Awesome Tomatoes

Feature: Fried Green Tomato

Critics 83% Audience 91%

Movie Info

Genre: Southern, Comfort Food, Comedy

Synopsis: The Whistle Stop Café it ain’t, but the Fried Green Tomato, on the corner of South First and Live Oak, holds the deep South dear to its crunchy, plump heart. The trailer serves up first-rate junk food featuring the signature fare, a thin yet sturdy slice of the rotund fruit deep-fried and gleaming with goodness. The tomato has mastered this role (we’ve heard the words “Oscar-worthy” growing through the grapevine), and though this is more of a character study, the plot is certainly furthered by her supporting actors, homemade pimento cheese and everyone’s favorite heartthrob, the bacon strip. When the three come together, good times and hilarity ensue. Though some critics have already sputtered all through the gutter about the film’s being “wincingly overwrought,” we delighted in the overall cheesiness, which sent our stomachs aflutter.

Rated: PG-13, for mild off-color heirloom humor and a few adult-size calorific sandwiches.

Distributor: Costco, unfortunately, is the supplier of the trailer’s bland wheat bread. Nice, thick, slices of lightly toasted sourdough, or even buttermilk bread, could have won one of these performances Best Sammy of the Year.

Running Time: Less than 15 minutes. Or, if you want to linger, there are nice tables, and the SOFI trailer park is dog-friendly. Just watch out for the flies.

In Theaters: Showing now!

Box Office: Under $10.

Cast:

Caprese Salad. A few Italians might roll over in their graves if they saw this concoction, but more likely, they’d push aside that dirt and dig in: The “salad” was that good. It’s hard to go wrong with a stack of fried green tomatoes and fresh, melty mozzarella, topped with pesto and a sweet balsamic reduction. A bit on the oily side, but still a nice twist on a household name.

BL(FG)T Sandwich. The BLT was taken to the next level with fried green tomatoes, crisp romaine lettuce, and huge bacon strips. We would have liked to see a little more of that ranch dressing in the performance, though, before this one can earn the “FG” in its name.

Dirty South Sandwich. No, Matthew McConaughey is not in this movie. This is a different kind of dirty Southerner, with (surprise!) fried green tomatoes, bacon, pickled jalapeños, ranch, and pimento cheese. Reminiscent of Mary Louise Parker in a movie with a similar name, the cheese shone in this role—pink, alluring, and a little trashy. (In other words, we could see this pimento-studded star dealing weed in the future.)

Supporting cast. The crab cake slider was clean sold out by the time we got there, and we’ll have to leave the pimento cheese sandwich, the “local” salad, and the FGTs Foster (green tomatoes fried in pancake batter with rum sauce and vanilla ice cream) for our next feature.

SOFI Food Court, 603 W. Live Oak (817-937-6730). Open Mon–Sat 11–3 & 5–8. Closed Sun.

Posted by Megan Giller

Tagged: comfort food, Fried Green Tomato, sandwiches, Trailer Thursday

I never thought anything good could come from Taco Bell. The Mexican pizza, the Enchirito, the cheesy gorditas: No thanks. But I underestimated the power of their slogan, Think Outside the Bun. The new Tenderland trailer, on Manor Road, has appropriated that idea in the most literal way possible—with the largest, most expansive pork tenderloin sandwich that anyone has ever seen.

In other words, their signature entrée isn’t held back by its bready limits. Instead, the pounded-thin, perfectly deep-fried pork expands for inches around its bun. I modestly ordered the small size, so I have a feeling that the circumference of the large would rival a frisbee’s. But it’s not all about quantity here. Some of you may remember our 40 Best Small-Town Cafes story from a while back. While researching that story, I tried so many chicken-fried somethings that I vowed I would never eat deep-fried crust again. But even I couldn’t resist this golden crunchiness and the tender pork hiding inside. Served on a grilled sweet bun with chopped onions, sliced pickles, and mustard, this is junk food at its finest.

Their hamburger was tasty too: a thick patty stacked with romaine lettuce, juicy tomato, and chopped onions on a jalapeño bun. The meat itself could have used a bit more seasoning, but overall, it made for good eats. We gobbled it up, along with the hand-cut, addictive french fries.

Tenderland’s grub isn’t innovative or groundbreaking (except in the sense that you might, well, break the ground/floor/scale if you eat too much of it). It’s comfort food, through and through. So go get yourself a small tenderloin sandwich for lunch, or a large one for the frisbee golf course at Pease Park.

2406 Manor Road. Open Tue–Sat 11–7. Closed Sun & Mon.

Posted by Megan Giller

Tagged: comfort food, sandwiches, Tenderland, Trailer Thursday

She may not have been a lady who lunches in the traditional sense, but she sure knew how to lunch: The woman standing in front of me at the Peached Tortilla ordered Belgian fries and peach poppers. Granted, the hand-cut fries rocketed out of this world when combined with peach-mint dipping sauce, and the fried poppers with powdered sugar and vanilla glaze looked like they could send me around the sun and back. But I feel sorry for said lady: She missed out on some smokin’ tacos and sliders.

My favorite was the barbecue brisket slider. Some may say that’s boring; I say it’s classic. Dressed up with a sweet buttered-and-grilled Hawaiian bun, roasted peach barbecue sauce, and creamy coleslaw, this sandwich was elevated to the next level. I also liked the crunchy catfish taco, with cornmeal-encrusted, tender catfish, bacon-spiked mustard greens, and coleslaw on a griddle-warmed flour tortilla, and the delightfully cilantro-laden Szechuan veggie taco, with tender Japanese eggplant, diced tofu, and Asian slaw.

Are you noticing a pattern here? The common denominator at this Asian–comfort food fusion trailer is slaw. Now, in the interest of full disclosure, I should mention that I’ve always had a thing against coleslaw. Maybe it’s because my father’s name is Cole, and anything that included him as a side dish seemed a little suspicious. Regardless, I’ve never quite gotten on board.

But back to the cabbage at hand. Jalapeño or Asian, both slaws overwhelmed the tacos and sliders with bland creaminess. In fact, in almost every offering, the proportions were off-kilter. I wanted more tasty mustard greens and less of the ubiquitous you-know-what on the catfish taco, as well as less cabbage and curry peanut sauce on the soppy chicken satay taco. I liked the chiffoned basil and sweet summer squash on the southern squash taco, but the overabundant basil aioli and sweet onions rendered it inedible; similarly, the slightly dry báhn mì slider lacked spicy sriracha mayo but was swamped with carrot salad. And we all know that carrot salad is just a substitute for slaw.

So please, Peached Tortilla, lay off the slaw, for all our sakes. Or don’t—then I’d have the perfect excuse to order fries and peach poppers for lunch.

(Oh, and if you want to get your hands on any of these sliders or tacos while surrounding yourself with awesomeness, check out the Gypsy Picnic this Saturday at Auditorium Shores, from 11 to 8. Thirty trailers. Live music. Sampler plates for $3 or less. Did I mention thirty trailers, all in one place? See you there.)

Posted by Megan Giller

Tagged: Asian, comfort food, Peached Tortilla, Trailer Thursday