Pork Chop, Pork Chop. Greasy, Greasy!

I love the movie 3000 Miles to Graceland, no matter how much critics panned it. The part of the movie where Kevin Costner tries to slip past a security check by cheering for the Wombats remains, to this day, the most vivid memory I have of the film. Probably because the line had something to do with greasy pork chops. Mmmm.

Incidentally, so does today’s post. Well, somewhat. My girlfriend recently gave me a non-stick teflon frying pan from Ikea. I’ve been trying to learn how to cook fried eggs properly, and while I’ve been able to do quite nicely with a stainless steel frying pan, there’s nothing quite like the non-stick surface of either a teflon coated pan, or a cast iron pan.

The thing about using teflon is that the material coating the surface of the pan is pretty much a poison, if used improperly. Use it with too high a heat, and the coating starts to leach onto your food. Scrape it with something metallic, and the same thing happens. The tradeoff is that you’ve got a nice pan wherein food doesn’t stick at all, but if you don’t know how to use the pan, you’re better off buying a hot plate.

My frying pan looked just like this one when I received it. Twins!

Not that I’m knocking teflon pans. They’re awesome. I’ve never been able to flip an omelet without having to scrape the thing off the bottom before, and cleaning it is a dream. Droppings sticking to the pan? Soak it a bit in water, then gently scrape it off with your fingers (not your fingernails, mind you). I don’t understand why we have a graveyard of apparently teflon-coated pans in the back of the house, since it’s just so easy to use them.

Of course, in retrospect, it’s just as easy to misuse them. That’s why the dream, really, is to own cast iron pots and pans. But in my opinion, until I’m able to properly make something like mechado without batting an eyelash, I won’t deserve a pan that luxurious.