Food, Less Than Glorious Food

The bad thing about the casino we went to Thursday is their food options. We used to love going there, to have lunch at Burger Brothers. Ahh... good times. However, since the VIRUS years, Burger Brothers is only open on the weekends, and their hours start at 4:00 p.m. We are daytime casino people! We need lunch!

 

The other choices we have are a breakfast place, open until 11:00 a.m., where we took Genius during his last visit. OR we could go to the BeerHouse, which opens at noon, and has burgers for $15.95. No thank you. We consulted The Pony on Thursday, to see if he wanted to have breakfast food. He did not. Seems he had eaten two Little Debbie Nutty Buddies before driving out to the Mansion.

We discussed where to have lunch. Along with my nagging back pain that day, I was feeling a bit off in the food department. Not exactly nauseated, but the thought of food was not appealing. It's like my food stomach had squared off with my poop stomach, and both were spoiling for a fight to see who would reign victorious.

"We could eat lunch at Raising Cane's. I know you liked it in Oklahoma."

"I never ate at one. That must have been Dad."

"Oh. Yeah. Maybe it was just Dad."

"I don't know. Do they have anything besides chicken?"

"No. Just the chicken tenders. And fries. And a sandwich, but it's made of the chicken tenders. I get mine on Texas Toast."

"I don't know if my stomach wants that."

"Yeah. If you're queasy, then fried food isn't the way to go."

"There's Bandana's Barbecue on the way home."

"I don't think I ever ate there."

"We took Genius. But you might not like anything there. They have a Terrible Tater. You could get than, and have them serve the meat on the side. Then you could have a giant baked potato."

"I could figure something out."

Anyhoo... lunch was still up in the air until we left the casino. I was feeling better, and agreed to try Raising Cane's. But after the final developments at the casino, we let Farmer H choose where to eat. He didn't tell us. He just drove us there. To a place that used to be a Bonanza Steak House, but was now some off-brand steak house with a buffet. It wasn't bad. But it wasn't great.

We all chose to have just the buffet, since I asked if it had meat, and was told that it had fried chicken. Good enough for me! As we stepped up to get our plates, there was a sign, and a box of clear plastic gloves, asking you to put a glove on the hand you used for grabbing the handles of the dipping utensils. Farmer H and I dutifully put on a glove, which was a struggle. They were like those clear plastic bags you rip off at the store, to put your produce in. The kind that sticks together, and you can't get them open.

Anyhoo... The Pony ranged ahead, not wanting what was in front of the glove station. We worked our way around the horseshoe-shaped buffet. Hick and I got two plates, since walking back for the second might have accidentally used up some calories, heh, heh. The Pony got one plate, and went back for another.

 

The Pony had macaroni and cheese, some pulled pork, which is already gone here, since he made a sandwich on another roll. Also mashed potatoes and gravy, spaghetti, and rigatoni or some such pasta. That's a big feed for The Pony, who usually doesn't strap on much of a feedbag at places like this.

 

Farmer H had a salad and some peas. There's another one of those yeast rolls. The Pony and Farmer H are real bread-lovers. I would have had a salad, but my stomachs were still having a disagreement, though it had de-escalated considerably.

 

Farmer H also had two pieces of fried chicken, green beans, macaroni and cheese, and mashed potatoes with brown gravy. You can see our discarded gloves in the background. And my Diet Pepsi in the foreground, which looks so delectable now, but at the time was just something I took a few sips from.

 

My first plate had three chicken wings, which I came to before I found the actual chicken. The wings were a bit dry. Also some pulled pork, which was delicious. And a roll, which I had intended to use to make a sandwich like The Pony, but changed my mind. I also had some of that rigatoni style noodle. It was one of the worst things I ever ate. Cold. Overdone. An unremarkable sauce without much flavor. I only took two bites. One would have been plenty, but I thought the second bite might be better.

 

My second plate had mashed potatoes with white gravy. They were okay. And a chicken thigh, which was the most tasty thing on that buffet. It was juicy and crispy and done just right. That's more pulled pork. Not as much as it looks like in the picture. It was about the size of the chicken thigh if I had straightened out that pile. I didn't eat all of it, because I'd already had some on my other plate, and it was very rich, which I think is another word for fatty. I don't like to waste food, but I took too much, after seeing everything on the buffet, and picking what I thought I'd like.

I forgot to take pictures of the dessert plates. The Pony had some chocolate mousse, which he liked, and a sugar cookie with sprinkles on top that he raved about, and went back for another. He also had two more rolls, with a pile of butter that he had missed the first time.

"I can't believe it, Mom. To get the butter, they had an actual TROWEL!"

Farmer H had one of the sprinkle cookies, and I think some kind of pudding, and a bowl of soft-serve chocolate ice cream with chocolate chips and cookie crumbs he sprinkled on it. He let me try a bite of the ice cream, but it was tasteless, and I didn't like the consistency, which was kind of icy, not smooth. If I had gotten my own dessert, I probably would have gone for the blue jello squares. Good thing I was too full for dessert.

Anyhoo... that was our dining experience. I would go there again, and probably have fried chicken, mashed potatoes, a roll, and some pulled pork. Maybe start with a salad of lettuce, cheese, mushrooms, and onions. Maybe the jello.

Now we know it's a dining option when we go to that casino.