The Cured Ham

Arterra, Marriott Del Mar

I've dined here several times over the years, the original concept designed by Bay Area restaurateur Bradley Ogden. The fish and chips have been one of my favorites over the years. But today I went with what seems to becoming my new favorite for lunch, the burger.

Brioche bun, lettuce, tomato, bacon, cheese, tasty garlic, cheese and rosemary fries and a request for a medium-rare burger. Since I'm highlighting it, no, the cow was over-cooked to a well done. As this was a business lunch, I wasn't going to send back the burger.

Every other item of the burger was good, although I do prefer a bit more mayonnaise or 'special sauce' on the burger. Certainly not the worst burger I've had and obviously not the best. I'll probably keep returning to Arterra as the food over the years have been solid, even under different chefs, the atmosphere good for business lunches, and of course as a Platinum Marriott Card Member I tend to eat in the hotel when convenient.

Gumbo Throwdown in Fresno

The Gumbo Throwdown at the Vineyard Farmer's Market today, was fun (albeit loud). For me, the easy winner was Trelio. Lovely color and flavor, real depth and I'm looking forward to trying some of your wine as well (since we talked about it today) Dusty Buns certainly gets Best Presentation, but I wish the sample had more pop in the mouth. Spiciest had to be the Culinary Academy with their late entry, kudos for a solid showing. Cracked Pepper had a round mouth feel, almost like a beef gravy rather than a spicey cajun edge. Max's reminded me instantly of a thick chicken soup that was enriched with Old Bay and cajun seasonings. 

To my fellow bloggers, my alter ego had to catch a flight, so I got there early and left in a hurry, unexpected business. Another time. Goodbye Fresno, time to catch that plane.

Fuy Jou, Miraflores, Lima, Peru

 

Fuy Jou in Lima came recommended to us by a Chinese-American Seattle family visiting relatives in Lima that we met at dinner the night before at Panchita. The joys of being a friendly traveler.

A good walk from the hotel, Fuy Jou in located on the fifth floor of a multi-use commercial building in the Miraflores District of Lima. Not easy to find as we wouldn’t have thought to look up to the 5^th floor, we walked up the stairs to a good size dining facility, with seating for over 120 people, set up that afternoon buffet style. Sure enough, for 35 soles a person about $13, it was all-you-can-eat Chifa. Not what I expected, but certainly welcome as a stage to try a variety of Chifa in Peru. One other thing, this place went from empty to fully booked in about 20 minutes at lunch, with several 6,8,and 10 top tables making more visits to the cold and hot station than I did. The difference here in Lima compared to the buffet line in Vegas, the lack of the grossly obese.

I made about 5 rounds of visits to the cold, hot, and dessert areas. The dim sum area of the hot section was a regular stop with classic pork shu mai and shrimp dumplings in mass supply. In the cold section, a simple sliced cucumber and garlic dish was one of my favorites; along with a Thai glass noodle salad which had some heat. In the hot section, stir fried green beans and garlic was tasty, as were the shitakes stir fried with soy and garlic. 

The flan to end my buffet fest was a surprising sweet treat. I real good flan, not over-gelatinized, or over-sweet, the flan was delicious.

Certainly didn’t expect a Chinese buffet for our afternoon lunch, but considering the variety and regular fresh plates coming from the kitchen, the afternoon turned out great.

Dick's Smoke Wagon, Big Pine, CA

 

Dick’s Smoke Wagon, Big Pine. While I didn’t get a chance to head to the East Side of California over the summer, I was lucky enough to break away during the winter. However, that means going “around the horn” through Mojave. There are benefits to this route, one being the Indian Wells Brewery in Inyokern the second includes driving through the towns of Lone Pine, Independence, Big Pine and Bishop.

Big Pine, gateway to the Palisades Mountain Range and the Ancient Bristlecone Forest is home to one more local treasure, Dick’s Smoke Wagon. Driving North, on the East Side of Main Street in Big Pine is a large mobile trailer parked on a concrete slab. The trailer is familiar to me, but it’s out of place. This trailer has been parked in Bishop for as long as I can remember. So why is it parked here in Big Pine and why is it parked next to what appears to be a renovated commercial kitchen?

 

I approach the trailer, walk up the ramp and talk with the sole occupant. After a ‘hello’ the man in the trailer rolls right into telling me the finishing times of each of the things he’s smoking, ribs, ribs, ribs; all several hours away from tender completion. Not good for my time schedule. “But if you’re here for lunch, I’ve got all my sandwiches ready, along with beans, coleslaw, and home-made jalapeno poppers.” Oh yes, I’m ready for lunch.

 

I proceed to order the bbq pulled pork sandwich with bbq baked beans and a vinegar based coleslaw. But is this a sandwich? The bottom of a small white dinner roll is placed in the middle of the center island of the take-away container and covered with a heaping portion of pork, bbq sauce, and topped with simple slivered cabbage. The top of the bun is laid to rest on the mass of pork. It is as though Dali has influenced the construction and inspiration for the surreal pork sandwich. The perfect unblemished little bun riding on top of pork carnage, underneath, the bun’s other half, immersed in a sea of bbq sauce and pork. Technically a sandwich, meat sandwiched in between two pieces of bread, yet unworkable as a sandwich eaten with your hands. Adding to the total experience and scene, a converted mobile trailer with smoke billowing from the front, parked on an industrial concrete slab, with a view of the snowcapped Sierra Nevada range. A surreal masterpiece!

Normally, people get lazy when they pull pork and allow large hunks of fat to mix in with pure meat. Not at Dick’s Smoke Wagon. Pure meat in my sandwich. The sauce is tangy, not too sweet, with nice spice notes. It’s a balance moment, all the aspects of great sauce. The beans and slaw were very tasty. The coleslaw had more vinegar than mayo, crispy, well integrated and offered a bit of cutting acid to the sweet bbq sauce and the richness of the pork.

 

I chatted with the pit master a bit after eating my sandwich. We discussed who made the Smoke Wagon, the development of the commercial kitchen, and the upcoming trout season. Before I continued my drive, I figured I’d ask if I could take a bottle of his BBQ sauce.

“Excuse me. Do you bottle your sauce?”

“No, just make it fresh each day depending on what I think I need. If I bottle it, it wouldn’t be fresh would it?”

Now how can I disagree with that?! I hope my readers can make it to Big Pine and try Dick’s Smoke Wagon. They are also on FACEBOOK.

Thai Thai, Bishop, CA

 

Thai Thai at the Bishop Airport: Build it and they will come, should be the motto for this Thai restaurant. Located on the grounds of the Bishop general aviation airfield, Thai Thai has carved out a niche in the Bishop dining scene.

 

Not an elaborate menu for lunch, one page with about a dozen choices. There are a few Thai classics with Pad Thai of course. I went with the deep fried spring rolls and Thai fried rice.

The spring rolls were fried fresh, were nice and crispy, and filled with vegetables. A sweet and sour sauce accompanied the spring rolls. Good, hot and crunchy but not particularly Thai, more Chinese in flavor than Thai. I have tended over the years to appreciate the fresh and unfried spring rolls in Vietnamese cuisine, but as fried spring rolls go, these were very good.

 

The Thai fried rice was another story. This rice was spicy, flavorful, and was more of what I expected from a Thai restaurant. The heat of the dish didn’t come all at once, it built with each bite, almost forcing you to eat more and faster just to work up the necessary perspiration to combat the heat building in your mouth. The shrimp in the dish were cooked properly and there were whole pieces of basil throughout the dish.

 

I wish I had more time in Bishop to eat at Thai Thai at least 3 more times to try a few of the classics. My Jedi senses tell me that this place is a winner and unique among the restaurants along the East Side of California and HWY 395. I look forward to coming here again (and yes, I told my climbing buddies about this place every chance I get).

Perry's Italian, Mammoth Lakes

A meatball sandwich and a cup of clam chowder doesn’t get any more simple or hearty for lunch. Perry’s did both items justice. Was it a life changing meatball sandwich experience? No, but the sandwich was hot, the meatballs moist, the tomato sauce wasn’t too tangy or sweet, the cheese was melted, and the bread didn’t disintegrate upon my second bite. As for the clam chowder, it was creamy, hot, and well seasoned. This gut-buster of a meal came to just under $11.

Gomez's, Mammoth Lakes

I generally avoid the chaos in the Village, but I haven’t been to the new Gomez’s mega location in The Village at Mammoth Lakes. I sat at the bar and ordered my standard, one carnitas taco and one al pastor taco along with a Negro Modelo. Certainly not the best two tacos I have recently, certainly not the worst. The carnitas were not refried and not crispy. My guess, the carnitas were slow braised, picked apart, cubed and summarily put in a chafing dish at around 3pm to slowly warm until they were put in my taco. The pastor was probably cooked the same way with the addition of spices and sauce and also left in the warm steaming tray until service. The tacos, surprisingly did come with sides of pico de gallo, guacamole, and salsa.

What is the real highlight of Gomez’s? The atmosphere with friends and the selection of tequila. Gomez’s serves over 200 different tequilas. I finished my evening with a sipper of Casa Noble Anejo. Tastes of tobacco, caramel, and vanilla made average tacos digest just a little smoother. And I thank you Mr. Bartender for help with the tequila.

Sushi Bar at JW Marriott, Lima Peru

The Sushi Bar at the JW Marriott was a no-brainer when combined with our late checkout and late flight back to the States. Yes, Americanized, unadventuresome, and pricey by Peruvian standards, but easy.

Peruvian inspired rolls dominated our selections and the ubiquitous Cuzquena filled our bellies nicely. Traditionally wrapped sushi in seaweed and fresh local fish selection, however, the sauces and seasonings were more Peruvian than Japanese. Sauces that we had throughout the trip adorned many of the orders. The only sauce we didn’t care for was a creamy Ranch style blend. I don’t think we had Hidden Valley Ranch at any restaurant in two weeks. I’m exaggerating a bit, the sauce wasn’t Hidden Valley, but it certainly tasted like it. The pace of the meal was great, we weren’t in any rush to get to our flight and the flavor of all the dishes, minus the ranch dressing, was a deft use of fusion. Chef was there experimenting with appetizers and large sharing plates for the upcoming New Year’s festivities, which he was generous enough to share with us.

A good last meal in Peru.

Fory Fay, Arequipa, Peru

Ceviche for Peruvians is serious business and ordered only between the hours of 10am and 2pm. Just like most people’s first trip to Italy and the scorn one receives for ordering a cappuccino after 10am, same goes for ceviche in Peru. Luckily, the hotel clued us in on the local custom. When we entered Fory Fay at 11am, we sat down to a bowl of toasted corn kernels and immediately ordered a Cuzquena. I had high hopes for this place. When I suggested it to the hotel, they encouraged we not go to such a “local” place, which meant we had chosen the right place and obviously authentic.

   

Bowl of Ceviche and I do mean a bowl. Chunks of whitefish (perhaps corvina) shrimp, mussels, and one other crustacean. Plenty of thinly sliced red onion, copiousamounts of lime, and some green perhaps seaweed perhaps WaCatay an indigenous herb that’s has the flavor of both basil and mint. What shocked me was the amount of liquid used to submerge our fish. Almost a soup, the residual liquid from the cure was drinkable, of which I indulged. The addition of seaweed and sweet potato can also be seen. The sweet potato over a different texture and a bit of sweetness to contrast all the acid from the curing liquid.

 

Plate of frito misto or fried fish of the day. The same fish that was in the ceviche with the addition of calamari and an equally generous portion size. Good, clean fry job with nothing over or under done. I happended to like the onion salad a lot; it helped cut the deep fry flavor; although the batter was seasoned slightly. My comparison in recent memory was a small Italian restaurant in Noli, near Finale Ligure in Northern Italy. The fish was simply deep-fried. Fresh fish, hot oil, slightly seasoned batter that dresses the fish but doesn’t over-power it. The Peruvian’s in Arequipa are frying their fish properly.

This was our last meal in Arequipa before we board a flight to Cuzco two hours later. The ceviche and frito misto at Fory Fay was one of the best meals of the trip.

Jack's Cafe, Cuzco, Peru

An unexpected guidebook treat, Jack’s Café in Cuzco for breakfast.

How can you screw up breakfast even when it comes with the room? By serving 3 day old bread, stinky cheese, and barely enough other items to choose from to get my day started, hence my trip down the block to Jack’s.

I’d probably walked by Jack’s 10 times while in Cuzco. It’s on the corner of the main drag in the San Blas neighborhood. I’d actually stopped in briefly on my first day for some coca tea. Over-rated that coca tea. Anyway, Jack’s seemed like a decent place. Jack’s has an espresso machine and Guinness and serves breakfast all day.

Absolutely some of the fluffiest pancakes around, no doubt. Along with crispy bacon and a solid café latte, Jack’s was worth every penny walking off hotel for breakfast. They offered me plenty of extra butter and syrup as well. It was too early for me to think about food pictures, so instead I’ll throw in a picture of one of the main churches in Cuzco.