Bob Dylan's Favorite Meal Includes Some Comforting Deep-Fried Additions

For some iconic singers, the favorite foods that follow them into adulthood have much to do with their roots. Soul star Aretha Franklin adored the chitlins of her Southern heritage (until high blood pressure made her quit eating them) and Bruce "The Boss" Springsteen frequently tucks into a PB&J that's as quintessentially American as "Born in the U.S.A." For octogenarian Bob Dylan, however, the meal that's fueled him through six decades of musical laurels, including a Nobel Prize for Literature, is a pastiche of influences as diverse as his timeless catalog of songs like "Blowin' in the Wind" and "To Make You Feel My Love." In a 1986 sit-down with Interview magazine, Dylan filled in the blanks on some of his favorites.

When asked, "what's for dinner," Dylan's longwinded, punctuation-challenged response included a panoply of delights: "Grilled corn on the cob black-eyed peas beet root salad spinach and pilaf deep-fried cauliflower French-fried chicken and gravy French-fried cabbage pinto beans and rice cocoa angel cake." Did Dylan eat this bounty of gustatory delights all in one sitting? He didn't clarify. The standout items on that eclectic and yummy list are definitely the deep-fried cabbage and cauliflower, which seem to go together more than any other two items on the list. Bob Dylan's background as a Minnesotan boy of Jewish descent might seem at odds with these items — unlike fellow Jewish legend Steven Spielberg's beloved matzoh brei — but, when we dissect the background of these scrumptious, homestyle deep-fried veggies, we kind of get it.

Fried cabbage, which is often cooked in bacon grease and studded with crispy bits of diced onion and thick-cut bacon, is a classic Southern delicacy. Some folks have added it to their lists of St. Patrick's Day traditions, owing to the way this dish puts cabbage front and center, as a clear example of cultural osmosis at work. Of course, we've never met an old school Southern cook who didn't think that bacon grease could improve just about anything! It works especially well with the cabbage, however, which softens in the pan and wicks up the salty, umami savor of the pork. For a touring musician like Dylan, we can see how such a down-home favorite might feel comforting and nourishing after weeks and months of hotel living and soulless room service trays.

Fried cauliflower, surprisingly, hits a little closer to home. Although Americans today are apt to batter and deep-fry cauliflower, then drown it in Buffalo sauce as a meatless chicken wing alternative, the veggie dish actually has hundreds of years of history, crisscrossing Europe with global trade. It's seen in traditions as diverse as Israeli, Czech, and Mediterranean food (the latter of which may serve it as part of mezze), and Jewish folks were instrumental in its movement across the continent over centuries. Germans ate fried cauliflower and, on the other side of Eurasia, so did Indian gourmands. With nigh-endless variations and methods of enjoyment, fried cauliflower would appeal not only to the history of Dylan's faith but also to his innate creativity.