Tikkabik

CBS News Sunday Morning ran a piece this past weekend about batter-fried Twinkies, and since then, I admit that I've been obsessed. It sounds so vile, so artery-hardening, and yet, so, so delectable.

I come from a land where batter-fried is an adjective most often associated with seafood and occasionally onion rings, but the idea of batter-frying mass produced pastry is, as far as I can tell, relatively unknown. I've been to plenty of county fairs, and about the most exotic we get around here is just simple fried dough -- funnel cakes aren't even that common. I guess the venerable corn dog counts, too -- though I think my first taste of corn batter-fried frankfurter came out in Seattle, Wash., not here in New England.

In my brief bit of research I've discovered that other folks in other exotic lands like Scotland and Arkansas batter-fry a whole wealth of objects. The Scots are generally credited with inventing the confection known as the batter-fried Mars bar. God bless 'em. And midwesterners -- in addition to Twinkies -- have been known to batter-fry Oreos and Snickers bars too. Oreos, for God's sake.

One radio show duo actually made an interesting stunt of batter-frying different things and eating them; white castle hamburgers (belly-bombers) and chocolate chip cookie dough apparently didn't work out so well, but Smuckers Uncrustables and bologna turned out to be big hits.

My pancreas and gall-bladder are both threatening to cut off the blood supply to my colon if I ever dream of eating these deep-fried nightmares, but it certainly is appealing junk-food for thought.