Yum Yums | World Famous Red Hot Dogs of UNCG

Where do hot-dogs go when they die?

Yum Yum's Cheerwine sign.

"Why in the world are they red?"- I'm always asked. "It's a southern thing", I usually reply. Interestingly a professor at a Chicago university, recently did a taste test in New York of all places and found in a taste test, people preferred the southern red hot-dog to Oscar Meyer wieners. Let me repeat this strikingly crazy discovery, the red hot-dogs in North Carolina taste better, in most people's opinions than the infamous hot-dogs of New York and elsewhere. In fact, all hot-dogs used to be red, until a small fear of cancer drove it out of popularity except in the south, where we love our cancer hot-dogs bright red and covered in radioactive dye. Truth is, the south long switched to a alternate formula, so feel free to head on down to the ground-zero of hot-dogs: Yum Yums, and their world famous southern red hot-dogs.

$1.70 Red Hot-Dog, All-The-Way.
Mustard, Chili, Onions, and Slaw.

Before Rachel Ray thought it was cool to say "Yummy", in 1906 the Aydelette family turned their ice-cream cart business into a Greensboro legend by opening up The Yum Yum Better Ice Cream Company on the campus of UNCG; known better by students and Yum Yum cult members alike, (yes there is a Yum Yum fan club) simply as Yum Yums. On any given day hundreds of students can be seen sitting on the red brick wall, and its plastic tables out front, as it's likely the only place in town you can get a hot meal for $1.70. That's right, $1.70 for a loaded hot-dog with mustard, chili, onions, and slaw. Top it off with a Cheerwine for .85 cents and you've got a little southern comfort on a bun.

Perfect opportunity for a drive-thru

There's something familiar as you walk in the door of Yum Yums even if you've never been there. Every brick has its own story, and it's hard to fathom the number of people, and greatness of names that have graced the halls of this tiny corner building. Indeed, one could argue if the fabric of the city, Greensboro itself was held in place by one single thing, it's this: a century old restaurant where all roads lead to some sentimental flavors preserved in time with food; beckoning those surrounding it to come, to eat, to become as those of the past have, part of the collective, part of the culture. To become part of Greensboro.

Besides the price and the lightning fast service, the hot-dogs are something special. "An institution!", we habitually say. Yum Yums combines the steamed bun and dog covered in their own chili recipe, onion sauce, and assembled by an army of Yum Yum employees. It's reminiscent of a New York style hot-dog, but with it's own southern chili charm. Let's call it North meets South, because that's precisely what it is. In fact, it's in my opinion, that this is the best hot-dog in all of Greensboro.

Light seeketh the best hot-dog?

Yes, I've said it. I love Yum Yums, and I consider this quite a scary thought considering I may be spending the next two years on UNCG's campus. I can only imagine my friends trying to restrain me back as I reach out feverishly in my zombiefied mental state, attempting to spend my last bit of gas money home on a red hot-dog. Maybe I should consider moving on campus? Then again, Yum Yums has one major downfall: cash only. I very rarely carry cash, and while I understand the concept of a transaction fee being counterproductive to the price of a $1.70 hot-dog, I've also got to say, "It's 2011 people, catch up!"- I'll pay $1.99 for the hot-dog if I can max out my Visa like a good red-white-and-blue American should. I swear, somewhere on my student loan forms it said something about using the money for only: fees, books, and Yum Yum hot-dogs. I swear!


 "

Biscuitville | The Hour of Hunger Reigns.

Double sausage, lettuce, tomato,
pickle and awesome please!

Perhaps one of the subjects I still get emails about was an article I wrote on Biscuitville about ten years ago. While no longer online, it subsequently found its way into my first book, Nosh. It details the deadly proportions of Biscuitville's humongous breakfast sandwiches combined with highway driving and work. These days I no longer work at an office but as a writer at home. I'm also a student which is a roundabout way of saying: I'm poor. For instance, last night, dinner consisted of rice tacos. If you wonder what rice tacos are, they're exactly what they sound like. Some week old corn tortillas, filled with rice, covered in hot-sauce, from packets I scrounged out of the glove box. It ain't pretty, but such is the romantic life of a student. Of course this morning, my royalty check hit the bank, and with it an opportunity to eat something more substantial. With our commute being almost one-hundred miles round-trip, and after depositing the offspring at their charter school, then the two of us at GTCC; we're lucky to make it through the day remembering to change our clothes, let alone, eat. So this morning, for the first time in about a year, we stopped at Biscuitville.

 Biscuitville is that city over the rainbow with a yellow brick road of golden deep fried hash-browns, located across sausage mountain on the banks of the sweet tea river.

Biscuitville, again for the clarification of my non-native readers, is a local, North Carolina based restaurant the NY Times called a "must try before you die", and makes some of the most gigantic, southern-style, home-made biscuits  in the world, but only for only a few hours each day. Their mantra (which I adore) is "There's no taste like home." Interestingly Biscuitville, started out as a pizza shop (Pizzaville) before its metamorphosis in 1975. Today it's an institution of the South, and from the time it opens at dawn (5:30 AM) till they close at 2 PM (Yes, PM) they pump out what is considered by most, the best breakfast in the south. Their hours are somewhat of an oddity in the fast-food market since they seem to believe no one would want a biscuit for dinner. Are they insane? Yet it's a family restaurant, with employees all of whom get to go home and be with their families in the afternoon. Those old-time family values are rarely found in businesses today. It's respectable only until you get the Biscuitville cravings, the 11th hour, where hunger reigns, and you find yourself beating relentlessly on the door of a vacant, and dark Biscuitville dining room.

Liv's Sausage Sandwich Armageddon, is their double decker sausage, egg and cheese biscuit, add lettuce tomato and pickles. 

Dear Biscuitville, I love you.

So this brings me to the point of this post. I don't just write about things for my own health, I write to inform, to share, and I discovered something amazing. Something you may not be aware of is Biscuitville's policy which encourages customers to build your own biscuit. Sure you can order-by-number on the drive-thru menu, or you can get creative. What's more, is many of the toppings are free. (Feel free to kick yourself for that plain sausage biscuit you've been ordering for ten years.) That's right, a company that encourages you to build exclusivity, uniqueness, perhaps shall we say, biscuit awesomeness? My creation, let's call it Sausage Sandwich Armageddon, (which I highly encourage you to try) is their double decker sausage, egg and cheese biscuit, that I add lettuce, plus tomatoes, and pickles. (Maybe someday I'll really push the limits with some mayonnaise?) It's like a breakfast double-cheeseburger, except it's got sausage instead of beef, and it's rather miraculous if I do say so myself. The only thing I could do to improve it is add some chili, which unfortunately they don't sell. (I'm sticking that one in the suggestion box as I type.) The beauty of this, is when I got my receipt back I wasn't charged for any of the add-ons. Now I must assume, meat and cheese would be extra, but this monument to biscuit perfection rang in at the exact same price as a see-and-say meal (I'd like a #1 please!) would. So you do the math!  The question is what will your mouth design when the hour of hunger reigns?

What does Piedmont Mean?

Pied du Mont = Foot of the mountain.

So the other day I was sitting in class waiting for the professor to come in when a young man, a student of European origination, with his foreign accent, said the word "piedmont", pronouncing it "Pee-ed-d Moount". Considering this was college, and the conservative south, where we suggest anyone who is living here to "learn English or go home!"; I suppose it was only a matter of time before someone heckled the poor lad by saying "We pronounce it Piedmont!" Now this bothered me some, because clearly the heckler was wrong. In fact the student from Europe was more right, from my perspective, than the person who may have been hinting at the foreigner's ignorance. So I turned around and while trying to be as humble as possible, I asked the heckler what she thought the word Piedmont meant.

I think she assumed I was stupid at that point, rather than grasping my attempt to lead her to enlightenment as she said to me "Girl, it's right here, you'z sittin'z on it!". Now I like this classmate a lot. She's rather typical, and I suppose I deserved the glib answer I received since everyone knows, at least if they grew up here, that Piedmont means the foot of a mountain. But this was my point, and so I asked her "Do you know the word in French that means foot? It's Pied!", I overly enunciated, sounding more like my poor European friend who was amazed at what he had started? "Seriously?" she asked. "Mont" of course meaning montagne, mountain. (Such as Mont Blanc.)

Pied = Foot in French | Mont = Mountain in French

I now had the entire class's interest. (I knew my French would come in hand at some point.) Another student then shouted "Well, we didn't lean that in school." Indeed, I hadn't either, originally. Another student then yelled "Well, uh, this here is still America and we'z goin to pronounce it like this." In fact my own curiosity of the word's etymology, just struck me, the answer just popped in my head as I was sitting there watching one person insult another's intelligence because of their dialect. While the origination of the words may be Latin, it was an awakening to all of us that day in class. More importantly it taught us not to judge someone based on their accent. In fact the American language we must always remember, is a product of foreign language. Indeed our country is the product of foreign people and their culture which has and is often modified, or purposely suppressed for political reasons, such as this young heckler attempted to, (cultural norms) or simply by diversity, isolation, or popular trend.

Piedmont Airlines

One of the confusing things that then came up was the term tar heel. If Piedmont means foot, is there a connection? Perhaps, but according to Wikipedia, the term seems to originate from the use of tar products in everything from tobacco to US Warships, but nobody really knows for sure.

Of course it gets real tragically humorous when you consider the fact there used to be an airline called Piedmont Airlines. I even had the opportunity to fly with them once. The Airline called "foot of the mountain", safely landed on a runway when I flew them to the Bahamas, but there was a Piedmont Airlines crash in 1943, into a mountain.

Or maybe I never got off that plane at all. Hmmm?

Cheerwine | Buy more than just Soda

Cheerwine Love

What is Cheerwine? It's not wine. It's Cheerwine: a red sparkling beverage that has been a North Carolina favorite since 1917. Colloquially known as "The nectar of Tarheels", or "liquid candy"; our fascination with sugared water spawned two soda companies within it's borders. One being Pepsi in 1898, known as "Brad's Drink", then later changing its name, and of course Cheerwine. I suppose now that I think about it, North Carolina may be single-handedly been responsible for obesity in this country. Even Coke was created by North Carolinian (by birth) James Pemberton. Perhaps we should consider changing the state mantra from "First in Flight" to "First in Fizz?"

World's best cherry drink?

Cheerwine however, compared to its competitors has remained uniquely "North Carolina". Though the company has recently began expanding, its fan base seems to remain southerners, or displaced counterparts thereof looking for the regional favorite. In fact it's one of the many sodas that require a straw, and our fascination with laughing at outsiders who stain their lips in their infancy of Cheerwine addiciton, could be the single most reason it's not found wider acceptance. This is what we call Cheerwine Initiation and I think Cheerwine has made a tragic mistake by not using it in marketing like the milk people have done with the milk mustache. Don't make the mistake of thinking because its cheery, red and makes you look pretty that the male persuasion doesn't drink it. No, just prior to blowing Cheerwine out my nose laughing, I was told this by a reader:

I challenge anyone to knock my Cheerwine out of my hand and learn just how feminine it makes me. -Robert Pipkin

Interestingly enough, the other day someone recommended a little bakery in Salisbury to check out. I've yet to go, but apparently they're known for two things. One is called a "ugly", and the other Cheerwine cake. While I'm certain in time I'll get a chance to go, I wondered, exactly what other Cheerwine products am I unaware of.  Here to find out, a lot:

WANT!

The Cheerwine Cake
Made by the Apple Baking Company in Salisbury, North Carolina. The Cheerwine cake claims you can "have your cake and eat it too." At only $12 a cake, I can imagine this may be the perfect gift for any member of the Cheerwine Cult. I'm told you can also make your own home version with a box of Devil's Food Cake and 1 cup of Cheerwine.

What's next?
A Neese's Sausage doughnut?

Krispy Kreme Cheerwine Doughnuts
For Independence day, you can buy and freeze your years worth of Cheerwine filled doughnuts from Krispy Kreme. (Another native NC company.) The doughnut is actually left untouched, but they include a Cheerwine filling that you'll either love, or like me, wish it was the other way around. Reminded me a lot of cheery cordials. As with almost any niche doughnut that Krispy Kreme concocts there's always someone who tries to slice the doughnut in half, and shoves a buger in between, thus giving rise to the Cheerwine Burger.

Yum!

Cheerwine Fudge
This chocolate, vanilla, and Cheerwine fudge from NC Fudge, looks out of this world to me. At $9.95, surely this is a reasonable amount of money to send happiness to your mailbox. Which gives me an idea. Think I could convince Alex down at Alex's Cheesecakes in Greeensboro to start selling Cheerwine Cheesecake?



Cheerwine BBQ
When Stokes Collins won an international BBQ contest with his Cheerwine BBQ sauce recipe, the first thing he did was run out and open his own restaurant. It's in South Carolina, and there's your can buy Cheerwine BBQ.  Don't feel like a drive, then you can order it through their website or make it yourself at home next time you cook pork, chicken or beef.:

BBQ sauce made with pop?

Ingredients for 32 ounces of Cheerwine BBQ Sauce:
1 12-ounce can of Cheerwine
10 oz of BBQ Sauce (your choice)
5 oz molasses
6 oz brown sugar
2 oz white distilled vinegar
1 oz liquid smoke
1/4 teaspoon white pepper
1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper
1/4 teaspoon black pepper
1/4 teaspoon crushed red pepper

Method:
Mix, boil, chill, and use or store.

Cheerwine Cupcakes

Cupcakes!

In Albermarle North Carolina, at a bakery named Bizzy Bee Cupcakes you can buy a Cheerwine cupcake. Consequentially you can also make your own Cheerwine frosting:

Cheerwine Frosting
1/3 cup Cheerwine
2-1/2 cups powdered sugar

1 cup chopped nuts
½ cup margarine
¼ teaspoon almond extract

¼ cup cocoa

 Heat Cheerwine, margarine and cocoa together until mixture comes to a boil. Pour mixture over powdered sugar and blend until smooth. Stir in almond extract. Mix in chopped nuts. Cool slightly and spread over cupcakes.

Looks refreshing!

Cheerwine Float
If this wasn't obvious, the Cheerwine float is probably as common on southern front porches as rocking chairs. Floats gained popularity just as soda did during prohibition, but now you can drive to The Bluebird Diner in Mount Airy for your own fanciful dairy beverage. (I'm also told they are available at CookOut)

If you're into chocolate then there's a version of this float called the Chocolate Cheerwine Icecream Sundae Soda which I hear is out of this world. Simple add a ice-cold can of Cheerwine in a tall glass with a scoop of ice-cream and cover in Hershey's chocolate syrup, whip cream and a cheery on top.



Cheerwine Icecream

Soda Icecream

Known as Cheerwine Swirl, a combination of vanilla ice-cream and cheerwine inspired by the Cheerwine Float, in 2002, Cheerwine partnered with Belgian grocer, Food Lion to create Cheerwine Ice-Cream. This became so successful they expanded into Cheerwine Sherbet and Cheerwine ice-cream bars, however if you want the best incarnation of Cheerwine and ice-cream, then go visit our friends at "The Table at Crestwood", a Boone, NC restaurant that serves up home-made Cheerwine Ice cream.


Cheerwine Cocktail

Cheerwine mixed-drink

So this brings us to the Cheerwine Cocktail. The biggest misconception from people not familiar with what Cheerwine is, is that it's alcoholic. Again, refer back to prohibition to understand why Cheerwine may have adapted that to its name. Since it's no longer illegal to get a little tipsy, perhaps the most poetic way to consume this cherry bar beverage is to make it into a cocktail. Indeed we need not even leave Greensboro to get one. Lucky 32 has been serving them up as a part of their southern menu for years. Want to make one at home, then try this:

Cheerwine Cocktail
2 oz gin
1 oz lime juice
Splash of soda water
Cheerwine
Lime wedge for garnish

Fill glass with with ice, add gin and juice with a splash of soda water. Top with Cheerwine and garnish with lime.

Piedmont Triad Farmers' Market

Inside The Piedmont Triad Farmers' Market

Markets. They're just so cool. My favorite is the Borough Market in London, but almost every city from Cardiff (a Victorian Market) to Stockel Belgium has one. Greensboro has a couple too. The Piedmont Triad Farmers' Market is one of them. Built by the state and placed in practically the middle of nowhere, I've been perplexed for ages why you would build such a great public resource in the middle of corn field next to a interstate. Likely due to its geography between the three triad cities of Greensboro, High Point, and Winston Salem, but you can't help but contemplate how awesome this would have been if it was actually built downtown. (Yes I realize it's called Piedmont Triad, not Greensboro, and that there is one downtown, but I digress.) In fact the worst part of the Piedmont Triad Farmers' Market  is indeed its location. It's in upper-class suburbia, which thankfully isn't too far from my school, "Ghetto Technical Community College", as many of my younger counter-part students refer to it as. Since it was a single-class-day for me and Shan, we decided to venture to the market in hopes of finding some of my favorite homemade strawberry syrup, that you can only buy at the Piedmont Triad Farmers' Market.

This wasn't my first pilgrimage to the Greensboro market for the syrup. In fact, I still can recall the first morning I ever tasted real, North Carolina grown strawberry syrup:

Yes, that's a "cock".

Now I love strawberries. I buy hair products in strawberry, candles in strawberries, strawberry ice-cream, even as I write this I'm wearing my strawberry colored pajamas which Shan has nicknamed "the shortcake" outfit. 

So I yank out the Aunt Jemimah (has to be Aunt Jemimah.... nothing less will do.), and whip up some pancakes. In the recent weeks I've learned to flip pancakes without a spatula and it seems to impress the kids. They weren't here so I impressed myself. A few minutes later I slapped my pancake on to a plate, topped with some butter and drizzled it with the strawberry syrup. Oh my gosh is it good. I love it.

Not the most amazing bakery, but "okay."

So prior to arriving at the Piedmont Triad Farmers' Market, I took out twenty dollars at the ATM, and advised Shan that she could spend ten-dollars of it, and I would get the other half. I'm not so sure she liked this concept, as her previous monarchical rule of fruits and vegetables often requires my half of our shared bank account. However once I got my syrup, I surrendered to her oppressive regime, and we put our money together to buy some Goat Lady cheese to spread on the home-made (and totally awesome) baguettes we've been baking at Chez Liv's.

I will admit, I did attempt to plead my case for using the remaining $17.75 we had, prior to the cheese, and Shan's peaches, and Shan's tomato, to visit the Moose Cafe for lunch. Often rated as one of the best restaurants in Greensboro, but I've yet to go. Some day when I crawl out of this imperial rule perhaps I will go, till then I'll just have to take everyone's opinion on the quality of the food.

I forgot my arthritis medicine as you can see.

During the week, and I suspect partially due to it's location, the market is a haven for old people. I think it was geriatric day at the Piedmont Triad Farmers' Market today, as I caught two elderly 90 year olds holding hands as they walked up the aisles of fruits and vegetables. I was too busy smiling to grab the camera, but it was definitely way cute.

Of course, as I've criticized before, I think the market needs more food vendors. The endless rows of tomato plants, while interesting, seems to upstage the more hidden gems. Goat lady, and Sausage Man need to get together with Cheese Haus, and Bakery Brute and start selling sandwiches in my humble opinion.. How about some mulled wine, truffles, or Welsh Cakes? Look, I love the market, and it is, as I said before: awesome, but it's a travesty it was built where you must have a car to get to, and is often filled with repetitive stalls of un-unique local produce. (Lacking diversity.) The strawberry syrup, and ostrich meat is a start, and I'm certain there are more treasures to uncover, but I just can't justify driving to Kernersville every time I want to visit my local Farmers' Market. 

Cook-Out Restaurant ® Menu Of Burger Deliciousness

Cookout on High Point Road

For lunch, Shannon and I drove over to Cook-Out, on High Point road after class today. I of course wanted Five Guys, but being money is a bit tight we decided to go the lesser expensive route and go to Cook-Out. I suppose such a statement is a fitting declaration of what Cook-Out is all about: cheap food. What's more, is that growing up in North Carolina I loved Cook-Out, still do, and oddly enough it was this very blog that enticed Mr Reaves to abandon his word of mouth campaign and join the digital age with Cook-Out's new website.  The problem is, while I'm re-visiting this topic, I must be honest- the concept of the restaurant, and some of the food is outdated. Cook-Out still has a menu of deliciousness, but it hasn't changed in more than twenty years. Even McDonald's has adapted their menu as tastes have changed, but Cook-Out? They're still serving the same food I ate in High School. Worse yet is I'm not sure they're really cooking it "Outdoors Style" any more. The website seems to indicate it's all about fresh now. Sound familiar? "Eat Fresh?" Sounds a bit too Subwayish to me. Fire your marketing team Cook-Out because, I'd be glad to sell you "Menu of Deliciousness", for a semester's worth of lunches.

If you don't know what Cook-Out is then you're probably reading this from outside of North Carolina. Cook-Out is a chain of privately held restaurants that originated with a double drive-thru design back in 1989. Food at Cook-Out is served in containers, or wrappers often containing hidden patriotic (American) or religious (Judeo-Christian) messages.

• Cups: John 3:16 "God Bless America." 
•  French Fry Wrappers: Galatians 6:10 
•  Bags: "Thank you God for America." Psalms 119:16

Cookout's Menu

There's even a local urban legend about how Cook-Out all began:

Burgers are better, angry.

One dark and stormy night, at a local Wendy's restaurant in Greensboro, there was a young and perhaps arrogant young man named Jeremy Reaves who, while flipping burgers, found himself in an argument with his supervisor. During the course of the argument, the manager glibly asked the adolescent blue-collar worker in response to his disrespectful nature, "If the you think you can make a better burger why don't you go open up your own restaurant?" In anger, the Burgereur, threw off his uniform, declared "I will", and promptly walked out. In the days that followed, a small drive-thru on Randleman Road was purchased, and the phenomenon called Cook-Out was born, or so says the legend.

Steak Style Cheeseburger

Cook-Out became famous because of their burgers are "Cooked Outdoors Style", yet they're not cooked outdoors. In fact that slogan has quietly disappeared from their newer buildings. Eating today, it's hard to taste the grilled aspect of the sandwich. Perhaps their business model has changed? In fact, now it seems to be all about fresh. Cook-out, I'm told by employees I've interviewed, pride themselves on freshness. The wide-ground beef is never frozen, ground within 24 hours of being sold, and resembles your typical supermarket style hamburger meat.  In all honesty, this is what a hamburger would look like if you made it at home. (Though oddly doesn't taste as fresh as Johnson's in Siler City) So why go to Cook-Out? That answer is simple. Most people can't cook. I cook a lot, but char-grilling a hamburger? Well that's likely to come out burnt on the outside and pink in the middle. If I'm totally honest, all hamburgers should be medium-rare, but I digress. So this is what Cook-Out has always done right, and what still makes the place, shall we say, awesome? A "Huge" Steak Style, dripping with A-1 and grilled onions for only $2.99 is a bargain. I can't even get a gallon of gas for that.

The Cookout Plate with a side of chili.

Part of what makes Cook-Out's burger (and milkshake menu), "cool", is the absurdity factor. Where else can you get a barbecue bacon cheese burger (Out West Style), a chili-cheese fry, and a snickers milkshake? It's just plain odd, and odd is good.

But there are some things about Cook-Out that have become dated, eclipsed by the newer burger shops, that Cook-Out, doesn't offer. While I will say their fries are good, and I did grow up with the "four person chili fry boat", Cook-Out's chili, while typical for the region, is less than innovative and lacking the zest our American palettes have grown to love. Cook-Out lacks a flag-ship sandwich, the fundamental, and quintessential chili burger. Yes, I know they sell a chili-burger, but compared to the competition, major chains in the U.S. that sell them, good ones in my opinion, their chili lacks the refinement of a Tommy's, a Pink's or even a Johnson's.

I also think there's a perfect opportunity for innovation. First, they need to get some vinegar packets. French fries and vinegar have become a staple in the U.S., but why not go wild, and bring Belgian fritessaus (a mayonnaise like fry dip) to the menu? It's a perfect match, similar to the many flavors of milkshakes and hamburger combinations Cook-Out provides, why not offer various sauces, or dips? It's all about the condiments these days anyway.

On the meat, consider adding a hickory smoke flavoring. Today, barbecuing is all about the designer flavors of charcoal. If you're not actually grilling the burgers, add the flavoring. Don't abandon, "Cooked Outdoors", embrace it. The menu of deliciousness is calling you Cook-Out.

And till then, I'll occasionally drop by after class, order a very inexpensive, yet wonderful Steak Style cheeseburger, and reminisce about the days when Cook-Out was the only place in town who served a good burger. Back when Greensboro seemed like the world, and gas to get there was cheaper than the food I ordered.

Cook-Out Restaurants
Morris Reaves, Owner
Jeremy Reaves, CEO
(336) 431-1094

Cookout Hours are typically open around 11 a.m. and closes between 3 and 4 a.m at most locations.