Gastronomy Domine

It is difficult looking back over the road trip to forget a key highlight being the various regional things we ate and drank which are of exceptional note.  Here they are in no particular order:

Chicago Pizza 
Probably the stodgiest thing I've ever eaten in my life.  In London 30 years ago there was a restaurant called the Chicago Pizza Pie Factory (closed now sadly) which I went to often.  Their pizzas were certainly deep dish but not this deep dish!  The pizza takes 45 minutes minimum to cook through but its worth the wait.  It just amazes me how even slim and small people can wolf back immense hunks of this pizza.  We shared a one person pie and left barely able to waddle, let alone walk!

Giordano's deep dish offering

Memphis BarBQ
Memphis BBQ is dry which is just how we like it.  That way you can taste the meat not the sloshed on sauce covering up any fault in the cooking.  It was great particularly when sprinkled with the dry rub after being taken off the grill just prior to serving.  That gave a wonderful extra something to the meat, usually ribs and brisket for us.

Lamb Ribs
Why hasn't anyone thought of serving lamb ribs the same way as pork ribs?  You get the trimmed down, so called French cut, racks of lamb which are nice in their own right.  But just wait and try lamb ribs barbecued the Memphis (i.e. dry) way.  Fantastic.  When you think about it lambs have exactly the same rib set up as pigs so why wouldn't they have spare ribs too?  Well they do and probably its the butcher that knows just how lovely they are so doesn't allow them to get out to the public at large.  He gets to keep them for himself instead.  Don't blame him at all.

Rendezvous BBQ in Memphis' dry rubbed lamb ribs

St. Louis Pizza
The other side of the coin to the deep dish is the wafer thin, hellishly crispy, cut into squares piece of deliciousness that is the St. Louis Pizza.  Lord knows why they do it this way, I am just glad they do.  Just fantastic.  We had one for breakfast one day which is a really good time to eat this type of pizza.  I think any time is good to eat this type of pizza actually.

Toasted Ravioli
What?  It happened by accident when a chef accidentally dropped a ravioli into a deep fat fryer.  OK its fried and anything fried tastes good, right?  We only had it once and it was ... OK.  Crispy for sure on the outside which is interesting but the inside remains a bit on the stodgy side.  Glad to have had it but I won't rush back for more.  And the title... no idea why its called 'Toasted' as its actually deep fried.  Could be because it sounds more healthy to be toasted.

And what we missed, again in no particular order:

St. Louis BQ
This is the wet cousin of dry BBQ with gushing amounts of sauce sloshed all over the cooked meat.  To be honest we didn't try that hard to eat it.

Frozen Custard Pie
Huh?  Just as it sounds except place in freezer and cut chunks off to eat... like an ice cream.  Never saw it.

Alligator and Shrimp Cheesecake
Honestly.  We went to a good cajun style restaurant and this was on the menu.  A bunch of guys came in after we'd eaten and went through a bunch of Louisiana favorites including steamed crawfish, oysters done a variety of cooked styles and this.  Imagine a cheesecake covered in shrimp and alligator and that's exactly what it was.

It would be wrong to talk about eats without what should wash it all down so in no particular order:

Mint Julep
I'd practiced by having a julep with coriander in Cayman a short while before which was ... well ... so when we were in Kentucky we just had to have the real thing that is served in gallons at the Kentucky Derby.  Made with bourbon, mint and sugar syrup over ice, this drink is not to be taken lightly at all.  I cannot imagine drinking more than two of these without the ability to retire to a quiet, cool, dark room for a nice lie down.

Old Fashioned
Made with bourbon, syrup again and something else, I think sweet vermouth, this tastes like velvet and warms you from the inside top to toe within two minutes.  About this time you also lose the feeling in your teeth so probably have another which really is a bad idea without the ability to retire to a quiet, cool, dark room for a nice lie down.

Old Fashioned on the left and Mint Julep to the right

Bourbon
This of course is unfair as there are hundreds of varietals all made with the same loving difference as the finest scotch whiskies.

Negroni
This drink is made to different recipes in different places.  The basic ingredients are gin, campari and sweet vermouth but if you delete gin and add bourbon, you get the Peabody Hotel Memphis twist.  However if you take some port, put it in a barrel for 4 weeks and then add the aforementioned traditional ingredients you get the Missouri Athletic Club twist.  Both are really scrummy and if you are wise, you definitely have another and abandon further plans for the evening but instead seek out a quiet, cool, dark room for a nice lie down.

Barman Robert's Negroni from the Missouri Athletic Club

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On the Road

We managed a reasonable start time to head out to Nashville so decided to go on the backroads instead of the wretched I65 that we endured yesterday.  This meant we would pass through real country where people lived instead of exit something or other with the endless lists of chain hotels, gas stations and food options -- much as I do love Mac Donald's!

Which turned out to be our first stop and an immediate moment of unsurpassed friendliness from the locals.  I managed to drop my fresh coffee all... well, all over, so went back into the McD and asked for another coffee.  The young girl behind the counter seemed surprised I'd be back so soon for a refresher but when I explained she immediately poured another without charge.

I was impressed to be sure but on reflection isn't that really how it should be?  Maybe we've become too hardened by routine poor service and having to pay for absolutely everything, including endless stuff that used to be free.  I know its been a while since we've flown but I still can't get over the advertisement from some airline or other that expounds "The first bag's on us!"  It always used to be, for goodness sake.  They've now started charging for absolutely everything including luggage so to give it away free is nothing more than nauseating, pure and simple.

But thank you young lady and thank you McD.

The country was rather more rolling, this being the Kentucky hill country.  I was on the lookout for illicit stills but couldn't see any.  Not sure I'd know one though.

Jim Bean's still -- quite a big one and not illicit either

However the towns we passed through were all pretty similar in one way, they all had at least 2 churches, one baptist and one other (never Catholic though).  This is solid southern baptist country clearly but the thing that I don't get is how those sometimes tiny towns could support 2 churches yet no other businesses of any sort.  No general store, no bar/diner, no post office.  Nothing.

All the baptist churches had those white spires which differentiated them from the other churches

Sadly most businesses have moved to major road intersections and as everyone appears to have transport, that's where they all head to.  So no small town small businesses, no mom and pop shops.  That's sad.

But I still don't understand the 2 churches minimum per town thing.

We spent a lot of time on the famous highway 61 -- the road from Chicago to New Orleans that Bob Dylan so famously caught with his seminal album of the same name.  This is the route people from Mississippi and the Delta used to travel up to Chicago to find work.

All in all a most pleasant 4 hour drive broken up with some BBQ in a town called Glasgow that did have shops and a BBQ restaurant called Big Moose's before we made it to our hotel in Nashville, the old converted mainline station.  Amtrak stopped coming to Nashville so the railway became redundant here, hence the magnificent hotel.