Sira-sira store: On the wings of a buffalo

  
Ober Khok

LIKE Puss In Boots from the movie Shrek, my nephew Pannon looked at me with the cat’s moist and soulful eyes. I know that look and it spells a series of unfortunate questions.

I was hunched over my computer and seriously typing “nsnsnsns” and “kdkdkdk” and “jfjfjfjfj,” and making real paragraphs, too. I call that my panic mode, a time when I
have nothing to write about. Pannon observed me for a few minutes and then asked a question. When he asks, I shiver.

“Uncle, are writers crazy people?”

I weighed my answer as a seasoned baker would weigh precious flour. “Well, there are crazy people who are not writers and there are writers who are crazy.”

“So there are two kinds of humans: writers and ordinary ones?”

“Yes, all writers are special, highly skilled and very intelligent” I lied to him.

“Is that why you can write Chinese words on your computer? I can’t read what you’re writing.”

I ruffled his hair. “Silly, this is Greek.” As I was saying this, I heard my Tita Blitte warning me: “Ober, stop teasing the boy. Don’t you notice that he’s writing notes?”
Indeed he was. The kid was writing down everything I had said.

“I was just joking. Why are you writing down what I said?” I asked him.

“I want to be like you, a ‘journeyist’.” He mispronounced the word, but I liked it better than “a journalist,” who strikes you as a bloke who does a lot of writing and very little journeying.

“Uncle, I have a question,” he paused. “Can buffalos fly? Tita Krystal’s magazine had pictures of Buffalo wings, but they were made of chicken.”

Yesterday, I had Buffalo wings in an uptown pizza house, but never once did I ponder about flying buffalos. I invited Pannon to look up the word with me. I told him that a good “jouneyist” must have the patience to do his homework.

“I can do that. I always have homework.”

This piece of chicken is a storied appetizer. The Wikipedia said that Buffalo wings got its name from Buffalo, New York, where it originated. Ironically, residents there refer to them as wings or chicken wings rather than Buffalo wings.

Many restaurants today have deviated from the original wings. They have taken the liberty of calling other chicken parts as Buffalo-something.

I don’t know if Buffalo-wing originator, Teresa Belissimo, is turning in her grave over what has become to her recipe. By the way, she was the co-owner of the Anchor Bar, in Buffalo, New York, where the first Buffalo wings were made.

“So buffalos can’t fly, Pannon, except in fairy tales and in art. I have to be honest with you. A good ‘journeyist’ must be honest, too.”

He looked sad. “Well, maybe it’s like utan Bisaya. It can’t talk but because it comes from the Visayas, it’s called Bisaya, right, uncle?

“You make me proud, Pannon. A good ‘journeyist’ must see the common thread in what he sees and hears.”

I thought we were through, but he gave me that cat look again. “So how did the doughnut get its name?”

Tita Blitte shot me with her index finger and laughed. “You met your match, Ober.”

“I know. I promise to share my answer to that one next week, which should save me from writing nothing but nsnsnsns and kdkdkdkd.”