By Kevin Finch on June 29, 2008
Headed up 101 toward Saratoga on Friday we took a culinary long shot on Mexican fast food in a spot that looked like it started life as a generic McDonalds, Wendy’s, or BK. A little shabby now with window paint advertizing tortas and tacos in bright colors, the spot looked marginally better than the Fish-N-Chips option in a former Skippers across the street.
The name? Senor Taco. Our order? Two super quesidillas (Brendan and Megan) , one chicken torta (Peter), and three Mexican tacos at $1.39 each for me. A giant Styrofoam cup horchata to share.
Horchata, in passing, is a sweet milky drink that doesn’t actually have any dairy in it. Served cold, you can expect to taste rice, almonds, and cinnamon in each swig.
The carne asada tacos were satisfying, the taco carnita was brilliant, and the super quesidillas were close to transcendent: think cheesy chicken fajitas in a huge flour tortilla. The building might have been shabby, but the food turned out to be great. Long shots can pay off big in the world of generic fast food.
Posted in dining, travel | Tagged Mexican, Salinas CA, taco |
By Kevin Finch on June 29, 2008
Another cheap dining tip from Jonathan Gold led to the 101 Noodle Express in Alhambra in search of what he described enthusiastically as a beef roll. It arrived along with two plates of steamed dumplings of the shrimp-pork and vegetable persuasion.
I believe the wrap for the roll is technically a Chinese pancake but it reminds me of a slightly sweet and barely charred example of the Indian flatbread, naan. As Gold promised it came stuffed with shredded beef, scallions, and cilantro and smeared with a bean paste.
Several bites and I began to wonder if every culture has something like the archetypal taco. This deserves more research, but my instinct is that most of the world’s most distinctive cuisines do have something to wrap and roll. And I’ll happily order another of the Chinese version.
Posted in dining | Tagged cheap eats, Chinese, Los Angeles CA, taco |
By Kevin Finch on June 28, 2008
Several Los Angeles restaurants claim to have created the ‘French dip’ sandwich. Philippe The Original near the north end of Olivera Street is possibly the most famous with its long deli counter and steady stream of customers, concrete floor scattered with sawdust and long barracks-style tables. Jonathan Gold of the L.A. Weekly believes another local establishment actually first built the French Dip and I defer to his research. I’ll track down that other spot on some future trip. This time around it was Philippe The Original we visited after buying in the shops on Olivera both a small cherry snow cone ($1.75) and a ‘portrait on a plank’ of St. Jude (patron saint of impossible cases).
Philippe The Original accepts only cash so we forked over $5.35 for a ‘special French dipped beef sandwich.’ 80 cents more gets you Bleu cheese. Maybe next time on the cheese.
The sandwich itself was smaller than I expected and they dip the sliced side of the French roll in broth for you. The result was simple and satifying, though a side of more au jus for dipping would have been welcome.
Posted in dining, travel | Tagged beef, French dip, Los Angeles CA, Philippe The Original, sandwich |
By Kevin Finch on June 27, 2008
Just south of Big Sur on Route 1 we ran into a Highway Patrol roadblock due to a wildfire burning to close to the road. The forced us back to backtrack down the coast for 50 + miles to head inland. Frustrating. Not long after turning around I noticed we were low on fuel and pulled into a pump halfway back down the stretched we’d driven earlier. The sign out front of the small collection of buidings perched beside the road above the ocean said “Welcome to Gorda.” No prices were posted two pumps out front, and I suspected this was intentional. I would like to suggest they change the name of their little community to Gouge-a because $15 bought me less than 2 1/2 gallons. Just to be sure I asked the man at the pump the price per gallon: one penny under six.
Posted in travel | Tagged gas prices, Gorda CA, Route 1 |
By Kevin Finch on June 23, 2008
We find ourselves at Bookmans in Flagstaff AZ this afternoon – drawn by the promise of used books and less inspiring scenery. Two days in Zion National Park and then three on the South Rim of the Grand Canyon have left us somewhat numb to grandeur. So we are camped out in the air-conditioning of a Flagstaff used book store. I’ll take a swing at stories of the parks later. It was my first visit to either Zion or the Grand Canyon as well, and I’m still sorting through what impacted me the most. Last night Peter and I hiked down the top section of the South Kaibab Trail with Ranger Joseph Felgenhauer: stunning and at a few points terrifying. I seem to be developing a reaction to narrow paths next to steep cliffs that remarkably resembles a fear of heights. Add in some serious wind and it turned into a memorable evening.
This morning we blew the bank on a breakfast at El Tovar – the elegant old hotel perched on the Grand Canyon’s South Rim. Dinners at El Tovar typically require reservations months in advance. We showed up for breakfast at 6:30 a.m. and had the old log dining room almost to ourselves… getting a table by the windows overlooking the canyon. Peter ordered Blackened Breakfast Trout with Eggs ($11, decent) and I tried the Prime Rib Hash ($12, also decent). Megan and Bredan ordered more standard breakfast fair. We liked the butter pressed into medalions with the El Tovar crest on the top and a fun presentation of the Belgian hot chocolate.
Our waiter was Harrison. At least that was how he introduced himself and what his namebag said. The only descrepancy was on our bill. When it came, it listed the name Meng rather than Harrison as our server: less like a Hollywood hero surely, but probably more common in western China where Harrison called home.
Through the course of the meal we heard a few stories about his time working at the Grand Canyon (his first visit to America) and decided we wanted to drop our third Unexpected 20 for Mr. Harrison Meng. I had to run out to the car to dig out up and ran back in to hand it to the woman at the reservation desk. Only when I arrived at the desk, there he was in person. It was a delight to hand it to him (inside a second blank envelope and disappear back out the front door.
Posted in dining, travel | Tagged Flagstaff, Grand Canyon, South Kaibab Trail, unexpected 20, Zion |
By Kevin Finch on June 19, 2008
So far we’ve given out two Unexpected 20 envelopes.
The first in Boise to the woman cleaning up breakfast dishes at the Hyatt. When I returned to the front desk to ask about check out procedure after loading the car, she had found the envelope and discussing it with two other women at the front desk. She seemed disturbed. I wonder if there is a hotel policy that the envelope might have bumped into. In the future, it might help to put an actual name on the envelope. This would also require connecting with the person in question creatively which could be just as important as the gift.
Megan had some great ideas for the web site as we drove away and sketched them out on several sheets of paper.
The second envelope we left for our server last night at Kyoto with the check. I believe her name was Toki, but I wasn’t sure. Instead of a name, I just wrote ‘thanks’ on the envelope and placed it under the charge receipt.
Posted in culture, play, travel | Tagged care, gift, surprise, unexpected 20 |
By Kevin Finch on June 18, 2008
After arriving in Salt Lake City in time for a late lunch, we visited both the state capitol building and the nerve center for the LDS church: Temple Square. Both were striking in different ways. The capitol building was pristine after a recent restoration and is set imposingly on a hill at the top of State Street.
Temple Square is at the foot of the hill with the massive LDS offices on one side and the SLC temple in the center surrounded by extensive grounds. Spiritually it felt like the massive Buddist temple complex I visited in Hangzhou, China in March: blank. Yet alongside this spiritual blank was a powerful sense of religion.
Then there is the power differential in the city. I don’t know exactly what I was picking up, but it ‘felt’ crystal clear that the power in the city centered on Temple Square rather than up the road at the capitol building. Both were visually beautiful, but there was a weight and control around the LDS grounds that was palpable. Megan wanted to leave from the moment we drove underneath the Square into a parking garage maze. I too felt uncomfortable.
The security differences just might back up our instincts. At the capitol, we saw no visible security cameras and wandered into the unlocked Senate gallery as well as several committee hearing rooms I would have expected to be secured at 6 pm in the evening.
Contrast this to the situation down the hill. Security cameras were both inside and outside buildings at Temple Square along with plenty of dark blue blazers at strategic points. Some of the blazers (or an occassional pinstripe) were on older men lounging in this garden or that plaza. But even the older men paid too much attention those of us wandering around to be just well-dressed visitors. Again, Megan picked this up too: saying she felt all the men in suits were watching her.
Less sinister or just strange was the food. Lunch took us to Pat’s BBQ. What space was left for dinner we filled at Kyoto – a traditional Japanese restaurant in a quiet neighborhood with sweet fresh tuna.
Pat’s serves quite respectable ribs, pulled pork, and brisket. I would have liked to try their chicken but they’d sold out by the time we arrived. The old office/industrial building that houses Pat’s is a maze with the take-out counter on the street side and a hall tunneling back into the building to the dining room at the back and a patio where the alley should be. All indications suggest massive crowds for BBQ and live music on the weekends.
The location doesn’t lend itself to easy discovery so something else (the award winning BBQ or the scene) is what brings customers. A gravel lot reserved for customers is half a block away if you can’t find street parking.
Posted in dining, travel | Tagged food, government, religion, Salt Lake City |
By Kevin Finch on June 18, 2008
It only takes a few hours of travel off the Interstate to make me begin to wonder if state roads attract kitsch the way certain kinds of clothing attract lint. We snapped pictures of several today, but here are the two top entries.
(1) a slightly off-orthodox Idaho prophet utilizing road signs rather than parchment
(2) a giant “dog” house that actually appears to be a bed and breakfast
Posted in travel | Tagged billboard, dog house, Idaho, travel kitsch |
By Kevin Finch on June 18, 2008
We hit the road today – heading south and east from Spokane. The destination today was Boise ID, and two days ago I stumbled across praise of a Mexican seafood spot in… of all places… a bedroom community of Boise called Caldwell. The praise sounded credible, and so we skipped both the chain restaurants near our Boise Towne Center hotel and the upscale tourist spots in downtown for Tacos y Mariscos El Compa in Caldwell. 320 North Kimball Street in Caldwell to be exact: a good twenty miles east.
The signature ceviche on the menu, the Tostada Mixta ($4.99), was stunning with crab, shrimp, octopus, and fish all marinated raw in lemon juice and tasting impossibly fresh in the middle of Idaho. The ceviche alone is reason for Tacos y Mariscos El Compa to develop a cult following, but also on the menu is a $2.50 taco de pescado (fish taco) that literally might be the best fish taco I’ve ever tasted.
I’ve never had a great Philly cheesesteak more the 50 miles from Philadelphia, and I assumed that the only credible location to find real fish tacos would be in Baja, San Diego, or LA. Add to that list Boise. Go figure.
Posted in dining, travel | Tagged Boise ID, fish taco, Mexican, seafood |
By Kevin Finch on June 13, 2008
Alexa Wilson and her team at the Wild Sage bistro on 2nd Avenue in Spokane skip the typical bread platter in favor of their signature popovers. This in itself is a gift, but combine it with their current sweet fennel and citrus butter and there is good reason for you to drop what you are doing this moment and race down for a few bites of bliss. 
Posted in dining | Tagged butter, Northwest restaurants, popover, restaurant, Spokane, Spokane restaurants, Spokane WA, Wild Sage |
By Kevin Finch on June 13, 2008
I am going to begin two months of sabbatical with a road trip. One adult. One teen. Two junior highers (twins). And a Chrysler mini-van that has no idea that the cost of gas just blew past $4.
The plan is to depart on Tuesday, June 17 and be on the road until July 3.
Boise. Salt Lake City. Zion National Park. Grand Canyon. Vegas. Long Beach. Santa Barbara or somewhere on the California Coast. Saratoga CA. Redwoods National Park. Manzanita OR. Portland or Seattle.
Several nights will be in hotels compliments of hotwire.com. Several others will be camping and the kicker here is that my recent camping experience is limited to one night four years ago. I even had to ask a friend to come over to help me set up our tent so the camping adventure quote will be high.
Food along the way will be a priority.
Posted in travel | Tagged camping, road trip, travel |
