Spirit of Aloha | Articles | Adventures in Dining | May/June 2005

Adventures in Dining
By: Barney K.L. Won

Road Food

On the road, perhaps more than in other places, we really are what we eat. Cruising down the highway of life, pedal to the metal, always in a hurry to make the next motel, the next waterbed and the next HBO series, we long for nothing more than a healthy, digestible meal, well-prepared, practically priced, in a comfortable, welcoming restaurant where the locals are friendly and don’t drop burger residue in our laps. Spare us the gas-and-go pit stops, the trucker joints (unless they’re great barbecue joints or serve key lime pie) and the classic greasy spoons. We desire tantalizingly brief menus, replete with a choice of local or regional goodies: tripe stew, maybe, or cedar-plank-grilled salmon, or falling-off-the-bone garlic chicken. We don’t want much, but we do long for eclectic food choices plus good experiences, and, why not, waitresses who call us “honey” and wink back at us.

Since sourcing decent, even brilliant food while driving in unknown places is one of the traveler’s most vexing problems, we are delighted to be able to recommend to the traveler’s library three books of recent origin that are bound to help us make shrewd dining options in places in which we are, for better or for worse, strangers.

The grandfather of all books on road food, a long-time popular seller, was first published in 1977 by Random House, updated in 1978 and 1980, then taken over in 1992 by HarperCollins, which subsequently released another new edition. Now back in the publishing folds of Random House, under its Broadway Books imprint, this paperback, called, simply enough, Roadfood, ($17.95, by Jane and Michael Stern, who have written more than 20 books about America, and often appear on television touting food and drink) takes us dining coast to coast in entertaining style.

Theseare the writer that Newsweek called “America’s leading authorities on the culinary delights to be found while driving.” There can be no doubt that the Sterns know of what they speak, since they visit and dine at all the places they write about. Here are restaurants you want to eat at even if you don’t know how good the food is: Louie’s Back Yard in Key West, Fla., Blanco Bowling Club Café in Blanco, Texas, Pete’s Famous Hot Dogs in Birmingham, Ala., the Crab Shack at Tybee Island, Ga., where “The Elite Eat in Their Bare Feet.”

As far as we’re concerned, the only downside to this wonderful road book is that the Sterns apparently have never made it to Hawai‘i. Their choice of 500 diners and joints and more is limited to the 48 continental states, minus North Dakota, for some reason.

Another good book to drive with is Best Eats in Town on $40 a Day, by Rachel Ray (Lake Isle Press, $16.95), the perky host of two of the Food Network’s top-rated shows, $40 a Day and 30 Minute Meals. What commends Ray’s book to the traveling fanatic is her game plan: She not only visits Sonny Bryan’s Smokehouse in Dallas and eats to her heart’s content, but also includes Sonny’s recipe for his famous onion rings. Likewise, breakfast at Maha’s Café in Kamuela, on the Big Island, is a treat when you order up poi pancakes, but even if you don’t have a taste for breakfast poi, there is Maha’s recipe mix, so you can make them at home later.

Healthy eating on the road is easier now than ever, too, thanks to the publication of Healthy Highways: The Traveler’s Guide to Healthy Eating, compiled by Nikki and David Goldbeck ($18.95, Ceres Press, Woodstock, N.Y.). Some 1,900 eateries and natural-food stores (including 22 in Hawai‘i), with distinct driving directions to help you find them, are included in this paperback, but, unfortunately, more space is devoted to the directions than to the foods that distinguish the restaurants.

But that’s all right. The Goldbecks list six healthy highway rules for eating on the road, and we’re happy to share them with you: (1) Choose different ethnic foods when possible. (2) Order vegetarian. Even if you aren’t a vegetarian, seize every opportunity to eat like one. (3) Go for salads and vegetables. There is no such thing as too many vegetables. (4) Avoid unnecessary fats. (5) Always ask if there is whole-grain bread or brown rice. (6) In desserts, look for lower-fat options, something fruit-based or a treat with some nutritious ingredients. If that fails, share.

On that note, we will certainly not send the Goldbecks to Manny’s in Chicago, Ill. (a restaurant recommended by the Sterns), where the corned beef sandwiches, a famed menu item, are three or four inches of hot, lean, rose-pink, thin-sliced corned beef stacked between slices of sour-crusted rye. Let’s keep everybody full and happy, and their eyes not only on the road, but the next road restaurant.

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