deep-fried butter

Here at Buffet o’ Blog, we’ve been known to experiment with various new food creations (see our Buffet o’ Bacon series), and we enjoy discussing the potential of new ideas.  Something we heard about is deep-fried butter, which debuted at the Texas State Fair this year.

The creator says it tastes like a mix between a biscuit or a croissant that is stuffed full of butter.   He also offers varieties with flavored butters: garlic, grape, or cherry.

Apparently the Texas State Fair has started a tradition of trying everything deep-fried, because this year they introduced many new deep-fried dishes: twisted yam on a stick, peaches and cream, fried pecan pie (picture that one!), pork chips, and more.  Previous years have featured deep-fried lattes, fried banana splits, and chicken-fried bacon.   (The latter is one I’d like to try, with a gravy dipping sauce.)  The creator of deep-fried bacon has also introduced deep-fried cookie dough, Coke, and peanut butter and jelly and banana sandwiches.

He also made a radical new creation called Fire and Ice.  It consisted of deep-fried pineapple chunks topped with strawberries, strawberry sauce, and banana-flavored whipped cream flash-frozen in liquid nitrogen.  So when you were eating it, smoke would come out of your nose or mouth when you exhaled.

The creator of deep-fried butter has found such success as a concessionaire that he quit his job as a computer analyst, which he had done for 14 years.  Supposedly he works for about 3 weeks a year now.  I knew concession stands at fairs were highly profitable, but had no idea you could make that kind of money.  Perhaps I need to take that up as a job on the side… I can come up with some great deep-fried goodness. 

tennis shoe sandwich

Here’s another entry in our ongoing series on being a food critic.   This photo involves some creativity, in that a sandwich was made to look like a tennis shoe.

Does it work?  Is something missing?  What should be changed?  You decide.

the Rubix Cubewich

The Rubix Cube has baffled people for decades.  But someone has invented a new version of it, made with food.  Do you think you could solve this one?

This “Rubix Cubewich” is made from cubes of pastrami, kielbasa, pork fat, salami and two types of cheddar.  While the original puzzle will give you a headache, this one will just give you gas. 

This post is part of our series on being a food critic.  So if you have any suggestions for how this food item could or should be better, let us know in a comment.

becoming a food critic

I think one of the best jobs ever would be a food critic.  You go to restaurants, your company pays for it, and you try all kinds of interesting food, then review it.  Unfortunately, most of us will never get that job, so I’m starting a series where we get to be a virtual food critic.  I know, it’s not nearly the same, because you don’t get to eat the food.  But it can still be fun.  Plus, if we discover a new dish that sounds awesome, maybe we’ll try it at one of our next “Adventures in Eating” nights (also called “Buffet o’ Bacon”, though not necessarily limited to bacon).  And maybe we’ll invite all the regular readers here to these events (as we have been discussing).

Here’s how this new series will work: I’ll post a picture of some dish, and then we discuss it.  If that doesn’t sound interesting, give it a chance.   I’ve been involved in numerous food-related discussions with the Buffet o’ Blog staff that were a lot of fun, and we’ve come up with many good ideas.

One limitation with these pictures is that there may not be a recipe included, so sometimes we will have to guess at the actual ingredients.   But if we aren’t sure what it is, we can always make substitutions (like switching bacon for an unknown meat or replacing non-potato vegetables with cheese).

In your analysis of the featured food dish, you can rate it from 1 to 10 (or any comparable scale), you can specify which ingredients / sides should be removed as well as which ones should be added, and you can explain why a particular dish would be awesome or horrendous.  And remember this is a humor site, so don’t get burdened down in seriousness.  This is supposed to be fun.   So don’t be afraid to get extreme or go way over the top in suggested improvements.

I’ll start this new series with something we’re all familiar with — a cheeseburger.  But to me, something about this burger just isn’t quite right.  What do you think about it, and what should be changed on it?

(The future entries will all be filed under the category of “food critic“.)

tasty animals more likely to be eaten

In the news last month, Discovery published an article that concluded that bad-tasting animals were less likely to be eaten than good-tasting animals.  It seems like that should be obvious…

The researchers concluded this by studying chemical compounds and by coating certain animals with bitter-tasting substances to see which were chosen.   That methodology may have its place, but it seems like part of the research should’ve involved grilling lots of animals to see which taste better, then look at what humans have been fond of eating, whether taste is the primary motivation.  This test should also involve copious amounts of gravy. 

This link was sent in by Turtle Dundee, who happens to be an expert in the field of tasty animals and who already knew this information before reading the article.  Perhaps he should publish some of his research on tasty animals…

On a side note, while looking for pictures of steak with gravy, many of the pictures didn’t have enough gravy.   I know some parts of the country do things differently, but if there’s one thing we in the South know about, it’s frying food and making gravy with it.  So let me make this clear: the gravy should cover the entire portion of the meat (and mashed potatoes too!).   If that’s too much for some people, serve it on the side, or have the dish include unlimited gravy.  Just don’t serve a chicken-fried steak with only enough gravy for half of it.  That just ain’t right!

Also, many of the pictures included vegetables like green beans, celery, lettuce, or broccoli.  To each their own, I suppose, but I’m a “meat ‘n taters” type of guy.   Adding “green” to the picture doesn’t make it look more appealing — just add more meat, more taters, and more gravy, and that will impress people.

On another side note, I had a small, healthy lunch today, and all this talk of gravy is making me incredibly hungry!  I know there’s a lot of great foods out there, but you just can’t top a meal of fried chicken, mashed taters, biscuits, and milk gravy.  (And of course Southern-style sweet tea should be served with this meal, but that should go without saying.)