Dog Gone Nashville- Part 3

After enjoying our Hot Chicken (and letting enough time pass to get somewhat hungry again), we headed over to Hot Diggity Dogs, which is Nashville’s home for Chicago-style hot dogs.  I know it might seem silly to fly over 10,000 miles then drive another 125 to Nashville, only to eat something that comes from Chicago, especially since we spent a few days in Chicago last year, but they do claim to have Nashville’s best hot dogs.  Besides, it was the stop to which Mom was most looking forward, so after missing a turn and driving around in circles on one way streets for 10 minutes, we finally arrived.

Now we couldn’t go all the way there an not try a Chicago Dog, which is topped with mustard, onion, Nuclear Relish, dill pickle, tomato slices, pickled sport peppers, cucumber slices and a dash of celery salt.  Now I don’t eat many hot dogs, but I can tell you that it’s the best one I’ve had in a very long time.

We had perused the menu long before our trip, so for quite some time Scott had been looking forward to trying their Italian Sausage Dog with grilled onions, giardiniera peppers and spicy mustard.  He was not disappointed.  In fact, he mentioned wanting another one just three days ago. 

Unfortunately we were unable to try their cheese fries, which came very highly recommended, but we were so stuffed.

Luckily our next stop didn’t involve eating.  It involved buying food to eat later, at a long loved favourite of my childhood: The Apple Barn.

The Apple Barn makes (as I’m sure you would guess) many apple based products.  Though I only had my eye on one thing: Apple Butter (which doesn’t actually contain any butter).  Apple Butter is a staple of the South.  Traditionally, you slather it on soft, flaky Southern-style biscuits.  I had mine the following morning on toast.

While we were there we also picked up a box of freshly made Fried Apple Pies for Meemaw & Papaw and Homemade Fudge & Moonshine Taffy for Scott to take back to the office.

It was after this stop that we knew we couldn’t eat anymore.  We had planned to go to Eastside Fish for a Catfish Sandwich and Hush Puppies, but there just wasn’t room, so we set off for home passing up both the Jack Daniels and George Dickle Distilleries.

On the way we passed a sign for a roadside stop that Mom remembered from her childhood, so we had to see if it was still there. 

Stuckey’s is still thriving and still making Pecan Logs & Divinity Candies, so after a few more purchases we continued on home for a much deserved rest.

Of course, about 30 minutes after we arrived there was a chorus of, “I wish we’d brought home some Hot Chicken.”

That will just have to wait until Christmas. 

Nashville Part 2 – The Hot Chicken Post

We decided to make a hole-in-the-wall style food road trip out of our journey to Nashville, but as Amanda mentioned it all started with our quest for hot chicken.  Maybe the name intrigued you enough to find out more for yourself – maybe not – but it certainly did for us.

At its heart, hot chicken is fried chicken – which the South does so well – with added heat.  What really piqued our interest is reading about exactly what level of heat we are talking about.  The hottest levels are described as 24 hour chicken: first it burns when you put it in, and you get a second burn the next day as it makes its way out.  Some places don’t even allow first timers to order the hottest. Queues out the door at the busiest times, and nothing but glowing reviews … man, we sure were excited to try it.

Of the various outlets in Nashville, we plumped for 400 Degrees – ’soul food and more’.  It was a couple of minutes north of downtown (and fit into our route better), and only the flames in the window distinguished it from the numerous barbershops in the neighbourhood.

Because we’d done our research, we knew that hot chicken was a labour of love, and so while Debi and Amanda waited in the air conditioned car, I headed in to place our order and wait the 25 minutes until it was ready.

As the name suggests, 400 is the hottest chicken they do, but as novices we weren’t quite ready for that.  They do a neutral 0, but that would have been a cop out. We decided on two chicken quarters between us – one ‘mild’ 100 and one  ‘medium’ 200 spice level.

The smell was fantastic once we got our hands on the magical chicken, and when we feasted our eyes on it, it was all the more wondrous.  First the 100:

The outside was as crunchy and flavourful as it looks, and the inside was juicy and perfectly cooked.  It was so tasty, so crunchy … I don’t mean to repeat myself, but the crunch is definitely one of the aspects you come away wanting more off.  To some this might be as hot as you want to go, but to us it tasted simply fantastic. Now, the 200 was … well … see if you can spot the difference.

That is pure heat my friends.  The magic, however, is that it’s not just heat for heats sake.  This bad boy had the same incredible taste as its milder brethren, yet with the intensity turned up.  For me at least, I imagine this would be my hotness limit reached, yet it was still so good – even if I had to take a break between bites.  My lips were tingling a LOT after eating this, but it has a very nice fade to it.  It only takes about five minutes, and then you’re ready for anything.

I had intended to talk about more than just hot chicken in this post, but no matter how good the other food was, I fear it could be over shadowed by the experience described herein.  Needless to say, every day since at least one of us at some point has expressed a desire for more hot chicken.  Sadly, we’re just going to have to wait until our next trip to get back there – oh yes, we’ll be back!  Though next time I think we’ll also try the hot pork chop and sweet tea, as they came so highly recommended from one of the regulars.

Nashville, Nashville. . .It’s about bloody time – Part 1

Back in May, I was perusing Slashfood (as I’m want to do most days) when I came across a post called “Hot Chicken- What the Heck is It?” After reading all about it’s hot tasty goodness and discovering that Nashville is the Hot Chicken capital of the world, I knew what had to be done: next time we were in the States, come Hell or high water, we were having some Hot Chicken.  Thus, the planning began, and I started to wonder: why drive 250 miles round trip for just Hot Chicken when you can make a whole Diners, Drive-Ins & Dives style road trip out of it?

So I started looking out for Nashville food blogs, reading the topics on the Nashville Chowhound board, etc. . . Eventually, I settled on a few places I’d like to try.  Then, two nights before we were due to leave on our little jaunt, I found Nashville Restaurants, and all of our plans changed.  Their many posts on the Nashville Farmers Market and all its hidden restaurants became stop number one.  It had the right opening hours and the promise of a po’ boy, which seemed like an ideal start.

We started with produce, where Mom bought loads of fresh okra, tomatoes, squash and hot peppers.

Then we moved on to chow chows and relishes (yesterday we I ate half a jar of the hot pepper relish with a spoon), then to hot sauces and finally to Nooley’s for a light Cajun brekkie.  Luckily you can order small sizes of just about everything, so we were able to try both the Shrimp Po’Boy (pictured) and the Muffuletta.

Both were very tasty (Scott went on and on about the olive salad on the muffuletta) and a promising start to the day.

Stay tuned for parts two and three!!! 

Coming Soon

Okay, I’ve edited all of the photos from our Nashville road trip.  There were lots.  Now I just have to finish writing it up.  Hopefully that will happen today.  Everyone cross your fingers. 

Not All Beers Are Created Equally

Or:  don’t take beer recommendations from someone who’s never even seen a passport.  It’s a rookie mistake I know but one I made when we went out for pizza one evening in Chattanooga.

The alarm bells should have been ringing when the guy at the bar had to check with a supervisor to see if passports were in fact a valid form of ID.  Still, I thought who better to recommend some good beers than the person selling them.  And so it was that I found myself starting the evening with New Belgium’s Mothership Wit.

I’ve drunk, and enjoyed, other New Belgium beers before, and similarly I normally enjoy wheat beers.  This however was quite disappointing.  Maybe I got a dodgy bottle or something, but it was like drinking water.  Minimal hops, wheat, malt … flavour at all in fact, and therefore minimal enjoyment.

Perhaps it was this big let down that meant I sort of liked the somewhat cheesy and seemingly commercial Monthy Python’s Holy Ale.

The beer was decent enough.  It was nothing special, particularly after some of the other beers we had while in the States.  It’s hard to give a full analysis because I think I enjoyed it simply because it was such an improvement over the other beer.

Of course, neither could live up to the deliciousness of the spicy chicken pizza with whole roasted cloves of garlic and roasted peppers that we’d ordered.  It was noms!

Sometimes it’s best to stick with what you know.  Next time we’re there, I think I’ll forgo their American brews and opt for a more established Belgian standby.

Our Time Here Is Almost Up

It’s always sad leaving after a holiday with the family, but for some reason this time seems particularly so.  We’ve had a really nice time, and we’re really going to miss everyone: Papaw’s Shatner-esque renditions of American standards; Meemaw’s infectious giggling; and getting to spend good quality, thoroughly enjoyable time with Debi just being ourselves.  And of course we’ll miss the cats: Blair is, as always, his super friendly, puppy-like self; and this trip we’ve gotten to see a little of Julian’s sweet-natured side … though not to worry, he remains for the most part his lovable stand-offish self.

So as we pack up our stuff and think about the journey ahead of us, we want everyone here to know that we had a great time, and we love them all very much.

Of course, there’s plenty more to come for the blog – not least the tale (and accompanying photos) of our food road trip to Nashville.  Which, by the way, was fantastic!  Yay for hot chicken!!

Day 11, Beer 4

As Amanda said with regards to the frozen custard, we don’t do junk food very often – it’s just that we figured that’s exactly what you’d want to hear about. Similarly, there are many days in which we aren’t trying new beers,  so please don’t think we’re turning into lushes here.  Just be grateful you’re not reading about how refreshing water is on a hot summers day!

Today, we bring you a beer from just over the border in North Carolina, from Asheville Brewing.

Shiva IPA is quite a decent brew. It’s a much more bitter example than the previous IPAs we’ve tried this trip, with quite a strong essence of grapefruit pith. It takes a little adjusting to, but I’d have to say it was definitely an improvement on the drinkability front from the Stone IPA, though the Stone is far superior overall.

The Sweetwater IPA is still the favourite though. 

Frozen Custard. . .

It’s an ice-cream-like dessert, more common on the East Coast of the US than elsewhere, as far as I know, and in this heat it’s quite handy that we have Nana’s Frozen Custard pretty close to home.

Now I will say this: we deserved this extravagance!  Since we’ve been here we’ve been eating loads of fresh fruit and veg, just like we would at home.  We’ve avoided almost all of the junk food and sweet treats which are so prolific in the South.  You just haven’t seen all of the healthy stuff on the blog because it’s not as interesting. 

So yes, to quench the highly humid heat, we indulged in a few treats: a Cherry Ho, an Apple Pie Blossom & a Banana Split.  These three treats fed five people easily, and the general consensus was that my Cherry Ho was the tastiest.  I certainly thought so. . . 

Just look at all the yummy frozen noms. . .

Everything Should Taste Like Bacon

You probably already know the expression “everything tastes better with bacon!” Problem is, you may not always have bacon in the fridge.  Well I’m here to tell you that there are Americans working hard to help you out. Their bacon-centric dream culminated in a fantastic seasoning tool they like to call Bacon salt – which is salt that tastes, believe it or not, just like bacon!

I know … amazing!  But that’s not all.  One of my missions on this trip was to find a product known only as Baconnaise. That’s right, it’s mayonnaise that tastes of bacon – and it’s everything I imagined it would be.

You can put Baconnaise on most things, and they will be enriched with a delightfully smoky bacon essence.  If you can find it, I highly recommend giving baconnaise a try.  Of course, bacon lip balm might just be a step too far. 

Day 9, Beer 3

When it comes to local beer, you can’t get much closer to home than Chattanooga’s own Moccasin Bend Brewing Company. We decided to road test their Juniper Pale Ale, and for something so obscure it really does deserve a bit more exposure and recognition. It’s a nice slightly floral, refreshing beer- perfect for a hot summer’s day (it has been 94F/35C since we landed).  It’s not too complex and leaves you with the pleasant mouth feel of having just drunk a light fruit juice.

Support your local is a good motto, and if we were here for longer, I’d definitely be looking for a brewery tour. Well, that’s enough beer chat today – I’m off to joint a rabbit!