Chicken Fried Steak at Mama Dip’s

The Ginger Ninja and I spent the weekend in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, where we attended a family friend’s wedding on Sunday. The day before, we toured about town with her college buddy Liz, and we had lunch at Mama Dip’s, a restaurant specializing in good old-fashioned American country cooking. Here I am outside Mama Dip’s:

You may have heard of the movie Fried Green Tomatoes (which is based on the book Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe, but you haven’t lived until you’ve tasted one. The dish is made of green tomato slices, which are then battered and fried. Here’s one that I had as an appetizer:

I rarely get a chance to eat one of my favourite southern dishes: good old chicken fried steak (a.k.a. country fried steak). If you’ve never heard of this unhealthy-but-yummy dish, it’s a thin slice of beef steak, pounded until tender and then breaded and pan-fried like chicken, then smothered in gravy. Here’s what my meal looked like:

Dishes at Mama Dip’s come with your choice of sides; I went with macaroni and cheese, turnip greens and biscuits. Let’s get another look at my plate:

Oh, yeah, that’s the good stuff.

And for dessert: chocolate pecan pie with a scoop of ice cream:

I also helped Wendy finish off her dessert, which was Mama Dip’s banana pudding.

It was so good that we ended up there the next day, bringing along Wendy’s parents and aunt and uncle. We got to sample the corn bread, sweet potato fries, fried okra and fudge pudding. All terribly unhealthy, all great tasting. If you’re ever in Chapel Hill, go to Mama Dip’s!

I think I’ll be atoning for this one at the gym for some time.