A Philly Diner in Tahoe

Completing my Northern California sojurn was a trip to the North Lake Tahoe area, centered in Truckee. Now, I've been to Truckee many times over the years and consider myself pretty familiar with its offerings, but I'd never made it to Jax Diner.

Jax is literally an old, east coast style diner in that the train style building originally housed a Philadelphia area diner dating back to the 1940s. It was shipped to Truckee in the 1990s where it now sits attached to a larger building.

Everything at Jax is homemade from the thick toast to the parmesan dusted potato chips to the crunchy potato salad. The day were there, there was a meatball sandwich special which had thick, moist meatballs on homemade rolls with a nice, tanky tomoato sauce. I was less impressed with the Philly cheese steak in which the beef got a bit too dry and I longed for more peppers.

The shakes at Jax, as one would hope, were excellent. Thick and cold and served with the extra in the metal cup with plenty of malt in the malteds.

We had lunch, but I'm guessing the breakfasts here are great. This will definitely become a regular stop for me when I'm in the Truckee area.

Jax Diner
10144 West River Street
Truckee, CA 96161
(530) 550-7450

Auburn Pie Stop: Ikeda's

There aren't too many reasons to head to the city of Auburn at the base of the Sierra foothills, but if you are heading to Tahoe or Reno from the Bay Area, you pass through Auburn on Interstate 80. And just off the Foresthill Road exit is Ikeda's, an old grocery store and food stand where you can get burgers and fries, high end beer and wine and all manner of homemade sweets (brittle, pretzels and nuts covered in all sorts of goo, caramels, etc.). But what you really need to get are the fruit pies. Ikeda's makes fruit pies and cobblers that are hard to beat. They have them all year, but in the summer, they are made with the seasonal fruit that grows in the Sacramento Valley. There is peach, strawberry rhubarb and all sorts of berry. My last trip I picked up a razzleberry (raspberry and blueberry) crumble. The fruit was fresh and the crust and crumbly bits on top are sweet and flaky. Now that's good pie.

Ikedas
13500 Lincoln Way
Auburn, CA 95604
(530) 885-4243

Tahoe Report: Country Cooking at Rosie's Cafe

There are many great cuisines in LA, but there are also things that are sadly lacking. One of them is country cooking, the hearty cuisine of the old Scotch-Irish protestant population of the south and southern midwest. But journey into the interior of California, and you will find this cuisine, a remnant of the dust bowl refugees that poured into California during the Great Depression.

In the Tahoe area, if you look beyond the newer, gentrified spots, you will find plenty of country cooking. Diners and cafes that specialize in heavy breakfasts and hearty meals, often dating back thirty, forty or even fifty years. One such place is Rosie's Cafe in Tahoe City.

Decorated with ancient ski equipment and dusty hunting trophies, Rosie's sits directly across Lake Boulevard from Lake Tahoe. Founded almost thirty years ago, Rosie's features a full bar and breakfast until 2:30 pm.

One of my favorite country cuisine classics is chicken fried steak, and Rosie's has a wondrous version. A slab of steak, with a thick fried batter buried in creamy sausage gravy, accompanied by two perfectly cooked eggs (over easy in my case), hash browns and home baked cinnamon raisin bread. You may be able to get a great milanesa in LA, but you can't get a chicken fried steak like this, crunchy and crusty on the outside and tender within, a mid-day breakfast will stick to your ribs all day, just like country cooking is supposed to.


Rosie's Cafe
571 North Lake Boulevard
Tahoe City, CA 96145
(530) 583-8504

Tahoe Report: Truckee Thai

I grew up spending a lot of time in the Lake Tahoe area, and I always love heading back. We stay in Truckee which is adjacent to the beautiful Tahoe National Forest and has access to some great ski slopes. While there are a few goodies that I've reported on through the years, the area is not exactly a culinary destination. Usually, if we go out, we hit one of a few familiar places or end up suffering through something mediocre.

I must admit, living a few blocks from LA's Thaitown, I was pretty skeptical of trying a Truckee Thai restaurant. How good could a Thai restaurant be in an area with virtually no Thai population? How wrong I was.

Thai Nakorn, on Donner Pass Road in Truckee, was superb. Nearly everything we ordered there was a hit. The menu is pretty typical American-Thai (no boar, not morning glory, etc.), but the flavors of everything really stood out. Papaya salad had a deep fish saucy flavor with none of the sweetness that can infect the dish; pumpkin red curry was rich with coconut cream and slices of pumpkin while green avocado curry had plenty of Thai basil and Thai eggplant; the noodles in the pad see ew were nicely charred. But the highlight was the duck noodle soup special. The broth was deeply ducky, with noodles, slices of duck and scallion; it was slurpable. For dessert we enjoyed a nice version of mango sticky rice.

This was a fantastic Thai meal, easily competitive with the best of the same dishes in Thaitown.

Thai Nakorn
10770 Donner Pass road
Truckee, CA 96161
(530) 550-0503
(They have another branch in South Lake Tahoe)

We'll have more Tahoe later this week.

Winter Break: Tahoe Report

I took a winter break for some skiing, skating, sledding and eating in the Tahoe area. We were based in the North Shore area around Truckee, California. When I'm out in Tahoe, I don't typically eat out as much as I do at home, preferring home cooked, rustic meals. In addition, Tahoe and environs aren't exactly a culinary Mecca, but there are some gems in the snow that are worth noting.


Moody's Bistro

Since Moody's French Bistro opened in old-town Truckee four or five years ago, it has become our place for the special night out. This was my third visit, and each year I go, it is one of the best meals I have in Tahoe, serving French bistro food with a nod to rustic Sierra cooking. This year, I had a wonderful sweet breads appetizer, a plate loaded with perfectly fried sweetbreads on polenta. For my entree, how could I resist Moody's Big Ass Pork Platter? Moody's buys and butchers its own hogs to come up with this five way pork preparation. The night I was there it was loin, tenderloin, copa, fried belly and a sort of hash of trotters. The loin was a bit on the dry side, but all of the others were perfectly cooked. I'm impressed by Moody's every time I go, and given the cost of similar meals in LA, I'm impressed by the price as well.

Moody's Bistro
10007 Bridge St
Truckee, CA 96161
(530) 587-8688


Euro-Snack Waffles

One of my favorite Tahoe fast foods is the Euro-Snack waffle stand at the Squaw Valley and Northstar ski areas. For $4 you get a small, sweet waffle square, grilled to order (pictured above). The gooey, chewy, sweetness warms your soul on a snowy day. It's one of those things that is probably only good in Tahoe, but I can't resist.


Lupita's

If you're flying into Tahoe, as we generally do, you're more than likely coming through the Reno-Tahoe Airport. Reno presents some of its own culinary challenges, but I try to find something decent on my way in or out. Mexican is generally the best bet, so we tried Lupita's in the Reno-adjacent town of Sparks. Lupita's features good, home-style Mexcian food, centered in the cuisine of the state of Nayarit. The food was solid if not particularly exceptional, though the chili verde was excellent, with the pork pieces fried up nicely with a crispy crust and a good tart salsa.

Lupita's
668 E Prater Way (in the strip mall on the northwest corner of Prater and McCarran Blvd.)
Sparks, NV 89431
(775) 355-1770


Sweets Handmade Candies

Sweets candy shop in old-town Truckee (with a branch in Reno) is a pretty typical old-time candy shop featuring fudge, peanut brittle and many other handmade candies that inevitably seem to look (and smell) just a bit better than they taste. It's fun to watch them making the candy in the window and be lured in by the scent, and it's easy to overindulge. The one thing I love at Sweets, which lives up to its smell, is the chocolate covered toffee popcorn. It's a butter toffee corn dripped with chocolate and served in big clumps; it's sweet, salty and highly addictive. They also do good fudge, but stick to the traditional flavors like chocolate and penuche.

Sweets Handmade Candies
10118 Donner Pass Rd # 1
Truckee, CA 96161
(530) 587-6556

4991 South Virginia, Suite C
Reno, NV 89502
(775) 827-8270

If you're a Tahoe visitor or local, I'd love to hear your recommendations as I'm always looking for something new and good.