Eating on the road: Wings at Gabriel's Gate in Buffalo

I'm a big fan of chicken wings. But chicken wings done right. In Toronto, I had Duff's Famous Wings. In Ottawa, there's not really any good spots for wings. Local Heroes isn't bad, but it's not worth the trek. If you're anywhere near Buffalo though, the home of chicken wings, a trip to Gabriel's Gate is a must for any wing connoisseur.

Located in the Allentown neighbourhood of downtown Buffalo, Gabriel's Gate is where the locals go. You may have heard of Anchor Bar, alleged to be the birthplace of the Buffalo wing. I've been there and had their wings. They're pretty good, but they're the tourist spot. 

With an angel outside to great you, Gabriel's Gate is a typical pub with old church pews for seating. No refills on soft drinks. Lots of other stuff on the menu -- we had onion rings as a suitable side. But I was there for the wings, and placed a double order of Hot so I'd be guaranteed leftovers to declare at customs.

Carrots and celery, ranch or blue cheese, and twenty big crispy juicy hot chicken wings. It's the crispiness that sets an OK wing apart from a wing done right. Most bar wings just don't have that. Yes, the sauce is important, and they do it well here. But using only good size wings, treating them properly, getting that crisp, most places don't take the care.

They're not cheap, but how often are you in Buffalo? Seize the day, my friends.

We all left full and with leftovers and, as good citizens, declared them at customs re-entering Canada.

"Where'd you go for the wings,?" we were asked.

"Gabriel's Gate."

"Oh yeah, they're good," said the man from Canada Customs and Border Protection, welcoming us home.

Indeed they are.

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Eating off the Hill: I bought an air fryer

I didn't use my deep fryer much, but it was starting to show it's age and it seemed like the kind of appliance that you don't want to mess around with safety on, so I retired. it. So this seemed like a good time to convert to something I had been waiting for more space before purchasing: an air fryer.

As I began my research, I learned the tech has changed a fair bit since my siblings and I bought one for my Mom for Christmas a few years ago. While there was still the basket style, now there were new formats and features, and I quickly began gravitating to the larger models. While it's huge, the one I ended up settling on, a 10.6 quart model from Innsky, also functions as a dehydrator and a rotisserie.

Not sure I'll be dehydrating things much, but I do look forward to doing some rotisserie chickens and roasts. I have a chicken ready to go, but I'm going to Montreal this weekend for football and fancy food so that first experiment will have to wait.

Once thing I like about my model is that, while it has the tumbler basket, it also has two slotted trays, as well as a drip tray. One thing I found with my Mom's with the rotating basket is that things got bashed around. With this, I can lay things out like a regular oven and turn over part way though.

So my first experiment was a deep fryer classic, chicken wings and tater tots. Tater tots went right on the rack, while the wings I tossed in one tablespoon of vegetable oil and some spices before laying them out. Did eight minutes at 400, a flip, and other eight. Tossed the wings in a wing sauce before plating. (Chop salad that exists not pictured)

Quite happy with out how they turned out. Pretty good crisp. Near deep fry levels, but certainly much healthier. And not needing to pre-heat makes it a great time saver. Much experimenting ahead. but happy with it so far. Racks are dishwasher safe.

Will just need to work out storage. It will likely reside in the closet and come out on weekends, as I don't cook much during the week anyways.

Can't wait to do the whole rotisserie chicken!

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Eating in quarantine: How to get crispy chicken wings at home

Chicken wings are the traditional bar food, although as I've written in the past I wouldn't consider Ottawa a wing town. However, since I won't be going out for wings any time soon, I've been experimenting with my at home wing technique, and how to get an appropriately crispy wing.

The secret I've discovered, which I will share with you, is to double dredge. That is, to dredge nit just once, but twice. It will take some prep time and prior planning, but we have plenty of time these days.

To make your dredge, start with some flour in a bowl. Add whatever dry spices you have on hand and would like to. In my case, to my flour I added corn starts, garlic power, salt, pepper, and red pepper flakes. Stir it all to combine and your dredge is ready.

Now, get dredging. Circulate each wing piece (which you have already patted dry with paper towel) through your dredge, shake off the excess, and place on a plate.

Then take your plate of dredged wings and place them in the fridge for about an hour.

About an hour later, you will see that some of the coating has soaked in and more pink is showing than what we saw before. So do another dredge, and back intot he fridge for another hour.

Then you're ready to go. You can bake or you can deep fry. Baking is certainly healthier but won't be as crispy and won't replicate that bar wing we're going for. Since I do this just twice a month, I go with the deep fry for six to eight minutes to get these nice golden crispy wings, ready for saucing.

Sauce is the second key to good wings. I picked up some wing sauce at Farm Boy's that promised a mix of hot sauce and blue cheese. I sauced and tossed them in the bowl before plating. It was tastyl but I was trying to not go too saucy and the wings really soaked up the sauce. In two weeks I'll go heavier on the sauce, but it was a tasty treat certainly on par with bar wings.

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Eating off the Hill: The best wings in a non-wing city?

While the best chicken wings can be found in Buffalo, there are nearly as good wings to be had elsewhere. When in Toronto, I'm partial to Duff's Famous Wings. While you have your chain wing places in cities like Ottawa, they're mediocre at best. For good pub wings in Ottawa, Local Heroes Sports Bar & Grill are said by many to be the best.

I've actually been to Local Heroes once during my Carleton days, a good twenty-plus years ago. Their wings have a reputation for being huge -- much larger than your average wing. My recollection was that they were, but not overly so. The location I went to back in the day on Bank Street in the deep South of Ottawa closed years ago, so for my wing excursion this Family Day weekend I had to go to the last remaining Local Heroes location -- on Clyde, south of Baseline, out towards Nepean.

It's wings by the pound and they offer both the traditional roaster wings and their "famous" large wings, both $11 for a pound, no fries or veggies on the side. But I didn't trek out here -- 30 minutes by bus when the transfer wait is minimal -- for no regular wings. I ordered two pounds of the big ones -- one medium, one cajun blackened.

Split at my request, each pound came with a small plastic cup of sour cream -- the option of ranch or dill would have been a nice touch. The wings were meaty, but didn't seem overly so -- just like wings should be. Maybe I should have ordered a pound of the roasters for a side by side -- either way, while I didn't leave hungry, some celery would have been nice.

The wings were properly cooked and had a nice crisp to them. And, as I said, meaty. But where I think they were lacking is in the sauce quality. The cajun ones were dry and lacking in distinct flavour. And the medium, while saucy, were ketchupy -- no heat or distinct flavour at all.

Sauce can be improved though, and they do have a bunch more to choose from. All in all though, reasonably good wings but a bit of a drive or ride to get to. But no comparison to those I had in Buffalo a few months back. 

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Eating up the Hill: Winner winner Chicken Farmers dinner

The annual Chicken Farmers reception is, for those who are fans of chicken, one of the top receptions of the Parliament Hill reception circuit, right up there with the Cattlemen. Last year's shindig was cancelled because of the gas leak in the downtown area, so they really wanted to bring the chicken this year.

Pulled chicken taco.

And bring it they did. Pulled chicken tacos. Two kinds of chicken wings (breaded and buffalo). Tater tot poutine with pulled chicken. Chicken skewers with tzatziki. And more.

Chicken wings, glorious chicken wings.

The tacos were a bit dry. The wings could have used more kick but were plentiful.

All about the tater tot poutine.

But the tater tot poutine was amazeballs. I usually don't go for poutine. Much like Ribfest, we have an annual Poutine Fest on Sparks Street; I usually take a pass. But replacing the fries with tatter tots? Genius. I had two servings.

Winner winner chicken dinner!

Assorted appateasers. That's what the kids say now, right? Appateasers?

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Eating up the Hill: Finally a brunch that's more lunch than breakfast

As faithful readers will know, I'm a regular at the Parliamentary Restaurant's now near-weekly (they need the revenue, I think) open to the masses Friday buffet brunches. And if I have one regular complaint, it's that these brunches are often more breakfast than lunch. And for me, that's an issue. I'm a lunch guy.

I don't like eggs, so that eliminates like 80+ per cent of the more exciting or even standard breakfast options. Rather than an all-day breakfast, I'd be excited about all-day lunch. That's why I liked breakfasting at Denny's while travelling -- I can order off the full menu in the morning, I'll eat pancakes if I have to, or french toast in a pinch. But when it's going on noon, show me the lunch.

Always start with salad.

So I was quite pleased when, not only did the Parliamentary Restaurant offer a "Fire and Ice" buffet on my birthday a few weeks back, they broke with the usual tradition and offered a more lunchy, meatier fare.

The highlight was definitely the buffalo chicken wings. Now, I like me some chicken wings. The best I've ever had are definitely Duff's Famous Wings, which has several Greater Toronto locations. Nothing in Ottawa compares (am open to suggestions). The Hill cafeterias have wings in their regular menu rotation -- they are crap and should be avoided. So I was pleasantly surprised these were a different wing all together. A bit of crisp and not overly saucy, but flavourful and cooked right -- I ate many.

Unlimited chicken wings = unlimited awesome.

I passed on the chili because chili without beef is ridiculous. The spicy beef and vegetable stir fry wasn't particularly spicy or saucy, but it broke up the rounds of chicken wings.  The cheese and bacon scones were fine, but I really enjoyed the grilled pineapple sprinkled with cinnamon. I like me some pineapple.

Chili without beef? What is this, Soviet Russia?

Just a meh stir fry. 

The deserts were hit or miss. Fried dough with cinnamon sugar? Stale. Chocolate-chili cupcakes? Holy crap those were delish.

Chocolate-chili cupcakes? If only I hadn't of had so many chicken wings.

Did't sample the baked apples but I applaud the concept. Fried dough was stale.

Really though, this buffet for me was all about the chicken wings. Have those every week and it's winner winner chicken dinner.

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