“He who controls the spice, controls the Universe.” – Baron Harkonnen.
As an asian with a Chinese/Malaysian background to boot, going to a place that is known for wings so spicy that it will “take you to hell and back” is something I knew I had to cross off my proverbial food bucket list.
So, late last month, a friend and I decided to make the trek down to the CBD, to test our mettle against what was being called the spiciest wings in Melbourne!
Who wins? Who loses? More importantly. . . are these wings just overdosed scoville skewers or is there something here that will keep us coming back for more?
Stepping into the restaurant, our initial impressions were fairly bland. Horror stories of terrible service precluded this initial visit so we were slightly apprehensive of when we would actually be eating. Surprisingly however, the food came out pretty quickly and the service, while not five star, was decent enough.
First on the order were drinks, and we both, wisely, chose the milk tea packet drinks as a first aid measure against what was hyped to be a fiery meal of epic proportions. After the initial drink menu, we settled for a variety of skewers including 1 set (two wings) of the reputable crazy wings. A barrel (literally) of fried rice was also ordered as a second level defence mechanism should the milk tea fail the job.
Wisely, we sampled a few of the other skewers before trying the crazy wings. It’s one of those tastes which seem to permeate these type of cuisines. While there are different types of meat, chicken, pork, lamb, they all have that sameness taste that ultimately, you’ll either love or hate. Even the mushroom skewer that we ordered seemed to taste like everything else. Thankfully, I am a fan (even if not a huge one) of the taste, and the skewers were all very tasty in my opinion. Finally, we came to the Crazy Wing special. Taking a wing each with the milk tea at the ready, we dug in. And tasted… disappointment I guess? The spice was there, the hotness was there, but it wasn’t OH MY GOD IT’S SO HOT I NEED AN AMBULANCE STAT hot. And because of the hype of the heat surrounding the wings, we felt slightly cheated.
The fried rice really was nothing to sing praises about, ours was slightly gluggy and not fried enough in my opinion. It was more of a stomach filler for the wings than anything of note. Honestly, the container that housed the fried rice held my attention more than the rice itself. I have to find out where to get one of these things.
Recommendations? If you are a spice hunter looking for a measure of worth, don’t bother. They really aren’t that hot. Are you looking for a relatively cheap meal with that spicy Sichuan flavour coating just about everything? I would say, give it a go, but don’t expect the (spiciest) world.
Recommended.
Restaurant detailsCrazy Wings
177 Russell Street
Melbourne, 3000
Not that hot? Really, i am curious if you can recommend something nearer to the OMG hot level coz i just had the wings 2 days ago and thought that they were up there. I have been eating from a few Sichuan restaurants in chinatown like Dianty and the the new Sichuan house, thought that i can hold my spices well enough and that the wings were overrated, i was wrong. Seriously please recommend something even more potent please
You want crazy hot wings? try chickilia (behind woori mart – a korean grocery store) on springvale road in glen waverley….same row as shira nui…guaranteed to blow your socks off!
Not hot, are you serious? eat 2 sets and im sure you will retract that comment, I constantly search out hot food and lace most meals with chilli, this stuff is the real deal,
I will admit, these wings were admittedly hot. I’ve recently been back and tried a few more sets of the crazy wings. The heat is direct and hits you like a heat wave. For me though, the spice just doesn’t linger as long as some fresh cut homegrown chilli that I’ve sampled before (a full three hours later my mouth was still red hot).