More about Road Food

We care a lot about food, in case you hadn't noticed--I guess we bought a camper so we could drag our kitchen around. I hate eating junk. Now we are on this freeway/motel trip from Tucson to Cape Cod, and here is how we survive. We eat out only once a day, usually dinner, and avoid chain restaurants, looking for anything local or ethnic or fresh--not always possible, but it's fun to look.


We take a small ice chest and a plastic box of food and utensils, and a paper bag with fruit. This five-day trip the cooler contained Jarlsberg cheese, English Coastal Cheddar, a package of fancy Italian cold cuts, mustard, a couple of kinds of hummus, small cans of tomato juice, baby carrots from the garden, grapes, cherries. The box contains a small cutting board, a roll of paper towels, a tablecloth, a knife, a corkscrew, silverware, a box of RyKrisp, a loaf of whole wheat sliced bread, a tin of herring fillets with black pepper. The produce bag holds two avocados, a small bunch of bananas, apples, peaches, plums, etc. which we eat as they ripen. All this costs less than a few fast food lunches! And we only spent an hour apiece assembling the ingredients--Dad at Trader Joe's, me at Sprouts.


We eat breakfast in our motel room and have a picnic lunch wherever it happens. We've been lucky with dinners on this trip and even though we've driven 500 or 600 miles per day, ended up with New Mexican food the first night, then barbecue, last night sushi, and tonight a sort of hometown Pennsylvania seafood/Italian thing.

Getting Lucky in Kansas

We arrived at our motel in Ottawa, Kansas after 7:00 last night, in a downpour. We have driven 1200 miles in two days, on track to get from Tucson to Cape Cod in five days.

There were "restaurants" all around us: Applebee's, Wendy's, McDonald's! We really wanted barbecue, so we looked in the Yellow Pages and there was indeed a barbecue joint--and they delivered! I ordered a rib plate and a chicken plate with spicy sauce, and twenty minutes later it arrived. $7.85 per plate. A miracle.

We had been lugging around a bottle of champagne, waiting for something worth celebrating--and this was definitely it.

Lunching Out

With Grandma in rehab (that's physical therapy, for those of you who don't know her), the last few days we have fallen into a pattern: we visit her in the morning and take her the paper; we visit her in the afternoon; and in between we go out to lunch. This will have to stop. Thursday we had trendy Italian; yesterday we had Greek (a grilled eggplant sandwich for me--Eva, we must find out how they do their grilled eggplant!); and today a Guatemalan restaurant called Maya Quetzal.

The place is completely uninspiring when you look in the cash register, linoleum floor, and plastic chairs. But if you go through to the back patio, it's pleasant. We were with Mary Ellen, so we could order three different things. She had pork in an amazing pipian sauce, Dad had chiles rellenos containing spinach, walnuts, and more, and I had the divine vegetarian plate. There was a turnover made of a thick corn tortilla stuffed with cheese, walnuts, and spinach; black beans; and then instead of the "Spanish" rice the others had, my plate had a side of white rice cooked with corn, sour cream, and cheese. It was really the best rice dish any of us have ever had.

Now I am going to drag you to that restaurant when you visit, and I'm also going to try to find that recipe.

We went to the local street fair two days in a row, once to look at woodworking vendors with David, and once on a Christmas shopping expedition. The Greek and Guatemalan restaurants were in that district, so we walked to lunch both of those days. It's been in the 70's at midday, with clouds and sunsets in the evening.

Sesame Broccoli

Grandma took us to lunch today at a new place called Bistro Phillippe. We've been to the same spot before, and this is at least the third restaurant inhabiting the space. It has a fairly well-known chef from a nearby resort, doing French regional/country.

There were several lovely salads to order: Grandma had Salade Nicoise and I had Scottish salmon salad, but Dad had Muscovy Duck Confit with a white wine sauce over his pasta (oof--I want to take a cholesterol pill just writing about it.) The salads were served in steep glass bowls, like mixing bowls, layered beautifully. A very good lunch.

Understandably we were less enthusiastic about dinner (me, anyway, especially after teaching afternoon piano lessons). I served a frittata using nearly the last of Dad's garden spinach, gluten-free cornbread, and Sesame Broccoli. This broccoli recipe has served me well over years. Even kids like it.

Sesame Broccoli

1 large bunch broccoli, broken into florets

Cook broccoli until crisp-tender and still bright green. Cool.

2 tablespoons sesame seeds, lightly toasted

1/4 cup dry vermouth or white wine

2 tablespoons soy sauce

2 teaspoons sesame oil

2 teaspoons honey

Mix remaining ingredients to make dressing. Toss with broccoli just before serving. Best at room temperature, not chilled.