So, of course I regularly watch the Food Network’s Best Thing I Ever Ate… And get hungry. Then lament the fact that I am in a small town and there is NO possible way for me to fulfill my deli craving at 9:00 p.m.  Well, the show has me thinking, what are the best things I ever ate and why. So here is my first edition, the deep fried foods.

Best fried vegetables- I have to go with this hole in the wall sushi joint near my house, Masaki.  They do a vegetable tempura that is deep fried vegetable perfection.  A lot of tempura’s I have had have a slight fishy tatse to the batter. Yes, shared oil! But not here, light, airy batter enrobing perfectly cooked vegetables. They even do the daikon radish & enoki mushroom! But my favorite is the sweet potato. Slightly salty & crispy outside. Sweet & creamy inside. The dipping sauce they serve is also great. A slightly sweet, thin, brown sauce. LOVE these vegetables!

Best French Fry- Now before I call this, I have to say that a lot of this has to do with the memory of my life when I ate them… If you asked me my favorite type of fry, I would immediately say, “Pomme Frites.”  But when I searched my taste memory for the BEST fry, I came up with its very opposite, a short, fat, large steak fry.  My favorite french fry? The Seasoned fries at Tommy’s restaurant.  Oh, the memory of walking back to school at lunch time, clutching that greasy, fragrant paper bag in my hand… They were crisp, creamy and seasoned with a paprika colored salt.  Always had extra seasoning on mine. Really, the perfect fry. At a time in my life when fries and red licorice ropes for lunch was perfectly acceptable.

Best Fried Sandwich- The Monte Cristo at Disneyland.  Yes, Disneyland! I grew up in California, so a trip to Disneyland, while not every weekend, was pretty commonplace. Hell, I still remember when they had the tickets-A through E. My mother had an entire drawer full of the A tickets in the kitchen. I digress. So, there was a restaurant that was in the Pirates of Carribean ride. You could eat and watch the boats go by… It was VERY dark and seemed very fancy to me as a child.  It was here that I had my first and best Monte Cristo sandwich.  Made the right way, dipped in egg batter, fried, then topped with powdered sugar and served with raspberry jam for dipping.  Biting into that was like going on a trip.  The sweet, french toast like first taste, then the salty meat and oozing nutty swiss cheese. Then the next bite adding raspberry jam for a pop of fruit!  I still dream about that sandwich…

Best strange Fried Thing- I think of this like a niche market. Not everybody does it, but when you can find it done right… OMG! This has to be the deep fried dill pickle spears at a neighborhood diner.  Cornmeal batter, still slightly cool and crunchy dill pickle, ranch for dipping. I don’t think I need to say anything more.

Best Fried Sweet- The apple fritters at the Von’s in Marina Del Rey.  Really, the best apple fritter I have ever eaten. And believe me, I have eaten quite a few.  These fritters have the perfect proportion of apple chunks to doughy batter.  Of crisp edges to fluffy centers. And the absolutely perfect amount of that sticky, really too sweet, icing. Used to go on Saturday at 7:00 a.m. just so I could get my hot little hands on them.  Yes, they sold out that fast… Would always buy four and think I would save some for Sunday. But no, I ate them all that day.  They were just too good.

Best Fried Egg- yes, as the final best of fried I am including a fried egg. Why? Well, because creating a perfectly cooked fried egg is hard to do and even harder to find.  I like mine over easy, so I can dunk my buttered Rye toast into the yolk.  The best fried egg I ever ate was at Edie’s Diner in Marina Del Rey (it is closed now).  Edie’s was where we went late night and drunk.  Or early morning and hungover.  Nothing cured my hangover faster than a couple of perfectly cooked over-easy fried eggs, buttered rye toast, breakfast potatoes and LOTS of water at Edie’s.

Well there it is, my first Best Thing I Ever Ate blog.  There will be more. But in the meantime, what was the best fried food YOU ever ate? Let me know. I am always looking for new favorites.