Tuesday, August 17, 2010

The Vacation of Fantastic (FRIED) Food

Hey there Friends and foodies. I'm finally able to post some pictures from my vacation the last week of July!
After sorting through my vacation pictures, I came to the conclusion that I miss southern food.
I LOVE the South. I have a lot of family in the south and have spent many summers with cousins grandparents soaking up the slow going ways of the south.
The food down there is amazing.
They still cook with lard, and it makes me weak at the knees.
So, here is a short presentation of some of the best foods we got our hands on while on Vacation in Tennessee. Happy eating foodies! I'll be posting more vacation goodies tomorrow!

This is a deep fried Oreo. Yes...you read that correctly. The order comes with three Oreos that are battered, deep fried and loaded up with powdered sugar. Eating all three I think is impossible, or requires a trained professional with a defibrillator near by. Just for the record, this was not what I ordered. What I ordered was even better...

The Fried Milky Way. I never knew this existed, and I wish I didn't now. Again, it's a plain candy bar battered and deep fried, then covered in powder sugar. In all honesty, I think I might have eaten half before my body was screaming for a salad or something. So worth it though.
Hand Made Peach Ice Cream from BBQ. The Best BBQ Place in Tennessee is half way up the side of a mountain next to a farmers market. They sell pulled pork, brisket, ribs and their sauce. They also have one type of Fried Pie (yes, this too is fried) and one type of hand made ice cream available. The flavor of both the pie and the ice cream are totally dependent upon what is abundant and fresh at the Farmer's Market next door. The fruit of choice the week we were on vacation, PEACH *SWOON*
This is the peach pie. I ordered two of them for Matt and I thinking they would be somewhere near the Hostess size, and walked away with two HUGE containers with this inside.
A Fried hand made peach pie covered in whipped cream with fresh peach ice cream.
After enjoying the most mouthwatering Brisket in the world, this is the perfect dessert.
This is the smoker that IS BBQ. BBQ is literally a stand. They have fryers in the back, and a smoker in the front. The food is assembled inside the hut. With food this good, I don't care where it comes from or where I eat it.
Last but most certainly not least, this cupcake came from a small bakery near Pigeon Forge that had the BEST baked goods I have had outside our dessert vendor. You choose your cupcake flavor and icing flavor, they will go in the back and choose a HUGE cupcake and cover it with FRESH butter cream frosting in any flavor. They will then drizzle it with any flavor they have that you want. The end result is a huge, messy, perfect cupcake. Also, the baker was the one who directed Matt and I to go find BBQ next to the Farmer's Market. We NEVER would have found it otherwise.
The cupcake was rocking, the cinnamon buns we got the morning we got engaged were even better (sorry for the lack of picture) but his advice, was the most precious of all...

His advice, lead us to this beautiful Brisket sandwich. The pulled pork was incredible as well, but I forgot to take that picture because I was so enamored of my sandwich.
The Sauce that BBQ makes is called Smokin the Pig. It's hands down,the BEST BBQ Sauce I have EVER had, and I usually make my own.
It was dark, thick, sweet and savory...it was heaven.
So much so, that I purchased 3 quarts of it to bring home as gifts.
There have been rave reviews all around since.
Well friends and foodies, that's my foodie vacation. Tomorrow I'll share some videos and pictures from the rest of vacation!