Food

Where The Locals Eat

Day 27 of our 2018 Jumbo Road Trip.

Minden, LA to Hammond, LA. Last night’s hotel clerk recommendation for a good breakfast where the locals eat was to drive just up the street a bit and go to Hamburger Happiness and Southern Maid Doughnuts. We were worried a bit as there was only one other vehicle in the lot when we pulled in.

The one guy sitting by himself didn’t seem too friendly, but the nice old lady at the counter where we placed and paid for our order was very pleasant. I think it was literally a mom and pop shop because I could see an old man through the saloon doors to the kitchen.

Soon the rest of the locals started arriving one by one and they greeted each other by name. The same lady brought our food to us pipping hot and it was delicious. The portions were correct and the price was right. We could hear the locals in background discussing the weather and the size of farm tractors. When we finished up and stepped outside I knew I needed to snap a picture. Take a guess, which one of these things is not like the other.

26,000 Potatoes

Day 26 of our 2018 Jumbo Road Trip.

Gainesville, TX to Minden, LA. We walked a half mile into downtown Gainesville for breakfast on the recommendation of the clerk who checked us in last night. We ate at a place called Fried Pie Co. & Restaurant. Because we were at a place with Fried Pies in their name, we both opted to try one for breakfast and both our reviews of this dish was, “Interesting, not bad, but I bet the fruit pies are better.”

For lunch we didn’t need a recommendation because we knew just where we were eating because we had eaten there 4 years ago. I had even planned our return route through the city of Paris, TX so we could get a hamburger and fries at Burgerland. The 65′ Eiffel Tower replica with a giant red cowboy hat on top was a bonus. The hamburgers are of course awesome, but the fries don’t really take second billing here, they are hand cut, salted just right and a single order consists of about 26,000 potatoes. Not only is the their food fantastic, it is easy on the wallet too. Two burgers, a small order of fries and a large drink came to $14.75.

We did manage to grab a couple of geocaches before lunch in Paris and had plans for more after, along a 10 mile long walking/biking path, cheekily called Trail de Paris, but one look at the sky and another at the weather radar made us just hop in the car and head east as fast as the speed limit would allow.

About ten miles from arriving at tonight’s hotel the Lady Bug ticked over 26,000 miles.

The above photo came from Burgerland’s Facebook page, the ones below are mine.

New Year’s Day Trifecta

I ate breakfast for all three meals of the day. Two at home and one out. One of the at home meals was bought on the way home from work on New Year’s Eve.

7:30 AM – 1 Cranberry Pecan Muffin & 1/2 Banana.

11:30 AM – Fried egg on top of a hash made from sweet potatoes, Gala apples and maple flavored breakfast sausage.

5:30 PM – Pecan pancakes & a side of bacon at Cracker Barrel.

Look! A Big Turkey!

We did a little geocaching this morning.

We have pretty much cleaned out everything in our local area where we can go to a park, state or local, and get in a nice walk while having the opportunity to find several caches while we are at it. Last night I expanded the search area just a bit, we didn’t want to drive more than an hour one way and I found a place west of Columbia and near Lake Murray called Saluda Shoals Park that fit the bill.

We found 9 of the 10 we searched for. The only one we didn’t was a micro in the woods, but it was one of those decoy caches. The owner hides a cache and then hides 6 to 10 decoys that look like actual caches, but when you open them up instead of a log to sign there is some that says “This is not the cache.” We don’t really like this kind of hide, one reason is because this is third one we’ve attempted and are 0 for 3. The other, is more philosophical, if you’ve got this big ol’ place where no one will stumble on your cache why do you have to hide that sucker so well?

Walking 5.6 miles around in the woods can make a person hungry. For lunch Donna mentioned that she’d like a hamburger and the first place I thought of was Pawley’s Front Porch in the Five Points area of Columbia it’s only 12 miles away. Trouble is, it probably would be a suicide mission because the University of South Carolina was playing football today only a couple miles away from there. I thought it would be smart to avoid going to Five Points, but Donna talked me into it saying, that if it got crowded as we got close we could turn around and find another place to eat.

Well, as it turns out, arriving at Pawley’s was a piece of cake at 1:30 and had I come in the right way I could have parked right next to the side door. Probably because 80,000 Gamecock fans had been in their seats at Williams-Brice Stadium for at least a half an hour as kickoff time was at 1:00PM.

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gPJbun3kJYY

Oh, and that giant inflatable turkey we saw on the drive home turned out to be Cocky. Honest mistake for the non fan considering the season and all.

Mmmmm, Pizza

There is a new pizza place in town and we were excited to eat there, but our excitement was tempered some after our first visit.

We were pulling back into Aiken after our trip the Florida a couple weeks ago when I noticed that the long rumored wood fired pizza place was actually open. We took a sharp left turn into the parking lot. The place was sparsely, but tastefully, filled in with 5 booths along the window and 6 tables between the booths and the open kitchen. We stood in front of the entry area where the cash register was and waited to be seated. The girl behind the counter motioned us forward and explained we ordered there, paid, and then the food was brought to you. You want a drink? “Chose from these fine beverages,” as she sweeps her hand, Price Is Right style, across an array of Coca-cola products. I select a Coke Zero and Donna declines any, and asks for water. We are handed styrofoam cups and instructed where to get ice. It was right over along the side where you also get your silverware.

The pizza was great and worth the hassle. Sort of.

Turns out they had just opened their doors for a soft opening a mere 4 days before. Hopefully some of the rough edges of their service would get smoothed out as they get more experienced.

Well, we wanted pizza tonight, but weren’t real confident that they had worked out all the kinks, so I was sent over to pick up a pie to go. They did have a working soda fountain machine, so you get a wider selection of soft drinks and you don’t have to scoop ice out of a metal pitcher with a red solo cup. There are now four young girls working there instead of one, but the whole enter, stand around near the door while looking at the menu before ordering and shuffling off to a table thing still exists.

Unfortunately the greatness of a wood-fired oven baked pizza when placed in a cardboard box and driven 1.7 miles is severely diminished. Fortunately, it is still better than the frozen take home or chain delivered version. Barely.

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Pop Tarts

My morning snack was always a rotating series of cookies until a month or so ago when I rediscovered a childhood favorite – Pop Tarts. All thanks to a random coupon in the Sunday paper.

My favorite then was always the Frosted Brown Sugar Cinnamon, but now I like the Blueberry or Strawberry best. I can still dig the Brown Sugar Cinnamon ones, but they taste the best when hot and I have to walk all the way back up to the front of the Valve Store(C) to get to a toaster or one of those new fangled microwave machines and I’m all about lazy.

They come 2 pastries inside each foil wrapped pack, so naturally the nutritional information on the website lists the serving size as 1 pastry. Right, like you are just going to eat just one. These figures are for 2 tarts:

  Calories Cal from Fat Total Fat Sat Fat Chol Sodium Carbs Fiber Sugars Protein
Pop Tart 420 120 14 4 0 340 68 1 30 4

Look at those calorie and fat counts, no wonder they taste so good.

The above is a photo of a Pop Tart at 450 magnification from Caren Alpert via io9. Click on it to make it bigger!

Popcorn

Donna always had to have popcorn when we went to the movies, even if it was normally crappy and way over priced, and most times on weekends when we watched a DVD too. Unfortunately she can’t eat popcorn anymore because of the UC, so we don’t keep it in the house anymore. Every once in a while she would offer to buy some just for me because she felt I was being deprived. But I’m not a real popcorn lover. I don’t have to have any to enjoy a movie. I don’t dislike it and would never turn it down when offered at the movies or at home, but haven’t missed it all.

Until this morning. I was up front of the plant to go with Donna for our morning break walk and I could smell that someone in the cafeteria had just popped some. The lure of the Siren’s song was too great. After the walk, on my way back to my cube, I broke down and bought some microwave popcorn. I ate about a third of the bag before I couldn’t eat anymore, so I placed the bag on the conference room table as the 10:30 NCMR meeting was just starting.

Next time you pop up a bag of Pop Secret Movie Butter microwave popcorn take a peek at the “Nutritional Facts.” They are broken down into two separate type of servings, 1 Cup Popped and 2 Tbsp Unpopped. Raise your hand if you eat unpopped popcorn.

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