Tales from the Road: Mmmm…Dining in the Mountains

Those who travel a lot will be the first to tell you the best way to really truly learn about a destination is through the food. Nearly every locale or better yet, region is known for a special food or dish. And the mountains aren’t any different.

Starting with breakfast, I wanted pancakes and was presented with the difficult decision of where to get them. I decided to try Log Cabin Pancake House, which has been in the area for over 30 years. On their menu, they have your typical breakfast fare of waffles, omelets and specialities, such as country ham and biscuits, biscuits and gravy and grilled sugar cured ham served with two eggs and three plain pancakes.  All sounds good, but not as good as the selections under the special treat pancakes. Could you pass up Caribbean pancakes with bananas, nuts, coconut and powdered sugar? How does the orange-pineapple supreme pancakes sound? These are served crepe-like with banana wedges rolled inside topped with orange-pineapple sauce, sliced almonds, powdered sugar and whipped topping.

With all of these choices, I selected chocolate chip pancakes, with looked (and tasted) more like a dessert than a breakfast.

The restaurant also serves lunch and dinner. For lunch, some options include sandwiches like chuck wagon sandwich, hamburger deluxe or log cabin patty melt. Dinners include chopped sirloin steak or Smoky Mountain rainbow trout. In addition to the menu items, the restaurant offers both a lunch and dinner buffet. And of course, desserts.

While lunch was at Dollywood, dinner was back in Gatlinburg at Smoky Mountain Trout House Restaurant.  Of all of the items on the menu, I really wanted to try the trout fritters. About the size of hush puppies, the fritters are sort of like mini crab cakes and were very good.

Known for their mountain trout dishes, you’ll find such items as green bean almondine trout, dilly trout, cheese baked trout and  parmesan trout. Of course, there’s also pan-fried mountain trout, blackened trout and broiled mountain trout. If you can’t decide, choose trout Eisenhower served with sautéed mushrooms and onions. 

If you aren’t a fan of the fish, there’s Tennessee country ham, rib-eye and chicken breast as well as other options. The trout dishes along with the other dishes are served with salad, choice of baked potato, french fries or vegetable of the day, and homemade hush puppies. A children’s menu is also available.

Don’t forget to save room for dessert – options include dessert of the day, key lime pie and coconut cream pie.

photo credit: personal photos