Tastes like chicken

Let me preface my choices by saying that I am a very plain eater. I like chicken fingers, chicken parmigiana (the chicken finger of Italian), fried shrimp (the chicken finger of seafood), chicken quesadillas. . ok, you see where I’m going? basic stuff. until you get to desserts! Then, we’re talking! Except, really, I still just prefer a gooey chocolate chip cookie or vanilla ice cream. basic. I’m perfectly content going to Chili’s if I get to go out for a meal! If it tastes like chicken, I’m happy!

But, there are a few places out there that I long to dip back into if I’m ever in town:

The Blind Pig Tavern in Athens, GA. I was there in the beginning, so this little hole in the wall has a special place in my . . belly. I knew someone on the kitchen staff when it first opened up and the homemade honey mustard and chicken fingers were awesome! Really a lot of the food was really great. They’ve changed over the years, but they are still good. I enjoy the Chicken Cordon Bleu sandwich, too. Hubby gets the Teriyaki wings. We are creatures of habit, ok? But, also, they had large plastic mugs you could purchase and then the refills were cheaper, so we lugged those mugs around with us all through college and filled them with margaritas on the rocks when coming for Wednesday night trivia or over the weekend. It was nice during the summer when we were part of the “local” crowd rather than the student crowd. They expanded and added pool tables and air hockey (does it get any better than air hockey?) and other video games.

Beef O’Brady’s is a chain, but I hadn’t heard of it much before they converted a Hardee’s on the corner in front of our apartment into one 7 years ago. Sadly, it’s closed now, as is the other one that opened up not too far from our house, but I always perk up if I see one (like when we were at the beach in Florida). No one else ever seemed to be as impressed with it as me, but I really enjoyed the O’Brady burger with provolone cheese on it and they had great onion rings. Somewhat expensive, but still good.

Ok Cafe in Atlanta, GA has an old diner feel and good homecooking. You can get a vegetable plate and be perfectly content. Maybe with a milkshake.

We’ve found our basic Mexican restaurants in places we live, too, that have Quesadilla Rellenas and pitchers of margaritas on the rocks on the menu. In Rome, GA it was El Zarape. In Woodstock, it’s Cazadores (deer hunter, really? but, I’m not judging the name, just the food). We were once weekly if not bi-weekly patrons and were well known by the staff and owners. (creatures.of.habit)

Finally, I don’t remember the name, but the little place we had lunch before the wine festival outside Boone, NC on our retreat had incredible chocolate chip cookies.