(buffalo) wings
 
2006-01-03: (buffalo) wings

What better thing can you think of to do on a damp, chilly night than gather friends together and cheer on your favourite hockey team? Being Canadian, and on top of that a Torontonian, hockey has long been an important facet of my life. My father was a goalie when he was young (and I credit as being the first to wear a goalie's mask, albeit only as an amateur – he was a baseball catcher in the off-season and wore his catcher’s mask in goal, much like they do today) and my oldest brother played the game as a child, so our house was definitely a hockey-oriented zone.

I can remember falling asleep to the sound of sticks clacking on the ice on Saturday nights (“Hockey Night in Canada”!) in my parent’s living room when I was little. I recall as a teenager spending those same Saturday evenings eating dinner in front of the television so as not to miss a goal or slap shot or penalty. I have both good memories and bad memories of hockey games – wins and losses, friends and foes and even good food and bad food accompanying those games.

When I think of watching a hockey game, my palate and stomach immediately scream out for chicken wings. And what more appropriate food to serve to a group of guys while they happily watched the Leafs beat Buffalo a week or so ago.

Of course it was a nail-biter right down to the very last second of the overtime shootout. Five minutes of the best hockey I have seen in a long time followed by Sundin and Ponikarovsky beating Martin Biron with their two shootout goals to win the game...it was fantastic.