Chicken and Waffles

[cocky0]

So this is a spawn from a topic I replied to on GCC, but I want to ask the folks here about it since the crowd here is mostly of the older generations.

Where in the hell did this stuff come from? I spent my entire childhood in Hampton, SC. It's as southern as southern gets. I grew up eating fried chicken, fried pork chops, fish and grits, shrimp and grits, lowcountry boil. collard/turnip greens with neckbones, hoppin johns (we just called it peas and rice though), and a whole slew of other "soul food" items. However I had never heard of this combo of fried chicken and waffles until the 2000s when Alton Brown did it on Good Eats. Then a few years later it seemed to catch on with every wannabe southern food joint across the Southeast.

Did any of you eat this stuff before the last 15 years or so?

 

[gamecock88]

I had heard of it from friends who moved here from Pennsylvania years ago but never anyone else growing up in upstate SC..  I think they make it differently though.  Never had it until sometime in the early 2000s.

 

[FurmanCock]

South Carolina born and bred, and never had chicken and waffles growing up.  Don't real remember eating many, if any, pancakes/waffles, period.  Don't really do either to this day -- just seems like a mechanism to eat syrup, too sweet for me.  If I'm going to have bread in the morning, it's going to be either a good biscuit or bagel (not that I had bagels growing up either, but do like them now).

 

[Blitzkrieg]

IIRC it's actually a Pennsylvania Dutch dish going way back.

 

[Longhaul]

Just a trendy thing here I think.  It is funny to watch these things.  It is kind of like charcuterie boards that are now everywhere.  We’ve served this stuff on a plate forever, but now that it is on a board it it truly something special lol. 

 

[cocky0]

Just a trendy thing here I think.  It is funny to watch these things.  It is kind of like charcuterie boards that are now everywhere.  We’ve served this stuff on a plate forever, but now that it is on a board it it truly something special lol. 

Yeah I don't get the obsession with those things either. I mean it's fricking cold cuts people. It's almost as bad as those dudes in Chicago getting all snobby about hotdogs.

 

[Spur's Addiction]

Yeah I don't get the obsession with those things either. I mean it's fricking cold cuts people. It's almost as bad as those dudes in Chicago getting all snobby about hotdogs.

It's got a foreign sounding name. so they can charge 3x the price.

 

[Longhaul]

It's got a foreign sounding name. so they can charge 3x the price.

Bingo.  I had dinner in a French restaurant with a youngish client and he wanted to show how sophisticated he was by ordering a charcuterie.  I ended up having to explain what the pate was to him when the board arrived.  He said, I am not sure what that pile of stuff is lol.  

 

[carolina_corpsman]

So this is a spawn from a topic I replied to on GCC, but I want to ask the folks here about it since the crowd here is mostly of the older generations.

Where in the hell did this stuff come from? I spent my entire childhood in Hampton, SC. It's as southern as southern gets. I grew up eating fried chicken, fried pork chops, fish and grits, shrimp and grits, lowcountry boil. collard/turnip greens with neckbones, hoppin johns (we just called it peas and rice though), and a whole slew of other "soul food" items. However I had never heard of this combo of fried chicken and waffles until the 2000s when Alton Brown did it on Good Eats. Then a few years later it seemed to catch on with every wannabe southern food joint across the Southeast.

Did any of you eat this stuff before the last 15 years or so?

I was told fried chicken and waffles started in the jazz clubs in Harlem in the 30's.