All Hail The Hallowed Hot Wing

Oh, that succulent little spicy morsel that opens my senses, puts fire in my belly and warms my soul...the hot wing. I love them dressed in many potential styles...BBQ, Thai, or what-not but good, old-fashioned Buffalo-style will always be my beloved version. Every Super Bowl Sunday, I ask Keith to whip up his version of Buffalo wings and for that reason above all I look forward to the Big Game every year. Let me tell you a bit about the rapturous romance I've carried on with hot wings over the years...

Once upon a midnight bleary, I was a poor college student at West Virginia University existing on Ramen noodles and Kraft Macaroni and Cheese. Desperate for some flavor that didn't unfold in a McDonald's wrapper, my Morgantown buds clued me in to a local favorite: Wings Ole. Here, I was introduced to a white, Styrofoam box filled with a pile of saucy, messy wings with a side of celery sticks and a plastic cup of chunky bleu cheese dressing. Looking at it, it seemed a tad underwhelming and not even necessarily appetizing....but then I took my first bite. Minutes later, after a flurry of messy movement, I slumped on the table, my face in a wing-sauce covered stupor, deliriously dazed from those bursts of spicy madness soothed in a blanket of bleu cheese. I had actually never cared for bleu cheese dressing before then, but when combined with those fiery hot wings....well, shut the front door. I would soon seek out all of Mo-town's fine wings, and find myself particularly spellbound by those joyous wings at Crockett's Lodge.

Not long after, I accompanied some of my college friends to Buffalo, New York to visit the family of one of said friends. It was a whirlwind Halloween weekend of Niagara Falls, drinking Labatts in Canada, a madcap costume party complete with a cameo from SuperFreak Rick James himself and last but certainly not least, my first taste of Buffalo wings from their original source: The Anchor Bar. Yes, those awesome wings were a happy accident created in 1964 by the Bellissimos at The Anchor Bar and on our Buffalo excursion, I got to dig into the original recipe hot wings and this, my friends, sealed the deal. It was a full-on, lifelong love affair.

I would experience many a happy hot wing over the years and would collect many a fellow fan. My friends Shereba and Brenda and I would ravage the Buffalo wings at Joey's in Charleston, WV. I would discuss the aphrodisiac quality of a fine hot wing in Marietta with my friend and co-worker Chris. Kaki and I would seek out hot wings everywhere we went and actually discussed the idea of a dream road trip where we would find all of the best hot wings. Kak makes a fine Buffalo wing herself; the kind where I could drink the wing sauce alone. Her beau J.B. makes a fiery and tasty grilled version himself. I'm happy to say Keith is also a fellow wing fan and many times in our life together have we sought out hot wings. One more reason he and I were meant to be: my last name is Haught; pronounced "hot", and his last name is Winge; obviously inclusive of the word "wing". Coincidence? I think not.

So on this Super Bowl Sunday, the K-Man has worked up some of his marvelous wings and he does them a little differently every year. This year we had two batches: one baked and one deep-fried; both dripping in that hot, vinegary super-sauce.

We also made nice and healthy Chicken and Mushroom Quesadillas that we found on Food Network's website. It was cool to make quesadillas for the first time and they were very good. We got the first one a little overdone but the rest were delicious. You can find the recipe here.

But, you know....Whatever.

Did I mention how much I love hot wings? Sigh. I love that spicy, saucy, spectacular madness.