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Tio Wally Eats America: Roast Beef sandwich from Casey’s

I’m happy to have Tio Wally (long-time Me So Hungry reader) aboard to send in his eating adventures from across America. Here he is in McPherson, Kansas.

Greetings from McPherson, Kansas
N 38° 22.1632’ W 097° 37.6354’ Elev. 1499 ft.

This post was originally going to be about Mi Pueblo<https://www.google.com/maps/place/Mi+Pueblo+Mexican+Restaurant/@34.494903,-89.031426,548m/data=!3m2!1e3!4b1!4m2!3m1!1s0x0:0xf72b4a05130f01db?hl=en>, a Mexican restaurant in Mississippi I dumbed into one night. The food was so good that I went again, this time during the day, and discovered the most awesome lunch buffet I’ve ever experienced.

But this post is not about Mi Pueblo because of a message I received en route on the Qualcomm® that read: WE ARE GRILLIN COME AND EAT. The message was from my dispatcher who knew I was coming to our distribution center for a load.

These new Drayage Dudes are a little different from what Skippy and I are used to. Other companies might barbecue but they don’t invite the hoi polloi. On the contrary, the others all but put up Keep Out signs and post armed guards to make sure there are no misunderstandings.

So we went, and discovered they had barbecued chicken, hamburgers, hot dogs and other assorted sausages, plus macaroni and potato salads, an assortment of chips, some sort of formerly hot potato dish (that must’ve been good as it was all but gone), and a formerly hot dish of mixed squashes.

Squash but no baked beans? In Mississippi? Go figure. Like I said, this be a slightly different breed of Drayage Dudes. I had a couple of hot dogs — the Mississippians had no fresh sliced white onion for them, the sinners! — some macaroni salad and some squash.

The squash was unbelievable, even at room temperature. I don’t know who made it or how (I tried to find out but the cook remained a mystery) but it was some of the best squash I’ve ever had. Although it was a bit mushy, which I don’t mind at all, it had a sort of sweet taste that I couldn’t identify. It was probably a splash of some juice or something, or maybe just sugar. I don’t know. I sure wish I did, though, because them Cucurbitas were goo-ood.

Then this post was going to be a Freddy’s Steakburgers. But I didn’t think I would be able to get here (to my secret parking spot) before they closed; it turned out they were still open when I got here.

So I stopped on the way and got a 12” Roast Beef sandwich ($5.99) from a Casey’s, this one in Tonkawa, Oklahoma.

I’ve written before about how great Casey’s sandwiches are. And the Roast Beef is really, really great. Moreover, if you’re nice and the sandwich maker is not hopelessly anal retentive, they’ll put a little extra meat on it.

For the longest time I would have them make half the sandwich with Cheddar cheese, lettuce, tomato, mustard and mayo, and the other half with just barbecue sauce — they have great barbecue sauce. This time I just went with the former.

For some reason this turned out to be one of the best Roast Beef sandwiches I’d ever had from Casey’s. Along with a handful of Lay’s Classic potato chips and a Kern’s Banana-Pineapple Nectar this turned out to be quite a mini-picnic.

It’s strange how things just seem to work out sometimes.

And so we roll.

Tio Wally pilots the 75-foot, 40-ton(max) land yacht SS Me So Hungry. He reports on road food from around the country whenever parking and InterTube connections permit.

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tio wally travel

Tio Wally Eats America: Al’s Chickenette

I’m happy to have Tio Wally (long-time Me So Hungry reader) aboard to send in his eating adventures from across America. Here he is in Hays, Kansas.

Greetings from Hays, Kansas
N 38° 51.8428’ W 099° 19.0759’ Elev. 1985 ft.

Al’s Chickenette was recommended by my friend Tony. He’d recommended another place once before — Gray’s Coors Tavern in Pueblo, Colorado — that was spectacularly funky and spectacularly good. Needless to say it didn’t take much faith on my part to follow his lead once again.

Along the way I got a song stuck in my head. I kept hearing the Lambert, Hendricks and Ross version of a Cannonball Adderly tune, Sermonette. It turned into a real ear worm, one of those songs that keeps playing over and over in your head. I just couldn’t shake it.

Al’s Chickenette is located 2.5 miles south of I-70 on US 183 (Exit 159). By the time you get there you think you’ve missed it and you’re about to leave town … because you are. Al’s is one of the last places on the left. It’s easy to spot by the vintage late ‘50s/early ‘60s-style sign out front. I’d love to’ve seen it lit up at night as it has all the requisite neon and 100 light bulbs to render it truly representative of the sign design of that era. I like to believe it flashes.

Inside is equally reminiscent of ‘50s-‘60s “modern” design, with wood floors and a low-rise, 4-stool formica counter. The decor has a look and feel so evocative of that simpler, duck-and-cover time that the only thing missing is the zzzzzzzzz-ing whir of a vintage stainless steel Hamilton Beach commercial milkshake mixer.

Al’s serves soft-serve ice cream but no shakes. But as sort of a throwback they offer 25¢ coffee, which, curiously, is a dime cheaper than the price listed on one of the old menus posted in the foyer. And it’s okay coffee.

It’s an interesting place and the staff is exceptional. I was greeted heartily and my server, Allison, (I hope that’s how she spells it) was vivacious and kind. In fact, I had her help order for me; I always do that because they know.

After I ordered I was walking to the bathroom (I ended up choosing the door with the cock, er, rooster on it) as one of the other servers brought out his lunch, a bowl of chicken noodle soup ($2.95/$5.95). It looked so good that I had to take a picture of it. I first thought it was chicken and dumplings. “No,” he said, “I put some mashed potatoes in it.” Mmm, mmm good idea.

I experienced a most pleasant olfactory blast from the past in Al’s bathroom. It’s a commercial hand soap I run across from time to time. It smells much like Jergens Lotion, which, to me, smells faintly of cherries. Every time I smell it I’m reminded of my childhood. My mom used it when I was very young and when she did I’d often ask to smell her hands. I love that scent. Oh, the fond memories. But I digress.

I had THE WIZARD ($9.95), three pieces of dark meat chicken with two sides and a somewhat silly name; yet another example of Kansan’s ubiquitous habit of linking to The Wizard of Oz. Seriously, they’ll link anything to The Wizard of Oz. It’s just a matter of time before I find a Chinese, Vietnamese, Korean or, hell, a Swiss restaurant in Kansas serving The Toto. But I digress, again.

The chicken — two legs and a thigh — was very, very good. I read on one of the old menus that “Our chicken is fried by a Special Method …”, whatever that means. Al’s chicken has an unusual outer “crust.” It’s very thin, the thickness of the shell of a dipped ice cream cone, and very crispy, crackly. It was spiced interestingly, in a good way, and the chicken was very moist and perfectly cooked.

I only ate the legs while I was there. When I nibbled on the thigh later that night I thought the breading tasted distinctly of pork rinds — cracklins, y’all. I was dumbfounded enough that I saved some to try again later. But then it didn’t taste like that at all. I was confused; I’m always confused. This may explain why some of the fine folks in Kimmerer, Wyoming (scroll down to the Comments section) don’t cotton to my opinions too much.

The real highlights for me were the real mashed potatoes and real pan gravy, though the gravy had a somewhat unusual taste to me. I think I was expecting it to taste exactly like the chicken pan gravies I’ve eaten so many times before. Cracklins? Still, it was pretty good. And the mashed potatoes were the real thing — they actually had lumps in them — so I was in love. The cole slaw was truly fantastic, a blast from my childhood. Drenched in an old-school mayonnaise-vinegar-sugar dressing, it was sweet, crunchy, and heavenly. Just the way I like it.

In all Al’s Chickenette was a great visit, with great people. Truly a really great experience.

Next month Al’s Chickenette will mark its 65th year in business. To commemorate that milestone I made a really bad slideshow/ad, replete with yours truly singing really badly. I rewrote the words to “Sermonette” and, well …

My apologies to Mr. Adderly and the other American Treasures that are Misters Lambert and Hendricks & Ms. Ross.

And so we roll.

Al’s Chickenette, 710 Vine St., Hays, Kansas

Tio Wally pilots the 75-foot, 40-ton(max) land yacht SS Me So Hungry. He reports on road food from around the country whenever parking and InterTube connections permit.

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tio wally travel

Tio Wally Eats America: Chuck Wagon Restaurant

I’m happy to have Tio Wally (long-time Me So Hungry reader) aboard to send in his eating adventures from across America. Here he is in Meade, Kansas.

Greetings from Meade, Kansas
N 37° 17.084’  W 100° 21.014’  Elev. 2500 ft.

I like cheese. I like hamburger. I like macaroni. Throw it all together and call it a Cheeseburger Macaroni Casserole. What could possibly go wrong, right?

I’d slept at the Chuck Wagon restaurant a couple of times before … in the parking lot. This was mostly because I always seemed to run out of hours and/or energy to make it to Liberal — the next “big” town in the endless high plains of scenic southwestern Kansas some 45 miles further west. The only other wide spot in the road between the two points is Kismet. As fate would have it there is no food in Kismet.

But hey, if Meade is a good enough location for Bob and Grat to select as the site of the notorious brothers’ Dalton Gang Hideout — Meade’s #1 tourist attraction and lone claim to fame — it’s good enough for the saintly, law-abiding crew of the SS Me So Hungry to bed down. And there is a restaurant.

So it was perverse-yet-pure kismet that we walked into the Chuck Wagon for lunch, spurs a-clankin’, figuratively speaking of course. And there it was: A Specials Board touting the aforementioned Cheeseburger Macaroni Casserole, with potato, corn/roll, salad bar, and coffee or tea, for $8.79. We knew from the outset that it wouldn’t be nearly as good as my sister’s goulash; there are few things in life as good as my sister’s goulash. As it turned out, we were right.

The Cheeseburger Macaroni Casserole was irredeemable. It didn’t taste like a cheeseburger. It didn’t even taste cheesy, although it looked like it should’ve. Salt and pepper didn’t help. Mixing in the entire side of can-fresh whole kernel sweet corn didn’t help. It was, indeed, so hopelessly unfixable that even the divine intervention of San Pasqual couldn’t help. It was just a bland mass of ingredients that should’ve tasted good, alone or in combination. But it didn’t.

At risk of sounding technical, it just tasted “blah.” Although the mashed potatoes were pretty good, good smashed spuds can’t make up for a main course being hopelessly devoid of taste/smell/flavor/perceptible sensory impressions.

Thankfully, all was not lost.

The Chuck Wagon actually had some pretty good stuff stocked in its Conestoga Wagon-themed salad bar. Although the plates were way too small a few of the items were kind of interesting. The Cucumber Slices in Sour Cream had a hint of dill and were pretty tasty. And the Macaroni Salad with bits of fresh tomato was likewise really good.

But the Big Star of the Salad Bar was the Broccoli Salad. It was easily the best I’ve ever eaten! And it was so simple. It was just little broccoli florets, big pieces of bacon, and raisins in a slightly sweet mayonnaise dressing. I suspect the dressing was sweetened by the raisins although it was somewhat similar to the dressing on the Macaroni Salad. But damn, so simple and so, so good!

I went in later that night and the special was Chicken Fried Chicken with all of the same sides for $8.99. I didn’t have it because I wanted Cream of Wheat®, which is hard to find. I guess it was kismet that they were out of Cream of Wheat® (there’s never any Cream of Wheat® for Wally), so I got oatmeal ($2.49).

In all, even though the Chuck Wagon was bereft of Cream of Wheat®, bank/train robberies and/or ghostly apparitions of the Dalton Gang (or Elvis), thanks to the Broccoli Salad … Seriously, that’s some damn good Broccoli Salad!

And so we roll.

Chuck Wagon Restaurant, 807 West Carthage Street (US 54), Meade, Kansas

Tio Wally pilots the 75-foot, 40-ton(max) land yacht SS Me So Hungry. He reports on road food from around the country whenever parking and InterTube connections permit.

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chinese tio wally travel

Tio Wally Eats America: Family Buffet in Junction City

I’m happy to have Tio Wally (long-time Me So Hungry reader) aboard to send in his eating adventures from across America. Here he is in Junction City, Kansas.

Greetings from Junction City, Kansas
N 39° 01.270’ W 096° 49.125’ Elev. 1052 ft.

Just as people associate Maine with lobster, I associate Junction City, Kansas with …Egg Foo Yung. What?

The SS Me So Hungry pulls into this port irregularly, delivering “mechanically separated (turkey) meat” and then sailing away with various turkey-based luncheon meats, and delivering them to … wherever.

While there is another much better place to eat in Junction City — Napoli’s, an Italian place that I’ll review soon — none is more convenient land yacht-wise than Family Buffet. Wedged between a truck stop and a Merchant of Death (Wal•Mart), there’s parking galore. And it’s got a bit of the funky.

Parking the land yacht nearby can be really important sometimes. On one visit here the thermometer on the bridge read 114°. It was a blessing that the humidity that day was almost Arizona-esque, and the slog to the restaurant short enough to be bearable; an hour later the temperature had dropped to a balmy 94°.

Being as the Chinese community in Junction City — heck, all of Kansas — is somewhat small, I’m guessing Family Buffet is a family business.

There is an old man there, usually during the day, who I’m guessing is the family patriarch. He sits in a chair behind a wait station and just watches. Not with an authoritarian glare, in a keep-the-staff-in-line way, but rather, just hangin’. Every time I’ve passed him he’s spoken to me, a big smile on his face. I have no idea what he’s saying as I don’t speak Mandarin and he doesn’t speak Cantonese, which is okay because I don’t speak Cantonese either. So I just smile back and say “Hi” or whatever and he smiles and answers back in Chinese.

As you may have guessed my favorite thing here is the Egg Foo Yung. They simply have the best. It’s the fluffiest, tastiest I’ve ever had, made with peas, carrots, green onion, etc. It may be the best I’ve ever had. And the sauce is perfect, too; not too sweet, not too salty.

One day they ran out after I’d only had two. I kept getting up, checking the tray and, damn it, none had arrived. I even moved across the table to better spot the fresh stuff’s arrival. Seeing my obvious distress when I checked the tray thrice again, the old man sprang to his feet and, I guess, asked me what the problem was. I told him, in the nearest language I commanded to Mandarin Chinese (read: English), that there was no Egg Foo Yung. He then told me, I guess, that he was all over it, the smile never leaving his face.

He then disappeared through the kitchen doors and it sounded like all hell broke loose. (Of course, normal discourse in Chinese always sounds like all hell has broken loose to my ear.) Long story short, he appeared with a fresh tray of Egg Foo Yung a few minutes later, beckoning me over for first grabs. Score.

They have scores of items on the buffet from Chinese to vegetable sushi to pizza and a full salad bar. Most of the Chinese fare, however, is very chicken-centric, which bums me out; it makes it hard for me to realize my dream of an all-pork diet. They must have 25 different chicken based dishes. Geesh. I want my pork. Nevertheless, the chicken stuff is very varied and, well, it’s all pretty good.

They also always have fried butterfly shrimp and, at night anyway, peel-and-eat shrimp as well. I don’t usually have the peel-and-eat though; that peeling crap is too much work and it interferes with my reading.

I also really enjoy their hot-and-sour soup. It’s not corn-starched out, i.e. thickened to complete coagulation. I usually throw in a couple of wontons from the wonton soup kettle for good measure.

And a real treat is that they’ve got eight-or-so different flavors of self-dipped hard ice cream!

They’re really nice folks at Family Buffet. Every time I’ve been there the service has been great, the food is decent enough and, hell, I can park the land yacht within a stone’s throw.

And so we roll.

Family Buffet, 801 E. Chestnut St., Junction City, Kansas

Tio Wally pilots the 75-foot, 40-ton(max) land yacht SS Me So Hungry. He reports on road food from around the country whenever parking and InterTube connections permit.

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tio wally travel

Tio Wally Eats America: Braum’s in McPherson, Kansas

I’m happy to have Tio Wally (long-time Me So Hungry reader) aboard to send in his eating adventures from across America. Here he is in McPherson, Kansas.

Greetings from McPherson, Kansas!
N 38° 22.221  W 097° 37.699  Elev. 1484 ft.

I made a very, very important discovery: Really good pre-made Tuna and Chicken salads! Both of them are made by Pilgrim’s Pride, which I thought was curious as PP’s main gig is chicken. (Then again, tuna is the chicken of the sea, right?)

I found them both at Braum’s, a family-owned chain of combination ice cream/dairy store, fast-food restaurant, and miniature market located all over Oklahoma and parts of Texas, Kansas, Arkansas, and Missouri.

My initial introduction to Braum’s was less than stellar, to say the least. It was late, I was tired and wanted something hot to eat, fast. So I got a double cheeseburger, fries and a chocolate malt from the Braum’s in Carthage, Missouri.

Well, it smelled good enough and was actually still hot by the time I parked the yacht and set up house (i.e., put up the satellite dish). Then I took a bite of the burger and … jeezus freakin’ christ! It was the saltiest thing I’d had in my mouth since I involuntarily swallowed a gallon of Pacific Ocean as a child. I mean, it was bad. Worse than bad. And to add insult to injury, I was starving to death, so I ended up choking the salt-lick-on-a-bun down anyway, along with the by-then cold fries. Yuk. The malt, while exceptionally delicious, didn’t make up for the abusive burger and cold fries.

My next brush with Braum’s, however, was much more pleasant, not to mention markedly more palatable. I was on I-35 in southern Oklahoma when I ran out of hours and had to stop in Pauls Valley. After I parked I kept watching their little reader board flash “Steak Sandwich $1.99”. Eventually my piqued curiosity peaked and I couldn’t take it anymore and I had to find out what kind of steak they could possibly be selling for two bucks.

The answer turned out to be one of those chicken-fried steak patties like they sell in the frozen food sections of grocery stores, usually in bulk packs. It was actually quite good, served on a hamburger bun — Braum’s has its own very good bakery — with mayonnaise, leaf lettuce and tomato. Very simple and quite delicious really.

While I was waiting for the mystery steak sandwich I wandered over to their little “Fresh Market” section to get a half-gallon of Chocolate Milk ($1.75). They have some of the very best. It’s whole milk, rBGH-free, really thick, creamy and chocolatey. As I was walking to the register I passed the Deli case and discovered the Tuna and Chicken salads (both $3.29/12 oz.).

The Tuna salad is not too wet and has super-crunchy bits of celery in it. It tastes like it also has some sweet pickle relish in it, but I’m not sure as the list of ingredients is truly microscopic; even my evil twin Skippy couldn’t read it. Likewise the Chicken salad is not too wet and has the crunchy celery bits. I bought another tub of Chicken Salad the other day and, unlike the first one, this one says it’s Chunky. Whether it is or not (I haven’t opened it yet) I could see taking it and mixing it with a small can of chunked chicken and easily feeding four adults — just add bread. Talk about good, cheap, and delicious road food!

I can’t recommend these enough. They were so good, in fact, that I went high-end gourmet with both my Tuna and Chicken sandwiches: I bought some green leaf lettuce. A small packet of mayo on the side with the lettuce and BAM! … you’ve got yourself a $7 bistro sandwich even Hilda Lagasse would love.

(So good was it that I even considered buying a $10 toaster. “Ooh, toasted bread,” I thought. Thankfully I regained my senses before I ended up with an appliance I have no desire to stow, much less use regularly.)

I also bought some Mustard Potato Salad ($1.49/16 oz.). It too was really good, not too sweet with nice chunks of potato that weren’t overcooked and, again, the crunchy celery bits. I just added a little pepper to it and, voila, insta-gourmet!

Additionally, I made sort of a curious scientific-ish discovery. In the past I’ve bought Iceberg lettuce and my Coleman Thermoelectric Cooler would promptly freeze it; the cooler is technically a simple (miraculous) heat exchanger. Not only did the leaf lettuce not freeze, it stayed fresh and crisp until I finished the whole head (well over a week!!). I don’t understand the physics involved, but I suspect it’s all a matter of water content and the density of the head or something. Perhaps some food physicist could explain it. Paging Alton Brown ….

And so we roll.

(Note: I took the pictures of the Braum’s in McPherson as it had just opened and was devoid of customers. When I tried to take an up-close picture of the menu-board, however, I was stopped by a woman (the manager?) who said I couldn’t take pictures of it because “some people could alter it and make it say nasty things or something.” I told her I didn’t have PhotoShop; I didn’t tell her “It’s obvious what’s on your mind.”)

Braum’s - 2106 E Kansas Ave. McPherson, Kansas,
with locations throughout the mid- to lower-Midwest.

Tio Wally pilots the 75-foot, 40-ton(max) land yacht SS Me So Hungry. He reports on road food from around the country whenever parking and InterTube connections permit.