food: or, the only religion in the south that matters
totally crazy couple of weeks, but i can safely say this spring break has been a pretty successful one. lots of productive time spent in disneyworld, universal studios, and then traipsing the south on my first ever road trip! all of this done in the company of smileynic, so i've also gotten to use my singlish again. yay!
i think i enjoy roadtrips, but i'm not sure they're worth the time or effort. it's a nice way to go through smaller cities, but if you're not into the same music or you're on a time crunch, it can make you kind of stir crazy. also! i think i'm getting a little old for adventuring (SAY IT ISN'T SO). the best part of the roadtrips were the parts we got to spend in nice motel rooms and eating (DELICIOUS) food. i thought i'd enjoy things like the city museum in saint louis. nope. i hurt all over, it was really warm, i got kind of dizzy, and for the first time in my life, experienced a tinge of claustrophobia. NEVER AGAIN. an adult's playground sounds great in theory, but i don't know if i know that many adults who'd actually enjoy it. the outdoors part was kind of awesome, but that's about all i can say i genuinely enjoyed. even the ten-storey slide just made me kind of want to throw up.
OR LIKE IN UNIVERSAL STUDIOS, WHEN I HAD TO GO BACK TO THE HOTEL FOR A THREE HOUR NAP TO RECOVER FROM ONE RIDE ON THE DRAGON CHALLENGE BECAUSE I WAS TWO SECONDS AWAY FROM PUKING W T F BODY. this should be scaring me more than it is, but i am resigned, and i don't mind as much as i maybe should.
on the up side, the food was AMAZEBALLS, holy shit. i'd consider a move to the south just for the cuisine alone. so my trip recap will be mostly food-based, just the way i like it. so i've basically had ribs (wet AND dry) and OH MY GOD I DIDN'T KNOW RIBS COULD BE THIS GOOD?!?!?!?!? i don't even like ribs but i just wanted ribs at EVERY MEAL. not that i knew that right away; we had ted drew's frozen custard and thai food on the loop in saint louis the first night, and that was pretty delicious, and after a week of theme park food i was ready for all asian food, all the time. BUT THEN, the very next day, after a so-so breakfast of gooey butter coffee cake, we went to pappy's. OH MY GOD GUYS IF YOU'RE EVER IN SAINT LOUIS YOU NEED TO GO TO PAPPY'S BECAUSE THAT PLACE IS SO DELICIOUS J F C. those ribs were mindblowingly good, and THEY SERVE FRIED CORN ON THE COB. FRIED CORN ON THE COB. WHAT THE HELL. WHY ISN'T THAT DONE EVERYWHERE?!?!?!?! WHY ISN'T THAT THE ONLY WAY THEY SERVE CORN!??!?! oh my god i'm going to cry TEARS OF UNBRIDLED JOY just thinking about it.
i mean we drove around a couple of places, and then stopped at the zoo (where i adopted a new stuffed red panda toy, oh self, you don't need more of those, and had a whole fiasco coming up with a name but finally settled on imo/tiny), and briefly at the art museum (where i decided impressionism is now my second favourite kind of art after romanticism, but that i'm still pretty eh about art in general unless it's slashy fanart). then we had imo's pizza for dinner. BACON ON PIZZA. YOU CAN NEVER GO WRONG WITH BACON ON PIZZA. also they had provel cheese bites, which is apparently a saint louis cheese and oh man it wasn't, like, life-changing, but it was pretty dang good. i'd have more of that pizza.
the next morning, we were headed to memphis, but we stopped at saint louis baking co before we hit the road. i was really unimpressed, but our host family went on and on about how good it was, so i'm glad we gave it a go, if only so now i can say that saint louis pastries are kind of whatever. driving to memphis from saint louis was a treat, though, because we stopped at lambert's on the way for lunch (after passing through arkansas - we didn't stop at little rock, but the unintentional kradam in all that still makes me giggle). OUR FIRST TASTE OF SOUTHERN PORTIONS/HOSPITALITY. THEY THROW DINNER ROLLS AT YOU, GUYS. THEIR WEBSITE IS LITERALLY THROWEDROLLS.COM. HOW FUCKING AMAZING IS THAT. I CAN'T EVEN HANDLE IT. AND THEIR FRIED OKRA O M G. let me die it was SO DELICIOUS. and they had FRIED FROG'S LEGS and literally like two hours before that i was talking about how badly i wanted frog's legs and THERE IT WAS. not to mention we got free refills of okra, fried potatoes, green beans, creamed corn, and macaroni and tomatoes THE WHOLE MEAL. ALSO THE DINNER ROLLS, OBV, WHICH WERE ESPECIALLY WONDERFUL WHEN THROWN FROM THE FAR END OF THE ROOM WHILE PIPING HOT. i mean what is this magic!?!?
so we kept trucking along to memphis, and rested up in our motel room when we arrived till pretty late. it was almost 9 by the time we headed out, but we were still stuffed from lambert's, so we figured we'd walk around beale street - where the nightlife is supposed to be - and then come back for an early night. we wound up being ushered into a bar by the most friendly bouncer EVER (bouncer's not the right word but i don't know what else to call him) who promised us fantastic music, or, and i quote, "you can come back out and slap me silly, AND I'LL LIKE IT." luckily for him, the music was PHENOMENAL, as were the nachos, OMG, WHO WOULD HAVE THOUGHT PULLED PORK AND NACHOS WOULD BE SO FUCKING GREAT TOGETHER, CERTAINLY NOT I, BUT NOW I NEVER WANT TO HAVE NACHOS WITH ANYTHING ELSE. i will, because only the south creates magic like pulled pork nachos, but O M G I WILL BE WEEPING FOR PULLED PORK ON THE INSIDE WHILE I DO. i also got a local beer, which tasted just like every other beer i've ever had, but there you go. i've got to stop thinking i'm going to wake up one day and enjoy the taste of alcohol.
ANYWAY. the next day, we headed out to the peabody hotel for their famous duck march. WHO EVEN COMES UP WITH THESE THINGS? SERIOUSLY. BUT HOW AMAZING WAS IT TO SEE THOSE FIVE DUCKS PARADE DOWN A RED FREAKING CARPET INTO A FOUNTAIN IN THE MIDDLE OF A HOTEL LOBBY? DUCKS WHO STOPPED TO POSE FOR THE DOZENS OF CAMERAS THAT WERE ON THEM LIKE VETERAN CELEBRITIES, I MIGHT ADD. that was hysterical. and then we moved on to lunch at silky o'sullivans, where i'm pretty sure i had the best damn fish and chips of my life. who knew catfish could be so damn delicious? I SURE DIDN'T. why aren't ALL fish and chips made from catfish? WHO EVEN KNOWS. we also had some pretty delightful gumbo (though no gumbo i've tried beats the gumbo i've had in disneyland, THANK YOU SNACKBREAK) and dry rub ribs, which were pretty freaking great but paled in comparison to pappy's. also there was live music, AGAIN, and it was SO GOOD i should've given them a standing ovation. i would've, if i hadn't been so busy DEVOURING MY CATFISH.
after lunch we stopped by the rock and soul museum, which i absolutely loved, and could easily have spent three or four hours looking through if we hadn't been on a time crunch. we also saw the gibson guitar factory, and whoa was that place neat. and big. then we stopped by the national civil rights museum, and took a moment at the place where mlk was assassinated. i don't know all that much about history, but that gave me chills a little bit. it was pretty amazing. we also tried to make a stop at graceland, but the line was insane and i didn't really want to pay $30 to see his home or his planes or his cars, so!
on to nashville, tennessee. memphis was my favourite stop of the trip, just because my favourite cities are the ones that give you something a little different from the other cities without trying too hard to be different just because, and saint louis was way too normal, and nashville way too rowdy and out there, but the second we got here, it was so clear that memphis is down and out, and nashville is where the music's at now. it was a little depressing.
we stopped for dinner in a city about thirty minutes outside of nashville (because nashville was completely booked up what the heck nashville) called white house, where we found ourselves a diner called colorado grill. the drive there seemed a little sketch, but it was pretty packed when we arrived. and the food turned out to be pretty swell!!! who knew? the bread, though, that was AWESOME, and the home-made ranch was TO DIE FOR. the lemon pepper blackened trout i had as my entree was fine, but those two things were definitely the highlight. as was our server, who offered up, mcconaughey "all right, all right,"s all night in his thick southern twang and was a delight in every way.
we got up pretty late the next morning after, and headed into nashville to try germantown cafe, where i had grits that i ACTUALLY ENJOYED for the first time in my life!!!! sandy porridge is definitely the accurate description for it - i've checked with my life advisor stephoosaurus, and she agrees, so i know i'm right, no matter what anyone else thinks or doesn't think - and apparently when you pair sandy porridge with cheese gravy it becomes EARTH SHATTERINGLY GOOD?!?!?!? WHY HAS THE SOUTH BEEN HOARDING THIS RECIPE INSTEAD OF SHARING IT WITH ALL OF HUMANITY O M G. possibly because it would increase the number of fatal heart attacks across the world by a thousand percent, but UGH. SO GOOD.
we left the cafe groaning over how stuffed we were from breakfast, and then pulled into a farmer's market maybe fifteen minutes later and ended up getting double scoops of ice cream from jeni's splendid ice cream, and oh my gosh, IS IT SPLENDID. BEST ICE CREAM FLAVOURS I HAVE EVER TRIED, EVERYTHING WAS FREAKING AMAZING AND THEN I REALISED THEY HAVE A JOINT IN CHICAGO I AM GETTING A LITTLE JOYOUS MISTINESS IN MY EYES RIGHT NOW. why is chicago so perfect asiofjgjdsg
we spent the rest of the afternoon driving around to see the replica of the parthenon, vanderbilt university, music row, the country music hall of fame, ryman auditorium, rca studios b, the hermitage hall, and belle meade plantation, which was my favourite stop of all because we snuck inside and walked the grounds for free, without buying a ticket (oops) because nobody checked or stopped us, and it was gorgeous, and really interesting. we made a brief stop at the bluebird cafe as well, where taylor swift was apparently discovered, but there was a line around the block at 5.20, and the place didn't even open till 5.30, so i figured that was a lost cause. plus, after getting free music performances in memphis, i didn't really feel like having to pay a cover charge to hear someone play in nashville.
SO ON TO DINNER. omgggggggggggg. WHERE DO I EVEN BEGIN. we had dinner at monell's, which is a southern cooking restaurant served family style. we were at a long ass, gigantic table with 6 other people, and they brought out 10 appetisers (T E N) and 4 entrees and o m g by the end i was so stuffed i thought i was going to have to roll myself out of the restaurant. AND THE FOOD WAS DELICIOUS. THE FRIED CHICKEN, THE FRIED CATFISH, THE PULLED PORK, THE MEATLOAF (which i did not have because beef but that everyone else reassured me was AMAZING), the mac and cheese (which tasted like the crap you get from packet mix but which everyone else liked), the coleslaw (WHICH I PRACTICALLY GOUGED MYSELF ON), the mashed potatoes, the creamed corn, the black bean salad, the green beans, the turnip greens, the biscuits and gravy, THE CORNBREAD!!!!!!!!!, and the hush puppies, and the banana pudding and strawberry shortcake we got for dessert HOW IS IT HUMANLY POSSIBLE THAT ANY OF US SURVIVED THAT AMOUNT OF FOOD I WILL NEVER KNOW BUT WE DID AND IT WAS THE BEST EATING EXPERIENCE OF THE TRIP
especially when we walked out to pay at the cashier expecting the worst and then ONLY HAVING TO HAND OVER $23 EACH INCLUDING TAX AND TIPS i might cry again i love that place so much brb going to try to relocate to the south WHY AM I ALREADY LEAVING TOMORROW
(except scratch that because i'm so ready to be home)
tomorrow morning - or in 3.5 hours really - we're going to be waking up to have pancakes for breakfast to try to beat the crowds, and then we're going to drive back to evanston, and i'm going to have to start school again, but at least i'll have the memory of good southern cooking to get me through it!
i think i enjoy roadtrips, but i'm not sure they're worth the time or effort. it's a nice way to go through smaller cities, but if you're not into the same music or you're on a time crunch, it can make you kind of stir crazy. also! i think i'm getting a little old for adventuring (SAY IT ISN'T SO). the best part of the roadtrips were the parts we got to spend in nice motel rooms and eating (DELICIOUS) food. i thought i'd enjoy things like the city museum in saint louis. nope. i hurt all over, it was really warm, i got kind of dizzy, and for the first time in my life, experienced a tinge of claustrophobia. NEVER AGAIN. an adult's playground sounds great in theory, but i don't know if i know that many adults who'd actually enjoy it. the outdoors part was kind of awesome, but that's about all i can say i genuinely enjoyed. even the ten-storey slide just made me kind of want to throw up.
OR LIKE IN UNIVERSAL STUDIOS, WHEN I HAD TO GO BACK TO THE HOTEL FOR A THREE HOUR NAP TO RECOVER FROM ONE RIDE ON THE DRAGON CHALLENGE BECAUSE I WAS TWO SECONDS AWAY FROM PUKING W T F BODY. this should be scaring me more than it is, but i am resigned, and i don't mind as much as i maybe should.
on the up side, the food was AMAZEBALLS, holy shit. i'd consider a move to the south just for the cuisine alone. so my trip recap will be mostly food-based, just the way i like it. so i've basically had ribs (wet AND dry) and OH MY GOD I DIDN'T KNOW RIBS COULD BE THIS GOOD?!?!?!?!? i don't even like ribs but i just wanted ribs at EVERY MEAL. not that i knew that right away; we had ted drew's frozen custard and thai food on the loop in saint louis the first night, and that was pretty delicious, and after a week of theme park food i was ready for all asian food, all the time. BUT THEN, the very next day, after a so-so breakfast of gooey butter coffee cake, we went to pappy's. OH MY GOD GUYS IF YOU'RE EVER IN SAINT LOUIS YOU NEED TO GO TO PAPPY'S BECAUSE THAT PLACE IS SO DELICIOUS J F C. those ribs were mindblowingly good, and THEY SERVE FRIED CORN ON THE COB. FRIED CORN ON THE COB. WHAT THE HELL. WHY ISN'T THAT DONE EVERYWHERE?!?!?!?! WHY ISN'T THAT THE ONLY WAY THEY SERVE CORN!??!?! oh my god i'm going to cry TEARS OF UNBRIDLED JOY just thinking about it.
i mean we drove around a couple of places, and then stopped at the zoo (where i adopted a new stuffed red panda toy, oh self, you don't need more of those, and had a whole fiasco coming up with a name but finally settled on imo/tiny), and briefly at the art museum (where i decided impressionism is now my second favourite kind of art after romanticism, but that i'm still pretty eh about art in general unless it's slashy fanart). then we had imo's pizza for dinner. BACON ON PIZZA. YOU CAN NEVER GO WRONG WITH BACON ON PIZZA. also they had provel cheese bites, which is apparently a saint louis cheese and oh man it wasn't, like, life-changing, but it was pretty dang good. i'd have more of that pizza.
the next morning, we were headed to memphis, but we stopped at saint louis baking co before we hit the road. i was really unimpressed, but our host family went on and on about how good it was, so i'm glad we gave it a go, if only so now i can say that saint louis pastries are kind of whatever. driving to memphis from saint louis was a treat, though, because we stopped at lambert's on the way for lunch (after passing through arkansas - we didn't stop at little rock, but the unintentional kradam in all that still makes me giggle). OUR FIRST TASTE OF SOUTHERN PORTIONS/HOSPITALITY. THEY THROW DINNER ROLLS AT YOU, GUYS. THEIR WEBSITE IS LITERALLY THROWEDROLLS.COM. HOW FUCKING AMAZING IS THAT. I CAN'T EVEN HANDLE IT. AND THEIR FRIED OKRA O M G. let me die it was SO DELICIOUS. and they had FRIED FROG'S LEGS and literally like two hours before that i was talking about how badly i wanted frog's legs and THERE IT WAS. not to mention we got free refills of okra, fried potatoes, green beans, creamed corn, and macaroni and tomatoes THE WHOLE MEAL. ALSO THE DINNER ROLLS, OBV, WHICH WERE ESPECIALLY WONDERFUL WHEN THROWN FROM THE FAR END OF THE ROOM WHILE PIPING HOT. i mean what is this magic!?!?
so we kept trucking along to memphis, and rested up in our motel room when we arrived till pretty late. it was almost 9 by the time we headed out, but we were still stuffed from lambert's, so we figured we'd walk around beale street - where the nightlife is supposed to be - and then come back for an early night. we wound up being ushered into a bar by the most friendly bouncer EVER (bouncer's not the right word but i don't know what else to call him) who promised us fantastic music, or, and i quote, "you can come back out and slap me silly, AND I'LL LIKE IT." luckily for him, the music was PHENOMENAL, as were the nachos, OMG, WHO WOULD HAVE THOUGHT PULLED PORK AND NACHOS WOULD BE SO FUCKING GREAT TOGETHER, CERTAINLY NOT I, BUT NOW I NEVER WANT TO HAVE NACHOS WITH ANYTHING ELSE. i will, because only the south creates magic like pulled pork nachos, but O M G I WILL BE WEEPING FOR PULLED PORK ON THE INSIDE WHILE I DO. i also got a local beer, which tasted just like every other beer i've ever had, but there you go. i've got to stop thinking i'm going to wake up one day and enjoy the taste of alcohol.
ANYWAY. the next day, we headed out to the peabody hotel for their famous duck march. WHO EVEN COMES UP WITH THESE THINGS? SERIOUSLY. BUT HOW AMAZING WAS IT TO SEE THOSE FIVE DUCKS PARADE DOWN A RED FREAKING CARPET INTO A FOUNTAIN IN THE MIDDLE OF A HOTEL LOBBY? DUCKS WHO STOPPED TO POSE FOR THE DOZENS OF CAMERAS THAT WERE ON THEM LIKE VETERAN CELEBRITIES, I MIGHT ADD. that was hysterical. and then we moved on to lunch at silky o'sullivans, where i'm pretty sure i had the best damn fish and chips of my life. who knew catfish could be so damn delicious? I SURE DIDN'T. why aren't ALL fish and chips made from catfish? WHO EVEN KNOWS. we also had some pretty delightful gumbo (though no gumbo i've tried beats the gumbo i've had in disneyland, THANK YOU SNACKBREAK) and dry rub ribs, which were pretty freaking great but paled in comparison to pappy's. also there was live music, AGAIN, and it was SO GOOD i should've given them a standing ovation. i would've, if i hadn't been so busy DEVOURING MY CATFISH.
after lunch we stopped by the rock and soul museum, which i absolutely loved, and could easily have spent three or four hours looking through if we hadn't been on a time crunch. we also saw the gibson guitar factory, and whoa was that place neat. and big. then we stopped by the national civil rights museum, and took a moment at the place where mlk was assassinated. i don't know all that much about history, but that gave me chills a little bit. it was pretty amazing. we also tried to make a stop at graceland, but the line was insane and i didn't really want to pay $30 to see his home or his planes or his cars, so!
on to nashville, tennessee. memphis was my favourite stop of the trip, just because my favourite cities are the ones that give you something a little different from the other cities without trying too hard to be different just because, and saint louis was way too normal, and nashville way too rowdy and out there, but the second we got here, it was so clear that memphis is down and out, and nashville is where the music's at now. it was a little depressing.
we stopped for dinner in a city about thirty minutes outside of nashville (because nashville was completely booked up what the heck nashville) called white house, where we found ourselves a diner called colorado grill. the drive there seemed a little sketch, but it was pretty packed when we arrived. and the food turned out to be pretty swell!!! who knew? the bread, though, that was AWESOME, and the home-made ranch was TO DIE FOR. the lemon pepper blackened trout i had as my entree was fine, but those two things were definitely the highlight. as was our server, who offered up, mcconaughey "all right, all right,"s all night in his thick southern twang and was a delight in every way.
we got up pretty late the next morning after, and headed into nashville to try germantown cafe, where i had grits that i ACTUALLY ENJOYED for the first time in my life!!!! sandy porridge is definitely the accurate description for it - i've checked with my life advisor stephoosaurus, and she agrees, so i know i'm right, no matter what anyone else thinks or doesn't think - and apparently when you pair sandy porridge with cheese gravy it becomes EARTH SHATTERINGLY GOOD?!?!?!? WHY HAS THE SOUTH BEEN HOARDING THIS RECIPE INSTEAD OF SHARING IT WITH ALL OF HUMANITY O M G. possibly because it would increase the number of fatal heart attacks across the world by a thousand percent, but UGH. SO GOOD.
we left the cafe groaning over how stuffed we were from breakfast, and then pulled into a farmer's market maybe fifteen minutes later and ended up getting double scoops of ice cream from jeni's splendid ice cream, and oh my gosh, IS IT SPLENDID. BEST ICE CREAM FLAVOURS I HAVE EVER TRIED, EVERYTHING WAS FREAKING AMAZING AND THEN I REALISED THEY HAVE A JOINT IN CHICAGO I AM GETTING A LITTLE JOYOUS MISTINESS IN MY EYES RIGHT NOW. why is chicago so perfect asiofjgjdsg
we spent the rest of the afternoon driving around to see the replica of the parthenon, vanderbilt university, music row, the country music hall of fame, ryman auditorium, rca studios b, the hermitage hall, and belle meade plantation, which was my favourite stop of all because we snuck inside and walked the grounds for free, without buying a ticket (oops) because nobody checked or stopped us, and it was gorgeous, and really interesting. we made a brief stop at the bluebird cafe as well, where taylor swift was apparently discovered, but there was a line around the block at 5.20, and the place didn't even open till 5.30, so i figured that was a lost cause. plus, after getting free music performances in memphis, i didn't really feel like having to pay a cover charge to hear someone play in nashville.
SO ON TO DINNER. omgggggggggggg. WHERE DO I EVEN BEGIN. we had dinner at monell's, which is a southern cooking restaurant served family style. we were at a long ass, gigantic table with 6 other people, and they brought out 10 appetisers (T E N) and 4 entrees and o m g by the end i was so stuffed i thought i was going to have to roll myself out of the restaurant. AND THE FOOD WAS DELICIOUS. THE FRIED CHICKEN, THE FRIED CATFISH, THE PULLED PORK, THE MEATLOAF (which i did not have because beef but that everyone else reassured me was AMAZING), the mac and cheese (which tasted like the crap you get from packet mix but which everyone else liked), the coleslaw (WHICH I PRACTICALLY GOUGED MYSELF ON), the mashed potatoes, the creamed corn, the black bean salad, the green beans, the turnip greens, the biscuits and gravy, THE CORNBREAD!!!!!!!!!, and the hush puppies, and the banana pudding and strawberry shortcake we got for dessert HOW IS IT HUMANLY POSSIBLE THAT ANY OF US SURVIVED THAT AMOUNT OF FOOD I WILL NEVER KNOW BUT WE DID AND IT WAS THE BEST EATING EXPERIENCE OF THE TRIP
especially when we walked out to pay at the cashier expecting the worst and then ONLY HAVING TO HAND OVER $23 EACH INCLUDING TAX AND TIPS i might cry again i love that place so much brb going to try to relocate to the south WHY AM I ALREADY LEAVING TOMORROW
(except scratch that because i'm so ready to be home)
tomorrow morning - or in 3.5 hours really - we're going to be waking up to have pancakes for breakfast to try to beat the crowds, and then we're going to drive back to evanston, and i'm going to have to start school again, but at least i'll have the memory of good southern cooking to get me through it!