Saturday afternoon... (GFT story)

...indicating that going to the GA National Fair was not all the amusement that occurred over the weekend. We did find the car, with remarkable ease, hidden in plain sight out in the parking area, along with several thousand other vehicles. Got back on the interstate to return to Decatur. North of Macon, I noticed a sign directing travelers for the exit to Juliette, GA. If you are from the south, and familiar with southern cooking, you are likely a fan of Green Fried Tomatoes. And probably aware of a movie made some years ago, in which this particular item played a starring role.

I believe the movie was based on a book by Fannie Flagg, with a good portion based on local lore, family history, and anecdotes. I'm not sure of the title of either book or  movie, but think that 'Whistle Stop Café' played a part in the story. I'd been suggesting to likely co-horts/co-consiprators the necessity of making a pilgrimage to the Whistle Stop Café for a goodly portion of that historically artery-clogging un-vegetable vegetable. When I saw the sign for the Juliette exit, I said: 'we should go', meaning we should start planning another road trip. But she said: 'Yes'.

The wonders of Google informed us that the café was open until 3:00, causing us to expect to not get in. But just going would be interesting, so we drove down a little two lane country road, with signs periodically directing us on toward Juliette, GA. Crisp clear day, with leaves falling from the trees, and whirling in the backdraft of passing cars. Arriving at a little town, about the size of Boston, GA. With a block long business district.  Consisting  of a row of mostly of ancient, sagging buildings filled with antiques/junque and collectibles, little trinket/gift shops.  I expect the primary attraction, the reason people veer off the interstate is remembering the book/movie and thinking: 'Oh, let's go to Juliette'. Us too!

The café was open. We had the tomatoes. Of course. They were fried. Extremely fresh: so hot they were steaming when you cut into bite size. And just exactly what my taste buds had expected. In the interest of creating a well balanced meal, we also had fried chicken nuggets and potato chips, along with a garlicky pickle spear. That's my fat quota for the month. It was worth every bite.