NYT: Special Sauce for Measuring Food Trends: The Fried Calamari Index

[China]

Special Sauce for Measuring Food Trends: The Fried Calamari Index

 

Gather round, children, to hear tell of an ancient time in America, when cutting-edge restaurants would take cephalopods from the sea, slice them up, dip them in batter, fry them in hot oil, and serve the results with a wedge of lemon.

 

Now, of course, every strip-mall pizza place and suburban Applebee’s serves fried calamari. But not all that long ago it was an exotic food. The term “fried calamari” did not appear in the pages of The New York Times until 1975, according to our nifty Times Chronicle tool, and didn’t show up frequently until the 1980s. Lest you think it is only a change in vocabulary, the term “fried squid” made only a couple of scattered appearances before that time.

 

Fried calamari made a voyage that dozens of foods have made over the years: They start out being served in forward-thinking, innovative restaurants in New York and other capitals of gastronomy. Over time, they become more and more mainstream, becoming a cliché on big-city menus, showing up in high-end restaurants in smaller cities, and eventually finding their way to neighborhood bistros in the hinterlands and chain restaurants across the country.

 

Click on the link for the full article and graphical representations of food trends.

[RawBBQSauce]

Has anyone had the calamari at Bonefish? Holy GOD that stuff is completely off the chain. With that sweet sauce and the battered and friend zucchini and tomato.

 

 

[zoony]

Predicto likes the fried pig anus place in the mission district. Guess we will all be eating fried pig anus in 10 years at Applebee's

[Lombardi's_kid_brother]

Predicto likes the fried pig anus place in the mission district. Guess we will all be eating fried pig anus in 10 years at Applebee's

 

Get it with the fig reduction sauce.

[chipwhich]

I don't see Figs on a plate.

Crab Cake's seems like a weird item on the list growing up around Annapolis.

[The Dude]

Kale seems to be in the process of making the exotic-to-Applebee's transition.  It's cheap and flexible - you can easily get it in a salad, a smoothie, or as chips. And restaurants love it because it lasts a long time before wilting.  (Fun fact: up until 2013, the largest purchaser of kale was Pizza Hut, who used it for garnish at their buffets.)  

 

Sourcing ingredients is all the rage, too.  Even larger chains are touting where their produce/livestock came from.  But can we get an official ruling on what is considered "local?"  If I'm in DC and the eggs came from a farm outside Philly, does that count?  

[Riggo-toni]

If you ever find one of the very few places who can do it just right, grilled (rather than breaded and fried) calamari is more delicious.

[China]

If you ever find one of the very few places who can do it just right, grilled (rather than breaded and fried) calamari is more delicious.

 

I just had some grilled calamari at lunch that was delicious.  It is a specialty of the restaurant, which otherwise is a mediocre Italian restaurant.

[mcsluggo]

not to join the liberal media elite bashing chorus....   but i always find NYTimes or NYorker magazine articles describing "innovative advances in high end NY hipness that eventually become cliche when adopted by secondary cities like Chicago, LA and San Francisco and eventually segueing to downright tacky when found in Wichita and Des Moines... "  kinda funny, but mostly annoying.  

[zoony]

not to join the liberal media elite bashing chorus....   but i always find NYTimes or NYorker magazine articles describing "innovative advances in high end NY hipness that eventually become cliche when adopted by secondary cities like Chicago, LA and San Francisco and eventually segueing to downright tacky when found in Wichita and Des Moines... "  kinda funny, but mostly annoying.

And incredibly inaccurate.

New York City's most important chef is from the DC area. Much like music, the population centers in this country really contribute nothing. It's just where talented people like Bob Dylan and Jim Morrison and Jimi Hendrix and David Chang and Wylie Dufresne go, because that's where the people are. NYC's contribution to cuisine and art, at the end of the day, is nothing more than population densities

So really, you should find it amusing. At how absolutely ignorant the big city homers are

[Chew]

wow...the wife and i literals just joked this past weekend "we judge places by their calamari"  LOL

 

@ my man BBQ, ya bro the Bonefish calamari is legit as ****.  dee-lish.

if you guys have Pappadeaux in DC area (i think you do?), get the mediterranean calamari....it'll make your tongue quiver

[Corcaigh]

There's a little beachfront restaurant in Oriheula, Spain that serves many different types of squid caught locally. We had three dishes (fried squid in garlic mayonnaise, squid in tomato, garlic and red wine sauce, and char grilled squid) as part of a birthday celebration there a few years ago. 

[Lombardi's_kid_brother]

And being Irish, you sent it back and asked them to boil it for two or three hours.

[Kosher Ham]

Had grilled once with buffalo sauce outside of Boston...wonderful.

Fried I stick with Ruths Chris as my favorite because it has a sweet and spicy sauce...amazing.

[Corcaigh]

And being Irish, you sent it back and asked them to boil it for two or three hours.

 

You confuse me with the Catholic peasant lower classes.

[chipwhich]

Kale seems to be in the process of making the exotic-to-Applebee's transition.

 

 

LOL at the exotic....coming from a farming family I have been eating kale for years.  A  lot of southerners eat a lot of greens.  They aren't exotic, it's a garden weed

[zoony]

And being Irish, you sent it back and asked them to boil it for two or three hours.

And asked for a side of ranch dip

[Lombardi's_kid_brother]

I love Corcaigh's argument that it's the Catholics who don't know how to cook. That is such a specific Irish prejudice, and I find it glorious.

 

Because God knows those Catholics in Italy and France have been eating swill for generations.

[Corcaigh]

I love Corcaigh's argument that it's the Catholics who don't know how to cook. That is such a specific Irish prejudice, and I find it glorious.

 

Because God knows those Catholics in Italy and France have been eating swill for generations.

 

Apparently sensitive peasant lower classes with a giant chip on their shoulder. You were the one abusing the Irish. Almost 85% of the population in the Irish Republic self-identify as Catholic. And another 10% don't, only because of self-loathing.

 

Here we have a lecture from a West Virginian, now living in Houston, about the culinary arts.

[Corcaigh]

And asked for a side of ranch dip

 

An Irish person wouldn't know what the **** ranch dressing is.

 

But they might ask for Heinz salad cream.

 

[zoony]

Apparently sensitive peasant lower classes with a giant chip on their shoulder. You were the one abusing the Irish. Almost 85% of the population in the Irish Republic self-identify as Catholic. And another 10% don't, only because of self-loathing.

 

Here we have a lecture from a West Virginian, now living in Houston, about the culinary arts.

[Lombardi's_kid_brother]

Apparently sensitive peasant lower classes with a giant chip on their shoulder. You were the one abusing the Irish. Almost 85% of the population in the Irish Republic self-identify as Catholic. And another 10% don't, only because of self-loathing.

 

Here we have a lecture from a West Virginian, now living in Houston, about the culinary arts.

 

I'm going to pull a JMS and quote directly from Wikipedia. Because I find this sentence fantasic:

 

Representative Irish dishes include Irish stew, bacon and cabbage, potato, boxty, coddle, and colcannon.

 

This is like writing:

 

Representative Texas dishes include cow, flour and water, pigs, tomatoes, and wheat.

[Corcaigh]

I'm going to pull a JMS and quote directly from Wikipedia. 

 

Another reliable source on all things Irish you might like to consider are ... wrappers for Irish Spring Soap, and boxes of Lucky Charms.

 

Just a fact-check though ... the Irish Spring commercials, where a man takes a shower in a waterfall, are clearly not set in Ireland. That would be a sure recipe for hypothermia, even in the "summer".

[Lombardi's_kid_brother]

Another reliable source on all things Irish you might like to consider are ... wrappers for Irish Spring Soap, and boxes of Lucky Charms.

 

Just a fact-check though ... the Irish Spring commercials, where a man takes a shower in a waterfall, are clearly not set in Ireland. That would be a sure recipe for hypothermia, even in the "summer".

 

I'm feeling frisky tonight. Tell the chef to prepare your finest potato. And spare no expense, sir.

[Corcaigh]

I'm feeling frisky tonight. Tell the chef to prepare your finest potato. And spare no expense, sir.

 

The finest potato will have been fed to the pig. The Irish will just get those not fit for the pig's palate.