Wednesday, October 01, 2003
Copyright © Las Vegas Review-Journal

CRUNCHY TWIST: Fry, Baby

Foods such as Twinkies, pickles and strawberries just taste better when battered

Josh Winne serves up a batch of fried pickles at Memphis Championship Barbecue. Photo by Christine H. Wetzel. Fried strawberries are served in the Burgundy Room at the Lady Luck. Photo by Clint Karlsen. Rolled in powdered sugar and chocolate sprinkles, fried Twinkies have been flying out of Steve's Coney Dogs at Mermaid Casino. Photo by Clint Karlsen. Pickles of all sizes and shapes can be deep-fried, says barbecue guru Mike Mills, but dill chips have the best taste. A bucket of fried pickles sells for $6 at Mills' Memphis Championship Barbecue restaurants. Photos by Christine H. Wetzel. Irene Vujkovic, manager of Steve's Coney Dogs at Mermaid Casino, removes a fried Twinkie from the deep-fryer. Photo by Clint Karlsen. A Twinkie dipped in buttermilk pancake batter sizzles in the deep-fryer at Steve's Coney Dogs. Photo by Clint Karlsen.

You'll never be the same after eating a deep-fried Twinkie.

That's what Irene Vujkovic, manager of Steve's Coney Dog inside downtown's Mermaid Casino, tells people who have not experienced this culinary delight and are reacting to the sight of one.

And how could a person be the same after ingesting this preservative-laden cake, battered and dipped in hot oil, then dusted liberally with powdered sugar and chocolate sprinkles?

The concept boggles the minds of those who have never heard of this relatively new take on Hostess Twinkies, Vujkovic says. But once they eat one, they're usually converts.

It sounds strange, deep-frying a Twinkie. Vujkovic admits she didn't think too highly of the idea when her supervisor added them to the snack bar menu in March.

"When they told us we'd be doing fried Twinkies, I said, `Oh no, we're not.' But it turned out to be a fun thing," the easygoing Vujkovic said.

The corn dog-looking, funnel cake-tasting treats have become a successful endeavor for Steve's, which has sold 12,700 of the golden spongy things at about $1 a pop. And that's not including the countless free fried Twinkies they gave away in promotions, says the casino's food and beverage manager, Danny Doiron. The snack bar sells more individual Twinkies than any other snack bar in America, Doiron says.

Of course, this question probably has occurred to you and you're dying to know the answer: Why on earth would a Twinkie need to be fried? It's already sinfully delicious with 150 calories worth of sugar and 5 grams of fat, mostly the evil, artery-clogging trans fat. Frying it adds more than 300 calories and 23 grams of fat, nearly half of a day's recommended intake of total fat grams.

One could argue that it's for the same reasons that a pickle needs to be fried. Or a fresh strawberry, candy bar or slice of cheesecake.

Because, while it may taste good in its "natural" state, frying makes it taste even better.

"I don't know why fried tastes so good. I love chicken fixed just about any way you can fix it, but I love fried chicken. There's just something about it that works out that way," says Mike Mills, founder of Memphis' Championship Barbecue restaurant.

Southern-fried dill pickles ($5.99) at his valley restaurants elicit the same response as a deep-fried Twinkie draws from those who have never tried one, Mills says.

"(The pickles) kind of started out as a novelty, because no one had ever heard of them," says Mills, who has fried several things, including bread pudding. "Of course, many people still have never heard of them, but we sell a tremendous amount of them."

Their history is as muddled as any other fried food, although they probably got their start in the South. Elvis was said to have loved them. Restaurants in Mississippi and Tennessee each claim to have invented them, while Kentuckians call them frickles and put them on hamburgers. Of course, fried pickles aren't too far removed from fried okra or fried green tomatoes, so the idea may not be too strange.

Just about every shape of pickle -- from spears to chunks to whole pickles -- has received the fried treatment, but Mills says chips taste best. He uses a special secret recipe and serves them with "pickle sauce," a mixture of ranch dressing and Memphis barbecue sauce.

Frying foods you wouldn't normally fry has long been a staple of state fairs, Mermaid Casino's Doiron says, but it's not restricted to American habits.

Scotland is said to be the birthplace of the deep-fried Mars candy bar, while France is supposedly falling in love with the treat. But Americans have always had a special place in their hearts for fried foods, Mills says.

That doesn't surprise Warren Wemple, executive chef at Lady Luck, because he lived in the South for several years, where frying is a way of life.

"In the South, everything goes into the fryer. There's fried turkeys, squirrel, possum," even strawberries, Wemple says.

For years, the Burgundy Room at Lady Luck has offered fried strawberries ($5.50) on the dessert menu and they've cultivated such a strong following, Wemple says he doesn't dare take them off.

Wemple starts by dipping fresh strawberries into an egg wash, then rolls them in a flour and bread crumb mixture. The fruit is dropped into hot oil for a few minutes. Wemple serves them with raspberry sauce, whipped cream, and sugar and cinnamon.

Of course, Twinkies, pickles and strawberries certainly aren't the only unusual fried foods to be found in Las Vegas. There's fried ice cream, available at many Mexican restaurants, and fried mozzarella, a popular appetizer at Italian restaurants.

Then there's fried New York cheesecake ($4.99) at Main Street Station's Triple 7 Brew Pub. A frozen slice is coated in a beer batter, then dropped into a vat of hot oil. It is served with fresh strawberries and topped with whipped cream. Bon appetit!