LOST REVIEW: ANCHOR BAR 2015 - Hamilton ON

It's #throwbackthursday & another LOST REVIEW!!!

Guess what? 2020 marks the 15th year of Lord of the Wings blog! But back in 2015, it was the 10 year anniversary (hence the special icon in the corner of the photos). This was another review ready to go but I never posted it. The visit was in May, and a Monday (why was I going out on a Monday) and I wanted to have great wings to do a little pre-celebrating. Where best to go but the birth place of Buffalo Wings?

OK, not exactly. The original Anchor Bar is in Buffalo NY, not a far far drive from Toronto (where I lived at the time) but this was a Monday night and it probably wasn't worth the time, gas, border hassel etc. So I decided to go to the first franchised location of the Anchor Bar in Canada: Hamilton. Opening back in 2013 I had never made it from Toronto. Well this Monday I guess I got in the car and drove the 68km's to have some traditional Buffalo Wings.

I have eaten at the original Anchor Bar with my buddy Rick back when we did the Great Wing Tour of 2006, so I figured I would have a good understanding of how well they translated into Ontario. I felt that Hamilton was a good location to open up in as it is a very similar city to Buffalo NY: the are both industrial centers, both suffered economically, both are big sports towns, both have a gritty feel.

My first impressions of this Anchor Bar was that I wasn't 100% sure of the entrance. Was I going in the front door? I figured it out, but as soon as I walk in, I get the strong smell of deep fried wings. Like super strong, like there's no vent in the kitchen. It smells good (to me) but also it's too strong.

The decor has both some of the same tropes as the original bar does - pictures of Teressa Bellissimo (the creator of the dish), wacky statues, and other kitch adorn the walls. But the place also has the furnishings of a modern franchise restaurant. It's nice, and clean, but something seems off. That's it, it's nice and clean. It feels like it should be grittier.

My server (never got her name) was ok - she seemed really bored and not a lot of love left for the day. She was decent, but didn't elevate the experience. It was a Monday, so it was dead inside with customers, at least by 7-8ish pm when I got there to dine.

Wings are really the only thing that matters here. The menu and prices are different in Hamilton now, but this menu was different from the original in Buffalo. There the only flavours were mild/medium/hot/suicidal/spicy bbq, so the addition of Maple Honey Garlic and Abandon Ship! help add a bit more choice. These days the standard flavours aren't always enough, which is why there are wing joints with hundreds of sauces. But here, here you are coming for the classic Buffalo sauce.

It took a long time for my wings to come out (suggesting they were cooked from fresh which is good) and they looked good. Things are very simple, but sometimes simple is better. The aroma was intoxicating when they were placed in front of me. The fried chicken, the buttery hot sauce; it smelled so good! It flooded me with memories of my family trips to Niagara Falls NY and getting a bucket of Buffalo wings from a place called Jacos. Ah memories within memories.

The wings came with traditional celery sticks and blue cheese dip. The celery was fresh and crisp. The blue cheese was very tasty. It is either homemade or made from Anchor Bar's own proprietary blend because it's unique. Yes it's creamy and has tangy little bites of blue cheese, but there's something else in there. Garlic? Herbs? Spices? I don't know, but it was good.

The wings come by the pound and there were about 9 wings in that pound, basically evenly split drums and flats.

The wings were large, which just doesn't seem to be the case very often. They were slightly meaty and really really tender. Almost fall-off-the-bone tender. Being the classic wing it's not breaded, just simply deep fried. There is the option on the menu to ask for it extra crispy, but I chose not to envoke that to get a more authentic experience. But I should have because the wings were not as crispy as I like them to be.

I also only went with Hot as my flavour. Medium is the traditional, and I wanted something with a little zing, but didn't want to wander off to Suicide or Abandon Ship territory. If I was to go back, I would (even with the up-charge).

The wings were wet, but not overly saucy like Anchor Bar competitor Duff's. The sauce is very good. It's buttery, almost a little sweet, it's hot. It's crack-like it's so tasty. I could drink the stuff.

So my wings were good. Definitely get them extra crispy. The flavour was on point, and the meat was tender. Sides were good. Overall everything was good. Like the time I went to the original, I was expecting a holy experience, but was underwhelmed. You want them to be the best, most perfect wings, and they aren't (never meet your heroes they say). But they were good.

Anchor Bar
120 King Street West, Hamilton ON (and other locations) 
anchorbarcanada.com

SCHNEIDERS Spicy & Smooth Buttery Buffalo Wings - QUARANTINE FROZEN WING REVIEW

This is a QFWR:

I'm a thrifty guy. I don't like to spend money (I mean, I like to spend) but I'm fairly conservative on how I spend it. Wings don't change that. At restaurants it's rare for me to order wings that cost $15 for a pound, especially if I know I can get them cheaper on wing night. Frozen wings are no different. I almost always only buy frozen wings if they are on sale. For me, I won't buy a box of wings that are about 700-900g for more than $10 or so. 

So when I was at Loblaws one day, I saw Schneiders chicken wings on sale for $10.99 (usually $12.99) and jumped at the chance to try them. I bought these wings in March of 2019 and tried them at that time, but never posted the review, but I checked and right now Loblaws has the same wings on sale for the same price. And the size is the same!

There were a lot of flavours to choose from but I went with Buttery Buffalo Wings and Texas BBQ (that's a QFWR for another day!), but they also had mild, Jerk (drumsticks) and Honey Garlic as well.

On their website, Schneiders has quite the description of their wings. They have some key words that sound reassuring for understanding a Buffalo Wing: "Vinegery hot sauce for bite" "pucker" "smooth buttery" "tangy blue cheese". This all sounds good. But frozen wings often do not deliver. So we would see.

The box are is both good and plain at the same time. The photo they used is great. The wings are even on parchment paper, just like how I cook mine. I like the bowl of melted butter, the cayenne peppers as well as the flakes hanging about. Look that sauce is just dripping off the far right wing. Then business. 

 There's extra details on the cover; at first I thought "Spicy & Smooth" was a line of flavours, but it's just a descriptor for the "Buttery Buffalo Wings." These are also "premium wings" and that they are pre-marinated. They are raw wings, so they will need to be fully cooked. The instructions say to bake on parchment paper, which is the only way to bake frozen wings in my opinion.

I like that the box lid flips up, and you have your bag of wings, and the two sauce pouches.

There's a packet of blue cheese and a packet of Buffalo sauce. Frozen Blue Cheese usually sucks, but this one doesn't look as grainy as others.

I opened up the bag of frozen wings, which were stuck together. You can tell right away they have a marinade/glaze on them, but they don't look too bad.

I put the whole box out on the baking pan with the parchment and there were 12 wings included. Well 9 wings and one super wing.

I tried pulling them apart but they were too fused together and I didn't want to risk ripping the wings apart before cooking.

I mean, they didn't look bad and while the photo above makes them look tiny, they were about a Medium+ so not too shabby. The cooking calls for baking them at 400 for 30 minutes with a flip, however we were also having a frozen Mac & Cheese (talk about a lazy dinner night!) and it was to be cooked at 350 for 45 minutes. They baked at the same time, so the wings were not treated quite like they should have.

They came out of the oven looking not too bad either. Not perfect, but not bad.

There was a bit of grease/fat that had oozed off and with the marinade I expected a much bigger mess. But they actually were not a mess. The wings looked ready to eat as is, but I had the sauce packet still.

The sauce packet was put in warm water when the wings went in the oven and thawed by the time the wings were ready. I put the wings in a metal bowl, cut a corner off the packet, and poured out the sauce.

The sauce looked rich and buttery, like a good Buffalo sauce should. There was plenty of sauce for all 12 of the wings. After saucing I tossed them and we plated the wings on our individual plates.

The Blue Cheese packet also went into the same warm bath as the Buffalo sauce, but I removed it as soon as it had thawed a bit. I didn't want warm blue cheese dip after all!

This photo does not make it look appetizing. At all.

This was our meal, and boy did it look good. Not a single veggie in sight. I really liked how well these wings looked when being photographed - such the wing models! You can also see our mac & cheese, which I found really blah, so I used some of the wing sauce to zing it up. I don't remember the brand, but I almost always find mac and cheese boring.

The wings were a decent size; I've had plenty of tiny frozen wings, but these were about a medium-medium+ in length and height. They were not particularly meaty, but they weren't that skinny either.

The skin was semi-crispy. That might be my fault since they weren't baked at the right heat, but they did the job. They were also sloppy wet so that also eroded the crispiness factor. The meat was decently tender.

How did they taste? Well, I need to break the flavour of the wings down into two different parts - the wings, and the sauce. Let's start with the sauce first.

The Sauce

The Buffalo sauce was good. Really good. Like, I couldn't believe this was a frozen sauce. I mean it was buttery, it had a bite (a zing, nothing killer), and was just a very good deep flavour. This was an excellent Buffalo sauce for not just frozen wings.

The Marinated Wings

The marinated wings were a different story. These tasted ... not at all good. They tasted like frozen, blah, raw chicken wings. But it wasn't a muted flavour, it was strong. These were pre-marinated but all I got was this raw flavour that was not very enjoyable. It even over-powered the very tasty Buffalo sauce. And these are 'premium' chicken pieces???

I did dip them in the blue cheese dip, and I gotta tell you, this was a quality blue cheese dip. It tasted just like the blue cheese that comes with wings at a restaurant. It was creamy, it was tangy. Very good. But it too didn't cover up the chicken itself.

WOULD I BUY IT AGAIN?

Maybe? The chicken was ok in size and texture, but the meat just didn't taste nice. But the Buffalo sauce and the blue cheese on the side were excellent for a frozen product. So I'm pretty torn. If the sale was good (better than $10), I'd buy them again. I recently saw on Twitter the @halifaxwingman did these on the grill and they looked pretty good like that. Next I will probably be releasing my review of the Texas BBQ so you can get an idea of comparison of the same brand. 7.5/14

Schneiders
Chicken Wings

200 Year Old Chicken Wing Recipe!!! Townsends tries Clairmont's Recipe

Everyone seems to think that chicken wings started in 1964 at the Anchor Bar in Buffalo NY. Well, those are Buffalo wings, but people have been eating chicken wings as long as chickens have had wings. Proof is found in a 200 year old recipe that was reviewed by Youtuber Jon Townsend.

Jas. Townsend & Son was to start a unique business in Piecerton Indiana that specialized in anything historical to do with the 18th Century (particularly American); Clothes, pottery, tools, books, spices - you name it, they do it. Well several years ago Jon Townsend (the son in Townsend & Son) who now runs the business, started an educational channel on Youtube with the focus being on cooking in the 18th Century while occasionally highlighting products from the store.

As a history nut, I fell in love with the videos as they showed not only what people ate back in the 1700's, but how they prepared them by using the few cookbooks that existed in that time.

"Thanks for joining us today as we savour the flavours and aromas of the 18th century"

 The food often looks soo good, and the host is so welcoming, charming and friendly, you can't help but enjoy watching the videos.

I've always wanted to feature them somehow on the blog and today I noticed they had a new video posted. I couldn't believe it when I saw it; a 200 year old recipe for chicken wings!

The recipe comes from The Professed Cook by Clermont, which is translation of an older French cook book called "The Courts Dinner". In English, it's called "Chickens Without Art" but Jon points out the better interpretation is "Chicken, the easier and friendly way"

INGREDIENTS & INSTRUCTIONS (condensed by me):

• 8 whole wings
• Pepper & Salt
• Chopped Parsley
• Green Shallots
• Mushrooms
• Oil
• Cullis (meat stock)
• Juice of a lemon

1. Cut off the wings of four middling chickens and flattened with handle of knife
2. Marinate them with pepper and salt, chopped parsley, green shallots, mushrooms, and a little good oil
3. Put them in a stew-pan, separately with the marinade, on a good brisk fire
4. Turn them soon as they will be done in about a quarter of an hour
5. Remove the wings and lay on the serving dish
6. Add two spoonfuls of Cullis to the sauce; skim it well
7. Add a good squeeze of lemon to the sauce, and serve on top of wings

The whole recipe is actually simple and accessible to do (many recipes seem to call for something we don't have access today). Aside from the mushrooms, this sounds like something I want to try!

Jon is doing double duty on this show; he's half Julia Child teaching the audience to cook on his show, but he's also our history teacher, navigating us through both language and events that are far removed from us today. He does a great job of both!

Not only that, but the cinematography is beautiful and the food looks so good in both preparation and execution. He is not only a great host, but he seems to have an excellent team backing him up behind the scenes.

So how did they turn out? 

"Whoa! The flavours are tremendous!" Jon exclaims, as he too is trying this recipe for the first time. It's a delight to watch him eat and explore these lost dishes.  "This is just one of those 'you've got to try it' ... boy, it's like 10 stars!" 

Short ingredient list, short prep time, easy to make, chicken wings, from 200 years ago? I'm in!

So check out this video and the rest over at Townsends - if you love history or food, you'll love this channel.

May the 4th Be With You! Happy Star Wars Day 2020!!!

So much Star Wars these days! I've done two sets of Star Wars meme's this year, one for Rise of Skywalker, and one for The Mandalorian. So sit back, grab some blue milk and Mynock wings and get ready for the funny. Or what I think is funny anyway.

THE RISE OF SKYWALKER

As Finn said, "They've taken enough of us. Now we take the war to them." Pick it up and eat it with your damn hands!!!

Bon appetit!

Some days the struggle is real.

Or even worse, sour cream. I'm looking at you Ottawa [visible disgust]

You know he's never going to make it.

THE MANDALORIAN

So very true!

I saw you do it, don't deny it. #wingcrime

Why bake when you can fry? Why I ask!?

Wings really are a beautiful thing [wipes away tear]

Eat them in the car. Cold wings are ok ... but fresh hot wings are the best.

Controversial I know.

#nonwingsunday = Peameal Bacon Sandwiches

Drums or Flats? RCSS Weighs In

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So in the case of what's better, drums or flats, @realcanadiansuperstore sides with flats The Flats Only Frozen wings are $11.98 on sale while the Drums Only are $4.94! I prefer the flats, but $$$ is $$$ so gots me a box of drums! #lordofthewingsblog #lordofthewings #wings #chickwings #frozenwings #presidentschoice #presidentschoice #smokinstampede #flatsvsdrums

A post shared by LORD of the WINGS (@lotw_wingking) on May 2, 2020 at 4:28pm PDT