Labor Day weekend, Buffalo hosted its 9th annual “Wingfest” to celebrate one of its several culinary claims to fame: the ubiquitous Buffalo chicken wing. One of the features of that dubious celebration is a chicken wing eating contest. From what I understand, there are professional “eaters” that travel the globe competing in these gluttonous events. Astoundingly, 43 year old Sonya Thomas, who weighed in at 105 lbs. won the competition by eating 181 chicken wings in 12 minutes. I am impressed and disgusted at the same time. There were twelve contestants and she even beat out 250 lb. Joey Chestnut, the pro porker famous for winning the last four Nathan’s hotdog eating contests. But 181 chicken wings, yikes! We used to go to a local bar called Gabels on Monday nights where the special was ten cent wings and three Steam Whistle splits for a buck. Twenty wings are a decent amount of wings to eat, but my record is perhaps thirty or thirty-five. Any more than that and I get really sick to my stomach. What pray tell does the ingestion of 181 deep fried chicken wings do to one’s digestive tract? On one of my recent visits to Buffalo, I went to Duff’s out on Sheridan Drive, a restaurant that many Buffalonians feel is Western New York’s chicken wing Mecca. I decided to check it out because I was in the neighborhood, and had once sold the property surrounding the restaurant. Frankly, I was not all that impressed; I thought the wings were expensive and no better than the ones I might find at twenty other Buffalo restaurants. Most visitors to Buffalo assume that Frank and Teresa’s Anchor Bar in downtown Buffalo is the best place to try Buffalo wings, because they are famous for being the home of the Buffalo chicken wing. Still, I’ll wager that most Buffalonians have some place they like better. Personally -- and this changes from time to time -- my favorite place for wings in Buffalo is La Nova Pizzaria, over on the West Side. Big, delicious, meaty wings that are incredibly messy to eat. La Nova is an institution in Buffalo, and they also make excellent pizza. La Nova is so popular in Buffalo that they will ship their pizza to homesick Buffalonians around the world. They’ve even shipped to troops in Iraq.
You may know by now I’m a reality television junkie, and I try to catch at least one episode of each new effort before it is yanked unceremoniously off the air. For me reality television is kind of a canary in the coal mine for cultural Armageddan, and I watch it with the same conflicted enthusiasm that I watch celebrities self destruct. I’ve been hearing a lot of buzz about MTV’s controversial “Jersey Shore” and finally recorded an episode or two on our fancy new PVR. I have not actually watched the show yet, but probably will soon, because I read in the paper the other day that one of the characters, Snookie, AKA Nicole Polizzi, had been arrested for being a public nuisance. In other words, they arrested her plastered ass on some Jersey beach. Welcome to the Lindsay Lohan Hall of Shame. The gist of the show is that it follows the delinquent and hedonistic exploits of a group of young Italian American “adults” on the Jersey Shore. I can see how this might be a big seller with today’s twenty-somethings, for the same reason the “Jackass” movies were such big hits. I don’t remember exactly what I was doing when I was in my early twenties, but I’m sure there was a fair bit of partying involved, and I’m sure I took pride in my own stupid exploits, and vicariously in the retarded behavior of my friends. It is, on the other hand, a bit strange to now be seeing that same behavior celebrated in a popular T.V. series. Fuddy-duddy that I have become, I do sometimes catch myself tsk-tsking and grumbling about the end of civilization. The fact is, not all "young adults” are boneheads, but there are always a few in every generation ( see Byron Brown Jr. several issues ago). Certainly alcohol is the great facilitator, and no, I’m not going to recount some of my more ridiculous past behavior for your amusement and harsh judgment. I understand the Italian American community is indignant about “Jersey Shore” but let’s face it, it ain‘t just the Italians. A few weeks ago there was a blurb in the paper about some Amish people south of Buffalo who were pulled over for DWI … IN THEIR HORSE DRAWN BUGGY. How bombed do you have to be to call attention to your inebriation in a horse drawn buggy?!
181 wings … as the Irish would say, JAYsus!
Written by Jamie Oppenheimer c2010 ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
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