National Chicken Wing Day PDX

Today is apparently National Chicken Wing Day. I know this because my sister told me so, and I’m still looking for the all-encompassing food holiday calendar out there. Here are my picks for some places in Portland to get your National Chicken Wing Day fix on…

Pok Pok’s (various Pok Pok locations throughout Portland, New York and LA) Ike’s Vietnamese Fish Sauce Chicken Wings

Pok Pok Wing at the PDX airport offers Ike's Vietnamese Fish Sauce Chicken Wings  which you can get normal or spicy. You can get a half dozen in a full order, or just 3 wings in a half order of these fresh whole natural chicken wings marinated in fish sauce and sugar, deep fried, and tossed in caramlized Phu Quoo fish sauce and garlic

Mama Chow’s Kitchen Lollipop Wings with the bone exposed nicely to give you a place to hold

Mama Chow's Kitchen justifiably raved about lollipop wings with honey soy garlic glaze with jasmine rice and baby bok choy

Fire On The Mountain classic selection of buckets of wings and a dozen possible sauces plus rotating new sauces that they will add… and they even have vegetarian wings. Some people complain the wings can be a little skinny, but I always point out that FOTM uses free range chicken, not doped up chicken.

My favorite in town, PaaDee Thai Peek gai tod, fried wings glazed in Sriracha fish sauce. If you come here, you must get this, happy hour or not.

PaaDee Thai comfort food พาดี, Peek gai tod, fried wings glazed in Sriracha fish sauce. If you come here, you must get this, happy hour or not.

Happy Wings Wednesday!

What/where are your favorite chicken wings?

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Happy Hour at Planet Thai, Beaverton

I am a wordy person. I know. That’s just the way I am when I write. Though in person I have all those same thoughts, I don’t always string them out verbally… I save it often for when I can type at my 90+ words per minute, because even as a fast talker I can’t keep up.

Yes dad, all those typing speed games you gave me and my brother and sisters on the Type-right a Pre-computer Typing Tutors when we were young totally paid off beyond getting us easily through typing class (I can’t believe my typing class was still on a typewriter, and the entire time I thought how they missed an opportunity by not using Word Invaders…)

Looking back, my parents were SO clever. Besides this trick to teach us, they also would take us to the Teachers Store to load us with all the workbooks for us to “play school” during the summer. I also remember super fondly listening to Little Thinker tapes where I would just sit by myself, listening to the storytelling on the tape which had pauses to play music and draw that part of the story, and that all the tapes could be put into one large plastic case. It seems they come in mp3 format now, but I still remember fondly the feel of the cassette tapes. What a clever way for a me as a kid to entertain myself.

Wait, here I go ahead, typing a whole bunch of stuff when this is supposed to be a photo post of a Happy Hour at Planet Thai, Beaverton. This was supposed be a clever setup where this post shows you some pictures, and you have to use your own creative storytelling to fill in the blanks.

Just imagine it’s Friday, it’s finally 5, and it’s happy hour time! Planet Thai is right at the Beaverton Central Max station. Planet Thai boasts $5 martinis such as these, as well as 20 items on their happy hour menu 3-6pm daily, all $5 or less to nosh on, including the spicy saucy Street Vendor Thai Chicken wings and a generous side of Thai fried rice. That last martini isn’t on the menu, but is an alcoholic take on a Thai Iced Tea. When the weather is nice, they can pull back the garage door walls/windows by the bar so you can enjoy the summer breeze as you sip. They have only been open since January (this was the previous location of Typhoon, and this is the second location of a Planet Thai the other being in Vancouver WA), and seems to still be an undiscovered gem.

What are you thinking/talking about as you enjoy lime, pear vodka and blue curacao, and thai iced tea cocktails?

Lime cocktail at Planet Thai, Beaverton, happy hour, cocktails, $5 cocktail Pear vodka and Blue Curacao cocktail at Planet Thai, Beaverton, happy hour, cocktails, $5 cocktail Thai Iced Tea cocktail at Planet Thai, Beaverton, happy hour, cocktails, $5 cocktail spicy saucy Street Vendor Thai Chicken wings at Planet Thai, Beaverton, happy hour, cocktails, $5 food

Is it Friday yet?

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Fire On The Mountain Wingextravaganza

We were hungry after attending the Cans Beer Festival and enjoying the music of Ghost Montrose. We went walking for food and wound up at a place I always noticed when we passed on the way to other places and had heard good things of, but never experienced: Fire On The Mountain (Ok, I linked the website… but it sucks). They have two locations in Portland and offers wings- I believe 12 different barbecue and hot sauce options with a rotating extra special sauce which will be different depending on the location. When we went up to order they had a little sample bin with celery sticks so we could sample to pick out the winners that would make it to the put it on chicken round- thoughtful gesture.

The service model is that you go up to the counter to order, and they hand you your soda glass or your pint of beer (they have several local microbrew drafts) and a number, and you seat yourself and wait for your food to appear. You can choose a differenct sauce for every six wings, and it comes with the expected ranch dressing and celery sticks. The chicken wings are not very meaty, though they have great sauces, and the wings do come drenched in the sauce.

I need more then celery and ranch as a palate cleanser between meat and sauce, so I also ordered a small order of tater tots and their Homemade Blue Cheese Stuffed Fried Mushrooms which comes with Chili Garlic Aioli. I found the breading around the mushrooms to be really salty. The tater tots were exactly as you would expect. Is there ever a time when tater tots cannot be added to a meal?

FOTM is very Portland in that it is very earth friendly- they compost all their waste (their products are reusable plastic baskets or paper or corn products), support biodiesel, the chicken they use is free-range (is that why they are skinny?) and… they have a vegetarian option. I’m not talking about just the celery sticks, or a salad, or the fact they have deep fried Twinkes and Oreos for dessert.

They have a vegetarian version so that even non-meat eaters can enjoy their various sauces. In this initial visit, they were advertising vegan drumsticks, and so they were ordered. The “bone” is I think a stick of sugar cane. After I chewed on it to try to identify it, I realized it was one with El Jefe sauce and so my tongue was on fire shortly afterward, and my lips tingly still 30 minutes later. Both photos below are the vegan drumsticks…

I didn’t try the Fried Nutter Butters, but here they are for posterity

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