Japanese Chicken Wings: Comfort Food for Wanderlust

I must begin this post with an apology for not posting recently, and when I say recently I actually mean an entire month of nothing. Shameful. I’ve been home in Canada since February 4th and it took longer than I thought to get my bearings. I was thisclose to ending ‘curiousmeredith’ as my trip is finished to focus on the task of looking for a “grown-up job” and finding somewhere to set up my bed in Edmonton. Then, I got into a funk after realizing that settling back into the routine of home is almost harder than leaving and starting up somewhere new. But this week I was pulled up and out of my funk by reading Dianne Jacob’s “Will Write for Food”. I am reading it to improve my blog writing and as result this book has inspired me to keep up with my blog while pursuing the elusive “grown-up job”.

I really enjoy being back home with friends and family but part of my adjustment struggle is that my wanderlust is still alive and kicking. So many of my adventurous friends are currently traveling and I enviously oggle the photos they have posted online. This week I saw my friend Barry’s photos of Macaque monkeys bathing in a steamy hot spring in Japan from his recent snowboarding trip.

To subdue the travel daydreams these pictures triggered I felt I should put that energy into cooking Japanese chicken wings, a family favourite, and use food to blend my dreams of travel and home together. Someday I will be there snowboarding in champagne powder and enjoying Japanese cuisine… until then I will enjoy these sticky, sweet and sour wings with my family.

Warning: These are not healthy but are worth the indulgence. Just go to the gym tomorrow… no harm done.

Japanese Chicken Wings adapted from my Mom’s recipe card (allrecipes.com?)

3 lbs of chicken wings
2 beaten eggs
1 cup of flour
1 cup of butter (or half butter and half vegetable oil)

Sauce:

3 tbsp soya sauce
3 tbsp water
1 cup of white sugar
1/2 cup of white vinegar
1 tsp of salt

Cut wings in half (discard wing tip). Dip in egg, then flour, fry until deep brown & crisp.
Put in shallow roasting pan and pour sauce over wings. Bake at 350 degrees for 30 minutes, baste occasionally.

The wings will come out of the oven tender, gooey, and juicy with sweet and spicy aromas rising and floating over the table. A nose-wiggling and mouth-watering chicken wing!

Useful Links:

Learn how to eat a chicken wing without wasting meat at JapanNewbie

Another take on Tebasaki (Japanese for Chicken Wing) that looks uber yummy at Shizuoka Gourmet