I-10 Tastiness

Well, I'm back in Virginia, but not without a three-day gastrointestinal journey through the South. My route, TX-71 to I-10 to I-95, was an exhausting 1600-mile ride, but it was the tasty gems along the way that made it memorable.

Sidebar: thanks to three people for their great suggestions for the route: MJ, SO, KG. Fantastic picks!

We got to see several cities I had never been to before on the route: Houston, Baton Rouge, Mobile and Jacksonville. Also went through some more familiar places, including a hilarious interlude at South of the Border, the biggest tourist trap in the world (just 'cuz), and any east coast must -- a stop for vinegar-based NC BBQ. Oh how I've missed this delicacy in my time in Texas.

I got to sample three of the suggested eateries along the way: The Chimes, an off-campus LSU haunt where I tried the crawfish etouffe, and across Baton Rouge, Coffee Call, a great 24-hour coffeeshop with stellar beignets, hidden in a strip mall. Finally, in Jacksonville, I dove into a fried chicken dinner with all-you-can-eat sides for $8.46 at Beach Road Chicken Dinners. It was quite the culinary marathon.


The Chimes was a good place to relax and enjoy some Louisiana fare in a laidback college town environment. While I slaughtered the pronunciation of etouffe and roumelade and other French words, I made up for it with my prowess in taking down Coffee Call's beignet fingers 15 minutes later. My "small" order of beignets (about $3) was a large enough serving to feed me breakfast for three days. I ate the majority in one sitting though: I'm just that gross (or awesome, depending on the judge).

Night two brought me to the granddaddy of all southern feasts: Beach Road Chicken Dinners. I chowed down on perfectly crispy fried chicken and an endless supply of buttery biscuits, hush puppies, fries, mashed potatoes, gravy, cole slaw and cream peas. All was sloshed down with an endless stream of sweet tea. All this for under $10. Unreal. The meal was quite the spectacle. We ordered drinks, my dad excused himself to wash his hands, and upon his return our entire table was filled with family style side dishes and a massive centerpiece of fried chicken. Doesn't get much better than that!

A preview of what Southern Living called the Best Fried Chicken in the South in 1997 and #1 in Jacksonville Magazine:


Here is where I found what may be the tastiest equation discovered in 2008:

French fries + mashed potatoes + gravy = Insanely awesome (translated: fries dipped in mashed potatoes with gravy could be the world's best kept food secret)

Since every great meal should end with dessert, I leave you with a taste (sorry this isn't Taste-o-vision) of Coffee Call's beignet fingers...

Beach Road Chicken Dinners pictures courtesy of the Travelin Man's Photostream on Flickr
Coffee Call picture also from Flickr

Lazy Wednesday

So instead of doing the piles of work I have to do today, I've decided it's time to map my route back to the V-A for my December move.

I know "Google maps is the best" but I prefer MapQuest, and from what I hear, it's a good one too.

Did you know MapQuest had a new feature, the draggable route? I sure didn't. So if you don't like the route it selected, now you can grab and drag the recommended route on the map to incorporate cities, towns, or other sites without having to re-enter all your data. Don't want to drive the interstate and prefer to drive along the coast? Now you can change your route in seconds. Awesome! I've wanted this feature for so long and now it's finally here.


Anyway, I'm probably asking the wrong audience, but does anyone have any routes to the East Coast that are tried, true, and loved? All the routes will end up in the 1400-1700 miles range it seems like, and I'm planning to take 3 days for the drive.

Last time, from Richmond to Austin, we took I-95 South from Richmond to I-85 around Petersburg, cut down to Atlanta, where we saw a Braves game and spent the night. Day 2 we took I-20 west to Vicksburg, Mississippi and looked around at Civil War stuff, put my feet in the Mississippi River (nerdy right?), and we spent the night somewhere in Louisiana. Day 3 we continued westward to Austin via I-20 for a bit and then took mostly back roads through east Texas until we got to I-35.

Anyway, the stops were decent on I-85 (plenty of good BBQ haunts in NC to choose from), but I-20 seemed like the dullest, most uneventful stretch of highway I've ever driven. Alabama's section of the interstate was laden with construction zones and speed limits in the 30s and 40s. So frustrating.

So for the ride back I'm loosely debating one of two routes (though I'm open to other suggestions and variations of those below):

• Texas - Arkansas - Tennessee - Virginia. This route is the fastest, but how much does that matter to save two hours on a three-day trip? I'm unsure. This route takes I-35 to Dallas, then winds through a long stretches of Arkansas and Tennessee before reaching the Old Dominion. It's a 23 hour, 15 minute ride covering 1500 miles. (Compared to my Richmond to Austin trip in 2007, which was 23 1/2 hours, but about 15 miles shorter -- wowww.)
  
  
• Texas - Louisiana - Mississippi - Alabama - Florida - Georgia - South Carolina - North Carolina - Virginia. This 25-hour route crosses through nine states and would essentially use I-10 East from Houston to Jacksonville and then 95 North, back to Virginia. It would cover 1640 miles.

Any thoughts? Are Little Rock, Memphis, Nashville, and Knoxville better for stops or Baton Rouge, Biloxi, Tallahassee, Jacksonville, (and a bunch of NC/SC/GA places I've been to before)? Anyone?

I am also taking any "must stop" suggestions for food for anywhere in the southeastern quadrant of the continental U.S. Particularly anything you'd see on Diners, Drive-ins and Dives. Yumtastic.

PS, if you don't watch that delicious show on The Food Network, I recommend you get on that. Now.

Disgustingly Good Eats

What do you do when the gastronomic world of chicken fried steak with gravy, chili cheese fries, and Oreo brownie sundaes aren't unhealthy enough?

You throw a bacon cheeseburger on a Krispy Kreme glazed donut instead of a bun! Check out the insanity!


When on a friend's recently Dugg'd pages list, I found this incredible delicacy. Apparently it was served in Google's New York office in celebration of the cafeteria's chef's birthday. On my next birthday I'll have to remember to serve up artery-clogging goodness to my family, friends, and peers.

Now seems a good as time as ever to pronounce my love for adventures to find outstanding(ly bad for me) food. A few months ago, one of my friends came up with the brilliant idea to go on a Texas BBQ-themed road trip. We drove down 183 for about 30 miles or so and did a spur of the moment tour of the towns of Lockhart and Luling, Texas. In Lockhart we sampled the 'cue of Smitty's (my favorite of the trip) and Kreutz, and made a quick walk-through at Black's Barbecue in order to briefly relax our stomachs. In Luling we saw a ton of campaigning for the town's Watermelon Thump Queen, the pinnacle award at the town's annual watermelon festival. But we also took a whack at that town's best BBQ joint -- The City Market. In filling our bellies to our content, we took a stab 3 of what Texas Monthly named the top 5 BBQ joints in Texas for 2008.

Yes, I have a hankering for more trips like this in the future. It's been a dream for the past few years to sometime make it to the North Carolina State Fair where I've heard legends about the deliciously bad-for-you delicacies: fried Twinkies, fried Snickers bars, and fried who knows what else. All of them will one day be mine! Stay tuned to my post in 2015 when I finally get to fulfill my dream! In the meantime I'll lick my lips and gaze at the holy grail:


Special thanks to Channel M for her tantalizing write-up of the NC State Fair last year (and source of above picture). I can't wait to have my heavenly deep-fried experience as well as the chance to see pig racin' for myself!