pne713's video: PNE 2010 Deep Fried Butter

Steve Parsons, owner of Guido's Pizzeria, will start selling deep-fried butter at the PNE Thursday. The fat balls are available in many flavours. Care for some deep fried butter? Diet-busting ball of butter is PNE's newest crazy deep-fried confection BY SHELLEY FRALIC, VANCOUVER SUN SEPTEMBER 2, 2010 If you fry it, they will buy it. It may not be the sexiest slogan in the marketing universe, but it seems only fitting, on its 100th birthday and in keeping with its roots as an agricultural attraction, that the folks at the Pacific National Exhibition will today toss a ball of battered butter in a deep fat fryer, cover it with powdered sugar and chocolate sauce and begin hawking it as haute cuisine on the midway. The PNE, as your hips likely know, has been doing a blue-ribbon job with its calorific fair fare since opening its gates on Vancouver's east side in 1910, tickling our taste buds and expanding our waistlines over the years with such deep-fried diet-busting delicacies as battered mushrooms, corn dogs, fish and chips, funnel cakes, whale tails and, yes, those addictive little fat-bomb doughnuts. And now, today -after last year's introduction of deep-fried Oreos and Mars bars, which are gloriously gooey and will make your teeth hurt but taste far better than they sound -comes the latest gut-busting finger food at the fair: deep-fried butter. Of all the things to immerse in bubbling hot oil, and we humans have tried pretty much everything (including, of late, cheeseburgers, and by that we mean the whole intact cheeseburger, including bun, lettuce, beef patty, cheese and all), you'd think it would still be a stretch to deep fry fat. But the folks at Jimmy's Lunch, the iconic vendor that has been ladling out those fragrant caramelized onions on top of burgers every summer at the PNE since 1929, are today introducing deepfried butter at their Guido's Pizzeria kiosk as a special treat. Steve Parsons, who is the grandson of Jimmy Stevens of Jimmy's fame, and who rolled out deep-fried candy at the fair last year, says once he heard about deep-fried butter, there was no turning back. He's been testing versions over the past few days, rejecting an assortment of batters and doughs, and trying various toppings, and is finally happy with the result, achieved in collaboration with the Calabria Bakery. Essentially, the end product is made with fresh butter whipped with cream cheese and icing sugar, which is then rolled into bite-sized balls and encased in his designer batter -- a pie crust-like dough made with butter instead of vegetable shortening. "I like the density," says Parsons, "The others were too fluffy and kind of blew up." The battered butter balls are then frozen, and go right from the freezer into the hot fat, frying for five minutes before being sprinkled with icing sugar and topped with your choice of chocolate, caramel or raspberry sauce. There's also a savory version, with chopped fresh garlic and more melted butter on top. They're $5 for four, and good lord, they're awesome. Seriously, awesome. So delicious, so comforting that when you bite into one, your eyes will roll back in your head until you see Julia Child. They are like tiny sweet warm pies dripping with melted butter, which might be the most perfect dessert ever. You'll need to bend over and take the first bite from the top, or the butter will leak out on to your shirt, and the midway. How many calories, you ask? Who knows. Or cares. Because when it comes to the PNE, all diet bets are off, and some regular fairgoers (okay, me) have been known to knock back halibut and chips, funnel cake, a few bags of mini doughnuts, fresh-squeezed lemonade, a plate of Wiggle chips and a perogy or two before the Super Dogs even start barking. So deep-fried butter? Oh yeah. But there's something you should know. This deepfried thing is about to get even nuttier. Deep-fried butter was invented last year by a guy at the State Fair of Texas, in Dallas, who also introduced fairgoers in the Deep South to deepfried Coke and deep-fried peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. The CNE in Toronto took note and started pumping out its own version of deep-fried butter at this year's fair, along with other oddities like chocolate-covered bacon, deep-fried mac and cheese, and a cheeseburger in a bag, which is a bunch of cheese Doritos mixed up with ground beef and condiments. And get this. This summer, at that same Dallas fair, which holds a fried food competition, another fry master introduced deep-fried beer, in which he fills ravioli-shaped pretzel dough with Guinness and deep fries it for 20 seconds, so as to retain the liquidity and the alcohol content. To which we can only say: Mr. Parsons, we'll bring our ID. © Copyright (c) The Vancouver Sun