UMMM – Fried stuff

Here I sit at my computer on a gorgeous Sunday afternoon, heading into evening. I have an assignment due at midnight that I should be working on and instead my mind is wandering around and around and around. So, instead of working, I'm doing this – making a confession. I love to eat stuff that is fried. Why is it that almost anything tastes better fried? For example, I love fried okra, but okra fixed any other way is not passing my lips! I know that frying is bad for us, and we should eat stuff baked or broiled, but it just doesn't taste as good. Here is a list of fried things that just taste good!

1. French fries. . . I never met a potato I didn't like but I must admit, my favorite way to eat potatoes is sliced up and fried. Yes, I know we can bake French fries, but it's NOT the same. (BTW should those still be called "fries?? – I think not!) The world would be a worse place without French fries.

2. Country fried steak. . . Some places call this "chicken fried" as in "chicken fried chicken." Country fried works for me, with some gravy on the side if you don't mind. . .

3. Fried chicken. In my mind, chickens were created to be fried. Right before Christmas, my sister and my niece and I went to dinner at my friend's house. She and I taught together for 14 years, but then for some unknown reason, she felt she needed to retire (lucky!) and abandoned me to try to teach without her. But I digress! She fixed us some fried chicken that was to die for. My mouth thought I had died and gone to Heaven. I have actually dreamed about that chicken since then. The Colonel extra crispy is an acceptable replacement for homemade.

4. I'm making all one category here – Fried "fair" food. This encompasses all the stuff you can buy at the State Fair, or the Strawberry Festival or any other sort of traveling show. I'm talking about those giant corn dogs, the twisty potato things, and my absolute favorite, funnel cakes. I even saw fried Twinkies once. This is definitely a guilty pleasure, as you can smell the grease in the air and feel your arteries closing as you walk between the trailers but it's good. I also have to kind of close my eyes and not look too closely at the people cooking or the little trailer things. . I don't even want to know about the health department certificates on some of those things. My logic is the hot oil kills anything that shouldn't be in there.

 

5. Doughnuts. . . Need I say more? Of course, I need. (Is it "doughnut" or "donut"? Does it matter? Do we even care???) This summer while we were in London, we took a day trip to Brighton. On the Brighton pier, there was a little booth selling donuts, which they cooked right in front of you. A machine dropped little rings of batter into the hot oil, and the little donuts floated down the hot oil river, cooking merrily on one side, then there was some sort of apparatus that flipped them over so they cooked on the other side . . . then they crash-landed into sugar and cinnamon, and then were plopped directly into a bag. The bag was all greasy on the inside, steam was coming out, they were FABULOUS! I burned my mouth and my tongue trying to eat one, instead of waiting for it to cool. Then, I was attacked by a seagull who grabbed half my donut and flew off. Stupid bird. I hope he choked to death. . . All because I was waving my arms around commenting on the "Mushy peas served here sign." (Every word of this is true – I promise, truly. You can ask my friends Andrea and Lenese if you don't believe me. . )

 

6. Last but not least (for this list) fried green tomatoes. I love tomatoes, there is nothing like a tomato sandwich, some soft white bread, some mayonnaise and some ripe red tomato slices, but I love some fried green tomatoes. . . Good ones are hard to find, you need somebody who knows what they are doing to cook them for you. Two years ago, my sister and I were driving to North Carolina and we left late so we stopped to spend the night. We found some restaurant right by the hotel that had a Friday night Fried Fish Buffet all you can eat. I think somebody's grandma was back in the kitchen cooking because the grits were perfect and the fried green tomatoes were to die for. I nearly made myself sick with the fried green tomatoes.

Ok, now I'm hungry. Like I can concentrate on my assignment now!