chicken wings, chicken wings...

buffalo wings: zingy tasty and crispy fried – a great american tradition and, especially combined with the de-rigeur blue cheese sauce and celery sticks, definitely not a health food! but when they're around they disappear faster than the beer they go so well with. buffalo wings are the ultimate bar snack food but sadly a rare item in south africa where what are called "buffalo wings" are usually just soggy wings drenched in a sticky sweet dark bbq sauce. nothing at all like the anchor bar original. the main reason? franks rehdhot® is just not available here! and its an essential part of the original recipe! if you want it you gotta jump through hoops – either shipping it over at great cost or having it delivered by good friends or family visiting the usa.

the lack of franks has led some to attempt to recreate the flavour using locally available alternatives, while others go the route mentioned above, stocking up with franks in gallon batches where possible. and this brings us to a tale of two families: the fauls and the ogdens, friends, but highly competitive – especially when it comes to wing sauce!

over the years the fauls hung on to the franks, while the ogdens adapted to local conditions. and me? well i just love the damn things and will cartwheel through hoops if necessary. i'll get anything anywhere that promises to be a great wing sauce. i have franks in the cupboard but while its really tasty, i like things a little hotter, so i have a special something none of them have which i add quietly as a secret ingredient to turn up the volume:

so, of course, when i read about defcon sauces and their scovie award for best wing sauce, well, i had to try it. defcon 2 seemed a good place to start. well the shipping cost was outrageous, but hey...who's counting. thanks to the wonders of the internet, credit cards and paypal a box of defcon 2 landed up in my kitchen.

my cousin jono was visiting and needed no convincing to help test the flavour. boyoboy! the colour, the aroma, the flavour, the burn...awesome georgosity! while our mouths were still glowing and the endorphins rushing i jumped onto the mac and issued a challenge via email to the two families: the solution to their feud – neither of their sauces was best, defcon was it!

well, within a few hours it was decided. no-one would surrender and a "wing-off" was the only way to settle this. it just couldn't go any further – and seeing that jono had to get back home to east london on staurday it has to be friday night!

so: friday 21 april 2006 – the great three-way chicken wing sauce "wing-off" at my place...

mre
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