As one of many people who scour food blogs daily (read: hourly), for months I've had to listen to the ceaseless hype over KFC's new Double Down. I hope I'm not alone in detesting everything about this sandwich. The hype culminated (or scraped bottom), with Eater posting "paparazzi" photos of New York Times dining critic Sam Sifton, chomping down on a Double Down while Feast simultaneously declared it "The Day Everyone Didn't Shut the Fuck Up About Double Downs" (Incidentally, is anyone else turned off by "The Day We..."? It feels like they're speaking with an authority they don't have). I felt dirty, Sifton must have felt dirty (and greasy), and I hope everyone viewing that picture was ashamed of themselves.
This is the face of infinite sadness. Courtesy (unfortunately) of Eater.com
Is this what we've come to? The same hype-cycle occurred for the Pizzacone, an equally horrifying creation that is exactly what it sounds. For some reason, normally locavore-organic-seasonal-foodie types bend over backward to hype what is essentially two pieces of fried chicken with some bacon stuck in between from a fast-food restaurant perpetuating, not just bad stereotypes about Americans, but mass-produces chickens in toxic factory farms that pollute the environment. Can someone please reconcile this for me?
This is all just to say that the echo chamber of hype inspired me to think about other meals sandwiched between unorthodox foodstuffs. While I'm proud to say that I've made bacon-fried kugel sandwiches at home, I was craving something different. Then I remembered the patacon, a Venezuelan specialty recently
popularized by Dave Cook of
Eating in Translation. The patacon (pronounced pata-cone), is a sandwich with thin, fried plantains subbing for bread. It's stuffed with all kinds of meats, cheese, lettuce and sauce. I'd been wanting to try it for awhile now, but it was my hatred for the Double Down that motivated me to invite the
DAsian on an excursion to Elmhurst.
