Product Review: Michele's Buffalo Supreme Popcorn

Michele's Totally Awesome Gourmet Popcorn
PO Box 1662
Concord, NH 03302-1662
603-798-5300
www.michelesweetshoppe.com

Jody and I were at a Yankees game a few months back when Rebecca P., one of the Wingmen faithful, contacted us about a product she wanted us to try.  Despite my stupidity about what she meant by "mail you something to try" (see our Facebook page for the comment on April 27, 2011 for what I mean), she was able to ensure that a large bag of Buffalo Supreme popcorn arrived for us to review.

That's a big bag o'popcorn!

Michele's Totally Awesome Gourmet Popcorn operates out of Concord, NH, and was founded by Michele and Dave Holbrook in 2007. This family-run business is not only an American phenomenon, but has been shipping globally too.  Michele's offers twenty flavors of popcorn that include Cookies-n-Cream, Peanut Butter Cup, Caramel Apple, Garlic &Rosemary, Cajun BBQ, Dark Chocolate Orange and many others.  Their fresh, sweet, savory and deluxe flavors of popcorn were selected for the Official SWAG Bags of the 37th Annual Daytime and Sports Emmy Award Shows of 2010.

The popcorn arrived with a note that says "The Wingmen, Rebecca P. wanted you to give this a try. Let us & her know what you think. Michele" so here it goes: upon opening the bag, the aroma of buffalo wings fills your nose making you think a fresh plate of wings has just arrived at your table.  As you take a bite, the flavor of hot sauce and butter fill your mouth and before you know it, your nose is running from the heat.  This popcorn is spicy!  It was everything I could do to stop myself from eating the whole bag.  The buffalo blend seasoning captures the wing flavor quite well and the canola oil seems to act like the clarified butter.  The only thing missing is a bleu cheese drizzle, which I can make happen with a quick drive to the supermarket!

Check out Michele's by heading to www.michelesweetshoppe.com or by visiting them on Facebook.  Michele's Totally Awesome Gourmet Buffalo Supreme Popcorn is Wingmen approved!  I can't wait to try some of the other flavors... Cajun BBQ has piqued my interest.

Thanks Rebecca P. and Michele for the support!

Genesis Bar and Restaurant

Upper East Side

Genesis Restaurant and Bar
1708 2nd Avenue
New York, NY 10128
212-348-5500
www.genesisbar.com

After reading through some of our reviews, lately, it seems that we are a bunch of homers that love every place we have been to.  And the truth is, we go to places that you, the Wingmen Faithful, suggest because you love those places.  So of course the wings are good.  We have not been blindly just stopping in a place and testing out their wings.  Well, Jody and I stopped at Genesis Bar and Restaurant the other night without any recommendations, without knowing what the place was like and not knowing if their wings would be any good.  This is what happened...

We were on the upper east side and decided to look for wings.  We saw the menu outisde of the restaurant and liked what Genesis promised: Genesis Jumbo Chicken Wings- Buffalo, BBQ, Bourbon Street, Korean Style and Bayou (their to-go menu has Southwestern on there as well, but the restaurant did not offer this selection).  We were stoked, starting planning what we'd try and went inside.

After sitting down and ordering our beer, we finally decised on Buffalo because we had to, Korean Style because Jody loves the Asian flavors and Bayou because I love Cajun wings.  We stayed away from BBQ and Bourbon Street because they seemed similar and too sweet. 

Here is what was GOOD about the wings: They were jumbo, they were cooked well, crispy on the outside and juicy on the inside.

Hot Wings?

Here is what was BAD about the wings:  EVERYTHING ELSE!  I mean, honestly, how do you fuck up buffalo sauce?  It is clarified butter and hot sauce.  That is it!  They were sweet and had zero heat to them.  Buffalo wings should not be sweet.  The Korean Style wings were even sweeter, sickly sweet.  Authentic chili and garlic sauce my ass!  It tasted like Karo syrup with a sweet soy sauce.  They were, in my opinion, disgusting.  The Bayou wings were fried chicken wings.  They were described as a dry rub by the waitress, but there was no rub.  They were bland fried chicken wings.  They even came with a bland sauce that did nothing to the taste excpet make them wetter.  Kentucky Fried Chicken wings are worlds better than these were.  They were also $8.00 per plate of 8 wings, so not only were they horrible, but they cost $1.00 each.

 

KFC?

The place itself was nice and had a good beer selection, but I cannot recommend this place's wings.  Just horrid.  This place is NOT Wingmen Approved.




On a funny note, as our wings arrived, the women sitting at the table next to ours looked over and said "I think I'm going to throw up," and we are not sure if they knew the wings were bad, thought three plates of wings were just plain disgusting, or just didn't like Jody and I.  I guess we'll never know.

Something clever about bad Korean Style wings?