Diners, Drive-ins and Chris' Hot Dogs

I doubt if Guy and Triple D ever stopped here but we make a point to whenever we're in the area.  And it IS a dive! 
 

It's Chris' Hot Dogs in Montgomery, AL.  My husbands father brought him here when he was young.  And his father came here with his grandfather (does that make sense!?)   It's been in business for 95 years.

Basically there are 4 generations in his family that have eaten at Chris'.  My husband remembers that he would eat about 12 hot dogs.  His Dad gave him and his brother a sip of his beer when he was about 13!

Back in the day, the buns were homemade and the hot dogs were very tasty.  They are nothing special today, but the sauce is their own original recipe.  It's a good hot dog sauce, it's all you need on your hot dog!  Oh, and onion rings, do order onion rings.

He said that each booth had it's own tabletop jukebox, but they're no longer there.

Being just down the street from the capital building, this place could probably tell a story or two if the walls could talk!

Kind of a neat place to stop for lunch just to say you did.

 

Memorial Weekend Crawfish Boil

The Bassman loves crawfish and has long wanted to have a crawfish boil.  It's near the end of the season for them so this past weekend was the perfect time!  

All the how-to-boil-crawfish directions can be pretty intimidating and this is something that we didn't just want to do a small batch.  Well, I guess you could, but when you have 6 or 8 other family members that love 'em too, we can't go small!!

We are far enough north of the gulf that it can be difficult to find a provider of live crawfish.  Yes, they must be alive before you boil them.  And when you do find a provider, they may be sold out especially on a holiday weekend.   Our favorite place to get fresh gulf shrimp is at Waddell's Seafood and they have live crawfish too.   So now that we found a provider, it's a 25 minute drive to go get them!   On second thought, that's not a bad drive if we can't make it to Louisiana....

The big batch here is 17 lbs of live crawfish.

In a big tub, we rinsed and culled the dead ones.  We only had to toss a few out of that big bag!

Here's the fixins.  Small red potatoes, onion, garlic, lemon, andouille, Old Bay seasoning, shrimp and crab boil, Tony Cacheres Cajun seasoning, red pepper, ice cold drink of choice and sunglasses, of course. 

(Not pictured:  sunscreen for me, ha ha!)



The Bassman was able to have a seat and call a friend while waiting on the water to boil.  Actually, with that cooker, it didn't take as long as we thought.  Time does fly while we're having fun!



All the other crawfish lovers were hanging out on the pier.



They're ready, along with some shrimp.  And we did it like the cajuns say to...pour 'em out on the table!  I managed to hold everybody back to get a picture, we were all so hungry.

Everybody filled their plates.



And after a plateful, we all ended up standing and grazing around the table.   It was just easier!





I forgot to get a picture of our flag, but here's a little red, white and blue! 



It was a great weekend at the lake, everyone enjoyed the crawfish and shrimp boil!  This may become an annual family tradition for us.   The Bassman did good!