Today is a day that is definitely worth celebrating and so I wish all of you a Happy National Onion Ring Day!
I don’t remember exactly when I first fell in love with onion rings, though it was most assuredly during my misspent youth.
The earliest recollection I have of enjoying a chain restaurant’s onion rings was back in my mid-teens at a chain known as Lum’s, which has been out of business for the past 40 years. I used to love Popeye’s onion rings, but they stopped serving them in Orlando-area stores 20 years ago. Never really cared for Popeye’s chicken, so their onion rings were the only reason I patronized their establishments. When I wrote to tell them that, some flunky in the office wrote back, “Sorry to see you go” so that further cemented my non-desire for their food.
Cheddar’s restaurants used to serve a delicious tower of onion rings, but they also stopped doing so several years ago much to my disappointment.
While traveling, both when I worked and now that I’m retired, if eating at a new (to me) restaurant that offers onion rings I’ll always try them. Most of the time, I wish I hadn’t. Most places only serve frozen, mass-produced onion rings that are on the level of Burger King’s onion rings, which is to say they are horrible.
So, if you’ve had any of the onion rings at the above-mentioned places that I liked, you’ll see that I prefer the buttermilk, flour-battered variety (preferably double-dipped) over the breaded style. To me, those types allow the flavor of the onions to meld quite nicely with the flour batter.
And of course, the crispier the better! Mushy onion rings are the worst.
Other than homemade, where have you found your favorite onion rings?
