Author Archives: bcorbett907

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About bcorbett907

I'm a Calgary-based writer who enjoys exploring the landscapes, and menus, of western U.S./Canada

Fuelling Up For Yellowstone National Park Adventures

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Waiting for Mexican truck-food goodness at Taqueria Las Palmitas in West Yellowstone, Montana

Waiting for Mexican-truck goodness at Taqueria Las Palmitas in West Yellowstone, Montana

In many resort towns, the help tends to be young, transient and somewhat unreliable. But at Running Bear Pancake House, in West Yellowstone at the western entrance to Yellowstone National Park, the waitresses are certainly experienced, efficiently handling two spacious rooms full of tourists while maintaining a relaxed banter with the customers.

“Looks like you got a bit of sunburn on your neck,” says one to a blistered eater. “Boy that looks good, hon. Would you like some more steaming coffee, and should I pour out what’s left in your cup?”

This is not to say they don’t work hard. My server says they wore pedometers one summer and discovered they walked nine miles a day waiting tables.

Given it’s a pancake house, I follow the theme, albeit with a twist. My pancake sandwich ($8.75) features two voluminous, somewhat gummy cakes swallowing  three strips of bacon and topped with an over-easy egg in lieu of syrup. Nothing fancy, just a basic breakfast in a comfy setting. With all those carbs roiling around my stomach, I need to look for a nine-mile hike.

Carbo loading at Running Bear Pancake House in West Yellowstone

Carbo loading at Running Bear Pancake House in West Yellowstone

Running Bear Pancake House
538 Madison Avenue, West Yellowstone, Montana
Daily 6:30 am-2 pm and 5 pm-9 pm
Running Bear Pancake House on Urbanspoon

In an old-fashioned tourist town like West Yellowstone, it’s nice to see a fairly new trend. I’m talking about the taco truck. Sure, it’s a take on the ages-old Mexican taco stand. But it offers something the road tripper in me loves: cheap, casual, good food, usually family run.

Taqueria Las Palmitas certainly meets all these criteria. The four-year-old seasonal business serves up paper plates full of tasty burritos, enchiladas, quesadillas and the like to customers who retreat to a handful of picnic tables. My three double-shelled tacos (asada/steak, carnitas/fried pork and pastor/spicy pork), doused with a pungent salsa, hit the spot, for less than $5.

Tasty tacos at Taqueria Las Palmitas

Tasty tacos at Taqueria Las Palmitas

But it’s the family aspect that blows me away. Yes, owner Carlos has family helping run the place. But when I mention a very similar-looking taco bus in Dillon, Montana, he says, “That’s my brother’s.”

Carlos is certainly running a Mexican food truck business.

Carlos is certainly running a family Mexican food truck business.

“So, who’s the better cook?”
“I am. But he’d probably say he is.”
I’d say you can’t go wrong either way.

Taqueria Las Palmitas
21 North Canyon Street, West Yellowstone, Montana
10:30 am-10:30 pm
Taqueria Las Palmitas Mexican Food on Urbanspoon

Five Best Calgary Stampede Breakfasts

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Mmm, pancakes. You can eat them every morning for free at Calgary Stampede breakfasts throughout the city

Mmm, pancakes. You can eat them every morning for free at Calgary Stampede breakfasts throughout the city

Beef and beer. The two primary food groups of the Calgary Stampede, right? Well, remember what your mother said about the most important meal of the day.

Yes, that means Stampede breakfasts. Yee-haw! They’re an important cultural component of the annual shindig—western hospitality served up with chuck wagons, sizzling grills and some two-step dancing.

Best of all, for budget-conscious road trippers, they’re mostly free. In other words, no chafing the back of your hand to pull the wallet from those crisp new blue jeans. In fact, one can carbo load gratis for all 10 days of the Greatest Outdoor Show on Earth.

Mind you, there’s not a lot of variety to this diet: day after day of pancakes, sausages and orange juice. But did I mention, they’re free? About the only cost is a worthy donation to the Calgary Food Bank through the Put the Boots to Hunger campaign, affiliated with a number of breakfasts.

The only problem is trying to decide which breakfast(s) to attend. There’s got to be well over 100 of these flapjack fests on offer every year. Seemingly every community association, shopping centre, charity, corporation of note and, of course, politician hosts their own. So, as a public service, here are five Stampede breakfasts worth putting on your calendar.

1. Ismaili Muslim Community Breakfast – This will blow your mind. The best Stampede breakfast is hosted by Calgary’s Ismaili Muslim community. The food (especially the spiced eggs and lentils) is sublime, the temple tours enlightening and the organization so efficient I’d happily let these people run the world. Is it any wonder this is the faith of Calgary Mayor Naheed Nenshi? This year, the “breakfast” is taking place at sunset to mark the “breaking” of the “fast” (ie breakfast) of Ramadan.

Serving up great eggs and pancakes at the best, most unusual Stampede breakfast, hosted by the local Ismaili community

Serving up great eggs, lentils and pancakes at the best, most unusual Stampede breakfast, hosted by the local Ismaili community

Ismaili Muslim Community Breakfast
1128 45 Avenue N.E. (SE corner of McKnight Blvd and Deerfoot Trail); lots of volunteers to direct you to free parking and shuttle buses
Saturday, July 5, starts at 8:30 pm, breakfast served at 9:52 p.m.

2. Calgary Caravan Breakfasts – The Stampede Carvan Committee is a team of volunteers that puts on two-a-day Stampede breakfasts throughout the city. Besides breakfast, these folks arrange native hoop-dancing demonstrations and visits from the Stampede queen and princesses. Perhaps the best of these, from an intimate, community perspective, is at Britannia Shopping Plaza, where after wolfing down breakfast on a hay bale, you can work off the calories with a lovely walk on Brittania Drive overlooking the Elbow River.

Britannia Shopping Plaza
815 49 Avenue S.W
Friday, July 11, 9-11 am

3. CBC Calgary – The Caravan Committee also coordinates CBC Calgary’s early-morning Stampede breakfast, now in its 25th year, with co-host Calgary Co-op offering gluten-free options. Mingle in CBC’s sun-dappled parking lot while watching a live broadcast of the Calgary Eyeopener and grooving to some great musical talent.

CBC Calgary
1724 Westmount Boulevard NW (along Memorial Drive)
Thursday, July 3, 7-9 am

4. Community Natural Foods – As a health-food store, it’s not surprising that Community Natural Foods boasts the greenest Stampede breakfast. This ranges from gluten-free, vegetarian and organic options to encouraging participants to bring reusable plates. Think natural, local sausages, real maple syrup and the freshest orange juice I’ve had at any of these breakfasts.

Community Natural Foods – Chinook Station Market
202, 61 Avenue SW
Saturday, July 12, 7-10 am

5. Fluor Rope Square – If you’re staying or visiting downtown, just wander down to Olympic Plaza, across from City Hall. Each morning, the cooks go through 150 gallons of pancake batter and 500 pounds of bacon, all cooked on smoking griddles at the back of real chuckwagons. After wiping the syrup from your lips, try your feet at square dancing and watch the daily native parade.

Fluor Rope Square
Olympic Plaza (corner of 7 Avenue and Macleod Trail SE)
Saturday July 5 and Monday July 7 to Saturday July 12, 8:15-10:30 am

Unless you’re well connected, you may have to pull some wedding crasher stunts to get into the most exclusive Stampede breakfasts. I’m talking about private parties, where law firms, investment bankers, oil companies and the like treat their clients to a fine morning gathering, perhaps enhanced with a little sauce. Obviously, these soirees aren’t advertised. To get a glimpse of how this world turns, you may have to peer into the windows of participating restaurants like River Café, on Prince’s Island, which serves guests fresh pastries, free-range eggs and house-made granola. Of course, first-class pancakes are also on offer.

Fantastic Tacos in Idaho Falls

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Jessica's dazzling smile is matched only by the sublime taco at Morenita's Mexican Restaurant in Idaho Falls

Jessica’s dazzling smile is matched only by the sublime taco at Morenita’s Mexican Restaurant in Idaho Falls

I walk into *Morenita’s Mexican Restaurant, in Idaho Falls, Idaho and look up at the board in some bewilderment. The server in the little window takes one look and hands me a menu in English.

“How do you know I don’t speak Spanish?”
“Just a wild guess.”

Lovely Jessica, whose mother, Bertha, started the business in 1991, then patiently explains all the things that make this much more than your typical taco joint. It’s a long list, starting with the fact that nearly everything’s made from scratch, including half a dozen salsas.

For example, the monstrous and ridiculously cheap ($4.50) tortas, or round Mexican sandwiches, use genuine telera bread; heck, Bertha once owned a Mexican bakery. There’s a melted jack cheese concoction called a mulita and a cheese-stuffed corn tortilla, called a pizope, which they invented.

So much to try, but I opt for my standard Mexican test—the simple taco. But even these have a twist, the chuche featuring a crisply grilled tortilla that can’t hide its hand-pressed freshness. The knockout winner, though, is a ranchero taco that includes whole beans, avocado, queso fresco and an outstanding lomo, or sauteed pork loin.

Fabulous ranchero taco with sautéed pork loin

Fabulous ranchero taco with sautéed pork loin

They’re so good, I go back for a third, nearly breaking the bank at $2.25 for this additional pocket of heaven. The verdict? Some of the best tacos I’ve eaten in the western U.S.

Morenita’s Mexican Restaurant
450 Whittier Street, Idaho Falls, Idaho
Monday to Thursday 10 am-9 pm, Friday-Saturday 9:30 am-9 pm, Sunday 9:30 am-8:30 pm
Morenita's Restaurant on Urbanspoon

Great Summer Reads? Just Ask Judy

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Just ask Judy Gardner for great, unusual summer reads. She's sold more than 300 customers on this fascinating medical book.

Just ask Judy Gardner for great, unusual summer reads. She’s sold more than 300 customers on this fascinating medical book

Bricks-and-mortar bookstores will never disappear. Why? Because of people like Judy Gardner.

Now, many experts will tell you traditional bookstores are threatened by online giants like Amazon. The same folks happily predict the imminent demise of the printed book, with an ever-increasing number of people downloading electronic books to their tablets and e-readers.

Why, what could be more perfect than all your summer reading, at the cottage or on the road, stored on a device half the size of a paperback novel?

But online ordering and downloading misses a crucial ingredient: the personal relationship with a skilled bookseller, or should I say book selector. In this case, Judy.

Whenever I go into the Indigo Books store in Calgary’s West Hills shopping centre, I immediately go searching not for books but for Judy, praying it’s one of the days she’s working. If she’s there, I just say I’m looking for some books for, say, road-trip reading or Christmas gifts. I then simply follow her around the store as she makes recommendations that rarely, if ever, miss the mark.

There's nothing like a good summer book, even if it's reading by osmosis

There’s nothing like a good summer book, even if it’s reading by osmosis

In his book The Tipping Point, Malcolm Gladwell talks about mavens, people we rely on to connect us with new information. Well, Judy is one of those people. She reads widely and assiduously and has the rare ability to quickly size up a person’s reading habits and steer them to something they’ve never heard of but will undoubtedly like.

“It’s like being a chef and instinctively knowing what to put together for people,” she says. “I’ve been very fortunate that for more than 20 years (including a stint at former Calgary independent bookseller Sandpiper Books) I’ve been able to pass on my passion about reading books and to encourage people to take risks.”

Anyone can point you to the bestseller table. A more unusual gift is finding off-the-radar gems and convincing readers to buy them. Judy has sold more than 300 copies of one such book, God’s Hotel, a medical meditation by Dr. Victoria Sweet, with whom Judy has struck up an email correspondence. Talk about old-school viral.

A friend recently asked Judy for some travel and light summer reading and walked out of the store with 10 captivating books. One loyal customer buys a dozen of Judy’s recommended books every few weeks. If Judy’s going to be away, she’ll phone the woman to come in early to stock up on her reading material.

Of course, she’s “sold” books to her big boss, Toronto-based Indigo/Chapters founder and CEO Heather Reisman. “I’ve seen her enough times that, when she’s in town, she gives me a hug,” says Judy.

Regular Indigo/Chapters’ customers are familiar with Heather’s Picks. Well, just as importantly, here are some of Judy’s current reading picks.

This literally rambling book gets Judy's seal of approval

This literally rambling book gets Judy’s seal of approval

God’s Hotel: A Doctor, a Hospital, and a Pilgrimage to the Heart of Medicine. By Victoria Sweet, who has worked at San Francisco’s extended-care Laguna Honda Hospital for 20 years

The Old Ways – A pilgrimage on foot along many of the British Isles’ paths and old roads by Robert Macfarlane

The Pope’s Bookbinder – A memoir by longtime Toronto antiquarian book dealer David Mason

Much Loved – Photographer Mark Nixon’s homage to aging and much-loved teddy bears and other stuffed animals

Medicine Walk– Canadian writer Richard Wagamese’s latest novel, about a father-and-son struggle

Signs of the Times: Things You See on a Road Trip

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Signs from a recent road trip through some mountain U.S. states

Afton, Wyoming

Who needs Arches National Park when you have the world’s largest elkhorn arch?

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You Don’t Have to be a Billionaire to Enjoy Jackson Hole

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There's a few billion dollars worth of properties in this view of Jackson Hole, Wyoming

There’s undoubtedly a few billion dollars worth of properties in this view of Jackson Hole, Wyoming

Jackson Hole, Wyoming is my kind of resort community. Just kidding. It’s the first place where I heard the expression “the billionaires are pushing out the millionaires.” A glance at a glossy real-estate magazine reveals a number of $2-million-plus properties for sale and a 6,900-square-foot five bedroom mansion for a mere $4.99 million; heck, it’s on a 1.7-acre site. As JH Weekly notes: “Buying a home is prohibitively expensive for most of the non-trustafarian working class.” Needless to say, rents are sufficiently high that at least one wage slave recently spend a frigid winter camped in his car. Note: Jackson Hole refers to the whole community; Jackson is its principle town.

So where does this leave the budget-minded road tripper? Downhill skiing and golf are expensive, lodgings exorbitant in peak season. (Tip: Check the no-frills national forest campgrounds a bit of a drive from Jackson for reasonable rates.) Fortunately, it’s free to hike, bike or run the hundreds of miles of fine trails. While the dining’s definitely more fine than rustic, Jackson does have a number of first-rate, affordable eateries and drinkeries. Oddly, none of them appear in the resort dining guide.

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