Sunday, August 3, 2008

Complaints Department - Road Edition Day 3

This is the final day of the Road Edition and I must say this: IT IS HOTTER THAN HELL DOWN THERE!!! I found out today that the record for yesterday's weather was broken, it reached 106!!!(before heat index) Of course, I have more photos of the Clinton Library and I'm deciding on whether or not to post them. Afterall, I really don't want to bore you(if I haven't already). It's actually been a bit of a job to do this thing. The so-called "free WiFi" I got with the room kept kicking me off, so I just went with the mobile package I came with. Only problem is that it works at a speed of 112 Kbps. I literally spent hours to do a post and some photos had to hit the cutting room floor. I'm a bit exhausted right now, but I at least want to finish day 3 as it panned out today, so I'm sucking it up right now.

I left Little Rock around 9 AM and made my way to Conway. This is a town that I lived in for(off and on) 20 years. This place too has changed. The only thing really notable about this town is that it holds a festival here every year called Toad Suck Daze. Again, I'm not making this shit up, you just can't. They even have a special store in town JUST for this little festival as seen here:

This festival has actually been on "The Tonight Show with Jay Leno". I don't care how proud those people are with that event, I always cringe a little during that time of year. From here, it was getting close to lunchtime so I headed on over to a place that I missed DEARLY. I made mention here before about how there aren't any good Chinese food buffets here. Well this is the standard that ALL buffets in Springfield have been judged by:

Everyone, I give you the New China Super Buffet. This place DEFINITELY qualifies to be called a real honest to goodness super buffet. Don't just take my word for it, peep for yourself:

They also had the usual, soft serve ice cream, but who in the hell goes there for that? I came for some Chinese grub, I need to get my Asian Itis on. The day before, I had just taken out a huge amount of pork with my good buddy Fred, so I needed some chicken. And so, I went and got my favorite chicken goodies. THIS is how I roll:

Clockwise from the top left side of the RIGHT plate we have Loquat Chicken, Salt&Pepper Chicken, Sesame Chicken and General Tso's Chicken. The plate on the right is self explanatory and only acted as a buffer for the plate on the right. The rice was cooked PERFECTLY and that to me is important. The chicken dishes were also cooked to perfection as the sauces that they were sitting in weren't runny like the kind of crap you get around here. It's just a thick sauce that doesn't get the chicken soggy and squishy. Except for the Salt&Pepper chicken, when you bite into this stuff, it just sings with the tanginess of the sauce meeting the crispiness of the chicken beneath it, a perfect match. The Salt&Pepper chicken had the right tenderness and flavor, not dry and nothing overpowering, you just let the salt and pepper enhance what good chicken it happens to be sitting on. The stuff is so good, that you saw the before meal photo, now here's the after:

I would have shown an empty tea glass, but they don't let you run out here, aw hell no! Yet another reason why I love this place.

After polishing that off, I simply headed for home. But before even getting half way here, I spotted something on the southern most part of Clinton, AR that I had to get photos of. I did this SOLELY for Jim and John Lee. I won't post all the photos, but I will give up one of them here:

I still can't believe John missed this.

Before I wrap this whole thing up, I need to mention one VERY important thing. Everyone, this is my very, VERY good friend Fred:

(I just had to get a shot of him and that smokin' ride of his in the shot) I've known this man for, seems to be, 10 years plus. Everywhere I have moved to, he has kept in touch with me. Not a lot of people I knew ever really did that with me, but HE did. Fred is the reason why I came to this place right here:

This is the Whole Hog Cafe. This place actually has some street cred in BBQ. We rolled in there with only 1 thing on the food agenda, yep, RIBS!!! This place smells like BBQ heaven before you even touch the door. Inside waited a great choice of pork that I was dyin' to meet. When I eat ribs, I need plenty of them and all I can say after that is THIS is how I roll in the pit:

I knew Fred did me right when I saw this. There was even an added bonus, they had PIBB ON TAP! This place just keeps gettin' better and better. Me and Fred destroyed our ribs and gradually let the Itis kick in while talked old times and of course, great places to eat. Fred dropped some serious knowledge on me for when I come down there next time AND a place or 2 up North. I also invited Fred to come up and hit Lambert's with me some time and I KNOW he'll get rollin' soon. This weekend would have been a bit quiet had it not been for Fred, and I really appreciate him keepin' up with a sorry ass like me.


END OF THE ROAD

10 comments:

Anonymous said...

Glad you had a good time and got to see old friends. :-) Your posts made me hungry! Apparently, while you were gone I was the only one who wanted to have a party at your house, so there is only a little bit of purple paint around your place. ;-)

dr sardonicus said...

I do think it's a bit sad that Springfield is so dead that you have to go to Little Rock for culture...

(Folks who think Little Rock is a big hick town in the middle of a big hick state would be surprised, though. There's a lot to do in Little Rock, and it's surprisingly progressive when one considers the attitudes of the area as a whole.)

longrooffan said...

CDM:

Looks like a blast and so glad you got to meet up with some old cronies and got to get to some new food spots.

I know those motel wifi's are sometimes a bitch but thanks for working through it and sharing your blogs with us.

john lee

The CDM said...

Day 2 was actually the worst. It was something like 10ish when I finally started nodding off while typing and loading. I had enough and stopped it a bit short. Right now, my eyes are killing me and I'm so tired, I can't seem to fall asleep...if that makes any sense.

Waiting for delerium to set in.

Michelle said...

So, do you want me to calorie count all this or what?!

The CDM said...

Between the food and all the walking I did in the heat, I can't believe I'm not in a diabetic coma.

Calorie count? I may need a brain cell count. But DAMN, it was worth it!

JL said...

This is so much fun! Since I've gone nowhere at all this summer, I'm having to live vicariously through your vacation! Thanks for letting us all tag along. Be careful...

Busplunge said...

If you're too busy to go fishin', you're TOO busy!

Thanks for the photos!

Rhea said...

Toad Suck Daze? What kind of festival is that?! What do you do?

Fun photos from your trip! Looks like you've had a good time, despite your Internet issues.

Legos do end up in the most mysterious places in my house...the worst place being under my foot. Legos hurt like hell.

mama biscuit said...

Looks like you had a good time. Also, you may not need to eat again for a month.