Tag: fried chicken

AmericanBrewery-PubDog FriendlyNew MexicoRating: Very GoodRio Rancho

Turquoise Desert – Rio Rancho, New Mexico

Gil Garduno11:46 AM

A 2016 online survey conducted by Statista asked 719 adult respondents “What is the maximum length of time that you would drive to a place to eat?” More than half (51-percent) of the respondents indicated they would travel 16 to 30 minutes to a restaurant. The limit for another 26-percent was 30 minutes to an hour.  Only five percent said they would travel more than one-hour.  Even the most prolific driving diners don’t have anything on David Schuler of Mississippi.  To sate his cravings for his favorite pizza in Massachusetts, Mr. Schuler drove over 1,400 miles and through 16 states.  Even that distance pales in comparison to humpback whales who travel as much as five thousand miles to get their fix of plankton, shrimp and salmon. Now you know what my argument will be next time my Kim complains about my “end-of-the-Earth” drives to visit a restaurant we haven’t previously visited.  Her counter-argument usually involves “all the great restaurants within a couple miles” of our Rio Rancho home.  She obviously doesn’t enjoy drives of great distance as much as our debonair dachshund The Dude and his dad do.  On a lazy August Sunday morning I surprised her by taking her…

AlbuquerqueAmericanClosed in 2023Dog FriendlyGone But Not ForgottenNew Mexico

The Feel Good – Albuquerque, New Mexico (CLOSED)

Gil Garduno5:42 PM

“Whoa! I feel good, I knew that I would, now I feel good, I knew that I would So good, so good, ’cause I got you So good, so good, ’cause I got you So good, so good, ’cause I got you.” ~James Brown The lyrics to the “Godfather of Soul’s” signature song aren’t etched on the windows or door of The Feel Good, but several other thematic aphorism are.  There’s Virginia Wolf’s quote, “One cannot think well, love well, sleep well, if one has not dined well.”  M.F.K. Fisher’s “Sharing food with another human being is an ultimate act that should not be indulged in lightly” is etched on the door while Alan D. Wolfelt’s sage “Food is symbolic of love when words are inadequate” occupies another window.  Maybe because it’s a shorter quote, James Beard’s “Food is our common ground.  A universal experience.” occupies a small window. One quote which perhaps should be etched on The Feel Good is San Francisco-based journalist Madison Park’s “Having a belly stuffed with comforting food can feel like a warm hug from the inside.”  In a 2010 article for CNN, Park explained why eating a lot feels so darn good.  You might…

ArizonaChickenDog FriendlyRating: N/R (Not Rated)SouthernSpecialtyUnited States

Gus’s Fried Chicken – Mesa, Arizona

Gil Garduno12:02 AM

As the crow flies, Nashville and Memphis are separated by about 210 miles.  You can get from one to the other of these two prominent Southern cities–that are probably best known for their signature sounds–in a speedy three hours.    Nashville sits on the north-central part of the Volunteer State.  It’s considered the cradle of country music.  Legendary pantheons of country music include the Grand Ole Opry House, the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum and historic Ryman Auditorium.  Honky-tonks throughout the city feature live music as aspiring artists and song-writers compete to be noticed. Memphis, progenitor of the blues, soul and rock n’roll, borders the mighty Mississippi at Tennessee’s west flank.  Popular landmarks include the Rock n’ Soul Museum, Blues Hall of Fame and Elvis Presley’s Graceland.  Beale Street, “America’s most iconic street,” is home to B. B. King’s Blues Club and a number of other clubs which feature the blues, soul and rock n’roll.  No other state can legitimately claim to be birthplace of four distinct genres of music as Tennessee does.  If you’re an aficionado of country, blues, soul and rock n’ roll, there’s nowhere else you might aspire to be. It isn’t solely music for which Nashville…

AlbuquerqueClosed in 2022Gone But Not ForgottenNew MexicoRating: ExcellentSouthern

Ms. Gennie’s House of Chicken – Albuquerque, New Mexico (CLOSED)

Gil Garduno5:04 PM

My Air Force friend and colleague Al Garcia once shared one of those amusing anecdotes that will leave your head shaking in disbelief even as you’re practically rolling on the floor with laughter.  According to Al who grew up in the Socorro area, his parents had to make a daylong trip to the big city (Albuquerque), leaving him and his sister at home to finish their chores.  At around lunchtime, he and his sister got hungry and decided to prepare some rice.  Never having cooked rice before, they poured an entire bag of rice into a pot, added water and turned the stove on high.   In a few minutes, rice began spilling out over the pot like lava flowing from a volcano.  Cooked rice covered the kitchen floor.  Not wanting to anger their parents, Al and his sister decided to get rid of the evidence.  They scooped up all the rice and fed it to their chickens.  The chickens gorged themselves on the all-you-can-eat feast of rice, eating so much that they (and this is the part I found hard to believe) burst, fowl feathers exploding all over the yard.  When their parents got home, Al and his sister…

Rating: N/R (Not Rated)Soul FoodSouthernTexasUnited States

Delvin’s Restaurant & Catering – Amarillo, Texas

Gil Garduno12:01 AM

Throughout its storied history, Amarillo’s culinary reputation has been based primarily on one kind of food: beef.  That’s no surprise considering Amarillo-area ranches produce thirty-percent of the nation’s beef and ninety-percent of the beef in Texas.  So when the city on the High Plains is described as a “cow town,” it’s not solely because of the odoriferous emanations from thousands of cattle in the feed yards along I-40.  While researching restaurants to explore during our extended weekend stay in Amarillo, it quickly became apparent that while beef may still be king, cows alone no longer define Amarillo menus.     Among the surprises that emerged from my research is the sheer number of Cajun and Soul food restaurants in the Amarillo area. It’s almost a full day’s ride from West Texas to “Lapland” (what the southeastern corner of Texas is called because of the overlapping of Cajun and Texas cultures).  The popularity of soul food is probably easier to explain.  As LaMyiah Harvel of the ABC affiliate in Amarillo explains: “The roots of Soul Food are tangled into each and every one of us. What was once meals simply made to survive, is now one of the most popular types of…