Cravings

When we have American visitors here in Brasil or when we are back in the states for a furlough we are often asked what food we miss from the states.

To be honest I don't really have that many food cravings. The kinds that make me really, really miss a certain food or place. 

One pretty constant food craving I do have is a Wendy's spicy chicken sandwich. I LOVE those! I could eat one of those every day if we had a Wendy's in POA.

Dr. Pepper used to be on that short list as well.  Dr. Pepper for me would probably classify more as an addiction than a craving. Man, I can suck down some DP's. I cut out all soda from my diet last August and my body has been enjoying being free from headaches, addiction to caffeine, etc. so I'm not really missing my DP's. My girlfriend recently cut soda out from her diet as well. She's still in the withdrawal phase but is doing great. 

I share all this because I had a weird experience a couple of days ago. I had a really odd craving as I was walking close to our house. A craving that I never would have thought I'd have. Not in a million years. And, honestly, you have to be from Memphis to even appreciate it.

As I was walking, someone was cooking and it smelled exactly like something I had not eaten in many, many years. 

What was it?

This:

If memory serves correctly the last time I remember having Jack Pirtle's fried chicken was with my girlfriend and parents. We ate our meal on the hood of my parents car outside the Liberty Bowl stadium in Memphis before a football game. I think that was about 20 years ago. 

The memory that most sticks is the fact that our family used to eat this, what seemed like, every Wednesday night after my sister's piano lessons. I think the chicken was my mom's way of bribing me for having to sit in the car while my sister practiced. In my mind and world at that time those lessons went on FOREVER when in reality it was probably just an hour. But an hour to a little kid doing something he didn't want to do was like FOREVER. 

I sure don't miss those days of waiting for piano lessons to be over but a couple of days ago I missed some after piano practice chicken from Jack Pirtle's.

I had no idea if Jack Pirtle's even existed anymore so I did a google search. To my surprise I found that it's still in Memphis.

So if you live there or visit there sometime, go eat some chicken and biscuits/gravy for me. You can be my craving killer.

And, here's a big plus, you get to do it without having to sit in the car for an hour first while waiting for dumb piano lessons to be over before you can eat.