My Best Road Trip Meals of 2013: Part 1

Even the hard-working cooks have fun at Pete’s Breakfast House in Ventura, California

What happens when you hit a couple of hundred independent diners, cafes, coffeehouses, bakeries and breweries in the western U.S./Canada in one year? An ambulance ride to emergency? Fortunately, no. Instead, I got to discover some great places to eat and drink, run by some seriously committed, wonderful people. Here are the best of 2013, in two parts.

Best Breakfasts

My best 2013 breakfast is the day’s locovore omelette at Chow in Bend, Oregon. Perfectly prepared, it features chicken-apple sausage, caramelized onions and local chanterelle mushrooms and cheese. What puts it over the top is the choice of three bottles of house-made sauce of varying intensity, so good I buy two bottles to go.

My best 2013 breakfast is the locovore omelette at lovely Chow in Bend, Oregon

Pancakes: The pancake sandwich—bacon atop buttermilk blueberry cakes and, underneath, two over-easy eggs—at Pete’s Breakfast House in Ventura, California. Great vibe ups the ante.

Delicious blueberry pancakes over eggs at Pete’s Breakfast House in Ventura, California

Breakfast Sandwich: Sometimes, all you want for breakfast is an egg or two between two slices of a bready product. But at Tweets Cafe in tiny Edison, Washington, the breakfast sandwich is a work of art, with a mini salad on top, a slice of melon bursting with flavour and perfectly cooked eggs and ham atop a home-baked biscuit.

The breakfast sandwich in the hands of an artist at Tweet’s Cafe in Edison, Washington

Off the Radar: How about a breakfast burrito of smoked turkey, avocado, egg whites and a hash patty, chased by an invigorating iced drink of protein powder, espresso, peanut butter, banana and chocolate? It’s all on the healthy menu at D’Lish Drive Thru in Scottsdale, Arizona, along with a free dose of off-the-wall friendliness.

This excellent AZ Burro is one of many creative, healthy breakfast choices at D’Lish Drive-Thru in Scottsdale, Arizona

Best Coffee

In a year when I visit the coffee meccas of Seattle and Portland, it’s a roaster/coffeehouse in little Lethbridge, Alberta that serves my two best cups of coffee, one by Chemex, the other by Aeropress. Cupper’s Coffee & Tea‘s slightly darker roasts are so good, I’ve been ordering their shipped beans instead of just roasting my own.

Cupper’s owner Al Anctil and the sophisticated roaster he helped build in Lethbridge, Alberta

Honourable Mentions: The espresso at Portland hole-in-the-wall Spella Caffee holds my tongue in a lingering, smoky embrace. My best coffee experiences are in Seattle’s also tiny Moore Coffee Shop—where I sink into a leather chair and savour a fine Americano served with a square of complimentary chocolate—and the funky vibe of Lux Central in Phoenix. I also have to include Nobrow Coffee Werks, in the coffee mecca of Salt Lake City (just joking) for the most sophisticated brewing machine, the Steampunk, I’ve ever seen.

Joe Evans and the very latest in custom-brewed coffee at Nobrow Coffee Works; I’d say this is high brow

Best Bakery/Café Santa Fe’s Clafoutis has a full-fledged menu, but it’s the ethereal croissants, brioche and baguettes, along with great coffee, that bring me back for more at this elegant, oh-so-French café.

A stack of baguettes amidst all the creative elements at Clafoutis in Santa Fe, New Mexico

Honourable Mentions: Last year’s pick, La Baguette, in Revelstoke, B.C., keeps knocking it out of the park with things as simple but outstanding as Healthy Bread, its take on toast. San Francisco’s famed Tartine Bakery & Cafe lives up to the hype with brioche bread pudding and gorgeous gougère.

Gorgeously gooey gougere at Tartine Bakery & Cafe in San Francisco

Best Sandwich The sandwich is a road-trip lunch staple, but it’s rarely raised to an art form like the Oxacan— shredded mole chicken, avocado, goat cheese and apple, served on lovely seed-crusted ciabatta—that I’m served at the fantastic Curious Kumquat, way out in Silver City, New Mexico.

This shredded mole chicken sandwich makes the drive to Silver City, New Mexico well worthwhile

Honourable Mentions: My steak sandwich at Longview Steakhouse, in the ranch country of Longview, Alberta, is really a huge, superb strip loin on an overwhelmed single piece of bread, though the latter does soak up all the juices. In the heavyweight sandwich battle, my mortadella with all the fixings at Compagno’s Delicatessen, in Monterey Bay, California, reaches a sleep-inducing draw with the turkey-bacon monster at Sandwich Spot, in Palm Springs, California.

I gave half of this monster, fab $8 creation from the Sandwich Spot to a passing street person in Palm Springs, California. Kept us both fed for a day

Best Burger

A tie: Bobcat Bite has left its character-filled old adobe building and morphed into Santa Fe Bite, but it’s still pumping out its signature green chile cheeseburgers. Diablo Burger sources its natural, lean meats from open-range ranches near Flagstaff, Arizona. Both places offer their thick patties medium-rare.

The name and the location's changing, but there's no disguising these fantastic green chile cheeseburgers at Santa Fe Bite

This fantastic, medium-rare green chile cheeseburger, at Santa Fe Bite, is at least three inches thick

Honourable Mentions: In the Asian fusion category, my fine wagyu burger at Bachi Burger in Las Vegas is edged by the Loco Moco—a Kobe patty over rice and Japanese mushrooms and topped with a sunny-side egg—at Carino Bistro in Calgary, Alberta.

Who needs a bun when you can have a Kobe patty atop rice and Japanese mushrooms at Carino Bistro in Calgary, Alberta?

Best Vegetarian

Yes, I probably eat more burgers than salads on the road, but I’m by no means averse to vegetarian or even vegan so long as it’s tasty. It’s no surprise that in the running capital of Eugene, Oregon, healthy folks head to Morning Glory Cafe for tofu scrambles, black-bean burgers or my baked squash mounded with chanterelle mushrooms, brown rice and goat feta.

This baked squash mounded with goodies made for a healthy lunch at Morning Glory Cafe in Eugene, Oregon

This baked squash mounded with goodies makes for a healthy lunch at Morning Glory Cafe in Eugene, Oregon

Best Pizza

Among the many contenders, my top pick is Pizzeria Seven Twelve, in Orem, Utah, where the focus is on fresh and simple but creative ingredients like hand-pulled mozzarella, house-made sausage, roasted fennel and a thin, bubbly crust with a nice tangy flavour from the sourdough starter.

Simple, house-made ingredients make this sausage and fennel pie a standout at Pizzeria Seven Twelve in Orem, Utah

Honourable Mention: At neighbourhood pub The Flying Goat, in Spokane, Washington, my Kiernan pie is layered with Italian sausage, heavy cream, an over-medium egg and some truffle-oil tossed arugula.

Italian sausage, heavy cream and truffle-oil tossed arugula add up to a winner at The Flying Goat in Spokane, Washington

Best Salad

Salt Lake City’s gorgeous Finca creates a work-of-art beet salad, with a velvety house ricotta base, a ring of beet chunks and a middle tower of argula topped by macerated strawberries and toasted almonds.

This arranged beet salad, at Finca, is almost too pretty to eat… almost

The 4 Best New Things I Ate in 2013

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The greatest thing since sliced pizza: the garlic knot at Milo & Olive in Santa Monica, California

There are plenty of mouth-watering distractions at Milo & Olive in Santa Monica, on the outskirts of Los Angeles. But I’m here for only one reason: something called a garlic knot. It features plentiful whole cloves of garlic roasted in confit fat, wrapped in pizza dough and then cooked in a wood-fired oven till slightly blistered. I tear this trussed treat apart with my hands, dipping chunks of the soft bread in the warm extra-virgin olive oil and a little dish of fresh tomato sauce they give me to try. Oh, my God, is this good, and only $7 for one of the best new things I’ve eaten in a long time.

Milo & Olive
2723 Wilshire Boulevard, Santa Monica, California
Daily, bakery opens at 7 am, restaurant 8 am-11 pm

The name alone, Hangtown Fry, makes me want to put it on this list. A celebratory dish for California gold miners in the late 1800s, it remains a signature San Francisco breakfast: a mixture of oysters, eggs and bacon cooked in a skillet. Brenda’s French Soul Food does an outstanding version, the crispy oysters blending wonderfully with the other ingredients and accompanied by some grits and a feathery biscuit.

Hanging out with some excellent hangtown fry at Brenda’s French Soul Food in San Francisco

Brenda’s French Soul Food
652 Polk Street, San Francisco
Monday-Tuesday 8 am-3 pm, Wednesday to Saturday 8 am-10 pm, Sunday 8 am-8 pm

The name, Healthy Bread, isn’t particularly inspired and scarcely prepares me for what is to come at Revelstoke B.C.’s outstanding La Baguette. Likewise, the ingredient list—including kamut flour, flax, coconut and dates—elicits more curiosity than excitement. Still, I’m in the mood for something light, and a $3.50 sandwich of toasted bread with melted cream or three-berry jam in the middle sounds about right. But the first bite blows me away, the wonderfully soft middle offset by the slight crunch of the oat-flake topping. And the flavours! I don’t know if I can ever go back to ordinary toast again.

Mind-blowingly good “healthy bread” toast at La Baguette in Revelstoke, B.C.

La Baguette
103, 607 Victoria Road, Revelstoke, B.C.
Daily 6:30 am-7 pm

Chicken wings? Really? Well, when they’re a Vietnamese take on the standard bar food and they’re the biggest, juiciest, messiest, best wings I’ve ever tasted, then yes. At Portland’s legendary Pok Pok, the wings are marinated in fish sauce and sugar, deep fried and then tossed with garlic, more fish sauce and my choice of spicy chile flakes. Pok Pok has a lot of other northern Thai choices that could make this new food list: charcoal-grilled eggplant salad, pork belly curry, lemongrass-stuffed game hen…

Fantastic, monster chicken wings with an Asian twist at Pok Pok in Portland, Oregon

Pok Pok
3226 SE Division Street, Portland, Oregon
Daily 11:30 am-10 pm

The 5 Strangest Things I Ate and Drank on Road Trips in 2013… Good Mind You

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The centrepiece of this gorgeous appetizer at Kama'aina Grindz is those pink pieces of grilled spam

The centrepiece of this gorgeous appetizer at Kama’aina Grindz, in Everett Washington, is those pink pieces of grilled spam

When I’m road-trip dining or drinking, it sometimes takes a sizable leap of faith to order something completely off the tastebud charts. But such adventures often lead to memorable culinary discoveries. Here are five that stood out in 2013.

For me, spam conjures up long-repressed memories of canned luncheon meats from when something healthier like, say, baloney was unavailable. So I’m curious to see what noted chef Dean Shinagawa can do with an updated version, called spam musubi, at his new, *Kama’aina Grindz in Everett, Washington. And I’m floored to find it, dare I say, delicious, the soy-marinated “meat” crisply grilled, perched atop rice and wrapped in seaweed—a 1960s’ sushi square if you will from this Hawaiian-Asian master. Needless to say, this spam dish is beautifully presented and a $5 bargain appetizer. The only thing I can ask, Dean, is where were you 40 years ago?

Kama’aina Grindz
2933 Colby Avenue, Everett, Washington
Monday to Thursday 11 am- 7 pm, Friday-Saturday 11 am-8 pm. Closed Sunday

I’ve heard of blackened fish and blackened chicken. But blackened soup? Or bamboo charcoal dark miso ramen, to be more precise. In Asian cultures, charcoal powder is considered a tonic for digestion, skin problems and aging. But the flavour? At Motomachi Shokudo, a top Japanese ramen house in the west end of downtown Vancouver, the soup is delightful—beautifully presented in a large ceramic bowl, with curled noodles, a soft-boiled egg and barbecued pork. But the revelation is the dark, pungent broth, highlighted by the smoky charcoal powder.

Charcoal soup at Vancouver’s Motomachi Shokudo. Much healthier and better tasting than it sounds

Motomachi Shokudo
740 Denman Street, Vancouver
Daily noon to 11 pm, except closed Wednesday

A lot of culinary innovation is happening on the food-truck scene. So it’s no surprise that Portland, with some 700 stationary food “carts”, is at the forefront. Of the many interesting cart creations I sampled on a recent Portland visit, perhaps nothing overcame my “not bloody likely” reflex quite like PBJ’s Grilled, which you may have deduced stands for grilled peanut butter and jam sandwiches. In my case, it’s the award-winning grilled Oregonian—a medley of challah bread, Oregon hazelnut butter, Rogue Creamery blue cheese and house-made marion berry jam (duck is an add on). Don’t know why, but it lives up to the cart’s motto: “Deliciously addictive.”

Keena assembling my hazelnut butter, blue cheese and marion berry jam sandwich at PBJ’s Grilled in Portland

PBJ’s Grilled
SE 12 Avenue and Hawthorne Boulevard (also at 919 NW 23 Street), Portland
Tuesday to Sunday opens at 11 am. Closed Monday

I’ve had chiles added to chocolate. So it was probably just a matter of time before they showed up in one of my beers. It’s actually on a Portland sidewalk, where I encounter Burnside Brewing brewmaster Jason McAdam grilling some Scotch bonnet peppers and peach halves on a little Weber charcoal grill. They’re being used to dry hop a version of the brewery’s Sweet Heat Ale, which when sampled definitely has some citrus notes, along with a searing punch to the back of my throat.

Grilled peaches and Scotch bonnets for a spicy, citrusy beer at Burnside Brewing in Portland. What will they think of next?

Burnside Brewing
701 East Burnside Street, Portland
Monday to Thursday opens at 3 pm, Friday to Sunday at noon

Talk about fusion, or maybe confusion. How about some booze and barbecue added to breakfast? At The Red Wagon Restaurant in Vancouver, it’s the stack of pancakes layered with pulled pork and topped with, get this, Jack Daniels maple syrup. The result is filling and unique—the salty, moist pulled pork nicely complemented by the sweet bourbon syrup. I’m just hoping the alcohol has evaporated before I hit the mid-morning streets.

How about some pulled pork layered between these pancakes, with Jack Daniels maple syrup as a sweetener?

The Red Wagon Restaurant
2296 East Hastings Street, Vancouver
Weekdays 8 am-9 pm, weekends 9 am-9 pm

In Praise of the Simple Coffee-Making Aeropress

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The Aeropress is the brew method of choice at Phil & Sebastian’s new Calgary coffeehouse

In the high-tech coffee world, cafes spend thousands of dollars on fancy machines to produce perfect cups of espresso or drip java. Yet a $25-35 plastic tube is increasingly elbowing its way into the mix at highfalutin coffeehouses.

It’s called the Aeropress, invented by Alan Adler, who also came up with the Aerobie flying ring. I do the Aeropress a bit of disservice. It’s actually two plastic tubes, one rubber-bottomed tube fitting tightly inside the other. There’s just one other piece, a black plastic cap, with a bunch of small holes, that screws onto the bottom of the larger, outside tube.

Here’s essentially how it works. Place a thin, circular paper filter inside the black cap and screw the latter on to the outside tube, placing said tube on a warmed-up cup. Dump freshly ground coffee (16 to 22 grams, depending on cup size and strength preference) into the tube and pour near-boiling water to almost fill the tube. Stir, wait a bit and then push the rubber-bottomed inner tube to the bottom of the outer tube, expelling the coffee through the filter into the cup. It takes a surprising amount of force and time, about 20 seconds, to push the liquid through.

David preparing an inverted-style Aeropress drink at Cupper’s Coffee & Tea in Lethbridge, Alberta

The Aeropress has been around for nearly a decade. But maybe because it was so simple or/and coffeehouses had invested so much in expensive machines that it’s taken awhile to win more widespread commercial appeal. But that’s certainly changing. Indeed, I saw Aeropresses being used in three upscale southern Alberta coffee shops in the past couple of weeks.

“It’s incredibly simple but brilliant in the way it works,” says Phil Robertson, co-owner of Phil & Sebastian, which uses the Aeropress to make individually brewed cups of coffee at one of its three Calgary coffeehouses. He loses me when delving into the details of things like the backpressure created in the tube. But the essence is the Aeropress produces a great cup of coffee. I like making it super strong and adding hot water for a potent Americano.

A little chocolate cake? No, it’s the thick puck I produce from the Aeropress grounds when making my potent Americano

Now, as in anything coffee related, there are many nuances in the way various shops use the Aeropress. Some prefer paper filters, others metal. Some like a coarser grind, others a finer one. Some like the standard method, others an inversion technique. Brewing times may vary.

But the beauty of the Aeropress, beside the low cost, is the simplicity of its use. The average coffee drinker using a home espresso maker is at a considerable disadvantage trying to compete with a skilled barista manning an industrial espresso machine. But with a quality bean and a wee bit of practice, home users can pretty much match the Aeropress results of the pros. A bonus is the workout you get doing those one-armed “pushdowns”.

So when you hear coffee connoisseurs talking about espresso “pulls”, don’t be surprised if they also get into Aeropress “pushes”.

Great Java in Cochrane, Alberta

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Java Jamboree owner Jess Johnston meticulously making a pour-over coffee

Okay, I’ll say it. *Java Jamboree, in the bedroom backwater of Cochrane, is one of the best coffeehouses in Alberta. Take that, snooty Calgary and Edmonton.

The reason is threefold: first-rate coffee, a place you want to linger in—beyond staring at a computer screen—and fine food that’s largely made in house.

Let’s start with the most important thing, the coffee. Young owner Jess Johnston or any of her exacting baristas can make coffee any newfangled way you want: espresso-based, inverted Aeropress, Chemex or pour over. Ironically, the only knock I have on Java Jamboree is its reliance on lightly roasted beans from Calgary’s Phil and Sebastian and Victoria’s Bows & Arrows. I just like a darker roast.

Java Jamboree hits all the right touches, like this gorgeous china cup and saucer

Second, there’s the setting. Sure, Java Jamboree is in a nondescript mall with Safeway and Canadian Tire as neighbours and an acre of parking in between. But step inside the door, and you enter a calming world of beige walls decorated with good art, reclaimed wood tables and brushed aluminum chairs, a comfy couch, soft lighting from hanging fixtures and an unobtrusive jazz soundtrack that promotes actual conversation or book reading.

Isn’t this the kind of coffee shop you’d like to hang out in?

Finally, there’s the food, a trucked-in or warmed-up afterthought at most cafes. Here, there’s a short but good menu of house-made fruit scones, breakfast wraps, a daily soup and a couple of paninis. The culinary features are four grilled cheese sandwiches, highlighted by an aged cheddar with caramelized onion jam and prosciutto and a side of their own ketchup.

Java Jamboree features four grilled cheese sandwiches, including this one with aged cheddar and prosciutto

So, you might prefer a café in Alberta that serves a bean or even food you like better. But I challenge you to find a place that can match these three pillars of a great coffeehouse.

Java Jamboree
#9, 312 5 Avenue West, Cochrane, Alberta
Monday to Saturday 8 am-6 pm, Sunday 9 am-6 pm

Savour the French at This Edmonton Cafe

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The menu at Cafe Bicyclette is in French, but the taste is universal

It’s been decades since I studied French in high school. So at Edmonton’s Café Bicyclette, my poor brain is taxed deciphering today’s menu board, with the server kindly translating phrases like pain perdu (French toast) and saucisse dejeunet (breakfast sausage). Fortunately, I need no help figuring out croque monsieur avec oeuf, a very nice version of the ham, cheese and fried egg sandwich, on a fresh baguette, for only $6. I finish things off with a good Iconoclast coffee and a delicately crumbed pineapple scone, perhaps the highlight of my petit dejeuner.

A wonderfully delicate crumb to this pineapple scone

Bicyclette is a lovely new French cafe, with just about everything— muffins and pain au chocolat to soups—made from scratch. And it comes by its French roots honestly. It’s located in the heart of Edmonton’s historic Francophone quarter, with the University of Alberta’s Campus Saint-Jean campus just up Rue Anne-Marie Gaboury. Bon appetit!

Cafe Bicyclette
8627 91 Street (Rue Anne-Marie Gaboury), Edmonton, Alberta
Weekdays 8 am-5 pm (opening at 10 am for weekend brunch), dinner Thursday to Saturday 5 pm-10 pm

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Marathon Mouth

Great road trip eats in western U.S. and Canada

My Best Road Trip Meals of 2013: Part 1

The 4 Best New Things I Ate in 2013

The 5 Strangest Things I Ate and Drank on Road Trips in 2013… Good Mind You

In Praise of the Simple Coffee-Making Aeropress

Great Java in Cochrane, Alberta

Savour the French at This Edmonton Cafe

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