Many years ago, I spent some time in Buffalo. Besides the Buffalo Bills football team, the city is famous for another entity. As fate would have it, I had a unique introduction to a popular food item that has a direct connection with Buffalo.

Money was tight so I often hitched a ride from the University of Buffalo campus to my small apartment downtown. Most of the rides were uneventful. But one of them was very special.

It was a cold November day and I mean “Buffalo cold.” Located on the shores of Lake Erie, the wind sweeps unimpeded into the city. I was shivering from the cold blast. So, when I stuck my thumb out for a ride, I was elated when a car pulled over. I told him where I was going and he said “hop in.” 

He turned the heat up and announced, “I’m Frank.” The way he said it, it seemed like he thought I would recognize his name. I just shrugged and thanked him for the ride. 

A few minutes later he asked me if I was hungry. Before I could answer he swerved into a parking lot. Shutting the car off he smiled and said, “Like I mentioned my name is Frank. My wife Teressa invented the Buffalo chicken wing.” He pointed to the now famous sign “Frank & Teressa’s Anchor Bar.”  I was at ground zero of the Buffalo chicken wing!

Minutes later, sitting at a butcher block table in the kitchen, I was thrilled to be at the place where the chicken wing craze started. Platters of wings were brought over. 

As I chowed down, Frank told me how it all began. It actually started as a mistake. The restaurant  had ordered chicken necks to use in their sauce recipe. The butcher mistakenly delivered chicken wings. Back then most people did not eat them. They were considered junk food. 

After drinking at numerous taverns, their son came to the restaurant late one night with his hungry friends. All that was left was the unopened box of chicken wings. His mother quickly created a recipe using the wings. Drenched in what is now called “Buffalo sauce” and served with blue cheese dip and celery stalks, they were quickly consumed by her son and his buddies. 

The word got out and within weeks the Anchor Bar’s Buffalo chicken wings were the biggest seller on the menu. Eventually, the recipe spilled out all over the country. 

Let’s just wing it and investigate the numbers. Collectively, Americans consume well over one billion chicken wings every year. Of course, not everyone is contributing to that number. According to Ida Eatsum, author of “Stuffing Ourselves,” the average American consumes 290 chicken wings per year. To calculate the lifetime amount she correctly did not count the first few years of life. Gerber does not make chicken wing baby food. Pundits estimate that most of us stuff ourselves with over 17,000 wings in a lifetime.  I must admit that although I do enjoy chicken wings, I doubt if I eat that many.

How many wings do you normally eat at a time? If you eat them at a bar or restaurant, statistics show you gobble up an average of 16 wings per visit.

When you share a plate of chicken wings, there is an unspoken rule regarding the individual pieces. Like most people, the first piece I reach for looks like a mini drumstick. Called a drumette, it has the most meat. 

The middle part is the wingette also known as a flat. It has less meat than the drumette. The last part of the wing is called the tip. It has very little meat and is often not eaten.

Given that most people prefer to eat drumettes, if you happen to share a plate with me, be ready to accept my rules. After the food is delivered, I have no qualms in announcing that the drumettes should be evenly divided. If 3 of us order two dozen wings, we each can have 8 drumettes. And yes, I will be watching and keeping count!

Hudson Cooper is a resident of Sullivan County, a writer, comedian and actor.