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| - I miss Southern food. So I was excited when this place moved in across the street from where I work. But the things I longed for - catfish, chicken-fried steak, or just a simple meat-and-three blue plate special - weren't on the menu.
It was a crappy day, and I needed someplace close, so I finally decided to try Big Mama's, even if they didn't have the southern food I was accustomed to. The menu is fairly short, seemed to be just ribs and chicken. Not very many southern sides either - no cabbage, squash or fried okra. And they didn't have brewed iced-tea! It's bad enough that I have to deal with that fact in most Pennsylvania restaurants, but one that claims to be Southern?
Enough lamenting about the menu. Let's just focus on the food they do have. Fried chicken with two sides - macaroni and cheese and baked beans. The fried chicken was overcooked and dry. Better at Popeyes. The mac and cheese? You could tell it was homemade, but it had the same mushiness of Stouffers frozen. Now the baked beans, this was a fusion dish - sweet yankee baked beans with hotness (and it wasn't Louisiana hot sauce, thank God). A very good combination that got my mind wondering - what if you mixed those sweet baked beans with chopped jalapenos, like they do ranch-style beans? The corn bread was good. I prefer sweet corn bread, but that's just a personal preference.
Two more notes. Service is slow. Very slow. This isn't good at lunch. And the restaurant has the same ventilation problems that Steel City Diner had - smoke from the fryer just hangs in the air.
Next time I'll try the ribs. Or maybe breakfast . If only they had eggs, grits & catfish. But overfried catfish is really bad. Maybe they ought not try that one.
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