Triple Crown Steakhouse & Lounge, Shepherdsville, Kentucky

In case you hadn't guessed, we were at our vacation home in the sunny south.  We left here on Dec 8, 2010 and arrived back here on January 9, 2011.  It was an eventful trip filled with a lot of great foods, some of which I have shared with you already.  We left our vacation home on January 5th setting our sights northeast towards one of our kids homes where we stayed a couple of nights before making the final leg of our journey home to the ice and snow.  While on the road towards our kids we stopped for a nice sit down meal on the second day. 

Triple Crown Steakhouse & Lounge is located at 441 Paroquet Springs Drive in Shepherdsville, Kentucky (I-65, Exit 117).  The steakhouse opened in February of 2010.  It features steaks and ribs but fish and chicken are also available.  They have a lovely, large selection of side dishes to choose from as well.   The exterior is wood siding.  The wood theme extends into the interior where lacquered wood tables with the Triple Crown insignia in the center set neatly on the natural finished wood plank floors greet you.  The are booths under the wrap-around bank of windows that give the restaurant a light yet still cosy atmosphere.  There are several large screen televisions as well.   While the restaurant is licensed and offers happy hour from 2 to 7 PM there are no Sunday sales of alcohol due to the municiple by-law prohibiting restaurants from serving alcohol on Sundays.

We visited on a Thrusday during the late afternoon so the restaurant was not overly busy.  Food Network was on one of the televisions and golf on another so it was a nice break from being cooped up in the car. 

My husband ordered the big brown New York strip entrée with baked beans and mac & cheese as sides.  The name might not get it any brownie points (pun intended) but the steak itself will.  It was grilled perfectly to medium rare with gorgeous grilling hash marks.  The sides were served in separate small bowls which is a bit different presentation but well suited for this type of setting.  I liked the presentation.  The steak was served on a metal plate to keep it hot to the table.   It was clean and unpretentious letting the food appearance itself tempt the taste buds.

I ordered the brokers tip bourbon pecan chicken with a loaded potato and steamed broccoli.  The chicken breast was coated then deep fried and topped with their special bourbon pecan sauce.  The chicken was quite tasty with a nice combination of textures.  There was a bit of crunch from the pecans in the sauce that had been added just after frying the chicken but before serving so the coating remained on the crunchy side as well.  This would be one dish I would like to duplicate at home so will be doing a bit of researching to see if I can duplicate the bourbon pecan sauce.  The sauce had a nice depth and sweetness about it.

Our bill totaled $36.21 with one drink each.  Our waitress was friendly and efficient so we left a nice tip.  I would have liked to see how well this restaurant performed when busy.  We will aim for a busier time the next time we are in the area.  As far as food, service and price this restaurant is definitely doing something right!

Old Town Amish Store in Berea, Kentucky

There are quite a few interesting foodie finds as well as other attractions along the I-75 corridor.  Most have one or more large billboards along the highway announcing what exit to find them on.  While some of them are touristy others are not.  Such is the case with the Old Town Amish Store.  While it is quite apparent that this is an Amish store there isn't much touristy about the store at all.  It really is a convenient stop to bring home bulk food supplies, home baked goods and dairy though.  You just know we had to make a pit stop here!

The Old Town Amish Store is located at 201 Prince Royal Dr. in Berea, Kentucky just off Exit 76 on I-75.  The shop opened in July of 2009 so is still fairly new.   It is quite easy to find off the exit and there is ample parking.  The store is beckoning from the outside where a large display of apples tantalized us with their beautiful colours and wonderful aroma.  Upon entering the door the amazing aroma of fresh baked breads while rows and rows of neatly stocked shelves delight the senses.  The interior is light, bright and airy has a cosy atmosphere.  To the left of the main food area is a room filled with hand crafted Amish rocking chairs, porch swings and other furniture.  To the back of the main food area is a small dining area.

The Old Town Amish Store sells a wide range of foods including bulk foods like beans, pasta, herbs and so much more.  Unlike the Bulk Barn bulk food stores I shop at, all the the bulk food has been packaged for sale in the store eliminate the problems of bulk food in bins with scoops.  While the price per pound is the same for a certain bulk product (eg. beans) there will be in weight so one bag may be a few cents cheaper than another.  The products are neatly arranged on commercial shelving.  Foods are packaged in the standard thin plastic bulk bags, small plastic tubs, paper sacks and glass jars.  A wide range of homemade jams, jellies and preserves are available.  Roll butter (not pictured), honeys, bacons, farm fresh eggs, cheeses, fresh baked breads and pies are also available as well as some commercial products like Ball canning mixes.  I did not see any Pomona's pectin or Clear Jel® but I likely didn't look hard enough and didn't think to ask.

A lovely Old Order Amish buggy serves as a visual divider between the main bulk food area and the dining area.  Despite its decorative element it also serves as a practical shelving for cases of honey.  The dining area is neat, tidy and cosy, a unique blend of quaint and modern.  The chairs would be just lovely to sit a spell enjoying a slice of homemade pie! 

The entire store is just simply a delight to spend a bit of time in.  They are very friendly!  I found the prices to be quite reasonable, in line with what I pay at the Bulk Barn.  There was less of the bulk candy but they more than made up for it in staples.

If you get a chance to visith the Old Town Amish Store you definitely will not regret it.  This store is on our list of must stops on the next trip and you can bet I will have a long list of goodies to buy!  We didn't buy much this trip.  Our purchases included a 500 ml jar of pure sourwood honey, two pouches of fish batter, dill weed (like Israeli) and dill seed.  The total came to $13.24.  The sourwood honey looked interesting.  There is a piece of the honeycomb in the jar.  According to one source sourwood honey is seldom sold outside of the area it is produced because of supply and demand.  This honey is considered one of the rarest and finest of honeys that is only havested a few days in the fall.  It has a deep, woodsy flavour so this will be an interesting honey to do a bit of experimenting with.

Sanders Cafe and Museum in North Corbin, Kentucky

I do a lot of genealogy and family history so have always been interested in how our ancestors ate and stored foods.  It is especially interesting to see what kind of equipment our ancestors used along with their methods of food storage.  Being foodies we are both interested in the history of foods and that includes restaurant foods.  We stopped at Sanders Cafe and Museum in North Corbin, Kentucky on our way home from our vacation home.  Sanders Court and Cafe is the birthplace of Kentucky Fried Chicken.

The Colonel Harland Sanders Cafe and Museum is located in Corbin, Kentucky off of I-75, Exit 29 then go 1 mile south on 25E, turn right on 25W one half mile.  The directions sound a little confusing but it is only because 25 bends around.  The quaint white building is rather easy to find. It is how the restaurant appeared in the 1940's.   There is a historical plaque outside of the museum that is well worth reading.  This is very much a working museum with dining tables set up amongst the various displays.  Rooms like the kitchen and motel display are blocked off from roaming through with a low glass barrier.  To the furthest side behind the rounded entrance (back middle of picture) is the restaurant where you can order eat-in or take-out.  We didn't order anything but certainly enjoyed looking through the displays!

The original Sanders Cafe kitchen like many commercial kitchens is not large but it was well organized.  Harland Sanders started Sanders Court and Cafe in 1930 where he originally fried chicken in an iron skillet.  Despite being in the trying times of the Great Depression he was quite successful.  He certainly did not use a lot of fancy equipment but he did put out exellent food.  The kitchen obviously was utilitarian with function first.  He realized that frying the chicken in an iron skillet took 30 minutes so in 1939 Colonel Sanders altered his cooking method to us a pressure fryer that would reduce the cooking time allowing him to serve more patrons quicker.  And thuse was born Kentucky fried chicken.

I work with pressure canners and cookers a lot so can really appreciate the logistics of what went into using pressure cookers as a pressure fryer.  Pictured on the top are the two 4 qt Mirro-Matics with single Wisconsin valves.  Both have weights as regulators and one has a custom made metal label for Kentucky Fried Chicken.    The lower pressure cooker is a double Wisconsin valve pressure that was in used from the 1960's until the advent of self-contained pressure fryers.

I mentioned the logistics of using a pressure cooker as a pressure fryer.  Pressure cookers are designed to operate at 15 lb pressure which is one reason they should not be used for pressure canning.  The second problem is a pressure cooker can only be filled 2/3 full so that really restricts the amount that can be cooked in a pressure cooker so at best these pressure cookers could only put out small amounts of chicken at peak time but it would be faster than pan frying.  It just boggles my mind that he was able to achieve this without blowing up a pressure cooker!

These are exactly the same types of pressure cookers I have in use and certainly the same type available to the general public during that era.  In fact very little has changed with the design of modern pressure cookers.  Modern pressure cookers should not be used as a pressure fryer though.  There are specific pressure fryers meant for home use but unless you are frying a lot of chicken they are really a bit on the expensive side at $230 or more for the unit.