually enjoys wings. How do I know this? Because she said this "I began questioning the intelligence of this experiment; after all, woman cannot live on wings alone." But I love that she did this. But she also went with wimpy medium, so I again question her expertise (just joking). Actually, I respect her final conclusions: "everything written here must be taken with a grain of salt because opinions on wings are varied, prolific and personal."
I liked that most of the restaurants are not big name places and there are no chains. Most of the places (if I have heard of them) are not the 'biggies' in terms of wings in the city, but they sound intersting enough to try the next time I go back to TO.
So about a month ago I sampled and reviewed Wendy's Boneless Wings. Bold Buffalo, if you will. And I wasn't too impressed. Too sweet for my liking. And I was fine to leave it at that.
I like Wendy's in general. I turned and looked the other way when they started their new ad campaign of Waaaaay Better. Sure I found their tagline of "It's better than fast food, it's Wendy's" when we all know, its still fast food. But recently a new commercial came out and I can bite my tongue no longer.
Please note, I couldn't find this commercial on the net, so I had to resort to taping it on my digital camera from the TV. Please excuse the crappy quality of image and sound. But you will get the gist.
"At some restaurants when you get boneless wings, what are you really paying for?"
That is what the announcer states as the over-the-top waiter passes the establishments Cocktail bartender, flat screen tv's, people singing happy birthday etc etc etc.
My biggest problem I have with the commercial is how is skews reality. My big beef, is the chicken. When I get boneless wings at a restaurant, yes I may be paying twice as much (keeping in mind Wendy's entree is $4.99, about 1/2 what one pays in a restaurant) but I get full size chicken tenders/fingers. Wendy's gives you chicken nuggets. Yes you pay less, but you get less too.
The most I have paid for boneless wings is probably $11.99, which came with some sort of side. At Lonestar you get free chips and salsa before you even order boneless wings. And yes my price may be higher to pay for flat screen tv's, decorations, people singing and "flair", but people go to those places TO HAVE someone serve you at your table, with a smile, or a song on your special day.
Well if you think I'm crazy about this, I'm not alone. Over at the website "Commercials I Hate", people are slagging the ad:
"Ah yes Wendy's, because your boneless wings and boneless wings from a sit down restaurant are exactly the same. NOT. My husband has had these "wings", and they just look like pieces of chicken strips that fell off other chicken strips. I'm tired of fast food trying to act like it's every bit as good as a sit down restaurant, because they simply aren't."
"My mom suggested marketing something called "Boneless Cubes" "
"There's a wing bar around here that has loads of TVs on the wall, live music on weekends, trivia games on wednesdays, and like 15 different sauces. And their portions are awesome. So yes, I will gladly pay extra for that "flair" (and a beer) and enjoy my dining experience, as opposed to paying $4 for ten cents worth of sauce on two bucks worth of chicken nuggets eaten in a booth that smells vaugely of bleached urine."
"What I don't get is why Wendy's keeps using it's low budget Fast-Food-quality service and atmosphere as a selling point-it's like, are you saying that I should eat at your restauraunt because you DON'T serve gourmet food and because your restaurant is boring and the waiters are assholes?
if an extra $2 at a sit-down restaurant means my waiter is going to be nice to me, then I'm okay with spending it-if i'm going to eat out, I would hope it's a pleasant experience, and a mean waiter kills that hope..."
I understand that the neighbourhood grill type restaurants can be plastic, cookie-cutter, and fake. BUT SO IS A FAST FOOD OUTLET LIKE WENDY'S, and I don't even get table service. It's one thing to try and claim your better than your fast food competitors, but why attack a superior venue? WHY?
Have you seen this commercial? Does it bug you? Let me know! Comment today!
Summer may be winding down fast, but that doesn't mean I'm going to stop grilling. I hope to be out on our building terrace with charcoal until there is snow or they shut the patio down (which they do for the winter). Grill forever!
Last month, Ricky prepared some Bacon-Wrapped Jalapenos (BWJ's)for our Backyard Ribfest. That got me and LJjonesing for more, so when we got back to Ottawa, we made them for some company down visiting. Then I remembered the problems I had last year trying to make them on our lidless charcoal pit while they were cooking. This attempt was good, but still it wasn't satiating our BWJ cravings. So I decided to try again.
WK BACON -WRAPPED JALAPENOS V2.0
Ingredients:
Jalapenos, sliced lengthwise, seeds/ribs removed
cream cheese
cheddar cheese, shredded
Parmesan cheese
smoked paprika
bacon, cut in half
toothpicks, soaked in water
Instructions:
Fill emptied jalapeno shell with cream cheese.
Wrap shell with bacon, secure with toothpick.
Grill (or bake) until bacon is crispy. Enjoy!
Alright, following Rick's footsteps, we've gone 'three cheese' with cream, cheddar and Parmesan (fake stuff).
Slice the jalapenos and remove seeds and ribs. I don't wear gloves to do this because, well, I'm crazy like that. You may want to wear gloves so the oil doesn't get on your fingers and possibly in eyes or other sensitive areas by accident.
Mixing of the three cheeses. No measurements, just go with what you feel.
My new secret ingredient for BWJ's: smoked paprika. Ooops, secret out.
Spoon mixture into jalapeno 'shell'.
An armada of cream cheese jalapeno boats. Arrrrrrrrrr, shiver me timbers. Bacon ho!
Ok that collection of bacon had very little meat. Remember when bacon wasn't just white with a few specks of red?
2 wrapping styles:
1) cover the end, bring it around and spear. Covering the end because I cut out the stem so that you can just 'pop' these into your mouth when done. But otherwise, cheese mixture will leak out.
2) fully wrapped. Only possible with long bacon strips and small jalapeno shells.
So again, my BBQ pit has no lid. And no 4th wall. This means a lot of heat loss. It also means I have a hard time cooking certain foods. The problem is the bacon won't cook on the top of the BWJ's because the heat normally goes straight up. The only real option is to flip it, but the cheese mixture will ooze out.
Above, I have tried to create a 'lid' using tinfoil wrapped around another grill (from the adjacent pit) in which to create a tent of heat on an easily movable, handled grill. Problems? Oh yes.
Problem #1: The adjustable grill is the same size as the grill the BWJ's are on, so it doesn't sit above it. So I began to rearrange the bricks that make up the 2nd pit. Even still, the tinfoil grill doesn't fit right.
Problem #2: The tinfoil is not securely attached and keeps coming off.
Problem #3: I am cooking on direct heat. Why? I am afraid of under-cooking the bacon / loosing heat from the charcoal too quickly. But it's too hot and the bacon grease is causing flair-ups.
To combat these problems, I toss some water to cool some coals (careful not put it out though), then move the coals to the left, the poppers to the right (for indirect heating). I also just take the tinfoil off of the extra grate and make a tent as best I can.
This does not create the most desired results (as it would in say a gas grill), but lets be honest, the bacon cooked, the cheese melted and the jalapenos bit.
BWJ's were the stars of the show, but the main course was burgers (not shown being grilled).
What Would I Do Differently Next Time? There isn't much I can do to fix my grill problems, short of looking to buy a used lid from a garage sale. I would like the top bacon to be a bit crispier, but that's my preference for bacon. The 3 cheese mixture was great (you could taste all three cheeses) and the smoked paprika gave it a slight flair of mystery to the mix. BWJ - one more way to enjoy life.
