And here’s the fried chicken, fries, jambalaya and red beans and rice from my visit a few months back.
Do you listen to the Basement Yard podcast? If you don't, you should. That sentence alone tells me you'd love it.
It's just like sitting around with your friends talking **** about everything. They start off on a conversation and after an hour they end up roaming to like 14 subjects, all true life lol stuff. The ChampionCHIP brackets had me audibly loling yesterday at work. They're fire.
The best fried chicken I've ever had is all in Tennessee, probably. I'm a sucker for authentic Nashville hot chicken (as opposed to that crap at KFC). I like hot and spicy chicken. With that said, I'd take Gus's World Famous Fried Chicken (had it in Memphis), Prince's in Nashville (where it all started), Pepperfire in Nashville, and Helen's (I had it at their Lewisville, Tx. location) ... I don't really even eat fried chicken much anymore (maybe 2 or 3 times a year), but when I head out to Nashville every once in a while, I crave the Nashville hot chicken. Although, I must admit, I'll probably give Popeye's chicken sandwich a try once soon.
So basically it's like me sitting abound with my buddies...but I get to choose which buddies? What's the upside here?
Best chicken I ever had was at AQ Chicken House, located in the hometown of Tyson Chicken in Springdale Ar, never frozen and always fresh, they do a pan fried then over the coals version that is awesome, sides are out of this world https://www.aqchickenhouse.net/
I tried it when they were new. I wasn't impressed. I've had better Korean fried chicken wings. But hands down the best Korean fried chicken is Toreore in H-Mart. I prefer the bone in style fried chicken than wings. Their hot and spicy is delicious. It was a dark time when it closed for those few years, but I'm happy it's back. I haven't been since it's revival but it'll happen.
I miss Long Point Korea Town. Anything like it in Austin? I know there's a bajillion Asian markets and whatnot.
My god, thinking about places I miss, by far the best collards I've ever had was a the old West Gray Cafe. Smoked ham hocks, greens, onion, spicy stuff, swimming in butter and a little cream....with crawfish tails. I've come close but I've never recreated it.
I have traveled entirely too much.... all across the USA and a lot of the world. The best fried chicken is in Joliet Illinois..... at a restaurant called White Fence Farm. This is a sky view of the chicken compound that has been around for over 70 years. It regularly has waits as long as 3-4 hours, even with it's enormous dinning room. The chicken isn't cheap (in fact it is expensive) , but the quality is exceptional. I prefer spicy chicken, and their chicken isn't terribly spicy but it is still the best I have every had. They offer maybe 10 things on their menu and they still have been consistently busy for over 70 years. https://whitefencefarm-il.com/
Food in Chicago isn't as good as Houston or New Orleans or even some surprise places like Madison Wisconsin. However there are lots of places worth visiting. There are lots of "new" and cutting edge restaurants in Chicago, but honestly most of the best ones are the older ones. There are a lot of them in Chicago outside of downtown. Here is an example: https://www.sawasoldwarsaw.com/index.php/our-history There are places like Sawa's that don't exist in Houston or a lot of the USA simply because Houston is too new and in the heart of Chicago things change slowly. Sawa's is the same type of restaurant that your great grandparents would have gone to and it hasn't changed. The menu is the same from the 1940's and the staff is all made of Polish people that have worked there for decades. All of the food is handmade and the place is full of character. It also still a favorite place for mobsters when they want something other than Italian food......... it is also a really good place to pick up women from Poland if you are into that sort of thing..... but don't expect them to speak a word of english.
