Hash House a Go Go

For our last clinical day we decided to treat our instructor out for lunch. After endless days of deliberating and many a sleepless night agonizing over where to go, we finally decided on a place: Hash House a Go Go.

So last Friday, after deciding on a time and getting rough directions, I proceeded to ... hitch a ride with a friend. I'm somewhat infamous for being directionally-challenged so it was probably good I carpooled. I'd have been so lost... and amusingly enough, we were.

My friend and I were given a set of directions. Okay, easy enough. When we got to the intersection we saw this non-descript restaurant called Hash House. Looked like a morning breakfast place - had pictures of omelettes, potato hash, pancakes, etc. Seemed like the right place... yet nobody was there. My friend called another member of our group and was told that they were at the meeting place. Apparently, we ended up at another place that served similar food with a reaaaally similar name. The place we were supposed to meet at was a couple of blocks down. What are the chances?

After driving yet again and arriving at the correct place with the correct name, we proceeded to sit down and order food. They had a relatively varied menu and as the waitress explained (one of my friends asked), it's not quite the normal food - it's their take on it. For example, their "Famous One Pound Stuffed Burger" consisted of two patties stuffed with a variety of different things. The one I ordered had fresh mushrooms and swiss cheese. Another friend ordered the same burger but with apple smoked bacon and mashed potatoes inside. The rest of my friends ordered a griddled meatloaf sandwich ("The Kokomo") and a "Hash House Farm Benedict." Our instructor and I ordered the same thing.

We waited quite a bit, the passage of time aided by the amusement we derived from our instructor's son. He was 4 and quite a handful - his toy airplane somehow crashed into my glass of lemonade. We had fun though, from toppling the stacked empty juice boxes he brought to him giving his toys all a wash with his own little cup of lemonade (which wasn't so yellow near the end of our meal).

At last our meals arrived. And... boy, was it a feast.

A whopping gargantuan burger. I had no doubts it was one pound - heck, it was probably heavier than that. The whole thing was big - it came in on a huge plate (with a side of fries, of course) with a freaking knife stabbed down the middle.

I tried picking it up and eating it like that... to no avail. I suppose that's why the knife was there, huh? So I ended up resorting to slicing the darn thing in half.

Hash house farm benedict and close up | The Kokomo

The food was good. And relatively cheap, given the taste and size of the portions. The meat was juicy and flavorful, and the filling was, in a word, filling. Hmm... maybe I should've traded in half of mine for the other half of my friend's as she ordered the same thing just with different innards. I believe as time wore on I ended up being the only one finishing my meal, the rest of my comrades had to take theirs home. I even got a small cheer from my group when they noticed I had but a small handful remaining (a few cheers here and there... and mostly stares and gaping mouths).

A whole buncha nurses eating plaque-forming, artery-clogging goodness. Anything wrong with the picture? No? Yeah, I didn't think so either. This place definitely warrants another visit.

- West