Foodie Fridays: Doug's Fish Fry

Abby and Shevin initially bonded over their mutual love of boba during their freshman year at USC and have since been together and enjoying all of LA's wonderful culinary offerings. They both love to travel, explore, and most importantly eat!

It seemed like a great idea for FoundTrack to introduce a food column. Let's face it, those of us who enjoy art, film, fashion, and music usually have a soft spot for great dining experiences as well. So now, these two young Angelenos will have the chance to share some of their favorite tasty spots in LA with all of you fun people through Foodie Fridays.

If you have any recommendations you think should be considered for the column, please send an email to foodiefridays at foundtrack dot com. Eat on!

Summer is in full swing and to celebrate, FoundTrack is bringing you two very special travel editions of Foodie Fridays. This week, Abby returns to her roots in upstate New York and shares one of her local favorites. Next time, Shevin will be blogging about Alain Dutournier's Pinxo in Paris. Bon voyage!
Doug's Fish Fry
8 Jordan Street,
Skaneateles, NY 13152
315-685-3288

For this week's edition of Foodie Fridays, I decided to venture away from our usual local haunts to write about one of my favorite spots back home in upstate New York. Sorry Angelenos, you may not be able to check this place out on your way home from work, but the cross-country flight and layover are worth a visit to Doug’s Fish Fry in the picturesque Finger Lakes-area village of Skaneateles, NY.

A Fourth of July family reunion brought me back to this beautiful lake-side town that is comparable to something you would see in a Norman Rockwell painting. A landmark of the "downtown" area is the red awning that reads GOOD FOOD. This is the home of Doug's Fish Fry.

Doug's has been one of my favorite places to eat since I was a kid during my summer visits to see Grandma, Aunt Joyce and Uncle Dick. Although the dining room has quadrupled in size to accommodate the growing fan base, the formula for the good ol' fashioned fish sandwich, onion rings, and fresh strawberry sundaes has stayed true to Doug's original recipes and top notch quality.

After my exhausting red-eye flight from LA to Philly to Ithaca and subsequent hour long drive to reach Skaneateles I requested that we go straight to Doug's with no detours on the way.

We started with steamed clams with melted butter for dipping (yum!), followed by a few fried fish dinners. The fish sandwich is made fresh from typical cod-like whitefish, fried to perfection and is about as long as my arm. It’s served on a sesame seed bun with a side of fries, or you can sub onion rings if that’s your style. The fries are made fresh, sliced thick and are lightly salted. There isn’t anything complicated about these recipes: no fancy ingredients, no new age fusion, just traditional flavors unchanged since 1982.

The scallops are another delicacy; they use a slightly sweeter batter, fried (like everything else) and served in a heaping portion that covers every inch of the cardboard plate.

I dined with Mom, Dad and Ben, who agreed to join me to visit this summer destination of my youth, and hopefully my adulthood too.

Post fish fry we had a wonderful time enjoying the lake. I thought I'd include this great shot of Campbell,( my cousin Julie's daughter) and me.


NEXT TIME on Foodie Fridays: Part Two of our Summer Travel Special: Shevin's visit to Pinxo in Paris.