Food, Mostly Eating Out…

We love eating out!  Now that we’ve had both of our Covid-19 vaccine shots, we feel free enough to finally get out and revisit some local restaurants that we’ve enjoyed in the past.  Once some of the familiar places have been sampled again, we’ll set out to try a few new locations…and that will come soon!

We’d been to Aubrey’s twice in the past ‘pandemic year’, primarily because they have tables that are really spread out along the back wall and all of their staff were always masked.  This time we walked in with masks on but we didn’t worry about where we sat because of Covid-19.  The staff was still wearing their masks…

For your information, Aubrey’s is a small chain of casual dining restaurants that has 14 locations in East Tennessee, stretching from Bristol at the Virginia State line all the way down to Cleveland, just outside of Chattanooga.  Website: Aubrey’s Restaurant - Real Comfort. Real Food. Real Good. Aubrey’s Restaurant (aubreysrestaurants.com)

Aubrey’s makes a nice Caesar salad and we almost always opt for one with our meals vs a standard…but nice…side salad.  Diners have the option of one or the other with their entrees.

For her meal, Laurie ordered this item listed under “Small Plates”.  This order of fish and chips was anything but small!  Two large panko crusted Alaskan Pollock filets over a stack of thick cut homemade potato chips, all served with some really great lemon caper sauce.  There was so much fish we took one filet home...

For my dinner I went with the Fried Chicken Breast.  The double breast is marinated in buttermilk and then deep fried and smothered in homemade white gravy.  In order to stay somewhat under control, I ordered the steamed broccoli as my side.  Don’t be too impressed with my restraint though as I ‘had to’ help Laurie with all those homemade potato chips!

Next food stop…our house.

Who doesn’t like a nice bacon, lettuce and tomato sandwich on toasted fresh bakery bread!  We each had one and a half of these sandwiches a couple weeks ago.  Laurie sided hers with some of her favorite potato chips and olives.  I’m the ‘fry guy’ in our house so I made the bacon and sliced the tomatoes.  We consider BLT’s to be a true comfort food…

I love to play with leftovers, especially when I’m trying to decide what to have for breakfast.  In this case, we had some leftover mashed potatoes that needed to be eaten.  So, I chopped up a slice of deli sliced ham, added in a couple handfuls of shredded sharp cheddar cheese, mixed it up and fried it until there was a bit of crust and the cheese was all melted in. 

When it was ready, I took it to the next logical step and I topped my creation with 2 easy-over fried eggs.  By the way, this was one of the most satisfying and tasty breakfasts I’ve made in quite a while!

The next restaurant we chose to revisit following our self-imposed Covid-19 related self-isolation was Big Kahuna Wings in Farragut Tennessee.  I borrowed the outside photo from the Internet as I forgot to take a view of the restaurant either before or after we ate our dinner.

It’s a fairly small restaurant with a dozen plus tables and counter seating.  Their specialty is hormone-free organic dry rub fried chicken wings.  There are 2 Big Kahuna Wings restaurants in the Knoxville area.  To learn more and to look at the menu, go to https://bigkahunawingsfarragut.com/.

We decided to start with 10 wings plus a beer for me and a “Woo Woo” cocktail for Laurie.  Big Kahuna’s wings are not breaded nor are they ‘sauced’ when they’re served at your table.  We ordered 3 sauces with our wings…’fire’, ‘sweet chili lime’ and ‘spicy bleu cheese’.  The wings were excellent and we really liked all of the sauces.

Big Kahuna is the only place we’ve been where they sell full-size wings…not disjointed like in most restaurants.  We tried them once and we decided that we like our wings ‘separated’…but Big Kahuna offers them either way, and boneless too.

Laurie couldn’t decide whether she wanted a hamburger or not, so she picked the Chicken Salad Sandwich and homemade chips instead.  Her sandwich was made with shredded grilled chicken seasoned with mild Cajun rub and blended with mayonnaise, celery, carrots and cabbage.  It was served on a warm ciabatta roll with sliced tomato.

She liked it so well that she took half of it home because she couldn’t finish it after the wings.  I know that she liked something if she brings it home and then she actually eats it!  She’s not big on leftovers…

As for yours truly, I ordered the Buffalo Wing Burger.  This was a grilled Angus beef burger seasoned with Big Kahuna’s blend of spices, topped with bleu cheese crumbles and their own original sauce, lettuce, tomatoes and house-made bleu cheese.  For a side I had their seasoned French fries.

The French fries were very nice but my burger seemed small and overcooked…or else the bun was too big.  It was a messy sandwich to eat but I could taste everything except the burger itself.  May well have been my fault as I didn’t tell our waitress that I wanted my burger medium rare.  On the other hand, she didn’t ask.  I had saved the remnants of our wing sauces, and I made everything much better by dipping my burger in them… 

Just click on any of the photos to enlarge them…

Thanks for stopping by for a visit!

Stay Safe and Take Care, Big Daddy Dave