I try not to eat a lot of deep fried food. At least not in recent years. I am trying to make an effort to be a little kinder to my arteries. Maybe not clog them up quite so much. Or at least not on a regular basis.
And it’s not that I don’t like the stuff. I love a good feed of fish and chips. And fried clams are a must at least once or twice a year. But I try to not overdo it.
But I do have a weakness. I love onion rings. I could eat a lot of onion rings. And I have. I try to tell myself that onions are vegetables and vegetables are healthy so they can’t be bad if they’re good, right? Yeah… I know it doesn’t work that way, so I try to keep my consumption down a bit.
Today, however, is onion ring day. There a day for pretty much everything, and today just happens to be onion ring day. So I might just have to treat myself.
The history of the onion ring goes back a long way. At least a little over a couple hundred years. The first known recipe for “fried onions with parmesan cheese” appeared in a cookbook published in 1802. But it wasn’t until the early 1900’s that they started to become more popular. In the 1920’s, a restaurant chain in Texas called Kirby’s Pig Stand started serving onion rings. There’s only one Kirby’s Pig Stand left and that’s in San Antonio. I might have to try to find it one of these days.
And of course, A & W really started to make them take off during the 60’s. I remember one place in particular that used to liberally sprinkle their onion rings with a mixture of paprika and salt. I don’t think that was part of the usual recipe, but it was tasty. And probably bad for you on many levels.
And other things have followed, like the blooming onion and even Funyons. But the original onion ring would still be my favourite.
I might just have to treat myself tonight.