Chicken Fried Steak

I went to Tonganoxie because it was there. The joint was called the Flashback. I ordered the country fried steak. I want to say that it was the best chicken fried steak of all time, but since I can’t remember ever having a bad chicken fried steak, perhaps my testimony is superfluous.

Chicken fried steak is merely a reasonably tough cut of meat pounded and pounded to make it reasonably tender, breaded, fried and smothered with a generous helping of white peppery gravy. You will find denominational variations, but the truth is the truth.

If you like this sort of thing – and if you don’t, I suppose you could learn. But why would you? Still, Tonganoxie wouldn’t be a bad place to find a meat you can sink your teeth into.

I certainly can’t say when I had my first chicken fried steak. I can’t remember taking my first steps on toddling feet either or the first time I crossed the street without holding my mother’s hand.

I do remember my first real job. I was laying carpet with Virgil and Lester. I was good enough to do as I was told and strong enough to pull and lift and help carry. I could haul filthy old rolls of horsehair carpet pad out to the van and bring back boxes of tack strip. I didn’t realize at the time, that that was likely the best job I would ever have. But this story isn’t about carpet laying, it’s about chicken fried steak.

The thing is, when we went out of town do a job, lunch was on the company.  Virgil and Lester knew this café in Durham, Kansas. People can believe whatever they want, but I had the chicken fried steak every time we went to that cafe. Mashed potatoes, homemade pie, whatever - that all goes without saying. If that wasn’t the first time I believed, I certainly have never looked back.

Mind you, chicken fried steak isn’t the only food I believe in with some fervor and I don’t eat chicken fried steak as if it were like any old crackers out of a box. But if you see me in Tonganoxie at the Flashback and it looks like I’m praying with a knife and fork in my hands, it’s the chicken fried steak.