Triple Bone Marrow: Double Crown, Fergus Henderson and Croquettes

If anyone follows my Twitter feed (like you care), you might know that I was really really craving bone marrow all last week. By Friday, my hunger had reached the breaking point. So before seeing a midnight showing of "The Room" with a bunch of friends in the East Village, my buddy and I went downtown in search of bone marrow. I looked on Menupages for bone marrow dishes, and noticed that Double Crown served a miso glazed marrow with orange marmalade and toast. It was also conveniently located across the street from DBGB, which serves a fantastic marrow dish with mustard seeds and Katz's pastrami.

Reaching the Bowery Restaurant District (or you could call the area around East Houston and Bowery E-HoBo), we found that DBGB was packed (as expected). So was Double Crown, and we were quoted an hour-long wait. Luckily, we slid into two open seats at the corner of the bar. My buddy volunteered that he'd been drinking since 3pm to every gorgeous girl within earshot while I desperately tried to get the bartender's attention. I ordered almost immediately after getting the menu-- bone marrow and... chicken wings?

Served "Szechuan style" ($10) on the snacks menu, the chicken wings were the surprise of the night. I was skeptical, but intrigued (and needed something substantial + cheap to go with the marrow).  I do not exaggerate when I say that these were in the top 3 best wings I have ever eaten. Completely unexpected. We were served 8 wings that looked like Korean fried chicken wings, with their telltale crispy shells. Coating the wings was essentially the common Szechuan sauce containing chile oil, Szechuan peppercorn, soy, sugar and sometimes ginger. It was awesome.... I could have eaten about 50. Are these a secret? I can't believe I haven't heard anyone else rave about them, but I would definitely go back to Double Crown for the wings alone.

My only complaint is the side of celery and carrots with... nothing. What the hell? Don't give me celery and carrots if you aren't going to serve me a delicious blue cheese dressing to dip it in. My buddy gave the bartender a crazy look as he tried to pass by, blurting out "WHERE'S DA BLUE CHEESE?" The bartender shook his head no and ran off.

My lips were still tingling from the Szechuan peppercorns when the miso glazed bone marrow arrived. It was good, but a letdown compared to the wings. The miso glaze added a nice salty richness, and the orange marmalade had a complex taste.  Eaten all together, it tasted like orange duck, especially with the five spice in the marmalade.  Unfortunately, the brioche was too sweet for the rest of the ingredients (I already have the marmalade, I want a neutral bread dammit!).