ust the other night I remembered my trip to the Goodie House. You have probably been to something like the Goodie House. An all night diner that serves breakfast all day is the kind of restaurant I’m talking about. I went to a place called the Goodie House in Charleston, South Carolina with my father. The Goodie House was on Calhoun Street near the Francis Marion Hotel. This would have been in the early sixties. I was probably ten years old. We were going to eat breakfast and then drive back to Greeleyville. I don’t remember much about the trip except the guy cooking at the Goodie House.
Just the other night, I was going to cook some breakfast for supper. The cook at the Goodie House came to my mind and I prepared a fast short order meal. Just like the guy cooking at the Goodie House, I was an efficient cooking machine.
The guy cooking at the Goodie House was working by himself. The little restaurant had about eight seats at a bar and a few booths. I don’t remember if there was a waitress or something working at the cash register. I only remember the guy cooking.
Now after all the years, I imagine that this guy had learned to cook on a Navy ship and was used to cooking all sorts of meals. This guy could cook. He was cooking on a big griddle. If you wanted eggs, he would throw a little piece of butter on the grill crack two eggs with one hand and flip them in a few minutes. Eggs sunny side up: no problem. Scrambled eggs, he would put eggs in a bowl stir the eggs quickly and they would be on the grill. Toast was no problem. He threw pieces of bread on the griddle and you could have them anyway for lightly toasted to almost burned. They all came of the griddle just the way the customer wanted it. Bacon, sausage and a little pot of corned beef hash were always cooking too.
It seemed like whatever order was called out, a finished plate was on the counter in less than five minutes. We left and I didn’t think about the fast cooking machine until just the other night.
It came to me that I could cook a quick meal just like the Goodie House man. It was easier than I thought. I got one pan and started on a quick meal. It wasn’t hard. A little bit of butter and some canned corned beef hash went into the pan. Crack in an egg and the hard work was over. The toast went into a toaster and that was about all there was to it. I thought about the fast cooking guy and wondered if he became a chef or moved on to bigger and better things. In about five minutes I had corned beef hash with a fried egg over easy and toast. I was rather proud of myself. Luckily I didn’t make too big of a mess either. My wife was happy about that.
This tale doesn’t have really any redeeming value. It is just another example of our crazy brains remembering things from many years ago. I’m not sure whatever happened to the Goodie House. There are plenty of places that could easily replace this kind of restaurant. They go in and out of business all the time. There are plenty of quick cooks that can make things jump off of the grill and unto plate in short order.
How did it taste? My quickly cooked supper was just as good as the meal I was impressed by many years ago. Like all meals like this, there is still one thing you can do to help. Salt and Pepper to taste.
