Fried corn is a beloved Southern side dish — a flavorful concoction that's not deep-fried (though you can certainly fry whole corn cobs this way), but rather softened and cooked in a pan or skillet.

“I always joke that salt, sugar, MSG is the Chinese trinity seasoning mix,” chef Calvin Eng told me recently. The trio is so integral to his style of Cantonese American cooking that he named his ...