Week of February 12: Keeping it real with Reggie Jackson

Living in Oakland, Andrea and I have come to appreciate the local history, culture and heroes. One of the greatest living Oakland hero is Mr. October, Reggie Jackson, who played with the Oakland A's from 1968 to 1975 and then rejoined the team in 1987 to finish his baseball career. As far as heroes are concerned, Mr. October is tops in Oakland. It's hard not to see Reggie's influence in the city. His signed Oakland A's jerseys are commonly displayed at sports bars, he is prominently seen in commercials and on billboards and he still packs a crowd at charity and other community events.

This week, my brother Brian, Andrea and I discovered the greatest tribute to Mr. October at a very local, family run diner called Lois the Pie Queen... the Reggie Jackson Special! What better way to celebrate the triumphs of this slugger than a breakfast consisting of 2 large fried pork chops, 2 eggs cooked to order, a choice of grits or hashbrowns or rice, and 2 slices of toast (biscuits and english muffins here are awesome). Much like Mr. October himself, this breakfast special is not for mere mortals. Andrea elected to go for something more healthy and light... she ordered the fried chicken breakfast, which consisted of 2 large pieces of southern fried chicken, scrambled eggs, rice with butter and a couple of delicious biscuits. Brian, who earlier announced that he wasn't really hungry, followed suit with his order of the fried chicken breakfast. He however, had his eggs over easy with hashbrowns instead. That left it up to me to represent the Kim's family name in giving props to Reggie. And with great pride, I proudly ordered the Special.

Map of Lois the Pie Queen
851 60th St
Oakland, CA 94608-1409

Let me tell you, Lois (she actually passed away decades ago but her cooking lives on) knows soul cooking. The pork chop was fried just right... tender and flavorful. The chicken was crispy on the outside and juicy on the inside. Lois did something very clever with the chicken. She stripped the skin off most of the meat but left it attached to one end of the chicken. The result was that when the chicken pieces were breaded and fried, the skin was breaded and cooked on both sides as well as the meat. Thus, if you didn't like eating the skin, you simply pulled it off (as it was only attached by one end of the chicken) and still had the meat which was fully crispy breaded. Or if you liked eating the skin, you had a double sided crispy treat.

We did our best to clean off our plates but fell a little short. I think it was the first time I have ever seen Andrea leave behind rice uneaten. I don't think she's quite ready for the Reggie Jackson Special. We left Lois' smelling like fried soul food, barely able to move. And this was at 11 AM. You can just imagine how productive the rest of the day went. Next time (it will have to be at least a few weeks away for health reasons), we'll have to order less to save room for Lois' pies. Anyone up for chicken and waffles?