Maybe buffalos don’t fly but their numbers are sky-high. Nearly 1.42 billion Buffalo wings are eaten on Super Bowl Sunday – a lot of wings for a critter that isn’t air-borne. So where do Buffalo wings come from?
It began with a mistake.
The year was 1964. Teressa Belissimo ordered chicken parts for her small Buffalo, New York restaurant, Anchor Bar. Instead of chicken backs and necks that her husband used for the pub’s famous spaghetti sauce, they delivered wings. In those days chicken wings were scraps left over when the chicken was cut up. They were either thrown out or sold for pennies to poor families who made them into soup.
Teressa was determined not to waste the wings. There were too many to make into soup so she decided to experiment. First she cut the wings in half to make a small drumstick and a flat wingtip. She deep fried them without breading, and added her “special” hot sauce.
Dominic, her son, showed up with a bunch of very hungry college friends. She served them the wings for a spicy, late-night snack.
It was an instant hit.
They called them “Buffalo Wings” not after a flying critter but for the town where they lived. People flocked to Anchor Bar for Buffalo wings. It became a regular part of the menu. According to their website, “many have tried to duplicate Buffalo Wings [but] the closely guarded secret recipe is what makes Frank & Teressa’s “Best Wings in the World.”
The Buffalo Wing, as we know it, was born.
Other local restaurants began to offer wings on their menus. It was easy to make, a tasty finger food, and a great late night snack. Things changed in 1990-1993 when the Buffalo Bills football team made it to the Super Bowl for four consecutive years. Suddenly everyone wanted a taste of Buffalo. Wings and football were a natural match.
According to the NFL (National Football League), over two hundred million people watch the Super Bowl. They’re mostly in groups, pubs, or at Super Bowl parties. The menu is traditionally comfort food – chips, dips, fries, and wings. Wings are the most popular, followed by pizza, tacos, and burgers. If you take all the wings eaten during the Super Bowl and lay them side-by-side, it would go around the planet three times.
That’s a lot of flying buffalos.
According to Guinness Records, the most wings sold in twenty-four hours was 40,210 from Village Casino in Jamestown New York. The average number of wings consumed is six to ten for adults and three to four for kids. Barbecuefaq estimates that six wings have four ounces of meat; ten wings have six ounces of meat.
Buffalo wings, hot wings, or just wings is an American staple. These days you can find them around the world from Spicy Thai and Twice-fried Korean to North Africa (Harissa) and Indonesia. There are hundreds of Buffalo wing Restaurants, including chains like Buffalo Wild Wings and Wingstop, and chain restaurants like Applebees’s and TGI. There are different flavors like Cajun, honey garlic, and barbecue. And don’t forget Anchor Bar – they offer mild, medium, hotter, and suicidal.
All of this means festivals and competitions. Consider the amateur wing eating contest at Buffalo Wing Fest won by Brandon Macey who ate 50 wings in ten minutes. The pros beat him – Miko Sudo (Major League Eating’s top ranked female) ate 246 wings in twelve minutes. She crushed Joey Chestnut (best known for winning Nathan’s hot dog eating contest) by a mere two wings.
Maybe you can’t eat 246 wings in twelve minutes but on Super Bowl Sunday why not give it a try?
Don’t forget the celery and blue cheese.
