Chapter 31 - Onion Rings

According to Boy: I think Evie came up with all these food-related topics while sitting in Schuler’s Music and Bookstore Chapbook Cafe—they do make the best-smelling sandwiches.

Back in the 1960s and 70s, Evie and I used to make the best onion rings. I don’t think we found the recipe in a book. It sounds like something that she heard about from one of the girls at her bank.

I recall her coming home and telling me that she just found out how to make onion rings. We decided to make them on the next Friday night. So, Friday after work, we jumped in the Mustang and went out shopping.

"You’re not gonna believe this," she told me. "All we need are some large onions, corn oil, salt and pancake mix. We’ve already have the salt and oil, so all we need to buy are large onions and pancake mix."

"And Red Ripple," I added.

"Right."

We were living in Glendale at the time, so we found the onions and the pancake mix at our favorite nearby A&P, along with something cold to drink.

When we got back home, I poured us each a glass, and asked: "What can I do to help?"

"Don’t worry. You just take Mister for his walk, and I’ll make the onion rings. There’s nothing to it."

I took her at her word, and took Mister down to the cemetery to get his business done.

When I arrived back at our apartment, the most delicious smell was wafting down the steps. "Smells like onion rings to me," I thought.

"How do they taste?" I asked.

"I waited for you," she said, pouring ketchup onto a plate. Careful not to burn her fingers, she picked one up, dipped it in ketchup, and held it out for me to take a bite.

I had never tasted a better onion ring in my life.

We finished that batch, and made another, and another.

"We’re gonna be sick if we don’t stop eating these," I said.

"Yeah, I know, but aren’t they wonderful?"

"Should I cook some pizza, or something?" I asked.

"I couldn’t eat another bite of anything," she said, "but you could pour me another glass of soda."

The onion rings set well with both of us. We determined to do that again, and soon. I think we made onion rings at least a couple of times a month. When we moved into the East Village, we continued making and enjoying our newly discovered recipe.

Strangely enough, when we moved to Philadelphia, one of the first things we wanted to do was to make our famous onion rings. However, we had an electric range there, as opposed to gas. Try as we might, we could not get that stove to heat the oil hot enough to make decent onion rings. They just sort of set in the oil getting more saturated than browned. I guess it wasn’t as easy as we thought.