Feature article
|
 |
|
 |
Bites: Fried pies, ice cream and sweet tea
By Fred Sauceman
 |
Notes from the Store Aisles
My friend Sonny Heiges, co-owner of Johnson City’s The Cottage, gave me a good breakfast tip recently. He clued me in that Food City stores are now serving an all-you-can-eat breakfast buffet, seven days a week, from 7 to 10 a.m. As of this writing, the cost is $3.99, plus drink.
On my first visit, I found a well-stocked assortment of breakfast items: scrambled eggs, bacon, country ham, sliced potatoes sprinkled with parsley, biscuits and gravy, doughnuts, bagels and Danish pastry.
The buffet line is located next to the bakery, where you can buy a “Just Because” cake. These are about five inches square, perfect if you don’t want to invest in an entire cake. The selection is varied, from yellow to chocolate to strawberry, many covered in buttercream icing. They make perfect doggie birthday cakes, too, but remember, no chocolate for canines.
I’m a Food City fan. You can find things there that the national chain stores never seem interested in carrying. Food City was the first store in my town to stock Mayfield’s new Coconut Cake Ice Cream, containing real bits of cake. Regional products like chili from Malcolm’s Meat Company in Bristol, Virginia, and Red Band Candy are common at Food City stores, and most recently, of course, Scott’s strawberries.
Back in the spring, I was in need of Seaver’s Bakery fried pies for a class, so I went to my usual source, the Rainbo Thrift Store near the intersection of Broadway and Main in Johnson City. They always stocked every flavor Seaver’s makes. However, the store was boarded up and closed.
I called the nice folks at Seaver’s, a place I’ve written about before, where fried pies have been made since 1949. Sharon Shipley, in the front office, told me Seaver’s pies were now being carried in Food City stores, first in Kentucky and Virginia, and that they were getting into East Tennessee stores, too.
“Try the Food City on South Roan in Johnson City,” she advised. “The fried pies are two for $1.”
I was relieved to find all the flavors in a stand-alone rack near the bread section. Since then, I’ve found them in other Food City stores as well.
Play-It-Safe Homemade Ice Cream
For the first day of summer, here’s a simple, risk-free homemade ice cream recipe. We still make homemade ice cream with raw eggs, but if you’d rather stay away from them, we’ve had good luck with this version. It achieves an old-fashioned, homemade ice cream taste, with no eggs at all. Claudette Byers of Telford, Tennessee, gave it to us about 20 years ago.
Claudette’s Vanilla Ice Cream
½ gallon milk
1 package Dream Whip
1 box instant vanilla pudding
1½ cups sugar
Mix everything together and beat until thick and creamy. Pour into ice cream freezer and process according to freezer directions.
Book-Signing at Riverfront
I’ll be signing copies of both volumes of my Place Setting books on Saturday, June 30, from 5 to 8 p.m. at Riverfront Seafood Company Fresh Market and Grill, 1777 Netherland Inn Road, in Kingsport. Volume one, which recently received a national award, was published in the spring of 2006, and volume two came out this past March. Both are collections of essays on the food culture of Southern Appalachia.
Salt Shortage?
In a rush on Memorial Day, I ducked into a local Krystal restaurant for lunch. Salt, of course, is a sine qua non of Krystal burgers. Not seeing a shaker on the table, I checked the bin at the counter for packaged salt. None. I inquired. The lady behind the counter replied, “We ran out of salt.”
A Sweet Tea Conundrum
Which reminds me of the most nonsensical restaurant exchange I’ve ever been a party to. This was about 15 years ago in Johnson City, in the West Walnut Street restaurant built like a Quonset hut, reminiscent of the ETSU Mini-Dome. The restaurant has since changed names. The scenario went exactly like this:
Server: What would you like to drink?
Fred: Ice tea. (Note that I did not put the “d” on the end of the word “ice.”)
Server: Sweet or unsweet?
Fred: Sweet. (Note that I do not order unsweet tea.)
Server: I’m sorry, we only have unsweet.
Fred: Well, then, what did you ask me for?
Server: I was hoping you’d say, “Unsweet.”
--------GoTriCities--------
Food writer Fred Sauceman, author of the book “The Place Setting: Timeless Tastes of the Mountain South — from Bright Hope to Frog Level,” is senior writer and executive assistant to the president for public affairs at East Tennessee State University. E-mail him at sauceman@etsu.edu.
|
|
|
|
|
