Pie: Eat Arkansas, Arkansas Times

Kat Robinson dishes up 'Arkansas Pie'

Leslie Newell Peacock — Wed, 07 Nov 2012 13:11:36 -0600

Kat Robinson, food writer and former Eat Arkansas blogger, will sign her new book, "Arkansas Pie," at the Historic Arkansas Museum from 5-8 p.m. Friday, Nov. 9, and from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Saturday, Nov. 10, at the Savory Pantry, 214 Central Ave. in Hot Springs.

The book, subtitled "A Delicious Slice of The Natural State," is filled with features on dozens of pies from restaurants all over Arkansas (see her November 2011 feature in the Times), the result of many hours on the road and testing out 400 varieties of pie. The book also features stories about the piemakers themselves.

Photographer Grav Weldon will also have his pie shots on display in the HAM atrium.

The book is $19.99; you can pre-order from Amazon or www.arkansaspie.com or buy it at bookstores and venues where Robinson will be signing. For more information, go the Arkansas Pie website.

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Pieday: Bourbon chocolate chunk pecan at Greenhouse Grille

Kat Robinson — Fri, 13 Jan 2012 08:19:28 -0600

I’ve talked about a whole lot of different pies with this Pieday feature; I’m sure I’ll find other pies, but this will be the last installment of this particular Eat Arkansas feed. So I’m going to close with the best one I had, anywhere.

That’s the Bourbon Chocolate Chunk Pecan pie from Greenhouse Grille in Fayetteville. I keep dreaming of it. I’m surprised I haven’t accidentally eaten my pillow dreaming about it. It’s that good.

I could go into all the other great things I’ve found at the place — like those amazing Shiitake Mushroom Fries or the Parmesan Risotto Balls or… aw yeah, the Lamb and Herb Meatballs. But I’ve already done that. This time, it’s just about the pie.

You have to start off with the cookie-type crust. It’s like a freaking chocolate chip cookie, I kid you not. And then there are the chocolate chunks themselves… blueberry sized chunks of goodness. The pecan custard is infused with more of that cookie flavor, and that bourbon flavor permeates the whole thing. The top is crisp like a brownie.

And it’s always accompanied by a scoop of vanilla ice cream and some seasonal fruit… and that’s where it really turns into something special. Take a bit of strawberry, a bit of the hot pie and a bit of the cool ice cream and place them all together on your tongue. Now sigh… because it is that good.

The house coffee is the perfect accompaniment, by the way, rich and velvety with lovely nutty notes.

They have the pie whenever Greenhouse Grille is open, whether it’s lunch any day except Monday or dinner any day except Sunday or Monday — that is, unless they run out. And if they run out, I am so sorry. You’re just going to have to make a return trip. You’ll find Greenhouse Grille at 481 S. School in Fayetteville. (479) 474-8909 or check out the website.

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Pieday: Chocolate cream at Dan's I-30 Diner

Kat Robinson — Thu, 05 Jan 2012 22:31:57 -0600

Want a good solid bite for lunch? You can get it at Dan’s I-30 Diner in Benton, along with whatever pie the staff decides to make up each day. But once it’s gone, it’s gone.

Stopped in recently. I wanted breakfast. My dining companion wanted lunch. He went for the excellent Chicken Salad Sandwich ($5.95 with one side). It came out on lovely buttered and toasted white bread. The roasted hand-pulled chicken was plentiful in its mayonnaise emulsion with tiny chunks of pickle and apple. It was scooped onto a layer of green leaf lettuce and tomato slice, which accompanied the saltiness of the roasted chicken well.

The potato salad — well, it’s Devilled Egg Potato Salad, and it is excellent — all the good parts of devilled eggs with potatoes thrown in. I’m actually surprised they don’t just sell Devilled Egg Salad; the potato is soft and adds texture and starch but doesn’t really add anything to the flavor. Not that I’m complaining.

As I said, I wanted breakfast, and got it in the form of Corned Beef Hash and Eggs ($5.95). Yeah, the corned beef hash came out of a can — but it was thrown on the griddle, seared on both sides and served up under a crown of two over-easy eggs with four triangles of toast. Pair it with a cuppa coffee and it’ll put hair on your chest. It’s hearty, it’s salty, it’s hangover food. There ya go.

But there’s always some sort of dessert up on the wipeboard — and what it is, changes every day. Might be sweet potato or pecan pie or cobbler, it‘s $2.49 and it‘s always good. I lucked out. This particular day it was chocolate cream — and it came out soft. Instead of being topped with a Cool Whip style topping, it was topped with a handmade cream — and I know exactly how it’s made and what it’s made from because it’s the same recipe I use for easy frosting, no joke. It’s milk whisked into flour until it creates a demi-roux, chilled and then combined with butter and sugar for a perfect, not-too-sweet topping.

But I never thought to put it on pie before — and in this pie, it is excellent, sitting atop a rich and thick chilled chocolate cream that’s the consistency of cheesecake without that slightly tart flavor. The whole shebang is topped with chocolate shavings and is served unglamorously. And if the sugar didn’t just knock me out I’d eat six of them.

You’ll find Dan’s I-30 Diner in Benton next to the Best Western on the I-30 access road heading westbound. Take the Congo exit to get there. (501) 778-4116

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Pieday: Sweet potato at Lindsey's Hospitality House

Kat Robinson — Fri, 30 Dec 2011 10:10:54 -0600

The best barbecue places serve up pie. And many of the best places for barbecue around here serve up sweet potato pie. Those notes tend to resonate well together.

Lindsey’s Hospitality House in North Little Rock offers some of the best sweet potato pie in Arkansas, right alongside some unabashedly rugged ‘cue.

I dropped in a short time back to pick up a family pack to take home. Barbecue had been requested and I was in the area. It was going to take some doing to get the $20 family pack together all fresh and natural-like, so I asked for some of that yummy looking pie in the case.

I had a seat in the nearly empty dining room while I waited and ate that dang sweet potato pie. It was so different from the really sweet and really tangy pies served around these parts. It wasn’t especially sweet. It was almost meaty. It was a mouth filling, strong flavored pie that about whomped me upside the head with cinnamon, nutmeg, allspice and cloves, a real working-man’s pie guaranteed to satisfy any remnants of an appetite left over from a good lunch.

So I get my brown paper bag full of barbecue and take it home. I unpack it… half a loaf of bread, a pint of beans, a pint of slaw, a pint of potato salad. There are other sides available — but on the family pack there’s no substitution. The beans were a stewed sort, like pork n’ beans in a thin barbecue sauce. The potato salad? Mustardy. The coleslaw? A little sweet, firm and not too runny.

And then there was the meat. I’d ordered up a pound of barbecue beef, and I had smelled it all the way home. It’s put in a paper boat, wrapped tightly in aluminum foil, wrapped over again in a paper sack and placed in the bottom of another paper sack and there were still grease drops forming on the bottom of the bag by the time I left the restaurant. Lindsey’s unashamedly allows its barbecue to come to you in the natural state, without a lot of paper towels or soaking up of this or that. When spooned onto white bread with some coleslaw, as God intended, it soaks into the bread. You have a limited time to get that sandwich to your mouth before it starts to disintegrate.

It’s not sweet. It’s not obnoxiously peppery and it’s not undersmoked. It’s hearty and savory and that coleslaw gives it the perfect counterpoint of texture to make a good sandwich.

I do have to tell you, I have had the candied yams before — and they’re fabulous but sweeter than that sweet potato pie. The steamed cabbage is excellent, and the fried chicken is crispy. And there are always pies of some sort about — fried pies in peach, apple or chocolate and slices of pie in coconut and pecan… and sweet potato. Get you some.

You’ll find Lindsey’s Hospitality House at 207 Curtis Sykes Drive in North Little Rock, not too far from the bead place in Argenta off Main Street. It’s open 11 a.m.-6 p.m. Monday, til 7 p.m. Tuesday through Friday and until 8 p.m. on Saturday. Like all good family barbecue restaurants in the South, it’s closed on Sunday. (501) 374-5707 or check out the website.

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Pieday: Grasshopper at Club 178

Kat Robinson — Fri, 23 Dec 2011 10:17:02 -0600

Great restaurants make stuff from scratch. Club 178 in Bull Shoals makes its sauces, its dressings, its pastries, its rubs and a whole host of other things from scratch, including an ever-changing array of desserts.

One of those desserts was this grasshopper pie… a pie I had often encountered in my youth but missed during the whole breadth and span of my pie research for the big story at Thanksgiving. That seems inconceivable, but it is true.

The mint-and-chocolate pie was very popular in the family circles I traveled in as a child. But I have seen that combination very little in restaurants as an adult. Oh, sure — you can get mint chocolate chip ice cream at the store — there’s even a gum that’s mint chocolate chip, which I find a little strange. I’ve had mint leaves atop different chocolate confections by our local top shelf chefs, but this one simple pie has not been on any menu I’ve nodded my way through in quite a while. The closest I’ve seen has been the mint chocolate chip ice cream pie at Hunka Pie, and while it’s on the menu I can’t recall actually seeing it offered on any visit I’ve been there.

So hearing Grasshopper Pie mentioned by our waitress in her schpiel was ear catching. Mind you, I was quite full from dinner already. I hadn’t actually eaten pie since I had wrapped up my primary pie research the first week of November, but I wanted this. And I got it.

It was green. Yay! Grasshopper pie SHOULD be green. Additionally, it was not a Jell-O pie or an ice cream pie. This was a marshmallow based pie. I could taste the crème de menthe (where the green came from) clearly but not too strongly, just enough to balance out against the Oreo cookie crust. There was also a light chocolately taste, probably from crème de cacao. It was served up with a drizzle of good old-fashioned Hershey syrup (like the stuff from the can, remember that?), slightly chilled with some whipped cream to boot.

It was, in many ways, just minty enough to negate the need for an after-dinner mint.

Club 178 is a rather neat place. We’ll talk about it soon. Just know that reservations are suggested, though not required, and it’s no jacket required. You’ll find it on Highway 178 in Bull Shoals. Look for the bowling pin. (870) 445-4949 or check out the website.

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Pieday: Buttermilk at O'Henry's

Kat Robinson — Fri, 16 Dec 2011 10:52:10 -0600

There are two ways to make a buttermilk pie — make it fluffy or make it creamy. I’ve found a few examples of both here and there — but the creamiest version of the buttermilk I’ve found anywhere in Arkansas can be found at O’Henry’s, just south of Conway.

O’Henry’s doesn’t look like a whole lot from the outside. It appears to be a converted gas station. Inside, though, it’s lush and comfortable with a really decent menu. It’s also a great place to get a steak.

I stopped in with my dining companions a short while back for an early dinner. We had beat the dinner crowd by a bit and had most of the place to ourselves. We started off with the Wasabi Shrimp ($6.95), a nice little fusion dish that consisted of medium shrimp wrapped in phyllo dough with a touch of wasabi paste, deep fried and served up with a creamy Thai dipping sauce. The creamy, slightly spicy sweet sauce paired well with the shrimp. I liked the phyllo dough instead of breading on the shrimp. Seemed less oily than what I would have tasted with a traditional breading.

My dining companion chose the Mediterranean Chicken ($14.95), a chicken breast simmered quite a long time with artichoke hearts, black olives, red bell pepper and onions in a tomato-based sauce and topped with mozzarella cheese. It was served up with a side of steamed and buttered zucchini and broccoli, along with a nice puffy, crusty roll. The flavors had well melded with the chicken, giving it a very nice Italian ragu sort of flavor. A winner.

I chose the New York Strip Steak ($16.95), a 12 ounce steak listed as being served up in a blueberry sauce. That sounded strange and delightful, so I gave it a shot. My medium rare steak came out perfect, expertly char-grilled and still a deep warm pink in the center. It was peppery and spiced but with a little sweetness, like what you’d get with grilled onions. I didn’t taste anything particularly blueberry-ish about it, but that didn’t matter. It was tasty. The home-mashed potatoes were buttery, perhaps from Yukon golds, and the gravy was a nice brown mushroom variety.

And then there were the desserts. My dining companion chose the Bread Pudding ($3.99), a homemade pudding that had a texture that told me it was likely made from the same sort of rolls we had with our dinner. It was delightfully cinnamon-infused with plenty of raisins, a thick flavor of a rum-based butter drench and a secondary sugary icing. It was served up hot and still had variances in the texture, which told me it was very recently baked. It was lovely.

And then there was that Buttermilk Pie ($3.99). It was extraordinarily light. It was also extraordinarily tart, with a definite flavor of lemon and buttermilk throughout. There was a nice buttery flavor to it as well, a touch of caramelization and that impossibly well-fluffed pie. Very nice. I should have had coffee with it, but I was fine without it. It was just…

Well, I will say this. It was very strongly flavored. I’m not used to that in a buttermilk pie. I’m used to the nice toasty flavor of the crust and the creamy bits inside. This one? Just one layer after another of tart. Heavenly tart, at that. Yes, I’ll order it again next time.

There are other pies on the menu as well — pecan, chocolate cream, coconut cream and apple — as well as cheesecake and ice cream. Might be worth checking the rest out too.

You’ll find O’Henry’s on Highway 365 parallel to I-40. To get there, take the Mayflower exit, go a block west and turn right… it’ll be on the right. Or take Harkrider from Dave Ward in Conway, it’s a couple of miles south on the left. (501) 470-9045 or check out the Facebook page.

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Pieday: Coconut cream at Lucy's Diner

Kat Robinson — Fri, 09 Dec 2011 10:00:38 -0600

Good pie, 24 hours a day? Yes, you’ll find it in Fort Smith or Rogers at a little diner called Lucy’s. It’s a good stop-in for late night conversations and breakfast anytime.

Seems every time I go to Lucy’s it’s in the middle of the night… usually when I’m passing through from somewhere else. Having a 24 hour joint that’s locally owned is awesome… and Fort Smith has several. Now, admittedly, if I want a burger or a patty melt I head to Benson’s… but if I want eggs it’s Lucy’s. They do them right.

Of course, it’s not fancy. I will eat the Cheeseburger Omelet ($6.99) even though it has American cheese slices on it — because it’s unashamed of that fact. I mean, a big fat fluffy three egg omelet packed with ground beef and cheese is a good hearty breakfast. The gluey cheese on top just makes it seem a bit more like a chain cheeseburger. Maybe they should add pickles and ketchup. Then it would be a dead ringer. I kid you not. And I’m not being mean about it. Sometimes you just want to eat some cheap comfort food, right? Maybe? Served up with four wedges of toast and some hash browns, it’s good late night fare a mite cheaper than what you’ll get for something similar at IHOP.

I like their lunch specials, too — especially the chicken & dumplings. But I’ve only been able to catch them twice — and neither time have I had a camera. Darn it.

But then there are the pies. For $2.99 you get your choice of an ever changing daily selection of pies. Some, they admit, aren’t completely homemade. In fact, the cherry and apple pies are likely to have a canned ingredient in the mix depending on the season. But the coconut cream pie? They have a gal that makes that there.

It’s not fluffy and tall. It’s not uber magnificent. What it is, is creamy and a little sweet on a salty crust. And sometimes that’s all you need.

Better yet, it’s a good coffee pie, and I can respect that. It’s only available until it runs out. There’s no running down to the store to pick up another out of a case — you are only going to get it when it’s been fresh made. And from my experience, that’s not all the time.

Another blogger I know would brag on the sweet potato pie there. Haven’t had it yet. Maybe someday when they’re out of coconut cream. We’ll see.

You’ll find Lucy’s Diner on Towson in Fort Smith, half a block north of Phoenix and next to Wing King (which fries candy bars, btw). (479) 646-1001. There’s also one in the old Hi-De-Ho Restaurant location in Rogers. (479) 230-5829.

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Pieday: Pineapple Cream at Just Like Mom's

Kat Robinson — Fri, 02 Dec 2011 09:04:10 -0600

I've been hearing about this place that Mary Steenburgen likes to visit in Sherwood. Now, a celebrity recommendation usually carries about as much weight as anyone else's to me... but it was worth checking out. And I'm glad I did.

Just Like Mom's is a great little place to have a good warming lunch for not a lot of dough, with enough space and comfort to read the paper or catch up with your friends and fill your belly. And there's pie.

I dropped by a few weeks ago for a nice hot lunch on a cold, blustery day. There are a good number of sandwiches on the menu, including Fried Bologna, a Club, a Double Grilled Cheese, a Monterray Chicken Philly and of course a Reuben. I decided I wanted a lunch plate, though, and went with the Chicken Fried Chicken ($6.89, $7.59 for dinner).

Didn't take long to get it. My plate was two lightly breaded pieces of chicken breast, mashed potatoes with brown gravy (I opted not to have the gravy on my chicken, too), black eyed peas and a roll. The food was good — the black eyed peas were nice and savory and the chicken was decently tender. The roll... well, the roll was pretty fluffy and nice. I thought about asking for another one.

But I needed room for the pie... and the pie that day that struck my fancy was the Pineapple Cream Pie. For $2.95 you can have any slice of pie in the case, and this one struck my fancy. It reminded me in flavor of an old fashioned pineapple pudding — like a banana pudding except with pineapple. The creamy custard made the pineapple more comfortingly soft than bright, more of a baked than fresh flavor but nice. There was a touch of vanilla and perhaps nutmeg to it, which gave the pie a flavor more like a Christmas custard than a Pineapple Upside Down cake.

Still, not bad for the price. I hear I have to go back for the chocolate cake.

You'll find Just Like Mom's at 3140 East Kiehl in Sherwood. It's open Monday-Friday 6:30-9 a.m., 10:30 a.m.-2 p.m. and 5-8 p.m. and Saturdays 7-11:30 a.m. (501) 833-0402 or check out the website.

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Pieday: Peanut Butter at Three Sam's BBQ

Kat Robinson — Fri, 25 Nov 2011 08:07:59 -0600

Most people never get to the desserts at Three Sams Barbecue Joint … because the portions are large and tasty. But for those who have sampled them… well, you know what I am talking about.

The pie search took me to Mabelvale early one lunchtime — while I was en route to another engagement. I knew I wouldn’t have time to dine in, so I placed an order to go — one beef barbecue sandwich and one slice of the famed peanut butter pie.

Problem with this is that I had to wait… which, yes, I expected — but because I was waiting I had to stand next to the counter and its sweet corner. Everything under glass there looked too good to pass up — the luscious Italian Cream Cake, the decadent brownies. Especially the peanut butter cookies under their neat little dome. I could have eaten a dozen of them. Instead, I waited.

And when I received my repast in a bag to take with me, I took it out carefully and shot it in the parking lot, sitting in my vehicle and wishing I had time to eat it inside. See, Three Sams SMELLS fantastic. I coulda sat in there and enjoyed five senses worth of amazing. But I had to run.

I did snap photos of the food, of course. The beef sandwich ($4.75 or $5.75 for large, with chips) was all over the place, chopped smoky beef under a pile of creamy slaw on a seedless bun. It was served up with a pickle, a package of Lays and a container of the thinnish savory slightly tangy sauce the place is known for. It’s not a sweet sauce by any means, but it is smoky and soakable. And the meat… completely doesn’t need it. This is one case where the barbecue meat and the barbecue sauce are equally as good.

But I hadn’t come for the sandwich… that was a benefit. I came for the pie. And the little box that contained the pie felt like it weighed a pound. Inside was the most peanut-y of peanut butter pies I had ever encountered. It was nearly two inches thick, topped with peanuts and chunks of peanut butter cups. The mousse-style filling was dense and a little salty in addition to being sweet.

The winner for me, though, was the sweet peanut buttery bottom crust — a crust likely made from flour, butter, peanut butter and peanuts but which tasted of those peanut butter sandwich cookies the Girl Scouts sell each year. There was not a part of this pie that had not been graced with the magic of peanut butter.

That being said, as amazing as that was, next time I go I am having the Italian Cream Cake and some cookies and a cheeseburger and some onion rings — especially the latter, which people keep bragging to me on.

You’ll find Three Sams Barbecue Joint next to the railroad tracks in downtown Mabelvale. The proper address is 10508 Mann Road, if you’re entering it into your GPS. (501) 407-0305.

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Pies like you've never considered

Kat Robinson — Wed, 23 Nov 2011 00:28:35 -0600

This week's Times cover story is the culmination of hearty pie research. In the issue, you'll find the 100 best pies I have discovered around the state — which includes my five favorite fried pies and seven of the best Possum pies you'll encounter.

I know I've missed some. There have to be more great pies. But if nothing else, my research has brought me to this simple and strong conclusion. We, as Arkansawyers, like pie. We like it better than cake, than sundaes, than just about any other sort of concoction on the dessert menu. Pie is found in almost every Arkansas restaurant in some form or another. It's on Asian buffets and in Mexican groceries — and yes, in our convenience stores and on the counters at just about any sort of establishment you can imagine.

The idea of a sweet filling in a crust is just as native to us as having gravy with our biscuits and ice in our tea.

Check out the seven best Possum pies I found in the state — and then head over to Tie Dye Travels for a recipe to make your own. And if you have a pie recipe you'd like to share, now's the time to share it.

I'll share my ten favorite pies on KARK News at Noon today. Tune in if you wish.

Oh, and feel free to argue with me about the list. I'd love to find pie elsewhere.

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Pieday: Chocolate Torte at Barr's Junction

Kat Robinson — Fri, 18 Nov 2011 07:33:53 -0600

Sometimes the best things are found at the most simple of places. This chocolate torte was discovered by chance at a little convenience store-grocery-hardware store between Prescott and Magnolia, just because I needed a road break.

Went in to use the facilities. Came out and was told I needed to check with the lady behind the counter. It was after 3 p.m. and she'd already sold out of her other two pies of the day — but would I like a piece of chocolate torte? Well, of course I was.

And what was this chocolate torte? Let me tell you what... it was almost exactly what I have encountered elsewhere in the state as Possum [ie, the casserole pan version. Pecan sandy crust, a nice thick layer of slightly soured cream cheese, a thick chocolate custard and whipped cream on the top. The only thing it lacked from the traditional Possum pie was the sprinkling of pecans on the top.

It was fluffy, too, and that was splendid. It was eaten quickly with relish (I mean, I relished it, not that I put any relish on it) and remembered fondly. And it was found at a little spot in the road called Barr's Junction, the only store in the entire little community of Rosston. There you go. 6683 Highway 278 (Rosston), (870) 871-2426. Sun.-Thu. 6 a.m.-7 p.m., Fri.-Sat. 6 a.m.-9 p.m. CC, no alcohol.

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Pieday: Caramel Pecan at Sweet Treats

Kat Robinson — Fri, 11 Nov 2011 10:12:46 -0600

I’ve searched out a lot of places on my own for my pie quest, but this one came to me via Rex Nelson and his Southern Fried Blog. He mentioned this little place by Lamar that served up a great plate lunch and an excellent piece of pie.

But my timing has been horrible. I have literally missed out on lunch at Sweet Treats more than a dozen times. I always mean to stop by on my way up to covering stories in western and northwestern Arkansas, but I can never seem to make that 11 a.m.-2 p.m. Monday through Friday window. That is, until this week.

Now, I was hungry, and I was a bit surprised to find that there’s just one lunch special each day. And on this particular Wednesday that special was pork roast with scalloped potatoes, corn, roll and a drink. Okay, so I wasn’t going to be having the lunch special… which was a shame, since it was cheap at just $5.45 (there’s even a half size portion for a dollar less). So, what to eat?

The rest of the menu is simple… a sandwich special for $4.25 with chips, a hot sandwich special for 50 cents more — both of which include a choice of turkey, ham or bologna. There’s a Frito chili pie and a chef’s salad.

It was cold. I wanted chili, so I ordered it — $3.75 with cheese ($3 with no cheese) and saltine crackers. For that I got a big bowl of chili packed with tomatoes and ground beef, a cumin and chili powder base that would be competition worthy. It was fantastic with saltines and rather filling, too.

But I had come for pie, and I went for the Caramel Pecan pie. It was interesting — there was a Pecan pie listed, too. The difference? Well, it wasn’t very evident when it first came out. It looked similar to so many pecan pies I’ve had here and there — made in an obviously hand-rolled blind baked flour crust and topped with pecans. One bite later and I knew differently. It was as if a pecan pie and a burnt sugar pie had mated and created offspring, praline-like flavor in a sugary cream. It was a quiet masterpiece.

At just $1.75 a slice, I figured it was no sweat off my back to take one to go. I went for the Possum Pie, and was delighted to find not only a tasty pie but one that had a little difference from other pies of the Possum variety. Once again, this pie was in a hand-rolled blind baked flour crust (as opposed to the popular pecan sandy version of the dish). Bottom to top it went whipped cream, chocolate custard, vanilla custard, whipped cream and pecans… a fine example and tasty, too. The flour crust gave the pie just enough salt to bring out the sweet flavors nicely.

Thing is, if you don’t know it’s there and you aren’t specifically heading to Lamar, you probably would never drop in on Sweet Treats. It’s on the inside of a curve in downtown Lamar, right on Highway 64 in a very unassuming building. But it’s worth a stop-in if you are in the area. It’s only open Monday through Friday 11 a.m. to 2 p.m., so plan accordingly. (479) 647-0133.

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Pieday: Apple at Betty's Restaurant

Kat Robinson — Fri, 04 Nov 2011 10:03:45 -0500

Today is the perfect sort of day for a hot apple pie — fresh out of the oven, flaky and buttery.

That's exactly the sort of pie you can find up at Betty's Restaurant in Harrisburg. It's one of those great places you can find by following a guy in a pick-up truck from a construction site, or by asking the ladies at a local quilter's guild — a comfortable place for a bite to eat.

Today's Friday, which means there'll be catfish on the menu. It'll be served up with hush puppies and cole slaw and there will be a couple of tables where meat-handed guys sprinkle it with Louisiana Hot Sauce while drinking coffee and shooting the bull. There will be beans and corn and probably yams, too. Filling food.

And then there's the pie. Yes, I stopped at Betty's only for pie while I was on my journey that particular Thursday. It was brought out heated with a fork and a glass of water, nothing more, nothing else really needed. Within its flaky crust the sugar and apples together form a tasty syrup of cinnamon, nutmeg and butter. Contact with a fork disintegrates the pretty pie into a hot mess, but oh what a mess.

They offer other pies, too — meringue and pecan and such. I'd be willing to bet they have a pretty good pumpkin pie as well. Tis the season.

Betty's is located on Highway 1 north of downtown Harrisburg. It's a big place... if you're traveling up that way with a group, it's a worthy stop-in. It's listed as Betty's Steak & Chicken some places, Betty's Kountry Cafe elsewhere but the sign out front reads "Betty's Restaurant." Call (870) 578-2855 if you want to catch the specials.

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Hunka Pie moves back to North Little Rock

Kat Robinson — Wed, 02 Nov 2011 11:23:29 -0500

Here he goes again. Chris Monroe has packed up shop and is heading back to North Little Rock after a year in the old location for The Hop on Cantrell Road. Where's he going? To the Starlite Diner on Military Road in North Little Rock.

This should be an interesting move. One thing that may have stymied the business Chris has brought in to Hunka Pie has been the fact that there's no place to sit and eat your pie indoors at the Cantrell Road location. There's plenty of places to sit at Starlite Diner... and hopefully Chris will bring good things to the burger menu and spark inspired creations on a menu that's been stuck in the past (but a bit high on the prices for what you get).

The new Starlite Diner/Hunka Pie opens November 10th with just pie. The full menu is slated to begin the Monday after Thanksgiving, the 28th.

UPDATE: A few more details.

*Monroe said he doesn't plan on taking the Starlite sign down anytime soon. He said he's hoping to incorporate both the Hunka Pie and Starlite brands into the business.

*The diner will be open 6 a.m.-9 a.m. Monday through Saturday and 6 a.m.-1 p.m. Sunday for breakfast only.

*In addition to the menu he offered at the Hunka Pie on Cantrell, Monroe said he's adding plate lunch specials, salads and the aforementioned breakfast.

*The Cantrell location has been closed since Halloween, but Monroe said he's currently accepting pie orders for Thanksgiving via phone (612-4754), email (chris@hunkapie.com) or Facebook.

UPDATE: Chris Monroe announces Hunka Pie's reopening delayed to Saturday, November 12th.

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Pieday: Peanut Butter Meringue at South End Grill

Kat Robinson — Fri, 28 Oct 2011 08:20:32 -0500

For some time I’ve been sitting on a recommendation to visit the South End Grill south of Batesville. Seems like I always pass by either very early in the morning or very late in the afternoon. But I have been meaning to get there.

I finally made it about a week ago, traveling with a friend to parts further north. I walked right up to the counter, lured by the vision of three very toasty looking meringue pies. They looked alien and unusual, tan toasted lumpy meringues that looked like the topography of some distant mountainous nation. They also smelled quite good.

We had dinner… my companion (whose food for once I did not photograph) ordered up a 12 ounce ribeye steak and I chose what I thought would be a quick bite — the Open Face Beef Sandwich ($7.50). Our waitress brought my companion a salad with two containers of red something — one of which, I believe, might have been ketchup. It was all right. It ate.

We get our plates and were just shocked. My companion’s steak continued all the way across the plate — one side to the other, his fried squash and fried okra piled on top concealing about half of it.

I’d been more apt to photograph this had I not been engrossed in the major operation that was my sandwich. Hell, that wasn’t a sandwich — it was a hot mess that took up the entire platter. Six triangles of bread had been laid out across the platter, on top of which was spread nearly a pound of hot smoked beef brisket, cooked until tender. Over that and over the pile of mashed potatoes was spread brown gravy, and a healthy dose of fried squash was somehow also squished onto the plate. The beef, by the way, was perfect for barbecue and I almost asked for barbecue sauce with it. The Barbecue Beef Brisket Plate, by the way, was $8.99. I had myself a deal.

A deal which I didn’t even eat half of in that sitting — because I wanted to try some of that pie. I had been told about peanut butter pie but had only seen meringue offered. Turns out, yes, the peanut butter pie WAS a meringue pie. When my slice arrived I carefully scoped it out. Eschewing thick or moussy textures like normal peanut butter pie, this was a nice light egg custard type pie, very moist under the meringue. The meringue itself was so toasty on the top that the top bit folded a bit like paper, and I anticipated a very chewy experience. I was glad to find it was just about as soft as the rest of the pie itself.

It’s odd, though. Tasty but odd. Last week’s peanut butter pie at Gina’s Place in Jonesboro was like a Reece’s Peanut Butter Cup; South End Grill’s version is far more in flavor like an old fashioned Chick-O-Stick. I haven’t encountered one similar anywhere else.

If you’d like to try it out (and maybe have one of those oversized dinners), make your way to Highway 167 south of Batesville — it’s on the east side of the road south of the airport. (870) 251-2229.

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Pieday: Peanut Butter at Gina's Place

Kat Robinson — Mon, 24 Oct 2011 10:49:59 -0500

My quest for pie has taken me all over Arkansas this year. I've been to the furthest reaches of the state, yet I knew I still had to make a few stops. I needed to get back to Jonesboro to go back to Ann's Restaurant. I recall it always had the greatest pies.

But Ann's Restaurant isn't in Fountain Square any more. Instead, signs directed me to Gina's Place. I was apprehensive, but I wanted to find out if there was any good pie at the new restaurant. I learned a bit more.

The decor hasn't changed a whole lot since I last darkened the door 13 years ago, before I left town to head home to Little Rock. It's still counter service, and there are still family photos all over the place. There are still more food items than can be counted quickly, and there's still a massive wipe board containing all the different items you can have on your plate lunch any particular day. They're still offering cold plates with four items ($4.99) including their creamy pimento cheese, chicken salad, tuna salad, potato salad, green bean salad, red bean salad, orange Jello salad, tossed salad, cole slaw, cottage cheese and peaches amongst the choices) and they're still doing massive plate lunch specials — $6 for a meat and three veg, $5 for meat and two veg and veggie specials, too. On that particular Thursday they had a huge list of items. The meats were fried ham, chicken and gravy with dressing and cranberry sauce and spaghetti with meat sauce. The veggie options were creamed potatoes with gravy, green beans, lima beans, kernel corn, butter beans, dressing, soup beans, English peas, buttered potatoes, fried okra, purple hill peas, turnip greens, cabbage and just about everything on the cold salad menu.

But I wasn't there for lunch. I'd already had a burger at the Dairy Shack in Waldenburg and a piece of pie in Harrisburg and I still had several more pieces of pie to try that day. So I ordered up a piece of peanut butter pie — because that's the sort of thing I used to get all the time at Ann's. I was hoping it was just as good.

So it turns out, Gina's Place is run by the same people that ran Ann's Restaurant, serving up the same food they've had since the early 80s. The name change is just a few months old. Everything I missed really was still there.

So. The Peanut Butter Pie. Turns out, it's one of the richest peanut butter pies I have found everywhere — served up on a homemade crust made from peanut butter sandwich cookies, filled with a mousse-y peanut butter custard and topped with whipped cream, peanuts and chocolate chips. It's a meal in a pie, with all that filling peanut butter within. It's not too thick but it is quite fluffy and somehow it just kills the appetite. Better than any Reece's Peanut Butter Cup you're going to get, and it's just $2.75.

You'll find Gina's Place in Fountain Square over by the old Wal-Mart Supercenter (I believe Jonesboro was the first city anywhere to get two Supercenters.... the other is out by the bypass) on Highland. Check out the website or call (870) 910-3900.

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Pieday: Old Fashioned Chocolate Fried at Batten's Bakery

Kat Robinson — Fri, 14 Oct 2011 06:36:07 -0500

57 years is a long time to be in business. Takes a certain amount of dedication and perseverance, sure — but it also takes great products.

Batten’s Bakery in Paragould has some fantastic looking cakes and some delicious pastries — but it also has something I have found nowhere else in the state, a special fried pie with an ages old filling. Bonus is, it’s extraordinary.

I went by Batten’s Bakery during my trip to northeast Arkansas last week. It came highly recommended for the fried pies. I’ve tried the doughnuts there before and found them to be better than average, nicely and lightly glazed but not too sticky.

Thing is, if you’re not there in the morning, it’s a drive-up only sort of affair. That’s not a bad thing — most similar breakfast-heavy places close around noon-ish, so being able to get your sweet on after noon is nice. The menu includes Kolaches, breakfast sandwiches, Baked Cinnamon Pecan Rolls, Fried Cinnamon Rolls, a variety of doughnuts, Apple Danish, Cream Cheese Fritters, Bear Claws and biscuits and gravy — the latter of which is a sausage-based gravy that has earned high marks from fans of this blog. Batten’s also does fancy coffee drinks.

I was on a mission — to try the pie, of course — in this case to try the fried pies the place has become well known for. They come tiered in two prices — Apple, Peach, Raisin, Cherry or Chocolate for $1.15 a pie or Apricot, Coconut, Pecan or Old Fashioned Chocolate for $1.25. On this particular day they were out of pecan.

So I asked — what’s the difference between a Chocolate Fried Pie and an Old Fashioned Fried Pie. Turns out, it’s a matter of time and effort. The regular Chocolate Fried Pie is made with a thick chocolate pudding in the center. The Old Fashioned has a filling comprised of cocoa, sugar and butter and the filling is far more firm. I was up for trying it.

And you know what? I remember some dish back in my childhood that tasted exactly like that filling, but I cannot for the life of me recall what it was. It’s very good, though — a nice clean flavor improved by a very high-quality cocoa powder. The crust is almost doughnut dough-like in flavor but rolled out tight like a pie crust, with a doughnut style glaze. It’s a remarkable pie worthy of much attention.

Also had one of the Coconut Fried Pies, and I was very happy to find it was full of a rich custardy pie filling, complete with a dense arrangement of coconut shavings inside. Sweet without being cloying, it was very fragrant of coconut and very flaky, too. In fact, the finish on each pie seemed quite a bit different in the tasting.

It was good — but the Old Fashioned Chocolate Fried Pie was far better. I should have purchased more to take home and share. Next time I’m up in the Jonesboro area I’m going to spend the extra gas to get up there for more of that pie.

You’ll find Batten’s Bakery in the Paragould Plaza shopping center off West Kingshighway, west of Highway 49. It’s open Monday 5:30 a.m. to noon, Tuesday and Wednesday 5:30 a.m. to 4 p.m., Thursday and Friday 5 a.m. to 4 p.m. and Saturday 5 a.m. to 1 p.m. The bakery has a Facebook page, or you can call (870) 236-7810.

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Pieday: Caramel Apple Nut at Mama Max's

Kat Robinson — Fri, 07 Oct 2011 09:49:59 -0500

I love home cooking. I really can’t get enough of it. I don’t mean greasy home fries and some thrown together stuff that some restaurants call home cooking. I’m talking about the sort of food your mamma would cook for ya if she had the time and she really loved you. The sort of food I can recall from childhood, everyday stuff we’d have whenever, usually heavy on vegetables and light on meat.

Done had a meal like that at Mama Max’s in Prescott — and the best part was, I also got a great dessert. Can’t beat that with a stick.

My photographer and I stopped in on our way to the Texas State Fair last week. I have been meaning to make it to Momma Max’s for a while but was always either too early or on the wrong day. This particular Wednesday we were in luck. The place was bustling and it had just started serving lunch.

It took us a little while to decide on our lunches. I had originally intended to check out the highly recommended burgers, but once I saw the list of vegetables (which is the first thing on the menu) I changed my mind. The list was extensive — mustard and turnip greens, pinto beans, PurpleHull peas, lima beans, beets, candied yams, fried okra, potato salad, cole slaw, mac & cheese, fresh fried corn, green beans and mashed potatoes. Yeah. It made my pescatarian photographer happy, too — knowing he could get some good eats.

He chose himself a vegetable plate ($1.50 a vegetable), picking up some of those PurpleHull Peas, the macaroni and cheese and some fried corn nuggets (located under appetizers). He told me the corn nuggets were some of the best he’s had, nice and corn packed and buttery. He also bragged on the macaroni and cheese, which was made with elbow macaroni and Cheddar cheese. Yes, it looked like hell since Cheddar doesn’t melt as well as other cheeses. But it was good stuff.

I’d been talked into some cornbread to go along with my Chicken & Dumplings ($7.50), a big bowl of dumplings and shredded chicken with two sides. Of course I went for the PurpleHull Peas, and some Lima Beans too. I knew with the fair challenge coming up I would need all the energy I could muster.

The Chicken & Dumplings were good — a little undersalted, maybe, but the dumplings were nice and firm and the chicken had a lovely flavor to it. There was a low broth-to-dumpling ratio, too — more like an entrée than a soup.

I dug my peas and beans, though. The PurpleHulls had just a hint of liquid smoke flavor to them, just enough to enhance the little sweetness to them. The Lima Beans were excellent — buttery, sweet and falling apart.

And that cornbread… I hadn’t eaten corn in weeks, and was happy to discover the cornmeal didn’t set off a reaction. The cornbread is very buttery, moist and hardly sweet at all. It was perfect crumbled up in the peas and beans, a sopping cornbread.

Of course, I haven’t even touched on the pies yet. There’s a pie case when you walk in that, depending on the time of day and the day of the week, will be anywhere from half to completely full of pies and cakes and whatnot. Pies are $3 a slice, cakes $2.50 and the homemade turtles $2. I passed up a chance on a very tall, very rich looking chocolate cake for pie. My photographer chose the lemon icebox pie, which was homogenously smooth and sweet with just the right amount of tartness.

My Caramel Apple Nut pie, though… now there’s you a pie. A prime Southern pie filled with heat-softened chunks of pecans in-between the two different types of slow-cooked apples. The crust was nice and savory, a salted top and bottom flaky crust that soaked up the apple essence quite well.

What made it over the top good, though, was the drizzle of melted caramel over the top. That burnt sugar flavor was just the right thing to balance the tart apples and meaty pecans. That dang pie ate like a meal, and I was already about stuffed.

But I ate it. I ate it all, even though it hurt. It was too good to leave.

The whole meal was less than $20, and we weren’t even hungry for about eight hours. It stuck with us. I do have to say, one of the diners at the next table over ordered a barbecue sandwich while we were in there, and I am going to have to go back for that. Oh, it smelled divine.

You’ll find Mama Max’s at 1102 West Main Street in Prescott — that’s Highway 24. If you take the first Prescott exit from I-40 heading south (the one with the Low’s Truck Stop) it’s a short jaunt down on the left. It’s open Wednesday through Saturday 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. and Sunday 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. They do carry-out, too. (870) 887-5005.

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Pieday: Egg Custard at Dew-Baby's

Kat Robinson — Fri, 30 Sep 2011 08:10:20 -0500

I think I have found the best egg custard pie that exists. Well, maybe that's asking a lot... but the egg custard pie served up at Dew-Baby's in Stuttgart is the finest example I have ever encountered.

I can't say much more than that.

Well, actually I can, and I can talk about fried chicken, too — over at Tie Dye Travels.

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Burger joint of the week: Front Porch Family Diner

Kat Robinson — Thu, 29 Sep 2011 10:33:56 -0500

I have to say, I am a sucker for a well cooked burger. I don’t mean to well done… I mean, when you order a burger and you get it exactly the doneness you want. That’s awesome.

The folks at the Front Porch Family Diner get that. They also get how to make a good piece of catfish and how to make the Northwest Arkansas variant of the possum pie.

We dropped in a few weeks ago on our noble search for pie and decided to have a sit-down lunch while we were at it. We’d come in a little after the main lunch rush, apparently — because for a Saturday, it was nearly vacant.

My dining companion, stymied because of his decision to stop eating land animals, chose to try the Fried Catfish Po’Boy ($9.50) and was presented with a rather large single filet that spanned his plate. It was lightly breaded, cooked just to doneness, had a lovely salt and peppering and was served up with fries and coleslaw (which I stole). It was a far larger fillet than he had anticipated and it was a lovely sandwich, being housed in a sourdough loaf that had been lightly toasted.

Still, while it was tasty it was nothing compared to my burger. What I had on my hands was a lovely medium rare patty with a nice crust to it, lightly salted and peppered. It was served up on a sourdough bun with iceberg lettuce (more for crunch than flavor), tomatoes and a plethora of grilled onions.

How many grilled onions? They covered the bottom bun and had been grilled with the burger itself. And they were tasty.

When you order yours, you’ll be asked if you want mayo or mustard; ketchup comes on the table. I skipped the ketchup because the skin-on hand cut fries were perfectly seasoned and tasty. Very nice.

So there’s the burger. As I mentioned, we were actually on a quest for pie, and found it in two sorts. I was very interested in the first, the Strawberry Chiffon Pie. I have been traveling for a while searching out pies and this was the first time I had encountered a chiffon pie on a menu. I was very excited about it.

Sadly, I wasn’t so excited about this one… it was… well, it was very gelatin-esque. It was okay and I’d clean my plate normally (if I wasn’t planning to consume more pie in the day) but it wasn’t exceptional. It had that great strawberry foam that entirely filled the shell but it was lacking something that I couldn’t put my finger on.

But the Awesome Possum… was just that, awesome. Now, it was a surprise — the possum pie represented at Stoby’s and at Myrtie Mae’s contain a chocolate layer, a sour cream custard layer and a whipped cream layer, and that’s what I’ve become accustomed to. But this one was different. It’s the first square pie I’ve encountered on my trip (strangely enough, I’d encounter the second later that same day at Sassy’s Red House). The bottom was crushed Pecan Sandies; there was a red line between it and the next layer of dark chocolate custard. It was topped with a pile of whipped cream… and it was fantastic. The pecan bits worked so well with the chocolate and cream, and though it was different from what I had expected it was delicious and it’s what I’ll get next time I go.

I am concerned about the Front Porch Family Diner, though. A few hours later (when we were on pie number seven) I saw on Facebook that the place had closed early since no one was there for quite some time. Usually it’s open 6 a.m. to 8 p.m. Monday through Saturday. I hope it was just because folks were home watching the Razorbacks play.

You’ll find the Front Porch Family Diner on Highway 412 (East Robinson Avenue) a short distance east of Highway 71 B. (479) 751-3021 or check out the website for daily specials and such.

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Pieday: Chocolate bourbon pecan at Ralph's Pink Flamingo BBQ

Kat Robinson — Fri, 09 Sep 2011 07:43:54 -0500

A sausage on every plate. That should be the motto at Ralph’s Pink Flamingo BBQ in Fort Smith. They don’t put sausage on the pie plate, I will give you that. But everything else is fair game.

The pie, thank goodness, is pork free and smooth — and a little on the alcoholic side, if you catch my drift.

I’ve been quizzing the folks up in Fort Smith about good pies since I started on my trek, and the big thing I was told was I couldn’t have the best pies any more. Those were sold at Dora’s, which went out at least a year ago. But I could have a good pie at Ralph’s. Still, I’d get up there and they’d be closed. Every time.

Well, they can’t help that I kept coming up on Sunday and Monday for my stories — they’re closed those days. It’s a family operation and time off is very important.

It started off as something different. See, back in 1998 Ralph Taylor and Tim McGuire decided to do something crazy. They decided to go enter a barbecue competition in town over at Columbus Acres — and what do you know, they won first place in pork.

Now some folks would have just taken their good fortune in stride and carried on as normal. Not these guys. They revved it up, learned all they could about barbecue and set out on the competition circuit. They joined the Kansas City BBQ Society and started attending those sanctioned events in 2001. They called themselves Pink Flamingo BBQ because, as they say, “we’re cheap, we’re tacky and you don’t want us in your yard.” In 2003 they won First Place Sausage at the American Royal competition (against nearly 500 other competitors) — which is why they always have a piece of sausage on the plate.

Eventually Ralph’s wife and two sons joined the team, making it a family affair. And eventually the restaurant was opened on the corner of Old Greenwood and Country Club, in the corner of an L shaped shopping center.

They love bright colors inside, as we discovered on our visit there. I wanted a substantial lunch along with my pie quest, but the first stop was to the pie case. Within were a plethora of chocolate covered strawberries on plates, plated slices of strawberry cake… and slices of what appeared to be chocolate pecan pie.

You know I claimed that right off the bat.

We went through the line and figured out our dinner. My traveling companion got himself a Barbecue Bubba sandwich ($7 normally; on special for $6 this day) — a big pile of shredded pork butt topped with a split sausage on one side of a bun and a big pile of white cabbage coleslaw on the other. It came topped with a couple of white onion ringlets. This was a pile no ordinary sandwich could handle. A veritable mountain of meat. It was juicy and smoky and competition worthy.

I saw one of my favorites and went for it, the BBQ Stuffed Potato ($6.50), which you can have stuffed with your choice of meat. I went for shredded beef. I was directed over to a specialty bar on the side after my purchase to apply the desired accoutrements. In addition to the shredded Cheddar and sour cream I added, there were real hunks of bacon, butter, multiple types of pickle and some peppers to boot. Nice add-ons.

And that potato was piled just as high with the ‘cue as the sandwich was. Substantial amounts of smoked beef were standing tall on my potato, which was close to a pound in itself. That’s a meal.

But what you really want to hear about is the pie, and rightfully so… because this pie is a sin. It’s probably the most alcoholic pie I have encountered on my trek. It tasted like the Pillsbury Doughboy had taken a shine to Jim Beam and had decked him one. Not that the flavors were drowned out by the bourbon, either… there were huge chocolate chunks in amidst the pecans and custard, too.

It is a worthy pie, and worth a sit-down at a good barbecue restaurant. I shall dine there again.

Ralph’s Pink Flamingo BBQ is open Tuesday and Wednesday 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. and Thursday through Saturday 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. Don’t go those other days — no one’s going to be there. (479) 649-RIBS (7427) or check out the website.

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Pieday: Pineapple Delight at Red Oak Fillin Station

Kat Robinson — Fri, 02 Sep 2011 10:22:21 -0500

There are some pies that work much better in the summer and others that work much better in the winter. Pumpkin and sweet potato pies tend to be wintery pies, as are pecan pies. Icebox and cream pies and fresh fruit pies are summer-friendly.

Can’t get much more summer-friendly than the Pineapple Delight pie at the Red Oak Fillin Station outside of Hot Springs. This last stop convenience store slash gas station slash restaurant serves up a selection of different pies every day, along with home cooking specials and a burger I have yet to try.

Dropped by the place on my way back from an assignment not too long ago, aiming to catch a pie if they had one just to see if they were any good. I’ve been by a time or two for breakfast but have missed out on just about everything else.

The pies, which ones are offered each day, are kept in a big pie case in the counter, right next to the call window from the kitchen. These aren’t hoity toity pies. They’re just about what you’d get if you went and found a maternal relative of a certain age who was preparing something sweet for Sunday potluck. For instance, the Key Lime Pie sitting in the case looked just like the old Eagle Brand Condensed Milk recipe version. That’s not a bad thing. Dave’s Place does a version of this that will regress you 20 years or more.

I digress.

It was hot, over 100 degrees outside, and the offered baked peach pie also sounded a bit too hot. But there appeared to be an icebox pie of sorts, and without even asking what it was first I ordered it.

Good choice. Turned out to be a Pineapple Delight pie. Think ambrosia — not necessarily the nectar of the gods but the sort of stuff you get at those Sunday picnics, which includes marshmallow fluff and coconut flakes and bits of fruit. My family’s version was the mandarin orange version — my traveling companion said it was maraschino cherries in his family.

This version — big fluffy creamy marshmallow-infused goodness coagulated together with coconut flakes and lots of juicy bits of shredded pineapple, straight from the can and into a pressed graham crust. It was fluffy and cold and sweet and such an antidote to the raging sun outside. But somehow it wasn’t too sweet. I think I detected a bit of lemon juice in the background flavors. And there was a tartness about it. It was quite pleasant.

It was another lick-the-plate sort of pies, moreso for the fact that if it ventured beyond the doors of the Red Oak Fillin Station, I could envision an Indiana Jones and the Last Crusades bit happening, with everything collapsing around us. Okay, that may be a bit much, but at anything more than room temperature the pie would have been a sticky pool of goo.

Sometimes it’s best to go ahead and have that pie and eat it too all in one setting.

One more thing — and this is not something I ordinarily add to my reviews but it must be said — for a gas station or convenience store, the Red Oak Fillin Station has the absolute cleanest bathroom I have ever seen. It’s practically no-touch — with automatic lights that come on when you enter, self-flushing toilet, automated sink and soap dispenser. Nicely done in large taupe and brown stone tiles, too. Very nice. Almost doesn’t seem right, considering all the taxidermilogical representations of formerly living animals that dot the interior of the place.

You’ll find the Red Oak Fillin Station at 2169 Carpenter Dam Road on the southeast side of Hot Springs, on the way out to Garvan Woodland Gardens. It’s open every day for breakfast, lunch and dinner. (501) 262-0400.

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A Hunka craziness

Kat Robinson — Sun, 28 Aug 2011 13:07:00 -0500

Insane, compulsive or just up for a challenge? Whatever the reason, Chris Monroe met the deadline, making 100 pies in just under 13 hours overnight. Right now, those pies are being sliced up, sold and served at Hunka Pie on Cantrell Road.

I arrived 10 minutes until noon and discovered the dozen or so people already in line were already being served up hunks o’ pie at the rate of $3.50 a slice or $20 for six slices. Behind the big glass windows Chris and his two pie-slinging compadres were taking orders, calling them, slicing them, boxing them and sliding them out the window at a frenetic pace. Pies are on every surface — some in boxes, some in the pie case, some on counters, some on the stove — there are even pies in the drinks case. I can quite honestly say I’ve never seen so many pies in one place in my life.

I’m sampling some myself. Call it research. I’ll save one of my favorites, Pear Ginger, for later (I actually passed on my other favorite, French Blackberry, so I could try some new ones). Brought home Velvet Lips Chocolate Cream for the hubster and four pies I haven’t tried — Sugar, Pumpkin Cream Cheese, Macadamia Nut and Cherry Chipotle. Research, of course, is done at a leisurely pace.

No leisurely pace over at Hunka Pie. Folks were parking a block away when I left. The deal’s supposed to run until 6 p.m. tonight but if the crowd continues its swarm I have a feeling Chris will be closing early. If you’re going to go, go now. More photos on Facebook.

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Pieday: Cherry Crisp at Goodson's on Towson

Kat Robinson — Fri, 26 Aug 2011 10:25:24 -0500

I knew I needed to go to Goodson’s to get myself some pie at some point during my research. Been a few times with friends — never taken photos inside the place, though. So imagine my surprise and disappointment when we pulled up to Goodson’s — and it was gone.

No joke, Goodson’s on Cornerstone was a thing of the past. There’s another restaurant there serving up pie called The Pumpkin Patch, but I just wasn’t interested. Main reason for that? Well, I knew there was another Goodson’s. It was over on the back side of town near the Oklahoma State Line… on Towson. So off we went.

I was nervous we’d get there and it’d be gone too. Thank goodness, that’s not the case. Though it’s not quite as attractive on the outside as the other restaurant, you walk in and there’s the same family-friendly feel as the old place.

We normally would be there for some vittles or some shrimp, but this particular trip we were on a mission. The mission: pie, and choosing just one to talk about for this project was going to be problematic. After all, there were more than a dozen different pies in the case, ranging from lemon and coconut and chocolate meringues to apple and cherry fruit pies to a marvelous peanut butter Reece’s style pie. There was Key Lime and strawberry and peach.

It took a good 15 minutes to narrow down our choices to two. Even then, it was almost impossible to make a decision. After all, there’s the chocolate pie, alternately called Chocolate Heaven or Chocolate Pile or whatever anyone else decides to call it. This thing is chocolate. It starts from the bottom crust — not a graham cracker crust, not an Oreo crust but I kid you not a chocolate chip cookie crust. The custard is rich and slightly bittersweet. There are chocolate chips and flakes throughout. The cream on top is also flaked with chocolate, and there’s a chocolate Hershey’s Kiss on each slice. It’s chocolate and chocolate and chocolate and just about anywhere else it’d be the hands-down choice.

But then there’s the Cherry Crisp, and it… it’s so good that I busted my pie-time with it. See, to get in all these pies and not turn into a blimp, I’ve practiced the art of pie-sharing. Whoever my traveling companion at the time might happen to be, we share a few bites of each pie. The remainder goes into a box, where usually the hubster consumes the remnants when they appear in our home fridge (a benefit to being the husband of a food writer, no doubt).

Not this time. I was overwhelmed, not just with the deliciously rich but not too sweet cream filling but with the hand-pressed homemade Pecan Sandy crust. The crust was still somewhat crisp and the nutty bits offered great contrast to the impossibly smooth custard. The tart gelatinous cherry topping played perfectly with everything else. It was so good… I only allowed my traveling companion a bite… and ate the rest myself. No pie for the hubster. I’m so mean.

So, what’s the deal with Goodson’s? Well, turns out the folks that had run the two locations for years sold them off when they started their Goody’s Frozen Yogurt, so I hear it. The Pumpkin Patch folks have their place now. Goodson’s on Towson, meanwhile, is run by the same folks who own and run Ed Walker’s down the way.

You want to visit? If you’re not familiar with the town and are coming in from elsewhere, best way to get there is to take I-540 to Zero Street, go west and then go with the curve when it curves onto Towson. It’s a few blocks down on the right. (479) 649-6300.

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Two-fer: Big Jake's BBQ and Original Fried Pie Shop

Kat Robinson — Tue, 23 Aug 2011 10:34:07 -0500

I don’t get down to south Arkansas enough, else I’m sure I’d have already enjoyed some of the smoky flavor of Big Jake’s before. I made a point to stop in on my way out of state the other day to check out one of the several locations around these parts.

We stopped in at the Texarkana, AR store on a Monday afternoon before the evening rush to grab some grub and get us back on the road. After looking through the offerings on the menu, I decided to give the Large Plate Dinner ($10.99) a try, thinking if it was enough food great, and if it wasn’t we could order something else. After all, leftovers weren’t something we were prepared to handle.

After placing the order, I looked around while the hubster got the girl child seated. There were a lot of interesting things to note. For one, there’s a little condiment bar on the side with pickles and onions (something I wasn’t accustomed to in a barbecue restaurant) and a big box of two slice to a package zip top bags of white bread. On the other bar, there were drinks, including sweet and unsweet tea and “lemon syrup,” which I thought was a nice touch.

There were also two different sorts of sauce available, mild and spicy, along with ketchup in dispensers. There was also a big pot of pinto beans a-stewin’ with a couple of pepper floats in it. I wasn’t sure if they were for the general consumption of everyone or that’s just where they’re served from, so I left them alone.

Our platter was readied and I took it over to the table. We’d ordered an extra side of corn on the cob ($1.49) for the girl child, who had specifically asked for it. Our other two sides were macaroni and cheese — which tasted a bit like it could be made fresh right there — and potato salad, a sweet mustardy potato salad that reminded me of devilled eggs. Very relish-sweet, in fact.

And then there was the meat. The sliced beef brisket on first look didn’t seem so fantastic — it looked dark and overcooked and only had an eighth to a quarter of an inch smoke ring to it. On sampling, though, I was shocked to find it completely fell apart — didn’t matter if you tried to grab it with your fingers, a fork, a spoon or a piece of bread, it just disintegrated. And there was a lovely smoky flavor throughout.

The turkey… now that was something else. You could see the smoking process had permeated well into the meat. It was a sweet brining and smoking, sort of like what Burge’s does, giving the turkey breast an almost hammy flavor. It was nicely dense-packed and still very moist.

But the chicken… the chicken was hands down my favorite. Served up in chunks, the pepper seasoned breast kept that smoky flavor and enhanced on it, juicy and a little salty at that.

The sauces… weren’t thick and weren’t thin. Somehow they were right in the middle of the road, and that was fine. They were a little vinegary and not hardly sweet at all, strong on the paprika and the pepper. I didn’t care for either one on its own but when added to the meat they were both good. The hot version seemed to have a good whap of Frank’s Red Hot Sauce in it… I could be wrong there, but it had that particular flavor.

The white bread, though… that worked out so well. I appreciate the little extra effort to go about bagging up slices each day to make them available.

So… the pie. We had just enough room left over for pie — which says something about the large plate. It fed two adults and one ravenous child just fine. I went over and ordered up one of the chocolate Original Fried Pies ($3.49) and brought it back over to the table. It was cold, but I figured that was all right. For the record — cream pies like chocolate and coconut cost a bit more. Fruit pies are $2.99.

The verdict? Hrm. The crust looked golden but the pie seemed a little flat. The crust was a biscuit dough. The filling? I hate to say this, but it tasted almost exactly like Jell-O Brand Chocolate Instant Pudding. I guess I’ve become accustomed to freshly fried pies made from scratch. I just wasn’t impressed.

So score one for Big Jake’s, at least. I did like the barbecue and will likely drop in next time I pass through Texarkana, Ashdown or Hope. The one I went to can be found at 1521 Arkansas in Texarkana (on the Arkansas side, of course). More information about all four locations on the website.

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