The Los Angeles Times has an article today about Charlie Boghosian. Never heard of him? He runs Chicken Charlie’s at county fairs, including the LA County Fair and Orange County Fair, and his goal is to be an innovator in fried foods. For example, Charlie was the inventor of the deep-fried Twinkie. He next tried deep-fried Ding-Dongs and Snowballs, but the batter kept falling off. Deep-fried Oreos, however, were a success. Next was deep-fried bananas (topped with chocolate syrup, whipped cream and rainbow sprinkles). This was followed by deep-fried strawberries, then deep-fried avocados with tomatoes, and this year, deep-fried olives and pickles. He keeps experimenting and innovating: working on deep-fried vanilla wafers, deep-fried Fig Newtons, deep-fried peaches (placing a scoop of ice-cream where the pit would have been). He’s also working on deep-fried churros.
But deep-frying isn’t Boghosian’s only innovation. This year, Boghosian’s new item is the Krispy Kreme Chicken and Swiss sandwich with a side of honey. Imagine a jelly doughnut hollowed out, cut in half and garnished with a fried chicken patty and slice of gooey Swiss cheese. Yum. Can’t you hear those arteries harden?
Boghosian isn’t the only innovator out there. Other innovations from this year’s Texas State Fair (say “Hi” to Big Tex [“Howdy, folks. Welcome to the State Fair of Texas”]) include deep-fried coke (think Coca-cola in the batter) [from Abel Gonzales, who came up with a deep-fried peanut butter, jelly and banana sandwich last year], deep-fried pralines, the deep-fried Cosmopolitan (fried pastry filled with cheesecake and topped with a cranberry glaze and a lime wedge), deep-fried Choco-ritos (flour tortillas stuffed with marshmallows, coconut, candy bar pieces, caramel morsels and cinnamon then dipped in pancake batter and deep-fried), deep-fried Mac-n-cheese (large scoops of macaroni and cheese, covered with a layer of garlic- and herb-flavored bread crumbs and deep fried). There are also deep-fried Snickers and deep-fried Scotch Eggs (a hard-boiled egg wrapped in sausage, breaded and deep-fried). Want health food? How about deep-fried broccoli, deep-fried artichoke hearts, deep-fried cauliflower (invented by Boghosian for this year’s Orange County Fair, after deep-fried edible flowers failed), or deep-fried mushrooms.
Perhaps Argon should open up a booth at the fairs to recover the oil. Never has my userpic been more appropriate. I leave you to the rest of your lunch.
