Kisslings, hands down gets the nod.

Good alternatives: Nobles in Federal Hill has a very similar recipe to Kisslings. Taps in Federal Hill has great wings, too.

EL wrote I'd rather we'd be fighting over food than politics. Hey--we were pretty good until you threw Sarah Palin's name into play! Did you expect us to ignore red meat?

I have to admit that was a very, very bad mistake. But I was jealous of David. EL

Wings are disgusting.

The wings at Alonsos aren't terrible. Limited choices in flavors, but the Chipotle BBQ is banging... a little mild for my taste, but delicious. The wings are also ginormous, very meaty.

Personally - I feel that wings are more trouble than they're worth - (in meat and calories) - but my husband is a huge wing eater. His FAVE place is North Point Inn. They are the biggest - meatiest wings I've ever seen - and he says they're cooked perfectly. He prefers the Old Bay wings and says they are crispy - and have the perfect amount of seasoning on them. They run wing specials during just about any sporting event - and because they're so meaty - they are a meal in themselves. (or so I've been told!)

My vote goes for Mahaffey's Pub. Their wings are nearly twice the size of most establishments and they have one of the greatest tap lists in town to wash them down with. They are offered in Hot, Mild, Balto-Buffalo, Zesty Garlic Buffalo, BBQ, Garlic BBQ, Spicy Jerk or Classic Baltimore.

I typically order them Hot with a light dusting of Old-Bay. A plate of 10 jumbo wings will run you $7.95 unless it's Wednesday where they run for 10 for $3.00.

Personally I think the aforementioned spot that deserves said "nod" is resting on their Laurel's at this point.

O'Loughlin's in Arnold makes fantastic Chesapeake wings - made with Old Bay and hot sauce.

EL, don't be jealous of the sad TV blog. It is pointless and redundant. It's the same old junk that attracts the same old lunkheads who post the same crap on 300 other equally tedious blogs. You have something unique here. Given the recent cutbacks, if I were the local TV or movie critic I would buy new underwear (just because) and do something to make myself relevant. Relevant. All TV guy seems to be doing is whoring himself out by making everything about Sarah Palin. And it's not interesting. Nobody needs a local TV or movie critic if they have nothing local or unique to offer. Same movies, same shows all over the country. Now you my dear are more fortunate because local food needs a local person. AND this is a great blog that has real value.

I just saw the first episode of House (so sad) and have been watching Mad Men (kind of dull this season). Any sign of that on the Vidiocy Blog? Nope. Well that's part 342 of "If I Ruled the World". Amen.

They have to be not too small and not too large to get the right ratio of meat to skin/coating. Please dont' roll them in batter, and make sure to fry up that skin until it's *crispy*.

Kislings wins for their Old Bay wings. Riptide has amazing jerk style wings. They tasted just like the best jerk chicken I had in Negril.

I'm one of those gourmands who do not eat chicken wings. Whenever I see people holding those little things and chewing pieces off I am reminded of Tom Hanks in "Big" where he tries to eat a piece of baby corn like a full-size ear. However, take some chicken nuggets, AKA "boneless" wings, cook them in hot wing sauce, and let me at 'em.

I have to second Kisling's wings. Meaty, tender, just enough sauce and varying degrees of heat depending on what you can handle. We stick with "original" and pair 'em with the Old Bay fries.

It's one of the few places for which our friends in Fed Hill will cross the pond. Whenever we offer to bring a dish to someone's party, they always request Kisling's wings.

The best wings I have ever had have actually been from the Korean food counter at Han Ah Rheum (H-Mart) in Catonsville.

They are coated in a chewy, tempura-like batter and fried SUPER crispy, then covered with a spicy-sweet sauce and some scallions. My husband refers to them as wings you would get at "Asian Hooters". Oh god, there goes the stomach rumbles...

But I was jealous of David. EL

Don't be. He doesn't seem to have much integrity or imagination when it comes to selling out. 15 of his 17 posts are about TV news and/or Palin. 10 of those explicitly cite Palin in the title. It's sad. Didn't somebody call that Google-whoring? All that blog needs is a snooze button. See, that was a TV reference. It can be done. Oh yeah, Palin sex Britney Spears naked Paris Hilton bikini Lindsey Lohan nude news Tom Brady. See, that's how you get your hit rate up. Friday blows. Why isn't it Fun Freakin' Tastic Friday? That's more alliterative.

Hey, when did this blog become the therapy for other blogs?

My wife would nominate Joe Squared hot wings. They are much better than their 9-pepper wings, and are truly truly hot. The kitchen staff is willing to adjust the level of heat upon request, and the wings usually have a good amount of meat on them. I have a good vegetarian friend who make a single exception to her vegetarian ways - Joe Squared hot wings. That's it.

Kislings; hands down, and I'm known as a connoisseur of wings. The meat is inconsistent, sometimes they're more meaty than others, but the SAUCE is the kicker! Original is the best, but the variations are good too. There's a variation (forget what it's called) that's a mix of the original and BBQ that's less spicy for those who can't take the heat. Go during happy hour and they're only $5 and wash down with a $1.50 Coors Light... can't beat it.

EL wrote: But take the most wonderful wings you've ever had. Are they really that much better than the worse wings you've ever had...

Truer words were never spoken. Uh, written.

When I moved back to the US from the UK, one of the first things I wanted to eat was the chicken breast strips/wings from Bruce Lee's in the Cross Street Market. They're a great combination of sweet and hot and always freshly made.

The first thing I wanted to eat? Mexican food!

I've had wings at the Anchor Bar and they are delicious!

And the red meat was moose. Not something that gets served a lot around here. A new taste sensation. (See, all food, all the time. I promise.)

are we talking about wings like cluck-u wings? or does this go into the realm of chicken boxes that are prevelant all over the city?

Further to: But take the most wonderful wings you've ever had. Are they really that much better than the worse wings you've ever had...

The difference between wings joints is:

30% - What beers they have on tap
25% - How comfortable their chairs are
15% - What music they have on the juke box
15% - The number of pool tables
10% - Whether they have a sign posted on the front door that says, "No Guns - No Colors"
5% - The wings themselves

Muggsy's Pour House in Federal Hill. Big meaty wings in about 8 varieties. Only possible down size is since they are large wings they only offer one serving size whihc may be a negative for true Wing fanciers. Up side they are half price on Wed night.

Don't be jealous of David for the # of hits he gets on his political entries. Have you seen the mouth-foaming nuts that post on there? It's about to run me right off of his blog if we don't get more non-political entries on there. Fortunately, season premieres are upon us.

Not a big fan of wings myself.

I don't like that part of the chicken, but I do like the sauce on some breast tenders.

Pizza & Wing Factory next to / part of Nacho Mama's was always a good late night stop back when Canton was my stomping grounds (before the turn of the century). Haven't been back to the square in 3 or 4 years, so I don't know if it's still in existence.

I'm with JB on this one. More trouble and calories than I think they're worth. But, hey, some unfortunate souls think the same thing about crabs, so, different strokes or c'est l'vie, or somelthing like that.

RevEd, your "if I ruled the world" seems oddly similar to my "when I become Queen of the world". I'd give you a shot at it as long as I got to do it too (before or after) no lifelong rule here. We could call our lineage, the House of D@L. All of the sandboxers could have a shot at it. I bet we could do a better job than those really in charge! And Amen and Peace to you too!

I'm still trying to find wings that are hot enough. Suicide, Wings from Hell, you name it I've had them. And usually not had to take a drink when eating them.

I am a fan of Bahama Breeze's habanero ones, Bill Bateman's hottest (don't remember exactly what they're called), and Mother Clucker's that used to be down OC.

The wings at Alonsos aren't terrible.

That looks like something they should put on their wall

I'm glad you stuck around in spite of the politics because your latte comment made me laugh out loud. EL

KristinB, season premieres have already come and gone, not that tv guy seems to have noticed. Lame.

I like the occasional mouth-foaming nut, but I think ours are saltier and come in more tasty varieties. The tv critic should be able to offer us some unique insights into the industry. Not there. All sell out all the time.

I'm not an aficionado of wings or dive bars, and I'm pretty sure "No Guns - No Colors" can't mean what immediately came to my mind. I'm sure there's some perfectly innocent square state kind of explanation, but it escapes me. Help.

RtSO re :"No Guns- No Colors"

The colors refers to gang colors. As in do not wear your bloods and crips stuff here cuz we don't want to deal with fights.

re: The best wings I have ever had have actually been from the Korean food counter at Han Ah Rheum (H-Mart) in Catonsville.

you have to consider the korean style fried chicken wings that got a lot of press last year. there's more than a few that opened up in the nyc area, and nytimes did some stories:
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/02/07/dining/07fried.html?partner=rssnyt&emc=rss

Kislings and Mahaffey's: Both have gigantic drums with flavorful sauce. Add great beer to boot, and one is set for the night.

Ale Mary's has fantastic wings. "Buffalo" style they are not. They are grilled and the meat falls off the bone. The sauce is spicy with a touch of garlic and some nice smoke. They are a treat. Is it happy hour yet?

RtSO said: and I'm pretty sure "No Guns - No Colors" can't mean what immediately came to my mind

It's a motorcyle gang thing.

RtSO, these are Colors

Carey, is this you? http://www.theonion.com/content/news_briefs/area_man_committed_to_being

Thank you. Mine has been a sheltered life.

Wings are one of my favorite foods (with moderation of course!). I am not saying that the following wings are the best, but I am saying they are WELL worth a trip for any wing lover. The wings at Matthew's 1600 in catonsville (frederick rd) are top shelf excellent. Some of the best in the c-ville/ellicott city area..possibly the best around in general.

The lime cilantro wings at Joe Squared are tangy, crispy, and addictive.

No Guns / No Colors ....
RtSO I was laughing out loud like an idiot.

if I remember correctly, back when I was a kid, people used chicken wings as crab bait.
Now, someone in Buffalo decided to deep-fry them, then bake 'em, then put some hellacious sauce on them
and suddenly they are excellent happy hour food?

the sauce = good
what the sauce is on = gack

if I remember correctly, back when I was a kid, people used chicken wings as crab bait.
Now, someone in Buffalo decided to deep-fry them, then bake 'em, then put some hellacious sauce on them
and suddenly they are excellent happy hour food?

And the real drag about all that is that chicken wings used to be inexpensive, and now they aren't.

ugh, Thunder Beach starts up in a couple days. Geezer bikers from all over the midwest descend upon my tiny burg to party and pollute my air. A town of 7,000 has to absorb 30,000 bikers.

sorry, jl.

Buffalo Wild Wings. Yes, it's a chain, but it's amazing. Tuesday is 40 cent wing night. I drive to the one in Westminster from my home in Ellicott City, and it's worth it. There is also a location in White Marsh.

Muggsys in fed hill hands down best wings... besides maybe kislings... if you havent had muggsys wings you HAVE to go and get them. Biggest wings ive ever had and the sauces are real good too

Steffi,
A Buffalo Wild Wings opened down here recently. Lots of sauces to choose from and 200-ounce draft beers. No kidding. They serve it in its own tube with an ice bag and a tap at the bottom, it stands about 6 feet tall. Its for groups of 3-4, to drink as they watch sports events.

The Naked Tenders they have are good.

"Go during happy hour and they're only $5 and wash down with a $1.50 Coors Light... can't beat it."

Good god, Coors Light? gack!!!!!!!

OK...we'll see if this gets through EL's review (and if it doesn't I understand. I'm not sure where the edge of the envelope is...)

Good god, Coors Light? gack!!!!!!!

An obscure historical fact about Coors beer that only Colorado natives know:

When old Adolph Coors arrived in Colorado and started his brewery, he decided he needed just the right lable for his bottles of made-with-pure-Rocky-Mountain-spring-water Coors Banquet Beer.

He rounded up a local artist, gave him a case of beer and said, "I want you to drink all of this beer, then I want you to paint a picutre of what you feel. That's the picture I'll put on my label."

So the artist headed off, with the case of beer, his paints and a canvas, to a remote mountain valley high above Golden, Colorado.

A week later he was back at Adolph's door with the finished painting in hand.

It was a serene valley with the majestic Rockies in the background and a cool mountain stream running through the middle of it. By the stream was a couple making love.

Adolph studied the picture for a while. Then he said to the artist, "I understand the mountain peaks, representing the Rockies, and the stream running through the valley, representing the pure spring water we use to brew the beer. But I'm confused about this couple making love."

The artist replied, "You told me to drink the case of Coors and paint what I felt. I feel that it's f - - - ing close to water."

Hal said "And the real drag about all that is that chicken wings used to be inexpensive, and now they aren't." - this is true about all foods that become "trendy". Look at lobster - used to be snubbed now the most expensive prize of the ocean (except caviar). But for us chicken liver lovers - still a bargain until for some unknown reason they become pub grub or something equally cool.

Coors Light always seemed redundant to me.

Bucky!

ROFL. No, really, I am. I'm on the floor, right now.

Cheese Girl - When I used to teach Colorado history, that was the only lesson students ever fully retained.

Bucky,
Had to show that to my DW. She too was ROFL.

Many years ago, say 35, when I was in Germany, one of the folks in my office actually hand-carried two six-packs of Coors from Colorado to Germany. Kept them cold throughout and brought them out at an office party. The mystique of Coors (which was not then widely available east of the Mississippi) was such that people were clamoring for a taste; this in Germany where beer was practically invented.

RiE - I understand. When I was a kid, before Coors was sold in Texas, my uncle would make a trip up from Houston every summer, pack his station wagon full of Coors and sell it to his friends back home at a hefty premium.

RiE, while not as exotic as Germany, I definitely remember east coast US folks bringing back that exotic Coors beer from the west. This was probably in the 1970's, although my memory of those times is sometimes a bit clouded.

Bucky,
As an East-Coast person, I have heard that story before! So true!

When I was in college on Long Island in the early 1980s, the two foods that had a high level of mystique were Coors beer, which was still relatively rare east of the Mississippi River, and Freihofer's chocolate chip cookies, which at the time were available (I think) only in upstate New York. Consequently, people who would go to either region would be bombarded with requests to bring the stuff back.

Freihofer's chocolate chip cookies weren't much different from Entenmann's. Coincidentally, both companies are now owned by George Weston Bakeries.

The mysteries, they are over.

Topic: wings? I make my own, which usually get the rave reviews.

Joyce W.
You bring up an interesting question about the price of trendy foods. I'm no economist but guess the answer lurks somewhere in the space between scarcity and The Law of Diminishing Returns. Perhaps Owl Meat Graph paper can enlighten us.

Just thinking off the top of my head..

Trendy = recently popular => increased demand. If supply is the same, at least in the short run, then price will go up as people compete for it.

Once there is an increase in demand based upon taste rather than need, price will go up as providers seek higher profits. But unlike cigarettes, say, asiago cheese or bacon-flavored condoms (sorry) are price elastic. This means that higher prices won't be tolerated, because there are substitutions and this stuff is a luxury anyway.

Cigarettes, for adults, (who are likely to be addicted to nicotine) are price inelastic. That means that a 25% increase in price would be associated with a much smaller decrease in demand, say 5%, because people NEED their smokes.

Interestingly, cigarettes are price elastic for teenagers, which makes tax increases on them an effective public health tool to prevent young smokers from developing the habit. Ahh, bet you didn't know that.

So producers and middle men always play with the price to find what profits them most. "Trendy" makes this more complicated. I would submit that the concept of conspicuous consumption enters into things here. This is the idea that for certain goods people actually want to pay more, because it gives them a feeling of higher social status. For example, many many so-called generic products from canned corn to aspirin are identical to name brands. Some are literally identical because they are made in the same plant by the same company. People often buy the more expensive name brand because of perceived status that the product brings you. Completely idiotic, but have you ever watched a bunch of asshats comparing watches in a bar? Pathetic.

So trendy foods like everything else is in part a status symbol.

I'm no economist so this is just some thinking out loud.

Random thought addendum: Why do people pay a premium for "specials" at restaurants when frequently they are not very special at all.?

Someone already mentioned Joe Squared... and I second that one. My wife and I went there for the first time this weekend, and we ordered the "Lime in the Coconut" wings. Great flavor.

At the risk of going waaaaay outside of this blog's stomping grounds, I love C.R. Wings in Bel Air. They've got the usual buffalo options (mild, medium, hot, etc), and about a dozen other varieties (honey BBQ, teriyaki, jerk, etc). It's more of a carry out option (tho they do have tables, big screens and beer), but their wings can't be beat.

I've written a bit about Bel Air here, and I'm always glad to have more info on what's becoming an interesting area for restaurants and shops with the renovations and more and more people moving up there. EL

This is getting old--me reccomending Top 10 ideas, only for them to be ressurected months later without due "props." :-(

I suggested this topic last year, just before the start of March Madness, given vast number of people who would be watching the games at bars all over Maryland, with the food of choice probably being wings.

Oh, the life of an underappreciated poster!

(EL, please note the hint of sarcasm in this post. LOL).

Has anyone had wings at iBar on Maryland Ave. in Charles Village? For years now their ads have claimed "The ONLY authentic Buffalo Wings in Baltimore!"
I was there once to eat; the owner was very kind and hospitable, but I didn't have the wings. Ever since then I've been curious about the wings claim.

Jon Parker,

No lol. But I do automatically ask for extra hot sauce when ordering salsa or wings, whether I've had them before or not. The waitresses always look at me kinda funny and I usually have to convince them that I really do need it.

You definitely become immune to the heat. I started putting cayenne pepper on most of my food as a child. It was hot at first, now it doesn't phase me at all. Also had to switch from regular hot sauces to straight habanero sauces.

Regarding immunity to heat (as in hot sauce):
Scientists have discovered that our taste buds become less discriminating as we get older. Thus children don't like broccoli, spicy foods, or other strong tasting foods because their taste buds are much more sensitive. As we get older the taste buds don't detect the stronger tastes as well.
This is also why senior citizens tend to eat less, because their taste buds don't work as well, thus food loses taste.

Susan,
I hope the "WSNAJ" is for continuity and not a reflection of your current economic state.

Besides the effects of age on taste, the number of taste buds also plays a role: some people with more taste buds than average are "supertasters," to whom all food tastes stronger; while others with a less than average number of taste buds can be "nontasters." To those people even the spiciest foods taste bland.

RiE: I despair of ever getting a job. It has been almost six months. That is why I changed my screen moniker to Susan Who Still Needs A Job :-(

Bummer, Susan...I saw that new identity over on the reality television blog (Survivor starts Thursday!) and I was hoping it meant, Susan Who Stopped Needing A Job.

What do you do? The Sandbox ought to be able to band together and help you out. Don't be shy.

I managed a Curves. I am looking for Administrative Asst; Customer Service; Receptionist, etc. I have lots of varied experience, but apparently employers think I didn't concentrate on one particular area enough.
Who knows...
I am a firm believer that everything happens for a reason, but now I wish I knew the reason for being unemployed for so long. It hasn't been revealed to me yet.

Susan - if you haven't, try a hospital. They are always looking for experienced administrative assistants and the benefits are good.

I have applied about six times to Sinai and twice to St. Agnes.. I don't have "medical terminology" experience.
Thanks for the tip though...

Susan, I am not sure where you are located, but the Planet Fitness in Glen Burnie just went 24-hours and is looking to at least double their staff. What positions are open, I do not know.