What else would get Metromix L.A.’s ever-discriminating events editor to haul her pretty lil’ booty out to the San Berdu border than an entire category of cuisine known as fair food? (That, and a rocktacular monster truck-demolition derby, perhaps). We’re talking funnel cakes, corn dogs, Texas toothpicks—anything battered, deep-fried or poked with a stick for your guilty consumption.

Charlie “Chicken Charlie” Boghosian, the undisputed oil king of the California fair circuit, proved last year that he had the deepest-fried balls of all when he threw down the Krispy Kreme chicken sandwich: a hollowed jelly doughnut stuffed with a fried chicken breast, swiss cheese and served with honey for dipping. On a rare day-off, he commiserated with us about Mom, Elvis and a snowball’s chance in hot oil.

We missed out on the Krispy Kreme chicken sandwich. Is it back for the fair?
Yes. But this year, we decided to add raspberry sauce. Over Thanksgiving, we were having cranberry with turkey and I thought: “We’re stuffing chicken inside of a doughnut and we’re only using honey as a sauce.” I tried the cranberry with chicken and it wasn’t all that; it was okay. Then I tried strawberry sauce and raspberry sauce—I love raspberry sauce. I’m ordering up to 30 dozen raspberry-filled jelly doughnuts a day from Krispy Kreme.

Your new item this year is the deep-fried peanut butter and banana sandwich to honor the 30th anniversary of Elvis’ death?
The truth of the matter is that it was one of my favorite sandwiches growing up. Peanut butter and jelly was not my favorite sandwich. My mom always made us peanut butter and bananas with honey. I said: “I’m going to deep fry that sandwich.” I didn’t know at first, but now I realize that Elvis Prestley loved that sandwich as well. Obviously he never deep fried it like I deep fry it.

What kind of peanut butter do you use?
It’s crunchy. Yeah, my favorite. (Laughs). I use Skippy. I buy it from Costco. I get the honey there too.

And Wonder bread?
I use little pockets of pita bread that I get from Trader Joe’s. When I used traditional American white bread, it would come apart when I tried to fry it. But the pocket pita would hold all the ingredients together and when I dipped it in the pancake mix and fried it, you could barely tell that the bread was in there. 

What was the biggest seller for opening weekend?
The deep-fried Coke. We use soda syrup and mix it with sweet flour. I make a batter out of it and fry it. Once I take it out of the oil, I stuff it in a [disposable soda fountain cup]. I add a little bit more soda syrup, then powdered sugar, whipped cream and a cherry. And you get a fork, not a straw! 

Where do you get your inspiration for new things to fry?
We have what we call “fry fests.” Instead of barbecues, we literally have a big fryer in our kitchen with different batters and everyone brings what they want to fry. We do it quite often—about once or twice a month [during the off season]. But sometimes I’ll get an idea in the middle of a fair. One time, I was talking to somebody about how many turkey legs and chicken legs I see around the fair. I joked, “All we’re missing is frog legs.” Before I knew it, I figured out where to get the frogs from Louisiana. Now, I’m averaging about 90 to 100 pounds per day of frog legs. That’s a lot of frogs! I’m also using my mom’s recipe—which is pretty cool.   

Is there anything you can’t fry?
I’ve been trying to fry a salad; I think I just fixed that two, three weeks ago. Lettuce, tomatoes, cucumber—I put it together, dipped it in batter, fried it and it tastes great. But the Hostess Sno-ball. I can never get that thing to deep fry. It just dissolves in the oil. Deep-fried snow balls! I love the name. It didn’t work out, but I will conquer it some day.


In case you can't get your booty out to this year's fair but are a craving deep-fried PB+banana sandwich, pig out locally like the King with:

The PBC&B at Doughboys: chunky peanut butter, bittersweet chocolate and bananas in pan de mie bread, battered like French toast, grilled and finished off in the oven. Served with raspberry dipping sauce.

PBJ Yummy with bananas at Jerry's Famous Deli: egg bread with half ounce creamy Skippy peanut butter, half ounce Smuckers jelly, add-in of bananas for 95 cents extra, battered then deep fried.

Peanut butter and banana doughnut with chocolate chips at Stan's Donuts: creamy peanut butter, bananas and lots of chocolate chips, encased in batter and deep fried. It's a doughnut!

Jiyeon Yoo is Restaurants editor for Metromix Los Angeles.
With additional reporting from Sara Tan.

You will be prompted to register or log in when posting.

Comment

Please note that by clicking on "Post Comment" you acknowledge that you have read the Terms of Service. Be polite. Inappropriate posts may be removed by the moderator.