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Thursday, July 10, 2008
Folded Over and Fried: Who Makes the Best Fried Pies
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
PROUSTIAN POINT: FRIED PIES
Photo: Louie Favorite/AJC
I totally blew my fat and calorie count for the next ten days or so by heading to the Varsity yesterday for lunch as part of a family reunion of sorts. By the end of a naked dog, onion rings and a Coke Zero (I LOVE this stuff — why do they market it to MEN?) I looked in the mirror and realized I had gained ten pounds subito (I may have a chance at losing it tomorrow at the gym depending on how hard the workout is).
But the real calorie kick was the fried peach pie I had for dessert. If there is any one food that is truly Proustian in its ability to conjure my childhood, it’s a fried pie. I memorized the shape of my grandmother’s elbow against the back drop of the iron skillet she fried hers in. She filled them with apples or peaches, but always with dried fruit or preserves, or sometimes a cooked fruit filling, and made them with a sweet pie crust.
In truth, she wasn’t much of a baker. She had a habit of making the worst banana nut bread on the planet. Her “habit” was to take the leftover candy she had from tins around her living room — and I’m talkin’ candied orange slices, circus peanuts (yes, circus peanuts — you know, those puffy orange peanut-shaped things?), malted milk balls, butter mints — and adding them to her batter. With a gleam, she would ask upon inquiry as to the unusual flavor “Ain’t it good?”
But her fried pies, well, they were different. A bubbly crust of greasy perfection, partly crisp, partly tender, with a sweet, dark, peachy filling.
The Varsity does a good job bringing back the madeleine moment for me. And there are a few restaurants around town that have upped the fried anty by adding them to their menus — JCT Kitchen had a pie filled with chocolate; Bacchanalia had an almond and pear version on their prix fixe menu last winter.
Where’s your favorite fried pie?
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