A Shout Out For Little Taco Trucks

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Chicas Tacos, near Walla Walla, Washington, is like many mom-and-pop taco trucks

Chicas Tacos, near Walla Walla, Washington, is like many mom-and-pop taco trucks

In my wandering travels, I’ve come across some great little taco trucks in the middle of nowhere. So at dusk, I’m zipping past one such tattered taqueria in a dusty parking lot (is there any other kind?) in the whistle-stop town of Touchet (Too-chee), on Highway 12, just west of Walla Walla in southern Washington. And I’m thinking and driving, thinking and driving. Until, at about the three-minute mark, I slam on the brakes and skid onto a little side road, the truck driver behind me blasting his horn as he swerves by.

Elena produces good, authentic Mexican fare at bargain prices

Elena produces good, authentic Mexican fare at bargain prices

I get back to Chicas Tacos just before it closes for the day and order a little adobada (marinated pork) taco, for all of $1.50. I want to see how it tastes and, just as importantly, to chat with the owners. As I’m piling radishes, onions and homemade salsa onto the double corn tortilla, Elena and her beekeeper husband tell me they’ve been open only a few months and soon will be closing for the winter. Business has been slow—mostly truckers from the secondary highway right in front of them—and they’re hoping to stay afloat.

A nice little adobada taco for just $1.50

A nice little adobada taco for just $1.50

I hope they do. They don’t have a website or Facebook page. “We’re dinosaurs,” the husband says. But Elena is putting out good, authentic Mexican fare at bargain prices and is willing to put in the hours over a hot grill to succeed. Isn’t this what the American dream (and spontaneous road-trip dining) is all about?

Update: I drove through Touchet in late September, 2014 and didn’t see any sign of the little taco truck in the gravel parking lot. Hope it was just away that day.

New Pok Pok Cookbook

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Fantastic, monster chicken wings with an Asian twist at Pok Pok

Fantastic, monster chicken wings with an Asian twist at Pok Pok

As a follow-up to my recent post on the legendary Portland restaurant Pok Pok, owner Andy Ricker has just published a book of the same name on his unique take on northern Thai cooking. After reading this recipe from the book on phat thai, though, you might agree with me that it’s easier just heading to the restaurant than making it yourself.

Country Cooking in Millarville, Alberta

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Quiche and hearty soup feed the country soul at Corner House Cafe in Millarville, Alberta

Quiche and hearty soup feed the country soul at The Corner House Cafe in Millarville, Alberta

Sitting in The Corner House Café feels like being in a farmhouse kitchen. It’s partly the location—in the rolling foothills southwest of Calgary near Millarville, home of Alberta’s original farmers’ market and its century-old horse racetrack. But it’s also about being in this cozy, old house at a table right next to the open kitchen. There, four women are peeling potatoes, manually grating carrots for soup and fixing breakfasts, while chatting amongst themselves and with the regulars.

The short menu features omelettes and Highway Crossing oatmeal at breakfast—chased by Fratello coffee or lattes—and chile, sandwiches and quesadillas at lunch. I’m not usually a quiche person but am intrigued by one with sweet potato crust, which indeed is sweet and crumbly soft. The airy quiche is easily matched by the accompanying bowl of spicy soup, chockfull of sausage and greens in a flavourful broth.

Sitting in the Corner House Cafe is like being in a farm kitchen

Sitting in The Corner House Cafe is like being in a farm kitchen

The building, at the junction of Highway 22 and the turnoff to the Millarville Farmers’ Market, has been owned by the Lee family since 1927. Lorraine Vernon and Tracey Rigon took over the restaurant two years ago and are doing a bang-up job of feeding folks and preserving that laid-back country feel.

The Corner House Café
549 Highway 22, Millarville, Alberta
Tuesday to Friday 7 am- 3pm, Saturday, 8 am-3 pm. Closed Sunday and Monday (and all of January 2014)
Corner House Cafe on Urbanspoon

Just down the road in Black Diamond, Jacquie Gabriel and daughter Jan Morgensen have recently opened JnJ Tea Infusion. It’s definitely worth checking out for a wide selection of loose teas—to buy or to enjoy in their Tea Shoppe—along with great muffins and pies baked by Angela Boznianin.

Jacquie Gabriel is serving up great tea and baked goods at JnJ Tea Infusion in Black Diamond

Jacquie Gabriel is serving up great tea and baked goods at JnJ Tea Infusion in Black Diamond

JnJ Tea Infusion
126 Centre Avenue West, Black Diamond
Tuesday to Thursday 9 am-5 pm, Friday 9 am-4 pm, Saturday 10 am-3 pm. Closed Sunday and Monday

Culinary Delights in Alberta’s Crowsnest Pass

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Coleman is an old coal-mining community in Alberta's historic Crowsnest Pass

Coleman is an old coal-mining community in Alberta’s historic Crowsnest Pass

It’s not just the wind that blows through Crowsnest Pass, in Alberta’s southwest corner. Most travellers, too, just breeze by, other than to briefly gawk at the immense boulder rubble from the Frank Slide, fill their gas tanks and maybe get a coffee and blueberry-lemon muffin at Cinnamon Bear Bakery & Café (8342 Highway 3). But there’s plenty of mountain scenery and rich coal-mining history to soak up here, plus a couple of first-rate, distinctive eateries to hit along a short stretch of Highway 3 in Coleman.

Good muffins and cinnamon buns at Cinnamon Bear Bakery & Cafe in Coleman

Good muffins and cinnamon buns at Cinnamon Bear Bakery & Cafe in Coleman

I’ve finally found an opportunity to use the old line: “Waiter, there’s a fly in my soup.” To do so, however, I’d have to buy and then drop a tied streamer into my chowder at *Crowsnest Cafe & Fly Shop, a unique combination of food and fly fishing. One half of the light-filled, wood-floored old house is devoted to flies, rods, reels and cleated boots, the other to dining tables.

Pick up some tied flies at lunch at Crowsnest Cafe & Fly Shop

Pick up some tied flies while dining at Crowsnest Cafe & Fly Shop

The meals are definitely no afterthought here, with owner Susan Douglas-Murray crafting scratch-made breakfasts and lunches in her small, open kitchen. My generous bowl of steaming, slightly spicy soup is chockfull of roasted root vegetables, while the accompanying wrap is pork tenderloin marinated in a black bean sauce, baked and then rolled inside a lightly toasted tortilla. It’s terrific stuff, especially if I need fuel for an afternoon’s fly fishing with her husband, guide Alan Brice (“trout psychologist”), on the storied Crowsnest River.

Excellent roasted root soup and pork tenderloin wrap at Crowsnest Cafe

Excellent roasted root soup and pork tenderloin wrap at Crowsnest Cafe & Fly Shop

Crowsnest Cafe & Fly Shop
8501 Highway 3, Coleman, Alberta
Winter hours Wednesday to Sunday 8 am-5 pm
Crowsnest Cafe and Fly Shop on Urbanspoon

I’m not sure what’s more unusual about *The Blackbird Restaurant—the authentic Mexican cuisine it’s serving in the tiny community or the high ceiling, 1905 church this new dining spot is located in. Is it further blasphemy when bearded co-owner Brock Jellison arrives at my lunch table and, without asking, starts pouring from a wine bottle into my glass? Actually, it’s just water (turning wine into water?).

Service is not just on Sundays at The Blackbird Restaurant

Service is not just on Sundays at The Blackbird Restaurant

This just sets me up for the next surprise: the excellent tacos that chef Alejandro Verdi is turning out from his small kitchen. There’s one with tender chunks of chicken and a piquant house-made green mole sauce and another with marinated flank steak that’s cooked a perfect medium rare. Sure, the $4 price tag for each is higher than at a streetside taqueria down south, but the size and quality of ingredients and preparation make this darn good value in the frozen north. Even if they have to deal with customers asking for forks.

How about some chicken and flank steak tacos?

How about some chicken and flank steak tacos?

The Blackbird Restaurant
7914 20 Avenue (Highway 3), Coleman, Alberta
Daily 11 am-9 pm, except closed Tuesday. Cash only
Blackbird Coffee House on Urbanspoon

Don’t Whine If I Buy My Pinot Noir at a Grocery Store

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I've discovered this cute little California wine boutique

I’ve discovered this cute little California wine boutique

I was asking San Francisco friends who have a Sonoma property what boutique wineries with somewhat affordable prices they frequent. “Oh, we don’t buy wine in the Sonoma or Napa Valleys,” they replied. “We just go to Safeway. They’ve got great selection, and you can get big Club Card discounts.”

Indeed, anytime I gave my Canadian Safeway Club Card number, or phone number in the U.S., I got said discounts, too. It also works at Von’s, a Safeway affiliate in some California cities.

Now, I do advocate frequenting independent places to eat and drink. And I enjoy visiting wineries (especially in beautiful wine-producing regions), tasting their products, maybe meeting the owner or winemaker and picking up some bottles in situ.

But you can't beat the ambience of a tasting room in a beautiful wine-producing area like Poplar Grove's spiffy new place in B.C.'s Okanagan Valley

But you can’t beat the ambience of a tasting room in a beautiful wine-producing area like Poplar Grove’s spiffy new place in B.C.’s Okanagan Valley

But I also like affordable, and if the product is the same and the winery’s still getting its cut, price does become a factor. Plus, sometimes you don’t have time for that trip to the winery and want a nice pinot noir to drink out of a paper cup at the motel.

This Cougar Definitely Well Aged

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They may not be so good at football, but Washington State University produces champion cheese

It may not be so good at football, but Washington State University produces champion cheese

When I was growing up in Edmonton, Alberta, a big part of any visit from our Pullman, Washington relatives was the tin of Cougar Gold cheese they’d bring as a gift. It was old and crumbly and came in a nearly two-pound tin. Yes, a tin. In my opinion, it’s the finest sharp white cheddar in North America, developed in the 1930s and still produced by students at Washington State University, with the individual maker’s name stamped on each tin.

So when I hear South Fork Public House in Pullman has a mac and cheese with Cougar Gold sauce ($11.50), I have to head right over. I don’t need a menu, steering right past the burgers, sandwiches, sliders and other pub food straight to the mac and cheese. The bacon bits and scallion topping are nice but don’t get in the way of the thick, rich Cougar Gold sauce sticking to the penne like a warm blanket. Now, that’s my kind of childhood comfort food.

After licking the bowl clean, I go in search of Dissmore’s IGA, so I can take a tin or two back to Canada. Note: The cheese is cheaper to buy at Ferdinand’s Ice Cream Shoppe, if you can find nearby parking on campus, but it doesn’t have Dissmore’s outstanding selection of beers. It can also be ordered online in the U.S. through the link above.

South Fork Public House makes an excellent mac 'n cheese featuring, of course, Cougar Gold

South Fork Public House makes an excellent mac ‘n cheese featuring, of course, Cougar Gold

South Fork Public House
1680 South Grand Avenue, Pullman
Opens daily at 11:30 am
South Fork Public House on Urbanspoon