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