PB and J Burger

Do you want to make a tamale with peanut butter and jelly? Go ahead! Somebody will eat it.—Bobby Flay

Antony and Cleopatra. Lennon and McCartney. Simon and Garfunkel. Abbot and Costello. Ben and Jerry. All are famous pairings. But nothing goes together like peanut butter and jelly.

Growing up I was a PB and J snob, for it had to be smooth peanut butter and grape jelly only. For a brief moment in the space-time continuum, my mom substituted jelly with bananas and that in itself was a wonderful duo for the tastebuds. However it was never a replacement for the original.

A couple of weeks ago, I lived out the above quote from Bobby Flay, except I substituted the tamale for a cheeseburger. Now I never would have ever thought of this, but due to some adolescent peer pressure (yes in a testosterone world, it still exists in your sixties), I succumbed to this immature baiting from co-workers. It is still confusing to me how the testosterone levels can reduce as you age but the level of immaturity stays the same.

I was coerced one day to eat this amalgamation of Americana food… hamburger with cheese, bacon, pickled jalapeno, peanut butter, and GRAPE jelly. Well at least they got the jelly flavor right.

This ostentatious sandwich was served by the innovators at Whiskey John’s Restobar in Shelbyville, Indiana. Some would think you need a few belts of some Kentucky bourbon to order this. I wanted to loathe this burger so bad that I would never, ever consider ordering it again.

However, against all things tasteful and sensical, I LOVED IT!!!

Don’t ask me how it works, like trying to figure out falling in love, leave it alone. It just works. I will treat this as a delicacy and only eat it a few times a year, otherwise I will regress to my 6-yr. old self and eat it everyday.

So I guess I really have matured to some degree.

Whiskey John’s Restobar in Shelbyville, IN.

Don’t think about it, just eat it!!!

Yummy Bowl…Greenwood, Indiana

While your horse is strong, travel to see places—-Mongolian proverb

Well, this quote is my new mantra.

Mrs. Big Surf and I usually have this conversation about once a week, albeit we usually don’t use the horse reference. It’s usually about me being strong enough to navigate the streets of other countries whilst I can still move about in an upright position.

So we decided to compromise on this beautiful day in October and whilst our Honda Civic was strong, we made the short drive to Greenwood, Indiana and visited Mongolia…or at least the southern Indiana version of Mongolia, to Yummy Bowl.

Now I just didn’t fall off the turnip truck, so I figured the Mongolian cuisine I ate at Yummy Bowl was a blend of Americanized (fill up a bowl to defy the laws of physics) and Sino-American (lots of veggies with sauces and noodles and rice and shrimp). I deduced this since I didn’t see any yak milk or yak yogurt, traditional Mongolian staples. I also didn’t see any animal carcasses laying around in the open kitchen to prepare another traditional Mongolian dish, boodog (meat cooked in the carcass). Also good luck finding shrimp, broccoli, and mushrooms in the Gobi Desert.

Mongolia’s history goes back to Ghengis Khan in the early 1200’s after he united all of the Mongolian tribes, a feat that is remarkable considering the modern-day Republican party or the rebellious Democratic Squad . Then he conquered parts of northern China after a hankering for Peking Duck and dumpling take-out.

Nevertheless, Yummy Bowl is quickly becoming one of my favorite lunch spots. Whatever kind of food they advertise, it is delicious and served in a way that is fun to eat.

After filling your bowl as full as humanly possible and choosing your sauces, it awaits for the large grill and expert cooks too prepare your dish.

Can you smell the welcoming aroma and hear the sizzle?

The final product. I ordered the vegetarian bowl. The sauces add so much extra goodness.

I know Mr. Khan would have questioned my choice of Mongolian fare. However, since there was no goat, mutton, or camel on the menu, I may have had a good defense before he made a boodog out of me.

Go eat lunch at Yummy Bowl. The food and experience is wonderful, even though you may not be able to order yak milk for the young’uns.

Frozen Corn, I Know, No Big Deal

The corn is as high as an elephant’s eye an’ it looks like it’s climbin’ clear up to the sky—Oscar Hammerstein II

Since moving to Indiana, I see a lot of corn. I think a lot about corn. I could write a song about corn but evidently Mr. Hammerstein took care of that. I think I have developed a corn pollen allergy (is there such a thing?). But, and I can’t stress this enough, I eat a lot of corn.

This time of year in southeastern Indiana, the only place you don’t see corn is where there’re soybeans.

The Native Americans gift to us (along with a little help from Monsanto), had to be eaten fresh, unless they could freeze it in the nearest river or pond until Fred Wolfe got tired of falling into frozen rivers to freeze his corn and decided to invent the refrigerator in 1913.

Today I “put up” some freezer corn, as I heard many hard-workings moms and grandmas say during my childhood in eastern Kentucky. This was my first batch ever. At sixty-six, it was about time I learned this tradition. And let me tell you, I couldn’t have been more proud of myself if I had split the atom. And if you had seen my kitchen at completion, it looked like a small atomic bomb had detonated, I guess from too much yellow corn uranium.

Anyways winter can’t come soon enough for me to enjoy a little bit of summer in Indiana. Thank you Mr. Wolfe.

Kopper Kettle Inn

Winner winner, chicken dinner—source unknown

Is there anything that sits on a table in front of you that is better than fried chicken?

Some say the above quote has an origin in the back alleys of shooting craps during the depression, when desperate gamblers just wanted to win so they could purchase a chicken dinner. Well we rolled snake-eyes on a proposition bet this week.

A newly acquainted couple treated the Big Surfs to a wonderful night at the Kopper Kettle Inn in Morristown, IN. This is an old inn and has been a restaurant for about a hundred years. The specialty is Hoosier fried chicken. Now being an eastern Kentucky boy, I don’t know the difference in Hoosier fried chicken or southern fried chicken. But one thing I do know…the Hoosiers love their fried chicken. There is even a “Winner Winner Chicken Dinner” chicken trail throughout Indiana.

Recently I found out that Colonel Harland Sanders was born in Indiana (Henryville). So the DNA of eleven herbs and spices wrapped in a helix of lard began in southern Indiana. Well, that is close to Kentucky.

OK enough history, back to the task at hand, eating this fried delicacy. The star here is the plate of fried chicken served family-style in this beautifully decorated old grande dame on US 52. I have eaten a lot of fried chicken in my day and I have my favorites, Mrs. Big Surf’s, my mom’s, any fried chicken I ate at a West Liberty Christian Church dinner to name a few. This is really good fried chicken at the Kopper Kettle. It is crispy on the outside and has tender and delicious meat inside, and not greasy…a rare combination.

For those of you in the minority who love chicken livers, well you can’t go wrong ordering them up here either. These are really good livers. And considering a chicken only has one liver, a whole hen house sacrificed for the plate that was put in front of us for only one order.

The sides were good, especially the green beans. We had a broccoli cheddar soup also that was outstanding.

I hope to return to the Kopper Kettle soon and, no, this is not a shameful solicitation for another invite but we wouldn’t turn it down. I just hope I don’t get larded and feathered when I return to my roots in Kentucky.

A plate of comfort.

For those who love fried chicken livers, you can’t wrong here. For the rest of you, my condolences for missing out.

July 4th in Waldron, Indiana

If our Founding Fathers wanted us to care about the rest of the world, they wouldn’t have declared their independence from it—Stephen Colbert

To me nothing says “America” like small town celebrations. And Waldron, Indiana puts on a beaut. They call theirs “Freedom Fest”.

As soon as you drive into this small town in southeast Indiana you see what seems like all of the townspeople assembled out on their front yards and the rest of southeast Indiana looking for a parking spot. People dressed in the red, white, and blue are everywhere. Cars are everywhere. There are food trucks and vendors. There is a live band and a dunking booth. There is even a hot-air balloon giving rides to the extent of the length of the tether. But everyone is there for one thing…FIREWORKS!!!

So our mission was to somehow find a place to park, eat some food and leave before the fireworks. We knew how difficult it would be to try to leave this congestion after the fireworks with two small grandchildren and a granddad who is always an intestinal twitch away from a public spectacle.

So we parked about two miles out of town on the road by a cornfield. This is something we couldn’t do for previous fireworks shows in eastern Kentucky, big hills and all. Flat land is great for fireworks and avoiding traffic.

When there are two food trucks serving BBQ, it was hard to decide. So…of course I started eating one serving of rib tips from one truck while waiting in line to get a brisket sandwich from another. This was an excellent plan.

The rib tips from Mel’s Catering were very tasty and tender. When you can eat them with a plastic fork, you know they are very tender.

Mel’s Catering had a great menu for festival eating.

My second BBQ meal was from Dave’s Double Barrel BBQ. This was my second time eating Dave’s food and it was just as good this time. The brisket sandwich was really good and the cole slaw may have been some of the best I have eaten as a BBQ side dish. I loved the sweetness of the dressing.

The brisket sandwich from Dave’s Double Barrel BBQ is so good, especially with Dave’s sauce.

I was very impressed by this cole slaw from Dave’s. Even my grandson loved it.

Check out this line for the pineapple whip.

Most of the festival was set up at the Waldron High School athletic complex.

A large crowd awaited the fireworks.

I hope they stopped the balloon rides when the fireworks started.

Some of the fireworks pictures that were taken outside of town.

The “pinwheel”.

I know some folks were unhappy with America this 4th of July but I didn’t find any in Waldron, Indiana.
And Big Surf had the freedom to eat as much BBQ as he could handle.

Let freedom ring!!

Taste of Shelby County, Indiana

The more street food we have, the more it’s embraced by every income strata, the better world we have—Anthony Bourdain

I love festival food.

Mrs. Big Surf and I took to the streets of Shelbyville, Indiana, our new hometown recently. No not to voice our dismay or celebrate anything but to eat, which is my favorite new pastime.

We partook of the Taste of Shelby County 2022. Incidentally, this is part of Shelby County’s Bicentennial celebration. In 1822 the president of the US was James Monroe and future presidents Ulysses S. Grant and Rutherford B. Hayes were born. Matthew Brady, known for his civil war photos, was also born in 1822.

OK, enough history.

Shelbyville is a picturesque small town in southeast Indiana, about thirty minutes SE of Indianapolis. It has a pretty center circle or actually more of an ovate shape. The buildings in the town center have lots of character and flowers abound. Also on the this day the aroma of festival food was rousing my senses.

Now I know that man does not live on festival food alone since we usually can’t get breakfast at festivals. However, festivals usually provide good tasting food in a community setting where people are generally happy to be there. And Taste of Shelby County was no exception.

After perusing the layout of food, the missus and I settled on Dave’s Double Barrel BBQ. It was a very good choice. I had smoked ribs and the blue-eyed darlin’ had pork nachos. We sampled other treats and my apologies to the other vendors but I can’t remember their names. I was too focused on maximizing my food-to-time-to-ticket ratio. I do have pictures though.

The ribs and pork nachos were very good from Dave’s Double Barrel BBQ. He has a food truck, lives in Shelbyville and caters.

I maximized my tasting by buying a half of two different sausage dogs.

Taste of Shelby County is an annual event and I hope you can be there next year, you will see me with a smile on my face hiding a mouthful of something grilled.

Cholula Mexican Restaurant, Shelbyville, Indiana

When you roll something this good, it’s usually illegal…Anonymous burrito shop sign

I was a late-comer to the Mexican or Tex-Mex cuisine, only having the occasional drive-thru taco or just ordering tacos in some of the finest Mexican restaurants of Houston when I lived there. I wish I could go back to my early twenties self and slap him in the face with a seafood enchilada and say, “What is wrong with you?”

Now I love foods from Mexico and whatever Tex-Mex is.

We visited Cholula Mexican Restaurant in Shelbyville, Indiana (now my home) for a Sunday lunch with some family. This was the first visit to this establishment and I loved the festive atmosphere. The menu was filled with dishes I want to try and the staff was very friendly and service-oriented.

Now I don’t mean to sound derogatory to the country of Mexico and its chefs, but I consider the appetizer of chips and salsa the best part of the Mexican eating experience. Let me explain…the salsa can tell me a lot about what is to come and heighten my expectation. Everyone is excited to see the chips and salsa and they usually start digging in and the conversation starts. These chips were warm and crunchy and the salsa was delicious.

I ordered the Burrito California, filled with chicken, beans, rice, sour cream, guacamole, salsa, and cheese. And let me emphasize the cheese here, because there was a lot and if you don’t like melted, gooey, delicious cheese, I suggest you look elsewhere on the menu. I loved this burrito.

Everyone at the table loved their food and I will be back.