As America Eats, So Does Fat Guy

[Jinmyo]

Nice piggy bank. Prolly don't have to fold up the bills.

[Rachel Perlow]

I think a framed duo of the photo above, plus a photo of you & momo overshadowing the piggy-dresser-bank, would be cute.

[Fat Guy]

Thursday, August 7, Lunch

Jimmy's Pizza

As some of you may recall, August 7 is our wedding anniversary. Last year we declared a "lobster anniversary." But with the nearest lobster source in town being Red Lobster, we decided not to continue that tradition. Instead we declared "chair anniversary" and spent much of the day visiting furniture factories with the goal of finding someone to restore Ellen's grandmother's chair.

Ellen had a business lunch so she ate at a popular downtown spot (the Atrium Cafe). I decided to cover one of the other (there are only a few) downtown business lunch hangouts: Jimmy's Pizza. Jimmy's looks just like a pizzeria in Queens, right down to being owned by a big Greek guy. Having been in High Point for almost a week, I was at this point on a first-name basis with many members of the local business and government community, so lunch at Jimmy's was like a mini-reunion: there's the head of the CVB, there's the guy running for state assembly, there's a table of furniture-business people we met earlier in the week, etc.

I ordered a small pizza, which was fine -- better than the average NYC slice shop but not as good as a good NYC slice shop, and the crust must have been made with one of those Southern flours that's intended for biscuit-making -- and something called Spaghetti alla Venice. And you know what? It was exactly like the pasta I remember eating in Venice as a kid: about a pound of overcooked watery spaghetti smothered in a sweet (on account of sugar most likely) tomato sauce with green peppers and assorted other stuff, served on a platter the size of a high school football championship plaque, covered in pizza-cheese and melted under a broiler. Okay, maybe the pasta in Venice was a little different.

Thursday, August 7, Dinner

Fuddrucker's

We drove from High Point to Hickory in the early evening (I guess it was also our "driving anniversary") and by 8:30pm most everything was getting ready to close. It was too late even for Golden Corral. But Fuddrucker's, a middle-market burger chain, had late hours: open until 9:30. Fuddrucker's, while it does not make the world's best hamburgers as it claims to, does make pretty decent ones from fresh ground meat. They actually sort of listen to you if you ask for medium-rare. And they have an amazing fixin's bar that's almost a salad bar. Also Mr. Pibb and Cheerwine in the soda fountain. I can think of worse anniversary dinners, I suppose.

I think we'll celebrate properly when we get home.

Oh, also a stop at DQ on the drive from High Point to Hickory.

[Basilgirl]

Thursday, August 7, Dinner

Fuddrucker's

Haven't been to a Fuddrucker's in years, but I always thought they made a great burger and the hamburger rolls were so good I'd buy some to take home. Also loved their onion rings. Did you get any onion rings?

[Rachel Perlow]

I don't go to Fuddruckers anymore. If forced, I'd order my burger well-done.

[Fat Guy]

Thursday, August 7, Dinner

Fuddrucker's

Haven't been to a Fuddrucker's in years, but I always thought they made a great burger and the hamburger rolls were so good I'd buy some to take home. Also loved their onion rings. Did you get any onion rings?

Their burger buns are about as good as burger buns get, though I don't think they're improved by the butter or margarine or whatever it is they put on them when they prepare the burgers.

I didn't have the onion rings this time around -- had the fries instead -- but I do think the Fudd makes good rings. Actually, just about everything there is pretty good. It's one of the better chains in that price range.

[whosrbud]

steven and ellen; happy belated wishes on your anniversary. aside from the

embarassment of residing in a locale which couldn't offer you any better fare

than fuddruckers after 8:30, i am a little curious about something i've observed

in this thread.

as a relative newbie, i have been attempting to learn about the inner machinations

of egullet.com (how to do all the not obvious things) and have been pretty successful

to this point. there is one small matter which i don't understand. two days ago,

your barbeque quest with varmint had a nice collection of photgraphs which accom-

panied your narrative.

chortling at the thoght of you and varmint closing 5 barbeque joints single-handedly,

i sent a brief note and included a mildly amusing image of a new barbeque eating

chair (trough) named in your honor. today i note that all of your pictures are gone

as is mine. in general, is this a common practice to help reduce storage space on the

server(s) or was this done due to the unsuitability of the image?

this comes at the end of a week which started with one of the coordinators

removing two of my responses in the forums area. not to sound overly

paranoid, it would be helpful to understand where and why the pictures have

vanished so that i may avoid problems in future postings.

guessing it will be nice to be homeward bound- thanks for all of the time spent,

energy consumed, and love given to the forum. we are not worty.

-michael

[ditsydine]

yikes i wished that i had read this post sooner.

if you can get to Greensboro (very close to high-point)

Check out Beef Burger, Hable's Hearth and Stameys BBQ

[Jason Perlow]

whosrbud: just say no to imagestation.com. Its totally unreliable.

[alacarte]

Happy Anniversary!!

[Toliver]

I am curious about any sort of mop sauce used on the bbq you've consumed. I've heard that vinegar-based sauces, as opposed to tomato-based sauces, are used more in the bbq of the southern US. Have you experienced this yet?

Also, what kind of table condiments are the norm in southern bbq joints? Anything out of the ordinary?

edited to add a "the"

Edited August 8, 2003 by Toliver (log)

[Fat Guy]

Traditional NC barbecue isn't made with a mop sauce, as far as I know. The pork is just smoked, and some places use a little of the vinegar sauce to moisten it but the purists seem to consider that cheating.

Condiments: most places have their own house blend vinegar-based sauce on the table, plus Texas Pete (which is made in North Carolina) and maybe other hot-sauce-type sauces.

[Fat Guy]

Friday, August 8, Lunch

Royal Palace Chinese Super Buffet

We noticed this place while cruising the strip (aka pretty much the whole town) and noted that $4.95 for a 125-item all-you-can-eat Chinese buffet seemed like a new record-low in buffet prices. We were prepared for the worst, but what we found was a surreal combination of better-than-we-expected and worse-than-we-could-have-imagined.

I sort of figured out how they can afford to do this: it seems the average customer has no clue as to the value of protein. Most everybody I observed would take an empty plate, load it up with like a pound of rice, and then put all the other food on top of that -- and the other food they chose was often lo-mein. Is this how people in the real America eat their Chinese food? If so, it's great for the buffet business.

On the plus side of the buffet were very good New Zealand mussels in legitimate black bean sauce, a few well-made dumpling varieties, whole crawfish in a ginger-scallion-garlic sauce, several pretty-good stir-fry dishes (so long as you got to them soon after the tray was replenished), a lot of good deep-fried stuff (egg rolls, spring rolls, chicken wings, sweet-and-sour chicken with the sauce kept separate from the meat so it stayed nice and crispy) . . . and enough other items such that, with a little experimentation, it was possible to put together a massive, diverse, surprisingly acceptable Chinese meal. That's in addition to a full American-style salad bar, a large selection of fresh fruit, and a whole spread of American and Chinese desserts plus a soft-serve ice-cream machine.

On the minus side -- not that I hold bad food against a buffet so long as there's also good food -- were some truly bizarre dishes that seemed neither Chinese, American, Chinese-American, nor relevant to any nationality or combination thereof. There were, for example, these fried wonton skins stuffed with cream cheese and and referred to as "Rangoons." What's up with that? I can't believe they eat anything like that in Burma. Or Myanmar.

+++

Dinner was a repeat of Fuddrucker's. And we managed to obtain some Golden Corral discount coupons so we'll be heading back there for brunch/lunch tomorrow at $4.99 a head.

[mb7o]

Mmm... Crab Rangoon . Comes for free with every chinese meal in St. Louis.

The history of that must be fascinating, a quick search turns up claims it comes from Vietnam and some guy's experiment with importing it into Canada.

[fifi]

There were, for example, these fried wonton skins stuffed with cream cheese and and referred to as "Rangoons." What's up with that? I can't believe they eat anything like that in Burma. Or Myanmar.

Just about every buffet here in Houston has these things. I have never heard of them referred to as "Rangoons" but maybe it is just that I am not paying attention. I have often thought that the cream cheese won-ton thing was weird. Like you, I wonder... What's up with that? Cream cheese??? I like them with hot mustard and soy.

Edited August 10, 2003 by fifi (log)

[Andy Lynes]

What a great thread, really interesting stuff. Loved the bbq stuff as well.

[dumpling]

There were, for example, these fried wonton skins stuffed with cream cheese and and referred to as "Rangoons." What's up with that? I can't believe they eat anything like that in Burma. Or Myanmar.

Just about every buffet here in Houston has these things. I have never heard of them referred to as "Rangoons" but maybe it is just that I am not paying attention. I have often thought that the cream cheese won-ton thing was weird. Like you, I wonder... What's up with that? Cream cheese??? I like them with hot mustard and soy.

For the New Jersey crew- they have these at the Shanghai restaurant in River Edge-this was their "on the house" thing if you bought over I think 25 dollars worth of food. Weird thing yes but I rather liked them but Shanghai made them good. I've seen them elsewhere and they've been horrific.

[whosrbud]

i suspect that the Crab Rangoon-which is always present

in southern chinese buffet tables-is a little like egg creams.

as any good new yorker knows, there is no egg or cream

in an egg cream. likewise crab rangoons. there is no crab

(although there should be equal parts of crab and cream-

cheese) and the closest these things ever got to Rangoon

was when the cook sat the wok down on a World Atlas.

there are numerous recipes available in the net...

http://www.ochef.com/338.htm

http://chinesefood.about.com/library/blrecipe387.htm

--any many, many similar renditions.

all of them sound like they'd be quite tasty, but since

it's illegal to use surimi and advertize it as crab, they

just put a little sticker on the pan and label it 'Rangoons'.

also, what are the odds that people who live in

extremely hot climes are going to have or use a

refrigerator-necessary ingredient like cream cheese?

it may be an american invention, but still, it would

at least moderately interesting to know the story

behind this ubiquitous buffet bauble-

[browniebaker]

i suspect that the Crab Rangoon-which is always present

in southern chinese buffet tables-is a little like egg creams.

as any good new yorker knows, there is no egg or cream

in an egg cream.  likewise crab rangoons.  there is no crab

(although there should be equal parts of crab and cream-

cheese) and the closest these things ever got to Rangoon

was when the cook sat the wok down on a World Atlas.

I love these! The first time I ever had them was a a few months ago at the Fortune Star Buffet in Bethesda, Maryland, which is probably the best Chinese buffet in the D.C. area. Their crab rangoons actually do have crab in them and are delicious. I'm of Chinese heritage and had never seen anything like a crab rangoon, but, as a caseophile, I find them irresistible.

[zilla369]

Yet another chance to let my "dumbass flag" fly:

I thought they were called crab rangoon because the ones i've had are vaguely crab-shaped subsequent to frying due to the way they are folded/formed (a flattish shape with two little pincer-arms in front). I've never had them with actual crabmeat.

[fifi]

[dumbass flag flying]

I have never seen them with actual or fake crab either. The version here is just a little lump of cream cheese.

[dumbass flag furled]

[browniebaker]

I have never seen them with actual or fake crab either. The version here is just a little lump of cream cheese.

Our diverse experiences with crab -- or no-crab -- rangoons testify to the difference in quality among Chinese buffet restaurants in the U.S. "Crab rangoons " are reduced to mere lumps of cream cheese in won-ton skin, making the rangoons cheaper to produce. Similarly, on one buffet I saw "honey walnut shrimp" offered without walnuts, which are relatively expensive, and made only with fried shrimp and cubes of cucumber.

[SobaAddict70]

Steven, in all your buffet outings, is there one item that takes the top prize for appearing most often?

And also, is there anything that wouldn't dare make its appearance? I'm curious. (like for example, sashimi?)

Soba

[bilrus]

After reading the comments here about Crab Rangoon, I am a little embarassed to admit that this is my favorite appetizer at my local Chinese - (American) restaurant here in Northern Virginia (and at many others I have been to in other parts of the country (I have lived in thirteen states in the past ten years).

At my local China Town Restaurant, they are called Crab Wontons and do in fact have crab along with the requisite cream cheese. This is the first place I have had them where they weren't called Crab Rangoon, but nearly everyplace has had crab, or at least some facsimilie thereof.

[moira27]

Crab ragoons are a favourite of mine but we can't get them at our chinese restaurants. We have had them at the Jade Garden in Bangor, (mostly cream cheese, maybe crab?) Whenever we are in Fredericton we buy them at the market. A Chinese lady sells dozens of them there every weekend. I dont know from where they are supposed to originate but they are definately tasty and do have crab in them.