Not-So-Broasted Chicken At Mrs. Yoder's Kitchen

Sometimes you get in the mood for a particular food and until you satisfy that craving, you just endlessly obsess about it. I must have been watching a show on television that featured fried chicken, because I suddenly realized that it had been an extremely long time since I had eaten it and probably even longer since I had eaten a good piece of fried chicken. Deciding that I would solicit the advice of my Facebook friends, I posed the following question: "Tom J. Noe is in search of REALLY good fried chicken tomorrow. Any suggestions?"

While I received a myriad of responses, one stuck out above the rest. I'm not exactly sure why, but when my friend Liz suggested Mrs. Yoder's Kitchen out of Mt. Hope, Ohio, I felt compelled to learn more. The link that Liz gave me led me here and from here, I found the actual website for the restaurant. While the fact that the restaurant has a website was a great idea, for whatever reason they don't list their street address. However, through a bit of digging, I discovered that they were located at 8101 State Route 241, Mt. Hope, OH 44660 and can be reached at 330-674-0922.

Mount Hope was a small town, and once I rounded the corner to continue on Route 241, I noticed the sign for Mrs. Yoder's on the right side of the road:


As I pulled into the parking lot behind the restaurant, I realized that one of the side benefits from driving all this way from Akron were the unparalleled vistas that were apparent in every direction:


While I stood there in the late afternoon sun reveling in the beautiful countryside scene and the gentle zephyr ever-so-slightly tussling my hair, my rumbling stomach reminded me of the real reason for my visit today. I walked around to the front of the building, entered, and was fortuitously seated at a table right by a window. While I had expected my hostess to hand me a menu, when I looked down at the table, I realized that my place mat was actually the menu. This was very similar to my trip to Hartville Kitchen.

Due to the size of the placement, I decided to break the menu into three separate photographs:




After taking my drink order, my server asked if I would prefer some of Mrs. Yoder's homemade white or whole wheat bread. I asked me to bring me her favorite and within a few minutes, this appeared on my table as well as my requested glass of water:


There was nothing particularly revelatory about this slice of bread, but it was very fresh, had a lovely crust and crumb and reminded me of the bread served at Das Dutch Kitchen. The white bread had a varnished look to the crust and with one sniff I could tell that the loaves had been brushed with milk before being baked. A taste confirmed my suspicion. While I didn't use any of the tubs of butter also present in the basket, I couldn't help but use some of the tableside condiments with which I have grown familiar at other Amish eateries:


Of course, what the sign should say is "Homemade Apple Butter And Amish Peanut Butter." Regardless, I used my slice of white bread as a platform for tasting the peanut and apple butters. Both were quite tasty and made a delicious spread. Both reminded me of the exact same condiments at Das Dutch.

For my dinner, I decided to go with the "broasted" chicken, breast and wing. Although I have erroneously used the word broasting in the past to describe fried chicken, broasting is actually a trademarked process of marination and pressure frying sold and licensed by the Broaster Company of Beloit, WI. While the menu at Mrs. Yoder's definitely said "Broasted Chicken," when I went to the Broaster Company's store locator page and put in 44660 for the zipcode, Mrs. Yoder's was oddly missing from the list. Just to make sure I dotted all my "i's" and crossed all my "t's," I actually called the restaurant the day after.

After speaking with one of the managers, Seth, I have come to two conclusions. First, as much as the Broaster Company hates it, the term "broasting" is more associated with the pressure frying method than the company itself. Second, while Mrs. Yoder's Restaurant (and many other local restaurants) may have been calling it broasting for decades because of the particular cooking technique, technically it wasn't. Had they called it "pressure-fried chicken," there wouldn't be an issue. I suppose calling it broasted instead removes the word "fried" and makes it sound healthier.

Whatever you decide to call it, my dinner arrived much more quickly than I had anticipated:


With my breast and wing dinner, I was able to select two sides. The first side, as you can see above, was the homemade dressing with gravy. I did enjoy the fact that the plate came adorned with a lone sprig of parsley. While many restaurants have dispensed with this simple garnish, it really does break up a plate of brown well.

Here was a close-up shot of the chicken breast:


Expertly fried, the skin was crispy without being greasy. I normally discard chicken skin, especially if it is flabby, but in this case, I was happy to consume the entire breast, skin and all. The meat was succulent and juicy and seasoned perfectly. I suspect that the on-point seasoning had more to do with the marination process than an expert hand with the salt shaker. The chicken was excellent and to my taste it was on par with the chicken being served at Das Dutch.

After taking a bite of my chicken, I moved on to my first side:


The dressing was a clear winner here, both flavorful and interesting texturally. While most dressings are so moist that the bread cubes used kind of dissolve, this dressing had a combination of textures, from crispy to creamy. The optionally added gravy gave another level of moisture and the seasoning was also nicely done.

For my second side, I picked a seasonal favorite, asparagus:


Technically, this daily special was asparagus with cheese sauce and crumbled bacon. Worried that the delicate flavor of the asparagus would get killed by such assertive flavors, I asked if I could get the asparagus by itself and the cheese sauce served on the side. Happily, the asparagus with cheese sauce was assembled a la minute and it wouldn't be a problem to keep the two flavors separate. The asparagus was steamed just long enough to remove the crunch but not so long as to turn it into mush and drain the gorgeous green color from the stalks. The kitchen staff has helpfully added a pinch of salt to the top of the dish, but after eating my way down, I had to add just a touch of salt to keep things tasting good.

I tried the cheese sauce by itself


and was happy to discover that the cheddar flavor was quite mild. That being said, when I dipped some of the asparagus into the cheese sauce, I quickly came to the conclusion that I had been right to keep the two separate: the cheese sauce overpowered the delicate flavor of the asparagus. I suppose if you are eating the asparagus not because you like the flavor, but because its a healthy green vegetable, application of the cheese sauce will be a no-brainer. I happen to be one of those people who love the flavor of asparagus, so I would opt to skip it if possible.

Overall, I'd say that I had a very good meal at Mrs. Yoder's Restaurant. Is it worth the drive from Akron, Ohio? If I was in the area already, I'd say yes. But since I can get almost identical flavors much closer to where I live, I'll say no. It wasn't because the food or service was bad or their use of the term "broasted." It's more a matter of how much gas it takes to get me from my house to the restaurant and back. I should also mention that for those going for lunch or dinner on Friday and Saturday nights, they have an all-you-care-to-eat buffet.

The Ever Popular Hartville Kitchen

An old college friend of mine who originated from Uniontown had long ago suggested that I give the Hartville Kitchen a try. I kept the suggestion in the back of my head for quite some time now and only recently had the opportunity head over one Friday night after I got out of work. I kind of suspected that the place was popular, but what I didn't expect was to pull in on a Friday night at 6:00 PM and discover a line of people that must have easily number 200 strong. Looking at the parking lot, you wouldn't think that there could be this many people just waiting to get in, but sadly, there were.

Realizing that I was not in the mood to stand in a line quite this long, I turned around and walked away. I figured I would try this some other time. Which was exactly what I did for lunch today, Tuesday at noon. I pulled into the parking lot in front of the enormous building and hoped that my luck would be better today.

Hartville Kitchen was located at 1015 Edison Street, Hartville, OH 44632 and can be reached at 330-877-9353. Parking was available in an enormous lot outside of the complex.

Even though the restaurant was located on the west end of the building, you enter through the main entrance:


Once inside, I made a left and walked towards the entrance to the restaurant (don't worry, there were signs). This time around I was greeted with a line of about ten people. MUCH better. I watched in mild amusement as a woman with pulled back hair sporting a wireless microphone and headset shuffled people off to their tables. She had a rather stern look on her face and made me envision what would happen if Brittany Spears and the lunch lady had spawned a child. Lots of finger pointing and clicking and, oh did I mention the stern look?

The restaurant was divided into at least four enormous sections and I was seated along the east wall. Someone was soon over to drop off a place mat which also served as the written menu. I ended up taking a photo of each section as that was easier than trying to get one photo of the entire thing:




I told my server that the restaurant had been recommended to me and that I hadn't eaten here before. I asked for house specialties. She replied that there really weren't any house specialties, per se, but that everything was good. Wonderful, I thought to myself, that should help narrow it down. However, as she was hitting the high points on the menu, she did mention broasted chicken. They offer two varieties, all white meat or a mixed platter containing a breast, a thigh, and a wing. I haven't had broasted chicken since my last meal at Das Dutch Kitchen and I have fond memories of that, so I decided on going with the chicken (it is also offered broiled as well).

Since the broasted chicken was considered a dinner entree, it came with my choice of three sides and white or wheat rolls. I asked my server about which sides were made fresh. Some, like the mashed potatoes, sweet potato casserole, and macaroni and cheese were made on-premises. Others, like the green beans, corn, and carrots were either from a can or frozen. I decided to go with the mashed potatoes and gravy, macaroni and cheese, and a tossed salad with some of their homemade French dressing.

My salad appeared within a minute or so of me placing my order:


The dressing was like an old childhood friend. Unlike today, as a child my parents were big believers in bottled dressings. Before I even knew that there was a Hartville Kitchen complex, I knew there was a local company called Hartville Kitchen, because we had several jars of their dressing in constant rotation in our refrigerator. Today's salad, however, was a bit unconventional. Topping the shredded lettuce were finely diced Ohio winter tomatoes and grated carrots.

Because of the composition of the salad, you couldn't really eat it in a convention manner with the fork. Instead of stabbing through the leaves, I ended up having to scoop it onto the fork and eat it that way. As you can imagine, the tomatoes were mealy and pretty much useless, so the major flavor components were the lettuce, the carrots, and the French dressing. I've never seen carrots so finely grated on a salad before; I guess I'll just have to chalk it up to their signature style.


WIth my salad, my server also brought me a couple of warm white rolls with salted butter pats. These were fresh and had a wonderful yeasty smell to them. The crumb was tight and the crown was nicely browned. Quite simply, these were nice.

I was afraid that my chicken would take quite a while to cook, since broasting is a standardized process. Then again, being a busy restaurant, you can broast the chicken before receiving an actual order knowing that you'll be going through it on a fairly rapid basis. My dinner arrived about ten minutes after my salad and rolls.

Here was a shot of the broasted chicken and the mashed potatoes and gravy:


First, the chicken. It was breaded nicely. It wasn't overly greasy. The skin was crispy in some areas. Both the breast and the wing were cooked through and hot. The seasoning was nice and didn't overwhelm the meat. The only negative thing I can say is that the chicken was just slightly overcooked and a tad dry. I'd say that based on the rather consistent version that is served at Das Dutch, Hartville Kitchens comes in at about 90% of that. Very close, but just not quite as good.

The mashed potatoes and gravy were both seasoned well and both were hot. When I first tried the advertised-as-homemade potatoes by themselves, it was incredibly smooth with just a little grit. I began to doubt the sincerity of the "homemade" moniker until I came across a bite that had some lumps in it. The chicken gravy also had a nice savory profile to it and complimented the potatoes nicely.

The final side that came with my dinner today was the homemade macaroni and cheese:


This was a nice version of macaroni and cheese. The elbow macaroni wasn't overcooked and mushy. The cheese sauce had a very nice balance to it; it wasn't over or under sauced. I've been known to receive versions of this American staple from both extremes, cooked macaroni floating in cheese soup and dried out macaroni that almost has cheddar cheese powder on it. I personally would have liked it with a touch more cheese sauce, but I think this one struck a nice compromise between the two extremes.

Overall, I enjoyed my meal today at Hartville Kitchen. The food wasn't fancy, but it was prepared well enough. The prices were reasonable, anywhere from $3.50 for a sandwich to $10-$11 for dinner entrees. They had a plethora of pies from which to choose if you are a dessert lover, but after all of that food, I was completely full. Since there were a number of other shops in the complex, I have no hesitation recommending this place as a destination dining type of restaurant. Come down (or up), do a little shopping, do a little eating, and if they are open, check out the marketplace behind the main building for all sorts of other goodies.

[Ed. Note: I had originally published a response from Elise Harper, Human Resource Manager from Hartville Kitchen. I have removed the response because I am unclear if she was aware that my solicitation for a response meant that I would be posting some or all of her comments as an addendum to my review. I would like to encourage her or any other member of the Hartville Kitchen team to feel free to leave a public comment on this posting.

To that end, I am tweaking the change I discussed here. I will still make available for preview pending reviews to restaurants that I am easily able to contact electronically. However, instead of requesting a response to be published with the review, I will simply invite them to comment publicly on the blog itself. ]

Das Dutch Kitchen, Simple Fare from the Heartland

I lived on the east coast for about six months back in 2000, specifically near Boston. Many of us have perceptions about what life is like in other parts of the country. The Bostonians that I worked with wondered if everyone in Ohio had the "slow moving vehicle" signs on the backs of their cars. Of course, the word cars came out more like, "cahhz". It took me a minute to realize they were thinking of the Amish buggies found in mid and southern Ohio.

I assured my fellow colleagues that more than just Amish people inhabited the state of Ohio and nary a orange triangle could be found on any cars in the part of Ohio that I was familiar with. (As an additional cultural oddity, the side of the road on the highway where you pull over in case you have car troubles is called the "berm" here in Ohio. The first time I used that word in Boston I got many blank stares. When I finally got them to understand what I meant, they informed me, with what can only be described as the condescending "Duh?!" look on their faces, that it is called the "breakdown lane" in Boston.)

My mother happens to be the music director for her church and will occasionally need someone to "sub" in for one of her regulars during rehearsals. I suppose fortunately for her, reading music is like riding a bicycle; once learned, you'll always be able to do it. On occasions when the rehearsal is after work, I will try and find a restaurant somewhere between where I work and the church. This is where I stumbled across Das Dutch Kitchen. Right off of Rt. 30 between Dalton and Orrville, OH, they are serving up some traditional Amish / Pennsylvania Dutch fare that is quite good. Some of their offerings have been modernized for the average Joe (such as the salad offerings), but if you pick and choose carefully, you can put together a very nice meal.

Here is a shot of the exterior of the restaurant. Note the buggy by the front door:


Once inside, they will seat you in their rather large dining room. If you come during lunchtime, you have the option of ordering from the menu or participating in the daily rotating buffet (meaning the foods available rotate, not the entire buffet itself). The one thing that is always on the buffet is their broasted chicken.

I spoke of broasted chicken in an earlier post about Nicole's Family Restaurant. Broasted chicken is actually a two step process. First, the chicken is brined according to a specific recipe. After the brining period, it is pressure fried in oil. This results in a fried chicken that is incredibly hot and moist with extra crispy skin. Against all odds, every time I've been to Das Dutch and gotten the buffet for lunch, the chicken has always lived up to this potential. The version I had at Nicole's was lacking a bit in salt, but Das Dutch always hits it right on the head when it comes to seasoning. In fact, everything I've ever had from the Das Dutch kitchen has always been seasoned very well.

Here is a shot of the front of their menu:


And while I know that the table side condiment shot usually consists of a bottle of ketchup or salt and pepper shakers, at Das Dutch they actually have two table side condiments that appear at no other restaurant I've ever eaten at.


The bottle on the left is the peanut butter sauce. The one on the right is the apple butter. Both are made in-house and are absolutely divine. The peanut butter sauce has the consistency of a thick syrup and has a sweet and salty component to it. The apple butter has a wonderfully fresh apple flavor along with notes of cinnamon and nutmeg. Mmmm.

With your meal you will get a basket of homemade white or wheat bread (or a mix). Today I opted for the whole wheat bread. Here is a shot of the basket:


And a shot of how I decided to eat my bread:


I've had both kinds of bread and honestly, while I wouldn't consider them artisan, they are always very fresh and have a lovely crust and crumb. I was disappointed to learn that they contained bleached flours and hydrogenated oils, but I suppose that they are looking to make breads that keep longer than a couple of days for their typical guest. Pre-sliced loaves of both kinds are sold in the gift shop out in front of the restaurant.

In any event, the whole wheat with the apple butter is simply a marvelous combination. No butter or margarine required!

The buffet includes not only the hotline but also a cold buffet. This includes all manner of salad greens, toppings, dressings, jellos, and dessert mousses. It's not nearly as large as the salad buffet I experienced at Lembo's in Akron, but I honestly think the quality is higher here at Das Dutch.

On the hotline today was a cheeseburger soup (which didn't sound all that good to be honest), buttered noodles, mashed potatoes, chicken gravy, roasted new potatoes with parsley, chicken with dumplings, and finally the broasted chicken. I put together a plate of the broasted chicken and some of the chicken and dumplings and retired to my table:


This was, as always, quite tasty. There has only been one time over the last two years that I've eaten here where the chicken was so-so. Which is a pretty good track record for food coming off a buffet. Clearly this is simple food, but it is also simply delicious. Like I mentioned in my post on Nicole's, I normally find uncrisped chicken skin sort of nasty and would rather discard it than eat it, but not here. Crisp, not greasy, and tasty.

Das Dutch offers many pies by the slice for dessert (today's offerings were no less than six different kinds of pies). All are made from scratch on-site. They even offer several no sugar varieties for those who want to watch their sugar intake. While the non-featured pie slices can be a tad pricey, you get a sizable piece with a lot of fruit on it for the price you pay. They also offer non-fruit pies as well.

Normally I skip the pie and go for a bit of the mousse that is already included in the buffet price (remember the cold buffet?). They always have a chocolate and vanilla mousse on the buffet and today they had a bit of unmistakably green pistachio as well. Here is a shot of my bowl:


A little from column A and a little from column B. I actually like to drizzle a little bit of the peanut butter sauce on top of the chocolate mousse. Salty, sweet, chocolatey, peanut buttery, yum. The pistachio mousse was very light texturally and every now and then you would encounter a strange change in texture. It turns out they had folded in miniature marshmallows that had sort of halfway dissolved into the mousse. While I'll be the first to admit that the mousses aren't exactly a perfect substitution for a slice of one of their pies, if I'm already feeling full from the buffet and just want to end my meal with a little bit of sweet for free, you can't go wrong with this.

You actually pay for you meal in the front of the restaurant, which doubles as a gift shop. Here you can pick up various nick-knacks as well as some of the food items the kitchen makes for the restaurant. This includes pies, breads, cookies, brownies, etc. One thing I never seem to be able to pass up are the handmade fried pies. Several always manage to go home with me. Fried in canola oil, they have all the decadence of a Hostess Fruit Pie with much more flavor and less of the guilt from the saturated and trans fats. I'm not saying they are health food; far from it. I just feel far better about eating one of these than their more commercial counterpart. Today I picked up cherry, apple, and peach. They also had bumbleberry, black raspberry, and a no-sugar variety apple as well.

Here is my take home box of pies:


And a shot of the inside of the pies:


The first thing to note is the heft of these fried pies. Probably about twice the size and weight of a commercial fried pie, you could easily split this with a friend. Like the rest of the food served at Das Dutch, these are not greasy in the least. All of the fruit fillings have a nice balance of sugar. These are dessert, to be sure, but they don't smack you over the head with sweetness. The crust is a wonderful combination of tender and flaky, and if you are a pie crust freak, like me, you'll love these. Don't be tempted to eat two, you'll definitely not feel well after that. Not that I, um, speak from experience or anything.

If you are looking for simple, delicious, Amish / Pennsylvania Dutch inspired cuisine and happen to be driving through the area, I highly recommend you stop for lunch or dinner at Das Dutch Kitchen.

  

Skin Is In

For lunch today I decided to go to a little diner-esque type restaurant that I started frequenting every now and again since I have been working in Canton. Nicole's is a cute little place, with the daily specials on the wall, the pies safely tucked behind the glass case. The restaurant is located on Rt. 30, east of downtown and has a storefront that looks like this:


Normally, I have the double cheeseburger. While their burger is exceptionally juicy and good, today I decided to go with another menu item that has been calling out to me lately, fried chicken. Well, technically it is broasted chicken. I decided to go with the two breast/two wing combo, which included dinner rolls and two sides. I choose the mash potatoes and gravy and the vegetable of the day, green beans.


The dinner rolls were your standard fare, although it was nice that they came out warmed (and the butter cups softened). Nothing noteworthy flavor-wise, but not out of place in a restaurant like this.

My lunch took a while longer to prepare than normal, but it was well worth the wait.


I could tell that the mashed potatoes were homemade because there was the occasional lump (which I actually like). The gravy was just a bit too thick and gloppy. The green beans were canned, reheated and held for service. To be honest, the thing that struck me about the meal overall was its lack of salt. I don't know if this was intentional or not. The only thing that was seasoned properly, if not a little too aggressively was the gravy. Which, when eaten together with the potatoes, "fixed" the potatoes.

Now, on to the star of the plate, the chicken. It was hot. It was juicy. The fried chicken skin was a total revelation. So many times the skin just isn't done right and it's far more preferable to simply discard it. Today is one of the few times that I not only ate all of the chicken skin that was on my plate, but actually thought it would be great if there was more for me to eat. The only problem with the chicken was that it, too, was underseasoned.

Here is a shot of one of the chicken breasts after pulling some of the meat off the bone.


As I got up to leave, the lunch rush had pretty much come and gone, so I had a chance to chat with the cook. I had presumed that broasting was simply pressure frying. But apparently, the chicken is marinated first before frying. I was going to suggest that maybe they brine the chicken before cooking it, and maybe she was equating brining with marinating, but I did mention that the chicken, while hot, juicy, and crispy, was a bit underseasoned.

Nicole's is pretty decent. They have some things I really like there. They also have some things that I will pass on. They do make a lot more of their menu items from scratch than not, but clearly the green beans I was served today more than likely came from a large Sysco-esque type can. Check them out if you happen to be in the area.