Breaded Meat

[Varmint]

Chicken fried steak, fried chicken, pork chop on a stick. There's lots of great examples of breaded meats. What are your favorites, why are they your favorites, and where are the quintessential examples of each?

[Mister_Cutlets]

Varmint,

Another great question! Meat and breading go together like peaches and cream. No matter how bad a piece of meat is, pound it, bread it, and fry it up, and Mr. Cutlets is game for multiple portions. But what kind of breading is best? And where can you get it?

For me, the perfect breaded meat is, unsuprisingly, cutlets. A think piece of leg or shoulder meat, pounded flat, pressed with breadcrumbs, and sauteed in butter and olive oil, is a meat-treat fit for a cardinal. Of course, once you start talking about breaded meats, you have to touch on pan-fried chicken, the acme of the genre, and chicken-fried steak, its most mysterious and enticing expression. And don't forget breaded pork chops, scottoditti, veal chops milanese, and all the other wonderful combinations of meat and breading.

I could discourse on this subject for days, and often do. What other meat is so singularly imbued with crunchy joy? From the festive pop and spatter of the sizzling fat to the crackling cruch of the crust, breaded meats impart a gorgeous color and taste that, like the Midas of legend, turn everything they touch to gold. A few of my favorites in New York? Glad you asked!

-- fried chicken at Charles Southern Kitchen in Harlem, with a big new branch to be opened on the Upper West Side soon.

-- breaded steak at La Dinastia on West 72nd street and other latin meateries around town. Breaded steak has a thick, brittle coating that fissures all over at the first cut, but it's none the less delicious for that.

-- New York lacks a really first-class chicken fried steak, although I like the version at the Delta Grill, on 9th avenue, with its airy breading and thick onion gravy. Nothing to make anyone forget Threadgills, though.

-- the veal chop milanese at Artepasta, also on the upper west side, always gives me a charge.

I know I'm forgetting many breaded meats...let me know your favorites?

yours,

Mr. Cutlets