Fried Chicken

CORRECTION: Everything old is new again, as they say. Like fried chicken. It's hot and re-happening. Hey, if Mad Men can be cool again - skinny ties and '60s martinis, the uptown picture of retro - why not a shout-out for its country-picnic cousin? Why not, indeed? I chewed over this question. All over town. The results were published in this space more than a month ago. I did not try every establishment's chicken. But I put a pretty big bite in what was out there - crunchy thighs slicked with spiced honey at Resurrection Ale House, served with great German potato salad.

GIVEN Atlantic City's rich African-American history and culture, the city should be a destination for Southern-style comfort cuisine. Among those surprised to find that that wasn't the case was Carl Redding, who late last year opened Redding's Restaurant on the northwest corner of Pacific and Kentucky avenues. "What I saw was an opportunity to open up my style of restaurant," explained Redding. "There were no other restaurants [in Atlantic City] that do what I do - comfort cuisine, soul food.

Fried chicken served up on a compartmentalized aluminum tray once stirred nostalgia for homemade fried chicken. But now, in an age of drive-through chicken, Vlasic Foods International of Cherry Hill is trying to revive nostalgia for the frozen TV dinner. In its first major move since it was spun off from Campbell Soup Co. last spring, Vlasic yesterday announced its leading line, Swanson, has "re-engineered" its frozen chicken dinners to make the meat more recognizable as chicken.

Ronni Lundy got a bake set for her fifth birthday and claims to have been cooking ever since. At the very least, she became fascinated with the country food of her native South. Lundy grew up in Louisville, Ky., but the foods she enjoyed were the simple dishes of mountain folk. Convenience foods meant chicken frying slowly in a cast-iron skillet. Food memories and recipes are fondly captured in Lundy's Shuck Beans, Stack Cakes and Honest Fried Chicken (Atlantic Monthly, $24.95)

AT FEDERAL Donuts on 2nd and Manton, they start selling chicken at 11:45 a.m., after the morning hordes have wiped them out of hot doughnuts. A bearded dude stands at the door and hands you a yellow Post-it note with a handwritten number on it. If you order a half chicken, he rips the sticky note in half. When I arrived at 11:51 on Monday morning, I was given a ripped Post-it with the number 21 scrawled in orange marker. "We start giving away numbers at 11:45, and we're usually out by 12:30," I overheard food writer and Federal Donuts partner Felicia D'Ambrosio tell some customers at the counter.

A piece in Bon Appétit magazine this month purports to list "The Top 10 Best Places for Fried Chicken," which wouldn't be of much note except that Resurrection Ale House, a local kid, made the cut. Resurrection is a tidy corner pub across from the condos at the old Naval Home on Grays Ferry Avenue, deeply into the craft beer scene, a proclivity that had won it a different notoriety a few months ago; state police raided it for selling a few...

Federal Donuts 1219 S. 2nd St. 267-687-8258 federaldonuts.com Resurrection Ale House 2425 Grays Ferry Ave. 215-735-2202 www.resurrectionalehouse.com Wah-Gi-Wah 4447 Chestnut St. 215-921-5597 www.wah-gi-wah-halal.com Cafe Soho 468 W. Cheltenham Ave. 215-224-6800

There are at least two "truths" about fried chicken. One: The pan-fried kind tastes better than the deep-fried kind. Two: The best cooking vessel is a black cast-iron skillet. And it is almost always true that if it's restaurant fried chicken, it's the deep-fried kind, probably cooked in an electric fryer. Sometimes it is even partially cooked, by steaming or braising, before it is thickly battered and dropped into bubbling oil. Restaurants' choosing deep frying may be a matter of time.

As part of her official visit to Washington, D.C., Queen Elizabeth II dropped in at the home of Alice Frazier, who invited her to stay for a lunch of Southern fried chicken and potato salad. Her majesty declined. Lunch with Mrs. Frazier wasn't the purpose of the visit. It was what we call a photo opportunity: The Queen of England is shown visiting an elderly black lady who lives in a very neat, government-subsidized house. That helps give the impression that there's more to her trip than putting on gowns and dining with other swells at the White House.

Helen Dickerson is famous for her fried chicken. And for her crabcakes. And then there's the spoonbread and, on Sundays, the kidney stew. Not to mention the breakfast biscuits and the dinner rolls. We're not talking the recognition of friends and neighbors here, though she certainly has that. This is real limelight, complete with appearances on national television, letters of praise from the Bush White House, and enough visitors tramping through her kitchen to prompt the feisty 81-year-old cook to propose charging admission.

First fried chicken and now golf? There's just no telling what can get a player in trouble with demanding Red Sox fans. Embattled Red Sox ace Josh Beckett was booed off the field at Fenway Park Thursday night when he was pulled after just 21/3 ineffective innings against Cleveland. The pitcher, one of three Sox accused of spending games eating fried chicken and drinking beer in the clubhouse last season, now is under fire for playing golf. Beckett was scratched from a start last week because of stiffness in his side.

Magic Johnson made the biggest score of his career late Tuesday night when Dodgers owner Frank McCourt announced an agreement to sell the team for $2 billion to a group including the former Lakers star. The price would be a record for a North American sports franchise. Mark Walter, chief executive officer of the financial services firm Guggenheim Partners, would become the controlling owner. The group includes former Braves and Nationals president Stan Kasten. As part of the agreement, McCourt, who in 2004 paid $430 million for the team, and "certain affiliates of the purchasers" would acquire the land surrounding Dodger Stadium for $150 million.

The 16 patrons seated along the counter at Cook, the exclusive demonstration kitchen near Rittenhouse Square, watch chef Sylva Senat as he places a bass fillet in a pan. A glorious aroma fills the air to the sound of sizzling. "Fish normally will curl up by the edges," Senat, the executive chef at Tashan, tells the class, each of whom has paid $175 for the evening this month. "Do you know how we keep that from happening?" Brianna Wellmon knows. In a white jacket, black apron, and black hat, Wellmon is his sous chef, both at his restaurant and for this class, working at his right elbow.

DyAnne DiSalvo, who writes and illustrates books for children, is sometimes inspired by real life. So her next novel may involve a gun shop like the one that opened near her Merchantville home last year and made her heart sink. Firearms pervade our culture; they make some people feel secure and others afraid. Many people have no interest in owning (much less firing) one. And we'd rather not live near a commercial establishment that supplies folks who do. "I was completely startled when I saw a sign saying 'firearms and ammunition,' " says DiSalvo, who has lived in the borough for 10 years and is the mother of two grown children.

Three dishes at each of three restaurants in three hours for $39? That's Dishcrawl. An import from the West Coast, Dishcrawl invites the hungry hip to come out as singles or in couples for an evening getting to know one another and one of their neighborhoods through that powerful communications tool we call food. Philadelphia's inaugural Dishcrawl, Jan. 24 in Northern Liberties, brought out 60 foodies who descended first on Cantina Dos Segundos, 931 N. Second St., for quesadillas (chicken or cheese)

Clear your weekend calendar. Beginning at 5 p.m. Saturday and Sunday, just-opened and already legendary Federal Donuts (1219 S. 2nd St., 267-687-8258) will serve fried chicken for dinner — at least until it sells out at 5:10 p.m. (We may be exaggerating, but not by much.) Order a half chicken or six whole wings ($9) or a whole chicken or 12 whole wings ($17) served with honey-glaze doughnuts (you were expecting maybe waffles?) and Japanese pickles. The bird is dry-cured overnight then double fried and offered two ways: Glazed with flavors such as Chile-Garlic and Honey-Ginger, and Crispy, with custom blended, seasoned salts such as Za'atar and Harissa.

Weekends and holidays are a perfect time to transform your morning-meal repertoire into a festive occasion. Trade up from French toast, and try waffles. Whipping up waffle batter is no harder than making pancakes or muffins, and it can be prepared the night before to speed things along in the morning. The health-conscious will appreciate hearty multigrain waffles with thick yogurt and mixed berries. Or serve tender buttermilk waffles with sliced fresh fruit, jams, chocolate, whipped cream, or nothing more than maple syrup as adornment.

We hear frequently from readers who arrive at Federal Donuts, on Second Street in Pennsport, just as the shop runs out of its celebrated fried chicken. Could that be intentional? According to the international consulting firm, CultureWaves, "intentional scarcity," offering limited supplies of items in order to drive up their popularity, is among the food trends predicted to crest in 2012. But Michael Solomonov, the James Beard award-winning chef who co-owns Federal Donuts as well as the acclaimed restaurant Zahav, says offering "limited supplies" was not in the original plan.

WHEN JOHN Gregory-Smith found himself in career transition at age 30, his natural inclination was to hit the road. In 2006, when he was 25, the London-born Gregory-Smith had launched his own brand of spices and sauces, a business that had become more corporate than fun by 2009. "I had to give it up," he recalled. "I didn't want to be in sales and logistics. " The product of an adventurous and well-traveled family, Gregory-Smith had discovered his love of exotic cuisine and spice at a young age, in places such as Hong Kong, Thailand and Zimbabwe.

Germantown star defensive back William Parks does it all for the Bears. The versatile 6-1, 175-pound senior is the feature back in the team's rushing attack and also handles kick-returning responsibilities. Parks recently committed to playing at Pittsburgh, where he plans to major in psychology or communications. This week, we sat down with the future Panther: Q: Why did you choose Pitt? A: "It's like a second home and just 5 hours away. It's a great atmosphere and environment.