The Agony and the Ecstasy - Food on the Road (Food Snob Alert!)

Friday, September 10

Last night I told you we ate the last of our NY fresh supplies - not strictly true.  We still have goat cheese, a chunk of Parmesan, Vermont cheddar and Greek yoghurt, as well as a few Brooklyn bagels and dried pasta.  But it was the last of our NY meat supply, so before we got to the trailer park last night I called and asked for the nearest big supermarket.  I was directed to Food Giant.  Sounded promising.

Not.  I could practically count the salmonella bacteria on the strangely yellow "fresh" packaged chicken, and the ground beef should have come with a warning label.  Actually, isn't it supposed to now?  Safe handling instructions and all that?  I had no better luck with the veggies.  The limited supply was all pre-packaged. Lettuce was iceberg, mushrooms non-existent, and avocados unheard of.  The so-called fresh baked bread was soft and utterly depressing.  I sent Dan off to see if he could at least find a rye and he came back with something labeled 'Jewish Bread.'. We did buy beer - Sam Adams at that - so all was not lost, but I left Food Giant humbled and slightly scared.

That night I located every Whole Foods and Costco on our route between here and Tacoma, Washington, and programmed them into Karen, feeling much relieved.  And today's destination, Asheville, North Carolina, had a Whole Foods.  Between New Mexico and Washington, however, it's a black hole apart from the Costco in Missoula, Montana. 

In the meantime, Dan earned major Brownie points by deciding to not take the Blue Ridge Parkway all the way to Asheville, and settled on a longer, easier loop on still pretty Interstates (I LOVE Interstates!)

Interstate 77 from Virginia to North California. Aussies, don't you think this looks like Victoria?

As a reward I found a place for lunch way off the beaten track in Nowhere, North Carolina that turns fried chicken into something sublime (this is the Ecstasy part of the blog.)

 

Here's what they do to chicken at Keatons:  first they season it, flour it and fry it.  Your basic good fried chicken. Then they do something that turns it into an almost religious experience.  They dip the just-fried pieces into a vat of bubbling secret red spicy sauce that somehow permeates to the bone and the result is something you dive into double fisted.  That's right, double fried and sticky with sauce.  Also, memorable potato salad and spicy coleslaw, both delicious.

 

Take a good look at me now at the official start of the Road Food Fat Fest - by Washington I'll be twice the size (but happy, happy, happy)

Luckily we arrived just before noon because by the time we left, the line was out the door.

I conked out for another sofa nap - addictive - and Dan drove us into the lovely mountain town of Asheville, straight to the Whole Foods downtown.  I nearly wept in gratitude when I walked in - mesclun mix, ciabata,  free roaming chickens from individual farms, organic local beef ground to order, and the thing that really made my day, Erivan yoghurt from Pennsylvania, which I'd given up on ever tasting again (I'd already checked and it's not available in Washington.)

We made it to the trailer park by 4, in time for tea and then a quick segue into cocktails.  Entirely civilized.  BillyBobDannyJoe's out there now grilling the burgers and life is looking pretty good - at last. 

Except for my newly discovered sin: I have Trailer Envy.  Check out this baby, which, I'm told my by new best friend Chuck next door, is right around the $1,000,000 mark (Chuck's by comparison is fairly modest, running brand new at around $650,000, but he can do a deal for you.)