No winging it for the big game

Super Bowl Sunday may not be a nationally recognized holiday, but for

many it might as well be. The showdown between the Carolina Panthers

and the New England Patriots NFL teams today will be the main focus

of many Newport-Mesa parties and get-togethers.

Dave Marshal, the general manager at Wingnuts restaurant, knows

all about big game parties, as his restaurant will be just one of the

local eateries broadcasting the big game. For those who won’t be

munching on Wingnuts chicken, chili, ribs or potato chips while

watching the big game, Marshal had some helpful tips for making great

finger food for your own football function.

Columnist Lolita Harper sat down with him to get the low down on

wining it on Super Bowl Sunday.

How long have you been with Wingnuts?

We opened in Feb. 20, 2002, so we are just getting ready to

celebrate our second anniversary. I have been affiliated with the

company that owns Wingnuts for over 20 years. The owner of Wingnuts

-- also the president -- is the founder of this concept. It was a few

years in the making on paper and trial and testing different sauces,

different types of ribs, different providers of wings and ribs until

he found the product that he deemed was going to be the best

presentation for the guests. So, it has been two years here but he

has more than 25 years in the restaurant industry.

What are you doing for Super Bowl Sunday?

Working. I will be here taking care of you folks.

What constitutes a good Super Bowl party?

Getting together with good friends and hopefully a good game.

Those have been hard to come by the last few years. They are usually

a blow outs but if you have a good close game it makes a lot of

excitement for the party. And, of course, great food.

Along the lines of great food, as a host what is the secret to

hosting a good Super Bowl party?

Well, you have to have plenty of libations -- plenty to drink. And

the food that makes it necessary is spicy-type foods. Some chili,

like we are serving here, and we have 30 different types of chicken

wings that we serve. We will also have barbecue ribs and potato

chips, which we make here at the restaurant. We use three different

types of potatoes and cook them fresh.

What is the secret to good wings?

Our secret here is that we start with fresh wings -- our wings are

never frozen. We have a very good quality product and then we bake

them for a period. Then we flash fry them for roughly a minute and

then toss them in the sauce. So, they are going out steaming hot from

the fryer to your table, with the sauce on them.

What is the most popular type of wing?

That is a tough question. We have 30 flavors so, it depends on

your preference -- spicy or not spicy. We have the traditional

charred whiskey barbecue, which are very, very good for the

traditional barbecue. And then we spice it up a bit with chipotle or

sweet and sour barbecue sauce. Both of those have a little bite on

them and very, very good flavor.

For the not-so-spicy, we have the teriyaki wings, which by the

way, my wife says are best in the land.

And she is not biased, right?

Well, no, she is a teriyaki fan and she likes ours the best. Some

unique wings that we offer are garlic Parmesan, lemon garlic and soy

ginger -- so we have a lot of unique, different kinds of flavors that

you wouldn’t normally find. The great thing about them is that the

flavors can be crossed over into the ribs as well. We do three

different kinds of ribs as well; St. Louis, baby back and beef ribs.

Now, without giving away trade secrets, if someone were to host

their own party, what is an easy recipe to do at home?

Go out and buy one of our sauces... No, really, a lot of sauces,

especially the Buffalo sauces start with a hot sauce, like a Frank’s

Hot Sauce or basically any cayenne pepper sauce. Then you can thin it

out with butter or margarine, which tones it down a little bit. Or

you can heat it up with habanero powder or chile powder, whatever

different types of chiles that you like the flavors of -- you can

spice it up that way.

At the original Anchor Bar, in Buffalo, New York -- where the

buffalo wing originated -- they would take those wings and throw them

in a fryer and just fried them up until they were crunchy. And

there’s people out there that are looking for that. So, depending on

how crunchy you want them is how long you would want to fry them.

But we bake them to make sure that there is thoroughness in the

cooking process. It is also a timesaving process for us to bake them.

So we bake them and hold them in that oven, so then it’s just a quick

flash fry to get them to the table. That way you don’t have to wait

that 20 minutes of cooking time for it to get out to the table.

So, there’s the sauce and the butter but what do you marinate them

with and for how long?

We do marinate our wings but I can’t tell you with what. We

marinate them for 24 hours in a -- its not even a sauce, it is more

of a solution -- and that helps a lot with the flavor. As far as the

sauce, we apply the sauce just before them going to the table, so

they are not sitting in sauce for a long periods of time.

I think a lot of folks think we have these bins [in the kitchen]

filled up with medium buffalo wings and teriyaki, or whatever, and

when their order comes in, we just take them out of those bins. But

that’s not it. Everything here is cooked fresh to order.

Is there a preferred oil for frying wings?

We use canola oil here, they say it is a little easier on the

body. At home, you can use just about any type of frying oil. Peanut,

canola or vegetable oil.

So if someone were doing it at home, we’ve got marination before

hand, then we bake or fry the wings. What about the sauce?

The sauce goes on after. We put the wings in a large metal bowl,

drizzle the sauce over them, toss them and then put them on a plate.

What would one serve with this feast? What kind of drinks and what

kind of side dishes?

Well soda goes great with wings, if you are trying to have a safe

and sane Super Bowl. I also heard a report on the radio saying that

if you are serving alcoholic beverages that you should serve starchy

foods and foods high in protein to help absorb the alcohol in your

system. So, I guess that is sort of a safety tip. Of course, we want

everybody to have a safe Super Bowl. Sodas and beer are probably the

best for that type of finger food.

The carrots and the celery and the blue cheese dressing are

traditional with Buffalo wings, right?

Yes. With our Buffalo and our hot wings, we serve that. All of our

others come with a blue cheese cole slaw, which is also a good side

for this type of food.

Does any specific type of beer go best with wings? Pale or dark?

Or are people just going to be thirsty for whatever?

It really doesn’t matter. Again, there are so many different

flavors of wings, that any beer can compliment them. We have 16 taps

that go anywhere from a super-dark Guinness to as light as a Coors

Light beers.

Who is your pick for the big game?

Carolina. Carolina by 3, with a field goal late in the game.

Really, are you a sucker for the underdog or are you a Panther

fan?

Neither, they are the team that took out my team. So at least I

will be able to justify the [Philadelphia] Eagles losing if Carolina

wins.