November 2019

I have mixed feelings about not preparing the Thanksgiving meal at home this year. On that day I’ll be joining a party at a private club for the noontime repast.  And on Saturday, I’m invited to attend an after- Thanksgiving dinner at a friend’s house.  I’m still considering getting a small local turkey (if one still exists) to prepare at my leisure sometime after the feasting days without the angina of going through all the motions to effect the perfect holiday meal.

But I’m not off Scott-free.  For the Saturday dinner I’ve offered to make the desserts, which will include 3 pies, a cake and if I have any heavy cream left from a few quarts in the fridge (there’s a shortage of it in our markets at this writing) I’ll make ice cream.  This, I’ve deemed, is far more difficult than preparing a turkey and all the usual fixings.

Apple Pie with lard crust

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That’s because you can’t get it very easily.  Even after the several months hiatus where the fast-food chain ran out of chicken for the sandwich, and then reintroduced it earlier this month, the sandwich remains an elusive member of the fast-food-hungry world.  This is especially so at one of two Popeyes (Kennebunk is the other) in Maine–the South Portland location near the Maine Mall.  Incidentally the Kennebunk franchise is not equipped to serve the sandwich.

Photo courtesy of Popeyes

I went to Popeyes earlier this week and let me say this: the store and its outside are a mess, dirty and unkempt.  That and the awkward entrance to the store makes it even more treacherous to visit.  You can enter through the very narrow road-cut entrance to Bernie and Phyls off Maine Mall Road or the equally difficult entrance off of Gorham Road.  Depending on where you traveling from the location’s corner is a difficult one to navigate.

So I arrived on Thursday at 11:15.  There was a line of about 10 people waiting to get inside except for the sign on the door that said this:

The sign

A peak through the windows revealed that no one was inside, not behind the counter or anywhere else.  Then a maintenance man came out (from somewhere) and told us that the chef hasn’t shown up yet and no one knew where he/she was.

The Maine Mall Road Popeyes

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