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Buffalo wings come from the city of Buffalo, New York.
PLATE UP
First, a confession: I was initially confused by the prospect of Buffalo wings. I was a kid, I was visiting the US for the first time, and I was fairly sure that buffalos did not have wings. Or if they were actually chicken wings, how would you flavour them with buffalo?
With the benefit of time I now understand that Buffalo wings come from the city of Buffalo, New York, and that they’re deep-fried chicken wings that are coated with a spicy sauce made with vinegar, cayenne pepper, regular hot sauce, and butter.
These wings are usually served with an additional blue-cheese dipping sauce, plus a large beer and a big-screen TV playing some sort of sporting event.
FIRST SERVE
There’s beef over the origin of the Buffalo wing. The accepted story, at least up until a decade or so ago, was that the Bellissimos, an Italian-American family who ran a pub in Buffalo called the Anchor Bar, invented Buffalo wings in 1964.
Various apocryphal tales accompany this invention – friends came over unannounced, an accidental delivery of wings arrived – but the central, undisputed fact was that Teressa Bellissimo came up with the recipe.
There is, however, another story: John Young was an African-American man who moved from Alabama to Buffalo in 1948, and by 1961 had started a restaurant and begun serving whole deep-fried chicken wings with spicy “mambo sauce”.
He left the city due to racial tension in 1970; by the time he returned a decade later, his recipe was a hit, and Anchor Bar had claimed the credit.
ORDER THERE
Though Young’s Buffalo restaurant, Wings and Things, no longer exists, the Bellissimos’ Anchor Bar (anchorbar.com) is still very much up and running, and well worth calling in to.
ORDER HERE
In Auckland, get your Buffalo wing fix at Schapiro’s Sports Bar & Diner (schapirossportsbar.co.nz) and Burger Geek (burgergeek.co.nz)– both located in Eden Terrace. In Wellington, Tequila Joe’s Buffalo-style wings can be ordered in servings of 40. Nationwide, the Sal’s Pizza chain serves reliable wings with blue cheese or ranch sauce.
ONE MORE THING
There’s been some sort of settlement of the origin debate in Buffalo. In 2013 John Young was inducted into the National Buffalo Wing “Hall of Flame”, acknowledging his “independent contribution” to Buffalo-wing culture in the 1960s.
– traveller.com.au
