Fried Twinkies latest fad

An odd new treat has emerged at state fairs in the South: fried Twinkies.

Each Twinkie is impaled on a stick and frozen until firm, then dipped in a batter similar to that used to fry fish.

Suzanne Hackett, the general manager of an English restaurant in New York City called The ChipShop, said the fried Twinkie was born in her eatery out of boredom.

“We had a very slow night in the restaurant so we decided to buy a bunch of junk food and deep fry it,” Hackett said Monday. “And the Twinkies just tasted so good.”

Interstate Bakeries Corp., the Kansas City,Mo.-based firm that owns Twinkie-maker Hostess, doesn’t object to the new creation it actually promotes the idea though it doesn’t suggest a steady diet of the culinary concoction.

Rank ’em: Consumers list hotels as giving best service

Apparently, we aren’t much impressed by the service we’re getting as consumers.

When asked about which industries try to please us the most, hotels ranked as the best, with 30 percent reporting good service, followed by banks, reported by 28 percent.

Airlines were third, but only 11 percent said they provide the best service. Worst? Long-distance telephone companies only 4 percent were pleased by the service.

The poll was conducted with 997 randomly selected adults by St. Louis-based Maritz Research in May.

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