As America Eats, So Does Fat Guy

[Varmint]

I might also add that if you were to look at the average size of the patrons at Golden Corral (excepting the Sunday, after church crowd), Steven would be referred to as "Svelte Guy."

[davidthomas8779]

How about Bojangel's Chicken and/or Cracker Barrel?

Funny you're there, we were there 3 yrs ago, on the way from Charlotte to Jamestown- our destination was FurnitureLand, a 100,000 sqft furniture store.

Actually, it is more than ONE MILLION square feet. How do I know this? I'm married to the leading authority! The book we're here promoting is Ellen's Shopping the North Carolina Furniture Outlets.

I know that this isn't really food-related, but is Ellen as OCD about this book as you are about food? Further, is there food information in the book?

Before I shell out the big $12 (or whatever other reasonable price it is), I'd like to know what I'm getting.

[whosrbud]

as a transplanted yankee living here in the heart of gastronomic darkness,

i've been fascinated by your observations of standard southern fare

most eat, but wouldn't admit to. eating at and observing others at a

Golden Corral is a Fellini-esque experience which should not be missed.

i'd see people emerge from one of the many stations with a plate piled

8" high with fried chicken and think--there's no way anybody could eat

all that--until 20 minutes later the mountain had been reduced to clean-picked

carcasses. moreover, the poulletholic had already moved on to the roast beef

carving station in preparation for his second course. and for $5.99!

your comments on eating at Chik-Fil-A were absolutely spot-on.

back in my salad days, i produced several commercials for Chik-Fil-A (pre video,

pre TV) and the experience equalled or surpassed any measure of weirdness

imaginable. mind you, this was in the early '70's so it was still permissible to

discriminate in hiring policies. if you weren't a member of a fairly large religion

which starts with "C"...you needn't apply. which also helped explain why all

Chik-Fil-A's were closed on Sunday. it was always weird to go into a mall's

restaurant area on Sunday and see everything lit up but the Chik-Fil-A.

as the very last word in good taste, the owners-always dressed in white from

head to toe, (Colonel Sanders wannabes perhaps?) as a salute to in house

marketing, they had purchased a fleet of all-white Lincoln Continentals...each of

which had a giant six-foot tall plastic chicken affixed to the roof. very subtle.

that not withstanding, it was impossible to deny how good their sandwiches were.

to this day i still don't know how they were able to keep the breasts sooo moist.

along with Bojangles biscuits and well made cheese grits, it was one of the few

food items i really missed when i returned to the northlands.

speaking of book signings(!) i've been trying to remember what bookstores there

are in the Hickory/Highpoint area. i couldn't come up with any and was wondering

if your travels will extend to the charlotte area...(Borderbooks, Barnes & Noble, Little

Professor) that we admirers of Mrs. Fat Guy might purchase an autographed copy?

as usual, thank you for your delightful and delectable writings--wherever you may

happen to be.

-michael

[Fat Guy]

Steven- a scientific question.  Given the variation from your normal eating habits, have you found that in your quest for Americana that you are losing or gaining poundage?

I don't have normal eating habits!

But I tend to remain pretty stable, plus or minus a few pounds based mostly I think on water retention due to salt intake.

[Fat Guy]

How about Bojangel's Chicken and/or Cracker Barrel?

Funny you're there, we were there 3 yrs ago, on the way from Charlotte to Jamestown- our destination was FurnitureLand, a 100,000 sqft furniture store.

Actually, it is more than ONE MILLION square feet. How do I know this? I'm married to the leading authority! The book we're here promoting is Ellen's Shopping the North Carolina Furniture Outlets.

I know that this isn't really food-related, but is Ellen as OCD about this book as you are about food? Further, is there food information in the book?

Before I shell out the big $12 (or whatever other reasonable price it is), I'd like to know what I'm getting.

It's $10.50 if you order from Amazon. Combine it with other stuff to get up over $25 and you can get the free-shipping deal. And yes, it's quite obsessive and detail-oriented and even contains a section on barbecue in and around High Point (Hickory is another story -- there's no serious barbecue culture in that part of the state).

[Fat Guy]

speaking of book signings(!) i've been trying to remember what bookstores there

are in the Hickory/Highpoint area.  i couldn't come up with any and was wondering

if your travels will extend to the charlotte area...(Borderbooks, Barnes & Noble, Little

Professor) that we admirers of Mrs. Fat Guy might purchase an autographed copy?

There's a Barnes & Noble in High Point, in the same plaza with the Oak Hollow Mall -- she just did a signing there, and she left behind a bunch of autographed copies so they're easy to come by there. It's a really nice, well-managed store, and the manager there told me the one in Hickory is even more extensive -- there will be signed copies available at the Hickory store beginning this weekend. There are also Borders and Waldenbooks in both towns I believe -- I know there's a Borders near here but I don't know if it's technically in High Point or Greensboro. She'll also be signing books at the Hickory Heritage Furnishings Festival in the Catawba Furniture Mall on Saturday. There won't be any signing in Charlotte, but I think she's scheduled to do an evening news spot with a reporter at a Charlotte TV station on Friday, and I think one in Gastonia as well (that's near Charlotte, right?). I'll let you know when we have the full schedule -- there's a lot of improvising going on because there has been a lot more media attention than we'd anticipated.

Thanks for your great Chick-fil-A tales!

[whosrbud]

.

It would be possible for me to eat well here, in theory, if I lived here -- not that the people who live here seem to do that very much. Of course, there are supermarkets and farmers markets -- really nice ones.

you note that there are "supermarkets and farmers markets--really nice ones"

and admittedly, things are getting a lot better than when i relocated to the

area some 20 years ago. grocery shopping--especially looking for high-end

or imported foods was a sometimes hysterical adventure in frustration.

i won't divulge the name of the supermarket chain but when i did my first

major shopping, i started down the long row of meat. first came pork and

there was plenty of that...then came chicken and i can't remember seeing

so much chicken in one store...next was beef, not a huge selection--especially

in the loin area--but serviceable...the came...BACON?...HOT DOGS? BOLOGNA?...

END OF AISLE! whaaa? where was the lamb? no veal? no salumi?

i pressed the button to speak to a meatcutter in the back. he turned off the

bandsaw and came over to where i was standing. this was our conversation:

"May I help you?"

"Yes, thanks, I can't seem to find any lamb"

"Well, we don't have any."

"How about veal...do you have any veal?"

"Nope, No veal."

"Why don't you have any lamb or veal in the store?"

"Oh, those are foreign meats. We'd never be able to

sell anything foreign like that"!

hmmm...this was a lot worse than i thought. what else

was i not going to find? among the many...Vernor's Ginger

Ale, Dunkin' Donuts, Dr. Brown's Cream Soda, any fish

that swam north of the Outer Banks, Squirt, bagels,

lettuce other than iceburg, peppers other than green bell,

and virtually anything ethnic. this was starting to get

pretty dismal.

my folks came to visit us in our little southern bungalow

and i wanted to put on the dog a little for them. i had

already ruled out grits, greens, livermush, and hog jowls.

it finally worked out to be a relatively safe mom&pop meal--

featuring Tournedos Rossini for the entree. it took consi-

derable effort to convince the butcher that 'tournedos' were

not those giant killer storms that devoured trailer parks in

a single gulp, and at least we had four nice looking steaks

if nothing else worked out. next stop, fois gras.

naturally they didn't have any fois gras--nor had anyone in the

store every heard of it. no problem, i'll just check the yellow

pages for gourmet shops. someone is bound to carry some.

a thorough search produced nothing. i asked at work and

they all looked at me as if i had ordered anaconda.

the dinner was in two days and i was getting nowhere in my search.

i rechecked the yellow pages and found a listing for "The Gourmette

Shoppe"(!) i guess somehow they missed putting "Ye Olde" in front

of it.

"Hello, Gourmette Shoppe".

"Do you by chance carry fois gras?"

"Sure do."

"Excellent. You were my last hope."

"How much you going to need? I've got the 5 pound and the 10 pound"

jeeze. 5 pound of fois gras...how much is that going to set me back?

"I'll...I guess...I'll take the five pound".

"OK...5 pounds it is. Did you want the wine...or cheddar?"

dumfounded and not believing my ears, i said,

"Wine or cheddar? I've never heard of such a thing. Are you sure?"

"Sure I'm sure...you wanted a cheeseball, right?"

_______________________________________

sorry for spinning such lengthy yarns but yes, you could indeed eat

very well here these days. and if not well, at the very least, a lot!

thanks for the info about the bookstores. consider another one sold.

-michael

[Fat Guy]

Really enjoying your posts, Michael.

Monday, August 4, Lunch

Biscuit Factory

Barbecue is the most prevalent of the indigenous Southern fast-food concepts, but there are also quite a few biscuit-oriented restaurants dotting the landscape. Some, like Biscuitville, are chains. The Biscuit Factory is, I believe, a single unit operation, though it wasn't possible to get reliable information out of the person at the counter, who spoke in a dialect I could neither identify nor comprehend (I have no problem with thick Southern accents, but this must have been some offbeat hill-country stuff). It's amazingly popular -- from opening until closing, there's a line to get a space in the parking lot, then a line to get your food at the counter, and then competition for tables. A BLT biscuit is two bucks and it's a full meal. The biscuit is the size of a small wheel of brie and they totally load it up with crispy bacon. In keeping with the M.O. of most of these biscuit places, it's only open for breakfast and lunch. They also make nice cheeseburgers for about $3, which are served on normal burger buns. They're real burgers, medium-thick, cooked to order on a griddle.

Monday, August 4, Dinner

M. Stephens

This is one of two "French" (as the CVB brochure classifies them) restaurants in High Point, where French is a code word for upscale-fine-dining (there is not actually anything on the menu that could be considered French; the restaurant serves the generally accepted New South spin on New American cuisine). The other is called J. Basul Noble's, where we ate last time we were in town, and which is quite good. Stephen's opened since the last time we were here so we had to check it out for the purposes of the book, so this meal doesn't really fit into my promised eating plan. I plan to compensate with that today by visiting four barbecue places with Varmint.

[fresh_a]

Quote: "If you're living under a rock, or in France" ???!!???

[mcdowell]

FG - I think you should hit the Waffle House and do a round-up taste test of all the hashbrown permutations, preferably at 3am (bring your own thermos of coffee).

[tryska]

Yes - there should be a waffle house redux!

scattered, smothered and covered!

anyways - sorry ofr barging in one your little journal - but i was wodnering - how is your tummy handling all this american food?

after years of not eatign liek an american, due to a schedule change, i found myself eating fast food until i acclimated. I had never been sicker in my life - and it was taco hell that did me in for 3 days straight.

[Varmint]

I plan to compensate with that today by visiting four barbecue places with Varmint.

We actually hit 5 barbecue joints today, none of which are frequently mentioned. Surprises galore! Report with photos to come.

[Varmint]

For all the gruesome details of our 5 BBQ joint outing, go here: http://forums.egullet.org/index.php?act=ST...t=0#entry347934

[Fat Guy]

Quote: "If you're living under a rock, or in France" ???!!???

You have Golden Corral in France? People in France know what Golden Corral is? If so, I take it back!

[Fat Guy]

how is your tummy handling all this american food?

No problem. The only issue for me was with the sheer quantity of barbecue yesterday. After joint number three, I was hurting, and my gastrointestinal system was beginning to complain. But I think that had little to do with composition and everything to do with me being literally full up.

[Fat Guy]

Tuesday, August 5, "Meal"(s)

Barbecue!

I won't duplicate Varm's account, so will add some comments to his tremendous, terrifying, totally awesome thread later.

Now I'm off to have lunch at a country club! (Had Doritos for breakfast.) (Please don't tell anybody my religious affiliation 'til I'm safely out of the country club, thanks.)

[mcdowell]

(Please don't tell anybody my religious affiliation 'til I'm safely out of the country club, thanks.)

Think them Carolina boys would have a problem with a Pagan worshipping at the shrine of All Clad, sacrificing goose livers and truffles for the greater good, do you?

[tanabutler]

they had purchased a fleet of all-white Lincoln Continentals...each of

which had a giant six-foot tall plastic chicken affixed to the roof.  very subtle.

They'll have to go a long way to beat the Big Chicken.

Chick-Fil-A rocks. The pickles, next to the crusty skin, mmmmmmm.

I hate Taco Bell more than any fast food joint out there. The difference between "what you see" (on the marquees overhead) and "what you get" is astonishing.

And I'm jealous of all your BBQ experiences, Fat Guy.

[Jinmyo]

I won't duplicate Varm's account, so will add some comments to his tremendous, terrifying, totally awesome thread later.

Adult Advisory:

Steve has his Nobu pants on. Some adults might find these images disturbing. Viewer discretion is advised.

[whosrbud]

don't know if all of you have received your new Hammacher-Schlemmer catalog

yet, but as a means of umm... "supporting" fat guy on any future barbeque forays,

they're introducing a new item just in time for late summer evenings at the grill...

-THE FAT GUY BARBEQUE CHAIR-

[fresh_a]

FG- I know what it is, but I never ate in one, but just because I'm in France doesn't mean I'm closed to the world!!

[jschyun]

I hate Taco Bell more than any fast food joint out there. The difference between "what you see" (on the marquees overhead) and "what you get" is astonishing.

I can't stand Taco Bell either. However, my boyfriend lives on it. Strangely enough there is a Taco Bell in Newport Beach, CA (where the show "OC" is supposedly shot) that uses fresh ingredients and presents their fair fare in an appetizing manner. I actually saw a very fresh looking salad in a taco bowl at this joint. I guess when you have to serve rich people you gotta keep your standards up even if you're only fast food.

All our tacos and burritos at this particular Taco Bell have been fresh and as good as I imagine Taco Bell can get.

[Fat Guy]

While the chains strive for uniformity, the reality is that there's variation from store to store. In some chains, it can be quite significant.

[Fat Guy]

Wednesday, August 6, Lunch

The Country Club

I'm not sure what the actual name of the country club is. Everybody here just calls it The Country Club. I can tell you its location if that helps: it's on Country Club Road.

Lunch was a buffet. The buffet was unremarkable: salad, rice, potatoes, mixed veg, pot roast, chicken breasts breaded and smothered in a commercial gravy. Only the desserts seemed to have been made with much competence, including a nice berry cobbler whose only flaw was too much sugar (common in Southern desserts even more so than in the rest of America). But it was an interesting glimpse at what the mover-and-shaker crowd in a small industrial town might eat at a country club lunch.

We were there for a media lunch hosted by the local CVB. The local media are approximately a dozen people: there's a radio station, a local paper, and the local desks of larger papers and broadcast media operations based in, for example, Greensboro. We, on the other hand, are of course national media, or at least that's how we were portrayed, so several of the attendees at the luncheon were tricked into thinking that we were important. We had a nice chat with the mayor, who had strong opinions about barbecue. He told me that Kepley's Barn (mentioned above) burned down and is in the process of being rebuilt, and he confirmed that Kepley's is the best place in his territory. Then there was some dude who had a title like "City Manager" and everybody seemed to indicate that he's more powerful than anyone else. One of the congressmen whose district contains a slice of High Point -- Mel Watt -- was also there and I definitely respect him because he came back from the buffet with a plate in each hand and ate enthusiastically. Most importantly, I was the winner of the door prize, which went to the person with the birthday closest to the day of High Point's founding, May 24. I'm June 10 and that was the closest, so I'm now the proud owner of a piggy bank modeled after one of High Point's big attractions: the world's largest chest of drawers. I have a photo of that attraction in my computer somewhere and will post it tonight.

[Fat Guy]

Here you go: