Arnold's Country Kitchen
 Nashville, Tennessee        Date of Visit  05/17/17         http://www.arnoldscountrykitchen.com

First off, I didn’t get to go to Arnold’s. I was stuck in some training to renew my license…I’ll be paying more attention to that date in the future. I am lucky people love me. They went, took pix, brought me lunch, and brought back some of their own for me to sample. It was our Meat & 3 option, it’s apparently a thing in Nashville.

I heard folks were friendly…a couple might have been super friendly…I guess I almost lost both my mom and wife to two new dates.
 

You join the line, choose your meat, and get to add three sides, all southern classics done in the most southern of ways. I like southern ways. They ordered catfish, roast beef, and pork chops. Alongside they added succotash, squash, green beans, mash, mac, a couple of corn muffins and black-eyed peas.
 

Now, to be fair, I didn’t get anything hot and fresh. To be honest, I don’t think it really mattered at all. First the sides.

I hate lima beans…hence, succotash is a waste of other vegetables, having been contaminated by the mushy and grotesque legume named after the part of your anatomy that filters things out into your urine. Didn’t hate it. Gol’ Darn you southern ways!

Not a huge fan of most squash but they managed to make that interesting and tasty as well. Then we get to the things I like…and there is nothing to not like…you can taste salt, sugar, heat, fat, all to buoy the ingredients themselves. Peas have a kick in the rich broth, the green beans are army green but have met their best friends…salt, butter, bacon. The mac screams of cheese, the mash is beautiful and filled with beefy gravy. The corn muffins arrive somewhere between sweet and savory, what’s not to love.
 

The meats were also much above average. The catfish was perfect, the cornmeal breading delicious, there was a slight bitterness from what seemed like fryer grease in need of a filtering but the fish itself was fresh and clean. I’ve had a fair bit of carved roasted beef in my years…this is what it should taste like…beef. A hint of seasoning but all beef. The pork chop was staggering. I only had a bit, I can’t believe they saved anything at all for me. Seriously, that good. Loaded with a light brown gravy I would literally snort out of a bucket if they would let me. I think of the fancy chop I had at Michael Symon’s Lola Bistro as the best I’ve had. Now I don’t know. It’s a good thing I didn’t go, we’d have been bringing home more chops.
 

And The Meat Is Delicious