After seven years in Texas, I finally darkened the doorstep of a Luby's Cafeteria. Yanks might remember Luby's as the place in Texas where some dude went apeshit and shot a bunch of people. Luby's has worked hard to recover their reputation as a safe place to eat dinner, and as such, Bob and I decided to eat lunch there today.
There is a trendy restaurant in our neighborhood called Blue Star Cafeteria. They serve bouged-up versions of down-home American favorites like fried chicken (panko-draped pan-seared bla bla) and meatloaf, only it is served in a sit-down fashion, with a menu and everything. It is NOT a cafeteria in that there is no line, you are not issued a tray and a silverware/napkin bundle, and you don't get to look at all the food before you choose. Bob and I were complaining that we might have gone back to the Blue Star if they did things more like Luby's, to which I replied that we should just go to Luby's. No sense allowing ourselves to be bamboozled by false terminology when the real cafeteria gettin's were right in front of our faces.
Oddly, on our drive to Luby's, we had an absolutely unexpected run-in with my brother-and-sister-in-law, aka The Chefs, who left their posts of notoriety in A-town for Cleveland about three years ago. We had no idea they were even in town until we heard them yell out the window.
So we enter Luby's and I see the spread: WOW. They do such a good job making everything visually appealing. Everything is bright and colorful and well-presented. Bob and I chose tilapia with two sides. My sides were broccoli and mashed potatoes and Bob's were mac 'n cheese and green beans. I was expecting soggy, flavorless broccoli but it was bright green and kind of crispy. Bob's mac 'n cheese was so creamy it tasted like pancakes! I mused that we could get our daily veggie requirement in spades at Luby's. And everything was so colorful! Especially the desserts, where each slice of pie or cake was presented with gorgeous attention to detail. Bob cracked up when I told him that I chose the chocolate icebox pie because the apple pie scared me. It did! The fruit pies looked positively shellacked, they were so shiny. I told him I assumed that they were heavy-handed with corn syrup or some type of food spray. Food spray! I can't confirm or deny the use of food spray. I think I made it up.
I was impressed with my Luby's experience, though I thought the pie looked better than it tasted.
Tomorrow I venture out into the wilds of West Texas for novel camp. I'm sure there will be plenty of glossy pie out there, too.
Posted by Zerd at July 21, 2007 02:54 PM