B B King's - Memphis

If you have read my blog, you know that as a kid I spent a lot of time in the crick. So as an adult our entertainment is hiking in the woods. The wifey and me went just east of Dallas to Tennessee to do some hiking to waterfalls. You will be glad to know that on the very first hike of the week, I fell into the river after trying to tightrope on rocks across the river. At the end of the first day we caught some youngsters jumping from the top of a waterfall. That is some good redneck fun rat there.

The last night of the trip we slipped into Memphis to Beale Street. As an upstanding redneck I have a love for good music. Now admittedly most of my redneck posse are into country and western or blue grass. For this here redneck though it is the blues and rock N roll. I have heard for years about Beale Street in Memphis but I have never been there. I figured it was a variation of Bourbon St in Nawlins (New Orleans). Wrong. Beale Street was rather tame and overrun with adults drawing social security checks. The night we were there they had a car show that had everything from the 30's, 40's, 50's, 60's, 70's and some newer. Every model of the muscle car years of about '68 to '72 was property represented here.

We had decided in advance to have dinner at B B Kings. Hopefully you have some knowledge of B B King, one of the greatest blues players of all time. We saw B B King in concert in Dallas 4 or 5 years ago and it was one of the best shows I have ever seen. So lot of respect here for B B. It is only right that we tear it up in his club. For starters the house band, the King B's indicated they were world famous and it was going to be a great show. As for myself, I had never heard of them. I was really surprised, these guys were really good. They played Motown music from one end of Motown to the other.

Since our main reason to be there was to listen to music, we figured out how to eat in courses so that we would be there for a good while. So we started off ordering fried pickles. I have eaten fried pickles in many restaurants over the last 10 years. As I have indicated in the past, all fried pickles are judged by how they compare to Razzoo's. Razzoo's is the bomb. B B Kings' pickles were a very close 2nd place. Man these were some good pickles.

After a while we ordered a sausage and cheese plate. The sausage was some really good sausage. The cheese was cheddar and pepper jack. You can't go wrong with either type of cheese. Finally the plate had banana peppers. These were the best banana peppers I had ever eaten. Man they were some good luvin'.

Finally the wifey requested that we go for the Brownie-Ice Cream Tower. Brownie, Ice Cream, Whipping Cream, and chocolate drizzle. How can you go wrong. I heard that this was a really great dessert. The wifey went at this dish with a madness. I got a few bites, but the tower was a trench in just a couple of minutes.

No smoking, the waiters were very friendly and efficient (and we were drinking our required ice tea), great food, great music. This was some good times. I don't know when but I will be going back to Memphis. Next time we will order two Brownie-Ice Cream Towers, 1.5 for the wifey and .5 for me.

Givem an 9.578946

Mitcho
©2018

Romans 3:23 – For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God

Romans 6:23 – For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.

John 3:16 – For God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son, that whoever believes in Him may have eternal life.

Jesus Christ is my Lord and Saviour

NOTE: My research indicated that Memphis was one of the highest crime cities in the US. However, we walked 6 blocks down Main St from the Hotel to Beale St and felt very safe. Beale St itself was very safe. So grab some buddies and head out to Memphis.

Please attend church with me next Sunday. Where ever you are, go to the link below:

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCwas2xFpEStMd06-59ggY7g

Buttermilk's - Canton

It's Labor Day weekend, so if you call in sick on Friday, it's a 4 day weekend. Being a long weekend it is time to get out of the city and kick up our heels redneck style. I don't claim to be the smartest rock in the creek. We take off to Grand Saline which is good redneck country, but we go eat lunch in Canton. Three weeks out of the month, Canton is good redneck territory. However, the first Monday of each month it is invaded by all these uppity, putting on the ritz kind of women. I mean thousands of them. The home base at lunch time for all these girlies is Buttermilk's. So what am I doing there? I am there because I got two of those girlies with me.

Buttermilk's puts on like it is fine dining, but the menu is loaded with chicken fried steak, fried bologna, fried green tomatoes, etc. so a good redneck can get some vittles here.

The last time I was here I had the fried bologna, so I ciphered that I should try something different. I ordered the Jalapeño Cheese Burger with Fried Pickles. The burger was some mighty fine grubbing. The Fried Pickles needed more breading and more spices. They were pretty good, but I have been to Razzoos which has the best. The girlies got homemade chips and homemade sweet potatoe fries which both looked good.

Overall givem a 8.32454322!

Mitcho

©2018

Romans 3:23 – For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God

Romans 6:23 – For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.

John 3:16 – For God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son, that whoever believes in Him may have eternal life.

Jesus Christ is my Lord and Saviour

The Fish Place - Pecan Gap, TX

Being a bonafide redneck, you know I have folk down in East Texas. My folk down in East Texas have raved about how good the catfish is at Pecan Gap. If they thought any higher of it, you would think it was God's catfish. Of course since God is more concerned about "the lesser of these", God's catfish probably is the mud cat down at the creek.

Mitcho knows catfish. I have been to Miller Grove, Pine Mills, The Feed Sack (Windom), Vaughans (Tyler), Vaughans (Lake Bob Sandlin), The Fish Net (Caddo Valley, Ar.) and many other so called prestigious catfish joints. My resume and waistline are both pretty good. So Mitcho is a bonafide catfish expert.

After a great deal of pestering, I finally gave in and we did the Fish Tail over to Pecan Gap. This place is pretty hard to find. You go to the center of the city and the only place that has cars parked everywhere for a block or two around it is the place. Kind of cute rustic.

This is one of those all you can eat buffets. That is always a positive. Mitcho is a big fan of no limits. So for $12.00 (seniors) and $15.00 (youngsters), you can eat all the food you want and drink all the tea you can drink (the fish do need to float).

No ordering here, grab a plate and start piling it on. The first food bar is salad. Why. I mean really, Why??? The next one it gets serious. Catfish, spicy catfish, fries, jalitos, hush puppies (aka shut up doggies), baked potato (I refer you to WHY), shrimp, fried shrimp, and BEANS.

Mitcho loaded up on the spicy fish, BEANS, shut up doggies, jalitos, etc.

The spicy fish is pretty good. One of the best of the joints listed above. But the real deal is at the bottom of this blog. It was a little spicy, but it could have used quite a bit more spice.

The shut up doggies were the pretty normal hush puppy, but I like the normal hush puppy, so it was a good.

The fries, were fries.

The jalitos were real good this evening, I will let you know about tomorrow.

The BEANS were some of the best beans I have eaten in a long while (since the last time I went to Vaughans). Pecan Gap beats Vaughans on fish, but nobody beats Vaughans on beans. They must have a good amount of chili powder in them. Pecan Gap's beans has some chili powder, but not enough to be the best.

Did I mention cobbler. I went to the cobbler bar and there was peach cobbler and blueberry cobbler. I had a hard time picking one, so I just took one of each. Only the right thing to do. Good call. This is some mighty good cobbler right here.

Top it all off, the folk paid for the meal and you know we always like a free meal.

Overall,   this is some good vittles. If you are ever in North East Texas on a Friday or Saturday evening, grab some buddies and go fishin in Pecan Gap.

Givem a 8.68798797

The real deal for catfish bar none is Doe Belly's in Forney and Kaufman. Mitcho has on give two 10's on the blog and Doe Belly's is one of the 10's. Yum Yum.


Mitcho
©2018

Romans 3:23 – For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God

Romans 6:23 – For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.

John 3:16 – For God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son, that whoever believes in Him may have eternal life.

Jesus Christ is my Lord and Saviour

Please attend church with me next Sunday. Where ever you are, go to the link below:

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCwas2xFpEStMd06-59ggY7g

Tacos Y Vino -Bishop Arts District / Texas Theatre

Dinner tonight was at Tacos Y Vino in the Bishop Arts District. Details to follow after the story. The wifey and me being big music fans (blues, rock N roll, Jazz, etc.) we are constantly searching for music events in North Texas. In the wifey's recent search she found that the Texas Theatre was debuting "From Nowhere the Story of the Vaughan Brothers". This is a film of the history of Stevie Ray Vaughan and his older brother Jimmy Vaughan. If you know blues music you know Stevie Ray, one of the best that have ever picked the strings. We did the Jive over to Oak Cliff for a night of entertainment. I was later advised that I had taken her on a date. That detail was not disclosed until the evening was over.

The Texas Theatre is on Jefferson Blvd in Oak Cliff (Dallas). It opened in 1931 and till about the late 60;s or early 70's, Jefferson Blvd was one of the most affluent shopping areas in Dallas. Of course everyone that knows anything about Dallas, knows Lee Harvey Oswald was arrested in the Texas Theatre on that November day in 1963. The theatre today has been refurbished and looks very nice and pretty good size. They apparently show a wide mixture of entertainment. Check em out.

If you know the wifey and me, you also know we like food. So the wifey searches on the Texas Theatre website which lists the 10 best restaurants near the theatre. So she reviews the offerings of all 10 and decides the feed trough for us tonight is Tacos Y Vino.

Now for the rest of the story:

So we parked near the theatre and then walked the .4 of mile to 8th St to Tacos Y Vino. This is in an old house that has been remodeled into a restaurant. Back in the day, I bet this was a pretty nice crib. This place is an upper casual to an upscale feed joint. White napkins, fancy tables, different looking glasses, etc. Not exactly the kind of place you would expect this highly respected redneck to grab grub in. The wait staff was very attentive and helpful, with some good personality. Of course the wifey and me are tea totallers, so the wine part didn't do us much good, however, we did go for the pineapple tea.  Very different, but good. We started the meal with the tamale bites which were unreal. Can't describe them, but get you some. The waiter also highly recommended the jalapeno bites. So we will have to try them next time. The wifey and me both ordered Barbacoa Tacos. This is 3 street tacos with barbacoa meat and who knows what else, some kind of cheese, sauces, etc. The tacos were really good. The General Manager David, even followed us out the door at the end because he had not had a chance to talk to us before we left. Now that's concern about the customer's experience. 

I know that some of you readers from time to time take off your redneck clothes and put on some citified duds and slide over to The Bishop Arts District. When you do, you need to checkout Tacos Y Vino and maybe the Texas Theatre. 

Giv'em an 8.845646444

MItcho
©2018

Romans 3:23 – For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God

Romans 6:23 – For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.

John 3:16 – For God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son, that whoever believes in Him may have eternal life.

Jesus Christ is my Lord and Saviour 

Please attend church with me next Sunday. Where ever you are, go to the link below:

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCwas2xFpEStMd06-59ggY7g

Mitcho's Sausage Foil Wrap

This last weekend I attended a redneck board of directors meeting down at Cedar Creek Lake. We had a large gathering of redneck types and wannabees. Of course we got a place with a swimming pool so that all the rednecks in training would have something to do and to stay out of both of my hairs that are left.

A redneck board of directors meeting is basically food, naps, food, naps, repeat. I look forward to these events. Being the head redneck I spent the weekend fixin grub for every occasion. Of course some of the redneck wannabees were watching what ingredients I was using very closely. They probably have never hung out at the creek and caught crawdads, mud cat, water moccasins, and other delicacies of the crick. 

Of course being close to July 4th we had to shoot fireworks. Next time we will call the volunteer fire department ahead of time. Doing the tap dance on a fire is not as much fun as it once was.

Now to the review. I had done some research and decided I would try a sausage foil pack. For years I have been making hamburger foil packs, but never sausage. First of all, I spent the week before researching where I could get some quality sausage. My first thought was driving to West, Texas to the Czeck Stop, but I just didn't have the time. I have a qualified friend on Face the Nation (aka Facebook) that recommends Hirsch's Meat Market in Plano, but just didn't have the time to drive that far. So I was hung to grocery store sausage. After my research I went with Kountry Boys Sausage at Kroger. Great choice, this was some good sausage right out of the package. Pretty spicey!!!
Me and my redneck assistants prepared a smorgasbord of extras to throw in the foil pack. Nothing was moving, this time. We had red potatoes, onion, bell pepper, edamame, green beans, green chile's, carrots, corn on the cob, and plenty of cheese. So I loaded up my foil pack with all of the goodies and then it came to the spice section. I piled on some Italian Season, Paprika, Onion powder, Garlic Salt, and if you like some Tabasco sauce to taste. The more spices you throw on, the better it will get. Throw the foil in the oven at 450 to 500 and cook for about 40 minutes. Man oh man, this is some really fine grub right here. All of my redneck buddies gave my new concoction two thumbs up (assuming they still have both thumbs).

Givin Mitcho's Sausage Foil Wrap a 9.878797

Mitcho
©2018

Romans 3:23 – For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God

Romans 6:23 – For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.

John 3:16 – For God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son, that whoever believes in Him may have eternal life.

Jesus Christ is my Lord and Saviour

Please attend church with me next Sunday. Where ever you are, go to the link below:

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCwas2xFpEStMd06-59ggY7g

Bankhead Brewing Company - Downtown Rowlett

Here we go again. You know the wifey and me attend church at The First Fried Chicken Eaten Mostly Non-Denominational Somewhat Baptist Church. We are involved in a community group (aka Sunday School Class). From time to time the wives connive for us guys to take them out to eat at a nice joint.  Now I am not talking about a run down picnic table at the edge of the creek where you have had great success catching crawdads. This is real fancy. Being fine Bible toting folk(or phone with a Bible app, go figure), we show up much more regular when there is food involved than just plain ole food from the Bible. 

The wifies had conspired to get a dinner at Bankhead Brewing Company. So the wifey and me did the Sardinia over to Rowlett. Bankhead Brewing Company is apparently an upper class watering hole and restaurant. We squatted on the patio (almost creekside good), so we never saw what the inside was all about.

Some of the ingredients on the menu are not in the Webster's Redneck version. Just what is mascarpone, gorgonzola, pomtoms, speck, soppressata, etc. Where's the crawdad, brim, squirrel, rabbit, red beans, and other fine quality redneck grub????

When my time to order came about, the pressure was on. I finally settled on the Carnivore of Love PIzza. Like a buzzard, this guy is a major league Carnivore. All options of road kill are appreciated. This concoction had meatballs, sausage, pancetta, speck, jalapeno's and aged provolone. So just what is speck. I am thinking it is a pinch of some good loving spices. Nope. It is a smoked pork concoction. Meatballs, I am thinking the spaghetti and meatballs type of thingy. I may have been right, but they were sliced very thin and not doctored up with some good sauce. In spite of it all, and realizing that I really don't understand what I just ate, this isn't a bad pizza. Not Pizza Getti quality, but not bad.

To top things off, our good friend LB was having their 85th birthday, so we had birthday cake from Nothing Bundt cakes. Now this was a good. I was very proud of the wifey, there was a large chunk of icing in the middle. She badgered our designated cake cutter about getting that piece that she wound up with one major clump of icing. Now that's good for her diet.

Good times, good friends and pretty good food.

Give'm a 7.8914348

Mitcho
©2018

Romans 3:23 – For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God

Romans 6:23 – For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.

John 3:16 – For God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son, that whoever believes in Him may have eternal life.

Jesus Christ is my Lord and Saviour

Please attend church with me next Sunday. Where ever you are, go to the link below:

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCwas2xFpEStMd06-59ggY7g

Tolbert's - Grapevine

A yahoo named Frank Tolbert and this other rascal named Wick Fowler started a minor little Chili cook-off down yunder in a God forsaken place called Terlingua. This little gathering of redneck Texans has grown into a World Class Chili Cook-off which draws yahoos from all over the world. This feller aka Frank Tolbert opened a Chili restaurant in this tiny little hamlet called Dallas a few years back. After a number of years, his family decided to move the eatery to Grapevine. Today, Tolbert's is a restaurant, Chili Bar and watering hole. They also have live music most every night.

The wifey and me recently went to a concert at the Dallas Zoo (also visited some of my cousins, you know monkeys, gorillas, etc.). The band that was playing was purtin good. So the wifey decided to find out where they were playing next. Their website indicated they were playing tonight at Tolbert's. Rocker's go figure. So the wifey got all excited and decided that I wanted to drive clear across the world in the worst traffic in the US to see this little band. Of course, they were not playing at Tolbert's tonight, but another band we knew nothing about was playing. Because the wifey had already gotten excited about being seen on the town with me, she decided we would do dinner at Tolbert's tonight. She just knows she hit the home run when she got the right to hang out with this good looking devil (mostly devil). 

So we did the skip da loo to Grapevine. Actually traffic was not all that bad.

Tolbert's is an upper class type joint where most of the patrons are dressed up kinda nice (at least they are dressed). So when I enter in my dress T-Shirt with a real classy saying on it, they gave me the stink eye. Then they seat us at the very back table in a corner away from everything else. The waitress after one look was in no hurry to take care of our culinary needs. Then I ordered my Diet Coke and there goes any chance of a large bar tab, so her expectations went in the dumper from there.

As I mentioned this joint indicates it might know something about goooooood chili, so I was thinking and dreaming about chili all the way over there. As we went in, the wifey informed me that she had decided we were ordering 1 order of fajitas and share them. There goes my chili. So some day I will have to sneak over there by myself and test the chili out. I will get back to you. We also ordered chips and salsa.

The salsa was some of the best spiced up salsa I have had in a long time. This was a good. The chips were pretty normal. The fajitas, tortillas, rice, beans, set-up etc was pretty good. Not the best, yet I would go at'em again if I wasn't allowed to have chili.

After dinner I went for cobbler and ice cream. This was apple cobble and vanilla ice cream. The ice cream was not Blue Bell, but it was pretty good. The cobber was real good. Topped off the meal nicely.

The band wasn't as good as the last time we was there, or the band at the zoo, but for a Tuesday night it was a pretty good rock band.

For all you guys from Skeeterville, Mr. Inez Band is playing here June 14. See ya there, or your square.

Overall a fun night with good eaten, give'm a 8.51467874.

Mitcho
©2018

Romans 3:23 – For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God

Romans 6:23 – For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.

John 3:16 – For God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son, that whoever believes in Him may have eternal life.

Jesus Christ is my Lord and Saviour

Please attend church with me next Sunday. Where ever you are, go to the link below:

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCwas2xFpEStMd06-59ggY7g