The Goshen Country Store, or it's more commonplace name "Tammy's" has apparently been alluding me…read morefor some time. Those in-the-know about this pocket-size convenience store have been venturing there for breakfast sandwiches for more time than I'd like to know.
More than I'd like to know, because each summer season that my cohorts have frequented Tammy's and haven't told me is akin to a knife in my Caesar-ed back.
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Which reminds me of one of my favorite Roseanne Quotes:
Jackie Harris: [while reading a newspaper] Roseanne, listen to this. "Utah Housewife Stabs Husband 37 Times".
Roseanne Conner: I admire her restraint.
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So, let's talk about what Tammys sells before we get into the breakfast sandwiches. That's gonna be a lengthy discussion.
It's a fairly eclectic assortment of small grocery items like jam, soy sauce, canned veg and fruit, and canned meats. Aside from that they have a plastic blue tarp for sale, a sign that shows a gun pointed at you which reads "Warning: There is nothing here worth dying for", and a mix of other signs with southern flare and prints of animal paintings that look as if torn from the front of 1000 piece puzzle boxes.
But, if I had to guess, I would venture that they make most of their money in way of cigarettes, dip (it is the country), beer, and one of the most freakin' delicious breakfast sandwiches you're gonna shove down your gullet.
Ok let's do it:
So, Tammy's has a small "kitchen" in the back left of the store, and I purposefully put kitchen in quotes because really it's a couple of griddles, a toaster, and single burner or two. And somehow, by some grace of G-d, or some hyper magical process, she puts out one of the most delicious breakfast sandwiches ever.
The biscuit is a perfectly toothsome, shape retaining, soft vehicle for perfectly cooked eggs, an expertly melted slathering of good ole' American cheese, and semi thick cut bacon that is at the nirvana stage of bacon that some find so hard to attain.
It's one of those sandwiches that you eat like the owl in the old tootsie pop commercial. 1 bite, 2 bites, where the hell did this sandwich go? If someone saw me eating that sandwich... they might have thought I just got out of a long stint as a prisoner of war, was pretending to be Eleven from Stranger Things, or was simply practicing some sort of pelican method for an upcoming eating competition.
So... I was headed down to Asheville for a wedding and decided to stop in Goshen on my way down to North Carolina and on my way back. So I was there for 2 days, guess how many breakfast sandwiches I had... the answer is three.
Not only did I try the breakfast sandwiches, I had to venture a little deeper into the menu when I also stopped by for lunch during one of those 2 days. I got the chicken salad sandwich which was quite tasty and looked quite appealing and perfectly put together. Think... what would the replicator on the Star Trek enterprise make you if you had asked for a chicken salad sandwich.
So... how does Tammy do it? I'm not sure. Is she making the biscuits in house, is it local bacon, is it just a powerful innate instinct for cooking her proteins perfectly. I can't tell you one or the other.
There is one thing I know for sure though: It gave me one more reason to miss being at Goshen this summer.