More From Hazard.....

Signs like this one extolling "We Support Coal Miners" appear on many businesses in Hazard and elsewhere in SE Kentucky

By Kevin Williams

Yesterday, I wrote about the “Amish of Hazard”, meaning an “Amish Deli” I stumbled across in town.  I did stumble across another Amish angle to Hazard and I’ll share more about it this week, but I want to gather a bit more information, so I am holding off on that post.

This is an area where coal is king.  “Welcome Miner” signs are on a lot of the businesses.  Diners and pizza joints are open 24 hours to accommodate the shift workers.  One gas station convenience store/restaurant I visited offered a “Miner’s Breakfast Sandwich” for only $3, consisting of egg, bacon and sausage on thick slabs of toast.

All of that made sense. I can’t imagine any work tougher than being down in a mine for 10 hours a day.

Important Croissant from Bulgaria

There's some chocolate cream in there somewhere...

I was searching for a sweet treat to take to my hotel room and I saw this curious confection: a chocolate-filled croissant imported from Bulgaria.  Now that seemed an odd choice of snack for a hungry miner.  Do they really sell that many of these?  More out of curiosity, I bought one, took it back to my hotel room and dissected it.  The promised chocolate cream filling was maybe about the circumference of a pencil.  You had to squint to see the cream.  Tasting to took an even bigger leap of imagination as it was buried in the bread part.

So are cream-filled croissants some sort of curious southeast Kentucky miner tradition, or was this just some sort of convenience store oddity I happened to stumble upon? If anyone knows, please share....  Meanwhile, more in the days ahead from SE Kentucky.

Downtown Hazard on a cold, gray January day