When searching for the South's best and most affordable cusine, Chappy Hardy calculates on a price-per-bite basis. And he's found a record-setter in Robertsdale, Ala.
At under 6 cents per bite (that's 98 of them, for $5.73), Mama Lou's restaurant delivers what Hardy, a.k.a. the Man from Hunger, is looking for: a lot of satisfaction for a little bit of cash.
Hardy talks with Scott Simon about his visit to Mama Lou's, co-owned by Lou and Dale Polka. On the menu: fried chicken, mashed potatoes, turnip greens, lima beans, string beans and peach cobbler, among other items.
Among the specialties at Lou's are the chicken -- Mama Lou takes the extra step of icing the poultry before frying it in peanut oil. She also makes delicious deep-fried fritters of carrot (and of other ingredients) rolled in powdered sugar. The cafe is "the most wonderful, down-home buffet you can imagine," Hardy says.
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