Open kitchen at Wayfare Tavern

Okay, I'll admit it: I was never a big Tyler Florence fan. Sure, Forbes recently reported that he's worth more than 50 million dollars, but I always saw him as more of a television personality than a chef. Before 2010, he never even ran his own restaurant and now he's got THREE in less than two years! (Wayfare Tavern, Rotisserie and Wine, & El Paseo) He's clearly cashing in on his television fame.

These days, he's getting plenty of press attention, both good AND bad. And I haven't taken the critic's giddy reviews over his flagship restaurant, Wayfare Tavern, very seriously. He used to be a spokesperson for Applebee's for goodness sake. It must be his over 290,000 fans on Twitter making a big deal about this new hotspot for local celebrity sightings. They’re the ones raving about how the Fried Chicken and Macaroni and Cheese are to die for.

Wait, did you say Fried Chicken and Macaroni and Cheese? Maybe I should check this place out.

The atmosphere of the restaurant is classic old world San Francisco with its golden eagle emblem, black and dark colored wood accents, brushed metal plates and cushy booths. The service is as welcoming as Tyler Florence’s television persona, itself. Our server was at once knowledgeable, warm and genuinely excited about the food coming out of the kitchen. All this positivity was starting to wear off on me.

The menu is a greatest hits compilation of sophisticated American comfort food with a slight French slant, ranging from Deviled Eggs to Steak Tartare to Pork Hash.

Avocado and Hearts of Palm Salad

The meal started with a homemade popover that was light, tangy and just plain impressive. Then we ordered the Organic Butter Lettuce Salad with the Palace Hotel's Green Goddess dressing, and the Avocado and Hearts of Palm Salad with shaved red onions, cucumbers and lime-cilantro dressing. The Green Goddess dressing and radishes were the perfect foil for the delicate butter lettuce. But it was the combination of the fresh, citrusy dressing and creamy, buttery avocado that really sang to me. It was a delightfully bright yet simple salad.

Buttermilk Fried Chicken

Then came the much hyped Buttermilk Brined Fried Chicken that came with a mound of fried herbs, including rosemary and sage, and a wedge of lemon. I’d seen Tyler Florence make fried sage on his show Tyler’s Ultimate, but never expected to enjoy the mellow almost nutty flavor to pair so well with the chicken’s perfectly thin, crisp crust. The flavorful chicken benefited from the buttermilk brine, creating a moist, tangy meat. I’ve tried a lot of fried chicken at various places around San Francisco, but this was clearly the best in my book.

Macaroni and Cheese

The Mac and Cheese was smooth and creamy, just the way I like it. I’m not a fan of baked, clumpy, greasy versions of the dish. And the mild yet distinct garlic flavor was prevalent in the breadcrumbs, which is a good thing. I wish, though, that the cheese had more kick and depth. The jack cheese didn’t give it enough flavor power like I’d hoped. Regardless, it was still a decadent pleasure.

Carrot Cake

Since we were clearly going for gluttony, we finished our meal off with three different desserts: the Key Steamed Lime Pudding Cake with Buttermilk Ice Cream, Gooseberry Goat Cheese Cheesecake, and Carrot Cake.

The goat cheese cheesecake was a bit intense for me, though it was lightened by the gooseberries. And though the buttermilk ice cream was absolutely delicious, the pudding cake was a little grainier than I’d expected. I wanted something smoother, though the flavor and creaminess was there.

The most impressive dessert was the Carrot Cake, not because of the cake itself, though it was rich and moist the way it should be, but because of the pool of carrot syrup that surrounded it. Everyone at the table wanted to drink it straight! It tasted like spiced cider, rich with cinnamon and cloves. It was sweet, spicy and heavenly.

I’d mentioned to our server in passing that one of my dining companions was celebrating a birthday, and she smiled and proceeded to bring over my friend’s dessert with the obligatory lit candle on it. But it was the accompanying notecard signed personally by Tyler Florence, that impressed us. He wasn’t even in town let alone in the restaurant at the time of our meal, but it’s these personal touches in the service, the food, and décor that make this restaurant standout.

Notecard signed personally by Tyler Florence

I didn't want to prove myself wrong, but I have to say, I enjoyed every minute of it. And yes, I might just have become a fan of Chef Florence.

Wayfare Tavern
Address: Map
558 Sacramento Street
San Francisco, CA 94111
Phone: 415-772-9060
Hours: Mon.- Sat. 11am-11pm, Sun. 5pm- 11pm

Fried Chicken Bucket, Front Porch

Fried Chicken. What's there not to like? Crispy golden skin. Juicy tender meat. Finger-lickin' goodness. Apparently, the restaurants of the Bay Area seem to agree. Fried chicken is all the rage, and everyone seems to have a riff on this comfort food favorite: Farmer Brown serves it classic Southern-style, with hamhock greens and mac n' cheese; Namu makes it Korean Fried Chicken with spicy slaw and pickled daikon; Zero Zero goes thighs-only for its gussied up Chicken and Semolina Waffles with Chestnut Honey Butter; Front Porch uses a cornmeal crust and serves it in a popcorn bucket.

Once you've set upon the path to finding the "Best Fried Chicken" it's a quest that can easily obsess. And, it has its hazards…you know, it's not quite as artery-friendly as say, a "Best Salad" quest. By no means have I sampled it all -- for example, I have yet to try Casa Orinda's fried chicken, which Michael Bauer swears by, and I'm still dying to try Brown Sugar Kitchen's Chicken & Waffles -- however, I have taste-tested my fair share, and well, someone should benefit from my "research."

Best Destination Fried Chicken Orgy: Ad Hoc (Yountville, Napa)

Fried Chicken Night, Ad Hoc

The greatness of this fried chicken has taken on almost mythical proportions, with cult followers calling Fried Chicken Night at Ad Hoc a religious experience. Is it as good as everyone says? In one word: yes. One satisfying bite into a hunk of their Buttermilk Fried Chicken and you'll be born again. It's not just that the skin is perfectly crunchy and substantial, or that the brined meat is juicy and flavorful, or that it all comes family-style in a big oversized bowl brimming with indulgence. At Ad Hoc, it's the sum of all the parts that make this a destination dining experience. Your entire meal is orchestrated without the slightest bit of effort from you. Even the drive up to Napa adds to the delicious escapism of the evening. Fried Chicken Night is every other Monday; for an incredibly convenient schedule of exactly which Monday it falls on, check out Inuyaki's custom FCN-stalker calendar.

Best Hangover Fried Chicken: Little Skillet (Soma, SF)

Chicken & Waffles, Little Skillet

There is nothing like some Little Skillet Chicken & Waffles lovin' to soothe your soul after a big night out. A little grease. A jolt of sugar. Yes, please. If Cento is open next door, even better, you've got your caffeine kick to boot. The skin on Little Skillet's chicken is on the thinner side if you're into that. I have found that that the juiciness level can be inconsistent -- I've had the most luck during peak hours. On a sunny day, that concrete loading platform across from Little Skillet's order window (a.k.a. their outdoor "seating" area) is where I want to be -- sweet and savory on my tongue, and maple syrup dribbling down my chin.

Best Home-style Fried Chicken: Firefly (Noe Valley, SF)

Fried Chicken of Your Dreams, Firefly

Firefly knows how to do homey. Their menu changes regularly, so keep an eye out for this nostalgic gem, The Fried Chicken of Your Dreams with Mashed Potatoes & Gravy, Peas & Carrots and a Damn Fine Buttermilk Biscuit. Yes, that is what it's really called. The chicken is tender and well-seasoned, and the skin has that magic quality of sticking to the meat so that you get a mouthful of crunchy goodness in each bite. The sides are classic wins, and the biscuit served with local honey is damn fine, just as advertised.

Best Fried Chicken Sandwich: Bakesale Betty (Oakland)

Fried Chicken Sandwich, Bakesale Betty

It's not often I venture to the East Bay…but Bakesale Betty's legendary Fried Chicken Sandwich is worth the shlep. The line will likely be out the door, if the wait is really long, the kind folks at Bakesale Betty's have been known to bring out samples of their heavenly, chewy cookies. But I digress. The star of the show is this gorgeous hunk of a sandwich made with two generous pieces of chicken breast, double-dredged and fried, topped with a spicy slaw of cabbage, red onion, roughly chopped parsley, and a Dijon mustard-red wine vinaigrette (the key: no mayo). It's all stuffed in between an Acme torpedo roll and quickly wrapped up before it has a chance to escape. Don't worry, it will explode into a delicious mess when you open it, but that is part of the joy of eating one of these sandwiches. The balance of the buttermilk fried chicken (with lots of thick, crispy skin), and fresh crunch and vinegary tang of the slaw is fantastic.

Best Fried Chicken Value Meal: Hard Knox Cafe (Dogpatch, SF)

Fried Chicken, Candied Yams & Collard Greens, Hard Knox

Three big-boy sized pieces of Fried Chicken plus your choice of two sides and corn muffins, all for a mere $11. Now that's a bargain. The seasoning is a bit heavy on the salt and garlic, but for the value and portion, this is a steal. Also, the corn muffins are almost worth the trip themselves -- sweet and light, more cake than bread, with a crunchy top that could inspire a "just the muffin top" shop.

Homemade Fried Chicken

If you're fixing to tackle some homemade fried chicken, there are some key questions you need to ask yourself. To brine or not to brine? Buttermilk bath or no? Single or double dredge? All purpose flour, rice flour, or cornmeal crust? Vegetable oil, peanut oil, or straight up lard? And then there is the question of what style of fried chicken you're after.

I've noticed that there are two distinctly different styles. There's your classic Southern-style fried chicken with buttermilk bath and thick, crunchy skin. And then there's an Asian-style fried chicken seasoned with salt and garlic, and featuring a thin, super crispy skin.

For the former, Thomas Keller's recipe is great, although a bit fussy with the brine. The brine however, is key in infusing the chicken with lovely lemon and herb notes, and also in making sure the meat is really juicy. Then there's the buttermilk bath, and flour seasoned with garlic powder, onion powder, cayenne and salt. The result is a fried chicken that has complex layers of flavor.

In the Asian-style chicken my father-in-law makes, he trades in the brining method for a simple rub of salt, garlic, and ginger. By seasoning the meat really well, allowing it to soak in the flavors overnight, the flavor of the chicken really shines through from inside out. A quick coating of egg white, cornstarch and flour and that's it. The result is a no-frills, tasty fried chicken that's clean and simple.

Asian Fried Chicken

Whatever your chicken of choice is, here are a few tips to get the best fry possible:

• Season your meat (either by brining or salting). According to Fry Master Flava Flav, that's the key to "blowin' up your tastebuds."
• Make sure your pieces of chicken are similar in size. This ensures that they fry up evenly. For larger breast pieces, cut them in half.
• If you're butchering a whole chicken, choose a young chicken (about 2 pounds).
• Make sure the chicken is at room temperature before frying.
• Don't crowd your pan/dutch oven/whatever vessel you're frying in. If you place too many pieces in at once, the temperature of the oil will drop.

(Skip to 3:43 for a real treat)

*****
Daddy Hua's Crispy Fried Chicken

This Asian-style fried chicken features a simple rub of salt, garlic, and ginger, and a quick coating of egg white, cornstarch and flour. The result is a no-frills, tasty fried chicken that's clean and simple, with a dynamite crispy thin crust.

Serves: 2

Ingredients:
2 drumsticks
2 wings
2 thighs
2 garlic cloves, minced
A few slices of ginger, julienned
1 tablespoon salt
1 egg white
¼ cup cornstarch
¼ cup all purpose flour

Preparation:

1. Rinse and pat dry the chicken.
2. Toss the chicken pieces with the garlic, ginger, and salt. Mix well and let marinate at least 6 hours, or better, overnight.
3. Let the chicken come to room temperature. Brush off the garlic and ginger pieces. Coat the chicken in egg white.
4. Mix together the cornstarch and flour on a plate. Dredge the chicken in the mixture, coating both sides. Shake off the excess flour and let sit for 15 minutes. Preheat the oven to 250 F.
5. Meanwhile, in a large skillet/wok/dutch oven, heat up about 2 inches of oil. A good way to test when the oil is ready is to throw in a small piece of bread. If it starts to bubble right away and brown within a minute, the oil is ready.
6. Fry the chicken 1-2 pieces at a time, skin side down first. Flip and brown the other side. Repeat until all the pieces are done. Place them on a wire rack over a baking sheet so that any excess oil drips down. As you work through the batches, keep the done pieces warm in the oven.

Earlier this week I was in the mood for buttermilk dressing. NOT Hidden Valley Ranch Dressing in a plastic bottle, or any other facsimile. I wanted REAL buttermilk dressing. You know, the kind with actual buttermilk in it. If you've never tasted freshly made buttermilk dressing, you need to promptly make a batch (and it's super easy, so it really is quick). Dressing made with actual buttermilk, garlic, lemon and herbs is almost an entirely different food than the bottled variety sold on grocery store shelves. And, once you try it, you'll never go back.

So after whipping up a jar (in less than 5 minutes, I might add to entice you to do the same) and dipping some snap peas and little yellow tomatoes in it, I realized I wanted to do more with my dressing. My daughter Sophie loves a chef's salad, so I started playing with the idea of reinventing and updating this dish a bit for our dinner. My first change was to abandon the standard roasted turkey element. None of us like it all that much anyway, so why bother? And, as long as we had already bought some buttermilk, why not make fried chicken tenders coated in panko and Spanish paprika instead? Ham slices also sounded boring, so I opted for prosciutto drizzled with olive oil and slightly crisped in the oven as a substitute. Of course we needed tomatoes (as they are in season and so sweet this time of year), but with salty prosciutto and crispy chicken, I wanted my tomatoes to stand out. I therefore decided to roast them to draw out their maximum sweetness. Finally, I needed to ponder the merits of including hard boiled eggs. I do quite like them, but wasn't sure how to serve them with fried chicken on greens. That's when I came upon the idea of poaching the eggs instead. I adore how the cracked yolk in poached eggs add richness to Salad Lyonnais, and thought it would also work well with fried chicken, bitter greens and prosciutto. And, because I have a hard time leaving well enough alone, I added some Scarichi to the buttermilk dressing for a new dimension of vinegary heat.

Served on rocket, the final result was a mix of everything I love on one plate. The sweet roasted tomatoes were the perfect foil to the salty prosciutto, while the fried chicken's crispiness and the poached eggs velvety yolks added a luxurious decadence. Mixed with Scarichi, the dressing added complexity and spiciness to the dish.

Better yet, both my kids loved this dish and ate lots of extra veggies on the side dipped in that luscious buttermilk dressing. You really can't ask for more in a family dinner.

Reinvented Chef Salad

Makes: 6 servings

Ingredients:
1 lb clean rocket, arugula, or whatever green you like (I prefer the more bitter greens for this dish)
1 batch fried chicken tenders
6 pieces prosciutto
1 1/2 cup cherry tomatoes cut in half
1/4 lb Gruyere cheese cut into thin long strips
6 eggs gently poached (see instructions below)
1 batch fresh buttermilk salad dressing (with added Sriracha sauce if that’s your thing, and it should be if you a like a little heat in your dressing)
Olive oil
Salt

Preparation:
1. Heat oven to 400 degrees.

2. Sprinkle olive oil on a baking sheet and lay the cut tomatoes on top. Sprinkle on more olive oil and sea or kosher salt. In a separate pan, do the same thing for the prosciutto slices.

3. Place the baking pans in the oven for 3-5 minutes or until the prosciutto is slightly crispy. Remove prosciutto from the oven. Continue cooking the tomatoes until they look slightly singed and roasted and then remove them from the oven. When prosciutto is cool, break into 1-inch pieces.

4. Set out serving plates and stack you greens (rocket, arugula, etc.) in the middle of each one. Top with prosciutto pieces. Sprinkle on some buttermilk dressing and then set your chicken tenders on the green, placing the strips of gruyere and tomatoes on top of the chicken and greens. Finally, set your poached egg on the top, sprinkle on a bit more dressing and serve.

5. Serve with bread, or, even better, fresh buttermilk biscuits!

Note: Be sure to lightly poach your egg as the salad tastes wonderful when the yolk mixes into the rest of the salad.

Fresh Buttermilk Dressing

Makes: One batch

Ingredients:
1/2 cup buttermilk
1/3 cup mayonnaise
1/3 cup sour cream
3 small or 2 medium green onions minced
1 Tbsp Italian parsley minced
1/2 lemon
Salt and pepper to taste
Scarichi, minced jalapenos, cayenne pepper or anything else spicy can be added to add some heat

Preparation:
1. Mince green onions (the white and green parts), parsley, and garlic. Set in a bowl.

2. Squeeze in your lemon and then add the buttermilk, sour cream and mayonnaise. Mix with a whisk.

3. Add salt and pepper to taste, and, if you want it a little spicy, 1 Tbsp Scarichi or 1/4 tsp cayenne pepper.

Buttermilk Fried Chicken Tenders

Makes: 6 servings

Ingredients:
1 pound chicken tenders (the inner part of the breast) or 1 pound cut up chicken breasts
1 cup buttermilk
1 egg
1 1/2 cup panko
1/2 cup flour
1 tsp Spanish paprika (or regular if you don’t have any)
1/4 tsp cayenne pepper (leave this out if you don’t want it mildly spicy)
1 tsp salt
Enough vegetable oil for frying

Preparation:
1. Place chicken in a bowl and cover with buttermilk. Let sit overnight, or for at least one hour. When ready to cook, mix in one raw scrambled egg and thoroughly coat each piece of chicken.

2. Place panko, flour, paprika, cayenne (if using) and salt in a bag and shake. In batches (being sure not to overcrowd) place chicken pieces in the bag and gently shake so each piece is thoroughly coated. Remove chicken from bag and repeat until all chicken is coated.

3. Heat enough oil in a large pan to cover the bottom by 1/4-inch and when oil is hot, place enough chicken pieces in the pan to line the bottom (but don’t crowd the pan or they won’t crisp up). Brown on each side until golden and then remove from pan. If you want your chicken hot in the salad, you should hold the chicken in a 250 degree oven until ready. Continue frying until all the chicken is cooked. If the pan gets too hot (and you’ll know it will be too hot because your chicken will brown too fast) just lower the heat.

Tips for Poaching an Egg

1. Bring a medium pot of water to a slow simmer. Be sure not to fiercely boil the water. Also, you can add 1 tsp vinegar if you'd like, but it is not needed.

2. Crack egg in a dish and then gently slide the egg into the water. Gently capture any escaped white and push toward the egg.

3. Cook for about 2 minutes or until the whites are firm and then remove from the pot. Set on a dish until ready for use (no longer than 5 minutes).

I flew to North Carolina last week for my grandmother's funeral. She was 87 and she couldn't do anything for herself by the time she died. A woman named Tonya would come by the house every day, and later the nursing home, and feed her and bathe her and turn on Andy Griffith for her to watch. Tonya was with her when she died, and the day before that when my grandmother had said, "Hold me," it was Tonya who pulled down the bed rails and put her solid bronze arms around my grandmother's soft, fleshy ones.

When I stepped off the plane in Raleigh, the air was hot and thick and I wished I'd changed out of my jeans before I left the airport. My brother picked me up, along with my mother and my sister, and when I got into his truck they started telling me about all the food people had brought over.

"You would not believe how much food we have back at the house," my mom began, shaking her head so that her graying hair bounced against her forehead. "Fried chicken, pecan pie," -- she pronouces it PEE-can -- "chess pie, potato salad, cole slaw. We have enough to feed an army."

My sister took up the litany, counting the dishes off on her fingers. "Barbecued chicken. Deviled eggs. Chocolate cake." Even in the darkened car, I could see her eyes sparkle, but not with tears. Eating feels good, even when everything else feels bad.

We spent much of the ride home talking about what they'd eaten the night before, and which neighbor or church friend or circle member had brought what dish. When we got home, everyone peeled off to bed but me and mom. We cut into a chocolate sheet cake made from Duncan Hines mix and store bought frosting. I ate a square of it standing up in my grandparents' red kitchen, and then cut off another small sliver just to even things out. It was fluffy and fresh and delicious. It reminded me of birthday party cake from when I was a kid.

I read over a piece of paper on the kitchen table that listed all the food that had been dropped off and by whom. The funeral house prints these forms up and brings them to the deceased's house, along with a podium with a light attached to it and a book that sits on top of it for visitors to sign.

The next morning, I woke up and took a shower. I put on a dress I'd bought with money my grandmother sent me for my birthday, and shoes I'd bought the previous summer for my grandfather's funeral. We drove to the cemetary and sat down on chairs covered in scratchy crushed blue velvet. My grandparents' ashes had been comingled -- that is the official term for mixing them together -- and they were held in a wooden box engraved with intertwining hearts and the words "Together Forever." They were both blessed and later buried in that hot, muggy air, and even as I cried, I couldn't help but notice that the preacher used a word I'd never heard before -- undergird. In the car on the way home I asked my brother and sister if anyone had ever heard it before. No one had.

Back home, my cousins immediately set about heating up the food. Most of us crowded into the kitchen; some of us were hungry, some tried to help, but I think most of us just didn't know what else to do. My cousin Sheila hadn't been able to sleep the night after my grandmother died, so she got up at 4:30 in the morning and baked a pound cake.

When we finally sat down to eat, we had three kinds of chicken (roasted, barbecued, and fried), deviled eggs, sandwiches, baked ham, yeast rolls, ham rolls, three kinds of potato salad, cole slaw, corn pudding, rice pilaf, broccoli casserole, asparagus casserole topped with Pringles (I kid you not), lasagna, baked beans, bread-and-butter pickles, and chicken salad. We all sat around in the living room with plates on our knees, sipping sweet tea, catching up with people we hadn't talked to in a year, complaining about the heat and humidity.

There were just as many desserts as anything else. Lemon chess pie, pecan pie, chocolate cake, the most marvelous chocolate fudge pie (it's basically gooey, nearly-cooked brownie batter in a flaky pie shell), pound cake, banana pudding. What we didn't eat, we wrapped back up and put out again for dinner that night, after the memorial service at the church, after I stood in the receiving line and met all the people who had fed us.

Grandma's Fried Chicken
Serves 4

Ingredients:
1 whole chicken, cut into legs, thighs, breasts, and wings
buttermilk (optional)
flour
salt and pepper to taste
Crisco

Method:
In my grandmother's words: "I'm not the fryer in the family," she started out by saying. "That's Margaret [her sister]. But I've fried a lot of chicken. What you want to do is salt and pepper and flour the chicken. Teri [her cousin] says you should soak it in milk before you flour it. He brought us some fried chicken one time and it was mighty good, but I don't know. Then you want to cook it in hot grease. You can use Crisco or you can use the liquid, it doesn't matter. We always used Crisco. But anyway, you want to cook it in enough hot grease to cover the chicken.

"Daddy called himself the Master Fryer, and Mother always said, 'I guess you are. All you do is stand there and fry it and I have to do all the rest of it and all the cleaning up.' We had fried chicken every Sunday morning for breakfast with biscuits.

"But anyway. The smaller the chicken the better. It's done when you can stick a fork in easily and no blood appears. Maybe 20 minutes, but watch it. Then just put it on a paper towel to drain."

Additional instructions:
All measurements are approximate because you really only need enough to suit you. Cover the chicken in buttermilk for a few hours, up to overnight. Pat it good and dry, then salt and pepper it to taste and dredge in flour, shaking off the excess. Or, you can toss the flour in a paper bag, season it to your liking (cayenne adds a nice touch) and then toss the chicken parts in one by one.

Heat the Crisco about halfway up a cast iron skillet until it's melted and a small piece of bread bubbles and fries on contact. Then add the pieces, one or two at a time to prevent the oil from cooling down. Turn them after about 5-8 minutes, depending on size and type of meat; keep in mind dark meat needs longer to cook than white meat. Drain on a plate covered with paper towels and serve hot. Also good cold the next day.

Every summer, I become mildly obsessed with frying chicken. I think of the beautiful childhood picnics I never went on. Laying out my hand-stitched quilt on a grassy patch of park free of dog feces, the well-timed automatic sprinklers offering me a refreshing spritz of mist at 15 minute intervals, drinking freshly squeezed lemonade and eating my Grammy's homemade fried chicken.

How I miss Anaheim.

If a summertime picnic was to be had, it was generally done in my backyard on an old, frayed electric blanket (not plugged in). Just myself and my dogs, Cindy and Penny, who were not, as one might think, named for Cindy Williams and Penny Marshall. The coincidence of my childhood with Laverne and Shirley is simply bad timing. No sunscreen. We didn't feel the need for such things in those days. All I needed for a (temporary) deep, golden tan was the mayonnaise dripping from my bologna sandwich. I know what you're thinking. Eew. Well, you're right. My neighbor Kim and I once slathered Best Foods all over our bodies and then baked ourselves in the sun. We thought nothing of it until we began to smell. That was about the time Kim's mother found us and screamed something about us being walking salmonella and wasting her good mayonnaise. She then sprayed me down with a hose and sent me home.

But I digress.

The point I am feebly trying to make is that we were not, by nature, fried chicken eaters. The occasional Shake n' Bake assisted fried chicken was ingested, but without relish. Or mayonnaise, for that matter.

I think, though, that I had always wanted to be a fried chicken eater. Perhaps it was the trappings that went with its eating-- red checkered picnic cloths, watermelon, big, happy families. Maybe even a sack race. That seemed like a great summertime sort of lifestyle.

My understanding of the dish didn't occur until well into adulthood. I had invited my cooking school partner Todd over for dinner one summer evening and thought fried chicken sounded like a good idea. As I took the chicken legs out of their plastic seal and began to place them directly into the flour mixture I'd made, Todd cocked is head like a confused dog and asked, "What are you doing? That's not how my Mama makes fried chicken and my Mama knows fried chicken." His voice had suddenly developed the long, rounded vowels and deep base of an imaginary Kentucky Colonel-- decidedly un-New Jersey-like, the state in which Todd learned to speak. He explained that his mother was from West Virginia. Oh. We went to the market to purchase what he needed to make proper fried chicken, then I stood back and watched him work. Since the chicken needed to soak overnight, I think we went out for burritos that night instead. He came back the next day to fry it all up. I was floored and humbled by the results.

Now I realize that everyone thinks they know what the perfect fried chicken should taste like. Well, you're wrong, plain and simple.

Thank you Todd, wherever you are. And thank you, Mama Webb, for showing me into the light.

Mrs. Webb's Fried Chicken

Ingredients:

12 pieces of chicken (I like thighs and drumsticks. Breasts just seem like a waste for frying)
1 quart of buttermilk (low fat will do just fine)
a generous amount of salt
1 onion, sliced into rings or Lyonnaise style, if you like-- you're the one eating them
3 cups of all purpose flour
1 to 2 tablespoons cracked black pepper
1 tablespoon cayenne pepper
1 1/2 quarts vegetable oil for frying (corn, safflower or whatever. Don't get fancy with the oil or people will laugh at you). Or, if you prefer, vegetable shortening.

Preparation:

1. In a large bowl, coat the chicken pieces liberally with salt. This not only salts the chicken, it draws out impurities, preventing unsightly blood spotting as you fry. Let the chicken sit in the salt for one hour.

2. Rinse the salt from the chicken. Rinse the bowl, too, for reuse.

3. Return chicken to the bowl and add the sliced onion. Toss together and cover with buttermilk. Cover and set in refrigerator overnight or for one full day.

4. In a skillet, pour one inch of oil and heat to 325 degrees. Try not to let the oil get hotter or the chicken will burn. I use a thermometer to gauge the temperature. I suggest you do, too, since the oil temperature drops significantly when the cold chicken is added.

5. In another large bowl, combine flour, 2 tablespoons each of salt and pepper and the cayenne (truth be told, I've never bothered to measure the amount of this I use. Just suit yourself).

6. Remove all the chicken from the buttermilk-tainted bowl. I don't care where you put it as long as you put it somewhere clean. Shake excess buttermilk from a piece of chicken and roll it in the flour mixure. Dip the chicken back into the buttermilk and once more into the flour. A double crust is, for me anyway, de rigueur. Add the chicken to your pan as you go, skin side down. I find that adding the chicken gradually to the pan helps to maintain a more constant oil temperature. Just make sure you have some sort of system for knowing which pieces have been in the longest. I work clockwise. You do what you want.

7. Fry the chicken until golden brown, about 10 to 12 minutes per side. Make sure you've got some music appropriate for frying playing. This is going to take a little while.

8. As each piece finishes frying, place on a rack to drain. Why waste paper towels?

9. Now you have these wonderful onions to fry up. Proceed as with the chicken, battering and double dipping. How nice to have a side dish built right into the recipe.

Serve hot or cold. Not the onion rings, of course. I like the chicken cold. For picnics, you know.

Serves 4 to 6 people.