Chef Bolek: Wings Around the World

Wings Around the World

I am a huge fan of buffalo wings. For the longest time, all I needed were deep fried wings bathed in a bowl of Frank's Red Hot Sauce, spices and melted butter. The traditional buffalo wing recipe, such as the one from the Anchor Bar in Buffalo, is very good. However, I eventually got bored with those wings.

I needed change. I needed something different. At first, I thought that all I needed I needed were hotter or spicier wings. Frank's Red Hot gave way to Tabasco sauce. A lot of Tabasco. It was not enough.

I needed true change. Different types of sauces. I searched the menus of different restaurants and chose wings with sauces like Caribbean Jerk or Thai Curry (Buffalo Wild Wings) or Korean Spicy (World of Beer). I came to realize that what I really wanted to do was find wings that incorporate the best flavors from cuisines around the world.

My desire went further than just the flavors. I also wanted to try different techniques. The need to try different cooking methods became apparent when I realized that I loved grilled wings far more than I love traditional, fried wings.

The combination of experimenting with flavors and cooking techniques has led to this new blog post series, Wings Around the World. I will explore aa variety of marinades, rubs, glazes and sauces from, as well as cooking techniques used by, cuisines around the world. To date, I have completed the following posts:

1. Laos: Ping Gai Wings