Deep-Fry, and Don’t Forget the Stick -- Pst! Don't tell Geri

[lsanderson]

June 24, 2007
The Basics
Deep-Fry, and Don’t Forget the Stick
By RICK LYMAN

In theory, just about anything can be deep-fried, as long as it’s reasonably solid and has a high combustion point. And a surprising variety can then be placed in your mouth, though sometimes a little courage is required.

As we move into the heart of the county and state fair season, America’s deep-fry pioneers are once again pushing the envelope and plundering every aisle at the supermarket in search of fresh items that can be breaded, impaled on a stick and submerged in hot oil.

For a good deep-fried olive, for instance, head to the Los Angeles County Fair in Pomona where deep-fried strawberries and avocados can also be sampled. The San Diego County Fair offers squid on a stick and deep-fried alligator. In Florida, deep-fried pickle slices are called Frickles. Or head to the Texas State Fair where a visionary named Abel Gonzales Jr. was able to create deep-fried Coke last year by mixing soda pop into the batter and then covering the result with cola syrup, cinnamon-sugar, whipped cream and a cherry. (Mr. Gonzales had won the fair’s top taste award the year before, as well, for a deep-fried peanut butter, jelly and banana sandwich.)

It is the Texas fair that claims to have started it all, when Carl and Neil Fletcher popularized the corn dog in 1942. The Minnesota State Fair, however, says it unveiled the strikingly similar Pronto Pup a year earlier. But not until June 16, 1946, did Ed Waldmire Jr. think to impale one on a stick in Springfield, Ill., creating the modern corn dog that we know today. He called it the Cozy Dog. (Actually, he wanted to call it a Crispy Cur, but his wife intervened.)

No slight to Texas, but it is the Minnesota State Fair that may well be the epicenter of stick and hot-oil cuisine. Spaghetti-and-meatballs on a stick. Deep-fried Oreos and Twinkies. Alligator sausage on a stick. Deep-fried cheese curds. Pork chops on a stick. Wild rice corndogs. Pizza on a stick. Deep-fried chocolate chip cookies on a stick. Grapes. Pineapples. Both honeydew and cantaloupe melons.

This year, Charlie Burrows, co-owner of Axel’s Bull Bites Booth at the Minnesota fair, has come up with what he calls a sloppy Joe on a stick. “It doesn’t sound like something you could do,” Mr. Burrows told The St. Paul Pioneer Press. “But trust us.” http://www.nytimes.com/2007/06/24/weekinreview/24basics.html?_r=1&oref=slogin&pagewanted=print

Comments

[gerisullivan.livejournal.com]

Okay. I won't tell her. I will report, however, that those listening to my reading of this article were more than a tad croggled by the deep-fried avocados, Coke, and most of the Minnesota offerings.

Shocked..

[lsanderson.livejournal.com]

Shocked I am not.

sloppy Joe on a stick

[mplsvala.livejournal.com]

Sounds good to me. I like 'em and it doesn't seem all that strange to me that they can get a dough that works. Frying can be a good way to get great variety quickly and easily. When the kids were some ages it was a great blessing to have a freezer full of things that could be dumped into a fryer and allow one to have Chinese (egg rolls, wontons, & reheated fried rice) while another had a fish and chips and another etc. I should re-discover the joys of frying.