Humans normallycrave everything with sugar, salt and fat, but there is something about thecrispy-salty combination that appeals to all, no matter the age or thedisposition. The crispy aspect is probably attributed to it being a sign offreshness like in vegetables. Salt brings out the taste of any food, and noamount of marinating, condiments and additives will lend any flavour to food inthe absence of salt. Consider the most popular food in the world; French fries,wafers, crisps, nachos and popcorn, all salty and crispy all equally deliciousand addictive. In the culinary world, the exception to the law of diminishingmarginal utility is salty and crispy food, as unlike most other foods thatbecome boring if u eat too much of it, and going through a large bag of sourcream and onion lays or a huge tub of tomato popcorn is a breeze.
Health is the onlydeterrent for this type of food, but only when some test results come backlooking like school grades with red all over. No matter how bad for health orhow much clogging it does, no-one can resist a long crunch salty shoestring fryor a tempura prawn. In todays’ world everything is going to kill you,moderation is the key, as too much of anything is bad. Let’s face it, if peopleactually were threatened by health warnings, fried chicken outlets would haveto shut down, and wafer companies would have their nitrogen knocked out ofthem. Crispy food not necessarily deep fried, but the presence of fat is whatmakes food fried in it extra special. There is a misconception about food deep friedin oil being soaked in it and very unhealthy. On the contrary, it actuallyabsorbs less oil than shallow fried food. The extreme heat, heats up themoisture in the food and cooks it from inside out, pushing the oil out. Cookingfor too long reduces the moisture and that’s when the food starts absorbingoil.
The fact thatpeople love crispy and saline food is well-known, and the fact is takenadvantage of by restaurants and bars to improve beverage sale. The saltedversion of peanuts, cashew nuts, cheeslings, potato skins and peas are allirresistible to anyone, and the more they eat the more they drink. Consider anyfood and the crispy version always trumps their healthier grilled or poachedcounterparts. Crumb fried pork chops, batter fried fish, dumplings and friedchicken. Need I say more? Something as simple as a cracker is a great base forany topping and it is the crunch and salt that make all the difference, and itgoes best with a nice salty cheese. They say the best things in life are badfor you, but I like to look at the cup that is half full and enjoy the crispythings in life and take the statutory warnings with a pinch of salt.
