Red Maple Salt Lake

I acknowledge it. I am a biscuit snob. I really like biscuits and gravy, but when ever I take a look at dining establishments I purchase a substitution of sourdough toast for your biscuits. Restaurant biscuits are quite a lot uniformly . . . properly, just less than significantly.

Now, I do give eating places the advantage of the doubt. The initial time I purchase B&G from a new restaurant, I will take the biscuits. This is just in case there are excellent biscuits in the general population getting by my taste buds. So, far this screening process has yet to produce golden biscuits worthy from the name.

I grew up eating wonderful biscuits at home, but most Americans never had a taste of biscuits until 1973 when McDonald’s introduced them with their breakfast menu. My wife and I make wonderful biscuits as does my oldest son. Mine are absolutely perfect. My wife prefers her version because they are smaller. She uses a small juice glass to cut out her biscuits, while I like the larger size of a 16 oz. tumbler. Peg’s biscuits also don’t stand as high as mine. Plus she tends to overcook her biscuits . . . in my opinion. Of course, my wife disagrees with me. All these homemade biscuit differences are only slight compared to commercial products.

The strange thing about biscuits, however, is the fact that three fast-food eating places produce great tasting biscuits. McDonald’s, Kentucky Fried Chicken, and Popeye’s Chicken & Biscuits consistently serve biscuits that are not only worthy of honey, or butter and jam, but also gravy.

My purchase of preference are: Popeye, McDonald’s and KFC. Popeye’s is a recent addition to my favorite places. I stopped in at the restaurant on Sixth Avenue and ordered chicken and biscuits. The chicken didn’t do anything for me, but the biscuits were warm and greasy. I like the sausage biscuits at McDonald’s and the only thing wrong with KFC biscuits is the nearly tasteless brown gravy, which should never come closer than a foot or two from their biscuits. At Popeye’s you can buy a side of their Cajun gravy, which goes really nicely with the biscuits.

I would have guessed that the Popeye Biscuits were higher in fat, and they were, but only marginally. The Popeye Biscuits were substantially lower in sodium, but otherwise the three were neck and neck within most nutrition categories.

The KFC Biscuits were 220 calories, while both Popeye and McDonald’s weighed in at 240 calories. Biscuits are not diet food, but on the three only Popeye’s was the best without added butter or jam. With gravy, we have a different story. What would be best would be for me to make my own sausage and milk gravy. Even bad biscuits taste better with great gravy on them. Of course, my idea of a perfect breakfast is biscuits and gravy with hashbrowns (cooked crusty and brown with onions), fried eggs, sausage links and patties . . . and bacon. I just can’t eat that every day, however. It has to be a special day.

I think for next Father’s Day I will ask for sides of gravy and hashbrowns from my two favorite gravy dining establishments in Tacoma (Old Milwaukee on Sixth Avenue and Knapp’s in the Proctor District) and a bag of biscuits from Popeye’s . . . okay, don’t spare the eggs and pork, either.