What’s All the Chicken and Waffles Fuss About?
Photo: lifeloveandgoodfood.com
If you haven’t seen the television commercials, chicken and waffles are the new craze in America right now. Though they’ve been around for a long time (people argue whether they originated with the Pennsylvania Dutch in the 1600s, the antebellum South, or in Harlem in the 1930s), they are becoming a popular item in restaurants around the country. KFC has been advertising the dish in television commercials a lot lately, as well as Dairy Queen. And many other chains such as IHOP and Friendly’s serve chicken and waffles.
I’ve been really curious about trying chicken and waffles for a while. I never really heard much about it, or maybe even knew it existed, until about 3-4 years ago. I came across the famous Dame’s Chicken and Waffles in Greensboro, and instantly became intrigued. “How would those two things go together?” I instantly wondered. But I didn’t try it out that night. So for the last several years I’ve had in the back of my mind the curiosity about chicken and waffles. Last week I finally was able to try it. After seeing it on the menu at a Dixies’ Fish & Chicken restaurant, I decided it was time and ordered it to go.
I had no idea what to expect. I opened up the box to see a Belgian waffle with four chicken tenders sitting on top, with a container of syrup. So I opened the syrup and drenched both the waffle and chicken. With curiosity at its peak, my first bite included a piece of chicken and waffle, doused in the sweet syrup. My first bite conclusion: I had absolutely no idea what to think. My brain was working so hard to come up with a conclusion about the taste, but it couldn’t come up with an answer. So I continued eating.
The more I ate, the less appealing it became. It got to the point where I would eat the waffle and the chicken separately because the combination was so odd. The chicken was good and so was the waffle. But together…it wasn’t the perfect match. It wasn’t a nasty taste by any means, it was just rather strange tasting. And the weird part was it all tasted exactly like I thought it would taste. There’s no surprising tastes or anything, but when I did finally try it, it just wasn’t what it’s cracked up to be. The greasy chicken with the sweet syrup, along with the breaded waffle just felt like a forced combination. Those things aren’t really supposed to go together. It’s like a broke college student trying to put together enough food for dinner, but only having a little bit of chicken and one waffle, so they just throw it all together.
I’m pretty confident that it will be a one-time experience for me. I tried it, and I’m glad I did, but now I know that it’s really not good enough to pay money for again. The only way that I might try it again, and that’s a pretty strong might, would be if I went to a famous chicken and waffle place like Dame’s in Greensboro, Roscoe’s in Los Angeles, etc…somewhere known for their chicken and waffles. Maybe theirs would be a lot better. But then I wonder how much different could a chicken and waffle be? For right now I just can’t stop wondering what all the chicken and waffle fuss is about every time I turn on the tv.
Garett