In the Kitchen

Football, Wings, and Kung Pao

Super Bowl Sunday in the US. The final game of the season, winner crowned World Champion (debatable however as I was reminded by a European colleague recently that Spain is the real World Champion Football club).  Pizza, secret recipe chili, chips, salsa, and of course chicken wings dominate this day of sports bar food. Even though the Buffalo Bills will be watching from their couches instead of playing, the most famous contribution from this great city will be the star of many menus. In fact, it is estimated that over 100 million pounds of Chicken Wings will be eaten on Super Bowl Sunday…1.25 billion wings.

For the last 19 years the city of Philadelphia, home of the Cheesesteak, has had an annual "Wing Bowl" held the day before the Super Bowl. This year the winner, Jon “Super” Squibb, ate 255 chicken wings in front of 20,000 fans at the Wells Fargo Center.  That is 40,000 calories and 2,550 grams of fat. Only in Philly!

Beyond the spicy buffalo style, made famous in 1964 as a drink encouraging snack at the Buffalo’s Anchor Bar, wings are popular in countless varieties. The simple sauce is 2/3 bottled hot sauce like Frank’s and 1/3 butter. Asian is popular, whether Thai style (as is offered in the Courtyard Bistros) or Chinese. In fact, the Champions Sports Bar menu at the Boston Copley Marriott has a great “Kung Pao” version popular with the Patriots fans. However they are finished, wings will be part of nearly every Super Bowl party and menu.

 
 Kung Pao wings at Champions

Planning a party? Fry if you can, or bake if you can’t, 2 pounds of chicken wings till crispy and brown. Toss in 1 cup of any sauce like BBQ or Thai Sweet Chili. Alternatively, toss the wings in parmesan cheese and black pepper or even lemon and thyme for something not so messy.  However you choose, nothing will go better with the game than a pile of wings…but maybe not 255 in one sitting!

Enjoy the game!

This just in from Chef Raman Natarajan of the Austin Renaissance. Lucky chef has tickets for the game and has sent this from the stadium!

 

Making Tom Yam Goong in Bangkok

 Bangkok, Thailand, is known as the Land of Smiles...and the land of amazing food. I love the foods of Southeast Asia. Fragrant rice paper rolls from Vietnam, Singaporean Laksa, Philippine Pansit, etc. The incredible array of street foods available at every corner make traveling anywhere in this part of the world a culinary treat. But personally, the food of Thailand is amazing and something I never tire of.

I was in Bangkok in April to present food trends and attend a meeting of our top operations leaders in Asia. It was three days of great food and cutting edge presentations at the spectacular JW Marriott Bangkok. Though my purpose was to share the latest in global food, and to reacquaint with old friends, my real goal was to steal away for a few minutes into the Thai kitchen and learn from the real expert, the chefs at the hotel's Thai cuisine restaurant White Elephant. I was lucky enough to have Chef Pairoj Kaoropwongchai take me through how simple it is to make one of my favorite soups, Tom Yam Goong. Tom means soup, Yum means the flavor of sweet, salty, sour, and spicy, and Goong means prawns. This just has to be good.