The Boston Globe

MENU SPEAK: Chicken Lollipops

By Joe Yonan, February 8, 2006

We've eaten meat-on-a-stick ever since we've eaten meat, since bones make perfect handles. Once chefs and butchers started scraping the bone end of certain cuts clean, it was only a matter of time before things like that ''Frenched" rack of lamb and even chicken wings started being referred to as that childhood favorite -- a lollipop.

At West on Centre, executive chef Michael McEwen makes a lollipop take on buffalo wings, cutting the wing in two, losing the joint, and pushing the meaty stuff down to one end of each bone. As playful as the name is, it's an elegant presentation, since the chef has made wing-eating a bit less messy. ''We're not trying to reinvent a buffalo wing," he says. ''We're just trying to present it a little nicer without going overboard." McEwen, 31, remembers seeing chicken lollipops on food television when he was a child, then learned them as a classical butchering technique at Johnson and Wales in Providence. Nonprofessionals don't always know what they're in for when they order them, though: ''People are like, 'Oh, OK, this isn't what I had envisioned, but it's cool,' " he says.

The restaurant goes through 80 to 100 pounds of chicken lollipops a week. Maybe that's because unlike candy lollipops, which present the classic lick-it-or-bite-it dilemma, when meat's on the end of the stick, the choice is clear. West on Centre, 1732 Centre St., West Roxbury, 617-323-4199, www.westoncentreboston.com.