It just goes to show you that you never know where an innocent blog post will take you.
You can find the latest SEC blogger to take offense at BHGP‘s Chick-fil-A diss at At The Valley Shook.
I don’t much care about My Conference Can Beat Up Your Conference arguments. Every conference has things they are good at. The ACC and Big East are great basketball conferences, the Pac-12 dominates any sport that people don’t much want to watch and they are our equals at baseball, the Big 12 is good at whatever the hell Texas feels like being good at this year, and the Big Ten is good at being arrogant and looking down on the rest of us. But I don’t get my rocks off by pretending to be happy about Alabama winning anything, ever.
But once you start making fun of Chick-Fil-A? Oh, I’m in.
BHGP starts off its playoff rant with an opening salvo against Southern food. Is that really the way you want to play this? A Midwesterner is gonna run smack on food? Southern food is a legitimate cuisine, Midwestern food is something too depressing to contemplate. When I want advice on how much Miracle Whip to put on my bologna on white bread sandwich, I’ll call a Big Ten fan, but not until then.
See, that’s how crappy midwestern food is. Iowa can even screw up a Chick-Fil-A sandwich.
I’ve never been there, so I’ll have to take his word on that.
Meanwhile, Brian Cook tries to thread the culinary needle, so to speak, with this Solomonic observation:
Position paper: Chick Fil’A. As the Big Ten-SEC blogger fight drags on into a sixth decade, positions must be taken. Here is one on Chick Fil’A: it’s not as good as Southerners claim, especially displaced Southerners, but it is a cut above competing chicken sandwiches from other fast food joints. I’m sorry if this has caused anyone to snap in disappointment in either direction.
Weenie.
I know the next step that needs to be taken in the Great Chicken Debate: somebody needs to ask Delany what his opinion of the Chick-fil-A sandwich is at the next Big Ten presser.
He’ll probably respond by asking if they serve it at the Rose Bowl.
Get The Picture 
After living in the Midwest there are 2 rules to survival out there. Always care food and winter clothes in your vehicle in the winter, and always fill up on gas and food IF you can find either. Small towns out there don’t even have many small restaurants like we are used to in the south. Most of the time your choices will be a hot dog at a bowling alley or eating Carl Buddig bologna out of the pack at a gas station.
LikeLike
A Chick-Fil-A sandwich is only as good as its surrounding environment. If you live in a sad, depressing no-where chances are your CFA sandwich is going to be made by a sad, depressed nobody who is only working because the meth don’t pay for itself.
LikeLike
And there are only so many things you can put meth flavored gravy on up there.
LikeLike
This is a true statement.. CFA’s are not made equal. In S. Florida.. pretty much bland.. they don’t get the full TLC they get here
LikeLike
that’s because Yankees dont know how they’re supposed to taste when prepared correctly. Quality control is difficult when you cant tell the good ones from the mediocre ones.
LikeLike
I just had one last night in my midwestern burg, and it was DAMN GOOD, I tell you. Meth gravy or not, it was light years better than any other frigging sandwich I can get in these parts.
LikeLike
In fact, all this talk is making me want to get over thar for a biscuit this morning….because you SURE AS SHITFIRE cannot find of those anywhere else for 500 or 600 miles!
LikeLike
CFA sammiches are simple but good. The reason CFA is so good in my opinion is because they don’t hire a the people Burger King hires. They hire people that give a shit…for the most part.
LikeLike
+1. The employees at CFA are definitely a cut above other fast food chains. Part of it IMHO is that CFA management actually cares about its employees. CFA sponsors scholarships for teens that work there for one thing.
LikeLike
Fine. FINE, Big Ten fans. I’ll go eat a Chick-fil-A sandwich for lunch. I’ve been trying to diet, but being subjected to article after article authored by pasty and jealous northerners and midwesterners, I have to go put a 5-spot in Truett Cathey’s pocket just to make sure his glorious creation never leaves this earth. Also, with all the pictures of the sandwiches, I really can’t resist. I’m perfectly OK with those jackasses throwing off on the sandwich… more for us.
LikeLike
Somewhere, if he even gave a rat’s ass, Hugh Acheson would shake his head.
LikeLike
You have to go deeper than chicken sammiches. It’s all about Fried Chicken when discussing regional bests…
Church’s > Popeye’s >>>>>>>>>>>>> Brown’s.
(i’m not going to rank the affront to humanity that is Zaxby’s)
LikeLike
Bojangles?
LikeLike
I live in NC, how could I miss that?
Church’s > Popeye’s > Bojangles >>>>>>>>>>>> Brown’s
LikeLike
I’m a Dawg transplant now living in the midwest and after two years, I think I’ve boiled down the difference in the foods here. It really isn’t about the culture or cusine – it’s simply access to excellent produce.
The oppressive heat and temperate zone rain of the south yields tremendous fruits and vegatables and it’s simply better and more fresh in the south. I miss a simple dish like well made cole slaw that isn’t drenched in Mayo. Or a slice of Key Lime pie made from Limes picked yesterday 40 miles from where you live.
LikeLike
Just imagine: “The Chic-Fil-A Rose Bowl”
Thats how we end this.
LikeLike
I think you’re on to something, perhaps all Southern bloggers should start referring to the Chick-Fil-A Rose Bowl every time they have to make a reference regarding the Chick-Fil-A Rose Bowl, much like bloggers routinely make reference to Craig James and his supposed offing of 5 working ladies while pursuing his football career at SMU. Chick-Fil-A Rose Bowl.
LikeLike
I think you just stumbled upon the new “I blame Bobo”.
LikeLike
Hey, this doesn’t fall under my pledge not to blame Bobo does it? I want to use Chick-fil-A Rose Bowl. That’s too good to pass up.
LikeLike
This is great.
LikeLike
Brilliant! I Shared this on EDSBS, hope you don’t mind. I cited you as the inventor.
LikeLike
Hey, if you WANT Chik-Fil-A to become a midwestern thing and not a southern thing, be my guest. We’ll take it just to deprive you of it. Neener neener!
LikeLike
The Chick fil A Rose Bowl – long may you live.
LikeLike
Not to get all biblical, or Gangs of New York on him, but Brian Cook: “So then because you are lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will spew you out of my mouth.”
And I will eat Chick-fil-A EVERYDAY if I can get it to “The Chic-Fil-A Rose Bowl”!
LikeLike
Outside of foods found in Chicago, which is the 3rd biggest city in the US, what foods are even well known from the Midwest? The cuisine there is like Korean food; thrown together by cribbing from other cultures and barely edible.
At least fat Southerners have good food as an excuse for their weight; Midwesterners are fat because it’s hard to go for a run in 3 feet of snow.
(Actually, I find most Midwesterners to be incredibly nice people, I just don’t like it when some of them slam the South.)
LikeLike
I recently went to Minnesota for a wedding and the food was exactly like you think it would be. Fatty, lots of meat, lots of gravy, not too many fresh fruits or vegetables. The local restaurants are just bars that serve fried food and have lots of children in them-which, if you’re from Baptist country, is sort of odd. I will say they do excellent bloody mary’s up there. And they come with what is sometimes called a “sidecar.” The sidecar is a glass of beer.
LikeLike
Try the wild rice soup. You betcha it’s a heckuva deal.
And holy buckets don’t let them talk you into the lutefisk. Uff da!
LikeLike
All conferences are some reason for bragging in specific sports, but there is no debate on football….none. Ditto on coeds, although Texas and Arizona State can contend with the SEC….that strength alone should make expansion talks reasonable with those folks. We could also make a special exception for the Oregon cheerleaders, but not give them any voting rights if we bring them in.
I don’t get all the concern about defending Chik-Fil-A for it’s fried chicken. They are a great organization and a well run company, but the fried chicken is not even in the Top 100. However, it is always amusing to hear folks from the North throw barbs at Southerners. As a people we are smarter, better looking, and have a higher quality of life. You have to wonder about people attacking that from Cleveland, New York, and Detroit.
I will agree the Midwestern folks are pretty decent overall, especially compared to certain parts of the area north of here. And you cannot blame them for the misfortune of where they were born, but the gross misrepresentations of life in the South is weird. Good people wherever I have been/lived in this country, but we all have some people around us that shouldn’t be used as examples. Judgements have to made on individuals, not large geographies.
There actually was a time when Big Whatever football was decent, but they just haven’t kept pace over the past 3 decades. The claims of supremacy for tosu and Meechigan doesn’t stand up when you look at the competition they played compiling those W/L records. Having 40+ Big 10/11/12 titles is proof enough the conference has never been very balanced.
LikeLike
“but the gross misrepresentations of life in the South is weird.”
You can blame a lot of that on Hollywood, where all Southerners are either; racist, stupid, stupid racists, violent redneck criminals, violent redneck cops, or quaint fountains of homespun wisdom with accents out of a high school production of a Tennessee Williams play.
l
LikeLike
I resent the f#ck out of that!!!
LikeLike
On that note I’m off to drive half an hour to my nearest Chick-fil-A (Statesboro) for a Spicy Chicken Sandwich, waffle fries with Chick-fil-A Sauce, and some delicious hand squeezed lemonade. Suck it, Patrick Vint.
LikeLike
I had to go to the DMV main office next to the airport yesterday (a disturbing experience) but I used the opportunity to swing through the drive-thru and get a CFA sammich from the ORIGINAL Dwarf House in Hapeville and boy was it gooooood.
LikeLike
+1. The original Dwarf House is an experience that all patrons of Chik-Fil-A restaurants should experience.
LikeLike
Does anyone else remember the Biscuit Barn off of Commerce Rd. The very best “cat head chicken biscuits” in Georgia. That was a fav of my kids growing up in Athens. Allen’s on a Saturday afternoon, hotdogs and fries and a pocketful of quarters to burn up on pool and space invaders was another treat they couldn’t get enough of. Sadly, both are gone. If you’ve lived in Athens long enough you’ve watched a lot of your retreats disappear. Bernie still posts on occasion about the Palace Theater. They had large black and whites of Georgia football players in the lobby. Saw Rocky there with my bride to be. Excuse me for waxing nostalgic on a football blog. I blame that second chic-fil-a sandwich I had for lunch. I’ll be useless the rest of the day!
LikeLike
Katherine’s Kitchen had some fine biscuits and grits with tons of butter. I think there is a Thai place there now…
LikeLike
Man I miss stopping off at Katerine’s on the way to Athens for a game.
LikeLike
Biscuit Barn was great, miss that a lot. If you are up near Chattanooga and want to outstanding fried chicken, forget CFA, head to Champy’s near UTC. I don’t eat a lot of chicken, but that is worth getting off the interstates for when you are headed to Music City or KnoxVegas. Hell, it is worth a trip up for no reason except to eat two huge chicken breasts and beer!
LikeLike
What? No love here for the slaw dog, the cheese krystal, the country fried steak, the pulled pork, the peach cobbler, collards, a good brunswick stew, or anything smothered and covered?
Also, someone ought to go up there and teach ’em how to cook their vegetables.
LikeLike
Come on now, don’t you know this is a Chik-fil-A only blog? 🙂
LikeLike
All very good points Bulldog Joe. You can add the use of spices to the list, but you nailed the important stuff (but you did forget, it is the “double” cheese Krystal.)
LikeLike
Chick-fil-a is only Southern by corporate location. No different than Waffle House. Their food is certainly not Southern. Looking for great Southern food try Carvers on Marietta St. This Chick-fil-a nonsense has to stop. For a total of $9 you can bet a bland, over-fried chicken sandwich left under warming lights for 2-4 hours, crummy under-salted waffled potatoes and a drink. If you want to discuss true Souther fare I will join in with glee to talk about fried green tomatoes, cornbread (cracklin or not) and collard greens. But enough of this crappy food discussion.
LikeLike
there is always one…thanks for taking the bullet on this one.
LikeLike
$9? Your doing it wrong.
LikeLike
Nobody said Chick-fil-A was the best southern food, just the best chicken sandwich. For every southerner I know, the best southern food they ever had came from their grandma’s kitchen. Moma’s kitchen came in a close second. She moved up when Grandma died.
LikeLike
You are 100% correct about grandma’s and moma’s cooking. I would also like to add an uncle that can cook anything outdoors. I would like to add that there are few things better than a frogmore stew (or low country boil depending on where you are from) and/or an oyster roast! Good southern eats.
LikeLike
Blue Willow Inn. We done now? And go support them and take some friends they could use the “bidness”!
LikeLike
Right. Because there’s nothing remotely southern about a fried chicken sandwich, is there?
Sheesh.
LikeLike
Pingback: Don’t be mad at Iowa Blogger Hating on Chick Fil A, becuase, well they are from Iowa and are Iowa football fans « The Grit Tree