The Search for the Best Fried Chicken Continues

Most people that know me know that I do not really “accept” my Southern roots and believe I am destined to live somewhere far from home. However, there is something Southern about me that I cannot deny: my taste buds. My grandparents were from Mississippi, meaning no family get together was short of fried chicken, fried okra, cornbread, turnip greens, sweet potato casserole and peanut brittle. If my grandma was still alive, I would actually just stop blogging about restaurants altogether and focus on all of her masterpieces.  Thus, fried chicken and I go together like two peas in a pod. My college roommate actually used to say, “If you are what you eat, then Haley is fried chicken.”

When I saw the Food Network Special “Best Thing I Ever Ate: Fried Chicken”, I plopped down on my couch and thoroughly enjoyed the mouth watering 30 minutes of TV (judge me if you want). There were several restaurants featured, however the one that caught my eye was Gus’s World Famous Fried Chicken in Mason, TN. Claire Robinson went on and on that this was hands down the best fried chicken she had ever had. She was adamant to try the original in Mason instead of the better known franchise in Memphis. Having planned a road trip to Bonnaroo this summer, I mapped out the location and saw that it was only about 20 miles out of the way and decided I had to take the plunge. After eating Willie Mae’s “best fried chicken in the nation” voted by the Travel Channel and Food Network (see earlier post), I had to see if it could measure up.

Mason, TN is the quintessential small town, if you can even call it that. There are about three sketchy looking gas stations, a car wash and a court room. Yes, a court room, as there is no need for a whole house.  We arrived to Gus’s a bit early, it opens at 11am. We met another gentleman waiting outside for it to open as well. He stated that he was from Nashville and was in town on business. He said that he always stops by Gus’s when he can as it is “legit.” The storefront even claims, “If you haven’t eaten at Gus’s, you haven’t eaten fried chicken.”

We went into the small, old house of Gus’s. This is truly a family run business and the white board even paid homage to the original founder by saying “R.I.P Gus.” You could tell that this fried chicken was made from love.  There are newspaper articles and pictures from magazines like “GQ” featuring this chicken. We each ordered a plate of three pieces of chicken that came with baked beans, white bread and coleslaw. I had a side of potato salad and Jarred tried the fried rice. The chicken at Gus’s is “spicy fried chicken” and considering my need of a spicy chicken biscuit intervention, I was excited to see what it was all about.

The chicken came out hot and fresh and rather quickly. We all started digging in. The chicken is good, really good. There is the right amount of spice in this chicken and the skin is golden and crunchy. The chicken itself is also very juicy. But I kept waiting for that life changing moment I had when I ate at Willie Mae’s. Unfortunately, it never happened. The sides were really delicious, the baked beans were my favorite and Jarred enjoyed the coleslaw. Jonathan and Jarred cleaned their plates, but I was stuffed after my 2 pieces.  Jonathan stated that it was the best chicken he had ever had, and Jarred was still up in the air about how he felt. He found that the three pieces of chicken were all seasoned differently.

I would definitely recommend checking out Gus’s if you are ever in Tennessee. However, I think next time we will forego the detour and go to the one in Memphis. The one in Memphis has a greater amount of sides and it would be interesting to see how it compares to the original. Willie Mae’s Scotch House in New Orleans may still have my heart, but I may cheat on her from time to time with Gus’s spicy chicken whenever I’m in Tennessee.

http://www.foodnetwork.com/the-best-thing-i-ever-ate/the-best-thing-i-ever-atefried-chicken/index.html

http://www.gussofms.com/

Cosmic Café: A Karmic Experience

The Taste Buds embarked on another foodie adventure, this time with a twist: no meat. No bacon? GASP! As a devout meat lover, I started my research online and found a lot of positive reviews about Cosmic Café and saw that it was voted several times as the best vegetarian cuisine in Dallas. The website and menu piqued our interest and we decided that we should make the trip.

Tucked away neatly on Oak Lawn, arriving at Cosmic Café takes you to a place that feels very far away from Dallas. The restaurant is setup in a colored and charismatic house, with trees and bright colors everywhere. When you walk up the steps you almost feel as if you are walking through a place in Alice’s Wonderland.  There is a large patio outside that would be great to dine on, and had it not been 97 outside we probably would have chosen to sit there.

Just as decorative inside as it is outside; we sat at a cozy table in the air conditioning.  Prices are moderate, around $8-10 for an entrée. We started out with some passion fruit hibiscus iced herbal tea (they have different types daily), and some hummus served with naan. The tea was particularly delicious and everyone helped themselves to several glasses throughout the meal. The hummus had a great amount of spice. We also really liked the naan that it was served with, making an interesting twist on the typical accompaniment of pita bread.

Sara had the “Cosmic Stir”, which was a stir fry of many types of vegetables in a ginger yogurt sauce. The portion was very large, and we all took turns grabbing a few bites of the plate. Sara enjoyed it as well, and all the vegetables were very tasty. I ordered the “I Hate Eggplant” dish, which was playfully named since it was actually full of eggplant. The dish of spicy eggplant and a combination of other vegetables came served with cheese in naan folded to look much like a quesadilla. I enjoyed my dish and the subtle spice of the eggplant that ended up sneaking up on me towards the end of the meal. By the way, if you hate eggplant I strongly advise against ordering this one.

Both Sara’s boyfriend Ben and my friend Stephanie (also another food lover), enjoyed the “No Bull Burger.” The all black bean patty came with a choice of cheese and the regular burger fixins’ including some portabella mushrooms. Ben and Stephanie both raved about the burger, so Sara and I knew we had to snag a bite. This veggie burger was delicious. The use of the black beans really didn’t make you miss meat (at least for this meal), and the bun was also really delectable. Sara even stated that it was the one of her favorite burgers she has ever tasted! Much to our amazement, we felt like this burger really satisfied the craving for meat.

I had read reviews about the yummy vegan cakes, so we thought to ourselves why not? We ordered a coconut and carrot cake to try. Both cakes were really, really good. They were moist, rich and most importantly, delicious. The vote on which one was better was split down the middle and we were all glad we had given in to our indulgences.

Cosmic Café is a really unique, special place to eat. Even if you are not a vegetarian you can really enjoy both the atmosphere and the food. We even noticed a meditation room upstairs and weekly yoga classes that are held. This is definitely a place that I will look forward to trying again many times in the future. I highly recommend checking it out, and let us know what your favorites are!

http://www.cosmiccafedallas.com/

Keep on Truckin'

The other day, when I was stopping by my local Walgreens to pick up a Red Box flick, I saw something so distractingly glorious that I nearly took out a pedestrian (Hey – don’t drop your groceries in the entranceway!). A food truck…in Addison. It was a Twilight Zone moment. We’ve all had our food truck adventures in say Austin, or Fort Worth, or Denton, or even just south of 635, but now it seems the food truck revolution has expanded into less obvious (but equally as deserving) neighborhoods.

I immediately parked my car and walked over toward the truck in an alien tractor beam type state. It was a Korean taco truck called SsahmBBQ. I honestly wouldn’t have cared what they were peddling (as I am of the school that if it comes out of a truck it must taste better). I needed to try it! I ordered 3 tacos – 1 beef, 1 pork and 1 chicken (don’t worry, I shared). The tacos came with sesame soy vinaigrette salad, caramelized kimchee, cilantro, onion and 2 corn tortillas. The tacos were a great mix of cultures and flavors, without any one component being overpowered. My pick was the chicken, Ben’s was the pork – although all were good (the beef is actually short rib, yumm).

While SsahmBBQ was very tasty and I do recommend it, I want to focus more on the momentum of the food truck revolution in Dallas. I am sure by now we have all heard of the trailer park that is in the works, which is cool and all, but I long for the day when we can roll out of a bar at any time or just run outside from work during lunch and pick up any variety of tasty cuisine from local entrepreneurs. If you own a food truck, we want to see more of you! If you have a favorite truck, give them ideas on great locations. Let’s band together and keep on truckin’, Dallas!

SashmBBQ

Dallas Trailer Park

R&D Kitchen - Devilshly Eggcellent!

The deviled eggs at R&D Kitchen called to the ‘taste buds’ like a mythological siren. Ok, it may not have been that intense, but we do love deviled eggs and heard R&D has some rockin ones. Generally, we try to keep our foodie adventures within a commonly acceptable budget, but today we were feeling fancy and wanted to try this place out (just roll with it). So, Haley and I met up at Hillstone’s newest Dallas restaurant (they also own Houston’s) to sample these little egg-y morsels…and eat dinner of course.

When we arrived, we assessed the scene and decided that R&D is loud and pricey, but still accessible. We liked it. The menu is very small and covers a strangely wide range of drastically different cuisines. There was sushi, a burger, meatloaf, spaghetti and meatballs, a BBQ pork sandwich, and much more. We told the waitress it was our first time there so she would give us her spiel and provide some recommendations. She recommended the burger (she said it was the best burger in Dallas actually - right, how many times have we all heard that??), the meatloaf, the Asian chicken salad, and the dip duo which consisted of guacamole and chilled queso. She said the chilled queso was very unique. We decided to get the deviled eggs, the dip duo and we’d split the Reubenesque sandwich.

The deviled eggs were awesome, I must say. They were slightly sweet due to a touch of sweet pickle relish and had some great texture from the chopped celery that was incorporated. They were very different, but very good – possibly top 3 deviled eggs ever, including favorite family recipes. Lofty statement, we know. 

The dip duo came out next. It was “unique” indeed. The chilled queso reflected an odd cross between pimento cheese and the nacho cheese you get at American Airlines Center. I mean this in as weird of a way as it sounds. Cold, gooey, velveeta-y cheese dip. I kind of hated it. The guacamole was good though. It seemed to have orange juice in it, instead of (or in addition to) the traditional lime juice. This made for a delightful game of guess the unexpectedly delicious ingredient - we won.  I focused on the guac, but would periodically turn back to the cheese just to make sure I still didn’t like it. I never did. It’s official. Sorry R&D, you get points for originality at least.

Our final course was the Reubenesque sandwich, consisting of corned beef, baby swiss, spicy mustard, coleslaw and toasted corn rye. It was ENORMOUS! Haley and I had both never had a Reuben and were really excited to try it for the first time. It was decent. Really expensive for a sandwich with no sides - $16 (everything is a la carte). We believe it could have been awesome, but the coleslaw was extremely overpowering and really too sweet. We couldn’t taste the swiss OR the spicy mustard. Those both have very strong flavors, so it was a pretty odd experience. Less slaw from now on, R&D…if you’re listening.

So our meal wasn’t the best ever, nor the least pricy, but we didn’t regret any of it. We were highly intrigued by the chilled queso and were excited to try a Reuben for the first time.  Luckily the deviled eggs went above and beyond. I’d go back for a happy hour/appetizer situation…maybe even another meal. We may have just ordered the wrong thing.  Who knows, maybe they DO have the best burger in Dallas……have you tried it? Let us know!

http://www.hillstone.com/#/restaurants/cafeRandD/