Location: Dutch Valley Restaurant
Dish: Meatloaf
Man, I’m really getting sick of meatloaf. I just don’t understand why people ever order this shit. I like meat, I like a good steak, but what accumulates to a plop of ground meat cooked through… what the fuck? How did this become an American staple?
I get it. It’s another dish invented or popularized during the poorer times in history. It was a way to use leftovers and stretch meals. Chili was made this way, but chili is fucking good. Anyway, I should save this bigger rant for the final article. On to today’s loaf.
The Loaf
Saying the word “loaf” over and over in my head makes it start sounding really weird. Reminds me of some medieval times bag full of trinkets on a horse drawn carriage. I dunno. It’s what I’m seeing in my head.
“May I browse the wares in your loaf, gypsy?”
If you search meatloafs in Sarasota this one comes up top on a lot of lists. I believe I found it high up on Yelp today.
I like Dutch Valley. We get breakfast there quite often. Servings are big, home cooked and very affordable. In fact, today’s loaf was $10 and it came with a side of fries, a small salad, soup and a dessert cup of jell-o. Felt like I was living in a nursing home.
The loaf was three strips on the thin side. They were soaked in a mushroom gravy with fries in the same box. That gravy was pretty tasty on the fries.
The loaf itself was dull. There wasn’t much as far as flavor and this was the breadiest one yet. The loaf was so mushy. Even my wife, who likes her mom’s (like-mom-used-make!) meatloaf, was disgusted with the texture. You could almost drink it with a straw if you had one of those huge milkshake straws. Meatshake… now that’s an idea.
The gravy was aight. I like mushroom flavor in gravy and this one was bursting with it. I’m not a fan of giant chunks of mushroom though so that was a big turn off.
It wasn’t awful. I ate maybe half of it before tossing. But fuckin’ a man, I’m so over meatloaf. Really not looking to doing another day of this challenge tomorrow.
Conclusion
This meatloaf sucks. It’s boring, it’s small and it tastes like pre-chewed hamburgers.
Overall Score: 2/10