The World’s Best Onion Ring Just May Be Made in Vancouver

DownLow Chicken Shack’s smoked onion rings has us reaching for our thesaurus and flipping to “amazing.”

These days, superlatives have become the most common thing in the history of the planet, ever.

That being said, there’s a contender for world’s best onion ring quietly appearing every Monday in our fair city, when Doug Stephen transforms his poultry-focused DownLow Chicken Shack into a weekly ode to all things burger.

And, as great as the burgers are, it’s the available side of smoked onion rings ($4) that has us reaching for our thesaurus and flipping to “amazing.”

So, we couldn’t help but to ask Stephen himself how he gets each of these crispy morsels so light, smoky and downright tasty. We throw in a few fun facts about the ring for good measure.

1. The earliest recipe for what we commonly think of as the onion ring appeared in an 1802 cookbook called The Art of Cookery Made Easy and Refined.

2. Stephen uses only sweet onions.

3. A&W is credited with popularizing onion rings in fast food restaurants. It introduced them in the 1950s.

4. June 22 is National Onion Ring Day.

5. Stephen smokes the raw rings on a stovetop for 15 minutes with applewood chips.

6. Stephen uses soda water in the batter as opposed to beer to make them lighter and fluffier.

7. The batter is a simple mix of herbs, salt and baking soda.