08.05.11 {on deep-fried kool-aid}

deep fried kool aid: it begins

deep-fried kool-aid, cont'd.

My questions are two: How? Why?

A: how: as one would make doughnut holes or falafel, according to most of the recipes i've seen. jumble several tablespoons of kool-aid powder with sugar, flour, and fat, then chuck little scoops of the resulting batter in a deep fryer, probably in an off-putting trailer.

why [the orange county fair, suppliers of our batch]: because it's there, as sir edmund hillary* put it. why [me, the eater of our batch]: because it is bitter, and because it is my heart. also vegetarianism really problematizes neophilia: when i can eat mysterious food, i almost always do.


does fried kool aid pair well with kool aid?

A: the inventors say yes; my guess would be no. i'd pair it with seltzer or a dry cider to offset the banshee sweetness.


what does it taste like?

A: like a feral churro raised by sweet tarts, and i mean that as a compliment; good texture and a moist crumb with a pleasantly unnerving citric finish. i dislike bland pastries and am extremely fond of dentally catastrophic fruit flavors, so i found them interesting, which is not to say that i'd face down more than one ever again, probably. i have my pride.


how does frying affect color? Can you make shapes (like pancakes)?

A: it browns it out a bit [fig. 2]; think falafel, or the exterior of a red velvet cake. i think a pancake presentation probably wouldn't be as successful; the dough needs to stay fairly moist to dignify the one-note flavor of the kool-aid crystals.


did you make joe eat one?

A: yes.


do your nails always look like that?

A: unless i'm in a wedding party.


how long did it take the east village to start selling a vegan version of deep-fried kool-aid?

A: three weeks.


*or, as george notes, george mallory put it (unless his quote was massaged). in other news, hillary described everest's summit as "a beautiful, symmetrical snow cone."

20 comments:

anonymous said...

i think you made up some of those questions.

kidchamp said...

oh, the last one was totally me to me. i think of it as autosocraticism.

Rob said...

And here I was actually trying to figure out how someone pours a powder into oil and creats a fried product. Does the crust keep you safe from sticky fingers?

kidchamp said...

it does, though i waited for five minutes before touching them at all. 

i still don't know how they make deep-fried butter, which was being sold at the same stand.

Katherine Cortes said...

thanks. I was forced to substitute this beverage-cum-snack pic in for the pig in wellies as by PC backdrop.

jacob said...

as i understand it (and iowa being a mecca for these types of things), deep frying items that would normally melt after being exposed to hot oil (butter, ice cream) are super-frozen using liquid nitrogen or some such other compound, which results in a regular-frozen treat.

g said...

Minor edit... Mallory supposedly said "Because it's there," not Hillary.  Also, there is some debate about whether it is an exact quote, or some clever paraphasing by the press.

Also also, those kool-aid things look slightly horrifying.  I can't believe you convinced Joe to eat one.

g said...

(insert Family Ties joke here)

Amid Privilege said...

You had previously disabused me of the idea that Kool-Aid - the drink - was somehow encased in crust and fried. However, despite your clarification, I still had the wrong idea. I thought this would be the powder itself, somehow encased in crust and fried. I have to say, it seems like cheating to call this deep-fried Kool-Aid. Technically, this is a Kool-Aid fritter. If you made it long and skinny, it could be a Kool-Aid cruller.

I'm going to return to my daydreams of cold orange Kool-Aid in a crust. I suppose, to make it possible, I'll settle for Otter Pops en croute.

kidchamp said...

blast! you know how surnames fuck with me. 

Rachel (heart of light) said...

So glad you tried these. And also explained them, because all the media buzz has been sadly sort on solid facts, of the sort the curious would like to know.

Bizzarely fruit flavored candies are my weakness - I used to sneak packets of Koolaid mix and eat them straight. Which is probably also a testament to the fact that my mom refused to keep any kind of sweets in the house. Why we had Koolaid mix is beyond me, actually, in light of the rest of our hippie kitchen stocks.

Amanda said...

I ate Skittles at An American Tale last night. In between WEEPING UNCONTROLLABLY.

That is not this.

Celia said...

unless i'm going to hawaii, my nails look the same.

also, did this fritter turn your toungue red like a *glass* of kool aid or a slurpee would? did you already answer this question? sorry, joe has this odd habit of talking to me while i'm trying to read, which makes it extremely difficult for me to concentrate. 

kidchamp said...

team zombie nails! alas, no kool-aid tongue.

jamie said...

my nails look *worse* but i think you know that already.

(except for when henry was under 1 month and i didnt leave the house much and i washed my hands *all the time*

so, it sounds like you would... recommend?

jamie said...

ps hello!

kidchamp said...

hello, dear jamie! yes, i do think i'd recommend them; not to be consumed on a regular basis, i'd say, but a festive novelty food, and a solid county fair option.

Megan said...

I totally hear you on the neophilia, though isn't this more of a new preparation of a familiar "food"? Quibbling, I know. I'm just disappointed that it's not like a kool ade soup dumpling.

kidchamp said...

no, i totally agree. i too was a bit disappointed that the application wasn't a bit more molecular-gastronomy-ish (as lisa suggested). next year, perhaps. 

naurnie said...

i'd eat it. just once. to say that i had. i've had deep fried beer at the state fair, though. that was GROSS.