We had heard many things about Buffalo. Sadly none of them were very good. We had heard that it was the best place in the world to get chicken wings, actually we assumed that given they are called 'Buffalo Wings' (I hadn't assumed this as I always believed these were the side cuts of a buffalo, but I didn't share my disappointment with Nikolai or Whitney).
So we arrived in the centre of Buffalo courtesy of Tom, our satellite navigator and decided to find a place to eat. Whitney searched for Restaurants in the SatNav and I was instructed to turn left. I was following instructions under the impression that Tom was an intelligent navigator (from his voice you would assume he went to Eaton and then Oxford, although considering the current Mayor of London has a similar accent this in itself should have set alarm bells ringing), it would appear however, that Tom is an imbecile. After my heart had slowed a little and my breathing became more regulated, I pondered the wisdom of allowing a computer, especially one that has not been programmed with Buffalo's one way system, to be the master of our seemingly fragile lives.
We arrived at the restaurant (imaginatively named 'The Buffalo') only to find that it had recently closed down, and so we decided to walk around and have a look. It soon became apparent that everything had shut down and that there were only a handful of people on the streets, mostly people asking for money. It was really eerie (Erie), not dissimilar to one of those disaster films where a city is evacuated due to nuclear attack or an ebola outbreak.
We felt quite out of place and
decided to head back to the car and give Tom a chance to redeem himself. He did and we sat down to a monstrous portion of Buffalo Wings and iced tea at the Coulter Bay grill. Whitney had BBQ wings after the waitress gave a thoroughly inadequate explanation as to what flavour 'Buffalo' actually was (though to be fair she did have the look of a woman who had never been asked this question before). Whitney made a good choice. The Buffalo Wings were rather sharp and had little flavour other than the taste of the 'hot sauce' they were smothered in, whilst the BBQ wings were tasty, spicy, flavoursome and rather enjoyable.
As we drove home I felt a pang of sympathy for the city. It was obviously once a thriving epicentre of production and a thoroughfare of goods and trade, the grandiose buildings and harbour testify to that, but now it is as empty and depressing a place as I could imagine. Nikolai stayed there a while longer and maybe he has brighter news to report. We shall see.
(Follow up) Nikolai reported that, due to the lack of quality activities available, he decided to try 'Buffalo Wings' in another restaurant. Goodness knows how he had the room or the desire to repeat the ordeal, but such is his dedication to providing you with wholly accurate information. The wings were in fact identical to the first, which if we're being fair to the people of Buffalo, shows their commitment to preserving this famous recipe by keeping it consistent.
