greybeard
Well-known member
Excuse me while I rant a bit.........
Went to a new eating place last night, that recently opened in our nearest town, and ordered my favorite, a Texas tradition--chicken fried steak, and I'm still pizzed off about it this morning. I figured they could make a decent one, since the place is named Texas Seafood and Steakhouse. Now, let me say, that I've had CFS from Amarillo to Texarkana and down to Laredo and out to Fort Davis, and up thru Tennessee and Kansas, Oklahoma and even Arkansas and I actually judge an eatery by the quality of it's chicken fried steak. If a place can't serve up a decent and traditional CFS they are "on the list". "The list" being places I won't ever go back in to regardless of how good any thing else is.
A regular working man's CFS should be of adequate size, but not so huge it hangs over the plate, unless one just wants to order the double which is a whole round steak.
It should be a real steak, not hamburger steak.
It should be, as served at the table, 3/8-1/2" thick--not wafer thin, and not cooked to death to the point the steak itself is crunchy, dry and tough. That, gets you "on the list".
The breading--covers the steak, but that's it. Serve me one, and I cut into it and find that 1/2 the total area is empty, hollow breading, and you're "on the list".
Side orders should be served on the side--period. That's why they're called "sides".
Gravy should be white gravy, and is fine either leaves the kitchen on the steak or in a small bowl so the customer can decide how much gravy to smother the steak with.
Them's the rules here in Trexas and the Southwest and not to be trifled with, screwed up, altered or adulterated in any way.
It, according to the menu and the cute blonde waitress, "comes with a salad and choice of one side". Those choices are--french fries or cole slaw.
I ordered the french fries--(kinda hard to screw that up) , and house salad with Thousand Island.
Wife ordered shrimp and coleslaw.
Salad was good, dressing of a good portion, tho the bowl of cheap crackers seemed to have been each meticulously broken up and went everywhere when ya opened them up from their cellophane.
Out come the entrees.
I looked at my wife's big fried shrimp with envy thinking, "dang, wish I had ordered that", and then saw her looking at my plate with that "Oh he77, here it comes" look on her face.
A nice fair sized (but not overly large) chicken fried steak, smothered in white gravy and no side. "Where's my fries?"
"Oh, they put the fries under the steak".
:yuck:
:?: :?: :?:
I let out a very audible gasp.
"Are them people all from New York City or Quebec by chance? Just what part of the word "side" do they not understand? This is Texas, we don't eat innards here, or raw octopus and if I had wanted soggy gravy soaked french fries we'd have flown up to Canada or the NE US and ordered that abomination they call Poutine off some slimy looking street vender. This is just wrong".
"No sir, they're all from Cambodia and this is how they do chicken fried steak here--want me to take it back and get fries on the side?"
"Nope young lady, I never send anything back--probably come out worse than this and I was raised to eat whatever is on my plate or not eat at all". I'll eat it, but yall are officially "on the list". The cooks and management deserves to be drug outside, hooked to a tree and have the flesh flayed from their back for sending this mess out here".
I forked the whole steak, plopped it over on my empty salad bowl, and raked the nastiness that used to be french fries off on a napkin, picked up the corners, and handed it to her as if it were a dirty diaper and put the steak back on my plate.
The steak itself was not bad--I've had a LOT better and some a lot worse.
Wife had already made a ugly face, pushed the coleslaw off to the side, so I got a spoonful of it and almost spat it out. I would estimate it was a 50/50 mix of shredded cabbage and horseradish. It would have knocked a horse down.
I did leave the young lady an overly generous tip, seeing as how it wasn't her fault and she had to stand there and endure my displeasure for about a minute and 1/2.
Anyway, if you're from Quebec or the Big Apple, are ever in Cleveland or Dayton Texas and see Texas Seafood and Steakhouse, stop in---you'll probably feel right at home.
I won't darken their doors again. It's a chicken fried steak--it ain't rocket science.
Went to a new eating place last night, that recently opened in our nearest town, and ordered my favorite, a Texas tradition--chicken fried steak, and I'm still pizzed off about it this morning. I figured they could make a decent one, since the place is named Texas Seafood and Steakhouse. Now, let me say, that I've had CFS from Amarillo to Texarkana and down to Laredo and out to Fort Davis, and up thru Tennessee and Kansas, Oklahoma and even Arkansas and I actually judge an eatery by the quality of it's chicken fried steak. If a place can't serve up a decent and traditional CFS they are "on the list". "The list" being places I won't ever go back in to regardless of how good any thing else is.
A regular working man's CFS should be of adequate size, but not so huge it hangs over the plate, unless one just wants to order the double which is a whole round steak.
It should be a real steak, not hamburger steak.
It should be, as served at the table, 3/8-1/2" thick--not wafer thin, and not cooked to death to the point the steak itself is crunchy, dry and tough. That, gets you "on the list".
The breading--covers the steak, but that's it. Serve me one, and I cut into it and find that 1/2 the total area is empty, hollow breading, and you're "on the list".
Side orders should be served on the side--period. That's why they're called "sides".
Gravy should be white gravy, and is fine either leaves the kitchen on the steak or in a small bowl so the customer can decide how much gravy to smother the steak with.
Them's the rules here in Trexas and the Southwest and not to be trifled with, screwed up, altered or adulterated in any way.
It, according to the menu and the cute blonde waitress, "comes with a salad and choice of one side". Those choices are--french fries or cole slaw.
I ordered the french fries--(kinda hard to screw that up) , and house salad with Thousand Island.
Wife ordered shrimp and coleslaw.
Salad was good, dressing of a good portion, tho the bowl of cheap crackers seemed to have been each meticulously broken up and went everywhere when ya opened them up from their cellophane.
Out come the entrees.
I looked at my wife's big fried shrimp with envy thinking, "dang, wish I had ordered that", and then saw her looking at my plate with that "Oh he77, here it comes" look on her face.
A nice fair sized (but not overly large) chicken fried steak, smothered in white gravy and no side. "Where's my fries?"
"Oh, they put the fries under the steak".
:yuck:
:?: :?: :?: I let out a very audible gasp.
"Are them people all from New York City or Quebec by chance? Just what part of the word "side" do they not understand? This is Texas, we don't eat innards here, or raw octopus and if I had wanted soggy gravy soaked french fries we'd have flown up to Canada or the NE US and ordered that abomination they call Poutine off some slimy looking street vender. This is just wrong".
"No sir, they're all from Cambodia and this is how they do chicken fried steak here--want me to take it back and get fries on the side?"
"Nope young lady, I never send anything back--probably come out worse than this and I was raised to eat whatever is on my plate or not eat at all". I'll eat it, but yall are officially "on the list". The cooks and management deserves to be drug outside, hooked to a tree and have the flesh flayed from their back for sending this mess out here".
I forked the whole steak, plopped it over on my empty salad bowl, and raked the nastiness that used to be french fries off on a napkin, picked up the corners, and handed it to her as if it were a dirty diaper and put the steak back on my plate.
The steak itself was not bad--I've had a LOT better and some a lot worse.
Wife had already made a ugly face, pushed the coleslaw off to the side, so I got a spoonful of it and almost spat it out. I would estimate it was a 50/50 mix of shredded cabbage and horseradish. It would have knocked a horse down.
I did leave the young lady an overly generous tip, seeing as how it wasn't her fault and she had to stand there and endure my displeasure for about a minute and 1/2.
Anyway, if you're from Quebec or the Big Apple, are ever in Cleveland or Dayton Texas and see Texas Seafood and Steakhouse, stop in---you'll probably feel right at home.
I won't darken their doors again. It's a chicken fried steak--it ain't rocket science.
