Pizza's not all that's on menu

We like to eat at River's End Restaurant at the Nantahala Outdoor Center (NOC) in North Carolina when on our journey to the Great Smoky Mountains National Park.

The world-known NOC facility is located between Murphy and Bryson City, NC.

We have a problem with the eatery when we are only passing through or in the area for just a short time.

But it is a good problem to have.

As an aside, I would stop there to eat just for the experience of overlooking the Nantahala River which runs by it. I love the feeling.

But, back to the problem.

Historically, our first stop ever there was on a day that we traditionally eat pizza.

It could have been a Sunday, or Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday or Saturday.

I don’t remember. But it was a day we needed pizza.

My wife and I use to order a large pepperoni pizza, but upon getting up in age, we realized that sharing a small pizza with each of us getting a house salad sufficed.

Our first stop for pizza at the River's End was great. And so were subsequent stops.

But their menu has more than just pizza.

There was an item -- “The Sherpa Rice” meal -- that caught my wife’s attention. 

The menu states concerning the dish: “This River’s End classic, named after the famous mountaineers, is legendary in its own right. All sherpa rice dishes start with a healthy stir fried medley of aromatic basmati rice, lentils and barley."

It is prepared three different ways: 

— Veggie Sherpa with broccoli, mushrooms, red and green peppers, onions and roma tomatoes, topped with cheese: 

— Chili Sherpa with one of three styles of homemade chili; classic beef, white bean chidken or black bean vegetarian and topped with cheddar cheese, and

— Chicken Sherpa with chicken, broccoli, mushrooms, red and green peppers, onions and roma tomatoes, topped with cheese.

Over the course of a couple trips, we couldn’t decide how to handle the situation because, our first stop there is always pizza. Could we ever change our ways?

Well, our last trip up that way a couple weeks ago helped us solve the problem.

Our seven-day trip included two nights at Murphy. The first day out of Murphy, we stop at River's End for lunch and guess what? We had pizza and a salad.

But, our trip that day was to take us to Gatlinburg and back.  So we timed it to get back to Rivers End before they closed that night. We ordered the Veggie Sherpa which was plenty for my wife and I to share.

So, now we have satisfied our desire to partake of that meal.

But looking at the menu, we are going to have to make a lot  more two-stop days to work in all the other good stuff the offer.

Next post: March 21, 2017