Guy W/Deep Fryer + Batter + Spindle Meat = Numb Arm. NARM!!
By Chuck Sudo in Food on Apr 23, 2009 8:40PM
This is the kind of Last Supper one eats when he doesn't want to hear the calls of "Dead Man Walking!!"
Following up on yesterday's post about Wiener and Still Champion's country-fried gyros meat and pepperoni, today you get to look at both in their still evolving majesty. Owner Gus Paschalis has a background in food technology and a deep fat fryer that gets put to good use. WaSC makes the best hand dipped corn dogs in the city. Their fries, made with beef tallow, are better than Hot Doug's duck fat fries (yeah, I threw that gauntlet down. Suck it!) and you already know about their country-fried bacon.
Of these two, the gyros meat works better. The spices of the meat and batter complement each other perfectly, providing a great base for WaSC's Argentine herbs and spices dipping sauce (left in first photo). Both meats are thin sliced, which keeps the batter from completely clinging to the pepperoni. Paschalis said that he's thinking of switching to a thicker sliced gyros meat — "maybe four or five slices, with some fries." Hand slicing the pepperoni to a bigger thickness might also be beneficial.
The true surprise came when Paschalis asked, "Do you want to try a new dipping sauce I'm developing?" He makes all his dipping sauces for the corn dogs in-house, so I asked, "What is it?" "BLT," he said modestly. You don't have to lead me by the nose. This aioli-based sauce is essentially a puréed BLT Paschalis made when he ordered some bacon that was cut too thick. It's close to perfect as-is and really pairs well with the gyros meat. I'm not saying that Paschalis deserves to be mentioned in the same breath as Achatz, Cantu, Bowles and Carlson, but he does deserve some recognition along with Doug Sohn for shaking up how we should look at our hot dog joints.