Friday, September 18, 2009

We Called Them "Crispies".

When I was a child, my favorite fast food joint was Long John Silver's.

My siblings and I loved that place - especially after a long day at the local swimming pool.

Greasy fried chicken, fish, hush puppies, french fries - everything was deep fried. And, attempting to negate the fact that you were consuming more partially hydrogenated oil in one meal than one should consume in a lifetime, they served everything with a side of coleslaw.

A salad of sorts?

But, our favorite part of the meal - hands down - was the side of "crispies" that my Mom would always get for us: A small bowl of yummy, little, crunchy things that tasted like the outside of the fried fish and chicken.

Fast forward 20 years.

I was newly married to my husband when we stopped, at my very persistent pleading, at a Long John Silver's for lunch.

I ordered a grease-filled platter of chicken, french fries, and hush puppies and asked for a side of "crispies". The worker happily obliged and my husband looked at me as if I'd ordered fried cow tongue.

We sat down to our meal, and I immediately dove into my bowl of "crispies".

"Do you know what those are?", my husband asked.

"Yeah", I replied. "Crispies. You should try some. They're so good."

"SG", he continued, "They scrape those up from the bottom of the grease pit where they drain all the other 'stuff'. You know that's what you're eating, right?"

I thought about it for a minute, popped another "crispy" into my mouth, and shrugged:

"Hmmm. Well, that's gross. But, they're still the best part."

So, I dedicate this cartoon, and a large bowl of "crispies", to my reasonable and level-headed husband. Who would never eat greasy, fried crumbs from the bottom of a grease pit.

But, who still loves the girl that would.

See, dear, I'm not the only one.



Have a great weekend, everyone!

16 comments:

  1. My wife loves going to Chick-Fila since the nuggets boxes comes with "crispies" already in the box. I'm pretty sure the kids have never eaten them as my wife digs them out prior to the distribution of the nuggets boxes. Ah, the little benefits of being a parent. I have to take a "prison cafeteria" defensive stance around my nuggets to keep her from stealing mine.

    I got my girls to try pork marrow last night from a ham steak- in the gross but actually really good department. They didn't want to try it but both said it was really good.

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  2. LOL!! That's hilarious - and oh the memories this post brought back. Brett is equally dumbfounded (and amused, and disgusted) that I'm so fond of LJS. There's one nearby and I regularly have to resist the temptation to stop for a chicken plank fix. I think I've finally limited my LJS consumption to the times I visit WV, though!

    MB

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  3. We ate at a LJS while on vacation. We hadn't been to one in a long time. I never heard of crispies though!

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  4. heeheehee!!! Well, considering I married a North Carolina country boy who could live off of Bojangles, he has no room to talk!

    I still love LJS, and it's great while I am eating it, but it doesn't feel so good afterward! Oh, their hushpuppies, yum!

    MB - I am totally surprised that you still eat there!

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  5. Funny! My husband's family in FL calls them "cracklins", but when he asked for them once in PA, the worker looked at him like she had no idea what he was talking about. Apparently, in PA they're called "crumbs":).

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  6. I admit I've never heard of such a thing. But, I do admit that I enjoy scrapple (but that's an entirely different story!).

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  7. crazy! so my husband isn't the only one! he and his friend used to go to Long John Silver at the end of the day when they had no money and eat crispies for free.

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  8. Anna - I KNOW!! LOL!! It's a guilty pleasure for sure, but I've probably only eaten there a couple of times since moving here - it's tempting, but whenever I drive by there I'm reminded of Jason's comment about each LJS meal taking a year off your life (which I'm sure is true!). Ugh.

    MB

    PS - It just occurred to me that on our recent trip to WV I didn't eat there at all...

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  9. ewww. why would you eat that? I mean I totally don't take all the skin nad crispies of my kids chicken and eat it, nor have I ever hovered around the turkey at my in laws to steal the crisped skin that they were about to throw out....

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  10. We used to take our kids there when they were little, it was there favorite part as well. Oh thank the good Lord they are all health nuts now and I didn't ruin them for life!

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  11. Oh, love LJS and their crispies!

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  12. I always think of you when I pass LJS and I'm glad to know you still enjoy crispies!

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  13. You, my friend, are quite the conundrum. For a girl who loves to cook like you do, I cannot believe you like LJS. That's just wrong. I'm not even a foodie and I know that's wrong. I love you and all, but I think we might need to stage some kind of intervention here. ;-)

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  14. We always called them Deep Fried Loogies!🤣

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