Fried Oreos and Stomach Pain at the San Gennaro Feast

So this past weekend I had my first experience with fried Oreos, and let's just say it was a very special moment followed by a slight bout of indigestion. Hey, sometimes we have to take risks in life. It was at the annual San Gennaro Feast in Little Italy, and I was there making my own annual appearance for some mediocre pasta, tourist-shoving, and drunken stumbles to vendors for sausage and peppers, zeppoles and this year, fried Oreos.

We were a group of eight people and decided on a restaurant on Mulberry Street called "Lunella." The waiter was friendly (though why shouldn't he be, they include a 20% gratuity here) and the service was considerably prompt. I had a rigatoni pasta dish in a marinara sauce with prosciutto and onions. Not bad for Little Italy pasta I must say, I've definitely had worse. However, the real lure of this place is that it's right smack in the middle of everything, so I was facing a vendor for zeppoles, funnel cakes, and fried Oreos. It was taunting me from the moment I sat down. I have always wanted to try those, but never had the opportunity, and here it was…staring me in the face while I regretfully ate my pasta. The waiter came by to ask if we wanted dessert, but I knew what I was getting for dessert. I raced across to the stand and got the combination of 3 zeppoles and 3 fried Oreos for $5. It's nice to know not EVERYTHING there is overpriced. I was pretty full from dinner, but I ate two zeppoles and two fried Oreos almost immediately. The zeppoles are always great – golden brown, hot and fluffy with a generous dousing of powdered sugar. And the fried Oreos – it's hard to describe them. The cookies are battered and fried in probably the same batter as the zeppoles, and inside the cookie is not completely melted, but it is definitely warm and has a similar consistency to when you dunk a whole Oreo in milk. Perhaps it's a little soggy, but it's SO good. I really cant emphasize that enough. Oreos are my favorite cookie, so I might be a little biased, but it was everything I hoped for.

After I ate all the fried treats and pasta and sampled some other vendor food (candy apple, chocolate strawberries on a stick – both gross) I started to feel those pangs of indigestion. So what did I do? I drank some cranberry and vodkas. Always a good decision. Thankfully I didn't throw up (even though I felt like I would), because that really would have been a waste of a good fried Oreo.