Category Archives: road food

Cafe + Books = The Perfect Combination

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The cafe part of Canmore's Cafe Books is a little station at the back of the bookstore.

The cafe part of Canmore’s Cafe Books is a little station at the back of the bookstore.

I’ve loved the idea of combining a bookstore with a cafe ever since I wandered into Seattle’s famous Elliott Bay Book Company many years ago. Indeed, one of my “must stops” on long western Trans-Canada Highway drives is Bacchus Books & Cafe, in Golden, B.C. The wee cafe—up a rickety flight of stairs above the bookstore—serves great coffee, muffins and healthy soups and imaginative paninis, witness a Nutella/bacon combo.

Actually, I’m surprised this concept isn’t more popular (outside of corporate joint ventures like Starbucks and Chapters/Indigo), though it does come with the risk of pages stained by coffee and sticky jam. So, it’s a pleasure to discover Café Books, on the busy main drag of another mountain town, Canmore, Alberta.

Owner Joy McLean runs this great, eclectic bookstore, with a hallway leading to a room of used books surrounding a small cafe. Here, I enjoy a lovely little French-press pot of coffee (beans from local roaster RAVE), served with a couple of bite-sized cookies.

A shameless promotion of a book signing I was doing at Cafe Books while savouring a lovely French-press pot of coffee

A shameless promotion of a book signing I was doing at Cafe Books while savouring a lovely French-press pot of coffee

The short menu features British-style snacks like Cornish pasties and Welsh rarebit, along with sweets such as cupcakes and macaroons. You can even order high tea, complete with scones, jam and clotted cream. Just be careful not to spill on the books.

A short but diversified menu, with a British bent

A short but diversified menu, with a British bent

Cafe Books
100, 826 Main Street, Canmore, Alberta
Monday to Thursday and Sunday 9:30 am-7 pm. Friday-Saturday 9:30 am-9 pm
403-678-0908

A Fresh Seafood Poke in Landlocked Utah

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Roberta D'Amado is introducing Utah consumers to Hawaiian poke dishes at her St. George restaurant

Roberta D’Amado is introducing Utah consumers to Hawaiian poke dishes at her St. George restaurant

Roberta D’Adamo is educating St. George residents about a Hawaiian culinary classic one dish at a time.

As the owner of Utah’s first poke (po-kay) restaurant, she usually opens the conversation with bewildered customers something like this.

“Is this your first time here?” “Yes.”

“Have you had poke before?” “No.”

“Well, it’s mostly cubes of sushi-grade yellow fin tuna, served in different styles over a bowl of white or brown rice. You like sweet or spicy? Try a couple of samples and see which you prefer.”

After going through this pleasant ritual, I pick a ceviche style, the tuna cured in lime and lemon juice with some coconut milk. Although poke is considered an appetizer, this is a full-flavoured meal, with chunks of tender tuna sliding effortlessly down my throat.

My poke bowl features yellow-fin tuna cured in lemon and lime juice

My poke bowl features yellow-fin tuna cured in lemon and lime juice

Roberta is a poke missionary with impeccable credentials. A born-and-raised Hawaiian, she still has a fishing boat back home. And once she’s conquered St. George, she has plans for Salt Lake City, Provo, Orem… Will land-locked Utah soon be applying for island status?

Hawaiian Poke Bowl
175 West 900 South, St. George, Utah
Weekdays 11 am- 3 pm (“the St. George streets roll up after 3”). Closed weekends
435-628-7653

High Seas Coffee on the Alberta Prairie

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High Seas Coffee is in the middle of central Alberta farmland

High Seas Coffee is in the middle of central Alberta farmland

I’m not expecting a coffee roaster in a rural Alberta village. Certainly not in a community of 725 souls, with a strong Mennonite heritage.

But then Linden, 100 kilometres northeast of Calgary, has always punched above its weight. Witness a strong agricultural manufacturing industry. And, from a culinary perspective, the longstanding Country Cousins, which attracts folks from Calgary and beyond for its Mennonite meals (think sausage, perogies and cabbage rolls) and legendary peanut butter pie.

So I guess I shouldn’t be surprised to find High Seas Coffee serving fresh-roasted java in a little main-street café. It opened this spring, when Krista Boese took over the former Global Grounds, adding it to an existing roasting business she started with her brother Tyler.

Yes, High Seas is a local hangout, with customers chewing the fat around a cluster of tables. But it also has a big-city vibe that includes small-batch roasting of fair-trade organic beans (pick up a pound of Farmers Blend) and cold-brew coffee.

The small-town coffee shop and roastery even has a patio

The small-town coffee shop and roastery even has a patio

The short menu starts with fresh-baked pastries like Danishes, cinnamon rolls and croissants. Heartier fare includes a French toast breakfast sandwich and a lunchtime pulled-pork Cubano sandwich.

You can even text in your order so it’s ready for pick up on your rural road trip. But I’d much rather grab a corner seat, sip an excellent Americano and soak up some small-town character.

High Seas Coffee
107 Central Avenue, Linden, Alberta
Monday to Saturday 6 am-6 pm. Closed Sunday
403-546-2007

Can a Made-to-Order Sandwich be Quick? You Bet

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The woman in black is the sandwich magician at Lacombe's Eastside Eatery, assembling this beauty in under a minute

The woman in black is the sandwich magician at Lacombe’s Eastside Eatery, assembling this beauty in under a minute

Anyone who says made-to-order sandwiches take too long to assemble in a busy lunch spot obviously hasn’t been to Eastside Eatery, in the central Alberta city of Lacombe.

If they had, they’d soon realize that, for efficiency’s sake, you don’t have to make all the sandwiches in the morning, wrap them in suffocating plastic and stack them in a refrigerated display case, where they slowly get soggy and invariably don’t taste all that fresh when unravelled for consumption several hours later.

When I pull up to Eastside, a somewhat spartan place in a Lacombe industrial park, it’s late in the lunch hour and thus the usual line is gone. In fact, I walk right up to the counter and, after a brief glance at the overhead menu, order a roasted turkey sandwich on whole wheat.

Forget the industrial look. The focus here is fast, fresh and affordable

Forget the industrial look. The focus here is fast, fresh and affordable

“Would you like mayo, mustard, cranberry sauce and lettuce with that?” asks the friendly cashier. “OK.”
“Cheese, peppers, tomatoes, onions, pickle?” “Sure, load her up.”
“Stuffing?” “Would you recommend it?” “Absolutely. It’s homemade.”

I then pull out my debit card and go through the prompts to pay for my sandwich. As the receipt is printed and passed to me—say, 45 seconds after I’ve ordered—the assembler hands me the sandwich on a plate.

“Where did you get that from?” I ask suspiciously. “It was already made, wasn’t it?”
“No, I just made it.”
“How could you make it that fast?”
“I have to be quick, for when it’s really busy.”

The sandwich—a sumptuous bargain at $7—is rather enormous; a veritable Thanksgiving dinner crammed between two pieces of fresh bread. And it isn’t just filled with fixings. There must be an entire, shredded turkey breast in there.

But true to its name, The Gobbler, it disappears in about the time it takes to make.

A jaw stretcher? Heck, I can hardly get my hand around this beast

A jaw stretcher? Heck, I can hardly get my hand around this beast

Eastside Eatery
3, 4013 53 Avenue, Lacombe, Alberta
Weekdays 8 am-3 pm. Closed weekends
403-782-7435

World Famous Cafe in Boulder City, Nevada? You Bet

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The World Famous Coffee Cup—in Boulder City, Nevada—is a classic diner

The World Famous Coffee Cup—in Boulder City, Nevada—is a classic diner

What’s a classic diner without a table full of old timers? The regulars are already stirring their coffees and kibitzing when I arrive, 6ish am, at the World Famous Coffee Cup, in Boulder City, on the outskirts of Las Vegas.

“The teacher always said if you don’t know how to spell a word, look it up in the dictionary,” one observes. “But if you don’t know how to spell it, how can you look it up?”

There’s a long counter begging to be sat at, so I grab a stool and take in my surroundings. The place is lined with old Nevada plates, a surfboard and water skis and stacks of photos.

The vintage neon sign completes the look

The vintage neon sign completes the look

As I scan a menu of diner standards—biscuits and gravy, omelettes, burgers and the like—the waitress swings by with a pot of good coffee (Colorado River Coffee Roasters) and takes my order of a short stack of pancakes.

“Can I get those with blueberries?”
“No problem. Would you like sugar-free syrup?”
“However did you guess?”

A few minutes later, the “short stack”—two plate-size cakes—arrives straight off the grill. They’re steaming hot, slightly crispy on the edges and bursting with berries. The scoop of butter on top melts into a puddle. Perfect.

A perfectly cooked "short stack" of pancakes

A perfectly cooked “short stack” of pancakes

“You know, hummingbirds and helicopters shouldn’t be able to fly,” one of the regulars notes.

Think they’d mind if I joined them?

World Famous Coffee Cup (made more famous by a Guy Fieri visit)
512 Nevada Way, Boulder City, Nevada
Daily 6 am-2 pm

Fast, Middle-Eastern Chicken in Los Angeles

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Zankou Chicken in Los Angeles is moist, garlicky nirvana

Zankou Chicken in Los Angeles is moist, garlicky nirvana

It’s not KFC (a lesser man might have added, “thank God”). But in the greater Los Angeles area, Zankou Chicken may well be more celebrated than the fast-food giant. Indeed, there’s a road map on Zankou’s walls showing all eight of the scattered locations of this mini empire.

If anything, you could call it fast Middle-Eastern chicken. There are rotating spits of shawarma chicken, grilled kabob plates and wraps. But the signature dish is fall-off-the-bone rotisserie chicken, available in half ($10.50) or quarter ($8, white or dark) sizes. Each plate comes with creamy hummus, pickled veggies, a couple of pitas for scooping and a little dish of Zankou’s not-on-a-first-date garlic sauce.

I rarely frequent fast-food chains of any size, especially in generic, fairly sterile surroundings. But when the food’s this good, quick and affordable, I’m happy to make an exception.

Zankou Chicken
Eight locations, mostly concentrated in the north Los Angeles metro area
Daily 10 am-11 pm