In the immortal words of that sage and poet Bing Crosby, "I'll be home for Christmas." In fact, I am home, and it was for Christmas. And, what to my wondering eyes should appear but a dial-up connection, upload time's like a year. So, no pictures today.
The technological backwater of my mother's house is begging to be incorporated in to some tenuously related lunch post. Something along the lines of: "What sort of things did you think were perfectly acceptable, maybe even cool as hell, ten years ago that you cannot even countenance now?" or "Is there any place you like to go for lunch from time to time specifically because it takes forfuckingever to get what you want?"
But, that's not what I came to talk about. I came to talk about down home.
Today, I end my visit home to coastal Georgia by taking a little half-day drive up to that great big Capital City known as Atlanta. Of course, I'm only driving up there because I have a flight to catch tomorrow morning that will take me to Austin where the better part of a week of New Years celebratin' will give way to a three-day Austin-Biloxi-Atlanta-DC road trip to ease me back in to the new working year.
With all that driving ahead of me AND so much of it through God's Country, I have a whole mess of roadside barbecue joints on my mind. As a starter list, there are these places across the state, which includes a joint right down the road from my mom's house that gives me the shits every time I go there (but tastes SO good that I keep going back). Once out in Texas, I guarandamntee at least one of my hangover brunches will stand on the shoulders of the royal figure mentioned first in this article. I won't pretend to even begin knowing what sort of unfamiliar wonders await me as I spend three days cutting across Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia, the Carolinas, and Virginia, but I'm all sorts of excited to see it.
So, how about you, OWFLers? Any down-home roadside establishments that you would cross county lines for? Any favorite haunts you visit every time you make that drive to Michigan or downstate? And, of course, WFL, y'all?
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Let's see...there are definitely a number of barbecue joints that I tend to frequent en route to see my folks in Chocowinity, NC. And there is this gas station that sells these fantastic meatball subs in kweef's hometown in w. ny that I like to swing by as we head in or out.
My favorite stops are the little fruit/veggie roadside stands though. And if you're really lucky there will be some fresh pies and apple butter. yum.
i don't think upstate ny is known for its cuisine in any way. I cannot think of a single restaurant up there that i pine for in anyway...
maybe Orbaker's Hamburger joint on 104? Downtown Philly on the other hand.. there are sooo many places, Nodding Head, Bonners, that little Korean place on 20th and chestnut... mmm... i wish i could remember the names of the rest... and in Manhattan there is KMP.. a little bodega on 1st ave around 15th (?) that serves some of the best hot sandwiches in the history of the world. i highly suggest the continental. Maybe i'll stop in for one of those this week...
Today's lunch is a pile of veggies and some leftover rosemary chicken that I made myself for christmas dinner.
I wonder if Angles still has that pork bbq sandwich on their menu...if so, that could be on tonight's agenda for Lady A!
for lunch an oddly flavourless mix of chicken, cheddar, bellpeppers and tortillas.
for my mealtime entertainment i am listening to the guy over the cubewall from me snore. He has been like this for two hours now and has woken himself up from his own nasal-based-volume at least twice.
oooh, i just got a pinky joint sized piece of bone in my lunch.. i definitly should have swallowed it and filed suit
For lunch today, I'm meeting my mother and my grandparents on my way out of town ata little fish joint on an unremarkable river in an unremarkable town just north of the unremarkable city where my mom lives. I'm probably going to go with the Brunswick stew because it's just hard to pass up, but I'm looking pretty hard at the Collards & Q.
Although I have tried and tried all morning, I have been unable to come up with a pertinent place in memory that had something "so good it makes you want to run home and slap your mama in the mouth." I'm hoping to find something in the coming week, though.
"so good it makes you want to run home and slap your mama in the mouth."
i was having a discussion about idioms with a few people over the weekend (yet this one didn't come up). can anyone explain the logic behind this saying?
I'm w/ Lady A on the fruit and veg places, but I'm thinking of the ones up and down Highway 1 in Northern California. Also the roadside fish joints. Yum. Back when I was unemployed there (b/c I have to specify all the periods of unemployment in my life), I bought my dinner from those stands every night.
I miss Half Moon Bay...
Heading up north from Pittsburgh, there are a bunch of Mennonite pie/cheese/butter stands that I like.
Oh, and I'm on dial up AND lachoi's iBook. So it's like learning to use a computer all over again - in 1995.
Oh, and there is one place that I go in Budapest that takes forfuckingever, and it's just part of the charm. Plus, they have a Mixed Meat Platter.
Jersey Mike's when I visit my aunt. I've taken to making my mom & dad bring me home a ham & cheese whenever they go, b/c I'm usually the one who winds up feeding their cats while they're away. Ham & cheese with everything. And extra hot peppers. Mmmmm. In fact, I'm going up Friday for 2 nights, and I do believe I will make that be lunch! Hey, I think I'll even take a cooler, so I can bring one home. Yum! And Oink!
Other than that - there was this fantastic place in McAllen, TX my grandparents used to take us to for mexican (like there aren't a million good mexi joints in south TX, but anyways). The sopopillas were huge, and not like those square ones some places churn out. They were close to a foot in diameter - well, I was pretty young, so maybe just like 8 or 9 inches, but puffed up they were huge! And they weren't ever quite circular, so you knew they were homemade. God, that was a great place. It closed down at some point, so we started going to this other place that had the square sopopillas. Sigh!
Lunch today was not the lamb rogan josh I whipped up (with sauce out of a bottle) last night, as I forgot to bring it in. So it was part of a blackened chicken fajita platter from CA Tortilla. It was yummy. And there is a ton left, but I don't know when I'll eat it as I have the next 2 dinners in town planned out & lunch out tomorrow. Hum. Maybe a little year-end binge before I make my inevitable (and fruitless) resolution to lose weight??
Does anyone else think this may be the most unabashedly phallic building of all time? I really like the premise of an underwater hotel but would be quite uncomfortable sending home postcards with this building on it.
Oh yeah, and we hit Federici's (sp?) in Freehold when we go up to my aunt's, too. But not all the time b/c it's kind of far from Point Pleasant. :-( So sad!
God, I'm tired. I haven't slept well the last few nights. Yawn. If anyone (er, any DCer) wants to come see Dreamgirls at the Uptown tomorrow night, let me know. Me & friend (uh, we'll call him Not Irish Guy) are going to eat somewhere around there & then go see it.
Wait, didn't NotIrishGuy say that the Uptown closed?
The Uptown closed!?! That's almost sadder than Gerald Ford dying. Actually, it might even be sadder than that . . . I don't know Gerald, but I do know the Uptown personally.
I would say both Bun's Bakery in Delaware, OH (Hot ham n' cheese! Butter cookies! Pie!) and the Victory Diner in Hanover, PA (creamed chicken and waffles! Chocolate cake w/ peanut butter icing!) are both worth dealing with geriatric waitresses in slo-mo.
Know what's not worth the wait? Today's lunch at Bread and Chocolate. Next time I'm craving french onion soup, I'm making it myself. It'd be faster.
HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA!!!!!! Oh, man, that's better than a Corvette or a Hummer! It's a $500M penile replacement!
And I can't believe I forgot the carts in Europe for street food. Amsterdam for frites with mayo. Germany for wurst. Knock, brat, whatever. In Bonn they have something called a Kringelburger which is a long skinny white wurst rolled up in a spiral, put on a skewer, grilled and put on a crusty kaiser roll with hot mustard. Mmmmmmmmm.
Nah, NotIrishGuy (hm, I chose a bad name for him. It can't be shortened to its initials - well, it can, but that's more of a name for kkk.blogspot.com) was wrong. I forget what he said happened. Somebody went on vacation & forgot to submit showtimes to the paper or something.
Hey, EQ, did you hit the James Brown memorial service whilst in the area?
Ah, poor EQ can't post. Here's what he had to say to you, M: "Apparently, my personal technological infrasructure no longer permits me mobile blogging. I had a great answer earlier to m's question about why one would slap his/her mama in her mouth. Essentially, the phrase predicates itself on the assumption that mama's cooking is the gold standard against which you measure all future foods. Every once in a while, you get a hold of some item or another that blows mama's rendition of it away. Thus, you are obliged to slap mama in the mouth for making ou live a lie for all those years.
Also, no intention of attending any Godfather memorial services that aren't conducted entirely via jukebox at the Euclid Street Yacht Club or similar dive bar.
Typin' with my thumbs and steerin' with my knees,
Eq"
So thar 'tis.
Ummm...earthquake left a lengthy voicemail for me to transcribe on the blog in response to M's comment about slapping your mama in the mouth. The message was really really long, so this is my interpretation of Earthquake's message:
"Your mama really likes it when I slap her on the ass while she calls me big poppa as I'm chompin' on her cornbread"
Wow. That is really different from the email I got.
Not all that different if you read carefully.
Hey! Look what I figured out how to do!
Take THAT, driver's ed videos!
BTW, I had the fried shrimp hoagie with a baked potato and sweet tea. It was delish, although mom and grandma Quake had the blackened grouper sandwich which was both exceptional and large.
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