BELATED BLOGIVERSARY #7 - Best & Worst of 2012

The end of the world never came (it never was going to anyway) - but I ate wings like it was going to. 2012 was bitter sweet for me. Lots of great memories, lots of great wings. The downside was the neglect of the Blog. Life got busy, my job got bigger, and it became a lot harder to write the blog.

So many delays and it really bothered me that a big part of me was put off. Even this list is a month over due. But things are coming back to normal. My passion for wings and writing is just as strong as ever, and I may never get to cover everything I want to, but I will write on.  2012 brought lots of new wings, and so will 2012.

Let's get to the best and worst of 2012. A reminder, these rankings are for 2012 and 2012 alone. Best Wings Toronto 2012 are just the ones I reviewed in 2012, and not comparing them to previous years. Got it? Good.

BEST TORONTO WINGS
BEST OTTAWA WINGS

BEST ONTARIO WINGS

BEST WINGS USA

WORST WINGS

BEST NON WING PLACE
HIGHLIGHTS

 GOALS

BEST WINGS TORONTO REVIEWED in 2012

#1 "Lou Dawg's @ Ryerson " Crispy, and smoked with good Q!

#2 "Jersey Giants"

#3 "King West Wings"

#4 "Kimchi Korea House"

#5 "Sneaky Dees"

BEST WINGS OTTAWA REVIEWED in 2012

#1 "FarmTeam Cookhouse"   Big & saucy wings :)

#2 "Sushi 168"

#3 "Millstreet Brewpub"

BEST WINGS ONTARIO REVIEWED in 2012

#1 "Moose Winooski's ~ Brantford" Giants, tender, crispy, saucesome!

#2 "10 Buck Pizza ~ Tillsonburg"

#3 "Wingporium ~ Etobicoke"

BEST WINGS USA REVIEWED in 2012

#1 "Fatburger ~ Las Vegas NV" OK wings, but  best of the lot.

#2 "Dinosaur BBQ ~ Syracuse NY"

#3 "Applebees ~ Watertown NY"

WORST WINGS REVIEWED in 2012

"Domino's Pizza" Almost gelatinous wings. No thank you. No thank you.

BEST NON-WINGS REVIEWED in 2012

#1"I Went to Philly ~ Cheese Steak" Steaky, cheesy glory!

#2 "Fuzz Box ~ Nova Scotian Donair"

#3 "Patty Shack ~ Burger"

BEST EVENT in 2012

#1 "Boston Pizza Secret Wing Tasting"

#2 "London Ribfest"

#3 "Battle of the Wings"

GOALS for 2013

• Catch up on reviews
• Get Reviews out faster
• More recipes, more tweeting, more interacting with the Wing Nation

I'm looking forward to 2013 and making this a wingtacular new year!

Wing Long and Prosper

Wing King

Lord of the Wings

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Best & Worst of 2006

Best & Worst of 2007

Best & Worst of 2008

Best & Worst of 2009

Best & Worst of 2010

Best & Worst of 2011

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10 BUCK PIZZA ~ Tillsonburg ON

RIP - 10 BUCK PIZZA is NOW CLOSED

DEC 2012

I was home for the holidays and while cruising around my hometown I saw a new pizza place. The location, across from Annandale school, has been a number of places - the last I remember was a Godfather Pizza joint, but it might have been something since then.

What caught my eye was the big chicken in the window and the picture of wings with their pizza on the main sign.

There seemed to be a ton of specials on wings and pizza and a bunch of other eats. I don't know if this is a new chain or if its just local, but I thought I should try it out. It was late at night, but the staff were busy running around inside getting things ready.

There is some seating inside, but it's really a take-out place. There was a sizable menu, but I was just focusing on the wings. 2 things jumped off the menu at me: 1) Buffalo Wings (would they really be Buffalo?) 2) "Biggest Wings in Town!" (would they really be the big, let alone the biggest?  I placed my order, and 15 minutes I had my take-out.

The wings were in a styrofoam container, which meant I had to eat them quick before they steamed themselves out of crispiness. The smell wasn't that appetizing from the box . . . I had a lot of things to be worried about these wings.

I opened them up  . . . and was very surprised by jumbo, beautiful looking wings.

Wings come in sizes of 1/2 pound, 1 pound, 2, 3, 4, 5.

I went with a pound of wings. I figured that it wouldn't be very much. I was wrong.

The wings were truly jumbo wings. Hands down the largest in town. Long, plump and meaty wings. The best part was that they were crispy and the meat was tender. The wings seemed to be dusted, and they are deep fried. This gives the skin an extra crispiness, and it held up well to the little lake of sauce in the container.

I went with suicide. When I watched the girl behind the counter making my wings, I saw her pour a jug of sauce over them. It looked like a Third Degree bottle, but the sauce didn't seem like pure 3rd Degree - it had more dimension to it - maybe mixed with something. It was very tasty.

FINAL SCORE:
I was blown away - I was really only expecting sub-par wings, but these were superb. These were jumbo in length and meatiness. They were perfectly crispy with a little dusting and a little snap to the wing skin. The sauce might have been something bottled, but it was tasty and had some spicy heat to it. For a pizza joint's take-out wings, these were simply awesome. 8.5/9

10 Buck Pizza

67 Tillson Ave, Tillsonburg ON

M&M's Jumbo Crispy Buffalo Wings

DEC 2012

I spent New Years with LJ's family, and they know me so well that they went out and bought chicken wings for me to have while I was there. They are the best.

They had purchased from M&M's Meat Shop the "Jumbo Crispy Buffalo Wings." It had been a long time since I had M&M wings, but I certainly didn't remember them as jumbo. Maybe things had changed? Although reading that the 2lbs of wings for 14-20 wings promising.

I found the message on the box cute: "Thank you for inviting us to your table." I found it interesting that they have both oven and barbecue as cooking option.

Inside the box, the wings are kept in a plastic bag. They certainly looked big in the bag.

This box had 16 wings inside. Not a lot of wings, but they looked pretty big. They went into the oven at 400 degrees for about 30 minutes (as per the directions).

They were flipped once, and after about 40 minutes these wings were ready. Some of the chicken stuck to the pan, which was unfortunate.

The breading on the wing made it extremely crispy. Every bite had that crunch/crackle like a piece of fried chicken. Some of it felt a little too thick.

So were they jumbo? Yes. These were massive wings. I mean they were physically heavy to lift. Very meaty too. They were relatively tender. And heavy.

Time to rant.

M&M's advertises these as Buffalo Wings. IN NO WAY ARE THESE BUFFALO WINGS. NO. WAY. Buffalo wings are a) deep fried b) have no breading or coating c) are tossed in a cayenne/butter/vinegar sauce mixture.  These wings are none of the above. How can they sell these as Buffalo wings?

How did they taste? OK. Really all you can taste is the breading. There is some spice in the breading mixture, but it's weak. What would make this better? Buffalo sauce. You know, like they are advertised as.

Would I get them on my own - yes I actually would. But I would totally have to sauce them.

Thanks LJ's family for thinking of me and feeding me. Happy New Years!

M&M Meat Shop's Jumbo Crispy Buffalo Wings

KIMCHI KOREA HOUSE ~ Toronto ON

DEC 2012

Friend and former staff member Monica was moving back to BC and a small group gathered to say goodbye. Not sure where to go, we tried the newly opened Kimchi Korea House just down the street.

 Construction and renovation seemed to go forever on this place, and once it opened up I know I had been curious to try it out.

The colour theme of the place seemed to be black, white and red, which I thought really worked. It has a slight western and korean chic meet feel. The crowd is predominantly young people (early twenties), but then so were most of the people at our table.

Our server was Jane, who was friendly and willing to explain the different Korean dishes, since no one in the group was Korean.

Like Japanese restaurants, the simple salad with thousand island-like dressing was served. Fresh and light it was.

This wasn't really part of my meal I don't think, but these sides came out. I really enjoyed the sweet potato. I did not really enjoy the fish cake, or spinach, but that is more about my tastes than their preparation.

I didn't capture the people's meals around me - a lot of bulgogi and bibimbap was going around, and people at my end of the table seemed to enjoy their meals.

A few things had caught my eye to get for supper: Spicy sweet chicken or katsu, but once I saw wings, well we all know where that was headed.

The chicken wings are listed as one of the mains on the menu, and about 12 wings come in an order.

On the side was some cool and funky garnish - standard parsley, but also carrot and I don't know what the purple threads are. Do you?

Kimchi's wings are not very big. They are small to medium in length, and they aren't particularly meaty either. That is the dissapointing part of the wing. The plus side of the wing itself was that the skin was crispy, and the deep fried skin really held up with the sticky sauce. 

The flavour was sweet and spicy. Sugary from a honey flavour or maybe brown sugar, but there were hints of soy sauce, and just a little kick (little) from possible chili paste. The sesame seeds add more visual flair than flavour, but seem to be the standard with Korean wings.

FINAL SCORE:
They weren't big, but they were crispy. The sauce was slightly runny, but very gooey. There were several notes of flavour  - sweet, spicy, savoury. Going back, I wouldn't hesitate to get these wings again. 6.5/10

As for Monica, good luck back in BC, you are missed already!

Kimchi Korea House
149 Dundas Street West, Toronto ON
facebook.com/kimchikoreahouse

Cheshire Cat Pub in Carp Burns Down

Sad news; the Cheshire Cat Pub outside of Kanata Ontario had a fire this past week.

 This was one of my favourite places in the National Capital Region for wings. It was a great pub.

There are efforts to help owners and staff out. Check out their "Keep Calm and Rebuild the Cat" effort on Facebook - and there will be a fundraiser: "On Saturday, February 16/13 at the Carp Agricultural Hall we will be having a fund raiser to help staff of the Cheshire Cat Pub who were put out of work by the fire."

Good luck CCP!

DOMINO's PIZZA: Pan Crust Pizza & Wings

DEC 2012

Domino's Pizza has been doing a bunch of re-tooling in the past few years. Back in December I saw some ads on TV for their new Pan Pizza. I was hungry, and that sounded good.

Oh, there was also the above ad. Perfect timing. So I ordered, and in 30 minutes or less I had my pizza. Oh, and I couldn't just have pizza, I also went with some wings.

I opened the box and I was excited - I mean this pizza looked pretty sweet.

My three toppings were pepperoni, onion and sausage. I love the little sausage balls. And this pizza was not skimping on toppings.

When I think of 'pan' pizza, I think Pizza Hut. Domino's knows this, and in their ads even attack Pizza Hut by talking about how the 'other guy' uses frozen dough, while Domino's uses fresh dough. The last time I had Pizza Hut I was disappointing in their pizza, so couldn't Domino's recreate the pan goodness I had had a long time ago?

Yes, yes it could. This crust was awesome. It was flaky, buttery and chewy. Everything a pan crust pizza should be. Now to be honest, I do not like the sauce. Too tomatoey and it dominates the pizza. I prefer a sauce with less of a statement. If you overlook the sauce, this was a great pizza pie.

And then there were the wings.

I reviewed Domino's wings back in 2008, and I didn't care for them. So maybe things were different?

Nope. I had hoped with all the retooling the franchise was doing, they would fix the wings. Not yet. Not yet.

The chicken ranged from small to medium but the shapes were also all over the place. Now the wings were very meaty.They were also very tender. But there was a complete lack of crispiness to the wings. You can see the above wing is soggy. To begin with, the wings are baked, which does not make for crispy wings. But then floating in sauce just makes for a soggy mush.

The flavour was slightly spicy, which is surprising. The sauce was also buttery, but it was also sweet for some reason. A little bit would taste great, but there was so much that it become revolting after a while. Chemicals I guess.

FINAL SCORE:
The Pan Crust pizza was awesome. Loved it. I hate Domino's pizza sauce, but everything made for a quality pizza. The wings are terrible in my opinion. Like the frozen kind you get from the grocery store. The chicken is super tender and meaty, but the soggy skin and lake of sauce turn this into a terrible option. The wings should be crispy, not a mess. 2.5/09

Dominos Pizza

dominospizza.ca