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Soul-Searching
With a hankering for fried pork chops, nutmeggy yams, and gospel music, Chow, Baby naturally headed to Gladys’ Soul Food on Lancaster. Closed, no forwarding address. (A phone call later reached an answering machine: “We’re looking for a new location.” Let us pray.) OK, to Helen’s Diner on Evans. Closed, but thankfully just for the day; Chow, Baby had forgotten (again) that Helen keeps early hours. The third try was most definitely a charmer: Hatch’s Corner, 6950 Forest Hill Dr, a few blocks south of I-820 in what passes for downtown in Forest Hill.
The place isn’t pretty — a small stack of concrete blocks next to a dry creek —but oh, it sure smells good inside. Meals start at $2.99, and a feast can be had for $5-$6, but cafeteria-style is always Chow, Baby’s downfall, price-wise. “I want that, and that, and some of those — oh, just give me everything.” “Everything” included barbecue ribs, crispy fried chicken and fish, baked turkey leg, fall-apart beef tips over rice, and large, thin, perfectly seasoned pork chops. And oh, the vegetables: flash-fried okra, slow-simmered black-eyed peas, bacon-y greens, pungent cabbage, perfect homestyle mac & cheese. Chow, Baby’s stomach, it turned out, was not as big as its eyes, but it cleaned its plate as best it could and was rewarded with bubbly peach cobbler and a pat on the shoulder from one of the cooks. It was a Sunday meal when your mom is in a good mood, and the answer to Chow, Baby’s prayers.
You can reach Chow, Baby at chowbaby@fwweekly.com.
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