SAL DeTRAGLIA's VIRTUAL TAPAS BAR
Above average home cook, published humorist, endurance athlete, former ex-pat, recovering attorney, doting husband, dedicated dad, non-Italian speaking Italian-American, and endearingly lousy ukulele player. It’s all true. It’s all Sal. This website (www.saldetraglia.com) is my outlet to inform and entertain, on both the personal and professional fronts.
Here’s a little-known fact: I’m as crazy about apple fritters as I am about COCONUT.
Yep…happiness is a warm apple fritter. It’s like a lifeline.
Just thought you should know; lest you were starting to perceive me as…you know, one-dimensional or something.
You? One dimensional? NEVER!
Are we going to have 3 months of apple fritter posts now? This should be interesting. 🙂
There is NO WAY that’s an apple fritter … that’s cat brain or something … I shivered YES SHIVERED when I wandered in here just now. Clicked on the photo, no help, it’s tiny.
Dammit Sal, I was almost sick seeing a cat brain on toast.
Yeah – not an apple fritter. It looks like a joke poo. You eat that thing?
mmmmmmmm…apple fritters…
fritters so yummy, must have fritters!
This is so amusing. The North Americans are positively swooning at the thought of apple fritters. The non-NA’s are equating them with body parts and bodily functions.
Am I joking about apple fritters? Am I?
Come here. No…closer. Come a little bit closer. [Whispering.] There! Can you hear me? You’re sure? Good. Am I joking?
NOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
An apple fritter, my friends, is nothing to joke about. Some look like donuts. Some look like smooth, iced hockey pucks. But the best ones look like…well, cat brains. It’s a textural thing. Trust me on that.
I’d walk to the ends of the earth for apple fritters. Wait until the end of time. I’d even go two weeks without a glass of wine…and that’s serious!
For all you non-NA’s, I’d suggest that you wait until after New Years (when the world is off-season and airline tickets get cheap), then call your nearest airline and book a flight to the midwest US. Find a small town with a bakery run by an Amish man or Amish-looking man. Pull five dollars out of your wallet. Buy yourself an apple fritter and a Starbucks Grande Iced Brewed Coffee. Then go to Border’s books, grab a cookbook or something, sit down on one of those cushy chairs and then…have your snack.
Then…and only then…can we have a serious conversation about apple fritters.
“Cat brains” and “poo!” The nerve!
Sal
PS: COCONUT!
I, too, am well aware of the irresistable allure of the apple fritter, but that picture is just so…so…oh,I don’t know. It definitely doesn’t do it justice. I think it needs to be put in context with the coffee and the book and the Amish-looking man etc. to really convince people of its specialness.
Off to bake something pretty…;-)
I hear you. But it still looks like poo.:O)
R-e-a-l-l-y?
Mmmm, okay, there’s the possibility I will be in the States next year. I will hunt one down but if I gag, I will write at length on it.
If I fall in love with apple fritters, I will drink a glass of red, after raising it to ‘Sal’.
Sal – Only fritters can bring me out of lurking mode.
Fritter-fetishism may be a Midwest thing, because a native-Chicagoan friend would kill for apple fritters. We’d buy them from a Mexican run roach-coach when I worked in So. California. We would marvel at the mass of carbs and saturated fats that could be purchased for so small a price.
The fritter is still my first choice in the donut box.
Jim
Ohhhhhhh. Apple fritters! I like them in just about any form (smooth to cat-brain-like)!
ah, yes, the Amish know their baked goods…but to sample a bit of pure apple fritter heaven you have to go to a little restaurant in a non-incorporated little town called Pipe, Wisconsin. The restaurant is called Cedar Lodge. There they serve them right before the meal…yes, BEFORE the meal. Its fried and dusted with powdered sugar and then whisked onto the table. It looks alot different than Sal’s picture but still has the same gooey/apply/sweet taste as the “brainy” looking version. This could put me into a Homer Simpson state of mind where I put my head back, mouth open, tongue out and where I just drool the words…”Apple fritters…ahhhhhh”
Baseball…hot dogs…apple fritters…and Chevrolet.
Lady Di and Wendz, do you see what happens when you mess with one of the cornerstones of the US way of life?!
Down, Lisa/CSwiss/Jim…easy does it. They didn’t mean any harm. They just needed a bit of schoolin’.
Sal
Terribly sorry old chaps – and chapettes…I stand humbly corrected.
:O)
Wendz: You’re forgiven. Honestly, how could you have imagined the hornets’ nest that stepped onto.
Lisa: Thank you for that recommendation on Pipe, WI. I think that would be well worth the drive from Chicago.
Jim: You’re a cheesehead. Take note of that recommendation from Lisa; and take note of my envy.
ok, so I’ve missed something huge here… What’s with the coconut? I adore coconut myself, especially in rice krispie cookies (not treats… cookies!) chocolate chip cookies AND oatmeal cookies. I also make a heck of a macaroon, regular OR chocolate dipped. Plus, it’s great on baked chicken, pork tenderlion… I could go on but I shant. As for the fritter… ::sigh:: we have no decent donut shops here… no decent bakeries… I have to bake my own bread if I want it to be edible… Sal, need some room mates?
I’d even spring for your fritter if you made the trip up to Pipe!
Lisa: You may live to regret that promise.
Granny Jo: Hey, you’re back! You live in the nation’s greatest BBQ state, and are complaining about bread? Don’t you know that Q is supposed to be eaten with Wonder Bread? What more could you need?
In my case, COCONUT. But we’re talking about you.
Sal
You started it, Sal DeTraglia … I don’t post photographs of cat brains and HOW can I know it’s actually edible and apple IF I’ve never seen or tasted it in reality.
I WASN’T messing with anyones cornerstones … I was merely trying not to puke over a seemingly graphic photograph of animal brains …
😉
:-O
Yep, I are indeed returnded! ;o) Hey, let me tell you, I have gotten truly into the BBQ thing here. Really, it isn’t complicated at all. The only TRUE eastern Carolina Q is smoked, chopped pig that is saturated with just the right amount of a fat free vinegar sauce. I don’t think the meat is seasoned with anything other than salt and MAYbe pepper before going into the smoker. That said, we are getting dead deer daily from the folks round here bouts. Not a bad deal now that I actually have a clue what to do with the darn things! Just under 30 miles from us, in a southerly direction, is a place called Wells Meat Processors. They are famous for their pigs in particular and their sauce is sold in most of the grocery stores. If you slow cook a butt or shoulder, I rub mine with equal parts garlic powder, salt & pepper, fork it off the bone, chop it up, then sprinkle Well BBQ sauce to taste, you have eastern Carolina BBQ. Now, if you mix 1 part French’s mustard to 2 parts Wells, you have a fair immitation of the sauce that predominates the BBQ of northern Florida and southern Georgia.
Another thing that you might be interested in knowing… folks round here will cook up a pig if you look at ’em cross eyed. Theys jest friendly that way… Now then, what about the deer?
Granny Jo:
I read you comment with equal parts fascination and envy. Made all the worse by the fact that I haven’t eaten dinner yet…and the dinner that awaits me entails macaroni and sauce from a jar. Welcome to single life.
Anyway…how can I bribe you to write a post in your blog (“Truly Thankful”…see sidebar) about eastern Carolina Q; complete with pictures? How much? Name your price?
Q & COCONUT…make me so happy.
Sal
HA! I can name a price no problem! Ensaimada and wooden fans! Next issue, how involved do you want to get with the Q? There are financial restraints involved here cause our income is severly limited these days. That means no extensive travel. On the other hand, there is some pretty great stuff going on within the 30 mile radius. I would also like to send you a box with a few different sauces to try and do a reciprocal post on. What do you think?
Hey Granny Jo:
Boy, you’re ambitious. I was just suggesting that you write a post off the top of your head (no travelling) and use whatever photo is sitting in your digital camera. Living in North Carolina, you probably don’t need to travel thirty miles to find somebody Q’ing. Thirty feet would probably do it.
As for sauces, don’t worry about shipping. I get to the US often enough to track it down myself. Chicago supermarkets are pretty well stocked with Q sauces. However…what I would like is your recommendation on which sauces are the best from a Carolina-resident’s point of view. I’ll betcha The Big Finn and JimPfeff would like to know, also. You’ve already mentioned Wells.
Sal
::laughing:: To late! Besides, I had no resident Q photos. Had to get something fresh and new. I can always use a good excuse to try a new restaurant. We haven’t been here a full year yet but we are looking around a places being demolished with an eye towards scavenging bricks to build a pit of our own.
Wow! I strongly encourage everybody to go to Truly Thankful (see sidbar for link) and check-out Granny Jo’s insider post on Carolina Q.
Sal
The next place that needs to be tackled is called “Gunny’s”. This is a hole in the wall’s hole in the wall! I’ve been trying to get there since we got here and I hear it’s pretty darn good… ;o)
I concur. Apple fritters are like nothing else. Magic Morning in Bedford, IN has apple fritters that are about 8″ in diameter with the same “cat brain” look as the picture posted above.
“Magic Morning” in Bedford, IN. 8″ apple fritters.
Got it! I’m there!
Bless you, my friends. By sharing that information, you’ve just assured your spot in heaven.
Sal (Fritterless in LaMancha…and dying because of it)
Sal, I’m not sure I understand your exact problem here… You reside in the land of churros and bunuelos…? If I played around with a few recipes and discovered a reasonable method of home replication… would you be interested?