Country Cat Revisited

Bf had a burger-and-fries craving. I did some research on PortlandFood.org's Best Burgers Thread and found a couple mentions of the Country Cat's burger being a favorite, with a special note mentioning the exceptional fries. Another popular one was Pause, but we tried Pause once and really didn't like it and weren't quite ready to give it another shot.Country Cat was packed; we only saw one empty table and five empty seats at the counter overlooking the cooking line. I asked to sit at the counter. We always like to watch the cooks bust it out. Perusing the menu, bf latched onto the fried chicken option, tempted in no small way by the view we had of the two cast-iron skillets full of juicy boneless chicken bubbling away on the back burners. What happened to burgers-and-fries, you ask? He's easily swayed. He had passed the craving on to me, however, so we decided to get one order of the chicken and one burger and share. Looking at the menu again, guess what I saw? No fries! The burger came with onion rings. Oh well. I tried the rings last year and remembered loving them.

It was fun watching them put everything together. Bf noted “No salamander” so to melt the cheese for the burgers, they used a skillet. The cheese got all hot and melty and gloopy. Perfect. A small ciabatta (?) bun held the medium-rare burger, along with a smear of garlic mayonnaise and some kind of smoky red sauce and a little lettuce and red onion for crunch.

Yum, look at that. I wish I could eat it again now. The fried chicken was very yummy, too. I have publicly voiced my doubts about boneless fried chicken, but I was very, very wrong. The pieces are juicy and the absence of bone isn’t missed. Whatever coating they use is brilliantly crispy and flavorful. I noted that they twice-fried the chicken – maybe that’s what the secret is. I’ll have to try that at home someday. The chicken plate came with collards and a cream biscuit perched up on top. The usual drizzle of honey came on the side as requested. (It’s good we were sitting at the counter as the menu had no mention of honey. I would have freaked to get chicken with honey on top. Blechh, yucky.)