Need to spice up your social distancing? Crafty Cow might just have the solution – at least for taste buds that can handle the heat.
Starting on Thursday, May 7, the Wisconsin-based burger restaurant will host a virtual hot wing eating competition for heat-seekers, featuring a new devilish (and devilishly delicious) chicken wing sauce nicknamed MKE Lava.
The challenge requires brave contestants to eat three of these MKE Lava wings as fast as they can. Three wings may not sound too hard on paper, but Crafty Cow uses whole wings, so they're actually closer to six regular-sized wings – and, most pressing, the new MKE Lava sauce is concocted with Carolina Reaper pepper, ghost pepper and cayenne pepper, so that's a lot of burn ready to blister your buds. In fact, there's so much heat that your order of wings comes complete with a cautionary disclaimer.
"We have always wanted to make a hotter version of our Nashville Hot and 414 Fire sauces, and we thought, 'Why not do it now?'" said Devin Eichler, co-owner of Crafty Cow, in a release. "After we made it and all challenged each other to eat it at work, we thought, 'You know what would be really entertaining? ... If we had people record themselves eating these wings for a virtual wing eating competition.' These wings are hot. They sneak up on you, but they taste amazing."
Considering my colleague Nick Barth and I tried the 414 Fire sauce for our Burning Though Brew City series, ranking it within the top ten spiciest dishes we've tried in Milwaukee ... and this is allegedly even hotter, I'm starting to sweat already.
To compete:
- Order a batch of the MKE Lava wings online at Crafty Cow's website.
- Make a video of your poor, soon-to-be-sorry self eating these dangerously delicious wings. Make sure to include a close-up of the wings before and after eating to confirm no spicy seasoning has been removed and that all wings were eaten. You are NOT allowed to split the wings with another person – this tasty napalm is for you and you alone – and no beverages are allowed until after the wings have been consumed.
- Post the video on either Facebook or Instagram by Thursday, May 14, and be sure to tag Crafty Cow in the post. The winner will be announced on Monday, May 18.
The contestant who eats all three wings in the least amount of time will win the grand prize: a t-shirt, a $50 Crafty Cow gift card and the honorary title of "The Bravest Eater in All of Quarantine!" (OK, I just made that last bit up.)
To order your wings – either for the competition or simply to test your own napalm-eating might – go to Crafty Cow's website. (More sensible palates, aka cowards, can find the rest of the menu there too.) And stay tuned to OnMilwaukee, as I'm thinking Burning Through Brew City might have to take a bite out of this combustible quarantine snack ...
As much as it is a gigantic cliché to say that one has always had a passion for film, Matt Mueller has always had a passion for film. Whether it was bringing in the latest movie reviews for his first grade show-and-tell or writing film reviews for the St. Norbert College Times as a high school student, Matt is way too obsessed with movies for his own good.
When he's not writing about the latest blockbuster or talking much too glowingly about "Piranha 3D," Matt can probably be found watching literally any sport (minus cricket) or working at - get this - a local movie theater. Or watching a movie. Yeah, he's probably watching a movie.
