Friday, December 5, 2014

Food

As humans, food is always the issue a couple of times per day. There are usually two choices: eat in or eat out.

Eating out in southern Alabama is somewhat of a challenge if one wants to avoid eating food which is drowned in hot buckets of oil.  Most restaurants seem to rely on a deep fryer for almost everything. We like seafood BUT it is very hard to find seafood which is not drenched in unseasoned flour and drowned in hot oil. Whether fish, crab, shrimp or oysters, they are prepared identically. The worst part is that it all begins to taste the same. Yes, of course, a few restaurants do exist that have some seafood options that aren't deep fried. But 95% of the seafood here seems to be breaded and deep fried. And “fish” in the local area is usually farm- raised catfish from Mississippi.

But seafood is not the only problem. Breakfast is another issue. Besides the problem with grits as the common starch on a breakfast plate, side meat is also a problem. We've been to several places that deep fry “breakfast sausage.” Some places have sausage links that they deem to prepare in a fryer instead of a cooking on a flat top grill. Though the term “breakfast sausage” may mean the traditional link sausage (“Jimmy Dean” etc.) or bulk sausage patty, but in some places it means a chunk of smoked rope sausage which is split down the center and deep fried. Of course the menu is unclear as to what type of sausage is being served. Wait staff are not that helpful either as they may or may not know the difference. Caveat emptor.

And then there is bacon. Normally, bacon is thick or thin, crispy or wimpy, smokey or not smokey. It is a challenge to order anywhere. I don't like bacon which cracks whenever it is dropped on a plate. I like it with an oink or two left in it. I have had omelets containing bacon strips and pieces. Some more crisp than others. But there is something very wrong with omelets advertised as containing bacon which is nothing more than Baco-bits crumbles. It is something you don't want to eat twice. Trust me.

Donna and I had breakfast at a popular restaurant in downtown Fairhope (a good sized community) and she ordered an egg with bacon. You guessed it: the bacon was deep fried! The bacon was so crisp it shattered by looking at it. The waitress checked on us and Donna commented on the incinerated bacon. Apparently, the owner overheard the conversation and came to discuss the issue. The owner stated that people like their bacon crisp and, therefore, it is deep fried. Donna was told that if she didn't wanted it deep fried, she should have ordered it prepared differently. Really? Who would ever think that bacon would be deep fried? A deep fried easy-over egg, anyone? We haven't rushed back to that place.

We have been accustomed to the fact that wherever we park our rig, that “butter” and “cheese” means different things to different people. When asked for butter, waitstaff will invariably bring some form of margarine and very seldom butter. Butter comes from a cow, oleo from a plant. How hard can that be? It's like asking for a rib-eye steak and being served a pork chop. Okay, maybe not quite. And cheese is the same way. There is a lot of very good cheeses made in this country, but little of it has made it to this area. Cheese usually means something akin to Velveeta. It's like that cellophane wrapped yellow gook that you see in the dairy case. Cheddar cheese on the menu means that the yellow gook was not cellophane wrapped by the producer.

Eating in has never looked better. And, by the way, buying cheese at the local grocery labeled as 'Made in Wisconsin” is not a sure fired way of getting a quality product. If the label says “Crystal Farms,” run towards the box of Velveeta. It's probably better.