Fat Tuesday Focus: Bang Bang Pie And Joe Fish's Fried Chicken Biscuit
By Lisa White in Food on Mar 4, 2014 10:00PM
We chose some of our favorite Fat Tuesday deals around town earlier but one collaboration in particular had us kicking off our celebration sooner than usual. When Bang Bang Pie tweeted their Fat Tuesday special yesterday, we immediately had lunch plans. Bang Bang partnered up with Joe Fish on a special Cajun fried chicken biscuit, topped with brown gravy and a Louisiana hot sauce butter. Bang Bang supplied the biscuit and butter, Joe Fish supplied the chicken and gravy and had a few chefs on hand to help serve up this perfection of gluttony starting at noon today.
Joe Fish is the soon-to-be newest Rosebud restaurant that will specialize in fresh seafood. But for Fat Tuesday they got a bit down and dirty and fried up some seriously delicious chicken. The meat was flavorful and juicy and the crust was perfect, even while smothered in gravy. If you are a fan of a thicker crunchy crust, more like a Nashville hot style or akin to the guilty pleasure of the South, Popeye's, then this chicken will be your new best friend. It was expertly fried, no oily or burnt aftertaste and it is some of the best crunchy fried chicken I've had this far North. It was well balanced on heat, a good amount of burn but not overpowering the other flavors. This chicken might be the special today at Bang Bang, but it better end up on a menu somewhere around town because I'm going to need more of it soon.
Even though the chicken was the star of the show, it was balanced with a velvety rich brown gravy and a large dollop of Louisiana hot sauce butter, the vinegary kick cutting through the richness to give a nice bit of acid. And Bang Bang's flaky dense biscuit is a wonderful addition to anything, I'd happily eat a dozen of those on their own. To finish off an already decadent lunch, I split a slice of Bang Bang's banana cream pie, the custard light and airy and full of huge chunks of perfectly peaked bananas. Some of Bang Bang's pies can be a bit too rich and heavy (I'm looking at you chocolate peppermint) but this was a nice light fruity end to a meal.
Southern food might be simple but is usually a decadent affair full of rich flavor, balanced spice and a lot of fatty goodness. Bang Bang and Joe Fish offered up a wonderful honor to Southern cooking to celebrate this Fat Tuesday. Laissez les bons temps rouler!