How the West Albany Wings Were Won
Buffalo wings. They are a staple of life in the Capital Region. Everywhere from dingy hole-in-the-wall bars to fancy restaurants, wings everywhere. So how do you even begin to tackle the challenge of finding the very best?
You break the task down into micro regions. And that’s what we’ve been doing on the FLB for the past few years. We went to the downtowns of Albany, Schenectady, and Troy. But those were just for starters.
On February 2, ten intrepid eaters showed up to eat their way across Albany’s west side. You might call it uptown. You might even say we dipped our toe outside of Albany. And you might be right. But we’re not harnessed by political boundaries. We went to a cluster of great wing places that at least theoretically were in walking distance from each other.
All three teams went to the same five places that made it through the nomination process, although each of those three teams approached the task a little differently. There was Team Mild, Team Hot, and Team Hot & Crispy. And while no team ended up walking the tour, the Profussor felt much much better after the four mile walk home.
So, who came out on top?
Emily L Goes to College
This week, I got an email from Emily L with her most recent guest post. What’s funny is that I was just talking with another friend about how poor I was in college and the crap I ate to try and get by.
One of my main goals in college was to try as hard as I could to graduate without taking on debt. Was that a good idea? I don’t know. It did give me the flexibility to hold out for my dream job in San Francisco, where I got a foot in the door of the advertising industry.
On the flip side, in addition to working a handful of various jobs, it meant eating fifteen cent ramen noodles out the package, snacking on margarine sandwiches, and smearing some eggy potato salad on a hard roll for filling meal. It’s not that there wasn’t a lot of spending money for food, there wasn’t a lot of spending money period.
But Emily’s post is about the other side of college dining, the college cafeteria. I have fond memories of mine, because I was on the one meal a day plan, and I would easily take in a day’s worth of calories and nutrition. Which helps to explain how I could survive on ramen, margarine, and potato salad.
Recently, Emily checked out the Upper Class dining hall at Union College and here is her report.
Read more…
One Last Ridiculous Idea
Call me sentimental, but I like to look back sometimes and reflect on the past.
Long ago I learned that you can never go back home again. The past is in the past. Things change, and what’s left are only cherished memories. Life moves on. People grow. But as much as possible I try to be glad for the experience, instead of being sad about the loss.
As a result, you would think I would be better about taking pictures. But I’m not. And forget about scrapbooking. It’s just not in me. Growing up, we always had a drawer jam packed with family photos that were intended to go into albums. I don’t think that ever happened.
My own photographs are mainly of food. But there are some shots of kids, family, and cherished friends scattered about. However they are all trapped on devices, old dusty corners of the internet, and backup hard drives. These are the photo drawers of the modern age, where memories go to die.
Okay, that got dark pretty fast. I mention all of this, because there may be one last chance to save a memory of the golden age of Capital Region food blogs. But to do it, I’m going to need some help.
The Power of Chicken Stock
Bad news. The Tour de Wings results need to get pushed back to next week. I’m sorry. But as it turns out, the contest is much too close to call, and I’m really going to have to take a deeper dive into the numbers. And that takes time.
The good news is that the Super Bowl is now ancient history. Nobody really needs to know which of the five wing spots we visited last Saturday was the very best. And for those who are dying of curiosity, hit me up and I’ll email you your very own scoresheet. You can grab a few friends and eat wings over the course of an afternoon.
It’s a lot of fun.
Do you know what’s not a lot of fun? Arguing with your spouse over the inclusion of chicken stock in a soup. Welcome to the unfiltered life of the Fussies at home. I’m sure you’ll be shocked to learn that it was all my fault. Truly. And I’ve since apologized. I misinterpreted a request for a vegetarian version of a butternut squash soup, as a demand.
There was a lot packed into that dispute. Not least of which was the fact that I thought we left this vegetarian thing behind us in January. I also happen to be sitting on a hefty supply of chicken stock, with enough bones to triple the volume I have on hand. Perhaps a little bit of panic seeped in at the prospect that I wouldn’t be able to use it for family meals.
Chicken stock makes food better. Here’s how I know.
Maple Yearnings
The Tour de Wings results will have to wait just a little bit longer. First we’ve got to push through the backlog of posts. Because before we went on the tour, I spent an evening at Riverside Maple Farms at January’s Official Yelp Event.
You may be saying to yourself, it isn’t maple season yet. Or is it?
If you’ve ever been on any tour or visited any maple operation, you know that the sap begins to flow when the daytime temperatures are above freezing, and the mercury dips below freezing at night. The simile used to describe the phenomenon is that the change in temperature causes expansion and contraction which functions like a pump.
Today in Albany the high is 52 degrees. The overnight low is 25 degrees. That sounds like sap running weather to me. But who has their trees tapped in the first week of February? Well, Riverside Maple Farms does.
I learned they do things differently. But a big part of what makes them special really sucks.
The Two Day Super Bowl Hangover
Well, that was dumb. Unless, of course, it was brilliant.
The Tour de Wings was on Saturday. The Super Bowl was on Sunday. And today is the start of Schenectady Beer Week. Fortunately, Schenectady Beer Week is a full week long, so I can justify missing this first day. Actually, it may take me a few days to get out there, but I’ll most definitely get in on the fun.
Remember how just a couple days ago I told you how effective my diet was at taking off the holiday eating weight? Well, I literally put on five pounds over the weekend. That’s what stopping at five local places for chicken wings and beer will do to you. Especially if you follow that up with the Super Bowl and all of its related eating and drinking.
So in what universe might this have been brilliant? I’m glad you asked.
Go Rams
Today is off to a late start. Last night there was an Official Yelp Event at Riverside Maple Farms with food by Field Notes and beer by Wolf Hollow Brewing Company, and it was amazing. It was amazing on all fronts. But you don’t have to believe me, you can see pictures and read what other people had to say right here.
Then there was the after party at Wolf Hollow, just down the road. I picked up a growler to go, and drank a couple of pints at home to unwind at the end of a very long day.
That’s actually a lot of beer for someone who hasn’t been drinking a lot of beer over the past month. But I have to warm up for this weekend. Saturday is the Tour de Wings, and if you haven’t told me you’re coming yet, there’s still time. It’s open to everyone, just let me know if you plan to join us. Sunday, of course is the Super Bowl. Go Rams.
This year, my game plan for the big game is substantially different than in the past.
How About Them Resolutions
Today is January 31. It’s cold AF. But the first month of the year is almost behind us, and with it, half of winter. We’ll brace ourselves for another four weeks of these brutal brutal snow squalls and single digit temperatures. Then we will be graced with the start of the unlocking.
Give me snow. I’ll take it gladly over a deep freeze paired with wind gusts.
Anyhow, I thought it would make sense to weigh in on how some of those resolutions have been going. Especially since the next few days are full of me doing terrible things to my body.
The TU Cha-Cha
Dancing is kind of funny. You move around a lot, but you never get anywhere. Sometimes, like with the waltz, you find yourself spinning around in circles.
One, two, three.
One, two, three.
One, two, three.
But the one that always got me was the cha-cha.
Forward, back.
Cha, cha, cha.
Back, forward.
Cha, cha, cha.
More than anything, I think the cha-cha is a good metaphor for the Best of the Times Union readers’ choice poll. Every year it gets a little bit better. But every year it also gets a little bit worse. So in the end, even though there’s a lot of work put into this mammoth project, it never moves forward.
The new poll is now live, and just like in the past, I’m compelled to share my thoughts.
The Quest for the Golden Tureen
What did you do last Saturday? I sampled twenty six soups.
It was the Schenectady Soup Stroll, and it was fantastic. I got to serve as one of the official Yelp Elite Squad judges. I’m not sure how many of the attendees could say they tried every single soup that was being ladled out at the event. However, everyone was allowed to vote for the crowd favorite, assuming a minimum threshold of samples were tried.
In the past, the judges have done a pretty good job of lining up with the crowd favorites. This year, we were on entirely separate pages. And I’m left scratching my head at the final results. So today, I thought I would share not just my impressions on why the soups chosen by the judges were our top picks, but also on why the ones that were chosen by the crowd failed to rate.
Let’s see if I can do this without getting nasty.
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