Wings, pizza and beer – oh my! - The Malthouse

he is a legendary competitive eater and the current world record holder for chicken wing consumption. On 3 February 2012, he devoured 337 chicken wings in 30 minutes – a staggering average of over 11 a minute for a full half hour.

What truly sealed his heroic status in my eyes was his nonchalant comment to the Philadelphia Inquirer immediately after the gluttony had ceased. He said “the truth is that if you brought me another hundred wings right now, I think I could eat them.”

My love of these tasty beer-friendly snacks is well-documented and I am certainly not alone. Americans are projected to eat 25 billion wings this year, including an estimated 1.25 billion of them on Super Bowl Sunday in February. .

A report from my good friends at the National Chicken Council [2] estimates that if the wings chomped in the US on 5 February were laid end-to-end they would circle the circumference of the Earth more than twice. My calculations on the back of a beer coaster indicate that if America’s annual consumption of wings was similarly laid end-to-end it would reach to the moon and back, up to the moon and back again, and then to the moon for a final time. [3]

There is no doubt that deep-fried chicken wings have long been a staple of cooking in the Southern US. New Zealanders are certainly getting a growing taste for them. Some fancy chefs are getting in on the act with Andoni Luis Aduriz of Mugaritz in Spain making confit chicken wings teamed with nasturtium leaves [4] and soft, just-set eggs cooked at 62 degrees for 35 minutes.

However, I’m going to stick with the wings made by Chef Anton Legg at the Fork & Brewer and now available at Malthouse. They are lovingly rubbed with a dry-spice mix which includes spent grain from the Tuatara Brewing. Spent grain is the husks of barley which have given up all their sugar to the brewer and which usually disappear off to feed some lucky cattle. Chef Legg has found a much better use for them on wings. Spicy, crispy, a little hot – the perfect snack to match with a beer. I often enjoy the wings with a pint or two of Epic Pale Ale or Epic Armageddon. [5]

Those tasty wings are not the only new items on the revamped and turbo-charged Malthouse menu. The pizza section has had a thorough make-over with the addition of several new recipes and some variations on old favourites. Pizza is also a popular match with beer. Dave Barry, way back when he was funny, famously “without question, the greatest invention in the history of mankind is beer. Oh, I grant you that the wheel was also fine invention, but the wheel does not go nearly as well with pizza.”

The Malthouse American Hot pizza has been reworked and the pepperoni is now joined by hot sauce and chilli flakes. It will play nicely with the Yeastie Boys Digital IPA just going on tap. There are also two new varieties of Pizza Bread (which I still call Ugly Bread) available. In addition to the classic version, customers can now add tomato pesto or basil pesto.

In terms of new pizza, there is the Bombay Express with spicy chicken, red onion, Bengali kasundi sauce and paprika mayonnaise. This combination would be a fine match with Epic Zythos. Finally, there is a Meatlovers Pizza groaning with chicken, chorizo, pepperoni, bier sticks and BBQ sauce.

On 7 July the inaugural Beer O’Clock event proved a resounding success with crowds jostling to taste beers from Epic and the West Coast Brewery. Those who were more organised apparently managed to try the West Coast and Epic versions of Mash Up IPA side by side but no-one at my table managed such a logistical feat.

Unsurprisingly, the biggest frenzy was reserved for the tapping of the last keg of Hop Zombie. Surprisingly, this beer did not come out last as many cynics predicted, including me. What came out first technically was actually Colin the Handsome yet Softly Spoken Scottish Proprietor’s s “shiny new toy” as foreshadowed in last week’s blog.

It turned out to be a very loud fog horn which was deeply effective (particularly on newcomers who had not heard it before). I am sure I speak for the vast majority when I say I hope it gets “lost” [6] before the West Coast IPA Challenge in less than a month. [7]

That is a barely adequate segue into a reminder about the 5^th Annual Malthouse West Coast IPA Challenge which will be held from 3pm on Friday 13^th July 2012 at Malthouse. There will be no charge for admission and all of the entries should be available for sampling and purchase over the course of the evening. The organisers are still cautiously optimistic about the possibility of a couple of late arrivals joining Hallertau, Epic, Moa, Liberty, Black Dog, Yeastie Boys, Townshend and Garage Project.

[1] I cannot possibly call him by his first name – we are not personal friends.

[2] It is a real organisation and, as far as I can tell, more useful than the Families Commission.

[3] The chicken wings may need to be warned that there are Space Nazis living on the Dark Side of the Moon – at least according to the brilliant new movie Iron Sky.

[4].A very fancy water cress.

[5] Disclaimer: Actual amount may vary and often exceeds two.

[6] No chance, Neil (^CM^ CTHYSSSP)

[7] It can perhaps join the substantial rostrum which simply disappeared many years ago. Some say it is lost in the Cupboard of Doom (beside the lounge) and on wintery nights you can hear it singing “Don’t Stop Believing”…

Cheers

Beer Writer

Real Beer New Zealand

Beer and Brewer Magazine

Links

My good friends at the National Chicken Council – http://www.nationalchickencouncil.org/

West Coast IPA Challenge event – http://www.facebook.com/events/368144713246082/

Beervana – http://beervana.co.nz/blog/tickets-sale-1-june

Malthouse Facebook – www.facebook.com/pages/Malthouse/7084276173

Malthouse Twitter – www.twitter.com/#!/malthouse

Malthouse Taps on Twitter – www.twitter.com/#!/MalthouseTaps

Neil Miller on Twitter – www.twitter.com/#beerlytweeting