Thursday, April 30, 2009

lunch at The Den



It's not the dearly departed acid reflux factory that was Silver Moon, but The Den down Highland from LSU near Washington is a reasonable substitute. And I emphasize reasonable because entrees at Silver Moon were more of a challenge than a meal practically served in mixing bowls under strata of grease. Not that I didn't love it, mind you; it's just that one was rendered functionless for at least seven hours after eating there.

$6.99 at The Den will get you a formidable plate of smothered chicken stewed to the limit of qualifying as a solid over rice and gravy with homemade mac & cheese and mustard greens and cornbread. The lunch specials rotate throughout the week. I gaze into my soul food afterglow and see chicken fried steak in my near future.

The chicken is rich and savory, falling off the bone, and I will laud any new reliable source of greens in my life, but truth be told, the mac was the star; tangy, clumpy, held together well - the absence of a little line of burnt crust was the only flaw keeping it from being the higher Platonic form of mac & cheese.

2 comments:

  1. Yum. I just have not yet found any real joy in the Austin food scene. But I continue, hopeful, eating my way towards it.

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  2. This is the kind of thing living in Mississippi put in front of me regularly that I've really been missing down here. Thanks for the heads up. I was sold at "smothered chicken" but it's the mac & cheese I'll really go crazy over.

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