Look to the Cookie!

Before reading "An Attempt to Compile a Short History of the Buffalo Chicken Wings," I had three impressions of the city of Buffalo: lots of snow, how horrid the Bills are (the city's NFL team), and that they had something to do with buffalo wings.  However, I never really knew why they were called "Buffalo wings."  For a long time as a child, I naively assumed that the wings actually came from a buffalo.  When I reached an age where I realized that this made no absolutely no sense, I gave up in this quest, content with the saucy wings that my family enjoyed so much.  And while this article  answered my question of what Buffalo wings actually are, I'm still not sure if I've encountered a Buffalo wing that truly lives up to the name.   

Finding the "true" Buffalo wing.  I'll have to add that to my bucket list.
Maybe starting a bucket list would be a good start.

Throughout the story of Trillin's quest to discover the true history of the Buffalo Wings, I made a connection between all of the articles.  Aside from the tastes food present, they have an equally important purpose; as a cultural reminder.  Although Juan was about 4,500 miles away from his birthplace of Basque, Spain, food was able to remind him of his origins.  The Cubans who visited the restaurant came to help them reminisce about Cuba; about the times they spent at Centro Vasco.  And Trillin's search was not only a quest to find a special pumpernickel bagel, it was a quest to connect him with his daughter who lived all the way across the country in San Francisco.

Just as we spoke about in class, food brings up memories, both good and bad.  But sometimes the search for the foods we crave so much is just as important as the food itself.

Side note:  did the mention of chocolate babka remind anyone of the Seinfeld episode where Elaine and Jerry's precious chocolate babka was taken at the bakery right before them, making them have to settle for the cinnamon babka?  One of my favorite Seinfeld episodes.

Seinfeld babka video: 

And when in doubt, look to the cookie!
(I linked this last video because I wasn't able to embed it.  Definitely worth watching!)