The Weekly Wang: Wing Fest 2017By Nick Horowitz

It’s been a week since Wing Fest 2017, and I’ve only just recovered from my self-induced wing coma. I’ve been in a bad way; temporarily incapacitated in my ability to think about wings, and physically incapable of eating a wing since, it’s been a sad week. However, you’ll be happy to hear I’ve managed to snap out of it, and I’m ready to report back on the festivities.

Wing Fest has become symbolic of the growing popularity of wings across the UK. Started a few years ago by the owners of Randy’s Wing Bar, Wing Fest has gone from being a small event for a few wing super fans that took place in a car park, to a two day festival that serves tens of thousands of wings, to thousands of people. In fact, it’s become so popular that despite increasing its venue size this year (held at the Printworks), it sold out incredibly quickly. It’s a great occasion (my only criticism being the continued lack of seating to enjoy all those wings) and the Weekly Wang went over to suss out any new wing joints. Here are three that stood out:

Fried chicken and buffalo wings: two of life’s culinary wonders. Nonetheless, creating a hybrid out of the two is an incredibly dangerous game fraught with risk. You don’t always end up with a cronut.

Street food favourite Butchies took this challenge on though, and boy did they make it work. Their fried buttermilk chicken wing was a crunchy, crispy delight despite being covered in a buffalo sauce that had a good buttery flavour, with a light kick to it. Their other wing offering – ‘Wild Kimchi Honey Butter’ – was also fire. In fact, it was so good, that it rightly went on to win the coveted ‘Best Wild Wing’ category. I haven’t had anything like it and the team perfected its sweetness levels just right. Not always an easy thing to do.

Wing Fest 2017: Chicken Shack 

I’m really looking forward to Chicken Shack’s promised metamorphosis from pop-up shop to restaurant. I devoured these wings. The Shack had a really strong sauce game going on. Although their buffalo sauce wasn’t that hot, it made up for it with a great tang to it that hit the spot with each bite. And the blue cheese sauce that accompanied it did so perfectly. If only Chicken Shack could source a slightly larger wing, I think they’d be on to a real winner here.

 

Wing Fest 2017: Wingmans

This well established outfit won last year, which was reflected in the rather lengthy queue snaking around the van. Nevertheless, it was worth the wait because Wingman’s wings excel across the board, and don’t drop the ball in any department. The buffalo sauce was on point, and the wings were sizeable, crunchy and well sauced. And the blue cheese sauce was a classic. No wonder the people crowned them ‘Best Buffalo Wing’ champions once again.