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!

Cabo- A Taste of Mexico

Cabo

"A Taste of Mexico"

3A N. Park Avenue

Rockville Centre, NY 11570

516-255-0065

http://www.caborvc.net/

Maps and Directions

My wife and I were married back in February, but delayed our honeymoon a few months because of work. So, we left for Cabo, Mexico on July 11th and came back on July 17th. Let me tell you, Cabo San Lucas and Cabo San Jose are amazing places. Great food, amazing beaches, beautiful hotels and pools, great activities (ATV rides through the desert, catamaran sunset cruises, jet skiing, zip lines, fishing trips, etc.), and amazing night life. We stopped at Cabo Wabo, which was a bit of a disappointment this time of year, Senor Frogs closed at like 8 PM but the Giggling Marlin... now that place was CRAZY! We had a blast in Mexico... but we did not have any wings! I know, I know... but I think I found a way to make it up to you guys.

Three days after coming home from my honeymoon, Jody (one of my fellow Wingmen, not my wife) and I went to Cabo, Rockville Centre. Listen... it is "A Taste of Mexico" so it will have to do! Jimmy Junior, a member of the Wingmen faithful, actually suggested Cabo back in April on the Facebook page, so I was glad we could get there. We really appreciate the suggestions and are doing our best to get to all the places you guys recommend.

Jody and I took a look at the menu and there seemed to be only one flavor of wing, but it came in three different heat categories. Their "secret sauce from across the boarder" can be made in Mild, Medium or Diablo. I don't speak Spanish, but Diablo, if I am not mistaken, means Devil and my Dirty Canz Wings experience makes me a bit weary of any wing that threatens to be that hot. I asked the waitress how hot the Diablo is and she said, "I have not tried them, but most customers eat just 3 of them." Jody and I looked at each other and, at the same time, said "medium."

We ordered the double portion of medium south of the boarder wings and asked the waitress about their beer selection. She told us that "we don't really have a lot of bottled beers, but we do have a Mexican beer." Her answer, not being very helpful, caused me to look at the bar and I grabbed a Dos Equis, which I saw they had on tap, and Jody had "the Mexican beer," which happened to be the Modelo Negro. Happy with our beverage selection, we just waited for our wings.

When they came out, the waitress brought them over to us and said "wow, that's a lot of wings" and we agreed. We thought we would have a hard time finishing such a massive plate of wings. There had to be 16-20 wings on that plate and they were HUGE. I mean, the chickens that had these wings spent a lot of time in either the gym or sitting around watching late night TV and eating bon bons. I guess my main point is that these were big chickens.

As for how they tasted, well, they were phenomenal. These perfectly cooked wings were everything you want in a non-traditional buffalo wing. They were crispy on the outside, juicy on the inside and extremely meaty. Each wing was a mini-gourmet hot wing meal and I have not told you about the sauce yet.

I think the sauce was one of the best flavors I have ever eaten. The first bite explodes in your mouth with a subtly sweet, almost molasses flavor. As you chew the last few bites of the wing, the sauce is still not done. It then switches over to a spicy, peppery finish that completely compliments the sweet beginning. The flavors were so amazingly balanced that we just annihilated the plate. We had no trouble consuming every last wing on the table and they got better as we got to the last few. As you may now know, Jody and I are huge fans of the sauce reservoir at the bottom of the plate and Cabo did not disappoint. There was a nice big puddle at the bottom and the last few wings were drenched in the tangy, peppery sauce.

The flavors were so unique that I had to ask the waitress what the sauce was. Now remember, her description of Modelo Negro, was "a Mexican beer," so it was a bit of a stretch to think she knew, but I asked anyway. She didn't know, but asked the chef. She came back and told us the following: "He said it was a 'tamarang' sauce, I don't know what it is, but it is a sweet and spicy sauce." Neither Jody nor I had any idea what "tamarang" was, so I looked it up. So, according to Google, "tamarang" is a pharmaceutical company, a country in some fantasy novel world, and an engineering company. Ok, so not really a sauce ingredient, strike 1. I then looked up "tamaran" thinking maybe the "g" was me mishearing. "Tamaran" is the planet Starfire of the Teen Titans is from in the DC Universe. Ok... Strike 2. The spelling autocorrect on my Mac says maybe it is "tamarind." Tamarind is a tropical plant native to Africa that was heavily introduced to Mexico in the 1600's by the Portuguese and Spanish colonists (or African slaves of that time, there seems to be some debate). The legume or, fruit of a tamarind plant is best described as sweet and sour. I think we have hit a home run with that description. Add some spicy peppers to the sweet tamarind and you have the Cabo "south of the border" sauce.

Cabo- A Taste of Mexico is a solid restaurant that has great wings. Their Jalapeno Snappers (not poppers) were really good and piping hot... Jody, has your burnt mouth healed yet? They also supply chips and salsa which were also really good. The wings were a good value, 16-20 of them for about $13.00 which is $00.65 at the low end and $00.81 at the high. Cabo is very much Wingmen approved! Head on over there and try them out for yourself! Thanks for the suggestion Jimmy Junior! Maybe next time I'll order the Diablo wings.

Here is a shot of us actually on our honeymoon in Cabo San Lucas, Mexico at The Office. Can't wait to go back!

Grilled Hot Wings with Wingredient Sauce

Grilled Hot Wings on the Barbecue

Featuring: Wingredient Hot and Mild Sauces

Award Winning Sauce for Buffalo Wings

It's Memorial Day and I am going to a BBQ later in the day, so I decided to make my own wings for lunch. I surfed the internet for a few recipes, but then remembered that Bryan Deats, the maker of Wingredient Sauces and fellow Wingman, sent some samples of his Hot and Mild sauces a few months back. I have been sitting on them for a while now and decided that I would give his sauces a try. What can be better than hot wings fresh off the barbecue and a beer on Memorial Day? Not much, I tell you, not much.

I grabbed some raw wings, a bit of flour, some celery and Bryan's sauces and headed out to the barbecue. I started by putting two small trays on the grill and put the hot sauce in one of them and the mild in the other. Once they were simmering, I added 7 raw, floured wings to each tray. After they simmered in the sauce for about 10 minutes, I transferred them to the grill at medium heat. I cooked them for a while on each side and dipped them again into the sauce trays. I put them back on the grill until they were crispy and a bit charred on the outside, then I plated them.

They were smoking hot, so I added the celery, opened a beer and gave them a minute to cool off a bit. They smelled delicious. The smell of spice coming off them actually made me tear a bit when the smoke from the barbecue got in my eyes and when I sat in front of my plate and took a sniff, my nose began to run. I couldn't wait to dig in and see what Wingredient Sauce tasted like.

Wingredient has to be one of the tastiest sauces I have ever tried. I will be honest, other than a bit of red pepper, cayenne, and a few other easily recognizable spices, I am not sure what Bryan uses to make his sauces. They were samples, so they did not have ingredient labels on them. But I really don't care, the careful mixture of flavors and spices are very well done. The sauce has the perfect consistency, stuck to the wing perfectly and coated your fingers quite well. Finger licking good is an understatement. After eating a few hot wings, I did not have any idea if I were eating the hot or mild sauce because my mouth was burning and nose was running. I also didn't care, they both were good enough for it to not matter. They weren't prohibitively hot, so finishing all fourteen wings was no problem.

I suggest becoming a fan or someone who "likes" Wingredient on Facebook. Bryan makes a few batches of his wing sauce a year and sends them out to interested wing enthusiasts. Thank you Bryan Deats for the amazing sauce! I can see why you have won awards for your hard work. Delicious.

I also have to say thank you to everyone who has or is currently serving our country! Come home safe and Happy Memorial Day! The Wingmen salute you!

Foster's Grille

Foster's Grille

Home of the Charburger

235 Smithtown Blvd.

Nesconset, NY 11767

http://www.fostersgrille.com/

Map and Directions

Back in September, I was down at my brother's in Virginia and he suggested that we try Foster's Grille in Chantilly for wings (reviewed in September, 2009). We ordered them to go and ate them at the house while watching football. I remember them being a bit overpriced and relatively mediocre wings.

So, having recently married and being in the middle of house hunting, I ended up in Nesconset, just down the road from the Foster's Grille that I had mentioned just opened in my September post. Being a Wingman, I had to give it a shot. I am a team player and all.

For $10.00 I got 10 hot wings, fries and a fountain drink (free refills), which is not a bad deal at all. My dad, who was with me had the Charburger, fries and fountain drink which was also $10.00. He loved the burger, so I have to go back for a Charburger.

As was the case in Virginia, the Hot Wings were not very hot at all. When you have an option between Hot and Mild, one of them has to be HOT!!! If people can't take the spice, then they should order the Mild. They were also a bit soggy. No crisp to them at all. My dad noticed as I chowed down and said "I can't eat wings like that, they have to be crispy." I completely agree with him, they need some crunch to be a great Hot Wing. Oh, and I must repeat that they must be HOT!

Now, back in September I said "I don't know if they lost their crisp in the Styrofoam container, but they just had very little crunch to them and we all noticed. Things do tend to get soggy when taken "to go," so I will not say that this was their fault, but, however, they were not hot at all, and that is their fault!" I am guessing that the Styrofoam container had nothing to do with the soggy, non-hot wings at all.

Now the positives, they were cooked really well. Perfectly juicy on the inside and came right off the bone. They were also large wings. Were they big enough to be worth $.70 or so per wing? Probably not, but I didn't mind too much. The Hot sauce also tasted pretty good. It wasn't hot, but had a good flavor to it.

Overall, they were average wings, which is in line with what I posted back in September. Would I ever go back? Absolutely. They weren't bad enough to keep me away. If you are new to the blog, check out the Johnny Famous review or the C. J. Sullivan's video review to see places where I will never (ok, most likely won't) eat the wings again. Foster's is not even close to being in their company. The service was really good, they have a lot of specials (see the Facebook page for a picture of the Daily Specials), and they have a decent beer selection. Plus, who knows, it may be my neighborhood wing joint soon!

One last note- Wings-to-Go at Foster's: 25 wings = $18, 50 wings = $36, 75 wings = $53, 100 wings = $65. That is pretty expensive; $.65 for a wing is a lot.

Barefoot Peddler

Barefoot Peddler

37 Glen Cove Road

Greenvale, NY 11548

The crew got together for Game 1 of the World Series and to review some wings. We checked out the Barefoot Peddler because it had a good number of televisions to watch Cliff Lee dominate the powerful Yankees lineup. Being a Mets fan, I am not sure I enjoyed a single minute of the game, but I watched anyway. Having lived near Greenvale for a brief period in my life, I was familiar with the Peddler, but Jody and Jeremy were newbies, so we ordered some beer and wings.

They have 3 flavors of wings at the Barefoot Peddler which posed a bit of an issue since we were sure that three orders would not be enough, but what do you double up on? Hot? Kung Pao (their version of Teriyaki)? Honey BBQ? Ah, the dilemmas of life. We went with 2 orders of Hot and one each of the Kung Pao and Honey BBQ. They all came with celery, bleu cheese and carrots.

I'll start with the Hot. Jeremy loved them. They were his favorite. At first bite, they were not very hot and did not have that smell that clears your sinuses like a lot of really hot wings have. But this was deceptive because the more wings you ate, the more the kick kicked. After 3 or 4 wings in a row, your mouth was burning and that beer was your very best friend. We all agreed that they were very good hot wings.

Kung Pao (or as Jeremy like to call them, Kung Fu). Jody loved them. They were his favorite. They were sweet, but had just enough salt to stop the sweetness from overpowering the flavor. They were drenched in the Kung Pao dressing so you had plenty of extra sauce to dip the wings into to make them sloppy. The sauce also had toasted sesame seeds for that added flavor and presentation. They were well worth trying and Jody and I were tempted to order a second plate. Jeremy was not as much of a fan.

Honey BBQ... well, nobody liked these. They were pretty bad... almost Johnny Famous bad. They were way too sweet and had a ketchup taste that none of us liked. BBQ sauce is sweet enough, the honey just brought it over the top and they didn't have the salt cutter like the Kung Pao wings. We agreed that we would never order them again at the Peddler.

The other factors that we considered as we discussed these wings were price, size of the wings, specials and atmosphere. They were expensive. Each order had about 8 wings. Now these were 8 enormous wings, but there were just 8 in each order. The wings cost $8.99 per order! If my math is correct (and lets face it, I have not taken a math class in well over a decade, so it may not be), that is over $1.00 per wing! That is crazy expensive. Now, Wingmen faithful Sue, who now lives in the area, commented on our Facebook page that they have $.25 wings on Mondays. According to the bartender, They run that special on Sundays as well. I would like to get there to see if the wings are the same size and if they are drenched in sauce like they were off the appetizer menu. If they are, then going on a Sunday and/or Monday will be very much worth it.

Atmosphere-wise, the Peddler is a great bar. It had a cool crowd mixed with young and old patrons either from the colleges down the road or stopping for dinner on their way home from work. The beer selection was solid with a good number of beers on tap. The bartender was very attentive and even asked if we were enjoying the wings, which is a first for The Wingmen.

As far as the Barefoot Peddler goes, it is a cool pub that has very good wings (as long as you stay away from the Honey BBQ), good beer selection, a cool crowd (complete with a couple of young women making out at the far end of the bar [when we were there, I can't guarantee they'll be there when you go, sorry]), and most importantly, the stamp of approval from The Wingmen! Check this place out, it is worth it.

Facebook!

The Wingmen love their fans! Facebook is a funny site and will only allow a page to have a username if they have 100 fans. We are happy to announce that we have reached that and then some... currently 109 Fans!!! Thank you all!

Our new username is www.facebook.com/wingmen3.

Pass the word to all of your friends and lets keep getting bigger! There are tons of wings to eat out there!

Rating System

In our first post we used a 5 Star rating system, 1 being really bad and 5 being exceptional.  

We find the star system to be a bit boring, so we are looking for your assistance.  Please help us by suggesting a better rating system.  There are a few ways you can contact us with your suggestions:

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Thanks for your help!!!