Monday, October 18, 2010

 

Minnesota Monday: Slow Food


In Waco, I lived just off Valley Mills Drive, which was loaded with fast food places-- I was with in a few miles of four kinds of fried chicken, several burger joints (including McDonald's, BK, Jack-In-The-Box, Wendy's, and Backyard Burgers), both a Taco Bell and a Taco Bueno, a Subway, a Quizno's, a Little Caesar's, a Papa John's, Chik-Fil-A, Luby's, a chicken finger place, Long John Silver's, Sonic, Baskin-Robbins, Wild Wings, Double Dave's, and an Arby's (among others-- those are the ones I can remember off the top of my head). Here there is... nothing. Well, nothing I have seen yet, within the same distance from my house.

Instead, there is an amazing variety of grocery stores. Nearby I have Byerly's (gorgeous; kind of a food museum), Lund's (much like Byerly's but a little cheaper), the amazing new Linden Hills food co-op, Jerry's (which is kind of stuck in the 70's), Cub Food, and a Super Target. This is a sharp contrast from Waco, which offered only H.E.B. stores and a Wal-Mart.

Believe me, I miss my fried chicken. I have looked and looked for some. In Waco, my neighborhood smelled like chicken, and to me that was a good thing!

Still... I am learning to live with this slow food thing. It has its advantages, I suppose. I wonder, though-- why is there this inverse proportionality between fast food and grocery stores?

I was at Lund's recently, looking at cheeses, and one of the very pleasant employees came over to help. On a whim, I asked her if there was a KFC nearby.

She looked at me for a second, then gravely told me she would be right back. I waited, wondering what would happen next-- were they going to throw me out of the store?

A few minutes later, she returned, looking relieved. "There isn't one in Edina," she said, shaking her head, "but my manager has seen one on Cleveland Street in St. Paul." St. Paul is on the other side of the Mississippi River, on the far side of Minneapolis.

I must have looked a little shaken, because she gently offered to get me a recipe to fry my own chicken, but I declined. At some point, after all, ya gotta take the hint.

Comments:
LOL, I was just deciding what to get for lunch (in Waco) and cursing the limited options for fast food. I guess I'd starve in the North.
 
You're much better off, trust me.
 
If you need a recipe to fry chicken - don't! Call a relative or friend in the south and have them show you how. It's not that complicated - but first you need a big well seasoned cast iron skillet...

Lee

(learned how to kill, pick, cut up, and fry a chicken by the time I was 12 or so)
 
My midwestern mother who grew up in Iowa and was a proto-yuppies in Minneapolis can fry chicken that tastes better than anything you'll get at a fast foot joint. There are chickens all over the midwest. A simple Google search out to lead you to your goal! Probably at a Church dinner.
 
There's a KFC in Richfield: http://maps.google.com/maps?hl=en&expIds=17259,18167,26637,26992,27022,27151,52764&sugexp=ldymls&xhr=t&cp=13&um=1&ie=UTF-8&q=KFC+edina,+mn&fb=1&gl=us&hq=KFC&hnear=Edina,+MN&cid=0,0,16743972128731211743&ei=quy8TNLDLI-B4QaDvuGUDA&sa=X&oi=local_result&ct=image&resnum=1&sqi=2&ved=0CBUQnwIwAA

~Elizabeth
 
Also, she was totally right- fry your own chicken. It is not that difficult and will generally taste way better than the 3rd rate crap they pass off at KFC.
 
Coming next in the IPLawguy saga.... Iplawguy's Mom fries a chicken!
 
The slow food concept is great, and it gives a neighbourhood a real sense of class!
 
Edina and SW Mpls don't particularly like fast-food chains, but Richfield has no such qualms. KFC, Burger King, McD's, and Taco Bell all in the vicinity of 66th and Lyndale.
 
This from someone who grew up in GP and had to survive on Shake and Bake ~ LOL...
 
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