Chow The best sentence in The Stranger this last week was brought to you by the letters E, C, and B.
posted by on July 31 at 8:05 AM
Said best sentence, written by one Erica C. Barnett, moonlighting—rare but not unheard of—over in the Chow section:
Traditionally, Frito pie was consumed straight out of the bag; however, as the bags got thinner, this preparation became too hot to handle, and today most Frito pie is served school-cafeteria style, in a cardboard nacho boat.
Note the semi-colon (always sexy); note the deployment of an otherwise dead cliche (“too hot to handle”) that here operates simultaneously in its purely literal sense; note the factual information conveyed (bags have gotten thinner); note the glorious three words “cardboard nacho boat.”
That is the first sentence of the second paragraph. But back up. Here’s the first paragraph:
The first Frito pie, according to legend, was assembled in Dallas, Texas, by one Daisy Dean Doolin, the mother of Fritos inventor C. E. Doolin. Asked to come up with recipes requiring her son’s corn-chip snack, the story goes, Daisy Dean got the idea of pouring a ladleful of Texas red (a fiery chili made without tomatoes or beans) into a bag of Fritos. And from these humble ingredients, Frito pie was born.
If you’d like to keep reading—or if you’d like to know how to make Frito pie—here you go.
Plus, can I get this image—below—on a t-shirt?
Yeah.
I have the Fritos and the chili, but I'm not sure that the chili won't kill me. I have Hartford House chili (no beans). Has this stuff been recalled or not?
When I was in school we used to call that little dish "Taco Crunch". I think I may make that tonight for dinner!
Last comma should have been a colon, or at least a hyphen.
Top with Queso dip and you have the snack which made America the biggest ass nation on Earth!
#4 Eats, Shoots, and is a dumbass! A hyphen? Are you crazy? (On the other hand, it could have been an m-dash).
ECB's food writing is much more interesting than her political stuff. I almost always agree with her positions, but still find her writing on politics to be insufferably self-righteous. Her food stuff, on the other hand, brings the reader in to her love of food - the history, the ingredients and the preparation.
Awesome sentence, but that semicolon is a problem. A semicolon connects two independent sentences into a sort of hug. The use of "however" following this one indicates it's really being used as a sort of power-comma. Replace it with a comma, use the simpler and more effective "but" after, and you've got a 5 percent increase in awesomeness.
ECB's love affair with Frito Pie has me smitten... Primarily with Frito Pie, but also with ECB.
I'm also learnding from comments. I thought that a semicolon was for winking ;) not "hugging".
I love Fritos, but that is one sick food.
Yeah, I love Chili too.
It's just both mixed ... gag.
first beer cup demolition diving as the true symbol of the block party, now frito pie grammar lust? what a highbrow-lowbrow rollercoaster.
so on the back of the shit it has a person puking violently at the thought of frito pie, right
-for bonus points it would say that it looked/tasted the same on the way back up as on the way down =)
frito pie is god. sour cream, tapatio, and jack cheese make it dinner.
Totally by coincidence, I've been thinking of throwing a party that involves serving Frito Pie. In the bag.
Somehow, I thought this would be a unique thing to do in Seattle. Now ECB has demolished my claim to uniqueness. Way to go, ECB. (But I'll invite you anyway.)
While Frito Pie admittedly has its own dusty flavor and particularly stout texture, I'd bet money that the "recipe" actually came from simply substituting Fritos for normal tortilla chips.
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msfrijtx bkxdh mzxk ptmbw hzeugoci bwcjhdt nkmihe http://www.jaohlyin.qfskjhtv.com
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