NEW YORK ( Associated Press) – One day in 2020, at the height of the pandemic, a grim-looking man with long hair the color of Buffalo sauce spoke during a public comment session of the Lincoln City Council, Nebraska. The unusual theme of his speech was: The time has come to end the lie.
Ander Christensen said, “I propose that our city remove the words ‘boneless wings’ from our menus and our hearts.” “We’ve lived a lie for too long.”
Here’s a pleasant lie unleashed (with his blessing) on ​​the menu-hungry chicken-eating citizens of America: a “boneless wing” that isn’t a feather. And just what Americans are preparing to consume during Super Bowl weekend: 1.45 billion pieces.
Many of you probably already know this, although an informal survey of wing restaurants over the past year indicates that a fair number of Americans don’t, but such delicious little hunks of white meat give you a glimpse. is how things are marketed. People believe it… besides the chicken if anyone cares.
According to the National Chicken Council business chamber, Americans are preparing to consume 1.45 billion wings during the game. So if you’ve ever wanted an in-depth look at what it means to eat wings that aren’t — and how the wing’s proximity to beer, good times, and football lifted it into the skies — there’s no better time than now. ,
Today’s food landscape is littered with these hypocrites: We treat food as other things.
Surimi is a fish that becomes “crab” or “lobster” meat for many of us and fills California sushi across the country. The so-called Impossible Burgers (Impossible Hamburgers) are vegetable dishes with several meat specialties that have nothing animal in their composition. Additionally, “Chilean sea bass” is neither a sea bass nor is it Chilean, but a Patagonian toothfish.
The rise of the “boneless wing” is partly due to money. As the price of chicken wings has risen in recent years, the substitute has become cheaper. The average price per pound for “boneless wings” is $4.99, compared to $8.38 for bone-in wings, according to Tom Super, senior vice president of communications for the National Chicken Council, citing the Department of Agriculture. He said it was “a way to sell more boneless, skinless brisket, which is in abundant supply.”
“While many consumers argue that the bone is needed to give the wing a characteristic flavor, the success of boneless wings shows that wing eaters are in abundance,” Super wrote in an email.
Because Partly because “boneless wings”—the quotation marks will remain for the rest of our dialogue—evokes a powerful context.
“You associate it with the Super Bowl and parties and fun, and that’s how you change the perception of the product,” explains Christopher Kimball, founder of Milk Street, whose magazine and TV show get people talking about food. educate in and how to cook it
“Most people have no idea where it’s coming from,” says Kimball. “Put the blame on the food companies if you want, but we accept it.”
We admit it… even wholeheartedly. Besides, deep down, what difference does it make?, you will say. They’re delicious, they’re convenient. So why bother with something that pairs perfectly with beer and makes sports entertainment a better place?
Here’s one possible reason: Could they be a microcosm of the complacency with which we accept things that are not what they say they are? And isn’t that one of the things this country has been grappling with, especially in the misinformation-saturated years since the “boned wing” first appeared in our world?
“Nothing really wrong with that, but are we fooling people?” wondered Matthew Reed, professor of advertising at Le Moyne College in Syracuse, New York, who has worked for two decades in ad agencies. He hosts a local TV cooking show called “Spatchcock Funk”.
“Wings,” he said, “have gone from being part of a chicken to something you can dip in sauce and eat with your hand.”
Whether or not derived from those flight-related appendages, “boneless wings” have taken over the tables. The Chicken Council, which credits its invention to the giant Buffalo Wild Wings chain, asked wing consumers in 2018 which were their favorites and 40% declared themselves fans of “Team Boneless”. In previous years this proportion was even higher.
Christensen, a chemical engineer by profession, began his crusade against Wing years ago when he was in college and his group of friends broke up with his girlfriend. The result was that he had more money and time and went to The Wing restaurant three times a week. He saw how many “boneless wings” were destroyed, without knowing that they were not what they claimed to be. Thus was born a comic reason, but only half.
“I look around and think, ‘Why does nobody care?'” he said in an interview this week.
He said he conducted an informal survey asking people about their fanning habits during a college football game in Ohio. “Most people have no idea. Most believe it’s part of a wing. Some believe it’s part of a thigh. Only a few know it was from a chicken breast.
His theory is that generations who grew up on chicken nuggets have turned to “boneless wings” to keep up with those eating habits. “So they can pretend to eat like adults,” he said.
Is the definition of the word “wings” itself changing? Many wing restaurants offer “cauliflower wings” as a substitute whose only connection to the actual wings is the sauce. Additionally, some vegetarian “wing” recipes suggest inserting a popsicle stick to resemble a chicken bone.
“We have thoughts about what we are told to eat,” explains Alexandra Plakias, a professor at Hamilton College in New York and author of “Thinking Through Food: A Philosophical Introduction.” : A Philosophical Introduction).
“Little lies like this that seem outlandish normalize manipulation,” Plakias says. Is the feather part of the bird or is the feather a type of saucer? I believe this ambiguity opens room for falsehood.
And so, perhaps, language evolves, although some skeptics remain.
“Personally, I think it matters. I want to know exactly what dish I’m ordering and what’s in my food,” says Natalie Visconti, a 20-year-old Penn State University graduate who Says she loves the “traditional wing”.
Christensen promised to keep going, saying he aspired to become “the world’s first dedicated chicken wing lobbyist”. Some treat it with disdain. People of all stripes accuse him of spreading a coded political message. He insists that it is nothing more than a search for the sacred truth.
“Actually, I only care about boneless wings,” he said. “I have only one small reason to die for, but it is my own.”
