Cochina Grande, Honduras

Thanks to my Cousin BJ, I was able to spend ten days in paradise on the Isle of Cochino Grande off of Mainland Honduras, south of Roata'n.  His cook, Flauta, kept us fed with three meals a day and dessert on most evenings.  Some how I lost weight.  Above is a close up of her brownies.

Here is where I stayed for a much needed laid back vacation.  Without internet, I was able to flesh out most of my western mystery, Slaughter at Sorrel Creek.  The work, under my author name Mick Lang, should be completed and ready for publication on Amazon in August.

Breakfast


Sausage-n-Eggs:

BJ can find a great cook, but he can't buy groceries.  I had to make a second run for sausage, ham, cheese, and wheat bread.  Best sausage available at the Walmart on mainland Honduras was Butterball Turkey Sausage.  It worked for breakfast.




Fried Eggs:

Flauta was cooking for six men so we did not bother her for special orders.  Some days, the eggs were fried and other days scrambled.  All days, the eggs were good.  See how rich-looking the egg yolks are.  And those rich orange yolks are from Walmart eggs.


Tropical Fruit:

 You have to visit the tropics in either South America or Central America to experience great fruit.  You know me by now, I generally post greasy food and not fruits.  But the flavors of mangos, papaya, and pineapple are so great here.  As in the custom of the tropics, Flauta squeezed a juice orange over the fruit.

Generally, I eat the fruit for dessert while my friends pile up on it with their main meal.

BLT with Avocado:

We had BLT with cheese (the cheese I bought) twice.  The first time with these awesome avocados from Honduras.  The second time, later in our trip, we had run out of avocados 😩.



Pasteles:

Some countries call these empanadas.  Great little meat pies stuffed with chicken, diced potatoes, and seasoning veggies.  Next time I come, I want Flauta to make pasteles with guava and cream cheese for dessert.

Desserts

Behold -- The Apple Pie:

BJ bought tons of apples and we weren't eating them.  So Flauta made apple pie for us on the last night.  Since only three of us were left there, we had the leftovers for breakfast the next day.  The apple slices were marinated in limes before the pie was baked.  Talk about change the flavor.


Banana Bread:

In Honduras, bananas are sold fresh, not green.  So after the first day, the bananas had to be used in baking.  So we had banana bread instead.  Life is good.


Brownies:

These brownies look like chunks of chocolate and taste that good as well.  I suffer from acid reflux so reluctantly I ate only a couple of pieces of this masterpiece.  Had to limit my pineapple intake as well.

Our Cook Flauta!

Dining Out at a Resort:

We ate dinner out on night at a neighboring resort.  Paella was served.  They custom made a pot for our group of eight.  The paella had shrimp, calamari, chicken, and pork.  The owner of the resort was from Spain and thereby picky about the quality of paella he served.

Leftovers after we attacked the paella pan.

Flauta's Breakfast Spread:

Bacon, eggs, fresh fruit.  Great feast with friends.  Thanks, Cousin BJ, for a great feed on an awesome vacation.  In addition to toast, Flauta made her own flour tortillas. 

Oregon Coastal Road Trip Food

Mattie's Pancake House:

Eric, an old college friend, invited me on an Oregon coastal road trip.  Here are some of the places we ate along the way.  Above is a blueberry waffle from Mattie's Pancake House.

Mattie's is located on the southern outskirts of Brookings on Oregon Coast Highway.  Just look to the east on a hill and there it is.  We just stopped there for one meal.

This dish is the hamburger steak and eggs.  And was it good.  It is served with hashbrowns cooked up nicely.  I love the taste of beef with eggs.  Don't know about Eric, but I would come back here to eat.

Tillamook Cheese Factory:

Look at this perfectly grilled cheese sandwich.  Of all the food that Tillamook offered at their greeting hall, I had to have a grilled cheese.  You can get other sandwiches or ice cream as well.  Plus, they sell broken pieces from the big rounds at mark down prices.



Yes, Tillamook is located on the Oregon Coast Highway.  It's south of Idaville and north of Tillamook.  Just look to the east.

The Wet Dog Cafe:

The Wet Dog Cafe is located in Astoria, Oregon, at the wharf.  This is a great place to go for hearty food, the kind of food I'd want to eat while watching a football game.

Bratwurst with mac and cheese, not a very healthy dish, but it sure tastes good.  Surprisingly, I did not gain weight on this road trip.

Steaming clam chowder.  It was wet and cold along the Oregon coastline which made this dish very inviting.  This chowder is rib-sticking thick.

For dessert, marionberry bread pudding!  The marionberry is a diversion of the wild blackberry, only thicker, juicier, and tastier than it's counterpart.  The marionberry was developed at Oregon State University and has been a mainstay of the state's diet ever since. Eric, his brother Bart, and I shared this dessert.

The Honeysuckle Cafe:

The Honeysuckle Cafe is located on the outskirts of Jacksonville in southern Oregon away from the coast.  Not an easy place to find, but the food is worth the trip.  Breakfast is only on weekends.

Look at that hollandaise sauce!  This is eggs Benedict at its best.  The eggs were runny, but the sauce was thick.  And look at those country potatoes in the back of the picture.  Ummm good!

Would you believe it?  This is a cinnamon roll.  Their cinnamon bun is why people drive here.  Save the middle for me.

Pig'n Pancake:

This is an Astoria location, but the Pig'n Pancake is an Oregon chain, mostly on the east coast.  Great place for breakfast.  It is small enough of a chain, that the quality is still mom-n-pop.

You won't believe what's in this omelet.  Dungeness crab!  Where else but the Oregon coast can you get a dungeness crab omelet.  This dish is listed as one of their favorites and is served with Tillamook cheddar.  I had to have it.

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.

DC Road Trip

Biscuits and sausage gravy in DC!  And look at those chunks of sausage.  This DC trip saved my blog.  Seriously, I was running out of posts for the Breakfast Bro until I made this trip.

My cousin BJ advertised on Facebook for friends or relatives to join him on a road trip to DC for the WWII Plane Flyover.  He had to settle for a relative ... me.  Here we are at the flyover.  Below are some of the food places we visited along the way.




Schobels Restaurant of Columbus, Texas

First stop was at a 34-year-old restaurant in Columbus -- Schobels, just off of I-10 between San Antonio and Houston.  This place is know for its weekend breakfast buffet which I will post at another date.  Here BJ ordered the Western Omelet and I had to have the Pica Eggs Benedict.

Pica Eggs Benedict:

Schobels adds pica to their hollandaise sauce along with a little salsa.  Great combo to take Eggs Benedict into another direction.  I will do a posting of their famous weekend buffet at another time.




Satsuma Cafe of New Orleans

Just north of the French Quarter near the Mississippi River is this cosy restaurant that has an interesting choice of breakfasts.  BJ's friend Sally whom we picked up in New Orleans to take to her husband at their second home in West Virginia found this place for us.  She ordered the Mexican Breakfast Plate.


Mexican Breakfast Plate:

This plate comes with corn tortillas, black beans, scrambled eggs and cheese with a side of pica and avocado.  The eggs are scrambled wet, a favorite of New Orleans (and Sally's).

Black beans are a favorite of mine and are probably one of the only beans which do not require seasoning meat to taste great.  My order consisted of two of their breakfast sandwiches.  I will do a posting on this place at a later date.




Loveless Cafe of Nashville

We crashed in Nashville with a friend of BJ and Sally's -- Cathy.  Cathy and her husband Curt recommended the Loveless Cafe to us.  This place is a trick to get to but worth the drive.  Use your GPS to find it.


Biscuit Sampler Platter:

 Sally ordered the biscuit sampler which takes four of their famous biscuits and puts something cool on them like ham, pulled pork, fried chicken strips, or fried green tomato with pimiento cheese.

When we were seated, the waiter brought out a platter of biscuits for the table.  I like my biscuits larger, but the waiter keeps brining you these small ones til you're full.  I know of no other place that does this.  I will do a separate posting on this place at another time.





Ted's Bulletin of DC

I love this place.  It's located on 8th Street just down from the Marine Corps Barracks near the Potomac River.  While in DC, BJ and I had all four of our breakfasts here.  Expect a long posting on Ted's in July.  Thanks to BJ's cousins Sean and Stephanie for putting us up in DC and for recommending this place to us.


Nana's Beer Biscuits & Sausage Gravy:

Look at the large chunks of sausage on these beer biscuits.  And their sausage is homemade with maple syrup, Tabasco sauce, and red pepper flakes.  This is the best of the best of sausage that I have had for breakfast -- ever.

Las Placitas Restaurant of DC

My apologies to Las Placitas.  I forgot to take a photo of the building.  It's located down the street from Ted's and is a great place for Latin American cuisine for lunch or dinner.  It's specialty is Salvadoran food.  

Above is their Puerco Al Horno: tender morsels of pork, oven baked and served with sautéed onions and sweet plantains.  See those banana-looking fruit on the front side of the plate ... those are plantains.  

Below is their Gambas Al Ajillo: Shrimp sautéed in a garlic butter and white wine sauce.  This is a bucket list return when I come back to DC.  By the way, their are a lot of mom-n-pop places on 8th street.  I would love to find a hotel room near the place.  Too bad the Marines don't rent out the barracks.  That would work ... I'm an early riser ... though I would want to pass on the calisthenics.  

DC Mall Hotdog Food Truck:

Sorry, hungry, very hungry when I stopped for a hotdog.  Forgot to take photos of this awesome hotdog.  But it was Vienna Beef and you can get that from food trucks all over this country.  Go to http://www.viennabeef.com for more information.  By the way, the hotdog was awesome!

Daisy & the Duke's Cafe of Mosheim, TN

Exit 30 off of I-81 is where you find this truck stop.  It was Mothers' Day and night was approaching on our return trip. BJ searched the internet and could find no mom-n-pop places in the area that was open.  I saw a blue sign for food as Exit 30 was approaching so I hit the exit in hopes it would be open and it wasn't.  But Daisy and the Dukes was next door and still open.  I will post this place at another date.


Grilled Ham & Cheese Sandwich 

Their food reminded me of the old fashioned Woolco dining area of the 50s.  Nice home-cooked diner food.  Above is a grilled hame and cheese.  On their menu is a bucket list item for me ... the Big Foot.  The Big Foot hosts four slices of toasted bread with three layers of meat.  Layer number one, the anchor, is a cheese burger.  Layer number two is a BLT.  Layer number three is your choice.  How does one get all of that in a mouth?



Alabama-Mississippi Boarder

Along the way back, the almost-empty gasoline lite came on just as we were approaching the Alabama-Mississippi boarder, and I inadvertently passed up the last gas station exit in Alabama.  With nothing showing up in Mississippi in the middle of the #@%& night, so I began to worry ... out loud.  BJ laughed telling me he had 45 miles in the tank before we ran out.  Aggravated with his cavalierness, I pressed the cancel button on the cruise and let the car wind down.  That got a rise out of him.

Franklinton's Grill of Franklinton, LA

We drove straight from DC through the night to Franklinton, LA, where my brother lives, arriving at four in the morning.  Joe didn't know we were coming.  I called him on my cell phone when we arrived and told him we're in Louisiana and the engine had just died.  There was momentary silence on the line before he asked, "Okay, where are you?"  "In your driveway!"  We crashed with him and in between naps, he took us to his favorite haunt, the Franklinton's Grill.


Mac & Cheese:

Sorry, I forgot to take photos of the food, but here is one from an earlier posting.  This dish is the Franklinton Cordon Bleu and their famous mac-n-cheese.  This trip, I had the fried pork chops and the mac-n-cheese.





Kenner Seafood of Kenner, LA

Next stop was a visit with my Uncle Pete in Kenner, LA, and he hooked us up with the Kenner Seafood Market and Restaurant.  If you like New Orleans seafood, this place is hogs' heaven.


One Dozen Raw Oysters for $6!

The raw oysters were on sale for 50 cents each.  Great oysters for a great price!  Afterwards we ordered fried seafood po boys and red beans & rice.  But that's for another posting.  Thanks Pete for this great find!