And you had the NERVE to show us that!🤨

 

Pork chops....fried, grilled, shake n bake or dropped in a mud puddle. Can't beat them.
As far as restaurants one of the best places I have eaten at lately is Wade's in Spartanburg, S.C. Most efficient restaurant I have ever been to. The line of people waiting will be out the door but you will be seated in less than 10 minutes. The same is true for when you order. I was at a job site in Spartanburg and that is the place everyone recommended.
Don W

 

Mmm, 'mater pie! 😋 Unfortunately it tends to give me worser than terrible indigestion and acid reflux, and natcherly they took the only thing that worked for me off the market.

I'm not much on organ meat or offal but being of Scots descent I have tried haggis. Seasoned right it's actually tasty.

Don't like turnips raw or cooked and beets always taste like the dirt they were grown in. I also tend to pick mushrooms out of anything I can't get without them. I do like big fat Fordhook lima beans, though I won't eat navy/great northern beans. Got sick off a bad batch of those when I was 10, no thank you.

I got drunk sick in college once off sloe gin. I had been eating Doritos too and when it came back up... I will not eat Doritos to this day. Or drink flavored gin.

 

Wray-gun, did you eat hash while you were in Spartanburg?

No trip to Upstate is complete without a visit to The Beacon!

Castleberry Foods used to have vie-eener-size cans of "Georgia Hash" and I loved that greasy mess too. Haven't seen it in years.

 

If you ever get down around Rockett, just a wide spot on FM 813. try their CFS. Served on a platter with cream gravy and steak fries. Most folks have to take half of it home with them. Occasionally has a visit from Dwight Yokum.

 

Rocketraider

Gin makes me rich horny invisible and bullet proof. Never touch the stuff. Martinis are like *****, One's not enough and 3''s too many

 

My dad liked scrambled eggs and pork brains. That is one thing I could never even get past the name. Brains and eggs. Mama would make it for him about once a week. He'd eat it and tell me "eat some boy, it'll make ya smart!" I was about 14 when I finally told him I'd soon stay dumb as a brick.

He always wanted his eggs runny too, as in barely sunny side up. I do not want to see egg yolk running all over the plate. Steak I like medium. An egg has to be cooked!

 

My Dad is buried in Waxahachie (Near Rockett for those not from around here) and my youngest Daughter is getting married there in May so, I may get a chance to check that out. Though, I struggle with substituting mashed 'taters with fries. Just doesn't seem right.

 

Bob Hav you any use for this ? Think its club coupe but uncertain...just found it..not perfect but very nice....at least 30 years in th stash...know its off topic but entire thread veared sharply from my initial response......

 

Well that doesn't look appetizing at all, not even if it's slathered in BBQ sauce or cream gravy.

​​​​​​​

 

Philly pretzel for appetizer follwed by Philly cheese steak hoagie with provolone cheese at Gaetanos Willingboro, NJ
Washed down with a boost slush (south jersey thing)

 

One I forgot to add to my favorites list, CORNED BEEF !!!!! I love corned beef could eat that stuff till it comes out of my ears !!! I've made it many ways two favorite ways are the crock pot or pressure cooker (if your impatient pressure cooker) I have done it in beer , no beer, taters, no taters, cabbage, no cabbage. only problem is its a little pricey
and they shrink a lot when you cook them. the good thing is my picky healthy eater wife doesn't like it so I get it all !!!!! I could probably eat the whole thing at one sitting.

 

If you can control yourself try to leave 1/2 for a treat the next day. Let it cool overnight in the fridge, slice it across the grain. Rye bread, Swiss cheese, sauerkraut, thousand island dressing . Make it up like a grilled cheese in a cast iron skillet on the lowest fire you can get till both sides are golden and everything is melted together. Mmmm

 

Ahh yes the REUBEN, very tasty indeed. I have managed at times to stretch it in to 3-4 meals,If I do the taters or cabbage the 1st night as main course, day 2 sandwiches and
then day 3 shred it and mix it with fried shredded potatoes for a kind of homemade hash also found that in a pinch chopped up tater tots will due as a substitute for the hash brown/shredded potatoes, seems like kind of a unceremonious ending for such a wonderful piece of meat but waste not want not !!
P/S remember years ago when any cut of brisket was cheap because it was considered sub par or less desirable !! not no more, now its almost gourmet !!! hell even SPAM is getting pricey !!!

 

Cause it was (is) TOUGH and you had to cook it to death for it to be edible! I think that's why I believe Texas bbq is overrated. Let the 'cue war begin!😋

I like corned beef Reubens, local chain here makes a fine one on marbled rye. Their go-to side is homemade tater chips. It's telling that Ham's is the only place I'll eat Thousand Island or Ranch dressing (chips) bc I'm not a fan of either. TI was the only salad dressing my daddy would eat and got really tired of it growing up.

And obviously nothing on a Reuben is good for you! What did Jamesbo say? If it tastes good, spit it out, it'll kill ya!

 

My brisket cooking technique produces a good "bark", juicey and tender....always. With the way I season it, it is rare that anyone uses BBQ sauce so, I don't even make any. They can it ruin with their own store bought sauce if they just gots to have it. We froze some left overs from the 4th of July and ate some last night. It IS damned good.

 

Until recently I never knew barbecue is a high school varsity sport in Texas. State championships and everything. Watched Varsity BBQ on on one of the food channels and got tickled and felt bad at the same time for this kid. Apparently they only get about 5 hr to cook their brisket and this boy was howling that these people don't understand meat!

And yeah I was hongry when the show ended.

 

Not limited to high school. One of my co-workers was on the University of Houston BBQ team that traveled around for regional and national competitions.

 

Daily barbecue is claimed to be carcinigeous. Japan has the highest rate of stomach cancer, because of their habit of daily barbecuing. I get around that by converting a small oven into a smoker. Then, placing enough meat in there which covers almost a week's feed. I then fire up only one coal and let it burn out in the smoker:



The first cut-out was a mistake, since smoke likes to flow upwards. That's why when your crib catches fire, they tell you to hit the floor. For the second hole, I used a common tool used for cutting a sheetmetal sink for accomodating a kitchen faucet:



When I then cook the meat on a gas grill, the fat melts out onto the lava stones, giving the meat even more BBQ flavor. I also converted the gas grill itself into a type of smoker. I hammered the rear ventilation shut and also cut a hole, using the same device to alter the above-pictured oven. I inteded on locating the exhaust hole just above the flame level, so that the flame doesen't go out, simultaneously keeping the hole below the level of the rocks, in order to snuff out any fire resulting from dripping fat absorbed by the rocks. It doesen't work, since the rocks get enough oxygen fed, despite. It doesen't matter, since in the meantime I've learned to cook the meat with the flame turned off:





I start out by turning each stone over, so that the fat left over from the previous session gets burned off first. I then set the meat onto the grill and let it smoulder on the lowest flame possible. As soon as it looks like it'll catch fire, I then set the meat onto the other half where the flame's shut off and then turn up the flame on the business side, so that it raises the operating temperature high enough to where the meat will cook solely from the heat absorbed by the lava stones. Once the desired temperature is achieved, I then shut off the gas and then move the meat onto the grill and wait until the temperature lowers. I then repeat this procedure, after having turned over the meat and adding sauce or spices Be thankful that the keyboard wasn't white How are you preparing it? I have a steamer which pretty much preserves the taste of whatever I load into it. I break up the cauliflower and then steam it half raw, half done. I'll either add salt and white pepper onto it and then bake it cheese-covered in the oven or I'll add oil, vinegar, garlic powder and white pepper to it and have it as a salad

 

In action, pedal to the metal full-blast. The temperature guage says it's time to lay the load onto the grille and let it get done with the gas turned off



The grill turned up full-blast. This is my favorite cut of chicken. I don't care much for the breast and drumsticks. I divided an entire corn-fed chicken into the following parts: the back with wings pictured, drumsticks, outter breast with skin and the cavity which will be marinated and steamed in a cooking bag:



Here it is painted up and ready for the final round. The grill was originally just a plain gas grill with a piece of ventilated sheetmetal mounted between the burner and grill. I added the bottom separating grill over the burner, canibalized from another scrapped grill. I then covered it with lava stones and trimmed down a roof rack, in order to get the spacers for the grill mesh.
Somebody scrapped this almost brand new (at the time) grill, instead of repairing it. There wasn't much to repair, to begin with:

 

Ah, a fellow man of culture I see! The only redeeming quality of this state is the food!

 

P i z z a

 

Hands down the best pizzas I have ever eaten were made @ Edwardo's in Chicago. The best pizza @ Edwardo's, IMO is the Deep Dish Pesto. Holy fart knockers that is a Pizza. And, yes I have eaten @ Uno's many times.

 

Time to weigh in again,
As a born and raised suburban Chicagoan,I have to say its hard to get a bad pizza in Chicago !! some are different sauce, preparation etc...
but I don't think I have ever had a bad pizza in the Chicago area, that being said I have a theory, some people from the Brooklyn area say it's the water the dough is made with that makes their pizza special (I wont get involved in the Chicago vs New York pizza war , I like them both ) I believe Chicago pizza is great ( at least the sausage pizza) because of the quality of the sausage Chicagoan's love their sausage and don't tolerate
bad sausage ! the pizza joints know this and always use quality sausage and plenty of it dont get skimpy on the sausage and it better be good nugget size !!!
I have had pizza all over the Chicago area I have had Geno's, Uno's,Lou Malnatti's Giordanno's you name it, I do love the pan pizza but love the regular crust pizza as much,
Years ago I was at Chicago Children's Hospital where my 6 year old daughter had surgery, the waiting room nurse came out and said why dont you go grab a bite to eat Margaret will be in recovery for a while you cant see her for a while by the time you come back she will be ready to see you, There is a pizza place about a 1/2 block from here that the staff likes why dont you give it a try its walking distance, little hole in the wall mom and pop place, decided to try for the first time pizza with spinach on it OMG, OMG some of the best pie I ever tasted !! of course I cant remember the name of the place and I never got the chance to go back but Ill never forget that pie. Like many other cities there are literally 1000's
of mom and pop pizza joints in Chicago and I think probably 98% put out a good pie.
Remember though in Chicago you dont put ketchup on a hot dog and if you ask for more pizza it's another piece not a slice !! and it will be cut in squares not triangles (hence piece not slice) Ill be stopping in Chicago on the way to WI. for my annual fishing trip , The brother-in-laws know to have that pizza waiting when I get there !! p/s I have managed to find some good pie here in AZ. Spinato's and we now have Lou Malnatti's. Was it Edwardo's on Dearborn av ???

 

I like a deep dish Chi-style pizza but the only place here that made it closed when the owners wanted to retire. There are several Italian-owned jernts that serve up a good pie though. Pizza Hut is, quite simply, not fit to eat, and Domino, Little Caesar and Papa John ain't much better. Desperation pizza for the unwashed masses.

I'm generally adventurous trying new food, but tomato wedges and cucumber on a hot dog is still weird to me- maybe because I don't much like a raw tomato to begin with. Heat em up and I'll happily eat 'maters. Cucumbers are best sliced thin and thrown into a bowl of vinegar with thinly sliced spring onions and fresh coarse-ground black pepper. That and a baloney sammitch makes a good summer lunch. Got to have Heinz or preferably Sauer's mustard on the sammitch, though any GOOD mustard will do.

 

I like my chicken pie for dessert

 

Solly - Yes, on Dearborn. But I've also eaten at two others. The one in Oak Park and they used to have an Edwardo's in Wauwatosa, WI (Milwaukee) but they closed it. There are many good pizza places, I only mentioned what I thought was the best pizza pie in Chitown. There used to be a great really old place (not sure it's still there) which I can't recall the name of which was 3-4 blocks from Loyola. A really, really small old place on a tiny little corner.

Rocket - I'm w/ you on the cucumbers. I only like them thinly sliced and in some type of vinegar marinade.

The best hot dogs for me were the ones sold by the street vendors outside Wrigley field - original Vienna Red Hots all the way. And, yes - ketchup never touches a hot dog.

 

I'd like to try one of those Chicago red hots but doubtful they'd ever show up here. Maybe Kroger but the closest Kroger is 70 miles away.

A decent red hot has gotten tough to find around here. By "red hot" I mean an oversized RED hot dog, spicier than a regular hot dog, in a casing that snaps when you bite into it. Star's Foods in Burlington NC made the best ones but not one of the local grocers has them anymore. Carolina Prides are good but not Star's. T.O. Williams Virginia Sausage is pretty good but again not Star's. And those Roger Wood Lumberjack Red Hots leave a LOT to be desired. Unspiced to point of being tasteless and no "snap" when you bite it.

Gold standard for plain old hot dogs here is and will always be Jesse Jones Southern Style Hotdogs. Skinny red dog. Curtis and Frosty Morn are also go-tos. Served on a toasted bun with yellow mustard, chopped onion and hot dog chili sauce (it's different from.a regular chili). Coleslaw if you like it, most commercially prepared brands are too sweet for my taste.

 

Dug around a bit on the web and found that Star's no longer makes red hots or any sausages for that matter, concentrating instead on deli salads and spreads. Pfft. More's the loss. Their red hots were good eatin' , though undoubtedly not good for you.

 

You might try Earl Campbell's Hot Links....if they have them around your neck of the woods. Nice snap when you bite into them and they have a little "bite" to them. On the grill every time we cook hamburgers and hotdogs.

 

Never seen those but apparently WalMart has them. We have a WM grocery only store here and I need to pick up a gift card anyhow, so when I run into town tonight I'll look. Long as I don't have to go to the Supercenter I can deal with WalMart.

 

Yeah...I drive by our Walmart SC every damned day. Bet I don't go in that sucker more than two - three times a year. But, at the lake house, it s either Walmart or an OLD Albertsons. I call it the old folks store.

On a side note, ever wonder if people drive like they navigate store carts?

 

Oh hell yes they do! The ones on the electric scooters are the worst! One reason I like to do my grocery shopping before 9am or after 9pm if I can. Yah, you have to steer around the stockers, but beats having to navigate around everybody else. These covid one-way aisles don't help...

 

Prolly the best pizza I can remember was a small place in Scottsdale run by a couple from Colombia. The pizza had four kinds of sausage, at least one of which was a Colombian sausage. Forget the Italian style pizzas, this was awesome.

 

I'd eat the squirrels, as long as they're fresh

 

I just pop 'em with the .22 and let 'em fall where they may. Buzzard's gotta eat too.

I liked squirrel hunting as a kid, and Mama would make squirrel gravy and biscuits. By time I was a teenager most squirrels had wolf worms which made the meat unfit to eat. So now I just pop 'em.

I had one raiding my bird feeders that looked for all the world like Scrat in the Ice Age movies. I finally got him 2 weeks ago. Buzzard would have gone hungry on that scrawny tree rat.

 

When I was young I used to plink tree rats w/ a .22 and make a batch of Mulligan Stew w/ the little buggers. Remaining w/ the theme of "things you love to eat..." with the added kill 'em tossed in, aside from the numerous critters I used to hunt, I'd have to say most likely the tastiest critters were and still remain mourning dove. (1) I love to hunt 'em - sporting good time with a small gauge shotgun (.410 or .200); and, (2) Delicious. We'd sit around the edges of watering holes in sunflower fields & drop 'em as they came in for some water. In a couple hours we'd have ~20-25 each. They're a snap to clean, wrap 'em w/ a slice of bacon & toss them in the oven.

 

If anyone comes to Chicago, and wants pizza some personal recommendations are

Deep Dish: Pequods in Morton Grove
Regular Thin: Vito and Nick's at 84th and Pulaski.

Both amazing

 

Yumm. Down here it's white wing. One breast is large enough to slice in two with a slice of jalapeno and purple onion wrapped with a piece
of bacon, quick grilled over charcoal. The best. Where's that drool icon?