traveling for food

[nature lover]

Vanbrugh - sounds like a fun time to me. Never tried Apple liquor have tried apple wine. When my wife was around we used to have a wine and cheese party every Friday night. I cut the cheese and she whined. We make a lot of homemade apple butter here. You say you made chicken pot pies. In Pennsylvania Dutch country our pot pie is totally different than what most people call pot pies with a crust. We cook the chicken a few potato’s maybe some carrots and celery and the dough All in one pot. No crust or anything like that. The dough gets really “slippery.“. We season it with saffron Which is Pollen from the crocus flower. We locals love it. Folks from other places make fun of us because it doesn’t have a crust but that’s why we call it pot pie because it’s made in a pot not a pie pan. It would be fun to do some historical research to find out which came first you’re kind of my kind. I’d like to try those cheeses too I’m into any kind of cheese except that plastic stuff they call American cheese. I was at the market today and one of our vendors has a 21 year old aged cheddar 1/3 of a pound for $75 can you believe it I didn’t buy any. I like cheese but I can’t afford that kind of price. I’d be afraid of liking it and then wanting it all the time. We do have a local Amish Farm that has grass fed organic milk and makes us very sharp Raw milk cheese. Very sharp!!! This is also the time of the year we have homegrown celery. We bleach it before we eat it so it’s white and sweet and juicy. It’s a special treat we have usually from October through mid February. One of my friends at market had some sweet corn yet so I bought some he said he’ll probably have more for next week but then it’ll be over. Good Lord I just found out it’s 2 AM and I’m talking about food I better get to bed.

 

[Dingfelder]

Try warming up Cider and sprinkling a little cinnamon in it - oh my. “Sear goot Essen”  That’s our Pennsylvania German for “ that’s good eating.”  

"Sehr." If I remember correctly from my German classes, = "very."

 

[nature lover]

Dingfinger. You are right I should have said “very good” for German but the dialect we speak here is commonly known as Pennsylvania German or Pennsylvania Dutch. It’s not a written language so spelling words and such varies from place to place. In our church services we use what we call high German or hoff Deutsch. That would be the old German as spoken by Martin Luther and the reformers. People make fun of my Amish neighbors who only have an eighth grade education but I reminded them that the Amish are trilingual. English, high German and Pennsylvania German. Unfortunately I am primarily English and can understand a lot more Pennsylvania German then I can speak. Technically you are right you’re talking about modern German which is different than what we call high German and Pennsylvania German. Are you confused yet don’t worry about it so I.

 

[LERCA]

Been to Baltimore and been to Amish country in NY but apparently they are of Swiss descent so not the more famous Pennsylvania Dutch with all the good German food I’d like to try. I had a lot of excellent German food in Paraguay and would like to try some of the PA dishes. They sound delicious.

 

[vanbrat]

Believe it or not Southern California has several apple picking orchards/farms with restaurants, shops and activities. I think one was damaged in the fires but it’s a pretty popular activity. Sorry again for lecturing but I was a teacher. California is known for a lot of things but we are primarily an agricultural state and most of our income comes from that. Drive through the Central Valley, San Joaquin to see it. We feed much of the country. Something no one guess is our principal crop is rice.
So we have dozens of food festivals all year. But right now come pick some apples.

I'm hoping to get to the garlic festival and the artichoke festival some day....
But we have tons of our apples to pick right now anyone for some hot spiced &/or rummy cider?
 
There was a fruit stand on a highway between our house in Salinas and my Granny's house in Stockton we stopped at every time we went to see her. Dad grumbled, but they had really good fruity treats and more important a bathroom.... Dad hated to stop..
We always got dried fruit and something for Granny.. And Mom got something just for her and we kids got chocolate covered something and cashews. Granny was not a great cook so we would often be hungry on the way home. 
If anyone wants to travel for food Calif is a great place.

 

[vanbrat]

From all that I have heard I have to figure out a way to get to Amish country.... 
My chicken pot pie for travel is a recipe in progress. Still have to work on it. I love to perfect stuff and I'm getting there with it.
The hardest part is working it so there is nothing left over. Not any really good place in the traveling kitchen for left overs, sadly. Maybe I will have ta figure that out. Some things are better as left over.
The crab cakes were good enough, but still need to work on travel kitchen to make them better. They were a little soggy. Good, but not as crispy as I like.

 

[vanbrat]

Ready to start planning to hunt for more goodies. This retirement stuff is fun I am starting to round out a bit, so now I need to find more fresh fruits and veggies and need to get back out and walking. I will be glad to be able to get back out more. we stopped west coast at the Oregon Calif border so now we will be starting out there next. There was a really good tiny place in Crescent City and a tiny home made foods place in Eureka. But that was 45+/- yrs ago so I'm guessing it is not the same now. I have heard of the" best donut place" there but not this trip.....

I am looking forward to getting some more strawberries again but since we didn't visit or have visitors much this year we still have lots of last years jam so maybe not so much this year.

I wish we were going for longer and farther, but still not sure about what's going on in the world off this island. Maybe by fall.

Not food stuff, but the tulip festival is happening this year or at least a version of it. All outdoors, I look forward to that every year. Things are moving forward again.....

Amish country is on my list of to do's as soon as possible.

I have been thinking about a huge family and friends coastal crab/shrimp boil, but not yet. Got the big pot ready though for when ever we do.

 

[user 30781]

The Seattle neighborhood is Ballard, lots of Nordic related activities including several festivals and a parade. The bakery is Larsen's (still open during Covid 19 but for takeout only). 

Omg Larsen's.  I live in Eastern WA now, used to live in Seattle.  My son and I recently ordered FOUR pans of smorkage sent to us and only gave one pan away.  I think I've had enough smorkage for a while.  lol  I love Larsen's so much!  First discovered them when I worked for QFC stores in the late 70s.

edit: Smorkage is a Danish pastry. There's a base of pastry covered with custard and then seven spiral almond paste filled rolls set on top of that with a bit of powdered sugar frosting on top. It's so rich and so good!

 

[vanbrat]

Can you believe it Beth's is gone.!.!.! So many things changing, so much lost... Both my sons live over town and they love Larson's too. I avoid Seattle at just about all costs, hate the traffic and craziness. I'm just to Old for that stuff. If it wasn't for having family there I would never go. The one son is Uber driver so he seems to know where every thing is. Even the 2am skate spots with the best bars, skates and booze, sounds dumb to me. The other son has a few favorite beer places. They both have some stores that they love, that have some really weird stuff in. Seattle has just about everything in every style flavor there is.
I'm really glad the world is opening again. We are hoping some of the summer festivals will happen this summer so we can start our patches business, finely!

 

[user 30781]

Can you believe it Beth's is gone.!.!.! 

WHAT?!?  NO!!

I Googled and it says 'temporarily'.  Hopefully they will be able to re-open.  I haven't been there in years, used to go after shooting pool and playing pinball at the Eastlake Zoo tavern all night.  Nothing like a 6 egg omelette and unlimited hashbrowns to ward off a hangover. This was in the late 70s early 80s btw, I'm not nearly as rambunctious now. lol

 

[LERCA]

Er du dansk? Are you Danish? Jeg bœde I Odense. I lived in Odense. Real Danish food was way too healthy for me. And the whipped cream had no sugar. There should be a law against that. Nå jeg lærer norsk. Now I’m learning Norwegian and already tired of vafler og risgrøt

 

[vanbrat]

I'm English, Dutch, and Irish/Scottish mostly just an American mutt.
I have not had any really true Danish food, Just the American version of anything. I have had a few really good Mexican things made by some really great Mexican Grannies. But not much. They tend to tame things down for us Whimpey chili eaters. And I have had some really great Pilipino foods from my sons in laws. They are first gen here so their stuff is not much Americanized yet. And it is SOOOO good. I tell you if ever you get the chance to eat real lumpias do it! (spelling is I'm sure wrong) They can make the most common fish taste really good. Though I don't like fish no matter how good it is cooked. Unless it is so covered with breading that the fish taste is gone. Thus why I like the best fish and chip places....
I had a family that was from Norway one year, they tried to teach us a few Norwegian words and I think if I tried I could say a really bad version of a "castle princess wears a red dress..." Maybe.

 

[vanbrat]

We are 2-3 weeks from setting off again. Not sure how long we can be out. Hopefully this time 2-3 weeks. Last outing was way to soggy, it rained just about EVERY #$%^ day, so I didn't do as much camp cooking since my kitchen is out the back of the van and the awning didn't work..... Hubby thinks I am silly when there are so many McD's around. YUK. I don't think even he was happy with how much of that we had that week.
We will be heading either east or south. Not to is much ripe yet, but maybe in south end we will find some strawberries.
I have been working on my cook book and have started to make a list of what I want to cook and eat. I have practiced a few more things and I am confident that we won't lack for good eats along the way.

And again I'm always asking for any references. We hope to stick to the Calif coast unless it is predicted to be rainy. If so, then eastern Wa. If it is dry and warm. Maybe drop down to eastern Or. if we get that far....

 

[vanbrat]

Hey isn't fondue Dutch? I do like a good fondue. Good with apples and breads and crab chunks and ham and broccoli and . and . and .....
Maybe we can stop at the french cheese factory in Tillamuck. As well as the 'regular' cheese factory there.

 

[JDub]

^^^

MMMMmmmmm BBQ oysters.... (or any kind really)...

https://www.tripsavvy.com/californi...-a-unique-kind-of-culinary-ecotourism-5101132

Cheers!

 

[GypsyJan]

Fondue is Swiss. Dutch pancakes are good...they also eat a lot of dairy products.

 

[vanbrat]

I do like Dutch pancakes...Something else to work on cooking in my traveling kitchen. And oysters...... I had some at a tiny place in depo bay once...... very good.

 

[vanbrat]

Fondue is Swiss. Dutch pancakes are good...they also eat a lot of dairy products.

I just tried a dutch pancake in my tiny airfryer. It worked!!!! 
Thank you GypsyJan now I can add that to my book.

 

[LERCA]

I live along the California coast but I wouldn’t eat anything caught locally. I don’t know what you like or are looking for we have a million places to eat from every place you can imagine in the world to local fresh California cuisine (I went to a California cuisine restaurant in Edinburgh LOL it was mostly salads) to mixtures. I think our Mexican food is the best though.

 

[vanbrat]

YEA my solar generator thingy arrives tomorrow! Today hubby is working on the awning for my kitchen. We both have had our shots. And in about 2 1/2 weeks we get to start a trip. We are going to have fun.

Hubby is finding it funny that I am working so hard to set up my kitchen and am working on my cookbook just for the camping times.

Thank you everyone for all the ideas I've gotten here.

I have worked just as hard to make sure the bed is comfy, the dog is comfy, and the stuff we inevitably carry is sorted and.... and.... and...