Greasy meals I have known and loved: A culinary love story

SoCal Mexican food
I am officially ruined for life. I have partaken of the Mexican food in LA and San Diego, which you simply can't get back in Sydney. I have consigned myself to a fate worse than death; occasionally eating faux TexMex bullshit while weeping cold tears of frustration whenever my craving for proper tacos becomes overwhelming (this occurs approximately every 3 hours).


This is a fish taco. It's basically lightly battered and fried fish, with coleslaw-esque veggies, some kind of zesty mayonnaise and pico de gallo.


My friend Dave who lives in San Diego took us to a somewhat more upmarket Mexican restaurant (compared to the cheap taquerias to which I had become accustomed)called Casa Guadalajara. This is the carne asada based house special.

Chicken and mango quesadillas.

Lime and tequila shrimp.

I got these tacos on my last day in the US. We had to leave for LAX at 10am. We had breakfast at about 8:30, and then at 9:45 I went on a mission to the nearest taqueria for second breakfast. I wasn't the slightest bit hungry, but I knew it would be a long, long time before I ever had proper tacos again, so I grabbed carne asada and chile verdes tacos, washed them down with one last horchata and then with the not-entirely unpleasant slickness of grease on my lips, the tang of jalapeno and cinnamon in my throat, and my fingers smelling of tortillas warmed in pork fat, I trudged off to a 10 hour flight.

I really cannot do justice to how good the Mexican food is in California. It is a world apart from the Old El Paso shit we get in Australia. The food tastes surprisingly light considering that the main ingredients are meat cooked in lard etc, which is probably attributable to the liberal use of chopped tomato, lime, and freshly made salsas. I'm not sure if I'll ever be able to eat Aussie supermarket salsa ever again.

Mexican food is also bizarrely similar to Korean food in many respects. I had a menudo in LA, which is a tripey soup that Mexicans eat as a hangover cure. It was exactly the same as haejangguk, which is a soup that Koreans eat for the same reason. And the jalapeno and carrot pickle things you get on the side with tacos? It's just fucking kimchi.

Dyers Burgers, Memphis TN
This joint is quite well known amongst burger afficionados (i.e. fat cunts). It is located on Beale St and it is famous because of the way in which its beef patties are cooked. Char-grilled, perhaps? Nope. Black pepper encrusted? Nope. Their beef patties are FUCKING FRIED IN OIL. OIL THAT THEY'VE BEEN USING SINCE 1912.

The anticipation is killing me.

Here we go; two cheeseburgers and their famous chilli cheese fries. If you look at the burger closest to me, there is oil sheen ON TOP OF THE BUN. This is new territory, folks.

Nom nom nom.

OK, so the mouthfeel of a fried beef pattie is like really cheap pâté that has been soaking in too much grand marnier; it falls apart, is initially a little grainy, and then melts in your mouth, but not necessarily in a very good way. Upon tasting the burger, I had an overwhelming urge to open the burger up and observe the pattie more closely.


Yeah, that probably wasn't a very good idea. You know those anti-smoking ads where they squeeze out clogged aorta fat from a dead smoker's heart? I'm pretty sure these burgers are cooked in that stuff.

Flying Fish, Memphis TN
Other than BBQ, fried catfish is another staple of southern cooking which I was determined to sample.


Fried catfish and shrimp on a bed of fried okra. There is nothing very special about the taste of catfish. I get the impression that the reason it is prized as an eating fish is that it has quite firm flesh. This allows it to be cut into quite thin fillets, crumbed in cornmeal and then fried, while retaining its shape. This results in a very different texture to fish and chips shop type fried fish we get in Australia, where the fat fish fillets and beer batter result in a mushier end product. Fried catfish is crispy and delicious, and I would take the cornmeal coating over beer batter any day. Two thumbs up.



Cozy Corner, Memphis TN
OK, Cozy Corner was by far our favourite place in Memphis, and probably our favourite eatery thus far. We went there twice and loved everything we had. Even more than the music, BBQ was the main reason for adding Memphis to our itinerary, and Cosy Corner did not disappoint.

By way of explanation, what Aussies have the temerity to call BBQ, Americans would call "Cooking outside". True BBQ involves slow-smoking meats for several hours (up to 16 hours for pulled pork shoulder) over indirect heat from charcoal and smoking woods (hickory, applewood, etc). The cooking method evolved from the need for the poorer classes to make cheap, nasty cuts of meat palatable. When meat is slow-cooked over low heat, the collagen in the gristly connective tissues break down into gelatin, and is absorbed into the meat through capillary action, making it moist and delicious. The favoured meats and sauces vary from region to region. In Memphis, it's all about pork.


Delicious pork ribs, smothered in spicy BBQ sauce, with a side of coleslaw and BBQ spaghetti (yes, BBQ spaghetti).

The sliced pork sandwich.

Jono is happy.

The bologna sandwich. Bologna is basically devon. Yes, DEVON. It is a cheap sausage made of ground, porky parts of indeterminate origin. In Australia it is thinly sliced and eaten in sandwiches, as a staple of povvo university students. Not in the south. Here, they cut off a half-inch thick hunk of the motherfucker and BBQ it like everything else. This is possibly the densest sandwich I have ever put in my mouth. It was also delicious.