June 18, 2017

Onion rings have been a long-time focus of this blog, so I must show you this:



Well, she's just incredibly cool and charming, and her attention to onion rings is delightful. I am glad to cede my onion ring crown to her, but for the record, these are my top 8 onion ring posts:

1. "The new Hillary Clinton video is a take on the last scene of 'The Sopranos.'"
Bill says "No onion rings?" and Hillary responds "I'm looking out for ya." Now, the script says onion rings, because that's what the Sopranos were eating in that final scene, but I doubt if any blogger will disagree with my assertion that, coming from Bill Clinton, the "O" of an onion ring is a vagina symbol. Hillary says no to that, driving the symbolism home. She's "looking out" all right, vigilant over her husband, denying him the sustenance he craves. What does she have for him? Carrot sticks! The one closest to the camera has a rather disgusting greasy sheen to it. Here, Bill, in retaliation for all of your excessive "O" consumption, you may have a large bowl of phallic symbols! When we hear him say "No onion rings?," the camera is on her, and Bill is off-screen, but at the bottom of the screen we see the carrot/phallus he's holding toward her. Oh, yes, I know that Hillary supplying carrots is supposed to remind that Hillary will provide us with health care, that she's "looking out for" us, but come on, they're carrots! Everyone knows carrots are phallic symbols. But they're cut up into little carrot sticks, you say? Just listen to yourself! I'm not going to point out everything.
2. "Let's take a closer look at Bill's carrot and Hillary's onion ring." ("Let's talk about the onion-ring shaped vortex I started yesterday. All I did was a little casual Freudian interpretation of a Hillary Clinton campaign video....")

3. "What is Althouse doing lunching in this sleazy dive?" (This enigmatic post marks the beginning of the Althouse + Meade love affair.)

Onion rings

4. "I've mostly stopped reading Ann Althouse, really."

5. "Meat is no longer murder.... meat is strategy. To attract men -- it's all about attracting men!..."

6. "We drove out into the Driftless Area of Wisconsin...."

P1150044

7. The one with this picture:

P1010065

8. The one with this picture:

P1010443

86 comments:

mockturtle said...

It all looks disgusting to me, as I don't like anything deep-fried. When first sent to the southeast on business I had looked forward to the seafood but found it was all breaded and fried. I had to peel the breading off to eat it.

The Cracker Emcee Refulgent said...

That's a lot of fried food. Maybe Titus is right about the... ponderousness, of Wisconsinites.

mockturtle said...

They do serve tasty steaks in Wisconsin, Cracker.

Achilles said...

So Hillary thought that portraying herself as a nasty scold forcing people to eat carrot sticks instead of onion rings would make people like her?

And democrats can't figure out why they are losing elections...

rhhardin said...

Whoever the lady is, she's a lot less interesting than she thinks she is.

madison mike said...

Like, I was, like, really wondering, like, if her songs, like, include "like" in her lyrics. Made me nostalgic for the way my daughters spoke in the '80's and 90's

Meade said...

"Whoever the lady is, she's a lot less interesting than she thinks she is."

Interesting that you find the lady interesting.

Otto said...

Before we all forget, Happy Wannabe Father's Day to all the feminist out there.

tcrosse said...

Needs cole slaw.

tcrosse said...

Happy Mothers day to all the transitioned ex-fathers.

Bob Ellison said...

Wow. That's Austen-esque, as I was just explaining to my boys yesterday.

Joe Biden, America's Putin said...

Is she from New Zealand? She says "like" too much. Which is odd, because, like, that is an American thing.

Aggie said...

You haven't had onion rings until you've had them at Woodman's, Essex, Mass.

http://www.woodmans.com/

Hammond X. Gritzkofe said...

Issat fried catfish with them rings? Food porn.

Tank said...

Off to the gun club bbq/picnic.

Lock and load Althousians.

D 2 said...

O, how the onion ring becomes it!

Clark said...

It's very hard to choose between onion rings and cheese curds at Culvers. So, the only sensible thing to do is get both.

paminwi said...

I prefer the haystack type of onion rings. The best in Madison are at Delaney's Steakhouse. Along with an old fashioned and I believe I am in Wisconsin heaven.

Churchy LaFemme: said...

Behold: The late Brenda Starr

Coconuss Network said...

As soon as the Burger King coupons arrived, we darted out to BK for Saturday night dinner, for my favorite "onion rings". Only place in town that prepares 'em. And love Lorde, circa: 2013.

mezzrow said...

Dang, Althouse. I've got to go to Junior's and get the fried shrimp plate with some onion rings. If it hadn't been for the pictures, I'd have gotten the rings at my local BBQ joint, and those are better rings to boot.

Still hush puppies... mmmm....

I hope you're proud of yourself for what you've started here.

Earnest Prole said...

It's been ten years since I last saw Hillary Clinton and onion rings in the same sentence, and I'd prefer it to be another fifty before I see it again.

Anonymous said...

Aggie wrote:

"You haven't had onion rings until you've had them at Woodman's, Essex, Mass."

So true, or The Clam Box just over the border from Essex in Ipswich, or Brown's Lobster Pound, just over the Massachusetts border in Seabrook, N.H. or Markey's just across the street from Brown's or Mr. Bartley's, a hamburger place frozen in time (1965), surrounded by the nonsense of Harvard Square in Cambridge, Mass. Outer Space.

All these places fry a fine batterless onion ring. Those pics Althouse shows are all battered rings.

tcrosse said...

It's been ten years since I last saw Hillary Clinton and onion rings in the same sentence, and I'd prefer it to be another fifty before I see it again.

How about "Hi. I'm Hillary Clinton. Would you like fries or onion rings with that ?"

Michael said...

Mockturtle!!

Why I enjoyed a plate of fried oysters and fried shrimp with a side of onion rings just last night. In Montgomery, the capital of Alabama and birthplace of the civil rights movement. You have insulted the very marrow of the South, the clogged arteries of which pump a love for fried food that is unrivaled, unmatched. We fry everything. You should have tried the pickles. Or stuck around and studied heart surgery or become a specialist in obesity or diabetes.

Bleach Drinkers Curing Coronavirus Together said...

I'd take it a little easy with this fetish, Ann. Some vaginas actually smell better than onions, you know. I'd be careful not to reveal too much.

MaxedOutMama said...

I had completely forgotten about Ann-Althouse-suppressed-lesbian! How could I have forgotten that?

fivewheels said...

She seems nice. I'm too old to know this Lorde person, but I'm old enough to think she reminds me a whole lot of Veronica Hart. That one's for Laslo.

Johanna Lapp said...

There's a truly disgusting onion ring joke in the original "Animal House" script. They filmed it with the full expectation that Universal would demand its deletion, but they could bargain to keep in something slightly less foul in exchange for killing the grossest item.

So far as I know, the film clip never leaked. Sad.

Johanna Lapp said...

Onion ring loaf at Virgil's BBQ in Times Square. I think they freeze-dry away any residual cooking oil. Crunchy delights.

khesanh0802 said...

"If it ain't fried, it ain't food!"
Lyrics by Donald Westlake.

traditionalguy said...

Onion rings seem so common. Why not use avocados as your fetish. Big, small, hard, soft and always tasty.

At the Varsity in ATL the onion rings with a chili dog are a preferred laxative substitute. ..cooked in peanut oil as II recall.

Bleach Drinkers Curing Coronavirus Together said...

I just had fried green tomatoes for the first time today.

AmPowerBlog said...

I just need a burger with my onion rings and I'm set, heh. I saw the Lorde thing last week, and texted the story to my son, who's 21 and into the hipster commercial music thing. (Weird, how when I was 21, my friends and I turned against commercial "corporate" rock and stopped listening to it, mainstream radio programming, etc., altogether, at least for a time. You weren't "punk" unless you bailed out on that stuff, lol.)

Left Bank of the Charles said...

I googled "men in shorts eating onion rings" and clicked images hoping to find a good picture to link here in the comments. But I couldn't find one, not one. Hmm...

Ralph L said...

Maybe I have bad teeth but I've always had problems cutting the onion when biting into one.

The Zevely House in Winston-Salem served thin slices of deep-fried red cabbage. Only cooked cabbage I could bear to be around.

tcrosse said...

We had a disgusting name for onion rings in the Navy. In fact we had a disgusting name for just about everything they served up. I was only an enlisted man, but I can claim a certain expertise about this.

Ralph L said...

You've got a Kimmel tag for a Fallon clip.

Do they have hush puppies in the Midwest, or are those the cheesy things?

mockturtle said...

IMO, onion rings are best sauteed until carmelized and on top of a burger.

Quaestor said...

A few weeks back I met with my posse for an evening of spirits and spirited conversation. As is customary among us we start with dinner somewhere, which usually means a short debate on the merits of whatever cuisine that available within reasonable distance. This most recent confab started with a visit to a real plebian-style fish camp restaurant. Nothing fancy with a kids menu, a seniors discount, the whole she-bang of the family-friendly eatery that serves no wine or beer that can't be either selected or rejected in 3.2 seconds flat. In the foyer, this place had a "catch of the day" chalkboard, and on it, I read "London-style Fish & Chips (Cod)". Not being too hungry I opted for a nice oyster cocktail followed by the "Fish & Chips" The oyster were superb, but the fish came with chips — literally potato chips. Granted these were homestyle chips, but they were fried very crisp. I had to point out to the waitress that I had not expected chips per se, but chips, which are french fries of a sort. To be authentic the "fries" need to be rather thickly cut and quite greasy and limp (impotent?) as opposed to the tumescent tubers we Americans buy at McDonald's, Burger King, Wendy's, et cetera, et cetera, ad nauseam, reflecting the fact that Eastenders do not deep fry their taters as much as simmer them in fat.

Potato chips are interesting given their history, or more precisely their various and conflicting legends. There was very nice Spanish (more precisely Catalan) restaurant in NYC that I enjoyed. It was on the corner of East 35th and Madison. It was really Old World with elderly waiters in tuxedos who spoke with that lisp, and the walls were painted in a mural that blended the Spanish countryside with Goya interpretations. The first time I ate there I ask for whatever the chef recommended, which was Carrillada — braised pork cheek. It came garnished with what looked and tasted like rather bland potato chips. Holy frijoles! Potato chip served by an old dude in a tux. Noting my bemusement the waiter explained that they were "mumble-mumble" and not Lays potato chips. And that the Spanish invented potato chips before Columbus could read a map. I didn't have the heart to explain that before Columbus nobody in Spain even saw a potato let alone made a chip of one.

Bleach Drinkers Curing Coronavirus Together said...

If you make a robust and juicy enough burger, there is no need for a fatty carby onion ring on top of it. Just go with a fat slice of the crisp, fresh onion.

At least, that's how I think Ted's used to make it. I've had a good burger since they closed shop here. But they were the best I'd had, anywhere.

They also had incredible steaks. Much better than the huge, mediocre local East coast steakhouses. Apparently quality sourcing actually does make a difference.

Hell, they even had really cool sarsaparilla and bathrooms with the old fashioned powder Borax to dispense as soap. There wasn't anything they didn't do right! Man, I loved that place.

deepelemblues said...

Ugh onion rings

Why do you have to taste soooo good and make my stomach soooo upset

mockturtle said...

TR, I agree that raw onions are good, too, on a burger. Good burgers can be hard to find. They should be at least three-napkin burgers or, better, four napkin.

Bleach Drinkers Curing Coronavirus Together said...

Aww hell. Cheap sous vide water baths will put all of us weekend warrior grill sergeants out of commission anyway, I'd guess.

That and a few head of steer in the local neighborhood cowshare program.

tcrosse said...

Until they invent a sous vide that puts on a nice char, they will never replace the grill (or broiler).

Bleach Drinkers Curing Coronavirus Together said...

I agree. You need the char via grill etc. to nicely caramelize the edges.

mezzrow said...

At the Varsity in ATL the onion rings with a chili dog are a preferred laxative substitute. ..cooked in peanut oil as II recall.

At the Varsity, everything's a slider.

What'll you have, what'll you have, what'll you have????

readering said...

I think they just published a study finding that a diet of fried potatoes two or more times a week double the risk of sudden early death. Doubt onion rings any better. I love the look of onion rings but I am always disappointed that they taste too much of grease and not enough of onion. Rather just eat fried onions on my burger or hot dog.

Quaestor said...

I normally loathe to shift the topic, particularly one with sentimental significance to our hostess but come now, surely a discussion of the Freudian symbolism of the onion ring is limited (Freud himself pointed out that a cigar is usually just a smoke, and this case I'm certain he'd say an onion ring is a fried vegetable.) and bound to run ashore sooner or later. So allow Quaestor to put the helm over hard-a-port and ground this barge on the reef.

On the subject of Whole Foods and that skin headed billionaire Bezos, I note that Drudge still has those links up front and prominent. Not being too interested I hardly glanced at them until just now. According to Drudge the employees fear robots, drones, and culture clash... Need we point out that Whole Foods is a grocery store, not your typical grocery store granted, but a grocery store nonetheless. What is it really? An absurdly faux-rustic (what's the point of laying a creaky wooden floor on top of poured concrete, to make bored suburban hausfraus think they've visited a farmer's market in Hayseed, West Virginia?) over-priced grocery chain aimed at affluent foodies (other than the flat-earthers the dumbest of all dumb sub-cultures) and staffed by arrogant, hyperactive unemployables who trail clouds of smug behind them like old Chevys with worn-out piston rings.

Well of course they fear. Fear is what Whole Foods is all about — fear of hormones, fear of pesticides, fear of herbicides, fear of butylated hydroxyanisole, fear of partially hydrogenated oils, fear of butylated hydroxytoluene, fear of high-fructose corn sweeteners, fear of monosodium glutamate, fear of sodium nitrate, fear of genetically modified crops. Heck, these people are even scared of dihydrogen monoxide (it has been proven!). They're so afeared of it they sign petitions to ban it. But what really stands their hair on end, what they're really afraid of is mortality. They think that by eating right as Mother Nature intended they'll somehow cheat the Reaper. What Whole Foods really sells is talismans — eatable lucky charms (not the General Mills breakfast product which is, in fact, inedible) against the visitation of the Angel of Death.

LordSomber said...

At the Varsity in ATL the onion rings with a chili dog are a preferred laxative substitute. ..cooked in peanut oil as II recall.

…Which is why I can't eat there more than once a year -- it cleans out the plumbing.

Do like the Chili Steak/Dog and Ring One, though.

urbane legend said...

Who is this random and undefined "they", readering? And what is early death? No one has a guarantee to a certain date, so no one knows what an early death is. Die in a car crash at age 68 and the statistic looks the same, but the potatoes had nothing to do with your death. An average, or a median, is not a risk. Fried potatoes twice a week isn't a diet; it is an occasional meal. Eat sensibly the rest of the week and those two meals mean nothing.

My last annual checkup my total cholesterol was 116. That number has never been over 140. No plaque in the heart or carotid arteries. I eat fried eggs and potatoes twice a week. A great many things may kill me, but it won't be heart disease and fried potatoes. Unless I choke on them.

mockturtle said...

Quaestor, you are waxing eloquent today.

Quaestor said...

If I wax any more I can wear a bikini.

Ann Althouse said...

"You've got a Kimmel tag for a Fallon clip."

Oops. Fixed. Mixing the Jimmys.

"Do they have hush puppies in the Midwest, or are those the cheesy things?"

Those are deep fried cheese curds. Excellent!!

Ann Althouse said...

Remember, I have lost nearly all my sense of smell, so that makes food have very little taste. Texture and temperature are so important to me, and these deep fried things matter more than they would for somebody else.

Clyde said...

I love the cheese curds and the frozen custard at Culver's. We have several of them here now in southwest Florida, for which I am grateful.

Mid-Life Lawyer said...

I lost my taste almost entirely during chemo/radiation (radiation was on a tumor at the base of my tongue and lots of collateral damage - taste buds, salivary glands, etc.) last year and sweet is only back maybe 25% still now. Yes, texture and temperature makes more difference now, for sure. I haven't had but about 3 or 4 meals since last September that I really enjoyed but I do keep trying. Italian meat is probably the best category of food to me these days......... Lourde is delightful. That's the first time I have seen her in an interview. I now follow the onionringsworldwide account on Instagram. The onion ring at Huey's in Memphis is the best I have had. I have enjoyed it even after the loss of taste.

Ralph L said...

I have lost nearly all my sense of smell, so that makes food have very little taste
My dad has lost his entirely, though it was never much. I fix something I think salty, and he pours more on it and everything else. But his blood pressure at 89 is 120/60. Wish his brain worked as well.

Rusty said...

Tempura onion rings.
There was a bowling ally/cafe in Wausaukee that had the best Friday fish fry. Tempura fried lake perch and onion rings.
That was heaven.
And when I was immense I would drive the four hours for the french fry and fish the streams the rest of the weekend.

Big Mike said...

This enigmatic post marks the beginning of the Althouse + Meade love affair.

But are you still having a love affair? That's always the question for a married couple.

Be said...

Lightly pickling the onions before batter frying them? Okay: Sold, as I know I'm going to like the album.

I don't know her music all that well; did enjoy her effervescence in that interview. Thank you!

Ralph L said...

did enjoy her effervescence
There's no accounting for taste.

william moore said...

I spent the first 27 years of my life in Oshkosh and a cheese curd never passed my lips,nor shall one .

Ralph L said...

Lips that hold a cigaroot shall never pass beneath my snoot.

Be said...

@Ralph L, as a Dead Mediterranean Guy once put it:

"de gustibus non est disputandem."

Be said...

"Mixing the Jimmies!" - Snort!

Part of why I love about here is the Humor, Liberally, Lovingly Sprinkled. <3

readering said...

Fried potatoes . . .

http://www.cnn.com/2017/06/14/health/fried-potatoes-early-death/index.html

David said...

Good evidence that Clinton TV spots have been lame for a long time. They paid tens of millions of dollars for all that stuff and it was still awful..



Bob Ellison said...

Limburger. I remember those days. Dark. They whipped us daily.

Soppressata was easier. Could've used more mayo, but OK.

exiledonmainstreet, green-eyed devil said...

tcrosse said...
Until they invent a sous vide that puts on a nice char, they will never replace the grill (or broiler).

6/18/17, 2:59 PM

I have a sous vide. I'm finding I'm not using it that much because of the time element. Yes, when I used it to cook ribeyes they were perfectly cooked (you then char them on the stovetop for a minute at high heat) but the results were not that much better than they are when I simply grill them in the usual way, which is what I did this afternoon.

The person who convinced me to buy one recommended it for poaching eggs. Again they turned out fine, but it's a lot quicker to just poach eggs the old fashioned way.

exiledonmainstreet, green-eyed devil said...

Dycksville Bowl in Kewaunee County has the best cheese curds I've ever had. Served piping hot with a very light coating of batter. It's worth pulling off the exit on 57 on the way to Door County to stop there. Dycksville appears to consist of the bowling alley, a gas station, a bar and a church.

There used to be a great supper club there that reportedly was frequented by Packer players. When you walked in it was like stepping back into 1955. Knotty pine wall paneling, deer heads and muskies on the walls and Sinatra on the jukebox. Excellent grilled walleye - the fish tasted like they had caught 5 minutes earlier. Alas, the last time we checked, we found it had closed.

Bob Ellison said...

Egg-poaching is a crime in most states.

No, wait. I may be thinking of ciche-making.

Ralph L said...

Dycksville Bowl... has the best cheese curds I've ever had
With a name like that, it's got to be good.

Trumpit said...

Steve Allen was on a talk show and discussed his "You CAN eat just one" diet. For example, you take one onion ring and dip it in ranch dressing; you eat it slowly savoring the flavor. Then you logically tell yourself that all the remaining onion rings will taste exactly the same. If you can't control yourself, then keep working on it.

mockturtle said...

Then you logically tell yourself that all the remaining onion rings will taste exactly the same.

But isn't that why you want to eat another one?

Trumpit said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Trumpit said...

God created the potato, the onion, & the tomato. Man invented French fries, Onion rings, and ketchup. Scientists invented nuclear weapons that can completely destroy God's creation. Do you see the problem with free will? Humans were God's worst mistake. Giving them freewill only made matters worse.

Bad Lieutenant said...

Trumpit,

God, no! What are you talking about?

The only thing better than nuclear weapons is french fries with ketchup. Ideally the ones at Nathan's, but any fresh cut french fries will do. There's really something wrong with you.

Onion rings, I admit, meh. But there is also onion soup.

chickelit said...

Honestly, I'm surprised that various and sundry ring toss games never caught on with Althouse or with bridesmaids.

J said...

Hey traditionalguy.the correct name at the Varsity is Hot dog.Those other things with just mustard are naked.

Bob Ellison said...

Trumpit said, "Humans were God's worst mistake."

That's the quickest way to summarize leftist thought. Interesting that the remark appropriates religion, which leftists hate.

Quaestor said...

God created the potato, the onion, & the tomato.

Trumpit knows nothing about horticulture. So far Trumpit has evidenced no particular knowledge of anything.

At least he's consistent.

Karen Galle said...

As for onion rings, the local best according to my family is at the Rock Bass Grill in Lemoyne, PA. When we're in Allentown, always have to stop at Yocco's the 'hot dog king', which as I understand it, is a branch of the Lee Iacocca clan. Don't know who's a better businessman, but Yocco's only takes cash.

Scott Patton said...

Althouse and Meade...

https://www.althouseandmeade.com/

William said...

Somewhere or other I heard Lorde sing. It actually sounded like music. I wouldn't be a bit surprised if she was talented........She's perhaps at that age where she has the superpower of being able to eat anything and everything and not gain weight. Those days don't last forever. I've got nothing against fried onion rings, but if I'm going to blow the calorie count, I've got other fish to fry. Clams, oyster, shrimp taste so much better when they're fried. Onions don't even taste like onions when fried.......Fried liver is the only food that is not improved by frying.

Bad Lieutenant said...

I've got other fish to fry


Speaking of which, people of discernment should be aware that it is soft-shell crab season.