Tuesday, the 8th day of November, was an absolutely beautiful fall day. Indeed, the weather has been absolutely immaculate the past several days. The sky has had a freshness, a succulence, which jesus himself would be jealous of.
Tuesday, the 8th day of November, was a day I had off from work, due to a so-called "election" day. I spent the day doing various things and people, I ate a pumpkin donut from Doughnut Plant, walked across the Williamsburg Bridge, and arrived early at a restaurant where I was to meet some friends for fried chicken. I sat on a bench outside the restaurant, which is entitled Egg, waiting for my dining companions, enjoying the fading light. It was basically a perfect moment.
Was the friend chicken perfect? This is something I have given much thought to. No, the fried chicken was not perfect. Was it good? Yes, it was good. How good was it? I'm not sure.
I think about fried chicken a lot, and sometimes I feel as if people are more attracted to the idea of fried chicken than actual fried chicken. You read a lot on the food blogosphere about fried chicken, and Egg is often highly rated. A pretty solid rant by Peter Meehan in the times a few years ago got me excited. He mentions how a "Southern-born"friend wolfed down the chicken and then came back the following evening with all of his Johnny Rebs. Well, I'll be darned: if real Southerners like it that much, it must be good, it must be authentic.
I don't want to say I didn't like the fried chicken at Egg. I did enjoy it - to a degree. It was properly salted, I thought, which is extremely important. It wasn't too greasy. The meet was pretty juicy and tender. But, I don't know, it just wasn't incredible. There's a large part of me that wants to eat fried chicken and just be bowled over. I want to say "this is the greatest fried chicken I've ever had," and I want to then roll over and die because it's so good.
I am not giving up on eating fried chicken. But I think the search for the perfect fried chicken is like the search for the meaning of life: no such thing exists.
