Fantasy bar snacks

[Verjuice]

I was meeting a friend at a bar in Boston last week. I wasn't hungry at all; had just had a huge dinner. I'm halfway through my first drink and I want something salty, crunchy and fresh out of the deep fryer- just to pick at, of course. Because I wasn't hungry, of course.

So I order a couple of things off the bar menu. A gigantic cone of sage-dusted frites wth a great mound of aioli in a ramekin alongside. And a heaping platter of deep-fried green beans with some sort of tangy balsamic reduction and more aioli crowning the whole mess.

They were great. We ate everything.

My fantasy bar serves snacks that include but are not limited to the following: fried olives, all kinds of offal, excellent bread and olive oil and butter, great pizzettes, really fantastically tender Yankee-style onion rings (not the stiff giant bready ones) wonderful runny cheeses, lots of spice, killer pate, charcuterie, really great soups (no french onion soup at my fantasy bar, thanks), very simple green salads- and GREAT desserts (and that means no flourless or molten derivative chocolate cake thing with raspberry coulis, powdered sugar and a spring of mint-- this just makes me want to cry).

What does your fantasy bar serve forth in terms of grub, then?

[Tim Dolan]

Dude, there is a place is Philly that has your name written all over it.

www.ansillfoodandwine.com