Eat Like Ushi

On the hot Nashville days, after spending some days wandering and experiencing the honkytonks, we were up for a more casual afternoon. Of all things, the local new hip shopping mall L&L Market was a bus ride down the road and something to do whilst embracing air conditioning.

There were a few food options like Five Daughters Bakery or the enormous looking (American sized) sundaes at Gracie's Milkshake bar. But this highly rated Italian place drew us in.

It specialises in pinsa - a Roman bread that crosses pizza and foccacia. And the Pinsa pazza (tomato sauce, mozzarella, pesto, burrata) USD17 was a thicker denser chewy salty base with enough bready crispness to pick up without flopping and enjoy by hand. Lasagna (spinach pasta, ragu meat sauce, mozzarella) USD16 was a nice version with the green striking pasta burnt with flavour at the edges and topped with a thick bit of melted and dusted cheese.

A great and tasty lunch.

After chatting with a local girl at our hostel who was there managing bands in Nashville, we told her of our intent to his the honkytonk scene that evening. She said a lot of places in town catered toward the young groups of bachelorette parties and were far lss than traditional, playing all sorts of music. However her favourite and that of many locals was Robert's, which also came with the recommendation to try the fried bologna sandwich.

It was definitely a western-style venue that I had imagined, with a few ladies in cowboy hats enjoying the dancing. Not quite line dancing style but maybe that's a stereotype for another place. The music was a fun type, what I suppose would be traditional country music.

We found a seat upstairs and the trio sitting at the front of the balcony left soon after giving us full views of the venue and the band. I ordered the Recession Special $6 which included the infamous sandwich, bag of chips, moon pie and a drink. I also had a whiskey and coke for the local Tennessee experience.

What can I say about the fried bologna sandwich - it was effectively a grilled ham and cheese sandwich. I don't honestly think I can say it was more than that, and nothing particularly special. It may be that my American fast food taste isn't quite the same as theirs.

Nonetheless a fun few hours there and I would go back again.

After the joy of Hattie B's (https://eatlikeushi.posthaven.com/hattie-bs-hot-chicken-nashville-07-2021), it was serendipidous that I found on Google maps that there was a branch of Prince's in the foodcourt off Broadway. I didn't want to make the trek all the way down south to the original Prince's, and even though the Google ratings of this branch aren't particularly great, I had to try for myself.

After a night in the honkytonks, a bit of fried chicken to wash down the alcohol seemed like a Nashville thing to do.

Prince's was located in the upstairs food court. It was a Wednesday night so not very busy but a short queue was at Prince's, and nowhere else in the foodcourt. I hoped it would be as good as the main branch and competitive to Hattie B's. The menu is quite limited and so I ordered wings hot (given my Hattie experience that hot level). It was slightly hot but it's very obvious that there was not much spicing at all. Also it was definitely not cooked fresh as the wing meat itself was only warm, far from a freshly fried piece. The fries were decent. But charging $2 for a tablespoon of coleslaw was disgraceful. 

I would suggest everyone join the line for Hattie around the corner instead. I would consider going to the original place if I'm ever in Nashville again, but that's a longshot maybe on many fronts

The pure inspiration for me going to Nashville was for the fried chicken. Yes, I read later about the honkytonks and party vibe (endless bachelorette parties apparently) but it was the chicken predominantly. My first Nashville chicken was from Belle's (https://eatlikeushi.posthaven.com/belles-hot-chicken-melbourne-02-2016) and their subsequent spinoff/copycat in Geelong (https://eatlikeushi.posthaven.com/the-hot-chicken-project-geelong-08-2016).

I looked up recipes online and found one from Belle's and one from their inspiration by Sean Brock. I cooked a hybrid version once and I have to say it was great. It would be the closest I would find in London. Reading online their were only really two names that came up for where to go in Nashville - Prince's and Hattie B's. Most of the reviews suggested Prince's was the more favourite although being located so far south I didn't want to make the journey there.

So Hattie B's in its convenient location on Broadway meant joining a hot midday queue in the sun enviously looking at the people inside. After a 15min wait I made it to the order counter, before finding a counter seat to watch the passing street traffic. I wasn't sure how hot to order and so ended up with a large dark meat (2 leg/thigh quarters) $12 at medium and one extra wing $2.5 at hot. The 2 sides chosen were pimento mac & cheese and creamy coleslaw. 

And the chicken was as good as I hoped. Spicy, crisp skin which crackled overlying a very good and tender chicken. Hot was definitely better than medium and brought it to life. It was a lot less salty than I expected, and not smokey like the heaped paprika from Belle's. It was just delicious.

After the disappointing Prince's, once we were driving away from Nashville there was another Hattie B's in West Nashville on our way out to Memphis. This time we ordered hot and were thankful for the last bit of bliss. Until the next time Hattie B. But for now Belle's will do fine.

We were looking for breakfast place before a self-guided walking tour and then my anticipation of finally having Nashville fried chicken for lunch. So it had to be healthy. Initially we tried D'Andrews Bakery although they had an unexpectedly limited number of options for a bakery.

Luckily the other option just down the road was a healthy little corner cafe set inside a modern business building. I'm sure the workers appreciated an easy option so closeby and a short downhill walk to all the life on Broadway.

- Fig toast (local seeded bread baked golden, layered with coconut oil, almond butter, sliced strawberries, dried figs, hemp seeds, local honey) USD6.99;
- Blue bae (blended cashew milk, bananas, blue spirulina, cashew butter, maca root, on top granola, strawberries, black currants, coconut flakes, hemp seeds, puffed brown rice, cashew butter, local honey) USD10.99 - refreshing and high quality ingredients. 

Overall excellent healthy (albeit a bit expensive) food and drink. Chai was nicely spiced and not too sweet. A good way to start before the rest of the day of alcohol and chicken.