“Restaurant” is a derivative of the Latin word “restore.” Inns were places where travelers could have a simple meal, then hit the road for a continuation of their journey. Today, with the arrival of modern-day tourism, travelers often visit destinations for history, cultural and gastronomic components. Yes, food is the spice of life, and we asked our members to list their favorite state destinations for pleasures of the palate. It’s fun for our readers to see another side of our writers, who have been delivering original content not found anywhere else on the globe.

Richard Carroll – T-Boy Writer:

Louisiana Cooking.

Every trip through Louisiana our taste buds are jumping with delight. Louisiana, highlighted by New Orleans, the most European city in the United States, also have the most distinctively original regional cuisine in the country. The creative cuisine is influenced by Creole and Cajun cooking, and dining for us in New Orleans is an American treasure. Dishes invented in the city include Po’ Boy, Oysters Rockefeller, Oysters Bienville, Banana Foster and more. The Cajun Gumbo, Jambalaya, and various crayfish creations are the heart of the city’s cuisine.

New Orleans chefs explain that when the Cajuns migrated from Nova Scotia, the lobster decided to follow and by the time they arrived they had lost so much weight they were renamed crayfish. A resident added, “We have some 2,800 restaurants in New Orleans and if they’re not good they don’t last for three months, crayfish or not”  We have dined from open-air street stalls, where college kids with their foamy Go Cups are roaming the streets, to Armauds, steps off Bourbon Street in the heart of the French Quarter. The famed restaurant in a restored turn of the century building, family owned since 1918, and one of the grande dames of New Orleans, serves award-winning French-New Orleans inspired cuisine. A dress code is enforced, collars for men, and so we found that diners were tastefully dressed in this elegant room enjoying Creole cuisine while listening to live Dixieland jazz.

We feel that Louisiana and New Orleans for aficionados of creative cooking will not disappoint.

Ringo Boitano – T-Boy Writer:

A taste of California history.

It almost seems unfair to list California as my favorite food state destination. With a landscape of approximately 163,696 square miles, it is the most populous and the third-largest U.S. state by area.

The state’s geography is immense with the Sierra Nevada’s Mt. Whitney at 14,505 feet, the highest peak in the contiguous 48 states, to the Mojave Desert’s Death Valley, its lowest. Throw in the long Pacific coastline and Salinas Valley, coined the Salad Bowl of the World, plus the urbane euphoria of Cioppino, Ranch Dressing, Avocado Toast, Cobb Salad, French Dip Sandwich, Uramaki (California roll), and even the Fortune Cookie, which all proudly claim California as their birthplace – and you’ll find California’s gastronomic history to be both innnovative and monumental. Native-Americans were the first to arrive with a diet based on fruits, corn, pumpkin, shellfish and beans, followed by the Spanish, who brought the exotic flavors of garlic, peppers and olives, and then the migration of fortune seekers during the 1849 California Gold Rush, creating a fushion of culinary traditions, influenced by dishes from the U.S. East Coast, Latin-America, China and Italy.

And this leads us to Chez Panisse, the Berkeley-based restaurant originated by Alice Waters and film producer Paul Aratow, who ushered in the farm-to-table movement in 1971. The restaurant’s style of cooking emphasized ingredients rather than technique, using food that was fresh and seasonal, grown locally and organically. And because the ingredients were obtained nearby, the food took on a very Californian character, hence creating what is known today as California Cuisine.

Fyllis Hockman – T-Boy Writer

There is no other food!

And just to make a short story shorter. I live in Maryland. By definition that means hard shell crabs with Old Bay. There is no other food!

James Boitano – T-Boy Writer:

Favorite state for a food experience: Louisiana. 

Though I’ve only been there once, Louisiana seems to have quite the edge over other states. Sure, you can find any cuisine in the world in New York, but Louisiana has the trio of local good eating. First off, you get the best of Southern ‘comfort food’. Mac n Cheese, grits, fried chicken, red beans and rice: what’s not to love? And on top of that, Louisiana has the double Creole and Cajun experience. Both down-home and sophisticated. Crawfish, andouille smoked sausage, alligator, gumbo. Something for every mood… if you are hungry.

Phil Marley – Poet:

They have to be from Montréal to be REAL bagels.

Okay, I’m aware that Québéc is a Canadian province, not a U.S. state, but Montréal is the place of my birth and here are some of my favorite gastronomic memories.

Little Italy: Montréal’s Piccola Italia is the second largest Little Italy (after Toronto) in Canada. The community is filled with Italian cafés, restaurants and bars, specialty food shops, cultural landmarks, and Jean-Talon Market, Montréal’s most vibrant open-air food area.

Montréal Bagels: I once took a homeless man, a Montréal expat living in Vancouver, for coffee and asked if he would like a bagel, too. He declined, replying, Those aren’t real bagels, they have to be from Montréal to be REAL bagels. In Montréal you will you hear it pronounced bah-gal and yes, they are different. In contrast to the New York-style bagel, which also contains sourdough, the Montréal bagel is smaller, thinner, sweeter and denser, with a larger hole, and always baked in a wood-fired oven. It contains malt, egg, and no salt, and is boiled in honey-sweetened water before being baked.

Montréal Smoked Meat: Most Yanks know all about pastrami and corned beef, but what is smoked meat? Well, it’s basically beef brisket that has been dry-cured, but then soaked (unlike pastrami) to desalinate it before seasoning and smoking. The seasoning is apparently a secret, for no one will divulge anything else other than it makes the most delicious sandwich on the planet. Schwartz’s (circa 1928) is the oldest deli in Canada and is considered an institution, though others will make a case for the newcomer, Reuben’s Deli and Steakhouse, at only a mere 50 years of existence.

Québécois Poutine: This Québécois specialty consists of fresh-cut fries and cheese curds topped with a brown gravy. It emerged in Quebec, in the late 1950s in the rural Centre-du-Québec region. My father believed the name poutine originated from the English word pudding (French, pouding), used to describe a mixture, a particularly messy one, of the three food items. It made sense to me for in Québec, the term poutine  is slang for mess. And, yes, it is a mess, a mess of delightful flavors and textures. Some deem its high caloric character to be essential in dealing with the particularly cold Québec and Ontario winter weather. Its popularity has spread to upscale restaurants and fast-food chains alike, including Canada’s Burger King and McDonalds. Today, poutine has become a symbol of Québécois and Canadian cuisine and culture. For that, I am proud – and ten pounds heavier.

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Ed Boitano – T-Boy Editor

Apples are also good for eating.

I am embarrassed to the point of shame when discussing my favorite food items from my home state of Washington. As an unruly adolescent, I considered the bounty of food available throughout the state to be something that was on the entire world’s table. Crab apples, cherries and blueberries were designated as throwing objects in war games between other neighbors, even at the risk of facing my mother’s disdain for stains on my play clothes; with blueberries on worst. What’s the big deal, I thought, isn’t there an unlimited supply? After all we had apple, pear, apricot and fig trees in our own backyard; that is if the birds didn’t get them first.

But that was yesterday and when I return to my ancestral home in Seattle today, I recognize the immense bounty of delicious Washington state produce, produce which I had took for granted, despite having family connections to its terrain. My great, great cousin was an apple orchardist in the Yakima Valley in 1910, and today Washington produces nearly 60% of all apples consumed in the entire U.S. There’s a chance he actually thought he was responsible for that. Raspberries and blueberries also top the U.S. list in production. My in-laws own and operate Roskamp Vineyards, known for their well-sought-after grapes in central Washington’s Lower Yakima Valley. And just further east, there’s Walla Walla Sweets (onions), where less sulfur means less sharpness and tears. Cherries are delicious, but they’re no match for Rainier Cherries, a hybrid created at Washington State University, named after Mount Rainier, where huckleberries and wildflowers blanket its slopes in late July through early September.

And when the Alaskan fishing boats arrive in Seattle, we have all five species of Pacific salmon on our tables: Chinook (King), Sockeye (Red), Coho (Silver), Humpies (Pink) and Chum (Dog, usually canned for foreign markets, but now locally rebranded as the more palatable Keta).

For preparation, it’s every person for themselves; butterflied and smoked over Alderwood, or Cedar planked (steamed on soaked Cedar) and many home recipes.

Then there’s oysters and clams with the geoduck the largest, generally reaching 1.5 pounds, once sold at the Pike Place Public Market for a penny a pound.

And we have the most flavorful of all crabs, the sweet and delicate Dungeness, named after the Port of Dungeness on the Olympic Peninsula. With apologies to those who yearn for lobster, your crustacean is actually a common everyday food for Nova Scotians and New Englanders, but takes its lofty status due to shrewd marketing on luxury railroad trains to and from Chicago as the most expensive item on the menu.

But an important note should be made to chain restaurants; Dick’s, home to Dick’s Famous Deluxe, and Ivar Haglund’s Ivar’s Salmon House and Ivar’s Aces of Clams, with his famous motto, Keep Clam. Haglund (1905-1985), a city father and Seattle icon, once purchased the Smith Tower – then the tallest skyscraper west of the Mississippi – under the condition that no later buyer could demolish it. From the tower’s observation deck, I could watch the blaze of 4th of July fireworks over Elliot Bay, paid for out of Ivar’s own pocket.,

Deb Roskamp – T-Boy writer & photographer:

A taste of the Land of Enchantment.

Red, green or Christmas? It took me a minute to realize that the waitperson was asking what my preference was for chili salsa. I was asked that question countless times during my four-day culinary tour of Northern New Mexico, and was excited to succumb to the gastronomic pleasures of this indigenous cuisine that can be found nowhere else in the world. Like the food of Tuscany, New Mexican cuisine – not Mexican, Mexican-American, or Tex-Mex – is virtually devoid of any outside influences. Carne adovada, blue corn tortillas, sopapillas and biscochitos – cookies made with crushed anise seeds, a hint of orange and covered with sugar cinnamon, now New Mexico’s Official State Cookie – are among its many offerings.

Floridians stand warned: Santa Fe is the oldest state capital in the continental U.S. In its over 400 years of existence, a number of flags have flow over the city: Spanish, Mexican, the U.S. and The Southern Confederacy – not to mention the short-lived Pueblo Revolt of 1680. Today, no cars are required in Santa Fe’s enchanting plaza. Simply take a stroll, and bask in the galleries, boutiques and historic structures, and take refuge in many of city’s outstanding restaurants. As the third largest art market in the world, recommended is a self-guild tour of Canyon Road which boasts over 100 art galleries, and, a little further down the road, two centuries of adobe homes and casitas.

Maria’s New Mexican Kitchen requires a short car drive from the Santa Fe Plaza. It’s a true local hangout, with mobs of hungry and thirsty patrons waiting for a table. And when I was last there, Maria’s offered as many as 200 margaritas containing different combinations of tequilas and mezcals, but the pandemic brought the list down to forty.

My time in Taos was limited, but it was essential that I save my last meal for my favorite restaurant in New Mexico, Doc Martin’s at the Historic Taos Inn. Perhaps it was because years ago, my first experience with traditional New Mexican food was at this historic establishment. Or maybe it’s just because the cuisine is so remarkable, it’s my first choice to dine in Taos. Their award-winning chili stew is a Northern New Mexico speciality with potatoes, pork and plenty of Hatch green chili. And what may be labeled as hot might be medium or it might be fiery. As they say in New Mexico, the chili is the chili. Doc Martin’s Restaurant was well worth the drive up north from Santa Fe and proved to be a tantalizing bookend to my culinary tour of the Land of Enchantment.

The post Favorite State for a Food Experience appeared first on Traveling Archive.

The Empress of the North is now owned by the Majestic America Line and continues to make voyages along the Columbia River as well as trips from Seattle, Washington to Juneau, Alaska. But my memories of this historic riverboat voyage; a voyage to commemorate the 200th anniversary of the Meriwether Lewis and William Clark expedition into the nation’s new Louisiana Purchase, still color my thoughts today. Readers note: it is a commemoration, not a celebration – due to the fact that many Native American Tribal People; the people whose lives were the most deeply effected by the expedition, saw little to celebrate; well aware it was the beginning of a genocide that has still barely ended today.

With that said, below is what I learned from what is still my favorite river cruise; a river cruise that speaks of both yesterday and today.

Sacagawea of the Shoshone

Her name was Sacagawea (Su-keg-u-wee- u), but few people know her by that name. In the massive eight-volume text, the ‘Original Journals of Lewis and Clark,’ William Clark spelled the heroic Lemhi Shoshone woman’s name seven different ways, but never once Sacajawea (Sa-ka- ju- wee- a). Meriwether Lewis kept it simple, referring to the 14-year-old mother as either the ‘Injun’ woman or ‘squar.’ I found this to be an interesting piece of trivia. Of course, I like history. I also like river cruising on authentic sternwheelers, breathtaking scenery, luxurious accommodations and world-class regional cuisine.

The Lewis and Clark Expedition – 1805 

JUST THE FACTS

In 1805, President Thomas Jefferson commissioned Meriwether Lewis and William Clark to lead an expedition across the continent to find the fabled Northwest Passage, which would connect the Atlantic and Pacific oceans, creating a trade route to America’s east. Between October 1805 and May 1806, Lewis and Clark led a courageous team of 33 men – and later, one very heroic woman on the expedition.

Seeing an authentic sternwheeler today on the banks of the Columbia River outside of Portland, Oregon, is a surprise akin to witnessing an Alaskan fishing boat meandering down the Mississippi River. But my eyes had not deceived me. The Empress of the North was one of only two overnight sternwheelers built to cruise American’s western waterways in more than 90 years. Then, owned and operated by American West Steamboat Company, the designers blended the timeless elegance of the 1800’s paddle wheelers with state-of-the-art technology and all the modern amenities one would enjoy on a larger luxury ship. The three-story high paddlewheel fully propels the vessel at a leisurely cruise pace of up to 10 knots. Another surprise was having what appeared to be all 84 staff members, clad in Mississippi steamboat attire, in front of the boat greeting guests as they arrived. With a capacity of 235 guests, that’s a one-to-three ratio of staff to guests. It occurred to me that that was 51 more staff persons than on the entire Lewis and Clark expedition. What could I say besides, let the luxury commence!

Paths of the Explorers

On the Paths of the Explorers one experiences the Lewis and Clark’s trailblazing exploration – quite literally walking where they walked and seeing what they saw over 200 years after their historic journey. In the seven-day adventure, the riverboat cruise meanders nearly 1,000 miles round-trip from Portland. The waterways were the Columbia, Willamette and Snake Rivers. Not only do you cruise through history, but you also experience the breathtaking natural beauty of the Pacific Northwest and its numerous attractions.

Lewis and Clark arrived at the Mandan-Hidatsa villages and built Fort Mandan to spend the winter of 1804–05, they hired the French-Canadian trapper, Toussaint Charbonneau as their interpreter. By his side was Sacagawea. Like the spelling and pronunciation of her name, the narrative of her early life is still a bit cloudy: born in 1788, the daughter of a Shoshone chief, Sacagawea’s name roughly translates to “boat puller” or “bird woman.” Around the age of 12, she was captured by members of the Hidatsa Tribal Nation, then sold to Charbonneau (some say won in a card game) who made her one of his wives. Even though she was pregnant with her first child, Sacagawea was also chosen to accompany them on their mission with the belief that her knowledge of the Shoshone language and terrain would help them later in their journey. As the expedition continued, she pointed out accessible areas to travel, camas roots to eat, and when a boat capsized, she saved many important documents and supplies. She also served as a symbol of peace. When the expedition encountered what could be unfriendly native tribes, her presence as woman with a young child illustrated that the group was not a war party. Without her, the Lewis and Clark expedition most likely would have failed.

Sacagawea made a miraculous discovery of her own during the trip west. When the expedition encountered a group of Shoshone Indians, she realized that its leader was actually her brother, Cameahwait. It was through her that the expedition was able to buy horses from the Shoshone to cross the Rocky Mountains. Despite the reunion with her native family, Sacagawea remained with the explorers for the entire trip west. It should be noted that after completing the long, miraculous 4500 miles journey by foot, canoe, and horse – all while carrying the little Jean Baptiste baby on her back – she was not to be denied witnessing the Pacific Ocean with her very own eyes.

Reading the Lewis and Clark journal and seeing locations from their expedition is one thing, but to see it through the eyes of a historian makes it an even richer experience. Throughout the journey our ship historian read from the Lewis and Clark journal while simultaneously pointing out the actual locations in their expedition. Expanding on certain segments provided a context that helped us understand the organizational and human drama of the expedition.

The Lewis and Clark journal indicated their group of explorers grew tired of eating the abundant salmon that swam in the pristine waters below them. At the confluence of the Snake and Clearwater Rivers, where the group paused in 1805 and 1806, the Nez Percé  (Nimiipuu, meaning “we, the people”) introduced them to the eating of dogs. Lewis and his men loved the flavor and began trading goods for live canines. Clark, however, found this to be repellent, and made sure his own beloved pet dog was always within his sight. This also included sleeping closely to Sacagawea and child to curtail savage beatings by Charbonneau. Lewis had solicited the help of Clark due to his abilities as a draftsman and frontiersman, which were stronger than his own. To give the lieutenant equal footing, Clark made him a co-commanding captain of the Expedition, which sadly was never recognized or compensated by the U.S. government. Lewis and Clark were both slaveholders, and Clark brought with him his slave, a man named York, who enjoyed amusing the tribal nations – their first encounter with an African-American.

Our guide explained to the passengers, there was a long period where Lewis made no entries in the journal, based on the belief that he suffered from bipolar disorder, a deep depression that had haunted him since his youth. Upon his return from the expedition, Lewis was hailed as one the most famous people in the U.S. But could never escape his bouts with depression. Twenty-five years later he committed suicide; a suicide that still remains a mystery today. President Jefferson, himself, refused to believe it.

After the expedition, Sacagawea traveled with Charbonneau along with her (now) two infant children to the Missouri Fur Company trading post near present-day Bismark, North Dakota. She longed to return to her own Shoshone people, but her dream was never realized due to her death of a typhus (putrid fever) at the age of 25. The trading post administer commented that “She was the kindest woman I ever met.”

William Clark became the leading federal official in the West, with the duty to protect U.S. interests on territory contested by both Britain and Spain.” Clark was riddled with the contradictions of that era; urging the U.S. government to treat American-Indian Tribal Nations fairly, but also brokered forced relocation of tens of thousands of innocent people. Clark died in 1838 at the age of 68 in the St. Louis home of his firstborn son, Meriwether Lewis Clark.

Coach Tour Highlights

Each morning a luxurious motor coach waits outside the vessel to take guests to the day’s attractions. One of the stops is Multnomah Falls, a spectacular 620-foot-high waterfall, the second highest continuously flowing waterfall in America. The group is given plenty of time for photo ops and a 30-minute roundtrip hike to the top of the falls.

For the engineer in the group, there is the Bonneville Dam Visitor Center, where one learns about the workings of the massive turbine generators behind this imposing hydroelectric power source. At the fish ladders, glass-viewing areas display migrating salmon in season.

An excursion to Walla Walla features tours of the Fort Walla Walla Museum and a local winery. The Whitman Mission commemorates the missionaries Marcus and Narcissa Whitman’s role in establishing the Oregon Trail in 1846, ultimately leading the territory to become part of the U.S., in reaction to the British presence and earlier claim to the land. The Whitman Mission at Waiilatpu was established near the Walla Walla River, the tribal land of the Cayuse Nation. The missionaries’ brand of strict Calvinist evangelicalism and ignorance of acculturation was far too harsh and abrupt for the Cayuse people to bear. In over a ten-year period, only two tribal members were converted to the Whitmans’ understating of what is Christianity.

The Whitman’s eventually forgot about the Cayuse conversions and turned all of their attention to the scores of wagon trains of European-American settlers pouring into the area for free land – with never a thought of payment to the Cayuse – leading to further tensions. As in the Columbian Exchange, 50 to 60% of the Cayuse population were decimated in 1847 from European diseases in which they had no immunity. In Hawai’i it was 90%, the Marquesa Islands 98%. The western hemisphere’s pandemics which resulted from the Columbian Exchange was a horrific and almost an unimaginable period in our past; a past that many of today’s historians still prefer not to mention.

Meales was the name of the plague that ravaged the Cayuse Tribal Nation. Cayuse chieftain Tiloukaikt suspected that Whitman (a medical doctor) was intentionally overlooking sick Cayuse children in favor of sick white children. Half of the Cayuse tribe died in the epidemic, yet most of the white children recovered. On November 29, Cayuse tribal member members, led by Tiloukaikt, burnt down the mission, and killed fourteen white settlers, including Marcus and Narcissa Whitman. Tiloukaikt and four other Cayuse voluntarily surrendered and were hanged for what is known as the Whitman massacre.

The death of the Whitmans sent a shock wave across the U.S. and prompted Congress to make Oregon a U.S. territory, but for the Cayuse it was the beginning of tragic ending as their people slowly disappeared from the globe. The Whitmans initially became popular symbols of Christian martyrdom due to inaccurate and oversimplified accounts of their complex relations with the Cayuse tribe. But, today, as history sheds new light on the peculiarities of their mission, they are no longer shrouded with endearments as white settlers and thoughtful evangelists saving the ‘Redman Savage,’ and many Whitman statues and monuments have been justifiably removed or torn down.

For the lovers of history and thrill seekers alike, there is a small boat excursion into Idaho’s Hells Canyon National Recreation Area’s Snake River of Hells Canyon – the deepest canyon in North America. The boats slow down to a snail’s pace allow viewing of ancient Native-American petroglyphs, wildlife and unique landscape formations. The Shoshone people living along the river used a hand sign to identify themselves by the movement of a snake. But it really meant to disappear as one.

Later, a stop at the Nez Percé Interpretive Center gives one a perspective on the tribe’s fascinating history and culture. Nez Percé, of course, translates to ‘Pierced Nose’ in French.

A stop at Mt. St. Helens Volcanic Monument offers a great opportunity to view an active volcano, where you’ll see the continual geological process and the landscape’s evolution since the 1980 eruption. At the nearby Observatory and Interpretive Center, one may look directly into the crater with its steaming dome, and witness firsthand the destructive power and damage caused by this volcanic blast. Views of the mountains and the crater may vary due to weather and volcano conditions.

The journey goes full circle for a tour of Fort Clatsop, just outside of Astoria, where the Lewis and Clark expedition made camp during the bleak winter of 1805-06. Named for the neighboring Clatsop Tribe, the Pacific NW weather proved to be unbearable, and the expedition bailed for home earlier than expected. As a native Seattleite, I know a little bit about that weather. The original fort fell into disrepair in 1955, and a replica was built on the original site, following Clark’s own sketches. There is a Visitor Center with two theaters, an exhibit hall and interpretive programs.

Back on Board the Empress of the North

For those seeking a luxurious cruise experience, the Empress more than fits the bill. The vessel features two lounges, live showboat entertainment and the usual Welcome Aboard Cocktail Reception and Dinner Party with the Captain. Gracefully appointed staterooms feature spacious bathrooms, televisions with VCRs or DVD players. All staterooms offer sweeping river views, and most have private verandahs.

Northwest Regional Cuisine

If you’ve been disappointed in the past that your meals were not thematically consistent with your cruise destination, you will be pleasantly surprised by the cuisine on this vessel. The bounty of the Pacific Northwest is well on display in meals from the Empress’ kitchen. The chef uses fresh vegetables and fruits, locally raised meats and Pacific fish and seafood. Menus include everything from Dungeness Crab Cakes Benedict, herb rubbed Ellensburg lamb, and Tillamook cheddar cheese soup to smoked salmon, grilled halibut and scallops.

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