I used to love all things deep fried: chicken, pork cutlets, corn dogs, tempura, you name it, I loved them all. But I was very particular about my fried foods. It had to be encased with some kind of batter. To me, anything tasted fabulous when it was dipped in some kind of batter, dropped into hot oil and fried until the dough crisped up puffy and golden.

In fact, the only reason I ate fried chicken was purely for that crispy coating. I would gnaw off all the outer crust with oil oozing through my fingers, only to toss the actual meat aside for my brother or sister to finish. My dream ice-cream, one that I was determined to create and sell and become a millionaire, was a rich creamy plain vanilla ice-cream mixed with bits of crispy batter, and then finished off with a fried batter exterior with a distinct fried chicken taste. I was gonna name it I-scream for Fried Chickin, and I was extremely proud of myself for this brilliant, ingenious, novel idea. I couldn’t wait to grow up and patent it.

Alas, someone seems to have beaten me to it and the moment I heard about the rising popularity of deep-fried ice-cream, my innocent kiddy dream was crushed.

Anyway, I have strayed away from fried foods by now, at first a conscious effort to avoid the unhealthy and undesirable consequences of indulging in too much fried foods, but now the image of fried chicken or fish fails to tantalize me in the least bit at all. Instead, I get quite angry about why they want to cook and destroy a perfectly good fresh fish by giving it a death bath in bubbling oil.

But sometimes…that childhood fondness of deep-fried batter calls out to me, and I find myself yearning to touch up with my old friend once in a while…

So today I decided to make fish and chips. But totally healthified, of course. I’m not about to destroy all the great nutrients in fish when I need all the healthy nutrients I can get to heal my body from 4 years of mistreatment.

This is how I made my version of fish and chips: I cut a ~5 oz fillet of halibut into 4 pieces, dipped them in beaten egg, dredged them in a mixture of homemade whole wheat breadcrumbs, Italian herbs, s&p. Then I popped them into a 400 degree Fahrenheit oven.

Meanwhile, for the chips, I used Japanese sweet potato, because I did not have any potatoes on hand and I much prefer the sweet taste of sweet potatoes. So I chopped up two medium sweet potatoes into thin round slices. I know the “chips” here are actually really fries, but I thought it’d be fun to make it potato chip-style instead. I sprayed the sweet potato chips with olive oil, salt and pepper, then popped those into the oven too.

The result:

Fish and “Chips”, with a healthy side of garlic greens and some homemade ketchup.

I definitely left the sweet potato chips in the oven a bit longer than I should have, but it was still delightful and perfectly crunchy and so much fun to eat!

Okay, I have to admit, despite my best efforts, the outer coating wasn’t as crispy and satisfyingly sinful as the real deep-fried stuff. But it was still plenty delicious, and I really loved the scents of the herbs with the crunchy breadcrumbs.

The insides stayed really moist and flaky and nice. I like how halibut has this natural sweetness.

My last fishy bite, with a dollop of my homemade ketchup.

I couldn’t decide on what I really wanted for my afternoon snack, so I made a nice array of all my cravings:

Mr. Bean Japanese cheese pancake, ham, cheese, and jelly sandwich, and some roasted pumpkin.

This wasn’t a snack, it was a feast! Yum-o~

I really am not much of a cook, but I’m really enjoying cooking up something different for lunch each day. I can’t believe I used to allow myself to be stuck in an eating rut and eat the same exact “safe foods” everyday. Not only was I fueling my ED and hiding in my comfort zone and limiting my source of nutrients, I was depriving myself of all the fun and pleasure of real food.

On that note, today’s question is: Do you tend to stick to the same food everyday? What are they, and what are some new foods you are willing to try?

Oh, and by the way: This article really caught my interest this morning…Finally, breakfast is getting the recognition it deserves as not only a morning meal! Go check it out and tell me what you think~

Related posts:

1. Dine out fresh, dine in leftovers
2. “Gourmet” by name and taste
3. You say potato I say pizza~
4. Soup and onion-y breath
5. The Humble Potato

Tagged as: cheese, deep-fried, fish, ham, Japanese, lunch, pancakes, pumpkin, sandwich, sweet potato, toast