Wing P0rn: Pogue Mahone's & 1st Wings of 2012

Back in TO and looking for a good wing deal, I headed to Pogue Mahones, a place I reviewed back in 2007. Not only do they have good wings, but they have "5 for $5" - every Monday night after 4pm. Essentially, they have 5 appetizers you can get for $5. Thus I got two orders of wings (about 14 jumbo wings) for $10. 

They also added 3 new flavours: Candadian Eh (a sweet sauce), Eastern Smoke (a smokey BBQ), and Stinger (Honey Garlic, Parmesean, and whatever heat you want).  I tried Eastern Smoke and their Grand Hot (suicide).

They were crispy, big and saucy. I was very full at the end of the meal ~ what a great way to start off wing wise in 2012!

BLOGIVERSARY YEAR 6: The BEST & WORST of 2011

Looking back, 2011 was a blur. Life outside the Wing Nation was very busy and while it was a good year, I was not happy with how much the blog was neglected. Very few wing reviews, no wing recipes, WKTV didn't get an episode and the list goes on. Actually there are recipes and such, but they still haven't been posted. There's a backlog on everything!

But there were some exciting wing moments too. I only hope 2012 will be the year we get back on track. With a new look and the enthusiasm to eat more wings, things can only get better!

BEST TORONTO WINGS
BEST OTTAWA WINGS

BEST ONTARIO WINGS

BEST INTERNATIONAL WINGS

WORST WINGS

BEST NON WING PLACE
BEST WING RELATED BUT NON-WING RECIPE by WK
HIGHLIGHTS

 GOALS

BEST WINGS TORONTO REVIEWED IN 2011

#1 The Tara Inn - "Jumbo crispy wings in tasty sauces" - exactly.

#2 The Bishop & The Belcher - "Big, crispy wings" and the sauce, while light, was good.

#3 Puck'n Wings - "They were a good size, meaty, crispy and had sauce to spare" - loved the dill wings.

#4 Hoops - "Good size, crispy, saucy wings" - notice a theme in these places? Love the wing specials.

#5 Mullin's - "Simple wings done right. Big, crispy, tasty."

BEST WINGS OTTAWA REVIEWED IN 2011

#1  Jean Albert's - "Wings are crispy, flavourful and fresh" - good even before you put on sauce.

#2   MVP Lounge -  Big, breaded crispy wings with good sauces.                                         

#3 Atomic Rooster - Big and crispy, but simple. Great service.
#4 Crazy Horse - Technically Kanata, the wings were tender, crispy and the homemade sauces were good.
#5 Tadavalkars -    "Decent size, good flavours"

BEST WINGS ONTARIO REVIEWED IN 2011

#1 -The Bull & Boar Smokehouse Grill - Smoked, then deep fried, then sauced. It was good, except cold.

BEST WINGS REVIEWED INTERNATIONAL IN 2011

#1 The Wing Wagon - I've been twice now and love these traditional Buffalo wings. Jumbo, crispy, saucy. 

WORST WINGS REVIEWED IN 2011

#1 Planet Pizza, Toronto ON - Lied about the style (say they are BBQ but they are not), small, not crispy. Just sad. I write the worst not to be mean, but to show others and for the business to possibly learn from this wing mistake.

BEST NON-WING REVIEWED IN 2011

#1  Jack Astor's  Buffalo Sauced Up Chicken Fingers - Crispy, saucy, spicy, savoury - add garlic pan bread and Cherry Coke and no wonder they got first place.

#2 Smokehouse Blues Pig Wings -  When you take a pork shank, smoke it, then deep fry and toss in sauce, you then have a piece of pork that tastes like chicken wings. And we can always have more things taste like wings.
#3 Ombrella Pizza Cones -  Pizza, in a cone? Awesome.

BEST WING RELATED BUT NON-WING RECIPE by WING KING 2011

#1 Late Night Wing Bites - so simple, so tasty. 

HIGHLIGHTS OF 2011

Lots of exciting events took place this year that kept me busy and full. I,

Was interviewed by CKCU Radio

Was a panel member of a Podcast

Was a Judge at London's Wingfest and Ribfest and Chestnut Residence Battle of the Wings

Was winner of my friends Backyard BBQ Rib Competition

Successfully completed the Rim Reaper Challenge @ McKibbins Irish Pub and went on the Wall of Pain. 

A few other facts and accoomplishments - readership of the blog increased quite a bit, especially due to all of the new people I've met on Twitter, in person and people linking to the blog. By far the biggest and most popular post was my coverage of Boston Pizza's new advertising guy, Wing Critic Carl - over 11 000 page hits because people want to know what a Gil Morgan is or who Leroy Bouchlette is. I want to add more World Wide Web Wacky Wing Wednesdays, but the fact that we have already reached 50 is awesome. We also added Wing P0rn as a regular update - this is where I add photos of wings at places I'm eating that I've already reviewed but don't need to rehash or wings I've made at home that don't need a recipe. 

GOALS FOR 2012

My wing goals for 2012 are simple. More posts, done in a timely manner. More social media (Twitter, Facebook, WKTV - I'm looking at you). I would like to get out and try wings outside my Toronto/Ottawa circle. I also want to hear more from you - and your wing adventure. 

I want to thank all my readers, those of you coming to my blog (Chris and Teena especially - always supportive and leaving comments), those that write in to me, and just anyone who's out there in the Wing Nation. I write my blog for me, but it's so cool to hear from fellow wing lovers out there.

Wing Long and Prosper,

The Wing King

Lord of the Wings

"Eating Wings Until the End of the World"

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Best & Worst of 2006

Best & Worst of 2007

Best & Worst of 2008

Best & Worst of 2009

Best & Worst of 2010

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It Came From The Back of the Cupboard: Dave's & Nance's Wing Sauces

During the winter break holidays I was home visiting my folks. One afternoon I was going through their pantry, when waaaaay at the back I made two discoveries. My parents keep a very clean kitchen so this was quite the discovery. But everyone has some story or some item hidden in the back of the cupboard, or the closet.

In this case it was two very old bottles of chicken wings sauce:

Dave's

I haven't tasted this sauce for a very long time. But it brought back memories.

"Also sensational on many of your favourite foods" 

I think we first got this sauce when visiting my Uncle and family in Nova Scotia, and then he would send some at Christmas time too. They still are around apparently, but don't have a website, just facebook. I would date this sauce from about the early to mid 90's.

I remember this being more like a BBQ sauce than a hot sauce. The sugary ingredients seem to support that memory.

 Cooking methods are about the same today. Like Dr Who or Bill & Ted's time traveling telephone booths, this cupboard took me back!

It doesn't look so good now, but I remember having tasty wings. Does anyone else remember having Dave's?

Nance's

The other  jar of sauce I found was Nance's. Sadly, not opened and I don't ever remember having this sauce. Nance's seems to be still around, but part of the Baldwin Richardson Foods Co.. If they are the same Nance's, they have changed the recipe.

Not only could I tell it was old by the label or the stained lid, but the price tag was a huge give away. IGA became LOEB in town long ago, and closed down back in the mid 2000's.

I like that both sauces recognize the importance of tossing the sauce in a covered container.

This sauce is much more of a sweet sauce - the spiciest thing in there is mustard flour. I wonder what it tasted like?

It's sad to see the sauces never got used. It gets me scared, because I have a ton of hot sauces unopened in my own pantry. I guess that means I'll just have to eat more wings this year . . .

So what's in the back of your pantry? Do you have sauces waiting to be tried out? Have you tried either of these sauces and remember them?

SIMCOE ARMS PUB ~ Simcoe ON

In the ending days of 2011 my buddy Jason and I cruised on over to Simcoe. We did a little catching up, some DVD shopping, we even caught a movie (Sherlock Holmes 2 was pretty good). We also stopped for dinner to a little Pub that Jason recommended. Who was I to disagree?

In a mini mall in Simcoe is a pub called the Simcoe Arms. It's almost tucked away and with some construction in the parking lot it could be hard to find. But we were there for an early supper and it was busy enough with locals it seemed.

The entrance outside makes the place look small, but inside it's quite spacious. There is a bar area, the lower dining area and the upper dinning area (where we sat ourselves). Our waitress was Mary-Ann and she was friendly and answering all my questions about wings or bringing me a drink refill.

Jason went for his Simcoe Arms standby, liver and onions. Ya, you heard that right.

It was a monster portion of liver, with fries and cooked veggies. Now I haven't had liver in, well not this decade or even the last. I don't have a good memory of it, but Jason's was covered in bacon and onions and gravy and I'm up for trying new things, so he let me try a piece.

Now I took that piece, with bacon, I cut it in half and took the plunge: at first things were good. The outside was crispy while the inside was smooth - I was thinking this is not bad. Love the texture. Maybe I could be a liver guy. But then it hit. It was an after-flavour that came into my mouth, went down my throat, and made my stomach go "uh-unh, no thank you." I did not finish the other half of the piece and I am not a liver guy. But I gave it a shot. But let me clarify, if you do like liver, this is good stuff.

I got an order of onion rings on the side. These were homemade battered onion rings that were crispy, and just darn tasty. They came with a ranch dip that was tasty, but it was also good with my wings blue cheese dip.

As I said, I got wings.

 I had to ask Mary-Ann about 'Bundy' sauce - it's honey garlic and a heat mixed in. I did not ask why it was called Bundy sauce though. I should have. Shame on me.

Wings come in an order of a pound, which is about 8 or 9 wings. The wings are dusted and then deep fried. They come with veggies and dip too.

The wings were a good size. Medium in length, but very meaty. The meat of the wings was almost tough, but not quite. The skin started off crispy, but half way through the sauce was fully absorbed eliminating the crispness.

BUTTER HOT

The picture above is Butter Hot, not just hot. They have hot, but this was butter hot, which meant hot sauce, with butter added. Basically Buffalo wing sauce, but the wings aren`t Buffalo wings because they are dusted wings. But this was a good sauce - savoury, with a hint of heat. Tasty, overall.

SUICIDE

I also got a side of suicide sauce.  It had a nice heat that warmed the mouth. I wasn't crazy for the flavour, but I appreciate that it seemed to be homemade.

FINAL SCORE:

Good wings especially when they came out fresh. The pub works hard on it's food and it shows. I'd have the wings again for sure, the onion rings were good, I know Jason enjoyed his liver, and there were a dozen other things on the menu I would have ordered for sure. If you stop by Simcoe, stop by the Simcoe Arms. 6/10

Simcoe Arms Pub
140 Queensway Drive East, Simcoe On
http://www.facebook.com/TheSimcoeArms

New Look for 2012

Eating Wings Until the End of the World!

Ok, I don't believe the end of the Mayan calendar is the end of the world (its the end of the calendar, there's a new calendar to come . . .) but it felt like a fun theme.

I'm behind on posts, so see a few posts from 2011, then my "Blogiversary" edition with a review, and then on to 2012!

Santa's Coming tonight - move over Cookies

Tonight's the big night when that Jolly old elf is travelling the world . . .

. . .  and while visiting family, I was shown a comic in Women's World, which when I have kids and Santa visiting, I think would be appropriate for me:

Happy Holidays y'all!

Wing P0rn: The Ballroom Return

One of the professional associations I belong to had a social this past weekend, and it was at the Ballroom. I was there about a year ago with my staff, and I was not a huge fan of the wings I got. But this time, the wings were a different story.

BBQ: crispy, sweet, a little smokey, a little crispy. Very sticky.

There were many appetizers, but the one that stuck out beyond the wings was the Deep Fried Cheese Curds ($7). Really Salty, but soooo good.

This one even looked like a chicken wing. Check out the curd melting out.

The Ballroom has changed up its menu, dropped its wing prices (yes, $12 instead of $13) so I think they are worth re-checking out sometime.

Nibble Me This's trip to Dead End BBQ

Back in September, Chris over at Nibble Me This sent me this - and I was going to put it up, then Chris might have gotten more photos, but he couldn't, then I didn't get them up. But now I can. Or am, or will. Here they are. Sorry for the delay Chris.


"After Trevor's 12 y/o football game this week (another loss, we're 0-3) we stopped by our favorite BBQ place, Dead End BBQ to help erase the "sting of defeat". Dead End BBQ is almost 2 years old but it dawned on me I had never had their wings so I thought I'd give them a try.

Dead End BBQ hits them with their rub, smokes their wings for 2 hours and then "crisps" them to order. A lot of BBQ smokers prefer to smoke their wings and then flash fry them at the end so I guess that's what Dead End BBQ does. They offer them in 4 varieties:

Naked Smoked BBQ Wings - Served with their award winning BBQ sauce
Buffalo Wings - Smoke House Wings served Buffalo style with a smoky kick
Spicy BBQ Wings - Big BBQ flavor with a spicy kick.
Dead Hot Wings - Smoke House Wings served crazy hot with habanero sauce I like habanero in moderation but went with the Spicy BBQ wings instead. I figured I could handle any heat “spicy BBQ wings” could deliver.

Mrs NibbleMeThis waiting for our order but notice the glass in the background. One of the owners is an architect and wanted an “open kitchen” so you can see the food being prepared. He enclosed the two smokers in this glass area.

The wings come 8 to an order and include blue cheese or ranch dressing with carrots and celery.
They were big meaty wings, the kind I get when I buy fresh and cut my own at home. I could see the spices from the rub but it was the sauce that worried me. I could see chile seeds resting in the sauce. Uh oh.....


The skin was crispy and the meat was juicy tender. The flavor started off as just sweet and bold but then after the second bite, the heat started building. By the third bite my lips were stinging and I was sniffling. Turns out these things were as hot as I could tolerate.


As I sat there with watery eyes, I actually thought about how LOTW would scoff at me for having such a hard time with the “spicy” wings instead of the Dead Hot Wings. I like to think they messed up and served me the Dead Hot Wings by mistake!


I think I'll go back on Wednesday's wing night ($.50 a wing) to try them both and find out.
Chris"

Sounds like a great place. And I would not scoff at suffering at anything called "Dead Hot" - although they looked mighty tasty to me!