Tag: food

review of Paula Deen’s restaurant

This past weekend I ate at Paula Deen Buffet restaurant at Harrah’s Casino in Tunica, MS.  For those of you who don’t know who she is, she’s one of the stars on The Food Network, and she’s famous for Southern-style cooking.  She’s also famous for using butter in almost everything she cooks.  As you might guess, the food was great.  I don’t even want to know how many calories I consumed.

The restaurant has 7 different buffet lines, and none of them were the kind that are just there for looks (like fruit*) — there was something scrumptious on every one.   The fried chicken was the best I’d ever eaten from a restaurant — it was very close to what my mom makes.  The baked macaroni and cheese was incredible.  I could go on and on about how great the food is.  Let’s just say I could eat there every day.   I do need to mention that one of the buffet lines has only desserts, and from the ones I sampled, it was all good.  I have to recommend the chocolate ooey-gooey butter bars — I even brought back a box of those for later.   🙂

If you ever get the chance to eat there, by all means, do so.  (I wonder what needs to happen to get one of those to open in central Arkansas…)

* I have nothing against fruit, but when I go to an all-you-can-eat buffet, I’m not there for fruit.

viewer mail, issue #18

One of the regular readers here recently mentioned that we haven’t put out an issue of viewer mail in a while.  They are correct.   And there is no good excuse for it, because it’s a fun series, and there’s plenty of material to work with.  Perhaps the writers are slackers.  So to light a fire under them, I told them they had to put out a new episode of viewer mail or they’d go to bed without supper.  That is sufficient motivation, so now we have the next issue of viewer mail.

As usual, this is based on actual search terms used to find this blog, and I’ll focus on the ones we haven’t already written extensively about.

Click image to see a larger, more tempting picture.

* large sausage & bacon sandwich — My dream of the future is that someday we’ll be able to download stuff like this.  Just type it in at a certain site (or select it from pictures), and it’s downloaded through the Internet.  Although I wonder if the tubes of the Internet are subject to artery clogging… Why would I worry about that, though?  I’m American!  Here’s the kind of breakfast sandwich I would download — bacon, sausage, copious amounts of cheese, held together by grilled cheese with bacon.   (There could hardly be a better breakfast sandwich, unless you add some milk gravy.)

* buffet calories — This is an invalid request.  The whole nature of a food buffet is unlimited, so if you’re wanting to count calories, you should avoid a buffet.  The great part of a buffet is that you get to eat what you want, in whatever combination you want, and however much you want.  That’s why it’s called “all you can eat”.   If you don’t eat all you can eat, you’re getting ripped off, because that’s what you paid for.

* homer simpson freak out — Your search returned 7,352,809 results.   🙂

* barack obama thinking — Your search returned 0 results.   (That was too easy…)

* super awesome bacon sandwhich — See above.  Actually, there are a number of bacon sandwiches (and other awesome bacon foodstuffs) documented here.  You can click on the “Food Critic” category, and many will either start with bacon or have it added.  (It’s inevitable that someone will always say “needs more bacon”.)   One of the Food Critic entries is a massively stacked , with many layers of bacon.  You can also search for our Buffet o’ Bacon series, where we conduct our own bacon recipe research, involving the Buffet o’ Blog important chefs (of which there are several).  There you’ll find some bacon dishes you’ve probably never thought of before, and it may make you hungry.  🙂

* women have bad moods — Your search returned 380,599,248,107 results.  (I hope I don’t get in trouble for that!)

I’d better wrap this up before things get too crazy.   Actually, I suddenly have a powerful craving for bacon…  Time to exit stage right to search for bacon!

caption contest, man eating big burger

Once again it’s time for our next weekly caption contest.  This week’s photo features a man eating a giant cheeseburger.  And he’s wearing a helmet.  Who knows why?  (Hopefully you do.)  Make up your best guess to explain this picture — or make a joke about it or even a pun (if you must) — and leave it in a comment.

(To see our other caption contests, click on the “Say What?” category in the sidebar.)

The Cheese & Burger Society

I recently stumbled upon the website of a group called The Cheese & Burger Society.   They have a really neat website design, and there are many pictures of different styles of cheeseburgers.  And the announcer sounds like Krunk from “The Emperor’s New School” cartoon, which is an awesome voice.

#12 sounds awesome.  And then the announcer says “wanna ride shotgun?”   I sure wouldn’t want to ride in the backseat behind someone who just ate one!

I have to disagree with the name of #19 — The Southern Belle.   That is no authentic southern burger!  What’s with the gruyere cheese, pickles, and cole slaw?!?  An authentic southern burger would have lots of meat, cheese, and bacon, and it would be so greasy that it’s served with wax paper because it will drip grease while you eat it.   If you’re not familiar with this kind of burger, you may think that sounds gross, but you couldn’t be more wrong.   It’s not healthy, but you will not eat a better tasting cheeseburger.

I’m not against mixing exotic flavors, but it seems like most of the burgers in that list try adding flavor by using weird fruit and vegetable combinations, like roasted peppers and glazed apple slices and cole slaw — ugh!  The best way to improve burgers is by adding various meats and cheeses, then things like BBQ sauce and/or chili.