Spamsickles. Deep fried spam on a stick....
Posted on 08/03/2009 5:24:49 AM PDT by Diana in Wisconsin
Chocolate-covered bacon, anyone? Food on a stick means kabobs on the grill, ice cream bars on the run, caramel apples for Halloween. You know where we’re going with this, right?
Fair-weather fans crave oddball food during this time of year, and that can mean collecting sticks during all meal courses. The lines don’t begin and end at the Pronto Pup stand.
Food-on-a-stick menus are getting fatter, embracing cotton candy and hot dogs to deep-fried Oreos and chunks of cheese. Expect more than three dozen choices when the Wisconsin State Fair opens Aug. 6 in West Allis, and the most outrageous combo will come from Aaron Fidder, executive chef at the Machine Shed in Pewaukee.
A bold assertion? Hah!
Aaron’s restaurant is known for hearty portions of comfort food and from-scratch cooking, not fussy entrée names or uncommon ingredients. A one-pound chicken liver dinner and smoked turkey reubens are about as unconventional as it gets.
The Machine Shed looks and feels like a shrine to the Midwest farmer, and the homage extends to the gift shop, where one corner of merchandise is all about bacon. In the inventory are bacon-flavored toothpicks, mints, gumballs and lollipops (dubbed “man bait”). They surround “bacon 24/7” T-shirts, bandages that look like bacon strips, bacon-scented air fresheners, wallets and lunchboxes with bacon patterns.
Still with me?
The Machine Shed loves bacon, so why wouldn’t Aaron include it in food-on-a-stick experiments? For one week, co-workers were taste testers for his inventive combinations.
“My belly just kind of aches when I think about that week,” says Erin Zylka, the dining room manager. Restaurant guests also sampled the finalists.
At the end, the chef had two winners.
One: fried peanut butter and jelly sandwiches on a stick. They will be dipped into pancake batter (“I add a little Sprite, to lighten it up,” Aaron says), then dunked into hot oil. “Like a jelly doughnut,” he explains, and $3 each.
Two: chocolate-covered bacon on a stick, served frozen, two strips for $3. The combo, although unprecedented at the Wisconsin State Fair, has shown up elsewhere. Aaron tried a dozen bacon-chocolate matches before deciding on milk chocolate over hardwood-smoked, honey-cured bacon.
“A ganache chocolate was too bitter,” he explains. “The real key is adding a little bit of sea salt to the chocolate at the end.”
“I love chocolate, and I love bacon, but I just can’t come to peace with bringing the two together,” admits Erin. I figured it would be the same with me, until taking my first nibble.
The tug between sugar and salt was attractive. No sign of greasiness. No chewiness. No brittleness, despite the freezing.
So another novelty is born, and 20,000 stick-impaled slices of chocolate-drenched bacon will make their way to West Allis this month.
Next year? Aaron says his top contenders, so far, are deep-fried cheeseburgers (with lettuce) and boston cream pie. Stay tuned.
You just had to do that to me, didn’t you? ;-)
CC
OK, now THAT looks yummy!! :~D I’m with you on that one!
Yummmm... Chocolate Covered Sardines in the red and white tin?
Yummmm... Chocolate Covered Sardines in the red and white tin?
I’m sure it was terrific. Hispanic cooking uses a lot of chocolate. Dope that I am, I married a Swede, LOL!
However, he WAS a professional chef for many years and makes an awesome mole (mo-lay) sauce, so he has a FEW redeeming qualities. :)
Easy mole recipe here:
http://www.recipezaar.com/Mole-Mo-lay-Sauce-35659
I just might have to pass on that one; I grew up dirt poor and we ate a LOT of SPAM and Free Government Cheese.
Haven’t lost my taste for ‘Grandma’s Free Government Cheese Mac-n-Cheese,’ but I think I can live without the SPAM, LOL!
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