It Crawled from the South Part IV: More Nashville

We had a bit of a late start to our first and only morning in Nashville so by the time we got our bearings, it was already time for lunch. Our pal Christian, who graciously allowed us to crash at his place, implored us to eat at Marche, just a few blocks from his East Nashville home. It's a huge, split level space that serves as a fancy food + takeaway shop and restaurant. The breakfast menu looked awesome, but we were a few minutes late and had to settle for lunch.

So with Mr. Otis Redding playing on the stereo, DMR and I perused the menu. I decided on a cup of ham and vegetable soup and a BLAT - bacon, lettuce, tomato and avocado which came with a side of pickled red cabbage (delicious), along with an iced coffee to drink. Dan ordered a Caesar salad with chicken and a side of fruit. Ridiculously, this felt like the lightest, healthiest meal we had eaten all week! My soup was super yummy, tasting more like a light beef stew, with a nice assortment of fresh veggies and bits of smoked ham. I loved my sandwich, but not so much the bread because it was a little too greasy. I wound up picking out the contents and leaving half of the toasted slices on the plate. While we were eating another CD was loaded up into the stereo and at first I couldn't make out what was playing and thought it was the Rolling Stones, which made me happy. But Dan's ears picked up a Glaswegian accent and the music turned out to be Camera Obscura's latest, which tickled us both pink!

On the way out, we picked up a bag of homemade potato chips to bring back to Team Plumley HQ, where a fried chicken feast would be waiting for us! But before we headed back to Memphis, we stopped off at Hatch Show Print and the Ryman Auditorium, the original home of the Grand Ole Opry. And we managed to get those elusive paletas! For some stupid reason, I got it into my head that I should go a slightly healthy route and went with a tangy and refreshing hibiscus bar, which I've really been into hibiscus this summer. Dan opted for chocolate wasabi. The chocolatiness was creamy and delicious, but we both thought the wasabi could have been stronger and more pronounced.

When we arrived back in Memphis, HTE and Sam aka T-Bone were out at the butcher picking up some meat for the next day's cookout. T-Bone had already stopped by and dropped off two greasy bags of spicy fried chicken from Gus's World Famous, where he has been known to pick up a shift here and there. A true renaissance man. We ripped into the bags once the butcher errand was completed.



It was some damn fine fried chicken and the table went silent as we stuffed our faces. The bag on the left contained wings and the bag on the right was filled with breasts. The obligatory stack of white bread is in the middle.


Rounding out our meal were some baked beans and potato salad. I should have gone for that second breast piece, but instead I got a second wing.