What's That New Viral Food Thing? #3

If you use the internet these days, you know how it is. There’s a new food trend going viral about every 8 minutes. The struggle is real.

It’s hard to keep up. You see all the influential influencers out there using their verbal shorthand talking about dot cakes, “dirty sodas”, or Dubai chocolate molé enchiladas and you’re like “dang, I really feel like I’m missing out on something cool”.

Or maybe you don’t. Maybe you roll your eyes and assume it’s just another dumb trend like that one where they serve you 3 precious ounces of vodka rigatoni in an upside-down wine glass and expect you to navigate that without making a scene and embarrassing yourself on a first date. I’m not bitter, I’m not bitter….

Regardless, if you’re like me, you want to know what the heck That New Viral Thing is, exactly, one way or another. That way you can go chase down a local version or, if it sounds stupid, you can just write it off completely and disregard all future mentions, content in knowing you’re not missing out on anything good.

So this is where I come in handy, guys. I’ll save ya the clicks. Don’t bother. Next time you see a reel that blows your mind with a post about potatoes that couldn’t really possibly be as crispity-crunchity as they seem when the guy runs his knife along them, click straight over here to old Ed. Find out from your trusted Chicago chef blogger guy source if that New Viral Thing is the real-deal all-killer-no-filler goods or just a bunch of internet influencer-driven hype.

This is a trend that it turns out isn’t all that new. It’s been around since 2006 in one form or another, beginning as late-night Chinese food take-out food for drunken pub-goers in Dublin, then spreading quickly to “chip shop”s (which are called “chippers” in Ireland). That’s something I wish we had in the US — a tradition of having proper chip shops.

I think that’s why I chose this subject, because it really appeals to me and after the first couple episodes where I kind of crapped all over the whole viral food trend concept, it seems like the right time to recognize something genuinely interesting and worth your attention (and hard-earned dining dollars).

The spice bag might be Ireland’s greatest culinary contribution to the modern pantheon of snacking greats. Besides Guinness, of course. Maybe there’s a connection there, since the two go really well together.

Basically, a spice bag is a hot mess of french fries, breaded chicken, and some other cooked veggies (usually onions, bell peppers and hot chilés) all tossed together in a brown paper bag with Asian dry spices like cumin, five-spice, coriander, and Szechuan peppercorn. It’s then served with a light brown Irish curry sauce for dipping.

The whole thing is a gloriously greasy cultural muddle. The brownish yellow curry sauce is a British adaptation — probably an amalgam of some wealthy colonist’s distant memory of the Indian flavors he tried — but I’ve also seen it referred to as “satay sauce” and “Japanese Golden curry”.

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Most of the dodgy “takeaway” places that serve spice bags in the UK also have those little packets of hot mustard and sweet and sour, so those sauces are often incorporated into to the mix as well.

That’s how dishes like this tend to evolve and, to me, that’s what makes them so appealing. Immigrants became the primary proprietors of these UK late-night takeaway spots. They served adaptations of local dishes alongside some of their own country’s specialties and over time, staff experimented, customers customized, and here comes this now-iconic mash up, blurring all the lines and giving late night revelers forkfuls of 19 different flavors from 6 different countries. In a sack.

A spice bag is what would happen if all the aromatics from a few of everyone’s Szechuan favorites (La-Tsi, ma-la spice, lamb with pure cumin) fell into a paper bag full of chunky hand-cut fried spuds and then somebody shook it all together and served it up with a side of tasty sauce.

It’s literally genius. And kind of unavoidable, really. If you think about it, everything was always leading us to this inevitable conclusion. The human race really had no choice but to arrive at this point.

What to look for — here are the hallmarks of a good spice bag:

• You want to see a really heavy coating of dry spices. It should be really fragrant.

• The fried chicken pieces shouldn’t be very large. Breading should be minimal. You don’t want to see whole clunky processed chicken nuggies in there. Instead, look for lightly-dredged, gnarlier little cornstarch-coated bits of chicken like what you’re used to seeing at Chinese food restaurants. Warning — it may not be all white meat. You’ll survive.

• I want my spice bag to arrive in a brown paper bag or maybe a cardboard pizza box. If I’m dining in, give me the bag on a plate so I can tear it open. My spice bag experience should include shaking it up a bit myself to mix everything together and almost bruise the contents. Like muddling a drink. A big part of the appeal is the aromatic reveal when I open the bag — all those warm, grease-activated spices.

• The onions and peppers shouldn’t be breaded and deep-fried. They should be like a fajita veg mixture, sauteéd or stir-fried, and then shaken with everthing in the dry spice mix so the veggie pieces get coated.

• The chicken and potatoes should be deep fried. This dish requires grease to soak up all the dry spice rub and bring it together. A lot of food bloggers have decided this is a good trend to purloin for their many thousands of “sheetpan meal” posts. What the heck, right? It’s a bunch of different things all mixed together, so…. paper bag, sheetpan, same thing. But this misses the point. Don’t try to make the late night drunken mow-down food healthy, ok, mommy-bloggers? Don’t use frozen fries or tater tots. Uh-uh. Just don’t do it.

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So who is getting these right? Have you tried a spice bag in its natural habitat?

Outside of Dublin and the UK generally (of which I’m clueless), Eddie Huang seems to have been one of the earliest and most authentic adopters at his hot chicken spot, Pecking House in NYC. Although I’m unimpressed by the fact that they appear to be using frozen fries.

I did find a spot here in Chicago that seems to be doing a pretty decent-looking version. This is a trend I’d definitely jump on for a fun special if my restaurant was still open.

But then I’d have to stay open until 2am to serve the post-bar drunkard crowds.