Hot take: Never underestimate the power of hush puppies
At Long John Silver's, a man stood in front of me in line packing two Glocks and wearing a bulletproof vest. It alarmed me at first until I realized he worked for Loomis, a security firm that transports cash from businesses, banks and ATMs ? something I confirmed when I looked outside and saw his armored truck in the parking lot.
I hadn’t been to Long John Silver’s for at least 20 or 30 years, but I’d come back to order something that amazed me when I first tasted it, leading to a lifelong love of deep-fried cornmeal balls. In other words, hush puppies.
Long John Silver’s wasn’t in my fast-food repertoire when I was a kid, but I did have one friend whose parents swore by it and took us there once. I liked it more than I anticipated. The fish was fried in a golden, crunchy batter that reminded me of the frozen fish sticks my mother sometimes made for me. The hush puppies, on the other hand, were nothing short of revelatory. Who would’ve thought a cornmeal and flour batter with a little salt and sugar could taste so good?
I thought of those hush puppies the other night when I was hanging out with two of my friends at The Eagle, in Over-the-Rhine. We had spent the day at Taste of Cincinnati and my appetite was just starting to return when we decided to grab dinner and watch the Celtics-Pacers game on TV there. After so much food, I wanted something simple, and the hush puppies on the menu immediately caught my attention. At The Eagle, they are stuffed with jalapeno, corn and cheddar cheese. Taking a bite into my steaming hot orb, I realized that hush puppies are neither light nor overly filling. By all accounts, they should be forgettable, and yet they are always on my mind.
While Cincinnati has never been much of a hush puppy town, there are good versions to be had at fried seafood joints and barbecue restaurants, including the City Barbecue chain and Smoke Justis, in Covington. My favorite upscale hush puppy is the one at Libby’s Southern Comfort, in Covington, where they are stuffed with goetta and served with remoulade sauce. Damn, those are tasty.
As for Long John Silver’s hush puppies, they tasted about as good as I remembered. And while the fries were lackluster, I also enjoyed the fish, which had a shatteringly crisp batter with tiny "crunchies" (little droplets of fried batter) scattered throughout my takeout container. The creamy coleslaw was mighty good, too. While I try and keep my fast-food (i.e. sodium) intake to a minimum these days, I might start tucking into Long John Silver's every once in a while. Not because of the fish, but because of a simple ball of dough.
Highly Recommended is a weekly spotlight on some of food writer Keith Pandolfi's favorite finds as he eats his way across Greater Cincinnati. Find more of his recent food writing here.
This article originally appeared on Cincinnati Enquirer: Where to get good hush puppies in Cincinnati | Highly Recommended
