I like to eat. :) And I usually like to try new places but sometimes it’s hard to find people to go with. Anyway, the housemate had been craving chicken and waffles for sometime now and heard about this place that serves SOUL food. What is soul food you ask?

Wikipedia says: “Soul food is an American cuisine, a selection of foods, and is the traditional cuisine of African-Americans of the Southern United States and of black communities beyond. In the mid-1960s, soul was a common definer used to describe black culture (for example, soul music), and thus the name “soul food” was derived.”

It basically consists of things like fried chicken, fried chicken with waffles, chitlins, grits, collard greens, fried catfish, okra, yams, etc.

I was thinking the place might be kind of expensive so was hesitant about going first.  Also, as I thought about it, I don’t really like waffles that much, too much fried food, mac n cheese, okra, fried pickles, etc.  So I was definitely having second thoughts of even going in the first place!  But I decided it was worth at least a try.

We wanted to get a group of people to go so that we could get a variety of items and try it.  However, that proved unsuccessful.  We drove quite far down the 15 and east on the 94 to arrive at our destination: Bonnie Jean’s Soul Food.  This restaurant was in a tiny tiny lot shared with a liquor store and who knows what.  We went in and it was empty.  It was about 7:30pm.  I was thinking, well that’s interesting, but I proceeded to tell the lady, “table for 2.”  On the other hand, the housemate was thinking, well it’s kind of dark in here, I wonder if they’re closed.  We sat down and looked at the menu and lo and behold – the menu said they closed at 7pm.  Uh oh, what do we do now?  The lady had gone in the kitchen to see if they would still cook for us and by they, I mean one guy.  I was like, well, we could leave, since we felt really bad that it was 30 minutes past closing and they still sat us.  But the housemate was like, but we drove so far.  We decided to stay, after all they were very friendly and welcoming.  So we both ordered chicken & waffle – yes just one and fried mac n cheese balls.  Now, I am really not a fan of mac n cheese, but this was different, so it was worth a try.  It was mac n cheese with some chopped jalapeno rolled into a ball (smaller than a tennis ball, bigger than a golf ball), breaded, fried, and served with some type of ranch sauce.  It was actually pretty good.  Now the chicken (2 pieces) & waffle came out piping hot!  I poured on the butter and syrup and proceeded to eat.  I didn’t think it was all that great.  The combination is supposed to be sweet and savory.  It tasted just like I was eating chicken & waffles. =P  But the housemate loved it.  And that was that.  We left a nice tip because they were so nice in letting us stay and cooking (made to order) for us.  The lady was super nice as well.

I think I would eat there again, but I would try something else.  And note to self: they close early. 7pm on Tues-Sat (I think), 6pm on Sundays, and are closed Monday.

I’m glad it wasn’t a completely FAILED adventure, like so many other’s I’ve had.  Although, those are always quite amusing and make for good stories. :)