Fried Green Tomatoes

Highway 77 doesn't have much on it other than cows, pastures, and wire fences. The growl in my stomach continued to grow each mile that passed. We (Ryan and I) were 18 miles from Bastrop, the town where I knew there would be food, when Ryan tapped me and said, "what about there?" The dirt in my contacts had me blinded so I had no idea what "there" meant. I asked Ryan what in the world he was talking about. He told me there was a little cafe on the side of the road that was actually open. After a few seconds of discussing the fact that if a cafe in the middle of nowhere is open, it had to be good! We whipped a u'e and pulled in with the cowboy trucks. Elm Creek Cafe...
This had to be good I thought. We entered into a fairly good sized room with an old bar and cash register. We were greeted by some lovely country folks (our kind of people) and promptly lead to our seats. We sat down with menus in hand and smiles from cheek to cheek. As I opened the menu my I was caught by FRIED GREEN TOMATOES. I love the movie, surely I'll love the food the title came from! I asked Ryan if he had ever had any, when he told me No but I have always wanted too, I knew we had to try them. We ordered them with some sweet tea and continued to look at all the fried food. Grease, grease, and more grease kept running through my head. I settled for the chicken strips and Ryan ordered the small chicken fried steak.
As we waited for our fried green tomatoes we looked at all the antiques for sale in the restaurant. Every picture, figurine, and piece of furniture was for sale. Of course I wanted a lot of it! How often do you see things like that in a restaurant? It was quite an experience. We sat back down when we saw the tomatoes and ranch dancing towards us. I put one in my mouth covered with homemade ranch and closed my eyes to savor that moment. They were fabulous! Not much longer our food was delivered. My plate looked normal, Ryans however, not so much. The small cfs was as big a a large oval plate. He told the waitress, "I think there has been a mistake." "No sir, that's the small, you should see the large!" she replied. We sat there jaw to the table! I can't explain how big it was! Enough for a family of four with leftovers for the dog.
We stuffed ourselves!
There was a couple across the table who could hear our conversations, just as we could hear theirs. The annoyance of a drunk lady in the background united us in conversation with them. For two youngsters like ourselves, it was delightful discussing life with the elderly couple. She was a retired Kindergarten teacher. We discussed the changes of education and how she got out when the TAKS test became so ridiculous. (I completely understood that feeling!) The man was a musician. We talked about all of his experience playing in bars and the bigtimers he knew and played with. It was right up our alley, we love country music and plan on going to all the old honky tonks one day.
We learned a lot about the couple and area around us. It was a wonderful experience at Elm Creek Cafe. If you ever get the chance take the time to stop at the old cafes on the side of the road. You might learn and experience something new and memorable.