Shaina In New York: 30 for 30 Countdown #15

When people in Hawaii get together to watch sports or have a potluck, typical food that shows up includes sushi, poke (chunks of raw fish and seaweed), and manapua (steamed pork buns). It does not include Buffalo wings (at least it didn't in the 80's and 90's).

Not growing up around this type of bar food, it was only slightly unacceptable to have my very own Jessica Simpson moment my freshman year of college. "What part of a buffalo do these wings come from?" I asked a friend who suggested ordering buffalo wings. Recognizing my naïveté, my friend answered, "they are the little ribs under the buffalo's stomach." I thought this was weird and suggested we get pizza instead.

Later, watching some fraternity boys stuff their face, I remarked, "little buffalo ribs are gross." After the group stopped laughing, the entire story of the Buffalo wing was explained. I now understood that it was actually chicken cooked in sauce made from Buffalo, NY.

My humiliation did not stop there. Shortly after this, we had a nice dinner with a bunch of friends and their parents during parent visitation weekend. I saw buffalo loaf on the menu (whaddya know! They still serve it! http://www.churchbrew.com/menus/DinnerMenu.pdf).

As I ordered, I proudly announced to the table that I knew I was actually ordering a chicken loaf. The waiter paused then told me that it was, in fact, buffalo in the meat loaf. This didn't deter me - I couldn't be tricked again! I launched into the story that I had learned about the sauce from upstate NY. Again, I had an entire table laughing at me. I was too embarrassed to change my order and loved the buffalo. It has been my burger preference ever since.

However, the entire ordeal has never been revisited on the buffalo wing side. It's partially the residual embarrassment (I pride myself on knowing a lot about food), and partially the fact that wings look absolutely disgusting. I don't even really like chicken in the first place - skin and other pieces... blech.

So, today I decided to try my first Buffalo wing. Since this is 30 for 30, what better way to try something new than to pledge to eat 30. That's right. I decided I to eat 30 Buffalo wings.

3 trays of 30....1/3 of these were mine! (Cajun, Buffalo, and BBQ)

I started off strong with a sample of each type. I recall actually liking them as I first tried them. Since the response from people was generally disbelief, "you can't eat 30 wings!" I decided to make it interesting. I asked for pledges per wing, 100% of which would be donated to charity.

Eighteen of my coworkers pledged between 50 cents and $3 per wing. The deal was, they would only pay if I finished the entire 30. The pledge count reached $630! I knew that was a lot of money for the homeless and it all depended on my ability to eat...