1. A little bit of chicken fried…
It’s obvious that you can chicken fry chicken… That’s why it’s “chicken-fried”… I can’t believe I had to explain that to you… You can also chicken fry steak… The cool people call it CFS… At Jack Allen’s Kitchen in Austin, they’re also chicken frying pork chops and beef ribs, too… The stuff is dynamite… I hit up JAK on Sunday afternoon with a friend and scarfed down on the chicken-fried pork chops… CFPC!... I imagine they would’ve been amazing as just regular pork chops… Nice and juicy… But the other white meat prepared like thee white meat took it up a couple echelons.
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| Chicken Fried Pork Chop! With Sweet Potato(e) Fries... Don't worry... The Jalapeno Gravy is on the side |
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| The Chicken Fried Beef Rib, from a prior visit, with the Jalapeno Gravy on top. |
Bonus! I didn’t know it was National Potato(e) Day on Monday, until Tuesday, but thankfully on Sunday I made up for it by having multiple potato(e) items… Jack Allen’s Red Chile Fries (Idaho(e)s with red chile, scallions, lime juice, cotija cheese, cilantro and garlic aioli.) are a full-sensory experience everyone needs to have at least once… I also had their sweet potato(e) fries with my meal… While it’s tasty with the garlic aioli, I think they would’ve been even more amazing with a cinnamon butter of some sort.
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| Red Chile Fries at Jack Allen's Kitchen... One of the best fry items in Austin... If not the world. |
It’s nearing the end of August… That means college football season fixin' to commence… But it’s not the only thing starting… I’m working my first soccer game of the season tonight… Field hockey, men’s soccer, women’s soccer is starting at college’s throughout the country… And in addition to big-time Ohio State, Texas A&M, USC football, there’s small school football starting throughout the country… Go catch the Monmouth Hawks or Baldwin-Wallace Yellow Jackets or whoever your local team is play on the gridiron… It’s a cheaper ticket and you’ll probably get a better seat… The kids love to play in front of crowds and they provide an entertainment value... It’s a good way to get out of the house and mingle with the community.
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| Support you local team! |
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| Affordable fun for the whole family! |
Nothing’s more American than a new zoo… They didn’t originate in America… Much like Sanford & Son, The Office and Kitchen Nightmares, we stole it from the Brits… But we do them better than anyone else… Great news from the Woodland Park Zoo in Seattle this week on the zoo front… They got some baby Otters back in June and they’ve been unleashed to the public!... Nothing better than a Zooborn!... Get there!... BTW... Woodland Park Zoo got www.zoo.org!... They're on the cutting edge of interwebial zooing!
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| Otter pups! (photo from Woodland Park Zoo) |
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| It's Simba! |
Once a summer I meet my friends Heath and Dave for lunch… We all worked together for a year at New Mexico State, now one of us works in College Station, one works in Waco and one works in Round Rock… The most central meeting location was the Belton/Temple area, so I picked out a place I had heard about that was recommended by local native Taylor Jungmann… His most famous quote to date is “I love sausage” which came when asked about having to get used to eating sausage instead of brisket since he was drafted by the Milwuakee Brewers… He recommended Green’s Sausage House in Zabcikville (a suburb of Temple, if that’s possible)… I’ll be honest… The first time I heard of the place, I was hoping it was actually a house made of sausage… But once I got past the initial disappointment, everything was fine… It’s half butcher shop and half restaurant… The restaurant is slinging some good old-fashioned diner food… I ordered the double sausage burger with cheese and cheese tots… Why are more people not making sausage burgers?!?!?!?!?!? It was perfection… Sausage cross-dressing as a hamburger… Next time I’m ordering it with a fried egg… That would make the perfection more perfect… The butcher shop is slinging some badass sausage, too... I bought about eight pounds worth to bring home... Some knackwurst, some jalapeno cheese pork sausage and some boudin... If you can get to Green’s Sausage House, you should do… It’s now highly recommended by two people who “love sausage.”
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| 92% of all places with a pig on their sign are awesome... It's a scientific fact. |
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| The cheese double sausage burger and cheese tots. |
5. This Week’s Dog: Spirit Hound Distillers
The microbrewery movement is played out… Every town has multiple microbreweries and most of them are peddling tainted brews… But fortunately the microdistillery movement is picking up steam… According to the American Distilling Institute there were only 24 in the USA, but in 2011 the number had ballooned to nearly 300… On my recent visit to Colorado, I happened upon one by accident… I like whisk(e)y… On the way to Estes Park one day, we drove past a place that appeared to be a liquor store that had an awesome sign that said “Whisky From Colorful Colorado”… I needed to get a picture with that sign… So the next day, I headed back to the place with my brother and sister-in-law… It turns out it wasn’t a liquor store… It was a microdistillery… Who knew they had those? … This place was Spirit Hound Distillers… And while they were fixin' to be a Whisky Distillery, they just started the process last October, so their first batch of whisky won’t be available until October 2014… Until then though, they are peddling some mean-ass “White Dog Moonshine”, Gin and Richardo’s Decaf Coffee Liqueur (which the owner has been producing for 20 years)… I brought a bottle of the Moonshine and the Coffee Liqueur home with me, but I hadn’t got a chance to crack any of it open until last Saturday… The Decaf Coffee Liqueur is better than Kahlua… I mixed a little bit with some Tres Leches Liqueur and Vodka for a Spanish Russian and a good night sleep… If you’re in the Boulder/Estes Park region, swing by Lyons and get some... They'll give you a hearty sample of each of their offerings in their tasting room and a quick tour of their little operation... Stick around to enjoy some of their magical mixed drinks and enjoy the beautiful outdoor patio in the back.
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| The sign that drew me into heaven! |
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| Don't be scared... It aint your dad/boyfriend's Moonshine |
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