Tuesday, June 2, 2009
Conversation Bites Bad Food, Sad Food, Chain Food, Clown Food: Should You Ever Eat Where You Buy Your Gas?
Posted by Tracy Moore on Tue, Jun 2, 2009 at 6:15 AM
Sunday's New York Times book review section featured a part-essay-on/part-book-review-of Food of A Younger Land, a new anthology that has collected some of the Depression-era food writing produced by the Federal Writer's Project. Thanks to FDR, the FWP was a New Deal program that gave writers, editors, researchers, historians and critics jobs that paid actual money when there wasn't much going around on that front. Not that anything's changed really. (Tsk, tsk, Obama.)
And apparently the writing was as hit-and-miss as the food these folks encountered on the road. The author sees those writers as the original food bloggers, whose work taken together offers the same kind of collage of public opinion we get sifting through blogs now. But all the talk of Virginia's Brunswick Stew and Georgia's boiled peanuts got me thinking about today's road food, and what modern, can't-miss items can be found on the winding highways in these parts--the essayist put it this way:
Yet as we're all sourly aware, interstate exits rarely, if ever, yield memorable culinary pit stops. Without strenuous preplanning, road food is almost always bad food, sad food, chain food, clown food.
From talking to rock bands on the tour circuit, I've mostly learned that eating at the same place you pump your gas is a recipe for disaster. But surely there are savory eats in the no-man's land of random interstate exits--between, say, here and Savannah, Ga., where I'll be going next week. So please, tell me.
Comments (12)
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Mine is the original drive-and-eat (well) blog. Started as a way to keep me and my friends entertained during my twice-yearly cross-country drives (on all nine of which I have forsworn chain restaurants--AND done the homework you rightly point out is necessary if such an undertaking is to be successful.) Now, Roadfoodie has ballooned into a blog with a large and devoted following of mostly vicarious, armchair enthusiasts. The archives are a goldmine of snack-ortunities along the byways of this huge schizophrenic land.
Check out the recent "Pork Tour" from Marfa to the Hudson Valley. Now THERE are some pork-ortunities!
http://www.roadfoodie.com
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I dunno - driving first off is never a pleasurable situation. Prolonging the effort by straying way off course is pure folly. But that's just me.
On my 14 round trips from here to NY/NJ/CT (so far) I will:
1. drive straight through (16 to 18 hours)
2. pack road food (bag of grapes, egg sammy)
3. stop only for gas and Starbucks.
I'd much rather drive a little hungry than have to stop at those same gas stations to use the 'rest' facilities to take a, you know....
The only "gas and eat" combo I can come up with is in Texas, not between here and Savannah(sorry), but it is fantastic:
http://rudys.com/
Some of my all time favorite brisket.
There was a sad, mercifully short period of my life when I lived off of triangle sandwiches and Sim Jims and whatever else I could purchase with my BP card.
My memories of gas station food are not fond.
The area between Chattanooga and Atlanta is kind of a dead zone unless you're looking for cheap carpet. I'd treat yourself to a good box lunch from The Standard and find a nice roadside table.
My favorite gas and grub is Paul's in Rocky Point, NC - on the way from Raleigh to Wilmington. Or at least it was in the 70s anyway. Gas, a hot dog and some famous Paul's Sauce. Mmmmm.
When I'm driving long distances the only thing that matters is making good time. So I usually just grab a couple cheeseburgers to go from BK while filling up. Taste good? Not really, but I can eat them while driving and they keep me going.
I've been carrying a business card in my wallet ever since we took a trip to Savannah year before last. There's a place called Slick Willie's BBQ in Vidalia, GA. Located at 115 S E Main St.; not far from the freeway. The BBQ was great but the vadalia onion rings were fantastic!!!
In Metter, GA, there is a restaurant called Little Chick. My roommate and I had fried chicken and all the fixings there once on a road trip from Athens, GA to Savannah. I'm not saying I recommend it, but it was certainly an experience. It's the kind of place where old people in a small town all sit around and stare at you because you obviously don't belong.
Don't know if there is one on your route, but when hubby and I went through GA a couple of years ago I remember driving by a "Chick-Fil-A Dwarf House" restaurant. Alas, we had just eaten somewhere else and did not get to check it out, but it looked interesting.
I second the vote for Rudy's. The cream corn is worth a trip to Austin, TX.
My favorite local gas a grub is Mama Mia's. GREAT food and you can fill up at Mapco on the way out the door.
Yeah, the cream corn is amazing, just don't look at the nutritional info for it on their website.......
There's a great breakfast joint at the first Dalton exit called Mr. Biscuit, right around a trio of gas stations. and they even have a drive thru.
It's not right on the interstate, but if you have time while flying through/past/around Macon, you can decide for yourself if H&H is worth all its legend. http://mamalouise.com/
I have spent too many hours driving solo for hundreds of miles to not appreciate the restorative qualities of stretching the legs, making eye contact, having things other than road, signs, and scenery in my focal plane for a few minutes, so much so that find it impossible to elect eating while driving instead. Perhaps I'm just scarred: my family's road trips were marked by our engineer father's obsession with time and efficiency and our accountant mother's proclivity towards thrift, resulting in the legend of the long summer drives spent with Mom and her cutting board in the front seat, handing food back to us as we zoomed along to our destination. Thank goodness the mandoline was relatively exotic then.
Judging by the entries thus far, apparently Stuckey's mis-spent untold zillions on all those billboards, attaching themselves to those Texaco stations so long ago. Where have all those pecan logs gone ?
