Thursday, November 20, 2008

Welcome to the South.

God help me, I had chicken fried steak for lunch. I'm pretty sure I'd never, ever, ever eaten it before, just on principle. That said, our school cafeteria cooks southern specials three days a week (somehow Monday and Tuesday aren't special enough to merit their own special), and today was CFS day. I don't know what I was thinking.

I certainly wasn't thinking about gravy. Gravy doesn't exist in my universe. I will eat gravy if the turkey is very dry on Thanksgiving, and that's it. Not being a southerner by birth or inclination, I didn't realize that CFS would come utterly drenched in gravy. I ate it anyway. It was pretty decent, and I probably would have enjoyed it if I'd been able to get my mind off clogged arteries and gooey gravy. The batter formed a nice lacy crust, and the meat was relatively tender. Accompanying the steak were surprisingly tasty mashed potatoes, a salad, and black-eyed peas. Only the potatoes were exciting. Their smooth texture suggested reconstitution, or maybe just huge amounts of margarine, but the flavor was great, probably due to the garlic and parsley mixed in. An interesting food experience, but not one I'd like to repeat anytime soon.

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