Welcome to my first official installment on my new Blog series, "Chicken Fried Blog".
My first stop takes us to Fort Worth, Texas; specifically the Star Cafe in the Stockyards. The Band and I were playing across the street at the Thirsty Armadillo (another story!) and our guitar player Clay suggested the Star Cafe as a good spot for a Chicken Fried Steak (known from this point on as CFS).
The Star Cafe is a rustic little cafe that looks like it's been there for about 136 years with waitresses hovering around the same age. I felt good about this place. Blue haired waitresses named Tina just smacks of a good CFS! I ordered my CFS dinner which came with mashed potatoes, a small salad (with ranch dressing of course) and a dinner roll with butter. The first thing that struck me was the small stature of the CFS relative to the price. I figured for $12.99, this thing was going to be mammoth. I would call this CFS medium/small to medium in size. I guess this was to be expected in the Stockyards (tourist trap), but hey, the waitress was friendly between puffs from her Laramie cigarette! The overall look of the plate was haphazard at best. Very Junior High lunch room. For $12.99 I was at least expecting a little parsley! The CFS itself was nice and crispy on the outside, and fairly tender on the inside. Most places it's the other way around. The steak had a good amount of thick gravy that I thought was a little salty. I know it sounds a little silly to complain about its saltiness when the gravy is covering a deep fried slab of beef but I am trying to make this sound like a real food review! The mashed potatoes were lumpy which in my book means that they (The Star Cafe) actually made them from scratch. I'm not sure if you can get the same lumpy results with potato flakes from a box. Maybe I should try. The side salad was typical green salad with bits of purple cabbage and bottled ranch dressing. Overall, I would give the food a solid 7 out of 10.
The real issues began about halfway through our set later in the evening. Now, I'm not sure if this is my age showing or if this is normal for people who eat mass quantities of fried food but I got me a real good case of the heartburns that took 5 Rolaids (Walmart brand-has more sugar in them) to put the initial fire out. Upon arriving at home around 3 a.m., I had to have a few more so I could sleep. Maybe I need to re-think this whole blog idea. I may actually have a real heart-attack if I do this on a regular basis.
So I'm changing the rules. I will continue to order at least 1 CFS per week, but I will be sharing it with my Max Stalling band mates. I will give each member a score card so they can rate the Chicken Fried Steak of the week. I will tally the scores and let you guys know the results. This, I'm sure will save me some trips to the emergency room.
So, to sum up; Star Cafe CFS -
Heartburn -
Till next time, keep eating you happy Hillbillies!
My first stop takes us to Fort Worth, Texas; specifically the Star Cafe in the Stockyards. The Band and I were playing across the street at the Thirsty Armadillo (another story!) and our guitar player Clay suggested the Star Cafe as a good spot for a Chicken Fried Steak (known from this point on as CFS).
The Star Cafe is a rustic little cafe that looks like it's been there for about 136 years with waitresses hovering around the same age. I felt good about this place. Blue haired waitresses named Tina just smacks of a good CFS! I ordered my CFS dinner which came with mashed potatoes, a small salad (with ranch dressing of course) and a dinner roll with butter. The first thing that struck me was the small stature of the CFS relative to the price. I figured for $12.99, this thing was going to be mammoth. I would call this CFS medium/small to medium in size. I guess this was to be expected in the Stockyards (tourist trap), but hey, the waitress was friendly between puffs from her Laramie cigarette! The overall look of the plate was haphazard at best. Very Junior High lunch room. For $12.99 I was at least expecting a little parsley! The CFS itself was nice and crispy on the outside, and fairly tender on the inside. Most places it's the other way around. The steak had a good amount of thick gravy that I thought was a little salty. I know it sounds a little silly to complain about its saltiness when the gravy is covering a deep fried slab of beef but I am trying to make this sound like a real food review! The mashed potatoes were lumpy which in my book means that they (The Star Cafe) actually made them from scratch. I'm not sure if you can get the same lumpy results with potato flakes from a box. Maybe I should try. The side salad was typical green salad with bits of purple cabbage and bottled ranch dressing. Overall, I would give the food a solid 7 out of 10.
The real issues began about halfway through our set later in the evening. Now, I'm not sure if this is my age showing or if this is normal for people who eat mass quantities of fried food but I got me a real good case of the heartburns that took 5 Rolaids (Walmart brand-has more sugar in them) to put the initial fire out. Upon arriving at home around 3 a.m., I had to have a few more so I could sleep. Maybe I need to re-think this whole blog idea. I may actually have a real heart-attack if I do this on a regular basis.
So I'm changing the rules. I will continue to order at least 1 CFS per week, but I will be sharing it with my Max Stalling band mates. I will give each member a score card so they can rate the Chicken Fried Steak of the week. I will tally the scores and let you guys know the results. This, I'm sure will save me some trips to the emergency room.
So, to sum up; Star Cafe CFS -
Heartburn -
Till next time, keep eating you happy Hillbillies!
