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Cracker Barrel or Waffle House?


Subdeacon Joe

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9 hours ago, Badlands Bob #61228 said:

If you ask for sweet tea and the waitress says you can add sugar, it's time to get up and head back South.

That's when you explain to the waitress that us dumb, redneck Southerners are smart enough to figure out that sugar melts much better in hot water (like, maybe, tea right after it's been boiled) than it does in a glass full of ice.

 

I did that to a waitress in New Jersey that was complaining about all of us Southern truckers asking for sweet tea.  The two boys from TN that was seated at the next booth busted out laughing.  One liked to choked, he was laughing so hard.

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No Waffle House in this part of the country that I know of ; there is a Cracker Barrel about 50 miles away , but they are inconsistent in the quality of the meals. Place has been open about 9 years , at first it just sucked , then got better , then was fairly good for a while , now going downhill again.

Pat Riot's post made me think of the best breakfast place I have ever been in ; was in Klamath Falls , OR. The Black Bear restaurant , went there everytime we went to Klamath when our daughter was there in the Air Force. Visited there about 7 or 8 times. Always a real treat.

Rex :D

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2 hours ago, Marshal Mo Hare, SASS #45984 said:

rare as hen's teeth up here, sweet tea and grits. never even knew about chicken and waffles.

 

I first heard of chicken and waffles on the History Channel. One of their "history of food in the US" shows. Thought it was a new thing.

 

Then I read Daddy Long Legs.  Pretty neat book (I thought). This orphan girl, who shows evidence of intelligence, is sent to college by an "unknown benefactor". The Matron at the orphanage told her about it, and said that all he wants is, once a week, she write him a letter telling how she's doing in school. He will never respond, but she is to write him. "John Smith". The Matron told her, "Think of it like a bill, and every week you have to pay the bill."

 

She'd seen him, once, from the rear, at night, and the streetlight cast his shadow on the wall, and the shadow's legs appeared to be ten feet long, so she started calling him Daddy Long Legs in her mind. The entire book, after the first chapter explaining what is going on, is simply her letters to him.

 

In one letter she says that she and some friends hiked through the snow to the next town, and after a meal of chicken and waffles, they caught the train back to campus.

 

The book was published in 1912. So I'm guessing "chicken and waffles" has been around for a while.

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13 hours ago, Alpo said:

If you have to ASK for SWEET tea, you're too far north.

 

Down here you have ASK for UNSWEET.

Here up north they ASK you if you want it sweet or unsweetened! We got class!;)

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6 hours ago, Rex M Rugers #6621 said:

No Waffle House in this part of the country that I know of ; there is a Cracker Barrel about 50 miles away , but they are inconsistent in the quality of the meals. Place has been open about 9 years , at first it just sucked , then got better , then was fairly good for a while , now going downhill again.

Pat Riot's post made me think of the best breakfast place I have ever been in ; was in Klamath Falls , OR. The Black Bear restaurant , went there everytime we went to Klamath when our daughter was there in the Air Force. Visited there about 7 or 8 times. Always a real treat.

Rex :D

 

Went to college in KF.  This brought back a couple of old memories...

 

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3 hours ago, Alpo said:

 

I first heard of chicken and waffles on the History Channel. One of their "history of food in the US" shows. Thought it was a new thing.

 

Then I read Daddy Long Legs.  Pretty neat book (I thought). This orphan girl, who shows evidence of intelligence, is sent to college by an "unknown benefactor". The Matron at the orphanage told her about it, and said that all he wants is, once a week, she write him a letter telling how she's doing in school. He will never respond, but she is to write him. "John Smith". The Matron told her, "Think of it like a bill, and every week you have to pay the bill."

 

She'd seen him, once, from the rear, at night, and the streetlight cast his shadow on the wall, and the shadow's legs appeared to be ten feet long, so she started calling him Daddy Long Legs in her mind. The entire book, after the first chapter explaining what is going on, is simply her letters to him.

 

In one letter she says that she and some friends hiked through the snow to the next town, and after a meal of chicken and waffles, they caught the train back to campus.

 

The book was published in 1912. So I'm guessing "chicken and waffles" has been around for a while.

That was made into a movie of the same name. Starred Fred Astaire and Leslie Caron. What a doll...

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Many places here in CA & NV serve chicken and waffles.  You have to ask for sweet tea & the fast food places will ask sweetened or unsweetened.  There are no national restaurants that have southern breakfast menu's.  In the Reno/Sparks, Carson City & Fernley area there are 4 Black Bear Dinners that have a comprehensive breakfast menu sans Grits. 

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3 hours ago, Abilene Slim SASS 81783 said:

That was made into a movie of the same name. Starred Fred Astaire and Leslie Caron. What a doll...

Yes it was. That movie (I watch it about once a year) is what caused me to find the book.

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We always aim to stop at Cracker Barrel for our meals when we travel south of the Medicine Line.  (No Cracker Barrels North of the Medicine Line.)

As for Waffle House------Meh.  Tried it in a couple of places when we traveled, but........

We were pleasantly surprised to find a Tim Hortons south of the Medicine Line this year. Sure enjoyed a Double Double and a honey doughnnut.

Now if we could just get you folks to allow Grant Hooker to open a few Beaver Tail Shacks.

And say  Cypress Sam, please tell a Canuck: What the Heck are GRITS? The waitress we asked answered; "Well Hon, Grits is Grits!"

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1 hour ago, Cold Lake Kid, SASS # 51474 said:

please tell a Canuck: What the Heck are GRITS?

If you're serious, or even if you ain't.

 

You take raw corn kernels and soak 'em in lye-water. This causes 'em to swell up, and the husk -the bran - the outer shell - cracks and falls off.

 

This leaves you a moist nastiness called "Hominy". They fed that to us a few times when I was in school. Yuck, with a capital YU.

 

But you take this hominy and dry it. Then you take the dried hominy and grind it up into little pieces somewhere between "table salt" and "beach sand" size. Now you got "grits".

 

You take the grits and simmer 'em in salted water (that, by the way, is why most tourists HATE grits. They don't salt the water in most restaurants. Worried about people with high blood pressure? I don't know. Do they salt the water when cooking rice or pasta or potatoes? Grits cooked in unsalted water are bland. Adding salt at the table makes 'em "salty and bland".).

 

Just like oatmeal, they come in regular (takes about 20 minutes to cook 'em), quick (they only need simmered for five minutes) and instant (ignore instant. As the witness said, in My Cousin Vinnie, "No Southerner uses instant grits".)

 

Now, some folks like to eat 'em just as they come out of the pan. Some folks like some cheddar cheese melted in them during the last few minutes of cooking (cheese grits). And some people (Yankees) put 'em in a bowl, with sugar and milk. Puh-leez. This ain't Cream of Wheat or Oatmeal. This is grits.

 

The absolutely BEST THING to do with grits, is put a big scoop (or twa) on your plate, with a large pat of butter what come from a cow (not from a chemical vat). Then you get two or three hen's eggs, cooked runny. "Up" is okay. I prefer "over-easy". But the yolk has to be runny. Grab up your knife and fork and go to town, slicing away on them eggs 'til they're itty bitty pieces. Then stir them cut-up eggs into the grits, mixing 'em well until you got this kinda disgusting-looking yellowish pile of stuff on your plate.

 

Scarf it down. That stuff's GOOOOOD.

 

 

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When I did my occasional visits to Baton Rouge to do some work on their computers systems, two men would take me to lunch to introduce me to the local cuisine, Mr Palmer, an elderly southern gentleman, would tell a few stories. One time he was in NYC  for the ANPA convention and ordered grits to go with his breakfast. He was charged TEN DOLLARS. When he saw that, he said to the waitress, “if you come to Louisiana and order TEN DOLLARS worth of grits, you’d better bring a truck.

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Thanks Alpo

And I was serious asking what they were.

Any I had, I found somewhat tasteless, the way they were served to me. 

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On 4/8/2018 at 10:31 PM, DocWard said:

Last time I ate at a Waffle House was November 23, 1990.

 

I've eaten at Cracker Barrel a number of times.

 

Being from Ohio, I prefer Bob Evans.

 

I do too. We don't have them this far South anymore. used to be one in Morrow Ga.

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3 hours ago, Cold Lake Kid, SASS # 51474 said:

Thanks Alpo

And I was serious asking what they were.

Any I had, I found somewhat tasteless, the way they were served to me. 

Yep, probably cooked in unsalted water.

 

And when that's happened, there ain't much you can do to 'em to make 'em good.

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On 4/10/2018 at 4:58 PM, Ramblin Gambler said:

Waffle house.  Can't tolerate the ole 'Onion Barrel'.  It's too bad because I like everything else about them other then their food or the way their food smells.  

Not too mention the portion sizes and Cracker Barrel have shrunk immensely.

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1 hour ago, Dirty Dan Dawkins said:

Not too mention the portion sizes and Cracker Barrel have shrunk immensely.

 

Most folks around here know how I can eat.  The last three trips I’ve made to Cracker Barrel, I’ve had to ask for a to go box. 

 

Got no complaint about the portions.

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There’s a new Cracker Barrel up the road in Victorville but haven’t been there yet. I’ve never been in a Waffle House they don’t have them out here and I’ve never been tempted when I was where they had them. I do eat at the Cracker Barrell in Flagstaff when I’m on my way to EOT and coming home. I like the hash brown casserole with three eggs easy over and the sausage, ham and bacon sampler, biscuits no gravy and certainly NO grits. I worked at a dude ranch in Colorado as a ute and when served breakfast we had to choke down a big bowl of grits before we got to eat anything else and that ensured that I’d never eat them again. About three days a week when I was a kid my mom would serve toast and gravy or biscuits and gravy and her gravy wasn’t that good so to this day I don’t eat gravy on biscuits or toast. I do like the baked apples and apple butter at CB but the last time that I was there they were guarding the apple butter like it was gold because I had to ask four times to get some.

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Waffle House from 11 pm - 3 am; Cracker Barrel from 8 am - noon.

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