Town Crier Articles

 

From our files of useless information, Americans ate 1.3 billion – yes, billion – chicken wings during this past Super Bowl.

 

If you missed your chance to join the party, fear not. The original Wing a Ding Ding Festival is coming to our state capital on July 16 at Richmond Raceway on East Labernum Street. And you don’t have to sit through hours and hours of football and (mostly) lousy commercials to enjoy the goodies.

 

Event organizers promise they’ll provide more than 30 kinds if wings – Hot Nashville, Cajun Spicy, Crunchy, Southern Fried, Crispy Korean, Mild, Medium, Hot, XXXtra Hot, I-Been-To-Hell-and-Back Hot.

 

 

And that’s not all. There will be fried chicken aplenty, all of which can be washed down with your choice of craft beers, hard cider, wine or good ol’ fashioned soda pop. They might even have water. They say the food is prepared by top chefs and food vendors.

 

The festivities begin at 11:30 a.m. and run until 9 p.m. There are six different levels of tickets, ranging from $15 to $45.

 

Some finger-lickin’ history: Fried chicken wings have been a Southern staple for years and years. But the idea of smothering them in peppery hot sauce was born in Buffalo, N.Y., at the Anchor Bar, an establishment still going strong. In 1964, bar owner Teressa Bellisimo began cooking chicken wings as a late-night snack for her son and his friends.

 

How did she come by the wings? She ordered them by mistake, thinking she was getting chicken necks, which her husband used in making his spaghetti sauce. Trying to make the best of a bad situation, she began frying them after coating them in pepper sauce.

 

Hopefully, all of her mistakes turned out so well.

 

For more information on Wing a Ding Ding Festival, visit this website.