Monday, May 16, 2011

Guilty Pleasures


From all of the pomp and circumstance here at Blackened Out Abstractors and Hunting Lodge, you readers may get the impressions that all of our meals consist of luxurious fare such as guanciale from hand-fed Mangalista pigs, risotto covered with an avalanche of truffles flown over from Alba, and wines made from grapes crushed by Robert Peyton. But in reality, even though we love veggies from the Hollygrover market and organic beef raised by Justin Pitts, sometimes a guy just wants to eat a big bowl of velveeta shells and cheese.

We all have our own guilty pleasures when it comes to foods that we would might other be embarrassed to admit our undying love for if it were not for the fact that they taste so damn good. Take, for example, Exhibit A above. If a person's choice of birthday cake speaks volumes of his or her personal taste, then what does it say about me when The Folk Singer knows that all I want is a cookie cake covered with enough frosting to keep an entire class of kindergartners on a Charlie Sheenesque sugar high for 3 days straight. (Winning.) Sweets are a hot target for guilty pleasures, and even professionals will admit that they easily succumb to their temptations. I once asked a well known pasty chef if he ever got tired of preparing and eating macaroons and valrhona chocolates, and after glancing around to make sure that no one else was listening he said: "I keep a box of Little Debbie Swiss Rolls in the back of the fridge at all times."

But guilty pleasures of the savory variety are not to be overlooked. Anthony Bourdain often jokes about his love for mac and cheese from KFC, and how he dons a hooded sweatshirt in Colonel Sanders' kitchen in order to protect his identity. While no respecting New Orleanian would ever forsake Popeye's for the secret blend of 11 herbs and spices, I will admit that I have made a run for the border on countless late night adventures for Mexican Pizzas and Double Decker Taco Supremes. Though in recent times, the allure of Krystal Burger has sucked us in during a few walks home from the Quarter.

So bad, yet they taste so good. Let us know about your own guilty pleasures in today's comments. There will be no judging.

13 comments:

Anonymous said...

Peanut butter and cheddar cheese on raisin bread. Delicious. Haven't ever told anyone about this one.

Wang said...

God help me, Totino's Party Pizzas. Combo. "Doctored up" with canned sliced black olives and Tony Chachere's.

Big fan of the cookie cake too.

Dare I ask for details on @rdpeyton's grape-crushing process? I'm not sure I really wanna know. ;)

NoPublic said...

Waffle House

Smothered, chunked, diced, peppered, capped, ringed.

RBPoBoy said...

Denny's: Moons over My Hammy

Rachel said...

I used to love K&B brand ice cream mashed together with special K. Cereal covered in cream and sugar....

Megan said...

Nachos from any gas station (we used to favor the Easy Serves of the city). A friend of mine, who shall remain nameless, once time made our cab driver stop on the way home from the bar to get this cheesy-goodness.

Peter said...

Anon - Feels great to get that off your chest, doesn't it?

Wang - I never got into frozen pizzas; too many bad memories from parents leaving the kids at home on Saturday night. And you don't know what's up with RDP's grape crushing skills.

NoPublic - Yes, but WTF is "ringed"?


RBPoBoy - I once sat in a Denny's in Austin for an 1 hour waiting for food, only for the waitress to come to the table to say that she forgot to put our order in, but if we waited another 15 minutes till 6:00am then we could get the early bird special. We decided that we had already come so far, so why stop now?

Rachel - I like how you specified that it had to be K&B brand ice cream. Remember how K&B also sold "ice milk"? That always threw me for a loop.

Shedd said...

Waffle House and Whataburger are my road-trip guilty pleasures. Cheetos are probably my most common guilty pleasure. Love those things.

Cathy said...

Some days nothing will do it for me but a big ole sack of Krystal burgers. I have written about this obsession on my own blog before. But I also have a weakness for Taco Bell grilled stuffed burritos, steak quesadillas and Mexican pizza.

Anonymous said...

Hamburger helper, cheeseburger macaroni. I would eat it on a weekly basis if I could. Only complaint is that the box says its 5 servings when it is clearly, at most, 2.

Jones said...

I always say despite my affinity for high-end cuisine and an overt refusal to eat anything frozen & requires cutting slits in a bag before microwaving, I commonly admit to my deep-down desire for Chef Boyardee's beef-a-roni (depending on the situation, it may be straight from the can). I also have fond memories of tuna helper and pizza rolls... Damn, now I gotta go source some foie and y'quem...

PS my mother in law did make shells n cheese last night. And I went back for seconds.

Parisian Princess said...

One word: Nutella! Either straight out of the jar, on a baguette, or on whole wheat toast with peanut butter and bananas. So freaking delicious........

Dave Gladow said...

Cookie cakes and doughnuts are impossible to resist, unfortunately. I have plenty of other guilty pleasures, but those two utilize sirens or some such.