Chook Me!

Why are buffalo chicken wings so often served with blue cheese and celery?

I've noticed that the obligatory side dish to an order of chicken wings at many restaurants seems to be celery sticks and some sort of blue cheese dip. Not being a chicken-wing-eater myself, it seems to be a terribly odd combination. Other than "I dunno, it tastes good?", I have yet to hear a definitive origin for this traditional trio.

Public Comments

1. Because that the way they serve it in the east where it all started. Why is there cheese on a philly cheese steak?
2. wings are saucy:acid and dressing is bland:alkaline they neutralize one another to some degree..? it's a guess
3. Because that is the way they were first served up at the Anchor Bar, in Buffalo NY. The orginators of the Buffalo Chicken Wings.
4. Darned if I know. I eat the wings and leave that weirdo junk alone. It's like "Here, have some ketchup to dip that ice cream cone in" or something.
5. The blue cheese & celery "cool" the "hot" effects of the wings. Dairy products cool spicy foods in the mouth. That is why in hot wing or hot pepper eating contests, they tend to drink milk or butter milk afterwards (water intensifies it). Drinking milk after wings sounds pretty nasty to me but I have never had it so hot that I would need that! Same thing with the celery. It has a cooling sensation when chewed. So, they both started woth a purpose, but then just became popular & just stuck with it everywhere it went.
6. The story goes that a kitchen employee--just about to close up for the evening had a flustered waitress bust into the kitchen to say the local mobsters just walked into the bar and they were hungry. Being a busy night, most of the food was gone and all he had left were some ingredients for soup: frozen chicken wings and celery. The bleu cheese was just a panicky afterthought. So now we have a bunch of mobsters to thank for a chain of scantily-clad waitresses who have been blessed in the northern hemisphere!
7. I live in Buffalo and have never heard anyone question the blue cheese and celery side dish. I guess I'm so used to it, I think of it as being only natural. I'm not sure of its origin, but it's definitely an interesting question.