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The Modesto area is located at the southern end of the Sacramento, CA television viewing area, and we have a popular morning television show that highlights many interesting aspects about the northern San Joaquin Valley and the southern Sacramento Valley. Occasionally, the show highlights interesting restaurants, and a couple of years ago, they ran a segment about Salida's Kountry Kitchen, with a special emphasis on their gigantic Chicken Fried Steak breakfast, which is one of the largest breakfasts available on the west coast. Like all good "foodies," I viewed the show and made a sacred vow to myself to visit Salida's Kountry Kitchen and sample the gigantic breakfast for myself. Photo: Saturday, July 23, 2011, we were headed to a family reunion party in Merced, so I talked my wife into stopping in Salida for breakfast, as it's on the way from Roseville to Merced. The Kountry Kitchen is located on Broadway, about a half mile from busy CA 99, is easy to find, and offers lots of close-in, free parking. Close parking is a good idea after you've enjoyed a 2-1/2 pound chicken fried steak breakfast. Photo: The decor of Salida's Kountry Kitchen is pure country, and probably hasn't been changed since the early 1980's. It's casual and very family-friendly - you won't find a "wait to be seated" sign - so you walk in and sit at any available table. The restaurant is very low-tech, as there is no computer, and the orders written on a memo pad and placed on an order wheel above the kitchen, and the chef prepares the order as its written on the memo. The window to the kitchen is in the middle of the photo, and if you look closely, you can see paper orders hanging from the order wheel. I love nostalgia!!! Photo: After bringing Sharlene's order of corned beef hash, eggs and potatoes, our friendly server, Julie, poses with my separate plate of my main entrée of a 2-1/2 pound chicken fried steak, covered with country sausage gravy. Yes, that's right, two and a half pounds of pounded-down thin steak, battered, deep fried, and covered with gravy. Photo: My wife, Sharlene, and I pose at the table, as Julie snaps our photo. Sharlene enjoyed a modest breakfast of corned beef hash, scrambled eggs, biscuit and gravy, while I enjoyed the huge chicken fried steak. Photo: How often do you get to enjoy a 2-1/2 pound chicken fried steak breakfast? ... so I had to get Sharlene to capture the blessed event on camera. I'm about ready to tackle this monster breakfast, and yeah, all the food on the table in front of me is my breakfast. I'm not a lumberjack or a linebacker, but I can put away a pretty decent breakfast. Photo: Salida's Kountry Kitchen's business card has a slogan that reads: "Home of the Famous Chicken Fried Steak." That slogan rings true, as Kountry Kitchen offers one of the largest breakfasts available on the west coast... after hearing about their chicken fried steak, I just "had" to have one. OK, for $14.95, at the time of this writing, you get... a 2-1/2 pound chicken fried steak, covered with gravy and served on a separate plate. You also get three eggs, potatoes, and a side of a biscuit, the size of a softball, and a bowl of gravy. You get friendly service, and a lot of food, and the food is good... very good... really good! I surprised myself that I was able to eat as much of this giant breakfast as I could... I ate about 90% of it, which isn't bad for a guy that's pushing 60 years old and weighs 148 pounds! I can't imagine anybody, even a truck driver, lumberjack or linebacker walking away hungry after eating this gargantuan breakfast... and at only $14.95 for 2-1/2 pounds of chicken fried steak, and all the fixin's, it represents a bargain, to those who savor a truckin'-good breakfast. Salida's
Kountry Kitchen Copyright(c) 2011 eRench Productions. All rights reserved. This site has been on the web since December 22, 2002.
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