Sunday November 2, 2008 cont. This was my first visit to northern Arkansas, and I was very much looking forward to the scenery and exploring the little towns. One of the towns I drove through was Harrison, which gets kudos for having such a lovely art deco building.
But, they lose points due to this:
The Goblins? Seriously? My high school's nickname was the Planets and I think this is a lame name. All of a sudden, the Bathers are looking better!
My next food stop was at
Coursey's,
just south of the tiny town of St. Joe. It is now a multiple building operation,
but the middle (light green) building is the store. The little wood structure in the foreground is their original building.
Coursey's is best known for their smoked hams. They do have some hams hanging inside the store,
but obviously, I couldn't buy a whole ham and try to get it home.
In the back of the store, they have a counter where you can get a sandwich. Here is the small menu board.
I went with the smoked ham and smoked cheddar on wheat.
Once again, the photo might not do the sandwich justice, but they really piled on the meat and cheese. Just a little brown mustard and I was good to go.
They also had baggies of smoked turkey and cheeses for sale, so I bought a couple of those for snacking.
There is no place to eat inside, so I took my sandwich to a picnic table underneath the trees.
The sandwich was delicious The ham was slightly sweet, slightly smoky and very full-flavored. I realize that I am just eating a ham sandwich at a picnic table, but this was a great Roadfood experience and I loved this place!
I have every intention of ordering a ham and some of their fine looking bacon around the holidays.
BTW, the huge sandwich, a root beer and two baggies of smoked goodies came to $8.00. This was typical as everything I ate in Arkansas was almost shockingly inexpensive.
http://www.roadfood.com/Reviews/Writeup.aspx?ReviewID=127&RefID=127 I continued north and east and stopped in
Fred's Fish House 
in Mountain Home. The sign said they overlook Lake Norfolk. So, I asked to be sat next to the window. Well, you can see the lake alright, but overlooking the water may be stretching it a bit.
One of the things I like about the menu was this column, that listed what you could purchase ala carte.
I should have taken advantage of this and tried more things.
My meal started off with a plate of an onion, a dill pickle, pickled tomato and wonderfully fresh, sweet cole slaw.
As an appetizer, I couldn't pass up the interesting sounding fried green beans.
There was no way I could not come to Arkansas and not get some catfish, so that is what I ordered.
There were four sweet, crunchy fillets and I enjoyed these very much. The french fries and hushpuppies were nothing special.
The young guy who waited on me was very impressive. He was outgoing, friendly and really hustled. He seemed to be everywhere, waiting on every table. When I was paying my bill, I mentioned how good my service was to the woman who appeared to be the owner. She asked, "Which of the twins did you have?" Well, that would explain it!
I drove through some beautiful country to arrive at The Ozark Folk Center in Mountain View.
Unfortunately, the restaurant and the museum were closed. In fact, there was no one around at all. I did check their website before my trip and unless I read something wrong, they should have been open. Are you happy
Travelin Man?
Tired, I checked into my hotel in Conway. I did get out the phone book to see if anyplace interesting was open. But being a Sunday night, everything was closed. So, I stayed in my room and ate my smoked cheese, smoked turkey
and the pumpkin pie from
Ed & Kay's.
Much more to come.....
<message edited by buffetbuster on Mon, 01/5/09 3:48 PM>