Sorry, but I love fried food

I'm not sure if it's something worth apologizing for, but I feel there is a certain snobiness related to fried food that only people who "love" food have.   Like the way people look at me when I get more excited over the onion rings at my work than the $45 dollar steak.  I feel the only way I'll ever have any success in the realm of food writing is if I stop trying to be someone I'm not and start to be completely and utterly honest, for better or for worse...and I'm going to start here. I love food fried. Preferably if its in the form of a ring of onion, cheese, potato, chicken or even tempura (the list could go on).  I don't know if there is a better way to greet someone then when my Aunt welcomed my mother and I into her home after a flight to San Francisco with a ready deep frying machine, a plate of soft cheeses and hard cheeses, a couple of spears to use as our deep frying tools, and a couple bottles of champagne.

That's not to say all fried food is good, of course, because there's something blasphemous about soggy or overly greasy food that makes ingredients unrecognizable.  It might even be a worse crime when the item being fried is completely lost behind layers and layers of batter. It's also not to say I don't fully enjoy completely fresh and non-fried foods, of course.  Onions, asparagus, cheese, chicken potatoes; they all have plenty integrity on their own, but I doubt they mind a little 375° oil bath.   I don't care however sophisticated a palate I may one day attain, there will always be a very important place in my heart for the golden, crunchy, crispy food that can only be made once dropped in extremely hot oil.  That is, to assume I still have a working heart after a life of loving fried food.


So bring on the calories, bring on the criticism.  I'm sorry, but I love fried food. And admit it, you do too.