I gotta just blog-wax lyrical about the Chicken Wings - I just ordered a portion . Now there is a saying that “the Chinese will eat anything with its back to the Heavens except the table and chairs” – that is true, so true. Nonetheless, whilst some people are a bit snobby towards chicken wings but I gotta tell you if you fall in that camp you are missing out big time. Whether you are Chinese or not, you gotta love the chicken wings.
Growing up in a chippy family (and a Chinese one at that)Â we were surrounded by food – when we finished school, mum would have cooked us a ‘mini steak sandwich’ (full 9oz steak of the tenderest kind on the softest bread), a ‘lill’ pasta’ (a full bowl of pasta that most italians call a main with peaches!!!)or chicken wings (6 per portion crispy on the outside, juice and moist on the inside and my favourite).
Well have you ever taken a first bite of a dish and it takes you back to your childhood? Everytime I order a portion of Sweet Mandarin Chicken Wings I’m nine again, sitting in the back of the 505 pegeout (which we nicknamed the ‘Big Elephant’) and enjoying the scenic route home with my mum. Its priceless and I got to tell you more about these delightful Chicken Wings.
I guess I got to start way way back with this story. Let me introduce you to my gran, Lily Kwok (who by the way is the main heroine in our book Sweet Mandarin – God Bless your cotton socks gran :0). You know we purchase whole chickens in this industry, because only then do you know where the meat is coming from, if you get my drift. A chicken is a chicken. You can’t substitute quality ever, in this business. So we had all these chickens every Sunday which were lined up like an exercise class. I could imagine them all doing their press ups and stretches together. Well we serve the breasts and legs to the customers, and had all these gorgeous chicken wings (2 per chicken = yippie) to enjoy.
Often, it was a battle between me and the pet dog, as to who would get my gran’s attention first, and in return she’d toss us a hot, steaming, tender chicken wing – the meat was almost about to fall off the delicate bones and the sweetness of the chicken was moorish. Soon, we closed the back door so our doggie had no part in the chicken wing extravaganza. By the time I was 11, my brother Jim (who was 8) and I used to have competitions, as to who could eat the most chicken wings in one sitting. So ever since I could walk, eat and shout out ‘ Chicken Wings’ – I was enjoying them, loving them and fighting for my share on a weekly basis.
A family like mine is never full, we’ve got to be stuffed. If anyone visited, you’d eat with us, whether you had already eaten or not. Eventually, we’d cry out with our arms in the air “I’m gonna pop if you keep stuffing me like this!”
My mum would sweetly respond “Well I don’t want you to go hungry. You might starve!”
So that is how my fascination with food and in particular Chicken Wings started.
Well, no wonder Chicken Wings are on the menu at Sweet Mandarin. I’m made this special crispy coating for them – oh my word – you just bite and know its going to be a winner. Its just crispy enough to go hhhmmmm delicious. Then the actual meat is just juicy and sweet – just the way my mum taught me.
So don’t forget, next time you come to Sweet Mandarin, you gotta try the Chicken Wings