Originally Posted by
Cholula
It's probably a hometown pride thing.
Kind of like making cheesesteaks in Philly, pastrami sandwiches in NYC or gumbo in N'Awlins.
It's something you do right or you don't do at all for fear the natives will tar and feather you otherwise.
So I recently visited the Anchor Bar in Buffalo to see what the original Buffalo wings are all about. Boy, was I looking forward to this visit. For months.
I ordered bar-side. My plate of 20 wings came out after a good wait, and I dug in. I was immediately surprised to notice that the wings were fried to a crisp. I mean no juice, it crunched hard when you bit into them, and the meat and skin stuck to the bones so much you had to break or rip it off.
At first, I thought they made a mistake and left them in the fryer too long. But I thought to myself, "this is the birthplace of the Buffalo wing, how could they mess 'em up?" I debated saying something to the bartender. I chose not to question the "Home of the Original Buffalo Wing."
Thankfully, right away a local guy next to me, who I had done some chit-chat with earlier, asks me with a huge smile, "So what do ya think about the wings?" Trying to be nice, I said that the sauce was great, but the wings were "kinda crunchy." Of course the smile vanished and he said that he loves them crunchy. He went on to say that if you don't cook them long enough, they are "chewy." I did the "aha..." thing and proceeded to finish off the wings. Several other locals during my trip confirmed that this is the way they're done in the area. Lesson learned by this out-of-stater.
Before writing this post, I re-read this thread. I noticed that most of the posts from Buffalo-area people mention that they want them done extra-crispy. Be forewarned if you're heading out that way and prefer a more fall-off-the-bone tender & juicy type of wing. At the risk of being tarred-and-feathered, you might want to request that they don't cook the wings so long.
On a more positive note, I really liked the blue cheese dressing at the Anchor Bar. I normally order ranch since I don't like sour chunks of cheese, and I don't like them messing up my dipping action, either. On this occasion, I knew not to violate local tradition. Tasty and low-cheese-chunk-content dressing at this place.
I also picked up a couple bottles of the wing sauce so that I can make 'em at home the way I like 'em.
