Jive Turkey Jive Turkey 441 Myrtle Ave. (Waverly St.), Clinton ...

"New Yorkers have such broad culinary palates," says a hopeful Aricka Westbrooks, a former luxury public relations professional whose only visual hint of her past resides in her Chanel eyeglass frames. "They eat beef patties, falafel, knishes, why not fried turkey?"

Indeed. Jive Turkey, Westbrooks' prepared food store that specializes in whole deep-fried turkeys, opened this past May and is living through its first Thanksgiving season. So far New Yorkers haven't presented any reason why they shouldn't expand their tastes to include her signature dish.

Still, the item, foreign to most northeastern menus, deserves some explanation. First, this is a whole, fried turkey. Unlike fried chicken, which is cut into sections?breasts, thighs, wings, etc.?fried turkey in the traditional Southern preparation is dipped in its entirety into a vat of hot oil. Also distinct from most fried foods that make their way into our mouths, Jive Turkey's bird is not batter-dipped. Rather, it is a purist's fried bird?nothing added, nothing taken away.

To test the viability of a fried turkey business, Westbrooks spent two years at the fryer in her Prospect Heights apartment, learning firsthand why city folk don't often dabble in this country tradition. A Southern friend who clued Westbrooks in to the practice told her that the deed is usually done in a tub in the backyard, which, of course, few New Yorkers have access to.

The space issue becomes something more dangerous when considering the alternative: frying a turkey inside the house. Westbrooks cites incidents of homes igniting when ambitious chefs have attempted to fry the birds in large pots or deep fryers, only to displace the hot oil and set off a blaze. As if you needed another reason not to try this at home, the high price of peanut oil, one of the few oils that can sustain the high temperatures required for cooking the turkey, can cost upward of $50 for the quantity required?more than the bird itself.

Then there's the time issue. "I think that's why a lot of people don't eat turkey anyway," Westbrooks figures. "Why would you cook a turkey for three to four hours just to have a turkey night?"

So what are the benefits of deep-frying turkey? While most Thanksgiving turkeys take an entire afternoon to roast, the pressure fryer at Jive Turkey will cook your 10- to 12-pound bird in just under half an hour. Because of the swift "flash frying" process, the turkey does not absorb an excess of oil (after tasting the meat, I found this to be true). In fact, the technique somehow salvages the turkey from its common fate of drying out?the juices appear to be sealed in the bird, leaving the flesh moist and the skin crisp.

Because of the grab-and-go (or, in the case of Jive Turkey, "grab, gobble and go") nature of the establishment, most of Westbrooks' clients do not get a hot turkey fresh out of the fryer. Much of the inventory?sandwiches, salads, sides and entrees?are prepackaged in single and family portions and stored in a refrigerator case. Whole turkey orders for Thanksgiving Day pick-up are already filled, so customers seeking the experience must book a bird pick-up for a day (or longer) before the holiday.