Having claimed (in my first post of 2011) to be acclimatised to the ways of America, and to not be finding things so strange or alarming anymore now that I’ve been here for over a year, I now find myself baffled and repulsed in equal measure at my recent sighting.
On this week’s episode of Top Chef (I love celebrity chef cooking programmes, don’t ask me why), the theme was Southern cooking, with a famous chef from the South (with a wonderful Southern drawl to boot) as the guest judge.
(Already didn’t bode well as I saw a documentary not long ago about two overweight British girls who go to stay with an extremely obese family in one of the Southern states, as a kind of shock-treatment to take action on their weight, and the woman welcomed them by preparing them a feast of deep-fried pig’s intestines, ears and trotters.)
Anyway, so the “Quickfire” challenge on Top Chef this week was for the chefs to prepare anything with a Southern twist in a deep-fat fryer within half an hour.
So there was the usual deep-fried chicken and so on.
But one chef thought he’d be clever and “inventive” and made DEEP-FRIED MAYONNAISE BALLS frozen with liquid nitrogen, flavoured with COFFEE and LIME, then DEEP-FRIED to repugnant perfection.
Could this heinous culinary apparition be true?
YES.
And guess what?
The Southern chef LOVED it and praised it to the skies!
The American “culinary” tradition, showcased at its best.
rebeccainspace 
At the time European governments were exchanging the 5-a day policy, England’s first cause of death was cardiovascular diseases(don’t know if it still is). Traditionally, people from the North cook with butter (in Europe). Any cooked oil is bad.
In France, people in the South following mediterranean diet (a little cooked olive oil) are healthier than French people in the North.
Jaimie Oliver apparently tried to reform the US cuisine (is there such a thing?) similarly as the English fish and chips. Did it work?
I’ve always been called a glutton (by guys not girls; What’s wrong with a girl that can eat?). One can eat lots but should try to eat healthy? As long as the corresponding life style permits to burn calories?
Yeah, you got a point about women who eat decent amounts being called gluttons.
As a result, you always see women picking at salads in restaurants while their male counterparts scoff on steak and chips. Especially in Paris, where the women are scarily boney, they hardly seem to have the energy to put even a zero-calorie lettuce leaf in their mouth.
UUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUURRRRRRRRRGHHHHHHHHHHH!! HOW TOTALLY RANK!
you’re telling me – utterly repulsive beyond belief!
Abigail always makes strange noises. Did you notice?
This all brings back emotional and redolent memories of my great grandmother’s famous deep fried calves’ foot jelly
Elle,that’s because she’s my sister so is at least half as crazy as me 🙂