Chowdown Showdown: Babe-in-Bed, aka Pigs In A Blanket

This week I wanted to do something breakfast related. So, being the creative giant that I am, I turned all of my brain power on conceiving an item that would not only leave my taste buds thanking me, but Merriam-Webster thanking me for the dictionary sales that would come from the great number of words I would have to use to describe the dish. 

And then I thought of pigs-in-a-blanket.

Shortly after that I thought about how Buster, my beagle, looks ridiculous when he sneezes.

Before long, my ADD-addled mind forgot all of my original criteria, and I went ahead with pigs-in-a-blanket.   

There are only two things to discuss. Sausage and flapjack.  

So, this week please allow yourself the indulgence of reading a laboriously crafted peek in to the world of Babes-in-a-bed.  

Here, we find ourselves with sausage links as fat as a grain bin and chromatically presented in the fashion of wood pulp. They weren’t super spicy, but rather seemed to have a mapley goodness to them that conjured thoughts of rolling Vermont mountaintops in early October.

The pancakes are served flat like my tenor singing, and as delicious as my baritone speaking voice. I will call your memory’s attention to firehouse pancakes at our beloved BKFD fire barn. Add to that taste an aura of sausage in the center, and you’re met with an impression that doesn’t completely miss the mark with Southern Belle’s pigs-in-a-blanket.    

The eight-dollar setback makes you three pigs-in-a-blanket richer.

The Southern Belle’s Good: The carry-out portion had not three, but four tubs of syrup. In case, you know, you want 1.33 tubs of syrup per each pig. 
The Southern Belle’s Bad: Syrup in tubs isn’t as bad as it sounds. I just don’t know what else you call those little things. You know which I’m talking about. You get sauces for your McNuggets in them.  Nothing bad to really speak of. 

As a means of setting itself apart in the hyper-competitive pigs-in-a-blanket market, Silver Dollars’, or SiDo as I’ve called it now for years, puts a smaller sausage link twist on the old classic. Distinguishable from other “pigs-in” style dishes by the wrapped pancake around the pinky-thick sausage link, SiDo also includes that legendary 93 score whipped butter in their take-out portion. 

The pancakes were as consistent as Joe DiMaggio’s at-bats in 1941 and tasted as sweet as Billy Williams’ swing. The sausage here was a little more to the tongue-tingling side than the previous eatery. I wouldn’t say it’s as spicy as that Blanche character on Golden Girls, but it is spiced enough. I was not mad at the sausage.   

I don’t mean to accuse any members of Yorkville’s fine, exemplary business community of price-fixing, but eight dollars gets you three here, as well.

The Silver Dollars Good: The sausage was like a Shetland Pony – it had just a little kick.
The Silver Dollars Bad: There is nothing bad about foods served with whipped butter.  

The Moose

I joined the Moose last year after touring, and being impressed by, the new clubhouse in the old Hardee’s next to the BP (1502 N. Bridge St.). The payoff has come in the form of countless weekend breakfasts for six dollars. For that price you get to customize a plate of eggs, sausage, bacon, toast, pancakes, potato, and that sweet, sweet biscuits and gravy.  

The first time I went in, I ordered bacon. Imagine my limpid delectation to be asked: “How many strips do you want?” 

Yes, breakfasts at the Moose are chock full of just such magic. 

In keeping with that magic, the pigs-in-a-blanket came with multiple sausages in the center.  Six dollars gets you as many as you like.

The Moose Good: Breakfasts. Lots of them.
The Moose Bad: Cheap beer.  

And the winner is… While my Moose membership has easily paid for itself in breakfasts that I just never get sick of enjoying, Southern Belle’s wins on the strength of that portly portion of pork sausage.