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The Weekly Eater Nadine Kam |
It’s worth getting
Dirty Lickins’ for
tasty Buffalo wingsHawaii isn't exactly the Buffalo wing capital of the world, so coming here was like landing in the desert for a friend of mine.
Having grown up just outside Buffalo, N.Y., she was privy to an endless supply of the crunchy, buttery, Tabasco-doused wings. Pizza and chicken wings happened to be the city's official food, in the same way that poke and ribs rule menus here.
There was a time I thought I could never move away because I wouldn't be able to get poke on the mainland, though good news does travel and the best chefs know exactly what poke's about, even if they tweak the formula a bit and give it some highfalutin name like "tartare" or "tunapica."
So desperate was my friend and the rest of her clan that they bought themselves a deep fryer and attempted to re-create the pleasure of the red, crispy wings at home. But it took a lot of effort and never came out as crispy as they liked them. On top of that, the size of the fryer limited them to making 12 wings at a time, hardly enough to serve six people with cravings built up over a couple years.
It was enough to make a person go mad! MAD!!!
Then they discovered the mother lode of Buffalo wings and keep going back for more Dirty Lickins'. The masochists! Or should I say hedonists?
I know all about Buffalo wing addiction. Never having discovered them in Hawaii, I grew quite attached to them when I worked briefly in Washington, D.C., such that I would skip out on my friends and head to a chicken joint for the things.
"Hey, where'd you disappear to?" people would ask upon my return.
I said nothing. How could I admit to having spent an afternoon with hot sauce smeared on my lips?
DENNIS ODA / DODA@STARBULLETIN.COM
At Dirty Lickins' in the Aiea Shopping Center, manager Kapua Brooks, left, owner Ron Lee and Lee's mom, Susan, hold a platter full of Buffalo wings. Susan lives in New York now but has been put to work for the past few months while visiting to escape the winter cold.
DIRTY LICKINS' owner Ronald Lee was also a latecomer to the Buffalo wings phenomenon, having grown up in Aiea and only discovering them when he headed for Columbia University. He and his friends were so enamored by them that they decided to wing it in opening an eatery devoted to Buffalo's finest.
"It was almost a joke, because we all had other plans -- one was supposed to go to law school, another, business school."
Lee was supposed to finish his dental studies, but the wing business took off. Even so, he knew he would return home one day, and after spending more than 12 years in the Big Apple, that day came after 9/11.
From his low-key site at Aiea Shopping Center, he now offers an expanded menu of lunch plates and chili. Get a salad if you feel guilty about the fat you're downing. The basic Caesar is $4.25. Get it without chicken to avoid redundancy. But for this wing addict, it's the Buffalo wings -- crisp on the outside, juicy on the inside -- that are the magnet.
Lee offers them mild, medium, hot and volcanic, plus served with BBQ, honey mustard or teriyaki sauces. The medium version has a sweet coating that tempers the fire, and many appreciate that nuance to the peppery, eye-opening vinegary zing of the volcanic sauce. The volcanic is my favorite, comparable to Hawaii's other Buffalo specialist, the Shack. But Dirty Lickins' wings have a crispness I have to request specially at the Shack.
The teriyaki and honey-mustard sauces are a nod to the local palate. The yellow tinge of the honey-mustard sauce didn't appeal to my native New Yorker friend. "It looks strange," she said, and wouldn't touch them. Purists will cringe, but KFC gave us a taste for sweet-coated chicken, and sure enough, it's been the No. 1 choice. The honey-mustard sauce even has cast Lee as a minor celeb. "I get recognized in Kmart. Guys come up to me and say, 'Hey, your honey-mustard sauce is awesome!'"
If you're not sure whether you'll like a certain sauce, you can pick up small orders of five pieces for $3.75. The largest order he's received has been for 500 wings, so his menu goes up to 500 wings for $292.50.
A meal special of wings, thick fries and a soft drink starts at $4.75 for four wings or $6.85 for eight.
He also keeps a running count on wings -- more than 129,400 sold as of my visit. I added 34 to that list.
Aiea Shopping Center, third floor #303 / 486-8500 Dirty Lickins'
Hours: 10:30 a.m. to 8 p.m. Mondays to Saturdays, and 11:30 a.m. to 6 p.m. Sundays (subject to change during football season)
Wings 
Other Food Service Ambience Value Cost: About $7 for an eight-wing meal with fries and a regular drink
See some past restaurant reviews in the Columnists section.
Nadine Kam's restaurant reviews are conducted anonymously and paid for by the Star-Bulletin. Star ratings are based on comparisons of similar restaurants:
To recommend a restaurant, write: The Weekly Eater, P.O. Box 3080, Honolulu, Hawaii 96802. Or send e-mail to nkam@starbulletin.com
excellent; very good, exceeds expectations; average; below average.
