NPR has a great story that you can listen to or read here about the continued rising popularity of chicken wings. It wasn't long ago that wings were regulated to happy hour menu side items. Now wings are a big deal- with national chains like Buffalo Wild Wings- or Pacific Northwest restaurants such as Seattle's Wingdome or Portland's Fire on the Mountain- making wings the main item on their menu.
The wing craze has grown, but so has the cost. While breast and thigh meat has ups and downs in the market, wings have been rising steadily and have actually doubled in cost over the last ten years. In the NPR article Ivano Tuscani explains:
"Every time that there is Christmas, wings go up. Super Bowl, wings go up — but the problem is they never come down. They go up and they stay there."He explains that this has created a dilemma- what do you do with the rest of the bird that no one wants to eat? It is no surprise that boneless wings have started showing up at restaurants across the country.
There is even a suspicion that those really cheap wings you cans still find on some happy hour menus may not even have been wings at all. Portland Mercury's Blogtown writer Patrick Alan Colemen writes:
I remember the wings seemed absolutely artificial. They had bones, sure, but the way the meat and the bone worked together… I had the sneaking suspicion that the meat had somehow been adhered to a reusable bone-like structure.It looks like no matter the cost, people are still willing to pay more for chicken wings. We have already seen science and farming mix to create plumper-breasted birds. With high demand will we start to see scientists creating multi-winged birds....... and if so, would you eat it?
Wing picture from Mike Fletcher Photography via Flickr Mike's website
