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(Battered Fried) Beans, the Magic Fruit

I was initially disturbed by that TGI Friday's commercial promoting their "radically new appetizers" where they poke fun with some hippy girl lamenting, "Why would you go and fry green beans? What's next? Holding air hostage?" I was like oh jeez, now they're battering deep frying vegetables (and frying mac and cheese and parmesan crusting quesadillas and calling them Sicilian).

Uh yeah, like the Japanese have been doing with tempura for, I don't know, centuries and they're ok (demented porn, shut ins and suicide fixations, aside) And the Japanese aren't generally fat so fried green beans must be good for you. Of course, tempura is served with a soy based dipping sauce and Friday's appetizer comes with something creamy and 99% fat like Cucumber-Wasabi Ranch.

On the Asian note, dry-fried green beans are amazing. I've used this recipe from Fuchsia Dunlop's A Treasury of Authentic Sichuan Cooking before. She also includes a pork-less version which is better than you might expect.

I also got all knee jerky yesterday when I kept seeing subway ads for ABC's new series, Ugly Betty.  The image of a "fat" Hispanic actress combined with the word ugly didn't sit well with me. But from what I've gathered it's a re-working of a wildly popular Columbian telenovela from the early '00s that's since been a hit in Mexico, Germany, The Philippines and elsewhere. I was reading message boards and people seemed worried that "Columbian humor" wouldn't translate. Now I'm wondering what exactly passes for humor in Columbia. Isn't Nina Garcia, Elle fashionista/Project Runway judge, Columbian? She seems pretty un-funny so my hopes are not high.

The gist seems to be kind of a Devil Wears Prada without the makeover transformation, like the ugly girl stays ugly and prevails. Once again, I have my doubts. The only other show I can think of with a "fat" major character, Less Than Perfect, (love how it needs to be pointed out in the title that she's not ideal) eventually slimmed down.

I've never watched Grey's Anatomy but was bored enough to sit through two freaking repeats last night and I totally don't get its appeal at all. I do like that Patrick Dempsey (and Chris O'Donnell-I was just thinking about him a few months ago, not because I particularly like him, I was trying to think of a male actor who seemed big and then disappeared like Teri Hatcher who went from Lois & Clark to doing C movies with Henry Thomas and now is hot again) is getting work and that they've cast that Big Fat Obnoxious Fiancé guy as a Seattle bar owner, but that's about it.

Oh yeah, I also wanted to see Sara Ramirez, the blubbery actress that everyone was boo hooing about last season. I finally got a glimpse and I'm still not convinced that she's fat. I mean, she's fat like America Ferrera's fat (and she appears to have easily shed 20 pounds since her Real Women Have Curves days), which only means not boney. I'd rather be a fat Mexican than that blonde actress who plays a doctor who always looks like she's crying, been crying or about to cry.

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  1. Lisa #

    I must admit that I do enjoy Applebee’s deep fried pickles, something that I didn’t think I’d enjoy at first. But give me their hot chicken wings (TGI Fridays too, for that matter) anyday…

    September 10, 2006
  2. I didn’t know that Applebee’s had fried pickles. I meant to try those when I was in the south a few years ago, but never got around to it. I went to TGI Friday’s this weekend and tried a few fried mac and cheese nuggets. It was completely unplanned.

    September 12, 2006

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