“The best pairing American cuisine has to offer”
January 7, 2016 3:56 PM Subscribe
Keith Pandolfi on potato skins, childhood, emotion, and memory: "Potato skins remind me that I don't need New York. That I'd be perfectly happy back home among the commercial strips and fast-food joints of suburban Cincinnati, where I grew up. I'd be fine hanging out with my old friends each night in the bar at Uno's or Applebee's or Chili's, drinking Michelob Amber Bocks."
Then again, at least with restaurant comfort foods, if you travel and they aren't discontinued, you generally can have that moment back again.
When the taste that sends you there was a home recipe from a long-gone relative or friend, that you just can't reproduce, no matter how often you try -- sigh.
posted by Mchelly at 4:08 PM on January 7, 2016 [1 favorite]
When the taste that sends you there was a home recipe from a long-gone relative or friend, that you just can't reproduce, no matter how often you try -- sigh.
posted by Mchelly at 4:08 PM on January 7, 2016 [1 favorite]
This is exactly how I feel about Houston's spinach and artichoke dip!
posted by hapax_legomenon at 4:18 PM on January 7, 2016
posted by hapax_legomenon at 4:18 PM on January 7, 2016
Serious Eats has some great food writing lately.
I have a distinct memory of my first (and maybe last) Amber Bock. I was 21 or 22 and had flown to Vegas to meet a friend who had flown in from NY. We were staying at the Rio and I was hungry and tired and it was only noon so the room wasn't ready yet. We were dragging our bags around the casino looking for something to eat and found a snack bar selling 32oz Amber Bocks for $5.
That's a goddamn Big Gulp of beer. On an empty stomach. We had a great afternoon.
posted by uncleozzy at 4:19 PM on January 7, 2016 [1 favorite]
I have a distinct memory of my first (and maybe last) Amber Bock. I was 21 or 22 and had flown to Vegas to meet a friend who had flown in from NY. We were staying at the Rio and I was hungry and tired and it was only noon so the room wasn't ready yet. We were dragging our bags around the casino looking for something to eat and found a snack bar selling 32oz Amber Bocks for $5.
That's a goddamn Big Gulp of beer. On an empty stomach. We had a great afternoon.
posted by uncleozzy at 4:19 PM on January 7, 2016 [1 favorite]
I never thought an article about potato skins would make me tear up.
posted by The Gooch at 4:21 PM on January 7, 2016 [4 favorites]
posted by The Gooch at 4:21 PM on January 7, 2016 [4 favorites]
That was very nice, I feel the same way- not sure what my hometown food is/was but NYC has also given me the anxieties (that I probably always had but they've intensified so much) and I could definitely have some drinks with old friends while eating poutine or something similar, no problem.
posted by bquarters at 4:49 PM on January 7, 2016
posted by bquarters at 4:49 PM on January 7, 2016
I really like this, although maybe he has never tasted Burger King's mozzarella sticks when they were avaliable. They were so piping hot that they seemed to have evolved into another entity of umami.
The writing is good and concrete though, and makes me so very fond for chicken nuggets. I feel secure when there are chicken nuggets in the world, especially when eating them with my friends.
posted by yueliang at 5:11 PM on January 7, 2016 [1 favorite]
The writing is good and concrete though, and makes me so very fond for chicken nuggets. I feel secure when there are chicken nuggets in the world, especially when eating them with my friends.
posted by yueliang at 5:11 PM on January 7, 2016 [1 favorite]
I really enjoyed reading this. Thank-you.
posted by docpops at 5:13 PM on January 7, 2016 [1 favorite]
posted by docpops at 5:13 PM on January 7, 2016 [1 favorite]
Reads like a weird marketing ploy to bring the hipsters back to causal dining chains. Wouldn't that be insidious? "Did your parents' divorce make you run from your problems? Are you neurotic and editing magazines in what should have been a perfect arcadia where nothing goes wrong, far away from your memories of trauma? Are you now the victim of the generational cycle of divorce? Remember TGIFriday's? Yeah you do."
I'm kidding, obviously. Still wouldn't put it past these places to sink that low, heh.
posted by Young Kullervo at 5:20 PM on January 7, 2016 [6 favorites]
I'm kidding, obviously. Still wouldn't put it past these places to sink that low, heh.
posted by Young Kullervo at 5:20 PM on January 7, 2016 [6 favorites]
If you liked this, it's part of an ongoing series called Comfort Food Diaries. Right now, there are entries on eating in bed, sardines, PB&J, and movie theater popcorn.
posted by Maecenas at 5:25 PM on January 7, 2016 [3 favorites]
posted by Maecenas at 5:25 PM on January 7, 2016 [3 favorites]
It may be generational but I'm having a hard time wrapping my head around the idea of Chili's as comfort food.
posted by octothorpe at 6:41 PM on January 7, 2016 [3 favorites]
posted by octothorpe at 6:41 PM on January 7, 2016 [3 favorites]
Couldn't love this series more! Potato skins are heavenly and great to nosh on.
posted by honey badger at 6:47 PM on January 7, 2016
posted by honey badger at 6:47 PM on January 7, 2016
It may be generational but I'm having a hard time wrapping my head around the idea of Chili's as comfort food.
Two words...Southwestern Eggrolls.
posted by Thorzdad at 7:10 PM on January 7, 2016
Two words...Southwestern Eggrolls.
posted by Thorzdad at 7:10 PM on January 7, 2016
Southwestern Eggrolls.
Google tells me that's actually a real thing that you didn't just made up.
posted by octothorpe at 7:20 PM on January 7, 2016 [1 favorite]
Google tells me that's actually a real thing that you didn't just made up.
posted by octothorpe at 7:20 PM on January 7, 2016 [1 favorite]
This guy has been writing some beautiful pieces on Serious Eats lately.
posted by rossination at 7:28 PM on January 7, 2016
posted by rossination at 7:28 PM on January 7, 2016
Funny you should mention Chilis being comfort food...
A lifetime ago (circa 2005) I waited tables at the Chilis in Rockville MD. ( Michael Stipe knew of which he spoke) Nearby was Walter Reed, Bethesda, and I think a facility that did clinical trials. The amount of people who came in from around the country, whether it was because their loved ones were military personnel injured overseas, or families of patients throwing that last Hail Mary pass, was eye opening. I'll be the first to cheerfully admit we were a dead eyed chain, but I was told many times by guests how happy they were to come in to have that one bit of familiarity amidst the chaos. I never would have thought of a Presidente and a quesadilla Explosion salad as home, but I also can't forget that kid coming in for takeout because her fiancée just woke up from his coma and whose first request was for fajitas...
posted by jacy at 8:33 PM on January 7, 2016 [7 favorites]
A lifetime ago (circa 2005) I waited tables at the Chilis in Rockville MD. ( Michael Stipe knew of which he spoke) Nearby was Walter Reed, Bethesda, and I think a facility that did clinical trials. The amount of people who came in from around the country, whether it was because their loved ones were military personnel injured overseas, or families of patients throwing that last Hail Mary pass, was eye opening. I'll be the first to cheerfully admit we were a dead eyed chain, but I was told many times by guests how happy they were to come in to have that one bit of familiarity amidst the chaos. I never would have thought of a Presidente and a quesadilla Explosion salad as home, but I also can't forget that kid coming in for takeout because her fiancée just woke up from his coma and whose first request was for fajitas...
posted by jacy at 8:33 PM on January 7, 2016 [7 favorites]
I've been meaning to write down my thoughts on chain restaurants like Friday's, Red Lobster, and, most especially, Applebee's for a long time now. I'm of two minds. On the one hand, I'm sophisticated enough to know better. I've traveled widely and eaten a lot of good food, and I realize that chain good just isn't usually very good. And I don't like what chains do to an economy. For me, it's a political issue as much as an aesthetic one. What kind of world do I want to live in? One with mom-and-pop restaurants, not a world with the same menu in every city.
And yet...
I will always remember when chains first came to my little town. Applebee's was first, when I was 14 or 15. I knew what it was because I'd eaten there when the family had gone to one of the bigger cities nearby to go shopping or whatever. And, of course, from tv commercials. That was the big thing. When these chain restaurants that I'd seen ads for for years started opening up in my town, I felt like we'd finally made it. Yes, our economy was based almost entirely on one manufacturer who constantly threatened to close the plant and move to Mexico. Yes, the average age was around 82. Yes, we had the highest teen pregnancy rates and the lowest standardized test scores in the entire state. But now we had the same restaurants as the fancy suburbs of big cities. And when you grow up in a town with the highest teen pregnancy rates and the lowest standardized test scores in the state, fancy suburbs aren't a bad thing to emulate. My best friend in high school was a movie buff, and every Friday we'd go see a new movie, then head to Applebee's. They had half-price appetizers for happy hour. We'd split an order of cheese sticks and jalapeño poppers, and end up painful $5 each with a pop and tip. It really felt like the high life at the time.
There were downsides we didn't realize at the time. One of the summers we were in high school, my friend and I worked together waiting tables at a mom-and-pop. Instead of seeing a movie first, we'd go to Applebee's after our shifts ended. That restaurant no longer exists. It closed a couple of years after we graduated, unable to compete with the new chains. It wasn't alone. In retrospect, what made my hometown such a nice place, despite all the crap I described, is that it really was a small town with local character. You'd go to a restaurant, and the owner was someone who went to middle school with your grandparent. Culinarily, many (especially the one I worked at) were beyond awful, but that was only part of the point. They were a social experience as much as a culinary one. You knew who you'd see if you went to O'Neil's after church on Sunday. But then O'Neil's merged with O'Brien's, and Cedar Street closed, and on and on. As my grandparents' generation started dying off, so too did the restaurants they'd eaten in their entire lives. Like that generation, there are a few restaurants still hanging around, but who knows how much longer they'll last.
Meanwhile, the chains' management has started to realize that my town probably can't support 100 chain restaurants, and they've started pulling out. Friday's was the first to close, I think. The big box stores near them are closing, too. We've already lost JCPenney (!), and Target is closing soon.
I wrote more than I intended to here. But yeah, a lot of things go through my mind when I eat an Applebee's cheese stick...
posted by kevinbelt at 9:01 PM on January 7, 2016 [2 favorites]
And yet...
I will always remember when chains first came to my little town. Applebee's was first, when I was 14 or 15. I knew what it was because I'd eaten there when the family had gone to one of the bigger cities nearby to go shopping or whatever. And, of course, from tv commercials. That was the big thing. When these chain restaurants that I'd seen ads for for years started opening up in my town, I felt like we'd finally made it. Yes, our economy was based almost entirely on one manufacturer who constantly threatened to close the plant and move to Mexico. Yes, the average age was around 82. Yes, we had the highest teen pregnancy rates and the lowest standardized test scores in the entire state. But now we had the same restaurants as the fancy suburbs of big cities. And when you grow up in a town with the highest teen pregnancy rates and the lowest standardized test scores in the state, fancy suburbs aren't a bad thing to emulate. My best friend in high school was a movie buff, and every Friday we'd go see a new movie, then head to Applebee's. They had half-price appetizers for happy hour. We'd split an order of cheese sticks and jalapeño poppers, and end up painful $5 each with a pop and tip. It really felt like the high life at the time.
There were downsides we didn't realize at the time. One of the summers we were in high school, my friend and I worked together waiting tables at a mom-and-pop. Instead of seeing a movie first, we'd go to Applebee's after our shifts ended. That restaurant no longer exists. It closed a couple of years after we graduated, unable to compete with the new chains. It wasn't alone. In retrospect, what made my hometown such a nice place, despite all the crap I described, is that it really was a small town with local character. You'd go to a restaurant, and the owner was someone who went to middle school with your grandparent. Culinarily, many (especially the one I worked at) were beyond awful, but that was only part of the point. They were a social experience as much as a culinary one. You knew who you'd see if you went to O'Neil's after church on Sunday. But then O'Neil's merged with O'Brien's, and Cedar Street closed, and on and on. As my grandparents' generation started dying off, so too did the restaurants they'd eaten in their entire lives. Like that generation, there are a few restaurants still hanging around, but who knows how much longer they'll last.
Meanwhile, the chains' management has started to realize that my town probably can't support 100 chain restaurants, and they've started pulling out. Friday's was the first to close, I think. The big box stores near them are closing, too. We've already lost JCPenney (!), and Target is closing soon.
I wrote more than I intended to here. But yeah, a lot of things go through my mind when I eat an Applebee's cheese stick...
posted by kevinbelt at 9:01 PM on January 7, 2016 [2 favorites]
My chain restaurant comfort foods:
American Cafe's BBQ chicken salad and jambalaya pot pie
Chuy's shellfish quasadilla
BJ's chicken wings, caesar dressing, and alfredo sauce.
These are all from places where I've worked (except Chuy's -- I worked at the Macy's next door, not in the restaurant itself). I've always been too broke or too cheap to go out to eat in chains very often as a customer, but when you're stuck there for a split shift and figure that at least you get fifty percent off...or when you become bold enough to get in the habit of taking home ladlefuls of dressing or sauce in those carry-out containers meant for people getting soup to go, so that you can pour it over grocery store romaine or pasta at home and make a pretty good meal for less than a dollar a head...I don't know, eventually you get used to the food and then you start to even like it.
Working in those chains and hole-in-the-walls with soda guns is also how I gave myself a Diet Coke addiction.
There are some other restaurant foods I miss -- but the restaurants are closed or too far away for me to visit anymore. Chicken parm sandwich from one place near my college campus, jalapeno poppers from another, pad thai from a carry-out near my old apartment, a particular Chinese place's eggplant...
They're not the kinds of things I can make at home. Thinking of them makes me nostalgic, because they're so tied to a particular time and place and I know I'll never have any of them again. But nostalgic in a strange way, because it's strange/alienating to be nostalgic for something that's mass-produced and not personal at all.
posted by rue72 at 11:49 PM on January 7, 2016 [1 favorite]
American Cafe's BBQ chicken salad and jambalaya pot pie
Chuy's shellfish quasadilla
BJ's chicken wings, caesar dressing, and alfredo sauce.
These are all from places where I've worked (except Chuy's -- I worked at the Macy's next door, not in the restaurant itself). I've always been too broke or too cheap to go out to eat in chains very often as a customer, but when you're stuck there for a split shift and figure that at least you get fifty percent off...or when you become bold enough to get in the habit of taking home ladlefuls of dressing or sauce in those carry-out containers meant for people getting soup to go, so that you can pour it over grocery store romaine or pasta at home and make a pretty good meal for less than a dollar a head...I don't know, eventually you get used to the food and then you start to even like it.
Working in those chains and hole-in-the-walls with soda guns is also how I gave myself a Diet Coke addiction.
There are some other restaurant foods I miss -- but the restaurants are closed or too far away for me to visit anymore. Chicken parm sandwich from one place near my college campus, jalapeno poppers from another, pad thai from a carry-out near my old apartment, a particular Chinese place's eggplant...
They're not the kinds of things I can make at home. Thinking of them makes me nostalgic, because they're so tied to a particular time and place and I know I'll never have any of them again. But nostalgic in a strange way, because it's strange/alienating to be nostalgic for something that's mass-produced and not personal at all.
posted by rue72 at 11:49 PM on January 7, 2016 [1 favorite]
Slight related derail: Those who enjoy chain restaurants and/or podcasts might want to check out "Doughboys," which offers some entertaining banter and restaurant ratings from comedians Mike Mitchell and Nick Wiger and their guests.
posted by Nat "King" Cole Porter Wagoner at 1:51 AM on January 8, 2016
posted by Nat "King" Cole Porter Wagoner at 1:51 AM on January 8, 2016
In my hometown there really were no fast food joints. The closest thing for me is a box of dunkin donuts, because that meant my dad was on call that weekend and had to do rounds at the hospital 40 minutes away OR my mom went grocery shopping (also 40 minutes away), had skimped and saved a bundle, possibly had a coupon too, and wanted to treat us. That is the closest thing to restaurant comfort food for me: a shitty donut that you can find every 300 feet in Massachusetts.
posted by Nanukthedog at 5:47 AM on January 8, 2016
posted by Nanukthedog at 5:47 AM on January 8, 2016
Som (or Thom) Gip Mein. (Three ingredients curried chow mein.)
NYC born and bred, so hometown is it. Used to be you could easily find a decent serving in Chinatown, but, no more. :-(
(Can be sort of duplicated at home, but it's tough.)
posted by pjmoy at 6:06 PM on January 8, 2016
NYC born and bred, so hometown is it. Used to be you could easily find a decent serving in Chinatown, but, no more. :-(
(Can be sort of duplicated at home, but it's tough.)
posted by pjmoy at 6:06 PM on January 8, 2016
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posted by Mchelly at 4:06 PM on January 7, 2016 [3 favorites]