BonChon Chicken

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A relatively new culinary trend is starting to take hold in New York. KFC. Yup, in the South, people eat this style of fried chicken all the time. Luckily, it's been making it's way over to us in recent years. Oh, I'm not talking about the South as in below the Mason-Dixon line. I'm talking about below the DMZ in South Korea. KFC doesn't only stand for Kentucky Fried Chicken anymore. Now it stands for Korean Fried Chicken as well. Confusing, I know.

So what separates Korean Fried Chicken from the fried chicken we're used to? Aside from the obvious differences that would be apparent between any nationalities (namely seasoning), KoFC uses a technique known as double frying. The first time a wing hits the oil, it is to ensure it's thoroughly cooked. The second time is to create a super crispy, almost shell-like, crust out of the skin. All of the flavors are infused into the chicken and it gets a very unique texture.

It seems that the two most popular KoFC franchises in The States are Kyochon and BonChon. A while back, I think it was Tim Hill who suggested we give BonChon a try. Well, it took a few months but we finally got there. BonChon is a franchise based in South Korea that now has almost 40 locations. More than a handful of them are right here in New York. I stopped by my local BonChon for lunch yesterday afternoon.

After a quick glimpse at the menu board, I placed an order for a small box of wings (9 pieces). You have a choice of two flavors: Hot and Soy Garlic. Of course, I got a combo of the two. First of all, due to the double frying process, the prep time is around 30 minutes. So if you're in a rush, you might want to just head over to the other KFC for a Double Down or something and wait until you have some time to try KoFC. After walking around for a half-hour, I finally returned to BonChon for my KoFC feast.

It was packaged in a neat little box that divided the two different flavors. It also came with pickled radish and a side of Kimchi coleslaw. I guess that's the Korean version of carrots and celery.

Pickled radish > carrot, Kimchi coleslaw > celery.

As I took my first bites into the soy and garlic wings, my first impression was hardly a surprise: wow, that's crispy. My second thought was: wow, that's hot. Not spicy, just steaming, piping hot. They just came out of the fryer, but I have no self control and kept eating. I probably didn't actually taste a wing until I was halfway done. When my taste buds finally did come around, I was very pleased. It's no secret that I've always loved the Asian flavored wings, so coming from an Asian restaurant, these flavors were good. The hot wings had some serious kick. While American hot wings tend to use cayenne to turn up the heat, these were powered by some super hot Korean red pepper. I don't know if this makes sense, but it seemed like a more aggressive heat to me. Yes, I broke a sweat and yes, my nose was running. In my defense, I don't think the air conditioner was working and it was bordering on 90 degrees. Still, these were hot. Thank god for the pickled radish and Kimchi coleslaw. These did a much better job of cutting the heat than carrots and celery ever have. I think I'm going to try asking for them next time I'm in an Irish pub, we'll see what they say.

Hot on the left, Garlic Soy on the right.

I can see how people get addicted to these wings. The flavors are potent and the uncommon texture really stands out. There are people who claim they put crack in their sauce... I get that. On the other hand, I can also see why some people call them overrated. The quality of meat wasn't great, they were puny and, at $11 for 9 wings, they were far from a bargain. In my mind, they're the White Castle of chicken wings. You know it's not that good, but there's just something about it that makes you have to have it every so often (usually while inebriated at 3 am). So no, these aren't the best wings I've ever had. But I'm sure I'll be craving them a few weeks from now. Come to think of it, I could kind of go for a sack of sliders right about now.

Merrion Square Bar & Restaurant

1840 2nd Ave (corner of 95th St.)

New York, NY 10128

Website

One of the really cool things that has been happening as a result of this blog actually being read from time to time is that I have been getting all kinds of texts and emails asking for wing suggestions as well as giving recommendations for future reviews. After my experience at Dave and Busters, I was glad to get this tip on a great, local, Irish pub on the Upper East Side via text:

"Merrion Square!! 95th and 2nd. Impressive. Traditional Buffalo, nice and crispy, not over cooked and great beer with cooler pitchers. Great deals: buy a pitcher, half dozen wings free."

That was a promising lead, similar to the email I got for Lucky 12 Tavern. The difference, though, between the two is that Lucky 12 Tavern is a few states away. Merrion Square is just a quick walk on Canal St. and a ride uptown on the 6 train. I don't mind taking people's word for it, but getting to taste them for myself is even better. So a few days later, a few of us met after work to give them the official Wingmen seal of approval.

I'd say the description was pretty spot on. The key phrase to me is "traditional Buffalo". These wings weren't anything extraordinary and they probably don't stand out among the thousands of Irish pubs in New York City. But they were an absolute success in delivering everything you'd expect from a traditional Buffalo style chicken wing. Good meat, nice crisp, thick coat of sauce, decent amount of heat and, most importantly, great flavor.

Look, you can see that nice crisp in the skin.

You also can't really beat their special of free wings with a pitcher of beer. It's like, let me get this straight... we look all over for great wing night specials. 10¢ wings, 25¢ wings, sometimes even 50¢ wings and you're saying you're just going to give me free wings... just for buying beer... which I was going to do anyway? Now that is a wing special.

Some of their specials up on the board. Nice chalk work.

Other notes on the bar: It was pretty empty and, from what I hear, it doesn't usually get over crowded. Back in our college days, that was the kiss of death. It's dead? Move on. Now, in our advanced age, it's funny how we have a greater appreciation for being able to claim a bar stool and hear each others conversation. Merrion Square also has a pool table and Skee-ball game (which is having a huge resurgence in NYC - I think I want to join a league). Its biggest downfall is that it's an Eagles bar. Yeah, I know. I guess this will be more of a warm weather pub.

Skee-ball - one of my favorite sports.

This sign was above the urinal in the men's room. Yes, I can multitask.

Killarney's Cottage

Killarney's Cottage

63-28 Woodhaven Blvd.

Rego Park, NY 11374

718-426-8580

http://www.killarneyscottage.com/

Map and Directions

Do you like wings? Do you like softball chicks? Well hit Killarney's up. Eating with no hint of feeling self-conscious and pub sponsored softball ladies all around... or at least they were that night. We, the 3 Wingmen who used to play on a Queens league baseball team together, should, however, be ashamed of ourselves since our baseball team couldn't get sponsored by this bar and they did. Now, we are not good looking ladies, but we did not know that Killarney's discriminates by gender in their sponsorship of adult sports. I wonder who would win a game of softball between our former baseball team and those ladies? Hmmmm, probably them. But I digress... on to the wings!

Simply stated, really good. My fellow Wingmen liked the teriyaki wings. For me, I'm not a fan of them but they were okay. They were cooked quite well, covered in sticky teriyaki sauce and were sitting in a lot more at the bottom of the plate. Jody and Steve, who enjoy that kind of thing, were quite happy. Their hot wings, however, were pretty jacked. My lips even peeled the next day. Spicy wings cooked to a crispy perfection on the outside and juicy goodness on the inside... I mean, what else can I say? Good stuff. Killarney's, our hats are off to your wings (but not your hatred of men's league baseball).

The hot wings were slammin'!

The prices were reasonable and the bar set up was great. Anywhere you looked, there were televisions set to any game on that night. We watched a Mets game, Yankees game and even a playoff hockey game (yes, time-delayed review, *spoiler alert, the Chicago Blackhawks win the Stanley Cup*) at the same time. When you go, tell em the Wingmen sent ya!

Donnigan's Pub

Donnigan's Pub

"Irish Coffee Specialists"

1094 N. Long Beach Road

South Hempstead, NY 11550

(Borders Rockville Centre)

516-486-9127

Map and Directions

On a balmy afternoon in June, Jeff (a professor at the college I work for) and myself went out for some wings near our place of employment. We hit up a local favorite for the faculty and staff, Donnigan's Pub. This is a small, very local oriented pub in the South Hempstead/Rockville Centre area of Nassau County. Many of us wonder how Donnigan's stays open, since we have never seen it crowded, ever. But there it is, open each and every day for lunch and dinner, and advertising catering for larger events. The staff is friendly and helpful, the beer selection is decent and there are multiple TV's to catch the games.

We ordered up some wings and beer, chatted about the horrible housing market on Long Island and pondered why the taxes in New York are exceptionally high. I adjunct in the Professor's department and we have chatted about The Wingmen many times. While sitting at Donnigan's at an end of the year party, we discussed getting together and collaborating on a wing review for this small favorite of ours.

So there we were, sitting at the bar waiting, discussing properties, taxes and world peace, all while waiting for the wings to arrive. When they finally got there, I was very disappointed in what I saw. They were small fried chicken winglets on a plate. I honestly groaned a bit when I saw them because they reminded me of the wings from Chicken Holiday, which seemed to upset at least one reader of this blog (check out the comments at the end of the review).

Here is what the Professor thought:

Confession: I love Buffalo wings, hot wings, pepper wings..call’em what you will. Really: I’m not that picky.
Confession: I also love fried chicken. Lord, do I love fried chicken! Of course, I defy anyone to live in Atlanta for five years and not acquire a love of fried chicken, but that's another story.
What I don’t much like is ordering a plate of hot wings and then getting a plate of fried chicken wings and a bottle of Texas Pete Hot Sauce. Yet that’s what we got when a Wingman and I visited Donnigan’s Pub in South Hempstead.
The wings were reasonable, for Long Island fried chicken. Medium-sized, lightly breaded, nicely cooked, juicy but not underdone, crunchy but not burnt. Pete’s was Pete’s—it’s a bottle: help yourself. The celery slices were fine; the mystery white sauce (slightly browned and crusting) that accompanied the celery was a likely combo of mayonnaise and dressing scrapings. A fine compliment to Pete’s, theoretically, but not something I’d ever order on purpose. Much like the wings, really.
Now that I know Donnigan’s sells fried chicken wings, I may order them again. But until they decide to involve a middle-man who knows how to spice ‘em up nice, I’ll take a pass on anything labeled “hot” on the menu. Unless, of course, I find myself in the mood for some Texas Pete and can’t make it to the grocery store.

I agree with Jeff 100%. The wings, fried well, are not buffalo wings. They are fried chicken. They had no sauce to them, they had no spice to them... they had no... no nothing to them (sorry for the double negative, but I am emphasizing how little these wings had). The bartender served them with some Texas Pete hot sauce, which I used to douse the wings. As good as Texas Pete's hot sauce is, it is just a flavor enhancer, not something one would use to turn a fried chicken wing into a buffalo wing. It is not made for that. I mean, how hard is it to take some butter and bottled hot sauce, combine them on the stove and then cover an order of wings with the concoction? Not hard. Not hard at all.

Ultimately, I am going to say stay away from Donnigan's Pub's wings. They just are not buffalo wings. As far as fried chicken goes, you can do a lot better at Chicken Holiday, KFC and about a hundred other places. They just were not that good. I honestly do not remember how much they cost, so I can't even tell you if monetarily they were a good deal of not... but it doesn't matter, I don't recommend getting wings there anyway.

SELL OUT with The Wingmen

"Sell out. With me, oh yeah. Sell out. With me tonight.

The record company's gonna give me lots of money

and every thing's gonna be alright."

By now you may have started noticing some changes to our site. The rumors are true, we've sold out. Caved to The Man. Given in to corporate America. Succumbed to The Machine. We're now a link in the chain, just another brick in the wall.

Ok, maybe I'm exaggerating a little bit. Although the cliches are a bit over the top, we have, in fact, signed on with a food blogging network. The Wingmen blog is now a part of the foodbuzz featured publishers program. Foodbuzz is a food blogging community that partners with small blogs like ours and helps them reach a larger audience while providing revenue sharing through like minded advertising - or something like that. We're really excited for this new opportunity and wish to thank all of our loyal readers. Without the traffic to the site, we would not have been accepted into the program. So please continue reading and, if you really like us, don't forget to click on the ads every once in a while. I think we get like 3¢ for every bajillion clicks (give or take), so maybe after a few years we'll be able to take a few of you out for some wings on us!

We now return you to our regularly scheduled programming.

*Note to Reel Big Fish: Please don't sue us for using your video. We'll take it down as soon as we receive your cease and desist letter. Yours truly, The Wingmen.

Lucky 12 Tavern

Anyone from North Carolina here? I received this email from a friend at work the other day. He's on vacation in NC right now:

From: (hidden, to protect the innocent)

Date: July 1, 2010 8:22:33 PM EDT

To: Jody Leggio

Subject: I have seen the promiseland

I have eaten the best wings I have ever eaten today.. didn't think i'd find them in obx, but I did. Perfectly fried, no breading, chicken cooked to perfection, unbelievably juicy, and the sauce... to die for my friend. To die for.

The place is called Lucky 12 Tavern. I suggest you got to NC just for this.

----END TRANSMISSION---

Ok, I did a google search and found Lucky 12 Tavern at:

3308 South Virginia Dare Trail
Nags Head, NC 27959

Here is the website's description of their wings:

Chicken Wings Eight Whole Wings The Way they are Supposed to be – Simply Fried, Crispy on the Outside, Juicy on the Inside – None of that Silly Breading Action to Get in the Way —Tossed in Chipotle Barbecue or Mikey D’s Classic Buffalo Sauce - Hot or Mild. (That’s like 16 Wings you get anywhere else) Served with the Most Ridiculously Flavorful Bleu Cheese Dressing you have ever had $9.99

They sound pretty solid. Anyone else ever been there? This has probably been my favorite part of this blog so far. It's been almost a year since this started out as (mostly) a joke. Now, I probably get at least 2 emails/texts per week from someone telling me that they found some great wings. It's awesome, please keep it up. I don't know how we're ever going to eat at all of the places you guys mention to us, but we're sure as hell going to try.

Dave and Busters

www.daveandbusters.com

Locations all around the country

I've never been a huge fan of large chains. The food usually isn't as good as privately owned places and they just don't have the same charm as the mom n' pop restaurants. Sometimes though, they have their place. A perfect example is going out to dinner with my wife and one year old daughter, Gianna-Rose. Gianna is a very well behaved child, but when she sits down at a dinner table she has the attention span of - well, a one year old (unless she's chowing down, then she's all business). It was one of those scorching hot days that we had in New York last week and we had to get out of our hot apartment. Dave and Busters is air conditioned, loud, bright, has all kinds of flashing lights and noises and has a wide open eating area. Perfect. We grabbed our stuff and headed out.

It never even crossed my mind to review this place. That's why I wasn't prepared, as you can tell by these photos that I ripped off from the internet. As a matter of fact, the last thing I wanted to eat was wings. This was the day after Steve and I went on a tear and scarfed down an enormous amount of wings from three different bars. I didn't even want to look at another wing for at least a few days. Or so I thought. Ends up my wife orders an appetizer sampler platter (I love those) that included a few Buffalo style wings. I took one look and thought, "of course I have to try them".

I'm pretty sure these are from Dave and Busters, but who knows.

I was a little disappointed in myself. They were fresh, plump, well cooked and flavorful. I actually liked them. Is that allowed? I mean, we're supposed to be wing connoisseurs and here I am enjoying food from a chain. My credibility is shot. In my defense, the menu did say that their sauce was "original", for whatever that's worth. So maybe they did put some effort into it, who knows. Still, it made me feel a little uneasy. Where do I go from here? TGiF? Chili's? Do I just have to throw in the towel and call it a career with this whole wing reviewing thing?

Ah, who am I kidding... we're talking about chicken wings here. Sure some are better than others (and some are way better), but it's not like we're talking about an exquisite dish from a Michelin Starred, James Beard Award winning restaurant. They're wings. Basically left over chicken parts that nobody wanted, deep fried and tossed in store-bought sauce with some butter. Going out for wings is as much about the experience as it is about the food, maybe more. So I think I can come back down from the ledge. If you're in the mood to play some video games, while drinking beer and eating wings, Dave and Busters is a decent option in my book. Just to be safe though, my next review will be a nice, small, Irish pub.