Well, we were somewhere close to the Grand Ol' South (yep, that's all my brain could come up with), West Virginia or North Carolina, somewhere like that, when we decided that we should stop somewhere for dinner, after a longggg day of driving, so we delved into our trusty GPS to search for somewhere that was not fast food, preferably serving Southern food, since we had been wanting to try some authentic south-of-the-Mason-Dixon-line food since we had crossed it. So, Steve discovered a restaurant called "The Velvet Hammer" and our curiosity got the better of us, so we decided that a restaurant with a name like that would have to be checked out, we would find Southern cooking another time. I thought it must have once upon a time been (or still was) a strip club, so I had a feeling we might not end up dining there, but nothing ventured, nothing gained. Unfortunately, we never found it, ( that reminds me of another GPS let-down but I'll save it for another day and another recipe). There was some big building there instead and a side road to some motel, and well, we got a bit scared and wanted to get the hell out of there and back to the highway.
However, on the way to the nonexistent Velvet Hammer, we saw a restaurant called "The Golden Corral", and figured we'd go back there if the Velvet Hammer did not materialize. So we did, as it didn't (that does make sense). Better and better, it was a buffet, which is always great with picky kids, french fries and pasta for them, and grown-up food for us! For the whopping price of $41.00 for our whole family we proceeded into the restaurant, with the most enormous buffet I've ever seen.
I grabbed my plate, and the first things I saw??? Fried chicken (big, giant crispy crunch golden pieces of deep fried yumminess), mashed potatoes, biscuits and gravy, hush puppies and fried okra, barbecued ribs and pulled pork, mac and cheese, and collard greens, peach cobbler too!!!!!!! We had stumbled upon a Southern Fried feast without planning it. Serendipity, see?? It was meant to be. So, I took a bit of all of these things, and quickly glanced to the other side of the buffet, figuring it would be a duplicate, but NO, there was even more. Lots of seafood stuff (blech), Italian pastas and pizzas, Asian dishes, and more and more. It was the "more than you can eat" buffet as Somer called it, and in fact, they call it the endless buffet. Check out their menu online if you want, it's insane. theGoldenCorral. They even provide nutritional info, but I sure didn't want to look :)
For dessert, along with cherry, apple or peach cobbler, cakes, assortment of puddings and mousses and pies, there was a five-tier chocolate fountain, with just about anything you could want to dip in there, cookies, and cake, all kinds of fruit, marshmallows, candy, macaroons and pretzels, and well, I forget what else. Somerset had a chocolate sundae covered in chocolate sauce and chocolate-dipped gummi bears, with chocolate covered marshmallows on the side. She was pretty chocolate-dipped herself too, but in total bliss, she'd found heaven. Dylan had french fries and chocolate milk and ice cream, his favourite foods, and Aria was pretty thrilled herself with oodles of noodles and chocolate dipped strawberries. Anyway, it was such a great meal, for such a great price, we will fondly remember this Golden Corral somewhere in umm, North Carolina. I think, (yeah, I have good memory skills there). We found a Golden Corral in Orlando too, and it paled in comparison for some reason, maybe it was the guy trying to sell us time shares in the foyer, or maybe it was just so busy you could barely get to the food, and cost half as much again, but in Orlando, Somer is over ten, and has to pay the adult price.
So, we got a great break from the road, a quick, delicious and inexpensive meal, all the Southern Food we could eat, the only thing (sadly) missing were Fried Green Tomatoes, but I managed!! Anyway, on a day when I have enough energy too cook (I indexed until 5:00 a.m. and only slept for three hours ugh, explains the brain drain), instead of just sitting on the couch with my laptop, I have a few southern recipes I want to try, and share with you!! Anyway, I didn't take pictures of the food, but here are pictures of the family at our first lunchtime stop in West Virginia earlier in the day.(top). Considering we had left snow behind the day before, we were pretty happy to be out in warmer weather (kind of like today's, lol). The bottom picture was taken the next day in Florida, and it was a beautiful day. Anyway. Happy Trails!
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