Kentucky Fried

Sooo, I went to Kentucky a few weeks ago to see Will Oldham perform. After being introduced to his music by Ben a few years ago(coming up on three?wow, where'd the time go?)I quickly found that he has become one of my favorite current musicians.He hasn't performed in Portland since I knew who he was and when I saw that he'd be doing a benefit for Save Kentucky's Hemlocks I knew I had to go. I never had any desire to go to Kentucky in my life and I'll admit I was slightly wary but I thought 'fuck it! Kentucky or bust!' and I booked myself a ticket for a mini adventure. I wish I could have afforded to take more than a 3 day vacation, but alas it was not possible as people depend on me to watch their lil chilluns.
I had a lot of fun and there is a possibility that one day in the future I may return to the land of Bourbon, but not any time soon. You hear about Lexington being the "horse capitol of the world" but once you get there they don't appear to have any horses. I was almost certain it was all a hoax, until a Kentucky native made an extra effort to find some horses along the side of the highway to point out to me. So, its true they do have horses there, but they mostly have high falootin horses that are all shacked up in a barn. Pfft. Horse country, indeed!
This however is not a blog about horses, but rather about food so lets get to it.(I am aware that some people do in fact dine on the equine, but I think that's pretty horrible, I won't eat rabbit and I won't eat horse).
The main institution of note that I ate at(kind of-I think I only managed to complete about half of my meal)was...The Wafflehouse. Oh boy. The food was not good, that much should be obvious, we're talking Denny's mixed with ? sumthin, but the experience was admittedly fun. My breakfast companion and I had some witty exchanges with the waitress and cook, so that was a bonus. I can't even recall what I ordered, some sort of egg creation with mushrooms and cheese that came with toast. We had some diner coffee. I feel any fantasy of truck stop dining was achieved with this experience...it was even located next door to a gas station. Oh, America! Bestill my beating heart.
After breakfast on Saturday I needed to get some real coffee so we headed to this nice lil cafe back in town adn I got a 12 oz double Americano, it tasted right, even if it wasn't Stumptown. Good to know I am not totally ruined by the Portland coffee experience.
I had a slice of pecan pie in a refridgerator that needed rescueing and it was consumed on the road later that evening-it was delicious! It came from Missy's Pies, located within the confines of Ramseys, and if you ever make it to Lexington I suggest you try some of that pie. I had dined at Ramseys for a late lunch/supper on Friday night before heading off to the concert. I got meatloaf with sides of greens, creamed corn, and mashed potatoes. It was a lot of food and I wound up having to take some of it to go. I also had a scrumptious chocolate milk shake. The dining situation itself was a little marred because the waitress seated me in th eback section-where there was no people watching to be had cos I was th eonly one back there. But I did get to overhear some of the cooks back in the kitchen and that was semi amusing. The food was good and the prices were fine. I think everyone in Kentucky knows about Ramseys but incase you've never heard of it and you go for a visit you should hit it up for some "homestyle" cooking.
Friday morning, when I first got into town, with very little sleep and lots of bourbon running through my viens from a brief Thursday night stay in Louisville I stumbled around the downtown looking for some place to eat. I finally found a place called Alfafa's and it is very much like The Vita or some such place in Portland. Not only did I get breakfast(I think I got biscuits'n'gravy which was so so. The biscuits were good but the gravy wasn't so hot)but my waitress offered to let me crash at her place. I took her up on the offer and took a 3 hour nap before waking up and hanging out with her and her cool daughter,Kayla.
Ok, I'm starting to get hungry so I'll add more to this later, there will be bourbons discussed and yummy fine-ish dining in Louisville. stay tuned...