Category Archives: road food

Two Gems in British Columbia’s Interior

Excellent Edmonton Eateries: Part 2

Dauphine Bakery & Bistro has a lovely downtown Edmonton space, despite the basement digs

When I was a teenager in Edmonton, I used to walk through the Italian neighbourhood and its lovingly maintained residential gardens en route to Edmonton Eskimo football games. Many years later, that identity is, if anything, stronger, thanks in no small part to the Italian Centre Shop, in the heart of the community. Modernized and expanded to nearly a block by Teresa Spinelli after taking over from her late father, Frank, the store is a great place for weekend people watching. Customers can be seen hovering over peppers, fresh figs, pastas and tomatoes or lining up at the deli to order sliced mortadella, capicollo or Genova salami (ask for samples), along with a large selection of cheeses and olives. A good summertime strategy is to order a panini or pick up some deli cuts along with fresh ciabatta or pagnotta bread and have a picnic in the park across the street. You can also order thin-crust pizza (for a bargain $3 a slice or $11 whole) and an espresso, tossed back Italian style, in Spinelli’s Bar Italia at the store’s south end.

The Italian Centre Shop is as good for people watching as deli perusing

Italian Centre Shop
10878-95 Street (a second, smaller location at Edmonton’s southern outskirts: 5028-104A Street)
Daily 9 am-9 pm

Another boyhood memory is having weekend dim sum at Moon’s Restaurant and shopping in the nearby market. Back then, Edmonton’s Chinatown, just east of downtown, was both an exotic attraction and a sketchy area peppered with unhygienic kitchens. The neighbourhood doesn’t look a whole lot different nearly four decades later, so it’s with mixed apprehension and interest that I enter the Veggie Garden Restaurant. The sparkling clean tables and washroom are reassuring, as is the kindly owner, who immediately informs me this Chinese/ Vietnamese restaurant is strictly vegetarian. Here, you could have fun fooling unsuspecting carnivore companions by ordering lemongrass “shrimp” or stir-fried “pork” and seeing if they could tell they were really eating tofu (actually, it’s never made sense to me why vegetarians would want to use terms like hot dogs or burgers to describe their food). In any event, the food is delicious, especially the shredded potato and jicama salad rolls and the sliced “chicken” in a slightly too sweet lemon sauce. Guess what? It tastes like chicken. My meal, including appetizer, is a ridiculously cheap $12; I have another meal from the leftovers.

The shredded potato and jicama salad rolls were a highlight at Veggie Garden Restaurant

Veggie Garden Restaurant
10582-100 Street, Edmonton
Monday to Thursday 11 am-8:30 pm, Friday-Saturday 11 am-9:30 pm, Sunday 3 pm-8 pm

One part of downtown Edmonton that’s definitely been upgraded is the stretch of 104th Street between Jasper and 104th Avenues. The old brick warehouses and office buildings have been scrubbed and filled with trendy shops and cafes. Here you’ll find one of Edmonton’s coffee hotspots, Credo—with it’s Intelligentsia beans, thin, crisp cookies and homemade granola bars—and a newcomer, Roast Coffeehouse + Wine Bar, featuring a bizarre maple espresso with candied bacon; sorry, I couldn’t bring myself to try it.

Credo is a fine downtown spot for a java and thin, crisp cookie

But my favourite place along this downtown strip is Dauphine Bakery and Bistro. A lawsuit forced owner Linda Kearney to abandon her original name, Queen of Tarts. But she hasn’t lost the recipes for her fabulous lemon curd and white-chocolate pistachio tarts, carrot cake and smoked salmon and leek quiche. Plus, she’s somehow turned a downstairs location into a bright, airy space. What I really like is the attention to detail, whether it’s the antique silver sugar bowls or the dense, round sunflower or pumpkin seed breads that use natural leavening agents; they make great, sourdoughy toast. Yes, the cost of many things is a little steep, but you’re paying for quality and locally sourced ingredients. There are some lovely, reasonably priced lunch options such as a wild, smoked salmon plate with rye bread and organic greens or a Pan Bagnat sandwich, featuring marinated tuna, tapenade and arugula, served with a pea and fennel salad (both $13).

There are lovely antiques like this collection of silver teapots and sugar bowls at Dauphine Bakery & Bistro

There are lovely antiques like this collection of silver tea and coffee sets at Dauphine Bakery & Bistro

Dauphine Bakery and Bistro
10129-104 Street, Edmonton
Tuesday to Thursday 10 am-6 pm, Friday 10 am-7 pm, Saturday 10 am-6 pm. Closed Sunday

Amidst the leafy, upscale streets of Glenora sits the nicely appointed Vi’s for Pies. Here’ll you’ll find matrons gathering for tea and key lime pie, alongside businessmen and guys in pressed jeans meeting for lunch. As the name suggests, Vi’s is best known for decadent desserts like chocolate caramel cake and a strawberry shortcake gorgeously perched atop a three-berry scone. But it also has some tasty lunch items like the popular chicken pot or shepherd’s pie or the less filling roasted chicken bunwich. The best value, though, might be the half rack of pork ribs or the beef brisket, both $14.50 and slow roasted over pecan and apple/mesquite wood. Both come with two of the following four sides: little bowls of mac ‘n cheese, spicy potato salad, baked beans and cole slaw. Oh, and there’s a cheese biscuit thrown in for good measure. Suffice to say, after shovelling down this large meal, there’s no room for dessert, and I can only dream of raspberry lemon cream pie or apple pecan caramel cheesecake. Sigh.

There was so much food with my pork brisket lunch at Vi’s for Pies, I had no room for the vaunted desserts

Vi’s for Pies
13408 Stony Plain Road, Edmonton
Tuesday to Thursday 9 am-10 pm, Friday 9 am-11 pm, Saturday 10 am-11 pm, Sunday 10 am-4 pm. Closed Monday

As the name suggests, The Next Act has long been associated with the rich arts scene in Edmonton’s historic Strathcona district, just off Whyte Avenue; the Fringe Theatre Festival’s headquarters are visible through the front windows. Before and after shows, patrons gather for a brew and a bite, sitting in booths or at high tables while perhaps eying an old black-and-white movie playing soundlessly on a corner TV screen. For the first act, I’d suggest ordering a local Alley Kat pint from the many beers on offer. For the second, go for one of the excellent, theatrically named burgers, such as my Director’s ($14), a succulent patty covered in avocado, jack cheese, stewed chilies and sufficient other fixings to stretch my jaw like a visit to the dentist. It comes with fries, but I advise paying a buck more for a good mixed-greens salad dotted with pea shoots, strawberries, halved grapes and slivered almonds.

Be sure to get a salad with a fine burger at The Next Act

The Next Act
8224 104 Street Northwest, Edmonton
Sunday to Thursday 11 am-1 am, Friday-Saturday 11 am-2 am

The folks at *Sherbrooke Liquor Store say they have the finest selection of beer in Canada, with more than 1,400 brands in stock. I believe them. Mind you, there’s no clue when I pull into a grimy strip mall off busy St. Albert Trail and push open the aluminum doors flanked by mirrored windows. But then I hang a sharp right into the walk-in cooler jammed with narrow aisles stacked to the ceiling with exotic beers from around the planet. Suddenly, I’m in beer candy land, and it’s all I can do to not empty my wallet on dozens of ales, stouts and hefeweizens I’ve never seen before. I restrict myself to three world-class choices—a Belgian Mikkeller Geek Breakfast beer (with a dense chocolaty, coffee taste for easing me into the morning), an outstanding Scottish Innis & Gunn winter treacle porter (like all their beers, aged in oak) and an Oregon Deschutes Brewery Red Chair, recently named the world’s top beer, though a little hoppy for me and much more expensive here than in the U.S. By now, you’ve probably figured this ain’t the place for your watery, bargain-basement 24-pack. And I’m sure Sherbrooke has a fine selection of wines and spirits, but I never give them a glance.

Just a small sample of the beers on offer at Sherbrooke Liquor Store

Sherbrooke Liquor Store
11819 St. Alberta Trail, Edmonton
Sunday to Tuesday 10 am-10 pm, Wednesday-Thursday 10 am-11 pm, Friday-Saturday 10 am-midnight

I venture into the basement of a downtown Edmonton office tower to visit a fast-food court. I’m at Chicken for Lunch for its signature hot and dry chicken, much loved by regulars. But really, I’m here just as much for its exuberant owner, Amy Quon. And she doesn’t disappoint. “Here, you need some skinny noodles with that. It will make you skinny,” Amy says as she ladles food into a Styrofoam container. When I tell her I’m from Calgary, working on a road food blog, she piles some ginger beef on for me to sample. At the rate she’s going, I’ll soon be fat.

Yes, it is food-court fare, sitting in steamer trays, though it’s constantly being replenished to keep pace with the daily lunch lineup. My nuggets of hot and dry chicken are crispy, a little greasy and mildly spicy, the chunks of broccoli and carrots crunchy and the skinny noodles providing a nice, moist base. But Amy, thinking I’m still too skinny, gives me the business card for her other family restaurant, The Lingnan.

Exuberant owner Amy Quon may be the main attraction at Chicken for Lunch

Chicken for Lunch
10060 Jasper Avenue NW (lower level Scotia Place), Edmonton
Weekdays 7 am-2 pm

Montana Marathon: A Mad Dash Through Kalispell and Whitefish

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The Pocketsone Cafe is a lovely place for breakfast in Bigfork, Montana

Finally, on the homestretch of this month-long eating excursion, I kick things into high gear, gorging on a half dozen meals in one day. And you wonder where the Marathon Mouth label comes from?

Healthy grain porridge at Woods Bay Grill near Bigfork, Montana

I start things off at 6 am with, a rarity on this trip, a truly healthy breakfast, and in the unlikeliest of places. First, the meal, a hearty bowl of Cream of the West at Woods Bay Grill, near Bigfork, on the northeast corner of massive Flathead Lake. This hot cereal boasts these virtuous grains: Montana oats, hard red spring wheat, barley, rye, triticale, soft white wheat, spelt and bran, with a side of toast. Now the place—a little roadside diner, the walls lined with deer racks and wildlife art, the latter for sale. The rest of the breakfast fare is your traditional eggs and not-so-healthy biscuits with gravy and chicken-fried steak. But to show this tasty seven-grain cereal isn’t a lonely outlier on the menu, there’s also house-made, low-sugar jams for the toast.

Woods Bay Grill
14509 Highway 35, about 4 miles south of Bigfork, Montana
Daily 6 am-7 pm

I must say *Pocketstone Café, on the northeast shore of Flathead Lake, is a wonderful place to have breakfast (for your reading pleasure, it’s my second in just over an hour). The rough-hewn wall planks and hardwood floors and tables are matched by a big, central espresso bar fronted by a display case featuring mouthwatering deep-dish fruit pies, chewy oatmeal-raisin cookies and mammoth cupcakes. It’s also a warm, friendly place with an accommodating staff. The waitress is happy to let me mix and match the buttermilk and orange pancakes (great honey-maple and huckleberry syrups), with a side order of thick, meaty bacon. She also has the cook redo the order when it isn’t to her satisfaction. It’s nice to see the owner of a fairly new restaurant admitting on the website that things have improved since the opening and can continue to get better. Judging by the waiting times on many summer mid-mornings, they’re doing a damn fine job already.

Buttermilk and orange pancakes and bacon at Pocketstone Cafe. Mmm!

Pocketstone Cafe
444 Electric Avenue, Bigfork, Montana
Daily 6 am-3 pm

Continuing with my healthy eating trend, I pull into Bonelli’s Bistro in Kalispell and go straight past the usual lunch standards of paninis, wraps and sandwiches, though the homemade meatball sub looks tempting. Instead, I focus on a list of 10 salads and decide on one featuring a mound of organic mixed greens topped with quinoa, tabbouleh and hummus and a fan of rice crisps. It’s very nourishing and a nice late-morning palette cleanser, though the tahini dressing is a little astringent for my taste—that, and an obtrusive sound track.

Nice salad at Bonelli’s Bistro in Kalispell

Bonelli’s Bistro
38 1 Avenue East, Kalispell
Monday to Saturday 8 am-3pm. Closed Sunday

Another popular place for lunch in Kalispell is Wheat Montana Bakery & Deli, a sister company of the one near Three Forks, Montana. It offers massive cinnamon rolls, hearty soups and sandwiches and even bags of flour for purchase. Needing to pace myself, I save this for another trip.

Wheat Montana Bakery & Deli
405 South Main Street, Kalispell
Monday to Saturday 6 am- 6 pm, Sunday 8 am-4 pm

And then there’s Moose’s Saloon, little changed since I first visited four decades ago. The wooden booths, walls, and pillars are still blanketed in carved initials; the floor is still covered in sawdust (don’t wear Crocs, like I do) and there’s still great bags of free peanuts in the shell; just spit the shells on the floor, like everyone else. Once your eyes adjust to the gloom, grab a beer and maybe a pizza and soak up the atmosphere. There’s no place like it.

The famous swinging doors at Moose’s Saloon in Kalispell

Moose’s Saloon
173 North Main Street, Kalispell
Opens at 11 am

A few miles north, Whitefish is a more charming town than Kalispell, thanks to its smaller size, compact historic downtown and more upscale status at the foot of Whitefish Mountain Resort.

If you’re going to make audacious claims, you’d better be able to back them up. Fortunately, Amazing Crepes lives up to its name. Essentially, it pulls it off by doing one thing very well and adding some creativity to the process. The simple menu is broken into two parts: savoury crepes and sweet crepes. The former includes a couple with eggs, one with wild smoked salmon and another with fresh pears, gorgonzola and toasted almonds. The latter features a fresh fruit and granola crepe and one with Nutella and banana. A few minutes after I order, a golden-brown crepe arrives, buttery smooth and filled with rich, interesting flavours. The only thing that keeps me from awarding a * is my lovely brie, pesto and spinach crepe is a little salty for my taste. But on the whole, this is a great place for something fresh, light and inventive. And it’s good that things are light, as I have to pace myself for the day’s two remaining meals.

The crepes are indeed awesome at Amazing Crepes in Whitefish

Amazing Crepes
123 Central Avenue, Whitefish
Weekdays 8 am-4 pm, weekends 8 am-3 pm

You’d think it would be hard to distinguish yourself if you offered the usual lunchtime fare of paninis, wraps and salads, especially if you’re located in a nondescript strip mall on the main drag of Columbia Falls, just outside of Whitefish. Yet *The Palette Cafe pulls it off, and they do it the usual way: with imagination, attention to detail and presentation. Take, for instance, the first-class ingredients in my BLT panini—perfectly crusted bread enveloping maple bacon, truffle bechamel, sharp cheddar and arugula. The extra details are a lovely little cup of house-made mustard, an unusually shaped water glass and my ability to combine a half panini with a small salad of hummus, walnuts, spinach and nicely warmed pita triangles. The presentation is enhanced by the artistic way everything is laid out on the plate. A final nice gesture is when one co-owner (a young couple owns the place and her parents help out) sees the panini slopping around my face, as usual, and brings over a couple more napkins.

Fabulous BLT panini and salad at The Palette Cafe in Columbia Falls

The Palette Cafe
743 9 Street West, Columbia Falls
Tuesday to Friday 7:30 am-4 pm, Saturday 11 am-3 pm. Closed Sunday and Monday

You know the importance of first impressions? Well, *Pescado Blanco has me hooked with the arrival of a basket of warm, slightly oily tortilla chips, accompanied by a middling-fiery roasted pepper salsa. It’s all I can do to stop eating them and leave some room for the main course. Fortunately, I only order a couple of their polo tacos, featuring chunks of tender chicken seared in ancho chile and served on handmade white corn tortillas. The accompanying black beans and rice are a decided step up from your typical Mexican plate fillers. I can see why Shelley Adams, author of the terrific Whitewater Cooks books, calls Pescado Montana’s best Mexican restaurant.

First-class polo tacos at Pescado Blanco in Whitefish. I’ve already decimated the basket of fresh tortilla chips.

Pescado Blanco
235 1 Street, Whitefish
Daily 5 pm to close

Montana Coffee Traders runs a small empire in the Whitefish area. From its roastery, established south of town in the prehistoric year of 1981, to coffee bars in Whitefish, Kalispell and Columbia Falls, the company keeps locals well caffeinated. The downtown Whitefish location is jumping in late afternoon, and my potent, full-bodied Americano should keep me awake as I make my dash for the Canadian border, the day’s mountain of food gurgling through my distended belly during the long drive through the night.

Getting a final caffeine jolt at Montana Coffee Traders before my long drive into the night

Montana Coffee Traders
110 Central Avenue, Whitefish
Monday to Saturday 7 am-6 pm am, Sunday 9-5 pm

Sliding Into Missoula, Montana

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Road-trip driving occasionally produces white knuckles

I’m a little jittery to fully enjoy my lunch at Pueblo Lindo, in McCall, Idaho. It’s not the usual three cups of road coffee jangling around an acidic stomach that does it. It’s the two hours of white-knuckle driving to get here in a late October snowstorm, traveling in a 25-mile-per-hour (40 kmh) convoy, hoping we’re going fast enough that I can get up any icy hills in summer tires and using the white van in front of me as a guide to see the road as the “window” created by the slush-encrusted wipers keeps getting smaller and smaller. So by the time I pull up to Pueblo Lindo for a nerve-calming break, it’s all I can do to properly taste the decent chicken burrito with rice and beans, the best part being the accompanying basket of warm tortilla chips with a piquant house-made salsa (all for a bargain $5). By the time I finish, the road’s been plowed, and I can renew the long drive to the next meal. By the way, the McCall public library charges $2 for 15 minutes of Wi-Fi access for non-cardholders. Someone should report them to the Gates Foundation!

Chicken burrito at Pueblo Lindo in McCall, Idaho

Pueblo Lindo
1007 West Lake Street, McCall, Idaho
Daily 11 am-9 pm

Fabulous driving along the Salmon River on Highway 95 north of McCall, Idaho

Missoula is a charming college town (population 68,000) with a foothills backdrop and the Clark Fork River dividing the downtown from the rest of the city. But the University of Montana certainly doesn’t encourage motoring visitors; it’s almost impossible to park within a mile of the place without a university or residential parking permit. And the street-naming system is downright weird; an example from below is South 4th Street West (if you’re going to have a quadrant system, follow Calgary’s lead and go, for instance, with SW). The city’s food scene, though, is lively, with a number of fine places you can drive right up to.

I’ve already heralded Bob Marshall’s Biga Pizza as one of the best pizzerias in the mountain west (241 West Main Street. Weekdays 11 am-3 pm and 5 pm-9:30 pm, Saturday 5 pm-10 pm). It’s here that I first encounter the outstanding *KettleHouse Cold Smoke Scotch Ale, which because of arcane state laws on microbrewery production limits is for now pretty much only available in western Montana. So, of course, I have to visit the character-filled KettleHouse Brewing Company’s taproom, where an afternoon crowd is gathered to sample a pint or fill a larger “growler” to go. Here’s another bit of strange state law: A small brewery taproom can only serve a patron 48 ounces of beer between the hours of 10 am and 8 pm. Other FAQs from the Kettlehouse website: “Can you ship me some beer? No. Sorry. Plan a vacation in beautiful Missoula instead.” “Do you have food in your tap rooms? No. But you can bring in your own.” Note: Their “six-packs” are four, 16-ounce cans.

Funky taproom at KettleHouse Brewing Company in Missoula

KettleHouse Brewing Company
602 Myrtle Street, Missoula
Daily noon to 8 pm

There’s definitely something to be said for keeping things simple and doing one or two things well. Le Petit Outre (“The Little Outrageous”) has that nailed. As a small bakery, it produces a wide variety of excellent handcrafted breads—ryes, baguettes, cocodrillos, ciabattas and the like, some baked in a French hearth oven—as well as pastries and nice buttery, flaky croissants to munch on. It also has fine coffee, whether it’s a nice strong blend from a pump pot or a well-crafted cappuccino from its Synesso espresso machine. In good weather, there are a few tables outside; otherwise, it’s takeout.

Le Petit Outre
129 South 4 Street West
Monday to Friday 7 am-6 pm, Saturday 8 am-3 pm, Sunday 8 am-2 pm

There aren’t many places I’d frequent simply to sit in the space, ordering latte after pour over just so I don’t have to leave. *Caffe Dolce is such a place, with its tile floor, light orange walls and high ceiling reminiscent of a centuries-old Italian building. Actually, owner Peter Lambros had it built only a few years ago, though an Italian artist did spend a Michelangelo-like 750 hours on a scaffold to paint the ceiling (a side room is lined with Italian pottery for sale). One of the baristas says she loves working here, especially on a wintery day, when the high windows make the space feel like a giant snow globe. By the way, they make good coffees here, along with iron-grilled sandwiches, a large selection of gelato and, something of a rarity, a bowl of fresh breakfast fruit. Just order things one at a time, so you can spread your stay out.

Caffe Dolce, a great place to hang out in Missoula

Caffe Dolce
500 Brooks Street (the one described here) and 2901 Brooks Street (Southgate Mall), Missoula
Check the website for hours, which are too confusing to list here

The Montana pasty (paste-ee) is supposed to be the preserve of Butte. It’s where English-born miners carried their Cornish pasties underground in lunch buckets. I guess no one told Lisa she couldn’t take the Butte tradition to Missoula and open Lisa’s Pasty Pantry. Some folks say her version of the meat-filled pastry pocket is better. I can only tell you it’s a mighty tasty pasty: a bunch of hand-cubed beef, potatoes and onions packed into a crimped pastry and then baked till golden. Add a little gravy if you want, and you’ve got a filling lunch for a bargain $6. Though they seemed a little insulted when I don’t finish things off with one of their fruit turnovers.

A hearty pasty quells the lunchtime hunger pangs at Lisa’s Pasty Pantry

Lisa’s Pasties
2004 West Sussex Avenue, Missoula
Monday to Friday 11 am-7 pm, Saturday 10:30 am to close. Closed Sunday

Death by sandwich? There are worse ways to go. In fact, the amount of mortadella and dough I’ve already consumed this trip might cause my porcine valves to seize up. But when I see the Megadeath sandwich on the Tagliare Delicatessen menu board, I’m powerless to resist. Mercifully, I only order the $9 half loaf, er, sandwich. The whole would be enough to choke a horse, if a horse ate ham, finocchiona (whatever that is), hot sopressata, pepperoni, hot capicola and various other things pressed between two hunks of ciabatta and sawn in half. Some of the meats and/or the “feisty” vinaigrette give this sandwich the slight kick of a mule. If that’s insufficient meat for you, consider the Zeppelin, an unholy alliance of roast beef, turkey, salami, ham and pastrami. Way down the menu, there is a vegetarian option, featuring goat cheese and pickled beets. These takeout sandwiches can be messy, so take care how you eat them.

I’m still kicking after finishing the Megadeath half sandwich at Tagliare Delicatessen

Tagliare Delicatessen
1433 South Higgins Avenue, Missoula
Monday 10 am-5 pm, Tuesday to Friday 10 am-7 pm, Saturday 10 am-5 pm. Closed Sunday

My Own Private Idaho Eating Tour

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Spectacular Snake River Gorge in Twin Falls, Idaho. Can’t think of any other western U.S. city that can match this view

If you’re making the long drive on I-84 between Salt Lake City and Boise, Idaho, be sure to find time for a short detour to Twin Falls. It has the most spectacular viewpoint you’ll find in any city: the Snake River Gorge. From the visitor centre beside the superb bridge spanning the canyon, it’s a gut-churning drop to the river far below and not far from Evel Knievel’s failed attempt to jump the canyon by motorcycle in 1974.

Sometimes, it’s just one overlooked detail that keeps you from thoroughly enjoying your breakfast. At Buffalo Cafe, it’s the biscuit. The eggs over easy are nicely done, the house-made chorizo sausage is tasty and the hash browns decent. But the hefty biscuit arrives cold. Maybe that’s the way it’s supposed to be, but the butter sits in an unmelted lump on top and even the nice touch of homemade jam doesn’t quite salvage things. A minute in the toaster or on the grill, and all would have been well. Buffalo Cafe is all by itself in an unlit industrial part of town, with a row of big truck cabs across the street in a compound.

Nice enough breakfast, other than the cold biscuit, at Buffalo Cafe in Twin Falls, Idaho

Buffalo Cafe
218 4 Avenue, Twin Falls
Daily 7 am-2 pm

It’s not often I’ll wait an hour for a sandwich, especially when I’m the only customer in said sandwich shop. But I’m glad I do at *High Country Bakehouse on charming Main Avenue in downtown Twin Falls. The wait is largely my fault, as the coffee is on when I arrive at the 8 am opening, but the sandwiches aren’t due out for a couple of hours. Which gives me a chance to chat with owner Aaron Adams, a former psychology major who opened the bakery/sandwich shop a year ago, with the mandate to make everything from scratch. Thus his sourdough bread takes three days from start to finish. And his cousin Sara, who prepares all the meat for the sandwiches, marinates the turkey in Guinness and the New York strip steak in red wine before cooking and then slicing them. I order a half BLT, savouring every bite of the hickory-smoked bacon and vine-ripened tomato inside the chewy sourdough. To go, I take a loaf of honey whole wheat, too hot from the oven to bag and thus filling my car with a heavenly odour that almost overpowers the stench from three weeks of car camping.

High Country Bakehouse
144 Main Avenue South, Twin Falls
Monday to Friday 8 am-3 pm. Closed weekends

While waiting for the day’s sandwich making to begin, I also talk to Paul Graff, who’s just moved into Bakehouse’s premises to set up his Twin Beans Coffee Co. He pours me a fresh cup of his day’s blend. Tastes pretty damn fine to me, but he grimaces slightly with his first sip. He’s not happy with the city water supply and how the required filtering will affect the dissolved solids in his brew. Some tweaking will be required. Got to love that passion for perfection.

Boise, Idaho’s state capital, is a surprisingly modern, prosperous city—population 200,000-plus/over 600,000 in the metropolitan area—with more downtown high-rises than I’m expecting. Boise State University is a dominant presence, with its formidable football team (Go Broncos!) playing on distinctive blue turf. There are lots of good eating options here for the road tripper.

I’m ready for something different at lunch and Tango’s Subs and Empanadas certainly delivers on all fronts—originality, taste and affordability. I walk into what looks like an old drive-through and am warmly greeted by the burly owner with a bushy moustache, stationed firmly behind the counter while his wife hustles around the kitchen. It’s an Argentinian joint, so I opt for a couple of empanadas, which come out hot and fast. One is a gaucho—a ground beef, green olive and hard-boiled egg mix—and the other a Mexican-style mole with pulled chicken, peanuts, chocolate and chilies. Add a little green salsa for kick and I’m ready to chow down. But what hits these babies out of the park is the enveloping pocket: flaky pastry that’s fried to produce a crunchy texture to offset the soft insides. Two of these empanadas, for $5, is almost more than I can eat, but when they’re this tasty, I manage to get every crumb down. Unfortunately, there’s no spare room for a dessert empanada—a thick caramel dulce de leche.

Big, flaky empanadas hit the spot at Tango’s. $5 total

Tango’s Subs and Empanadas
701 North Orchard Street, Boise
Monday to Friday 11 am-7 pm, Saturday noon-4 pm. Closed Sunday

How often have you been asked: ‘Would you like that with fries?’ Well, at Boise Fry Company, in the great potato state of Idaho, things are turned on their head. Here, the burgers are the sides, and the focus is squarely on the esteemed spud. Thus, when entering this potato palace, I spurn the burger menu completely and am walked through the many fry options. You pick your potato—say a russet, purple, sweet or Yukon gold—and see what cuts it’s being offered in that day; regular, shoestring, etc. I opt for an unfamiliar variety, a Laura, in a shoestring cut. It has a sweet, nutty flavour and is slightly crisp from being double fried in peanut oil, as are all Boise Fry’s offerings. A nice touch is adding the salt mixes (try the rosemary garlic) and choosing the dips yourself and thus being able to season to your taste. As I leave, I’m tempted to ask for a sack of potatoes to go.

Laurel potatoes in a shoestring cut at Boise Fry Company. Yum

A main course of Laura potatoes in a shoestring cut at Boise Fry Company. Yum

Boise Fry Company
111 South Broadway and 3083 South Bown Way, Boise
Daily 11 am-9 pm

It’s funny sometimes how you’ll go looking for one thing and discover something even better. So it is when I walk into Dawson Taylor Coffee in downtown Boise. The French press pot I order is decent enough though rather pricy at $4.50. While waiting for it to brew, I walk through a doorway into an attached space that turns out to be a separate business: Zeppole Baking Co. I’m pretty fussy about muffins and rarely order them, but I can tell that these, with their thick bottoms wrapped in paper, are dense and moist. So I order a blackberry streusel, a sinfully good $2 treat to go with my coffee. The kalamata ciabatta also catches my eye (I can usually tell baked quality by just looking) among the many fine, cold-fermented breads on display. I’ve just eaten lunch elsewhere, but I notice lots of folks munching on ciabatta-based sandwiches, and they’re only $4.59. A bowl of soup with endless bread is another bargain at $3.69. It all adds up to tasty cuisine at rock-bottom prices, especially for downtown Boise.

Dense, moist blackberry streusel muffin at Zeppole Baking Co. in Boise

Zeppole Baking Co.
217 North 8 Street (downtown Boise), Monday to Friday 7 am-8 pm, Saturday 8 am-8 pm; and 983 East Parkcenter Boulevard, Monday to Saturday 6 am-6 pm, Sunday 8 am-4 pm

It’s a Monday night, so I’m safe from temptation at Bar Gernika. I can go with a Basque-style Solomo sandwich, a lovely marinated pork loin with mounds of red pimientos in a crusty French loaf, along with a side of croquetas (little doughy, deep-fried balls similar to that southern staple, hush puppies) and a pint of nitro-infused stout. I could also order a nice sandwich of Basque chorizo sausage or sliced lamb. But if I want a little tongue, I’ll have to be there on a Saturday. It’s the only day beef tongue is offered, albeit with a good amount of garlic and tomato seasoning. Indeed, it’s slow cooked enough, the bartender assures me, that it falls apart like a pot roast. In any event, it’s all gone in a couple of hours. Bar Gernika is a pub in a narrow, historical building (it was once a Chinese laundry) in downtown Boise, with exposed brick walls and a small open kitchen next to the bar. In fact, grab a Saturday bar seat, and you can watch your tongue being grilled.

Basque-style Solomo sandwich with a side of croquets at Bar Gernika in downtown Boise

Bar Gernika
202 South Capitol Boulevard
Opens Monday to Friday at 11 am and Saturday at 11:30 am, closing around midnight. Closed Sunday

Want to design your own breakfast? *Goldy’s Breakfast Bistro, a cozy little downtown diner that you strangely enter through a heavy purple curtain, let’s you do just that. You can choose your meat, style of eggs, potatoes and bread or any of the above on their own. I actually prefer a complete package, so I go for something I’ve never had before—Andalusian eggs. It’s a revelation, featuring a bowl full of ham, chorizo and peppers in a thick tomato sauce, with two poached eggs on top and a thick ring of asparagus. It’s delicious but a little too rich for me to finish this early in the morning. What puts this place over the top is the offer to take another coffee refill to go. When I say I want to go to an Internet cafe, the waitress says just take the coffee up the block to their Goldy’s Corner, where they offer me yet another free refill. Now, that’s service.

Lovely Andalusian eggs at Goldy’s Breakfast Bistro in Boise

Goldy’s Breakfast Bistro
108 South Capitol Boulevard
Weekdays 6:30 am-2 pm, weekends 7:30 am-2 pm

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