Of course a blog like this wouldn't have been created if everything at truck stop restaurants was wonderful and delightful. It's those times, more frequently it seems, where you see an item on the menu and think "Who thought this was a good idea?" Or an item looks like it could be good but the execution falls completely flat.
Case in point, I was at a Flying J in Pennsylvania a few years ago back when Flying J had their own restaurant, Country Market, before they were all converted to Denny's or IHOP. One appetizer item looked very tempting. It was a deep fried...something, I don't remember exactly but it's irrelevant to the story. It was balls of...something..breaded and deep fried. Maybe it was cheese and broccoli. It sounded promising so I decided to order it.
A few minutes later my server came up to me with the appetizer in hand. "There was a problem with your appetizer." "Oh?" I replied. "Yeah, they broke open while in the fryer and all the insides melted out. The cook is making another batch but he wanted to know if you still wanted these."
She sets the basket down and staring back at me are half a dozen broken and empty breading shells. It was like someone took a hush puppie, cut it in half, scooped out the inside with a spoon and left the outer shell. Bonus: she still brought the dipping sauce.
I looked up at her and politely declined the current offerings in front of me and said I would wait for the next batch being made. As she took it away and walked back to the kitchen I couldn't help but think, "Who in their right mind would still serve that?!"
..thus the idea for this blog began stewing in my mind. It would take 3 more years and a lot more hit and misses before I finally said to myself that I should start writing about this. I'm not going to say all truck stop restaurant food is bad, some it is actually good, but I do carry a big bottle of Tums for a reason.
