Chicken wings. It’s risky business. They’re the ‘alright’ food group, really. You can have a perfect steak which leaves you speechless or slow-cooked lamb shank which moves mountains but chicken wings are just chicken wings. They taste all chickeny, they fill you up, they accompany beer and football and they ‘do the trick’, right?
Wrong.
We got ourselves to The Star by Hackney Downs recently where we’d heard vicious rumours that three cheffing amigos known as Wingman were re-defining the normality of the humble chicken wing, resulting in seriously sexual pimped up parts of poultry.
The menu was more arousing than the Channel 5 section of the Radio Times. We had the ridiculous task of choosing between sharer plates of chicken wings, a Thai-style corn fritter burger, wasabi slaw, ping pong chicken and – the best part – deep-fried Cadbury’s Creme Egg. What the actual foxtrot?
Let me talk you through what we ordered. We’ll start with the wings. 16 pieces of vodka battered Korean style wings which arrived with two sauces, each with a freakin’ paintbrush to allow you to artistically assault the hell out of your battered bits of meat. One sauce was sweet, one sauce was spicy, both were sticky and sublime. The batter was lighter than air and had more crunch than Monster Munch. The whole medley made me want to slow-clap the deep-frying genius dudes that make up Wingman.
Then there was the ping pong chicken = YES. The spicy chilli salted Fire Fries = Amazing. The cheesy corn – like mac ‘n’ cheese, but with sweetcorn = left me turning my back to Tom and eating it all before he could. I mean, I’m not proud of that, but I’d do it again if I had to. Finally the shredded confit duck steamed buns were mind-blowing enough to warrant us going back again for more.
…Which we will be, really soon. Mainly because Wingman‘s residency at The Star by Hackney Downs is a frickin’ pop-up, isn’t it. Part of me loves pop-ups as a concept; the chance to get freshly-thought up, innovative eats for not much money. But mainly, pop-ups are the devil. You’ll fall in love with a menu of amazing food but you know, as you’re eating it, that it’s days are numbered.
So, with that in mind London, get your shit together and go and make the most of these boys and their vodka-batter related talents. They’re the best wings we’ve had in ages and you need to get them in your goblets.
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