Nearly Buffalo Wings

If you've ever wondered why they call them 'buffalo wings' in those American-style chain restaurants like TGIF, it's because the dish originated from Buffalo, New York.

The story is that this lady who ran the Anchor Bar in Buffalo in the 1960s (which to locals is still the only place for true Buffalo wings) had last minute customers when she was about to close so she used whatever was left in her kitchen to prepare a meal, and the rest is history. Traditionally, buffalo wings are just deep-fried wings tossed in a margarine and hot sauce sauce, served with celery sticks and a blue cheese dressing to counter the fire from the sauce. Apparently if you switch the margarine with butter, you are considered to have committed a culinary crime as far as buffalo wings are concerned. Well, arrest me because I hate the flavor of margarine and I used butter in this recipe. Not only that, I believe in marinading all my wings. You'd want the flesh inside to be tasty as well as the skin so why not marinade it? Okay granted that the sauce is so robust and wings so lacking in meat that you won't notice the difference, but I will, so I marinaded the wings overnight with my favorite Maggi soy sauce and a little bit of sugar. Travesty, heresy you say. Are there really any rules any more when it comes to cooking?

But I didn't do further damage to the authentic recipe. I deep-fried the wings, not bake them. And I didn't add Worcestershire sauce or any other seasoning. Unfortunately, we don't get Frank's RedHot Original Cayenne Pepper Sauce here (Frank was the guy whose wife first whipped up those wings) and the most popular hot sauce here is Tabasco.

Unfortunately for Tabasco, my favorite hot sauce isn't Tabasco. I don't know if I should tell you that my favorite is Louisana Hot Sauce and cause a run at Merdeka Supermarket, the only place I've seen them so far. Just to make sure I won't be caught by another price increase, I've got 6 bottles of Louisiana Hot Sauce in my cupboard. I know there are hundreds of hot sauces in the US, with names like Obama's Jihad Hot Sauce, Burning Bush Hot sauce, Ass Blaster, Kamikaze, Kiss Your Ass Goodbye, The Slap Heard Around the World, Pain & Suffering, Mustard Gas, Dragons Blood, Dave's Ultimate Insanity, Ass Reaper, The Final Answer and my favorite, Sphincter Shrinker, but here we only get 3 hot sauces: Tabasco , Louisiana Hot Sauce ('The One With The Red Dot'/'One Drop Does It') and Red Devil. Of the three, Red Devil is the pits--or pitt, given his behavior (excuse me)--it's just not tasty. Tabasco is too thin, too sharp and flat for me. Louisiana Hot Sauce is thick, rich, tangy, tasty and a real pick-me-up. I splash it in noodles, fish, meat, eggs, bones, and one day soon I'll drop some into hot chocolate. Another plus about Louisiana Hot Sauce apart from its taste is that it's only RM3.90/US$1.10 a bottle, even cheaper than local chili sauce, and about 3 1/2 times cheaper than Tabasco. I only wish Louisiana Hot Sauce is hotter. Cayenne pepper just doesn't do it for me; I prefer habanero for the heat and flavor.

Next time the boys come over for a drink, I suggest you make a platter of these yummy yummy wings. Just make sure you have lots of beer and paper napkins.
Nearly Buffalo Wings
2 kgs wings, jointed
--marinade overnight in 2 T Maggi Soy Sauce & 2 T sugar if like.
--deep fry in oil until golden brown, drain on paper towels. You can also fry it in a shallow tray of oil in the oven.

Original Buffalo Wings Sauce:
3/4 cup hot sauce (your choice)
3/4 cup butter (margarine if like)
--melt the butter in a small pot and whisk in the hot sauce.I tried thickening the sauce by adding cornflour but it came out curdled.

Serve with:
celery sticks
blue cheese dressing

1. When wings are all fried, put them on a tray and pour the sauce over, tossing well to coat.

2. Serve with celery sticks and a blue cheese dressing for the celery. If you are not a blue cheese aficionado like me, just mash some blue cheese into a cup of mayo instead of buying a dressing you don't normally eat.