You can tell how excited I was about My Salinger Year (yesterday’s post) because I wrote about that
before writing about some small food adventures over the Fourth of July
weekend.
Steve and I have an annual tradition for the Fourth, one I
highly recommend: eat fried
chicken. This is typically the only time
of year we indulge ourselves (though I’m more prone to break this rule than he
is). When you eat fried chicken only once
a year, even KFC is pretty good, so we’ve sometimes bought chicken from
there. We also make it ourselves [link
to recipe below], and have gotten pretty good at it over the years…but what a
mess!!! (You would think it would be
lovely to live in a house that smells like fried chicken for a week but
actually it’s not.) Plus, we were
feeling lazy this year.
So how fortuitous that Steve received a promotional email
from Bryan Voltaggio (of “Top Chef” and chef/owner of several restaurants in
Frederick, Maryland; we had an amazing meal last year at the chef’s table at his
fancy restaurant, Volt, to celebrate Steve’s birthday). The email noted that
they were taking advance orders for buckets of fried chicken at his casual
restaurant, Family Meal.
Buckets! I sure liked
the sound of that.
Also, it’s been my experience that in general, when a
restaurant acts as though its fried chicken is something special, it usually
is. (Sadly, this rule does not apply to
other food dishes…never buy barbecue because it’s “famous” and I could tell you
a sad story about the time I had to try “world’s best concession crabcake” at a
fair.)
For several days, we pondered the wisdom of driving an hour
for fried chicken. Remember the lazy
part of the equation?
A day or two before the ordering deadline, I decided to call
for more information. I couldn’t find
the original email, so I googled “fried chicken in Frederick, Maryland.”
Hello? First up was a link to Doc Geiser’s, which has won
Frederick’s best fried chicken award for FOURTEEN YEARS IN A ROW! And yes, they were open on the Fourth!
Well, I reasoned—first with myself and then with Steve—it’s
a little crazy to drive an hour for a bucket of chicken, but if you’re going to
try TWO different places after an hour’s drive, doesn’t that really make a lot
more sense?
He agreed (which is one of the reasons I married him)…though
he did note for the record, “So you’re going to go eat fried chicken before
getting more fried chicken?”
Exactly! We would go
to Doc Geiser’s and then bring home the Family Meal chicken.
Doc Geiser’s was in a little strip mall, tucked off a major
road of bigger strip malls, and we got a warm welcome as we ordered our 4-piece
dinner to eat in (sides: [average] mac and cheese and [really good] lima beans…guess
who picked which??). I was surprised no
one else was eating in the restaurant, but as we waited for our food, a stream
of people came in to pick up take-out orders, including a huge Styrofoam cooler
of 50 pieces! I gotta say, you see that
and you feel pretty confident that you’re in a place that knows its chicken.
(Plus, they had sweet tea, as I suspected they might.)
And yes! The chicken
arrived, and it was gorgeously crisp and light, with good crust to meat ratio,
and hot-hot-hot! Not overly salty, not
bland…in fact, just about perfect. There
was talk of saving one piece for later, but it was only talk. Another reason I married Steve: no fighting
over the 4-piece meal, as between us we each got our favorite pieces with no
need for negotiation (though I don’t understand his attitude that “the wing is
only a vehicle for skin”…I mean, of course!
That’s why it’s so desirable!).
And then…off to pick up our bucket of chicken and sides from
Family Meal, which is located in an old…train depot? in a semi-industrial part
of town. A very cute and breezy place,
with nice outdoor seating and an inviting dining room and bar. I was pretty confident that this would be
good chicken too, because when I placed the order, I had to pick a 15-minute
window for pick-up. (Another fried
chicken rule: if a menu tells you that
you’ll have to wait 30 minutes for fried chicken, ORDER IT without hesitation.)
We were lured into ordering some desserts to take home (and
a milkshake for the road, which was superb; and actually there’s another blog
entry that could [and should] be written, The Milkshakes of My Summer), and we
loaded up our meal (which included a beautiful little whole watermelon!) and
headed home.
If I had followed my instincts, we would have eaten a piece
in the parking lot—just to “try it” while it was hot—but Steve drew the line
(another reason I married him…he’s not as crazy as I am!). So later, while we heated the chicken
slightly at home, it was basically room temperature by the time we ate it…which
is actually a good test, as superior fried chicken must be amazing whether hot,
room temp, or cold.
Passed! With flying
colors! Amazing! This was a more modern interpretation of
chicken, with a passel of spices and (maybe?) some cracker meal in the
coating. Whatever it was—YUM! As a bonus, there was a delicious hot sauce
for dunking, so good that we felt a little guilty covering up the amazing
chicken with sauce. But you know, if
that’s how the chef serves it….
Two great sides, also:
green bean casserole (which was along the lines of the “famous”
Thanksgiving green bean casserole with the fried onions, but made with real
ingredients instead of cans of soup) and smoked potato salad, which was a
brilliant interpretation on a dish that’s already awfully brilliant.
To top it off, we’ve been eating the little watermelon for
breakfast for the past several days…it’s like the way watermelon is supposed to
taste and usually doesn’t anymore, sweet and juicy, deep red, seedless. The essence of summer. Totally worth an hour’s drive itself!
If you’re feeling that you must have some fried chicken right now and can’t possibly wait
until July 4, 2015, here’s more information:
~~Doc Geiser’s: http://www.docgeiser.com/
~~Family Meal: http://www.voltfamilymeal.com/
~~Our fried chicken recipe: http://www.workinprogressinprogress.com/2010/07/work-in-progress-fried-chicken.html
