FAT City: Consider the spice bag

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It’s unclear at what point “spice bag” hove into my personal social media feed, but if I had to guess, it’d be about two or three years ago now.

There was an Irish man reviewing a particularly sad-looking bag of “Chinese takeaway,” a regionally specific version of Chinese food that was apparently big in his country but still unheard of in mine. Emerging from a translucent-greasy paper bag, the spice bag seemed to consist of a series of sad-looking, soggy steak fries (chips), gleefully doused in brownish-beigish curry sauce, occasionally accompanied by rice. And always with an excitable Irish narrator treating it all like craveable, must-have drunk food in his unforgettable, nearly impenetrable vernacular.

I was immediately transfixed. And, it seems, I was far from the only one.

When I took my first international vacation in years to Ireland this past week, the first thing more than one friend asked was “Are you going to try the spice bag?”

The appeal of this genre of video to me and my ilk was not difficult to divine. The idea of another country possibly having greasier, unhealthier, even more “inauthentic” ethnic takeout food than the US is a very attractive idea to Americans (the name itself barely sounding like food — “spice bag” — is the cherry on the sundae). Nothing eases the pain of knowing that you’re the butt of jokes like having someone even lowlier to pick on. Just ask any Fresnan about Bakersfield.

And so, of course I had to try one. Which wasn’t so difficult, as they’re everywhere in Ireland now, from the tourist trap bars alongside classics like Irish stew and Guinness, to the genuine Chinese takeaway places where they originated. Seemingly everyone had a spice bag on offer to gouge dopey Instagram tourists like me.

Eventually I chose one from a Chinese noodle joint in Dublin. Almost immediately the idea of the spice bag as something to be ridiculed evaporated. Sure, it consisted entirely of chicken tendies and fat french fries (er, chips) wok-fried with spices, but the flavors and cooking techniques were genuine. They were not slinging slop. It was… well, good.

And let’s be real, not much different than an alternate cuisine riff on carne asada fries, which have been a staple of Mexican-American joints since I was in college (a very long time ago indeed). Taqueria Don Tacha was just touting theirs a few months ago (rightfully so).

That not even something called a “spice bag” can rightfully be called slop now shows you just how much better food has gotten in the last 20 years. Has anything else improved so much in the same time frame? And more so on the casual, everyday food end than on the upscale, Michelin restaurant end. Especially so in the US. Especially-especially so in Fresno.

I’m mostly a pessimist by nature, but food is one of the few topics that makes me feel genuinely hopeful. It’s such an effective canvas for successful cultural collaboration and casual inventiveness. How many humble takeout places are creating art without even knowing it?

Nothing turns me into a dewy-eyed optimist like a giant plate of fried stuff, I guess.

And hey, fried food isn’t the only reason to feel hopeful of late. Here in Fresno, it’s also peak summer produce season, and we’re finally out of triple-digit temperatures (…for now). What a time to be alive.

— Vince Mancini, Contributing Editor, Food

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