Category Archives: Road trip food

Pork Chop John’s is a Butte, Montana Original

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They sell burgers and such, but at Pork Chop John's you want to head straight for the signature pork chop sandwiches

They sell burgers and such, but at Pork Chop John’s you’ll want to head straight for the signature pork chop sandwiches

Butte, Montana may be best known for its copper mining legacy, but it can also boast not one but two regional food specialties. One is the English mining import, the Cornish pasty. The second, which it can perhaps claim as its own, is the pork chop sandwich, a deep-fried, burger-like creation immortalized by a couple of local institutions and with a 90-year history.

In the interests of research, I venture into Pork Chop John’s to sample this invention. It’s a fast-food place, where I approach the counter and order my pork puck, topped with onion, pickle and a thick coat of regular mustard.

The heart of the beast is the boneless pork-sirloin chop, lightly breaded and battered. It’s then flash fried to provide a surface crunch to the softer but still chewy centre. Call it a poor man’s schnitzel. The pedestrian bun’s only duty is to not fall apart.

Hope you like mustard on your pork chop sandwich

Hope you like mustard on your pork chop sandwich

You can throw a cooked egg aboard for another 50 cents, but why sabotage the pure porcine experience? Overall, it’s quick, reasonably affordable at $4 and small enough to keep the cholesterol levels in check.

Maybe that’s sufficient reason to knock the porch chop sandwich off your culinary bucket list. And if you get hooked, you can always have a box of 50 frozen pork chops shipped to your door.

Pork Chop John’s
2400 Harrison Avenue, Butte, Montana (one other Butte location)
Monday to Saturday 10:30 am-10:30 pm. Closed Sunday
John's Pork Chop Sandwich Shop on Urbanspoon

KoMex is Fusion Gone Wild in Las Vegas

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At KoMex Express, the fries adopt the flags of several nationalities

At KoMex Express, the fries adopt the flags of several nationalities

As the name suggests, KoMex Fusion is all about mixing ethnic cuisines. Obviously, there’s a Korean component—witness kimchi and bulgogi—and Mexican standards like enchiladas and burritos, along with some cross-breeding of the two at this little strip-mall diner in Las Vegas. Chimichanga with marinated cabbage anyone?

But at KoMex, the boundaries have been further expanded to embrace Chinese (wonton soup) and American cuisine. All this comes together in my Bulgogi fries—with melted mozza, meat, pico de gallo, jalapenos and Korean hot sauce all soaking into a mound of fries. It’s a surprisingly good, filling amalgamation. The substantial order is only $6 and, along with complementary chips, salsa and guacamole, is a substantial lunch.

The owners are in the throes of expanding their boundaries beyond Vegas. Here’s hoping they don’t lose that grunge attitude of experimentation at their flagship shop.

KoMex Fusion
633 North Decatur Boulevard (one other Las Vegas location)
Monday to Saturday 11 am-8 pm. Closed Sunday
KoMex Fusion on Urbanspoon

Parking Lot Grilled Chicken in Yakima, Washington

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Fresh-grilled chicken at El Parrillon Loco in Yakima, Washington

Fresh-grilled chicken at El Parrillon Loco in Yakima, Washington

I’m looking for a place called El Parrillon Loco, in Yakima, Washington, but damned if I can find it in a strip mall of Mexican joints. But I finally spy what I’m looking for: a parking-lot grill loaded with big pieces of browning chicken. And then, at the attached retail space, I see the name I’m looking for, in small print, above the rest of the title, which is de Tom and Jerry.

Don’t ask me what that name stands for, or much else. “Authenticamente Mexicano” the business card reads. No kidding. After I ask the server a few questions en Englais, she heads to the back for a younger woman whose English is far better than my Spanish.

In any event, it’s not hard to know what to order—a quarter pollo, con arroz y frijoles (rice and beans), along with grilled tortillas for a grand total of $6.29. Nearly everyone in the place has ordered variations of the same thing and are waiting expectantly for the current batch of chicken to come off the grill.

Tending the parking-lot grill

Tending the parking-lot grill

Which gives me time to watch an industrious woman tending the grill. She dumps a bag of charcoal into an attached hopper, shovels glowing embers from said hopper under the grill and whacks cooked chunks of chicken with a cleaver, flipping the resulting smaller pieces with tongs into takeout cardboard boxes.

The finished chicken is so tender and flavourful, I pretty much ignore the perfunctory rice and beans, other than to sample odd mouthfuls seasoned with house-made sauces of varying intensity.

Fall-off-the-bone result

Fall-off-the-bone result

El Parrillon Loco de Tom and Jerry
511 North 1 Street, Yakima, Washington
Open at 10 am till early evening

El Fat Cat Grill Putting a Spin on the Taco Truck

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Chef Felix Sanchez mixing Mexican and Asian influences at his El Fat Cat Grill truck Asian fare

Chef Felix Sanchez mixing Mexican and Asian influences at his El Fat Cat Grill truck in Kennewick, Washington

*El Fat Cat Grill is far from your typical taco truck. Yes, the Kennewick, Washington (Tri-Cities) joint does offer tacos, burritos, tostadas and quesadillas. But co-owner and chef Felix Sanchez has mixed Mexican and Asian influences to come up with a splendid menu all his own.

El Fat Cat Grill is a big step beyond your typical taco truck

El Fat Cat Grill is a big step beyond your typical taco truck

Thankfully, the gracious server and friendly fellow customers are most obliging in providing suggestions of what I should order. “I always get the porky adobo”, in a garlic chipotle cream sauce over rice, says one customer. “The burritos, man,” offers a companion.

They look tempting, as does Felix’s take on tortas, the Triple Threat combining pork, ham and bacon. Add some sautéed onions and fixings, and you’ve got a honking big sandwich for $7. The burritos (including one with grilled baby red potatoes) are equally substantial.

I go for the wonderfully named Scary Roy Chilada ($6)—three crispy tortillas smothered in pork, chipotle mole sauce, cotija cheese and jalapeño coleslaw, with some house-made sauce for added heat.

The Scary Roy Chilada is three crispy tortillas smothered in messy goodness

The Scary Roy Chilada is three crispy tortillas smothered in messy goodness

The only problem is these loaded beauties require a handful of napkins, and then some. Think I’ll walk over to the carwash next door.

El Fat Cat Grill
539 North Edison (behind the Edison carwash), Kennewick, Washington
Weekdays 11 am-7 pm. Closed Saturday and Sunday. Cash only
El Fat Cat Grill on Urbanspoon

Wallowing Through Wonderful Walla Walla, Washington

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Good breads, pastries and sandwiches at the Walla Walla Bread Company

Good breads, pastries and sandwiches at the Walla Walla Bread Company

Here’s what the wine industry can do for a place. As recently as the late 1990s, Walla Walla was a relatively sleepy farm town that produced wheat and its signature sweet onions. Oh, and it had maybe three wineries.

Fast forward to today, when the number of area wineries has exploded to more than 200. You can tour a good number of them over a few days. Or you can take the more efficient route and stumble through a dozen tasting rooms in a couple of downtown blocks.

Walla Walla has a few other things going for it. Like gorgeous surrounding farmland and an impressive, well-kept downtown, with wide, shaded streets and lots of restored, historic brick buildings. It thus attracts not just wine sippers but also a growing number of retirees.

Dog sculpture in Walla Walla's lovely historic downtown

Dog sculpture in Walla Walla’s lovely historic downtown

Where there’s good wine, there’s invariably good food (you have to pair those merlots and chardonnays with something!) And while the wine crowd tends to prefer haute cuisine, enterprising road trippers can find some great, creative eats at most reasonable prices.

Could you resist this fresh fruit pie at Walla Walla Bread Company?

Could you resist this fresh fruit pie at Walla Walla Bread Company?

Besides the places I’ve been writing about the past week, I would add Olive Marketplace and Cafe (try the wood-fired pizzas) Walla Walla Bread Company for pastries and sandwiches and the unique Walla Walla Worm Ranch, serving good Mexican inside a bait-and-tackle shop. Of course, I’d be remiss if I didn’t include a streetside dog at Walla Walla Sweet Onion Sausage.

Beautiful deli display at Olive Marketplace and Cafe

Beautiful deli display at Olive Marketplace and Cafe

Overall, I’d rate Walla Walla a top road-trip food destination for a city its size (population 32,000) in the Pacific Northwest.

The Sandwiches are the Bomb at Graze in Walla Walla, Washington

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Graze serves up some bountiful, well-aged meat sandwiches in Walla Walla, Washington

Graze serves up some bountiful, well-aged meat sandwiches in Walla Walla, Washington

I look up at the menu in *Graze, a cheery little sandwich shop in downtown Walla Walla, Washington. “What’s the Latronka, and what does the word “bomb” mean in the description?” I ask the server. “It means a lot of pastrami.” Eight ounces, in fact.

Thinking I’ll go for something lighter, I order the warm flank steak torta. Flank steak can be chewy, to be charitable, but here it is surprisingly tender, no doubt because it is seared, then finished in the oven.

There is a lot of flank steak in my torta, along with generous slices of avocado, provolone and tomato, all tucked inside a nicely toasted, local bun that doesn’t deteriorate after significant gnashing of teeth. Yes, it’s $10, but it’s one of the better and certainly one of the biggest steak sandwiches I’ve enjoyed.

A loaded, tender flank-steak torta

A loaded, tender flank-steak torta

Here’s part of an interview with Walla Walla Lifestyles that sums up co-owner and chef John Lastoskie’s approach to his restaurant and catering business:

“What is your favorite ingredient?”
“Time… When we do turkey, we brine it for 24 hours. When we do prime rib, we salt and tie it for three days. Everything we do has days in front of it, whereas a lot of people just pull something out of the fridge and throw it on the grill. Our pastrami takes, on average, about 22 days.”

Graze
5 South Colville and 213 South 9 Avenue (drive-thru) Walla Walla, Washington
Daily 10 am-7:30 pm, except 3:30 pm closing Sunday
Graze on Urbanspoon