It wasn’t until Chef Bob Yacone introduced me to his award-winning maple-bacon wings that I finally got it…and when I say “award-winning,” I’m talking about earning first place at the National Buffalo Chicken Wing Festival in Buffalo, New York. For the most part, I wondered what he saw…or rather, tasted in them that inspired such loyalty. Over the year, I’ve had my share of wings but never came close to developing the type of unbridled passion bordering on lust for the poultry appendages Ralph has. Brittany Muller Didn’t Wear Her Pittsburgh Steelers Regalia. Alejandra Leal Sporting Very Stylish and Classy Dallas Cowboys Attire. Fortunately, we kept Ralph happy with frequent infusions of New Mexico’s sacrosanct red and green chile (which he undoubtedly figured out would have tasted great with good chicken wings). Unlike at his hometown of Ahwatukee, Arizona, a Phoenix suburb, most chicken wings in the Albuquerque area came from chain restaurants (Applebees’ riblets anyone?). Nor did we ever presume he would enjoy chicken wings in our fair city. When Ralph visited the Intel plant in Rio Rancho, he never asked to be feted with chicken wings. Brittany Has A Lot More Room to Operate the Fryer When he married his beautiful bride Linda, I thought for sure the wedding cake would be studded with layers of chicken wings and the cake would be “frosted” with Buffalo wing sauce. Ralph is the type of guy who would bob for chicken wings in a deep fryer. Never mind that chicken wings have a disproportionate “effort-to-meat” ratio, he happily gnaws on those tiny avian bones to extricate every meaty morsel, a look of blissful contentment on his face. Ralph can eat chicken wings for breakfast, lunch and dinner with chicken wing snacks in between. Much as Ralph loves adventurous dining, his passion and favorite food group is chicken wings. That’s especially true when Ralph traveled to Vietnam and The Philippines, all the while chronicling his adventures in “Captain Ralphie’s Travelogue.” Though most of us envied his peregrinations, few of us would have had the gastronomical fortitude to try such “delicacies” as beating cobra heart and live lobster (yes, still alive…and thrashing). Zimmern who claims to love such “exotic cuisine” as fermented walrus anus probably wouldn’t touch some of the…er, interesting foods Ralph enjoyed during his travels for Intel. Wing It Up, a Brick and Mortar Treasure on the corner of 4th and Gold, One Block South of Central Avenueīizarre Foods host Andrew Zimmern has nothing on my friend Ralph Guariglio.
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