but what dirty martin's has that really deserves special mention are what i like to call "little spears of heaven": DEEP FRIED PICKLES.
this leads me to a general question. there's a saying in texas (and probably in most parts of the US) that everything tastes better fried. do you think that this is true?
i've had fried twinkies, snicker bars, pickles, tomatoes, zucchini, shrimp, ice cream...all of these items sure were tasty. have you ever had a situation where you ate something fried and it just wasn't good? do tell.
and also, let us know WFL?
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PS: special shout out to diz and ro-esq, who i hung out with this past week. you guys are the best texas hosts a girl could have. thank you thank you thank you!!!
almost anything can be improved by either wrapping it in bacon, or by frying it. In the best circumstances you do both.
The one fried item I can recall eating and not loving is the chicken finger things at Chili's. They are lightly breaded, golden brown, and just plain gross. I've had them two times and both times, they were not drained so they were very oily and even worse, the oil pooled between the chicken and the batter and ewww, I just threw up a little in my mouth.
When I worked at El Indio, I loved using the fryer to make the taquitos and the apple burritos. It took me a while to try other things, but after the first experiment, I dropped every meal that I stole from that place in the oil and it was great. You just can't go wrong frying any Mexican food.
I agree with Sunshine...it's really not what kind of food that tastes bad fried, but it is how the food is fried that will make it taste bad. If not done properly you wind up with an unedible, limp and greasy mess.
A surprisingly pleasant fried treat that I had once was fried tempura bacon. Amd for all of you Bonnarooers...not that Jo would allow you to miss it...but GET THE DEEP FRIED STUFFED OLIVES...so good!
Thanks TAFKALC, you made what would have been another boring week into an adventure.
We had the experience to show a little "Texas Charm" to TAFKALC. So, deep fryin' or "Texas Charm(ing)" anything is good shyte. Like Mikey and Uni advised though it is only for those people that can watch a clock and understand the golden brown isn't a good indicator of "done" when dealing with batter and content.
It is all trial and error.
Today I learned that a friend bought a new sports car so we are going to lunch and I'm driving his shiney new vehicle. I don't know where yet, but I'm thinking burger or good Vietnamese (with good fried spring rolls - vietnamese style).
Any suggestions would be appreciated.
Oh, I'm not letting anyone off the hook for supporting Tejas as the next OWFL convention. We would be looking into Bonaroo but we are freakin broke after we had not one but two friends come in for two weeks in-a-row.
Peep...I was an avid pickle juice drinker when I was younger...Claussen garlic flavor.
The olives were stuffed with cheese, perfectly breaded and fried to a golden crisp. They had a good texture...not mushy at all. And not too bready, the coating was just enough and not overpowering. I think they may have come with some marinara sauce on the side. Fabulous little guys.
I also hope that they have the cantaloupe ice cream truck there for you all. It's half of an ice cold cantaloupe used as a bowl and filled with vanilla ice cream. Very refreshing. I want to go back.
I'm going to spend the next three seconds considering what else may result in an unedible, limp, greasy mess...
Okay.
I have to jump on the frying-execution as opposed to the inherent-tastiness-of-ingredients-fried bandwagon. A kid who worked for me in my second year of AmeriCorps tried to make his grandma's fried chicken in the one-bedroom Newark, NJ apartment where my team was sleeping. While I have no doubt that grandma's chicken would have blown the walls out of that building, Gemayne's only succeeded in filling the trashcan, the sink, and the toilet, in that order.
In short, a skilled fryer can enhance anything, while an unskilled fryer can ruin anything.
That said,I have to mention that I had a childhood aversion to mushrooms (that lasted well into my mid-20s and has since gone the way of the dodo). I wouldn't eat them on pizzas, on burgers, off of a vegetable tray under half an inch of dip...unless they were fried.
So, if we limit the question to skillful frying, then I say: there is nothing that frying can't make better.
And, after this, I think I might have to find some fried mushrooms and a burger for lunch today.
I worked at a country club during a couple summers at home during college, mostly in the pool shack as a short order cook. There were a lot of cloudy days with very little to do but drink beer and throw stuff in the fryer. Dave was the guy you wanted to draw a shift with, because that dude was weird. I can’t even remember everything we dropped in that fryer. I do remember deep fried starbursts being a hit with the little pool rats that would hang around the shack. I didn’t care much for those, myself.
(Please skip the next paragraph. WFL is at the end.)
If we were bored with the fryer, we’d make up games such as “Driving Range Produce Toss” (limes make the best produce projectile, in my opinion) or “Samurai Hotdog Challenge.” SHC is where you toss a hotdog at your opponent, who has a kitchen knife. The knife holder, or “Samurai,” has to try to cut the hotdog into as many pieces as possible before it hits the ground. A two-piece round was pretty standard. A few times we got three pieces. One day I got FIVE pieces, which means connecting with the dog on three slashes. It was pretty amazing (and dangerous) and I was feeling pretty hot-to-trot. Then Dave did the same thing on the VERY NEXT TOSS! We never sniffed five again. Just one of those crazy things. “Pin the Cheese on Dave’s Forehead” was another good game. If you could toss a slice of american cheese from all away across the shack and make it stick to his big greasy forehead, Dave had to wear the cheese until it fell off or until the general manager came out. There was a complicated point system for connecting from intermediate distances that I can’t remember. Had something to do with booze.
I brought leftover skirt steak (marinated in a ginger, garlic, onion, and brown sugar reduction, with soy sauce, lime juice, olive oil, sesame oil and rum, then broiled) and cauliflower.
I think frying enhances all food, but that not all fried food is good, and I point to the food itself being fried rather than the manner of the frying.
The one fried thing I can't stand is chicharon that they serve up in Mexico, you won't find it on any menus in mexican restaurants though.
Its basically a giant pork-rind, about the size of an elephants ear. Its a big slab of pig fat cooked in oil. I think in that case, the ingredient is precisely the problem. I tried it a couple times and they just made me sick. Fat fried in fat = gross and fatty.
Dipso I want your lunch today...I'm sick of my turkey sandwich...today is the 4th day in a row...blah.
I am so happy that a game like samuri Hot dog exists.
I went on a Survivor weekend with Mr. Unicorn at a Primitive skills compound and got 2 good relevant fried stuff stories out of it.
First, there was the survivor challenge of "Eat This" in which the teams were lined up and each member of the team had to eat a thing of questionable edibility until somebody refused or threw up. My team lost and I only had to go one round. I got live mealworms. Mr. Uni had to go twice. he got an oyster and a Rocky mountain oyster (Sheep Balls). After Eat This was over, they "treated" us to Fried RMO's. Mr. Uni confirmed that Sheep's Balls get much tastier when fried. I never tried them.
Also at the survivor weekend, there was a chef there. He told us about a prank that he pulled on a guy in his kitchen who he hated.
He froze a used dish towel, then breaded it, then deep fried it and plated it like all the other chicken breasts. They then had a sit down meal with staff. The mark had a hard time cutting the fried towel, but he managed and allegedly ate a piece before they told him what up.
So it seems frying can make anything good enough to eat. Even towels.
WFL today is a grab and go at the mall, I gots me a shopping agenda.
I'm thinking hot bar lo mein.
Dipso, that story is so funny. I agree with what seems to be the general consensus that the method of frying trumps what is being fried. Who hasn't had fabulous fries or chicken fingers that were disgusting once they got cold or when you went back one day when the guy on fryer was clearly inexperienced? Man, I hate undercooked fries. What a let-down.
The two worst fried-food stories I have: 1. (I think I mentioned this on the blog before) This famous "restaurant" (really, like the guy's dining room) in Bermuda served a whole slew of sea food & it was all fried. Even the conch chowder (not even a creamy chowder!) had a layer of oil on top. I had the worst grease hangover ever the next day. So I would add as a corrolary - quantity factors in there, too.
Crap, I forget the second story. But it was pretty bad, too.
This little italian place around the corner from my condo makes the best fried olives. The best, Jerry! God, they're good. Maybe I'll go by for some tonight, now that I'm thinking about it.
I just checked my math on the hot dog challenge. Three swipes makes four pieces. Duh. I thought five sounded wrong. We never got five.
Uni, I hope you're planning on treating yourself tomorrow.
The towel thing's good, sunshine. Man. I think I want to buy a fryer. A buddy of mine got a little personal one for x-mas last year. Great gift.
Dipso - I'm headed off to the beach tomorrow morning so I'll be treating myself to crab balls and beers for the next five days! And I'll be near a BK in the AM picking up the mister, so maybe I'll really splurge with a triple meat breakfast sammie!
I've got a looooong road trip tomorrow, and I think a BK sammy sounds like a good way to start it off.
I think it would be better if they took the 3 meat sammy and just dunked the whole thing in the deep fryer, whattaya think Uni?
Ooooh...that would be like a breakfast monte cristo...yum.
Oh my God!!! Wow, I so hope I don't have to work at all tomorrow so I can get some evil deep-fried breakfast Monte Cristo . . . .
Lunch today was another pseudo-muff. Pretty good! Although not too satisfying, b/c I've been eating leftover salami, tapenade & cheese all week . . . . Yeah, I really should have gone for a salad, seeing as how I'm going to be pigging out this weekend . . . I think I'll eat my strawberry & yogurt thing now. Oink.
If one can talk fast food employees into strip searches and sodomy, I bet one could get them to drop one's sammy in the fryer for a few minutes. Or, then again, maybe not.
"Oh no. I can't do THAT."
watchdog: point taken on the chicharon story, but I still maintain that it is BETTER fried. Can you imagine even putting it near your mouth if it were broiled?
Good point EQ. An old brown shoe wouldn't taste too good, but deep fry it for a bit and it surely improves.
I don't even want to think of the "before" picture on the chicharron.
Dipso, did you work at Point O' the Woods?
Holy Shit!
and
WTF?!?!?
You know, for me, Fried was the entry vehicle for food I wouldn't have tried other wise.
I mean I never would have tried fish before fishstix, or ocra, shrimp, conch, or any number of veggies unless they were breaded and fried.
Jo, They may be infringing on our patent here, but that other blog is for nerds and dorks.
I could read her shit for months on end and never learn about samuri hot dog.
and where's the point in that?
I had a $4 lunch courtesy of the Disney catering crew.
1 foot long hotdog.
1 portion of pasta salad.
1 portion of fruit salad.
1 bag of lays potato chips.
1 glass of water.
blecch.
I don't think her blog sucks, she's got a theme and she's sticking to it...I just want some of that recognition damn it!
Jade, after reading your blog lately I think we can all agree that you would be unsuccessful in sucking down a 12 incher, in fact you may bite through it halfway down. LT on the other hand...
Oh, I can't deep throat. 12 inches around, though . . . .
Hm, I can't imagine why the Post doesn't publish something about us.
Weather is really nice today down here, which is key because my work has me sitting outside most of the day.
Might do Pleasure Island tonight.
I doubt I'll make it to Epcot.
as for today's topic, I have never been a fan of anything cooked tempura style. Never tastes bad, just doesn't ever taste like anything at all.
miu, you want me to give the missus a "mikimoto" pearl necklace?
Does that have anything to do with bukkake?
Maybe if talking about lunch had remained the primary focus around here, the WaPo would have written an article on us.
Wow, I'm cranky. Bad effin' day.
Lunch was 4 bean veggie chili that I made the other day, with the interesting inclusion of corn. And my dad's peppers - which, I have a renewed supply of, should anyone in DC be interested.
Peep that was LT who made that comment, not Uni, unless there are some very interesting off blog convos going on...
Josephus, Take it from me--skip Pleasure Island. If your wallet can handle it--Epcot is the superior drinking option. Nothing is more fun than "Drinks around the World." Each country has native beer, wine, and often a signature native drink. I went to Disney World w/ my whole family while my parents were in the middle of divorcing and my sister and I dulled our angst w/ "Beers Around the World"--We started at Mexico and worked our way around to Canada (but we skipped America and Morocco b/c Bud Light and Islam). It was just about the most fun you can have while on vacation w/ your divorcing parents, so I'm sure it will be awesome for you!
molly, you had me at "divorcing".
Epcot it is.
Yay! Peep's finally out of the closet and loudly and proudly declaring his Hipster-ness!!
No, not the Pointe, Jade. The Berrien Hills Country Club -- the cheap one that I think has since gone public.
I was a pretty damn good short order cook, I must say. All the employees used to have me cook for them when I worked.
I think you may have cheered her up peep.
Boy was she cranky!
I am putting a gulch in the mail to you tonight HT. I'm sending it UPS ground and Extra Dry.
gulch (gŭlch) n.
A small ravine, especially one cut by a torrent.
[Perhaps from dialectal gulch, to gush, (of land) to sink in, from Middle English gulchen, to drink greedily, to spew.]
And you're going to wrap that up and put it in the mail how? Yeah, that's what I thought.
So cranky.
I'm sending you a big smooch instead, Express mail First Delivery Overnight.
esoterrorism abounds :)
So, to stay on-topic is nigh impossible around here. Who needs recognition when you got us Jo?
Moreso, I think we need a week of TAFKALC posting more pics and food experiences in the south.
I WANT HH@BB!!!!
Can we commit to next Friday????
Thursday or Friday BB@HH next week for sure.
Friday, please!!
Interesting ... Jo knows how to use the mail. I wouldn't have guessed considering I still don't have my conference shirt.
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