Deep-fried pickles have been around a long time now, and I only had them once before. And those were just the sliced commercially-made disc shapes treated in a thick coating of commercially made bread crumbs. The result was something a deep-fried salty sour greasy thing, an edible curiosity I would never want to have again.
So when our waitress at The Farm House in Kansas City suggested we try their deep-fried pickles, I balked. It was only when she pressed further, saying that they specialize in house-made pickled everything (indeed, all our dishes came with some kind of house pickle, from onions to carrots) that we relented. And oh boy was I glad we did. These deep fried pickles were a game changer. The pickles were themselves just sublime, they'd probably been in a shallow salty brine for just a few days. And the batter? Tempura: ethereally light and crunchy. And then the dipping sauce took it all a step further--they didn't shy away from putting sour on sour, it was a mustard sauce but tamed with sweetness and slightly diluted so that you didn't have to worry about overdoing it on the dips.
A great example of how any mundane, cliche food can embody magnificence in the hands of the right cook. This is the food cravings are made out of. If any of you have the occasion to travel to Kansas City, this casual little restaurant is a place to try. (Oh, the wine list is great too, full of good-value European gems. We ordered a Louis Tete Beaujolais.)
Feast your eyes: