- Joined
- Jan 19, 2006
Okay..back to the food drool fest...
Dan and I were just south of Iowa and felt a bit hungry for something a bit more hearty so we hit a Sonic Drive Thru for...
IMO they have the best Chicken Poppers. (Unless you can hit the Original KFC in Corbin KY!)
They are not greasy, have a breading that is not too crunchy or too soggy and it is actual flavored like a Southern Biscuit with pepper. Sometimes batter can be used simply as a tool to encompass chicken and there is nothing more than a pasty flour taste to it. I have never had a chunk of gristle in one I have had but again, we get these maybe 4 times a year so there may be some with different experiences.
We give these an:
Not as good as Corbin KFC one's at all and it's fast food so what do you expect??
We usually enjoy dunking these in a ranch dip.
If I order from Mc Donald's Chicken Selects (never nuggets from there...
) or make Chicken Strips at home...I prefer buffalo sauce.
Actually I prefer a fantastic buffalo chicken dip I make with some baguettes but that is another story altogether!!!
***Speaking of which...does anyone still have the Jalapeno Cream Cheese hot dip recipe I shared a few TR's ago??? I need to locate that again! The trouble is I usually do not write anything I make down except here!!!!
Now the rest of the first day food was not pictured because I forgot to take pics.
I know we ate cheese and crackers. The cheese we got was from the Amana colonies we stopped at. Then at night we went through a Taco Bell and got a hard taco for myself and a Nacho Bell Grande for Dan. Which is probably why we have no pics! I was driving!
***We had to laugh at the Taco Bell because Dan can't eat beef usually in any form yet somehow he has been able to eat the beef on the nachos when they have screwed up and not done a no meat dish for him.
After the recent reports about Taco Bell beef resembling the 80's Wendy's commercial's of:
We now know why his gut is not upset!!!
He is not allergic to sawdust and sand!!! Why did they not tell us before there was no beef in the beef?
We left before the hotel had any breakfast offerings out and after about an hour of driving...happened upon a Waffle House in the mountains of TN! These pics were taken on my cell phone so I apologize for the quality!
These are a must do for us at least once on any road trip south. We love how down home they can be and our waiter Coty, from Indiana, who rented a 3 bedroom trailer for $560 a month fully furnished, was awesome!! Nice kid about 22, knew all the locals by name, offered any info we needed about how much better living here was than Indiana, including cheaper cigarettes 
(we don't smoke and for all the reasons we want to move South, never considered this one as a benefit!) and made sure we knew he was nice enough to allow his Mama to move in with him while she got herself settled because she recently moved from Indiana as well. Did I mention she was from Indiana and so was he? 
So we ordered a side of hash browns, extra crispy please, not smothered, covered, murdered, mothered, suffocated, eviscerated, dilapidated, decapitated or any other "ated" or "ered" we had for options!!! Also split an order of 3 biscuits -n- gravy. Oh yeah, and bacon!!
These were huge portions and although Coty assured me they were merely cheap biscuits (gotta love his honesty), the fact they make them like Texas toast, made up for whatever quality was lacking in the flakiness. Slightly browned in butter, which was not one step away from plastic, was a wonderful treat! Melt in your mouth happiness.
The gravy and sausage were the best by far of the trip as well. Hotel's use a cheap flour mix that starts out a roux simply because of the ingredients, not flavor. The sausage used is at the bottom of the meat pyramid and only constitutes the description "meat," because of color and texture.
This gravy mix was divine. Thick enough to stick to a fork unless careless, off white with hues of light brown from sausage pieces that tasted like it it had been smoked. A mesquite flavor.
Portion wise it was too big for 2 people to split with the other things. We could have gotten 1 biscuit and each had a half and been perfect . Maybe two if really hungry. The biscuits often handed out with this meal at other locales, are about the size of a medium sand dollar. These were as wide as an average bagel.
The bacon was not Disney's anorexic bacon.
I mean seriously, Angelina Jolie has more meat on her than Disney's bacon.
This bacon was hickory tasting which I prefer to maple. Chewy and not blubbery at all. I did not even ask for the bacon to be crispy! Sometimes when crisp, it is overcooked and just crumbles when you bite into a piece. This bacon remained in it's original form as we munched through it to the end. Salty, savory and if you closed your eyes you could imagine Laura Ingalls running in her bonnet down the grassy hill and Ma clanging the triangle for breakfast!
For your laughing/bacon pleasure:
That 70's show Bacon Fest
The hash browns were also good. Needed a bit of salt and a tad greasy but not bad. The problem with most restaurants is that they try and expedite the delivery of the hash browns by cooking in oil, covering them and quick frying. That method simply makes the potatoes soak up all the oil while hot and as it cools, the oil releases from the starch and you have a puddle on your plate that is not eye appealing or stomach racing.
You need to have patience and cook hash browns in a thin layer, med-hi and wait.
And wait.
They will brown eventually in minimal oil and when you can flip them like a pancake to brown the other side, you are moments away from potato perfection. I like to use onions and green peppers in my hash browns. Onions will naturally will sweat and help the potatoes cook without too much moisture or make them too greasy. The peppers will also release a more natural oil to the process.
In this type of customer service environment, when people want their food, chop chop, wickie wickie, cooks have to accommodate and the more oil, the hotter the fry.
What?????
You did not order any Waffles, you say?????
Nope but the cook had made extras and was handing them out to anybody who wanted to try one!
Dan and I only ate 1/2 of the waffle but it was great! Buttermilk batter, real butter again, maple syrup, light, fluffy and crispy on the outside. They are also made thinner than many types. Like the difference between a crepe and a pancake.
It had a real waffle iron taste to it and that makes a huge difference. Newer plates on a waffle maker are not seasoned yet and you have to spray them to make sure the iron is non stick. Waffle irons that are used, will retain some of the batter flavor over time and like wine that is aged, just keeps getting better and better.
For this meal! Great service with a smile at 5:40 in the morning is hard to come by and deserves Paula for that alone. Food was very good and although a quick service meal, as good as any Perkins or Ihop. Great menu variety and a greasy spoon joint heaven. Not all Waffle Houses are the same though and we have had food that was not as good but....you will never leave a Waffle House without having a ton of stories to tell.
Best people watching on the planet next to Walmart!!!
Dan and I were just south of Iowa and felt a bit hungry for something a bit more hearty so we hit a Sonic Drive Thru for...
IMO they have the best Chicken Poppers. (Unless you can hit the Original KFC in Corbin KY!)
They are not greasy, have a breading that is not too crunchy or too soggy and it is actual flavored like a Southern Biscuit with pepper. Sometimes batter can be used simply as a tool to encompass chicken and there is nothing more than a pasty flour taste to it. I have never had a chunk of gristle in one I have had but again, we get these maybe 4 times a year so there may be some with different experiences.
We give these an:
Not as good as Corbin KFC one's at all and it's fast food so what do you expect??
We usually enjoy dunking these in a ranch dip.
If I order from Mc Donald's Chicken Selects (never nuggets from there...
) or make Chicken Strips at home...I prefer buffalo sauce.Actually I prefer a fantastic buffalo chicken dip I make with some baguettes but that is another story altogether!!!
***Speaking of which...does anyone still have the Jalapeno Cream Cheese hot dip recipe I shared a few TR's ago??? I need to locate that again! The trouble is I usually do not write anything I make down except here!!!!
Now the rest of the first day food was not pictured because I forgot to take pics.
I know we ate cheese and crackers. The cheese we got was from the Amana colonies we stopped at. Then at night we went through a Taco Bell and got a hard taco for myself and a Nacho Bell Grande for Dan. Which is probably why we have no pics! I was driving!
***We had to laugh at the Taco Bell because Dan can't eat beef usually in any form yet somehow he has been able to eat the beef on the nachos when they have screwed up and not done a no meat dish for him.
After the recent reports about Taco Bell beef resembling the 80's Wendy's commercial's of:
We now know why his gut is not upset!!!
He is not allergic to sawdust and sand!!! Why did they not tell us before there was no beef in the beef?
We left before the hotel had any breakfast offerings out and after about an hour of driving...happened upon a Waffle House in the mountains of TN! These pics were taken on my cell phone so I apologize for the quality!
These are a must do for us at least once on any road trip south. We love how down home they can be and our waiter Coty, from Indiana, who rented a 3 bedroom trailer for $560 a month fully furnished, was awesome!! Nice kid about 22, knew all the locals by name, offered any info we needed about how much better living here was than Indiana, including cheaper cigarettes
(we don't smoke and for all the reasons we want to move South, never considered this one as a benefit!) and made sure we knew he was nice enough to allow his Mama to move in with him while she got herself settled because she recently moved from Indiana as well. Did I mention she was from Indiana and so was he? So we ordered a side of hash browns, extra crispy please, not smothered, covered, murdered, mothered, suffocated, eviscerated, dilapidated, decapitated or any other "ated" or "ered" we had for options!!! Also split an order of 3 biscuits -n- gravy. Oh yeah, and bacon!!
These were huge portions and although Coty assured me they were merely cheap biscuits (gotta love his honesty), the fact they make them like Texas toast, made up for whatever quality was lacking in the flakiness. Slightly browned in butter, which was not one step away from plastic, was a wonderful treat! Melt in your mouth happiness.
The gravy and sausage were the best by far of the trip as well. Hotel's use a cheap flour mix that starts out a roux simply because of the ingredients, not flavor. The sausage used is at the bottom of the meat pyramid and only constitutes the description "meat," because of color and texture.
This gravy mix was divine. Thick enough to stick to a fork unless careless, off white with hues of light brown from sausage pieces that tasted like it it had been smoked. A mesquite flavor.
Portion wise it was too big for 2 people to split with the other things. We could have gotten 1 biscuit and each had a half and been perfect . Maybe two if really hungry. The biscuits often handed out with this meal at other locales, are about the size of a medium sand dollar. These were as wide as an average bagel.
The bacon was not Disney's anorexic bacon.
I mean seriously, Angelina Jolie has more meat on her than Disney's bacon.
This bacon was hickory tasting which I prefer to maple. Chewy and not blubbery at all. I did not even ask for the bacon to be crispy! Sometimes when crisp, it is overcooked and just crumbles when you bite into a piece. This bacon remained in it's original form as we munched through it to the end. Salty, savory and if you closed your eyes you could imagine Laura Ingalls running in her bonnet down the grassy hill and Ma clanging the triangle for breakfast!
For your laughing/bacon pleasure:
That 70's show Bacon Fest
The hash browns were also good. Needed a bit of salt and a tad greasy but not bad. The problem with most restaurants is that they try and expedite the delivery of the hash browns by cooking in oil, covering them and quick frying. That method simply makes the potatoes soak up all the oil while hot and as it cools, the oil releases from the starch and you have a puddle on your plate that is not eye appealing or stomach racing.
You need to have patience and cook hash browns in a thin layer, med-hi and wait.
And wait.
They will brown eventually in minimal oil and when you can flip them like a pancake to brown the other side, you are moments away from potato perfection. I like to use onions and green peppers in my hash browns. Onions will naturally will sweat and help the potatoes cook without too much moisture or make them too greasy. The peppers will also release a more natural oil to the process.
In this type of customer service environment, when people want their food, chop chop, wickie wickie, cooks have to accommodate and the more oil, the hotter the fry.
What?????
You did not order any Waffles, you say?????
Nope but the cook had made extras and was handing them out to anybody who wanted to try one!
Dan and I only ate 1/2 of the waffle but it was great! Buttermilk batter, real butter again, maple syrup, light, fluffy and crispy on the outside. They are also made thinner than many types. Like the difference between a crepe and a pancake.
It had a real waffle iron taste to it and that makes a huge difference. Newer plates on a waffle maker are not seasoned yet and you have to spray them to make sure the iron is non stick. Waffle irons that are used, will retain some of the batter flavor over time and like wine that is aged, just keeps getting better and better.
For this meal! Great service with a smile at 5:40 in the morning is hard to come by and deserves Paula for that alone. Food was very good and although a quick service meal, as good as any Perkins or Ihop. Great menu variety and a greasy spoon joint heaven. Not all Waffle Houses are the same though and we have had food that was not as good but....you will never leave a Waffle House without having a ton of stories to tell.
Best people watching on the planet next to Walmart!!!
I can't believe you have these handy!!! 
Really nice lady though and she said she loved working there because the place was so fun!!!
. 
