#48 WASHINGTON -  And Then There Were None

I’ve been everywhere, man

I’ve been everywhere man

Crossed the deserts bare, man

I’ve breathed the mountain air, man

Travel, I’ve had my share, man

Travel, I’ve had my share, man

I’ve been everywhere.

               -  Johnny Cash

This was it. The last stop on the Breakfast Across America tour. We headed to a small city where you can't help but smile when you say its name.

  

WILD HUCKLEBERRY
Wenatchee, Washington

The Wild Huckleberry is located in a house near the downtown area of Wenatchee. The Arts and Crafts architecturally styled structure was built in 1919 and was the home of a well known local physician.   

We traipsed up to the front door like a couple of trick-or-treaters only to read a sign that said the entrance was around back.

AMBIENCE:  Upon entering the house you find yourself in what appears to be a waiting area. The restaurant owners seemed to know what they were doing by stocking the room with toys and books for the impatient, cranky little children who might be waiting with their parents for a table to open up. I wondered if the idea ever backfired when that table did open up but the child was so engaged with this fun stuff that he or she didn't want to move on to the dining area. We had no time to become cranky and impatient because the tables were only about 25% occupied when we arrived and we were immediately seated.

The restaurant owners kept true to the original inside style of the house. It appeared that the original interior walls were kept at the sacrifice of greater space. As is the case with Arts and Crafts interiors, there was plenty of exposed wooden structural elements, built-in bookshelves, a giant front porch, and a large prominent fireplace. Tables and chairs which flawlessly melded into the decor were set up in the parlor, dining room, and enclosed all-weather porch. We were seated in the parlor next to the fireplace. This was the view from our table:

Standing next to our table was an odd, four foot high, ceramic statue of  a nattily dressed gentleman holding a tray filled with an assortment of coins. I couldn't tell by the expression on his face whether he was offering up the money for the taking or asking for a contribution. In any case, he was a welcome addition to our breakfast and I referred to him as my huckleberry friend.

5 out of 5 stars 

FOOD:  I had only ordered a waffle once before in our breakfast visits in the previous 47 states, and it wasn't very good. I'm more of a pancake man but the waffle listed on the menu was no ordinary waffle. It was called a Huckleberry Waffle. Described as a waffle with wild huckleberry compote, sweet creamy mascarpone cheese, and whipped cream, I couldn't resist. 

They certainly didn't skimp on the whip cream. This outstanding piece of workmanship elicited an OMG from The Healthy One. I, on the other hand, didn't know what to say. Speechless but not stunned, I quickly grabbed my fork and dug in.

 

The tartness of the huckleberry compote was not neutralized by the sweetness of the mascarpone and whipped cream. Rather, the tartness and sweetness partnered into a delectable combination. The waffle was very good and gave the dish some crunch but it was kind of beside the point; more of a reliable vehicle carrying valuable cargo.

The Healthy One had a tough choice to make. The menu listed a veggie omelet, a veggie eggs benedict, oatmeal, and a fresh fruit plate. She threw me a curve ball by ordering the Cinnamon French Toast with bacon and egg. Perhaps it was because this was the last stop of the breakfast tour or perhaps she had finally come over to the other side.

According to her, the cinnamon bread, from the very popular Sure To Rise Bakery in neighboring Cashmere, WA and was top notch. The hefty slab of butter that had begun to melt on top was quickly dispensed with but the syrup was not ignored. The dish was pronounced delicious. I wasn't even given the opportunity to sample the bacon. No matter; I was absorbed in my whip cream high.

5 out of 5 stars
    

COFFEE:   They served Tony's coffee which is roasted in Bellingham, Washington and has been in operation since 1971. I assume the picture of an elephant on the mug is because the beans are from Kenyan plants and not because the beans were picked from elephant dung (see https://www.bloomberg.com/news/photo-essays/2017-01-27/world-s-priciest-coffee-is-hand-picked-from-elephant-dung).

The taste didn't bowl be over, but it was a solid cup of coffee.

4 out of 5 stars

SERVICE: Our server was professional and capable. She gave the impression of having veteran experience and the service was flawless. What was missing was that little extra dose of friendliness that we had found at other restaurants. 

 4 1/2 out of 5 stars

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A FEW WORDS ABOUT WENATCHEE:

Wenatchee, a city of 33,000, sits at the confluence of the Columbia and Wenatchee rivers in central Washington. The city is known as the "Apple Capital of the World". Apples are Washington State's top crop, generating $2.4 billion in production value. That's about 60% of the country's apple production. Wenatchee lies in the center of the apple-producing region that runs through central Washington, from the Canada border to near the Oregon border.

Although geographically central to the apple growing region, Wenatchee itself has lately focused more on tourism and less on apple trees. Since 1987, Wennatchee has lost about half of its apple orchards. Where orchards once stood there are now housing developments, big box stores, restaurants, motels, and parking lots. Apple production has shifted from small growers to large operations that are located farther from town. Still, at its core, Wennatchee identifies itself with apples. For example, every April the city hosts a sizable Apple Blossom Festival which attracts over 100,000 people.


BURN THOSE BREAKFAST CALORIES OFF:

We hiked up the Icicle Ridge Trail where we were rewarded with a spectacular view of the town of Leavenworth, WA, the Wenatchee River, and the surrounding Cascade Mountains. The 4.8 mile, 1800 feet elevation hike did burn off a fair number of calories but it was the 90 degree heat that really did a job dissolving the Huckleberry Waffle.

       June 19, 2018

NEXT UP:  I did write in my introductory blog entry that I would include the District of Columbia in the breakfast tour and that is still the plan. At some point, after I recover from driving well over 15,000 miles, I will make the 2 mile drive from our house into DC, have breakfast, and post a report. As for Hawaii and Alaska, I just don't know when or even if we'll ever get to travel to those beautiful far flung states. Additionally, people are always asking about my favorite breakfast during the journey, so I also plan to write a little summary piece on the best of the best.

Friends have offered all sorts of ideas for a next adventure. For example, pizza in every state, bowling in every state, brew pub in every state, ice cream in every state, and my personal favorite, happy hour in every state. Someone even suggested visiting a gas station bathroom in every state. I would say that we already pretty much did that. I just didn't take any pictures. 

I think I'll just hold off on the next odyssey for awhile and ponder the future over a bowl of Cheerios.  

#47 IDAHO -  Foreign Feed Fest, No Passport Required

  
     
OLD EUROPEAN
Post Falls, Idaho

It made perfect sense that The Old European Restaurant was located on a road named Schneidmiller. As we approached the address we saw their marquee out front. 

This looks promising I thought to myself.

Being the Old European, I expected an older building, maybe even a castle or something with gargoyles. This was not the case. 

AMBIENCE:   Old European is a large, bright, and airy dining room. The combination of numerous windows and a large number of hanging ceiling lights almost required sunglasses on this sunny morning. The room could probably accommodate well over 100 customers in a mix of booths and tables. In the middle of the room was a good sized staging area with counter seating where the many servers poured fresh squeezed orange juice, prepared coffee, and received the food orders from the kitchen. Canned music played in the background. It wasn't Mozart or Liszt which you might expect from a restaurant called Old Europe but a soundtrack that included Yakety Sax by Boots Randolph.

We opted for a booth which had business class comfort. The place was also impeccably clean. I thought that if any food ended up on the floor I might give serious consideration to re-plating the item.

There wasn't anything in the room that imparted a sense of "Old" Europe except for maybe some of the customers. It was more like "Modern" Europe with a touch of Denny's. There was some wall art scattered throughout that did relate to cultures across the pond.

4 1/2 out of 5 stars 

FOOD:  Upon entering the restaurant we were provided with menus, or should I say weighty storybooks of European Union breakfast foods. There were six large pages of breakfast items with detailed descriptions and some family history pertaining to certain dishes. It looked like it might take until lunchtime before I finished reading this breakfast menu.

In addition to the usual hot cakes, french toast, and omelets there was a hodgepodge of dishes that would make most NATO soldiers happy: German potato pancakes, Swedish crepes, Danish aebelskivers, Dutch babies (that's what the menu said!), and Hungarian goulash. I hadn't realized people ate Hungarian goulash for breakfast, but it seemed that it was the Old European's signature dish. It was described as potatoes mixed with peppers, onions, ham, sausage, bacon, and four eggs topped with cheddar cheese and fresh tomatoes. I wanted to make it back to the car so I passed on the goulash. 

Then there was this: 

Talk about choices. I almost had to draw a flow chart on my napkin to figure out all the possibilities. What if you wanted your eggs and meat with french toast and a fruit bowl? Was that allowed? My brain was over addled with figuring out permutations and costs that I just decided it would be easier to order individual items from other parts of the menu.

I am a big fan of rye toast. I read with excitement that the Organic Black Russian Rye Bread was made in house and came with homemade raspberry jam. There was even a story in the menu about the owners' ancestors riding wagon trains from Virginia to Iowa. From there the owners' grandparents moved to Montana as homesteaders and because of that the restaurant only uses organic rye flour grown in Montana. The story choked me up a little. I ordered a couple of toasted slices.

  

I also ordered a couple of fried eggs which I placed atop one slice of rye while the other slice received all that could be scraped out of the little tub of raspberry jam. 

The eggs were perfectly cooked and nicely complemented the wholesome taste of the rye. The other slice, slathered in the raspberry jam was equally as delicious. I wasn't done yet. I was very intrigued by the Danish Aebelskivers. The menu stated that they were hard to describe but then went on to describe them as ball-like pancakes cooked in a special cast iron pan over medium fire. That didn't tell me much. The menu went on to state, and I'm quoting word for word, "These are not fluffy because we use artificial rising agents, they are fluffy because we only use real ingredients." I read that sentence three or four times but could not quite grasp it. Now I went from uninformed to totally confused. The menu also noted that you could get them stuffed with sausage and Havarti cheese. Never mind, I was all in.

I was on a roll so to speak, so I ordered an additional batch of Aebelskivers, this time stuffed with blueberries.

I couldn't tell if my Aebelskivers were fluffy or not fluffy but I could tell that they were delicious. I especially liked the ones stuffed with sausage and Havarti cheese. They were pretty rich but I was able to eat three of the six sausage/cheese and one of the blueberry. The Healthy One helped herself to one of each leaving three of these tasty orbs of perfection for a snack later in the day.

The Healthy One ordered oatmeal with bananas, raisins, and nuts. She asked that if she ordered a cinnamon roll would I help her eat it. "Of course!", I said, "do you think two slices of rye bread weighing about a half pound each, two eggs, and nine Aelbelskivers (Danish for "tightly packed calories")  are going to fill me up?"  I also knew deep down that asking me to help eat the cinnamon roll was just The Healthy One's way of assuaging the guilt of making the order and that I would probably only end up with one bite. 

She thought the oatmeal was as good as oatmeal could be and raved about the cinnamon roll, but could only eat half of it. I was too full to help.

It was a lot of food. This was the first and only time during the Breakfast Across America tour that we asked for a container to take away leftover food. Into the container went three sausage and cheese Aebelskivers, one blueberry Aebelskiver, and a half of a cinnamon roll to be devoured later in the day.

Five hours later we were winding up a six mile hike along the Spokane River in Washington State. Approaching the car, I was hungry and had beautiful visions of Aebelskivers in my head. I was salivating at the thought of sinking my teeth into all that doughy goodness. Upon opening the car, the container was not to be seen. We looked everywhere but it soon became apparent that we had left the container sitting on table of the restaurant, 30 miles away. As they say in Denmark, Lort!, Lort!, Lort! 

5 out of 5 stars
    

COFFEE:   This was not the kind of breakfast establishment where you just order coffee. You had to decide what kind of coffee you wanted. They offered Austrian coffee, organic french press coffee, and your conventional fresh ground coffee. Dissuaded by the prices of the Austrian and french press coffees I ordered the basic type which turned out to be excellent. As an added bonus they provided a whole thermos of the liquid goodness.

5 out of 5 stars

SERVICE:  I believe I heard our waitress say her name was Courtney and she was fabulous. She certainly understood that the menu was overwhelming, complicated, and time consuming to read and showed remarkable composure during our numerous questions and requests for more time. If patience is a virtue, Courtney was one of the most virtuous waitresses I have met. I wouldn't be surprised if Old European sends their staff off to a week long work retreat where they take classes in "How to Pronounce European Breakfast Items" or "How to Answer Stupid Questions Without Rolling Your Eyes" or "100 Different Ways to Construct a European Breakfast". Courtney knew the menu permutations inside and out and her pronunciation of Aebelskivers was fluid and flawless or at least she did a good job of fooling us. She guided me in a non-pushy but informative way through my selection process when I decided to go all ala carte. I expressed concern that the cost of my ala carte adventure was going to far exceed the price of the prepackaged European Breakfasts. "Don't worry, I'll make it work for you", said Courtney. And somehow she did.

To top things off Courtney presented us with a $5 gift card to be used at our next visit to the restaurant. I doubted that we would be returning to Post Falls in this lifetime so I gave the card to a grateful gentleman at a table across the way.

 5 out of 5 stars

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A FEW WORDS ABOUT POST FALLS:

Post Falls is a rather unremarkable city of 30,000 that is both a suburb of Couer d'Alene and a bedroom community to Spokane. The city was named after Frederick Post who built a lumber mill at the "Little Falls" of the Spokane River. In 1871, Post negotiated with the local Couer d'Alene tribe for the possession of 200 acres in exchange for which he would provide processed lumber to the tribe. The agreement was painted onto a rock outcrop which still can be viewed today.

Post Fall has as seen rapid population growth during the past 50 years. In 1970 the population was only 3,000. Affordable housing has been one of the biggest reasons people have moved to the city.


BURN THOSE BREAKFAST CALORIES OFF:

We crossed the Idaho/Washington border and walked the Riverside State Park Loop trail in Spokane. It was a pretty 6 mile round trip along the Spokane River. The only blot on the beautiful day was the sound of automatic gun fire from across the river at the Spokane Rifle Club.

       June 18, 2018

NEXT UP: WASHINGTON