Chiu on This

Up and down the avenue

This is the second post recounting my recent eatings (I'm making that a word) in Nashville.  In the course of two days, I think I must have gone up and down 21st Ave South in Hillsboro Village near Vanderbilt University at least a dozen times.  That wasn't much fun given the traffic in the area, but I had some pretty good food.  On our second day in town, Rodolfo and I hit the Pancake Pantry for breakfast and McDougal's Chicken for lunch.  That same day we did an interview at one of the largest Starbuck's I've ever been in, lower down on Broadway, after splitting a red velvet cupcake at Gigi's Cupcakes, which occupies what I believe was a former BBQ takeout joint.  Of all these places, I'd say Gigi's had the best eats, albeit pricey.  I wouldn't mind trying the Pancake Pantry again, given its extensive - almost exhausting - lineup of pancakes, but it's a good thing their line moves fast, b/c the food isn't *so* great that I'd wait long to eat there.

On our third day, Susan and I descended on Fido for lunch.  If I recall correctly, Sandra from our Accessing Safety project recommended it.  I would definitely come back here.  I had an excellent lunch plate of grilled chicken served with sweet potato and applewood smoked bacon hash and greens with a balsamic vinaigrette.  Actually, the hash made the meal with its great combo of flavors and textures - slightly sweet, salty, and, with the vinaigrette blending in, sour; chewy from the sweet potato, crunchy from the bacon.  (I clearly have a hankering for hashes.)  The grilled chicken was actually moist and flavorful, but the side dish made the whole plate work.  Susan had a tasty salad of field greens, spiced pecans, strawberries and goat cheese with a balsamic vinaigrette, along with some other dish that I don't recall (was it a cold soup? so much for my notes).  We headed out to our next interview with strong coffee to go; luckily, we didn't spill any of it on ourselves as we toured around the Parthenon (check out Robert Altman's Nashville for the great closing scene at the Parthenon).

Stretch pants to the rescue

A few weeks back I was in Nashville with the Translating Justice crew for work.  In a short span of days, I'd stuffed myself silly, but the best was yet to come.  After we'd finished up our interviews, I headed down to Lebanon (pronounced, I was told, "Leb'non") to stay the weekend with my friend and former co-worker Sarah.

Among the fun, non-food related things we did was visit the Hermitage, the home of Andrew Jackson and a couple of belted Galloway cows (I'm still not sure why they were there), and stroll around Fiddlers Grove, a historical village that includes the Wheeler School, whose first instructor was W.E.B. DuBois, and Sam Houston's log cabin law office.

But getting to the food: Lebanon's the headquarters for the Cracker Barrel, and I was find out that, as far as chain restaurants go, it's pretty solid.  To get the greatest variety of eats, I ordered the dinner sampler platter of chicken n' dumplings, sugar cured ham, and meatloaf with sides of turnip greens and hashbrown casserole.  The hashbrown casserole is good enough to be a meal in itself, and a look at the ingredients in it explains why...droool.  The chicken n' dumplings was a tableau of white-on-white food but proved a bit too bland for my tastes.