A Good Buffet is Hard to Find
Winning chicken and Hawaiian Sunset Cake
From a food justice perspective, maybe there really is no such thing as a good buffet. The very idea is gluttonous and conspicuously American. “All You Can Eat” or the more delicately put “All You Care to Eat” are slogans only for those who can pay the tab, and who knows how much is left over when food is served in such quantities? From an economic standpoint, serving high quality food at an affordable price and accurately anticipating the number of diners on a given day must always be a tricky proposition, which would explain why so many good Southern buffet restaurants that are not chains don’t make it, or the quality of the offerings takes a downward slide.
Still, hunting down a good Sunday buffet was something of a sport in my family. When my mother was still with us, we’d drive more than an hour from Carrboro to Louisburg, on the far side of Raleigh, for a buffet where the spread included a perfect roast beef, hand-carved au jus, fried Carolina shrimp, pork barbecue, pork chops, fried chicken with lots of legs (my favorite), and a dozen fresh vegetables in season. The desserts were still warm just before noon–banana pudding, peach cobbler, apple crisp. Mom loved it, and the price was right. Getting there early, before church was out, was the trick. But the family with the big barn in Louisburg gave up the buffet, and we never discovered its equal elsewhere, though we tried
If you’re heading down I-40 East toward Wilmington, the Meadow Village Restaurant deserves a mention. This modest restaurant is located on Highway 50, which crosses the interstate at the first exit after I-95 near Benson. They offer a lunch buffet Wednesday through Sunday on a stretch of highway that is otherwise rather desolate if you refuse to eat at chains.
Meadow Village provides an embarrassment of options from 11:00 am to 2:30 pm, but getting there early assures a better plate. Fried or boiled shrimp, often oysters, fried catfish, deviled crab, trout, meatloaf, chicken, chicken and pastry, pulled pork, ham, and country fried steak are usually warming at the steam tables. There’s an enormous salad bar, and many of the vegetables are cooked with a heavy hand of sidemeat, though old-fashioned surprises like stewed tomatoes, rutabega, and turnips are also sometimes available.
The dessert bar at Meadow presents whopping cakes and pies that are not pre-cut, but set out whole so that you can serve yourself as little or as much as you dare. These dishes are the only thing that out-sugars the tea. Fair warning: such Eastern North Carolina fare will leave you feeling a good bit heavier than when you arrived.
However, the inspiration for this blog was a recent encounter with some of the best restaurant fried chicken I can remember. The Hitch'n Post in Williamston (right off US 64 at Exit 514 on US 17 Business North) sports a digital sign with a crawling message in big letters. On the day we stopped by, the promotion said something about pimiento cheese sandwiches and soup, but we opted for the lunch buffet, and luckily got there before the Sunday rush.
A week later, with the lingering memory of that crispy-on-the-outside-and unbelievably-moist-on-the-inside-only-white-meat chicken, I decided to call the restaurant. Dale Rodgerson and Eleanor Gardner opened the place in 2005, said Rodgerson, who answered the phone. Both had worked in textile jobs that disappeared, leading them to take the leap into their dream of a restaurant. Rodgerson designed the building, and both owners and their families stained the wood paneling in the dining room. Then they decorated the place with a homespun, cowboy feel. A full buffet is only $12.
When I asked about the cooking, Rodgerson handed the phone to Gardner. Turns out the premium chicken–all breasts and cut into thirds–is sourced from U.S. Foods, a huge private food distributor that also provides the breader. The Hitch'n Post swears by Canola oil for the frying, a somewhat controversial Canadian invention pressed from rape seed.
“Most people use peanut oil to fry chicken,” said Gardner, confirming what I’ve always used, “but we think Canola seals it and gives it a better taste. And we pay a premium price for that oil.”
Gardner prepares all the desserts herself, except for the peach cobbler, which she now entrusts to other kitchen staff. To me, the most notable dessert was an orangeish cake, super moist with pineapple, and a coconut icing, which I would have called ambrosia cake, so closely did it hew in taste to my grandmother’s once-a-year concoction of fresh oranges, canned pineapple, and coconut for Christmas dinner.
“That’s what we call Hawaiian Sunset Cake,” Gardner said. (The Hitch'n Post does not allow diners to slice their own portions of dessert, though it is possible to try as many of their servings as you like.)
I learned from later research that this cake has been popular across the state for some time. According to the Shelby Star newspaper, it was all the rage in Kings Mountain, North Carolina, where it enjoyed an 11-year run at the Cup and Saucer Tea Room, before the tragic death of the restaurant’s owner. I found a recipe at Taste of Home magazine. It, too, calls for Canola oil!
I asked Eleanor Gardner if the restaurant served anything sourced from local farmers, and she said they definitely buy their sweet potatoes here. (Some of the best in the state, called Covingtons, are grown in this region.) They also get their collards close by and cucumbers “from just up the road.” Gardner puts up pickles from the cukes every summer, and uses them for the restaurant’s popular chicken and potato salads.
It is not easy to remain buff if you eat one too many buffets, but my search will continue, and I pledge to clean my plate to help avoid food waste. I welcome any discoveries from readers for other places to try.