Mom Would Think This Chicken Wing Shortage Is So Funny

If you haven't heard the news, after a year of toilet paper, sardine, and what not shortages, we are now on to chicken wings. Now, for the better part of probably the past two decades, chicken wings, along with beer (and don't forget the beer) have become a staple of American hanging out. But like the song lyric goes, "you don't know what you got until you lose it". Hooters came and went, other wing places are still there, but have all had to struggle through the pandemic, but now a shortage has developed and all of the sudden people are lost without their wings.

All of which made me think of my late mother. She would think this is all kind of funny. Chicken wings? When she was a girl growing up in the 20's and 30's, chicken wings were the dregs. Wings were chicken parts that were used for making chicken stock or bouillon. You fed this to your farm animals. Now, they're selling for how much?

It's the same thing with flank steak. Until some enterprising chef came along, threw on some teriyaki marinade and poked it with a fork a thousand times "for tenderizing", flank steak was also the dregs.

Now, remember, these Eastern European refugees were from a hearty stock and they could make something out of nothing, or anything. Cabbage soup, Hunter's Stew, vodka, there's probably a dozen other things I'm forgetting, but when a hip, trendy, chef does it, it becomes hip and trendy and ultimately we'll have a shortage, with the price skyrocketing (and the cynic in me knows, someone is making a profit.)

And yes, I did say vodka. Before Big Liquor "discovered" flavored vodkas, my mother and any number of other women would make their own homemade version. Take some grain alcohol and cut it, throw in some lemon rind and a little sugar, or some peppercorns for the hot stuff, you've got flavored vodka. My cousin Barbara's mom made a caramel vodka that if you played nice, it would play nice. And I can hear my mom's voice in the back on my mind saying "they are charging how much for a shot of that"?