The power and beauty of a new, full sized keyboard at an appropriate level

Hey everyone,

So while some of you may have speculated that this blog has gone by the wayside, not so! I've actually been suffering from a lot of wrist pain from typing on my laptop at a really bad angle on my desk.  This was really affecting every aspect of my life, from applying for jobs on the internet, to playing guitar, so I tried to limit my computer use as much as possible to ease up the pain in my wrists.
I recently took the hit and bought a usb keyboard, and its worked wonders for me.  it has probably helped more than all the nights I've slept with wrist braces, and all the motrin I've taken.  It feels great to be back writing again and I hope to have some more reviews posted soon.  It made me really appreciate my wrists, and realized that living in pain is just not worth it.
So stay tuned!

Wing Review: Mi Ranchito

What I Got: Plate of 5 Jumbo Wings
Where:
Mi Ranchito
Atwood Street
Pittsburgh, PA

My buddy Sam (see Triumph Sweet Chili Wings) and I took a ride up to Pittsburgh for the weekend.  First night there, we went to half-price at local mexican restaurant, Mi Ranchito, with my girlfriend and a few of our friends still going to school at Pitt.
I'll be honest, I've been behind in reviews, and I've since forgotten how much wings cost at half-price, but I'm going to say they are somewhere in the range of $4-6 for 5 or 6 decent sized wings.
These are definitely not your average buffalo wing sauce.  Mi Ranchito adds a little bit of a mexican twist to them.  I can't put my finger on what they added, but these wings definitely had a good taste.  It was pretty much what I imagine a mexican-style buffalo wing should taste like.
The sauce had around the same consistency as regular wing sauce, maybe more on the watery side, and they really slather it on here.  In fact, one notable point was that these wings were actually kind of slippery and hard to grip.  Definitely worth a visit, and pick up a margarita while you are at it, I believe there is a special on mondays!
No pictures this time, cause it was really dark...
9/10

Triumph Brewery Sweet Chili Wings

What I Got: Sweet Chili Wings

Where:
Triumph Brewery
400 Union Square
New Hope, PA 18938

All of my friends have been raving about Triumph's sweet chili wings for quite sometime, so this week me and my buddy Sam decided to order a plate and check them out.  The sweet chili flavor seems to be gaining a lot of popularity, and lately I'm seeing more in that flavor.  We ate outside, so unfortunately, no pictures...

These were very similar to the Wagon Wheel's "Sweet and Spicy" wings, so the flavor didn't take me entirely by surprise.  If chinese food and a chicken wing had a baby, it would be these wings.  They were a little more on the sweet side than the chili side, and I think upping the spice factor on these would really add to them.

Sam and I agreed that a big part of the chicken wing experience is dipping the wings in bleu cheese or ranch, and while we were also in agreement that we would still dip these if bleu cheese or ranch were provided, I don't think the flavors would blend as well as you would get with a more traditional or BBQ sauce.

I don't think that the sweet chili will be my go to for wings, but if you stop by the brewery and want to try something a little different, I'd recommend them.

8/10

Spatola's Buffalo Chicken Pizza

Location:

Spatola's Pizza

82 S. Main St.

New Hope, PA 18938

What I ordered: A Buffalo Chicken Pizza

My buddy Max modeling with the Pizza

I had just finished a long work week and my buddy Max came to town for the weekend so we decided to hit up New Hope on Friday night.  It's been a while since I had something to review, so I figured I'd kill two birds with one stone, so we went out to eat and I picked up a buffalo chicken pizza to review.

I ordered a personal pizza, which contained about 6 small slices, a decent size for one hungry person, enough to fill you up, without feeling over full.

I've had buffalo chicken pizza from a few places, and so far, I think the New Hope Spatola's makes some of the best around.  They maintain just the right balance between buffalo chicken and pizza.  Sometimes buffalo chicken pizza tastes confused, like it isn't quite sure what its supposed to be, and the pizza gets over saturated with a combination of hot sauce and bleu cheese or ranch in attempts to compensate for its lack of direction.  Not the case with Spatola's.  They combine the perfect blend of buffalo chicken and pizza ingredients to merge the two into a harmonious hybrid creation.

As far as presentation goes, they get an A+.  Most pizzas are a sloppy mess, but you cannot beat that swirl on top.

Dear God was this delicious!

Overall, I give this pizza a 10/10. I don't really go into town much, and when I do, its rare that I make it past Triumph Brewery or Farley's bookshop, but after this pizza, I think I'll be making more pizza stops when I'm in town.  

Additional Reading

My buddy Max started a blog all on food at Penn State, so being a food blogger myself, I thought I'd give his a plug on my site. Check it out at PSU Food Review!

Also, My buddy Ed started this cigar blog a while ago and inspired me to start the Buffalo Chicken Review.  He goes beyond just food reviews, and offers some good tips on all things cigars. Ed's Cigar Blog

Buffalo Chicken Not Just for People Anymore...

Who would've thunk...

Wing Tour Stop 3: Big Daddy's Wagon Wheel Tavern

Location:
Big Daddy's Wagon Wheel Tavern
Route 313 & Sternersmill Road, Quakertown PA

What I ordered: Cajun Hot Wings, Sweet N Spicey Wings, Cajun Suicide Wings (I also tried Dan's Original Hot and Honey BBQ)

This trip was long anticipated.  The Wagon Wheel was number 1 on the Best Wings in Bucks County list that originally inspired the wing tour.  The Wagon Wheel has a wing special every Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday, giving great odds of getting a lot of wings pretty cheap.  $8.25 gets you all you can eat wings, and you have 12 flavors to choose from, so go hungry.

The way the special works is that on your first plate, you can choose 2 flavors, and every subsequent plate you can only get one flavor (per plate).  Between Dan and I, we tried a total of 5 flavors, so I'm gonna give a run down of each:

Cajun Hot: These were the night's winners.  Rather than a sauce, it was more a dry, cajun spice.  They had just the right amount of flavor combined with enough spice to make it interesting, but not overbearing.  These really hit the spot. 
Taste: 10/10
Spice Level: 7/10

Sweet N' Spicey: According to a sign on the wall, this was one of the new flavors.  Lately, I've been trying to diversify my tastes and try some new things I might not normally, so I gave these a shot.  I'm glad I did.  If you are looking for something a little different on your wing night, these are a good pick.  They are very saucy, and are a little more on the sweeter side than the spicey side. 
Taste: 8/10
Spice Level: 3/10

Original Hot: With all the flavors to choose from, these kind of got overshadowed.  Pretty standard hot wing, the sauce wasn't as thick as the Sweet N Spicey or the Honey BBQ, so it wasn't super messy, more akin to the Gardenville Tavern's hot wings.
Taste: 7/10
Spice Level: 6/10

Honey BBQ: When I get wings, I don't usually go for the flavors of a BBQ persuasion, unless they have claim to have some sort of kick to them.  They were BBQ wings for sure, but nothing too terribly memorable for me.
Taste: 5/10
Spice Level: 1/10

Cajun Suicide: Like the Cajun hot, but with about 10x as much spice on them.  Good lord were these hot.  I could only get about 6 down, and my stomach hated me for it.
Taste: 8/10 (too much spice on them to get the same score as the Cajun Hot)
Spice Level: 11/10

Overall, they had a great variety of flavors, and I wouldn't hesitate in going back again.

Review: Wawa Buffalo Bleu Chicken Wrap

Where to find it: Any Wawa
Price: $4.19
Overall Rating: 8/10

I got introduced to these from my coworker at the hardware store.  With a Wawa just a hop, skip, and a jump across the parking lot and across the street, its a popular place to get lunch from.  Problem is, when you have a half hour and your lunch is around 12:30, oftentimes ordering a hoagie from Wawa can take 15 minutes just to get,  and when you do as much standing as I do, you want to do as much sitting as possible on lunch.

Solution: The Wawa Buffalo Bleu Chicken Wrap.

The Buffalo Bleu, along with a few other varieties, are made daily around 5 am and kept in a refrigerated case, so you can bypass all the suckers in the hoagie line and get back to the break room in like 7 minutes flat.

Appearance: It really doesn't look like much, and had it not been for the recommendation, I really probably would never have tried it.  My all time favorite at Wawa has always been the Homestyle Roast Beef (HRB),  so when I get caught in the tractor beam that is the HRB, its often hard to even consider alternatives.

Taste: I'm not one for nutrition labels, but this thing tastes a lot healthier than say my usual (Arnold Palmer, Homestyle Roast Beef, Tobasco Infused Slim Jim).  Keep in mind, its refrigerated levels of cold. If you mind cold chunks of chicken, you may want to hold off.  Finally, the buffalo sauce.  I have to admit, I'm a big fan of the Wawa buffalo sauce.  Its kind of spicy, but has that right ratio of creaminess to counterbalance it, but it still has a certain tang to it.  It's addictive for sure, as I started craving them on my days off as well.

Value: At $4.19, compared to the hoagies, it almost cuts my Wawa bill in half, but it could be because I'm packing supplements to a lunch to cut costs as well.  In addition to the time you save not waiting for a hoagie, the BBCW is defintely worth its weight in gold, even if it might be on the lighter side, but really its probably a healthier portion than most of whats on the market.

Review: Wawa Buffalo Bleu Chicken Tender Hoagie

Where to find it: Wawa
Price: I lost my receipt, but something like 5 or 6 bucks for a 10"
Overall Rating: 6.5/10 or like a C

So as my buddy Ed suggested to me, I should review some things more available to a wider audience as well as include some pictures.  For this review I did both.

While Wawa isn't available to a huge audience, they do span through eastern PA and there are some in New Jersey as well, and well worth a stop in if you are in the area.

This was a difficult review to do, because Wawa makes their sandwiches to order and you can get whatever you want on it and the computer ordering screen doesn't really recommend much, past the bare bones ingredients necessary to qualify for the specialty sandwich.

Anyway, here is what went into my sandwich:

Buffalo Bleau sauce

Lettuce

Onions

Cheddar cheese

Appearance: It doesn't look like much, just some chicken tenders, sauce, and lettuce. See for yourself:

Taste: This could really use some more of that tasty, tasty sauce.  I have to admit some bias, because I discovered this due to the lack of availability of the Homestyle Roast Beef sandwhich.  If you are dying for something warm and buffalo chicken-y, this will do in a pinch.  

Value:  Because this thing has chicken tenders on it, it takes time to heat up, making this sandwich one of the slowest things to prep at Wawa, which really eats into a half hour lunch break.  Maybe on a day off I'd be more willing to get one, but when I'm on the clock, I'm gonna look elsewhere.

P.S. I'm still fleshing out an official rating system, so any input on categories, scales, etc is welcome.

Wing Tour, Stop 2: The Gardenville Hotel

Location:
The Gardenville Hotel
Intersection of Pt Pleasant Pike and Route 413
Pipersville, PA 18947

What I Ordered: Plate of 24 wings split between me and Dan, and a Pabst Blue Ribbon.

I've always called this place the Gardenville Tavern, but I guess I should go with the proper name of the Gardenville Hotel.  The hotel part of it is gone and now its a bar and restaurant.  Dan and I sat in the bar side.
I have to give this place an A+ for ambiance.  The building is an old one, and they've done little to modernize it.  While Dan was saying hello to some of his friends there, I had some time to myself to really take in my surroundings.  Sitting at the bar is like a time warp back into the 1930's or 40's.  The room is very dark and decorated with various animal heads which really gave it an almost horror movie like feel.
The jury is out on the wings.  It was an unexpectedly busy night, with only one bartender and two 21st birthday parties, the staff was strained and I'm not sure that the wings were what they could've been.  They weren't soaked in sauce, which is how I really like my wings and were a little more dried out, possibly from sitting a little too long from between being prepared and being served.  Once again, we had the standard buffalo sauce, nothing too fancy.  I would probably give these about a 6/10, but as I said, I'm inclined to go back on a less crowded/more staffed night to give them another shot.

Wing Tour, Stop 1: The Candlewyck

Location: 

The Candlewyck

Route 413 & Route 263

Buckingham, PA 18912

What I ordered: Plate of 25 standard hot wings, and some beer that I can't recall.

The wings at the Candlewyck were nothing new to me.  Back in high school, it was the thursday hangout for their five cent wings.  Now, 4 years later, I believe the wings are something like 15 cents a wing.

The 'wyck's wings are really hard for me to judge because I've been eating them for so long, and they don't really take me by surprise anymore, I know exactly what I'm getting. As they were my first real wing night experience, they set the standard for what a buffalo wing should be.  Pretty traditional wings with hot sauce, spiciness was right about where a chicken wing should be.  Overall, I'd say about a 7/10.

Update: Went there tonight and snapped a few new pictures

Thanks for stopping by

My name is Bill, and I love buffalo chicken...it's probably about 80% of my diet.  A year or two ago, some friends suggested to me that I start a blog reviewing buffalo chicken.  At the time I was pretty busy so I filed the thought away in the back of my mind...  

This summer, when I met up with my cousin Dan at a local bar for some beer and hot wings, we hatched a plan to go on a tour of the local bars of Bucks County and sample all the wings we could.  A few places later, and I decided that a blog might be handy to document our wing trials.

Stay tuned!