I should have known better

It was probably more than four years ago that I last ate fried chicken: that is until yesterday. 

I’ve abstained for two reasons.

First: because friend chicken is not a very healthy food. 

Second: because it is hard to find truly excellent fried chicken. 

I have been eating very healthily all this year (and have lost more than 45lbs in weight), with lots of good fruit and vegetables, white meat or fish, and next to no rice, pasta, bread or potatoes: that is until yesterday.

Yesterday at dinner time my body revolted against yet more stir fry or roasted vegetables, and grilled fish. It cried out “I want fried chicken”. 

Now I can scarcely pass a KFC without gagging. The smell from the exhaust pipes of the fryers is vile. 

But a friend had asserted that “Popeyes” had good stuff, so off I drove there to get my three pieces of fried chicken, with a side of coleslaw, a biscuit and a soft drink thrown in.

(Two of the pieces turned out to be nothing more than wings, and the third piece was half a breast). I had opted for white meat rather than dark, and “spicy” rather than spice less. 

I salivated as I drove home. It was a scandalous waste of saliva. The three bits of chicken were thickly coated in a semi-glutinous, under-fried, and inedible batter with which I had to wrestle before I could find the few morsels of edible chicken. (I exaggerate when I say “few morsels”!). It was a horrid dinner!

I do not believe that my body had lied to me. It was saying that after 8 months on a low fat, low sodium, next-to-no carbs regime it was time for a treat; time for some disgustingly unhealthy food. 

The mistake was in my choice to go to a fast food joint. 

In about four years from now I’ll be searching for a true “southern cook”, one who knows how to fry chicken to perfection, and serve it with collard greens, macaroni and cheese, and home-made biscuits. 

(If I can find such a person in 2014!) 

(The photo’ illustrates the difference between American and British biscuits. The biscuits we eat with hot meals in the U.S.A. are like those on the left).