Daisy & the Duke's Truck Stop Cafe of Tennessee

Look at that perfectly fried onion right.  Daisy and the Duke's Cafe was a find on a lean evening, Mother's Day, and not much was opened.

This place is located off of I-81 in Tennessee.  Just take exit 30 and turn east and you're there.  My cousin and I were looking for a place to eat along I-81 and coming up snake eyes.  So I took a chance on a restaurant listed on the blue Interstate sign, and it was closed.  But Daisy and the Duke was next door and opened.  Yes!  We can eat.

The food here is good and cooked in the style of the old dime store diners of the 50s.  On my bucket list is the Big Foot.  It's four slices of toast.  Between the bottom two slices is a cheeseburger, and between the middle two slices is a BLT.  Between the top two slices is whatever you want.  How does a guy get that sandwich in his mouth?



Grilled Ham & Cheese Sandwich:

Grilling does something awesome to cheese and ham.  This was one of my orders and came recommended by the waitress.



Bacon Cheeseburger:

My cousin BJ didn't want the bun and that was fine by me because I was able to take a better picture of the burger.  Note the irregular shape to the burger.  That means that it was hand made.  If it were frozen, the shape would be perfectly round.  Handmade paddies are generally more tasty than the frozen ones.



BLT:

Bacon-lettuce-tomato ... that's the BLT.  But don't forget the mayo!  This was my second order and it also came recommended by the waitress.



Big Foot on the Bucket List:

If anyone gets a Big Foot before I return to D & D's, please send a photo of it to breakfastbro@hotmail.com so I can post it.

Fin's Drive-In of Springfield, Oregon

If you are traveling through Eugene or Springfield, Fin's is a great place for breakfast, but get there by 11 a.m.  Breakfast is over at 11:30.  Above is their signature dish, potato medallions or cottage fries as they call them.   

Fin's is the drive-in restaurant of the 50s and has that flair.  The diner is family run and the quality of the food reflects the care they put into their customers.  It's located where many other great breakfast places are: Main Street Springfield.  And it holds its own with the competition.  Use your GPS to find Springfield and then cruise Main Street until you see the building with the tail fins on it.



Chicken-Fried Steak: 

Peaking out under the gravy is a chicken-fried steak.  My son Adam had his with eggs over easy.  Me, I prefer scrambled with chicken-fried steak.  There's a plate of hash browns on the side and not in the picture.  With this breakfast, I want ketchup on my hash browns and scrambled eggs, and cream gravy on my steak and biscuits.



Traditional Bacon-n-Eggs Breakfast:

My friend Chris ordered this breakfast and look at the bacon.  This is Oregon bacon and in Oregon the bacon is always thick and tastes great.




Mickey Mouse Pancakes!

My grandson Grayson loves his pancakes and he really likes this place.  Where else can a kid get Mickey Mouse pancakes.



Country Breakfast:

This plate is like a typical egg plate, but comes with biscuits and country gravy.  The bacon is thick and tasty.  Cooked crisp the way I like it.




Pancake Plate:

Thick fluffy pancakes come with your choice of meat and eggs they way you like them.  Here my son ordered bacon and scrambled eggs.




Biscuits & Gravy:

This is a meal in itself and I ordered it with bacon.  The bacon is great just about anywhere in Oregon.  



My Big Breakfast:

Here is mine: bacon and eggs with a side order of thick sausage.  See the cottage fries, that's Fin's hallmark breakfast side.  I call them potato medallions.  Nobody makes the medallions like Fin's.  The potatoes are sliced into thin circles and fried to a crisp.  This stuff is great with ketchup as well.  I will go again just for the medallions.



More on the Menu:

There's more on the menu that I haven't tried and that's on my bucket list for future trips:  8 oz chuck steak, two 4 oz pork chops, hickory-smoked ham, and an 8 oz New York steak.  For more info on Fin's go to www.finsdrivein.com.

Loveless Cafe of Nashville

Homemade blackberry preserves on a Loveless biscuit.  Does that look good?  It was!  This place has petite biscuits, but the servers brings a plate of biscuits out as soon as they seat you, and they keep bringing them out as long as you want.  Unlimited biscuits -- I have never heard of this before.

If you live in Nashville, Loveless is probably not that far out of the way, nestled on TN-100.  If you are passing by on I-40, take Exit 192 and turn left on McCrory Lane until you get to TN-100.  There you turn left and Loveless is there on the left.   If you are passing by on I-65, turn north on 840 and then east on 100.  This place is worth the drive.



Loveless History Provided on their Placemat:
In the early 50s, Lon and Annie Loveless served travelers through their front door here, selling their biscuits and fried chicken.  Later, the couple converted their home into a restaurant adding country ham that was smoked, cured, and sliced on site (LIKE).  They added homemade preserves to the menu (LIKE).  The place later changed hands, but still produced the fried chicken, smoked hams, scratch biscuits, and homemade preserves.



City Ham Plate:

The city ham is sugar cured; the country ham, just smoked.  This dish comes with a huge order of cheesy hash-brown casserole with more cheese than Cracker Barrel ever dreamed of putting in its casserole.  It also comes with eggs, biscuits, and redeye gravy.  The Loveless redeye gravy is made with ham drippings, water, and a dash of coffee (See eleven o'clock on the plate).  If you haven't had redeye gravy, trust me, it's really good.



Biscuit Sampler Plate:

Look at that pulled pork biscuit on the left.  The pulled pork was great.  In the middle is a chicken biscuit and on the right is a fried green tomato biscuit with pimento cheese.  You also have country ham and Italian sausage as choices for your biscuit sandwiches.



Southern Sampler Platter:

This was my choice: bacon, ham, sausage with eggs, grits, and biscuits.  I substituted the redeye gravy with sausage-cream gravy so you guys could see what it looks like (see one o'clock on the plate).



The Breakfast Bro at the Loveless Cafe & Motel:

Loveless Cafe was great, but I don't know if I would want to stay at a Loveless Motel.  But others do, see the "no vacancy" sign above my head.

Kenner Seafood Market & Restaurant, Kenner, LA

Great oysters in May?  Yes, but the restaurant has to have the right buyer.  And Kenner Seafood and Restaurant obviously does.  Good oysters generally run from September through April.

Kenner Seafood is an easy find.  Just take the Loyola Exit off of I-10 in Kenner, LA, just west of New Orleans.  Drive down Loyola Drive until you see the blue building on the right.  Get their early because parking can be a problem.



Dozen Oysters for Six Bucks!

Must have been a special that day when I arrived with my Uncle Pete from Kenner and my cousin BJ from Austin.  Each of us had a dozen oysters to start.



Oyster and Crawfish Po-Boy:

I had purchased a sandwich outside of Louisiana with a friend of BJ's and myself.  She remarked that the sandwich was small.  I told her that she lived in New Orleans too long.  Well here it is ... a New Orleans Po-Boy and it must be 8 inches long and 3 inches wide, all loaded with oysters and crawfish.

My Uncle Pete ordered an oyster po-boy and I ordered a crawfish one.  So he decided to have a crawfish one as well.  So I changed mine to oyster.  Then he changed his back to oyster.  I was getting ready to go back to crawfish so I would have more than one po-boy to blog when the waitress said that they could go half and half.  So he did.



Red Beans & Rice:

That hole in the middle of the red beans and rice is a Cajun sausage paddy.  BJ ordered this dish, a Monday special in the New Orleans area.  And it was Monday.  The taste brought me back home to the Big Easy.




Oyster & Shrimp Po-Boy:

I was able to order a somewhat different sandwich.  Both the oysters and shrimp were fresh and fried to perfection.  It made for a great send off for me back to Texas.





Fried Oyster Plate:

On a second visit, Uncle Pete ordered the fried oyster plate.  Look how perfectly fried those oysters are.



Fried Shrimp Plate:

Pete's son Peter and his wife Susan shared the fried shrimp plate.  And this place doesn't skimp on the shrimp.



Seafood Gumbo:

Peter also ordered the seafood gumbo.  Looks like it was made with a nice dark roux.



Marinated Crab Claws:

OMG!  Marinated crabs!  I took a photo of this dish on the way out of the restaurant.  No, they don't give you that much on a plate.  They're generous here, but nobody in the New Orleans area is that generous.




Daily Specials:

Boiled Crabs:

They have a case full of these.  My guess is that the boiled crabs will run from May through September.  Maybe April through October.



Boiled Shrimp:

This is just half of the boiled shrimp they have on display.  My guess is that the shrimp runs year round, though they are best in the fall monte.



My Uncle Pete:

Thanks, Pete, for taking me to this great place for New Orleans style seafood.  I will be back here.

Fork & Spoon, New Braunfels TX

Rich food abounds at the Fork & Spoon Cafe of New Braunfels.  That's a slice of French toast coated with a Cream Anglaise Sauce.  The sauce is made from heavy cream, egg yolks, and sugar.  Oh, did I forget the vanilla extract.

The Fork & Spoon has seven omelets on the menu and this is one of three that I would love to eat.  The others that I would like include a ham-sausage omelet and a bacon-jack-avocodo omelet.  The one above is the Philly Steak Omelet.  The other four omelets are more for the healthy eater.

Fork & Spoon is conveniently located on Exit 191 of I-35 in New Braunfels, TX.  It is opened daily for breakfast and lunch, and serves the fancier side of breakfast.  For more info, go to www.forkandspoonnb.com.




Monte Cristo: 

The Count of Monte Cristo would have loved this:  A ham and gruyere sandwich prepared like French toast.  It was sprinkled with powdered sugar which you can hardly see for the syrup I poured over it.





Green Chili and Sausage Grits:

For the grits lover, this is the supreme dish.  To cooked grits, the F&S adds green chilies,  their awesome sausage, and cheddar cheese.  And if that's not enough this dish comes with country fried potatoes and toast.  By the way, this is a bakery and they do make their own breads.





Philly Steak Omelet:

Okay, here it is: steak pieces with grilled mushrooms, onions, and bell peppers.  To that they add provolone cheese.  The final product is drizzled with a horseradish cream sauce.

Amaretto French Toast on Homemade Bread:

This place is a bakery, so expect good breads here.  Their French toast has been dipped in beaten eggs with amaretto added to the mix, and fried.  Next the toast is loaded up with powdered sugar and served.  The bowl of white Anglaise sauce is an option, which I, of course, opted.  Below is what the toast looks like after the cream is added.  A more gentile customer would have lightly dipped the toast into the sauce before eating.  Not me.

Homemade Sausage:

You have to try their sausage.  It's shape is irregular telling me the paddies are homemade.  And you can really taste the pork in this sausage.




Ranch Hand Breakfast:

Guys, if your wife or girlfriend drags you in here, this is what you order: three eggs (not two), two meats (get their sausage), a biscuit with gravy (the pepper I added), and country-fried potatoes.   The country-fried potatoes are pan fried with onions and bell peppers.  The ham is a good as the bacon and sausage.  I wish I could get all three on this plate.

Sisters All Day Breakfast, Phnom Penh, Cambodia

Sausage and French toast soaked in syrup, now that's a scrumptious mouth full.

Sisters All Day Breakfasts Bakery is located in Phnom Penh, Cambodia.  I have been here for breakfast several times.  Every visit, I pick up cookies or brownies for my grandchildren, Micah and Oran.  

French Toast:

The French influence on bakeries in Cambodia is strong.  So my guess was that the French toast would be good.  I was right.  The sausage is extra and that's a double order.  Have to have sausage with my French toast.  The sausage tasted as if the paddies were house made.

The syrup is house made.  Note the term here is not homemade.  And this is the richest, best tasting syrup that I have ever had.  I wish I could take this stuff home with me.

Here is a pic of the French toast made better with Sisters' syrup.  Umm good.  Spellcheck keeps taking some of the m's off of "umm".  By the way, the bread is house made.





Fried Eggs:

Over medium eggs with the yolks still runny.  How you want your eggs in Cambodia is communicated by hand movements.  Upward palm means sunny-side up.  Upward palm turned downward means over whatever.  Unless you speak Khmer, you will get anything from over easy to over hard.  And forget about over light.  That doesn't happen here.  The breakfast is served with house-made bread.

Bacon or sausage comes with the fried egg breakfast.  And the bacon was fried crisp, not burnt.  It had a good flavor and was in strips.  A lot of places in Phnom Penh serve bacon cut in a circle which is how the local meat shop prepares it.  See my post in 2014 on Dan's Meat Market.




Pancakes-n-Sausage:

The pancakes here are good, but the house-made syrup makes them great.  The butter I had to ask for but they quickly brought it out with a smile.  The sausage paddies, like a said before, appear to be house made.  Have to have sausage with my pancakes.




Rich, Robust Coffee:

The coffee here has a really rich and robust flavor.  My taste buds were searching for what the flavor reminded me of.  My daughter Michelle says the coffee bean here has a slight chocolate tint to the flavor.  That's it!  Coffee here is French, so it tends to be thick (the way I like it).  Don't ask for cream, the wait staff will not know what you mean.  Ask for milk instead.  You have to ask for sugar as well, and forget about sweetener.  Some places, this included, will bring you sweeten-condensed milk for your coffee, and that suited me as well -- it just made the coffee flavor richer.  This place serves sweeten-condensed milk with coffee.




A look to the street:

See the case in the middle right side of the picture.  That's where they sell their bakery goods including the sweets that I bring my grandkids.