The Cured Ham Camps

I've always loved camping, backpacking, and the outdoors in general. I typically hike every day and usually at altitude. I get a great workout in, see wonderful places, and when I get back to camp eat anything I want.

Unfortunately, I've camped less in the last two years than I have in the last 10. I don't think I slept in the dirt or under the stars in all of 2010. These comments may shock some as my usual posts on the world of food and travel are far more glamourous, Michelin Dining, 5 Star Hotels, and one too many a flight on United.

Well, there is a softer, simple side of The Cured Ham. A side that appreciates the smell of a campfire, drinking and eating out of the same insulated mug each day, and cooking the most basic of meals, which does NOT include dehydrated backpacking food. Scratch cooking each night, with the assistance of a few cans of tuna or tomatoes.

I have to walk to get water, lock my food up in a bear locker, and wash dishes (no Bosch washer here) immediately after I finish cooking and eating. Not quite all the comforts of home...but the view is unparalleled (Rock Creek Lake, CA).

Shogun, Mammoth Lakes

A first for me in Mammoth, sushi in the Mountains; perhaps risky business. I was calculated though, I went on a Saturday night with the assumption that a weekend would bring people from LA and a fresh delivery of fish. I’ll tell you what, a pleasant surprise. I dined at the sushi bar among a full house of hungry diners.

None of the rolls were elaborate, no real showmanship behind the counter either, just efficiency. The spicy tuna was a highlight, made without mayonnaise, rather with Japanese hot pepper; a nice touch. A simple ahi tuna and cucumber salad, while heavy handed with the soy, was flavorful once the tuna was removed from the bath of dressing. A yellowtail and green onion roll was another solid offering. The unagi sushi was simply glazed, rather than dredged in the sweet sauce...bravo.

I was happiest with a sashimi plate of yellowtail and albacore, both with clean flavors. I love albacore to finish. Delicious fish, creamy, and with just a hint of soy and green onion is a favorite of mine. Add one 22oz Kirin to this meal and I walked away a happy man.

If you're craving sushi, there aren't many choices in Mammoth, so who knows when the delivery days are in the middle of summer or what type of volume they do during the week, but on a Saturday in the middle of winter, it's probably a good bet your getting fresh fish and they're busy doing volume.

Click to read more ...

Dick's Smoke Wagon, Big Pine, CA

 

Dick’s Smoke Wagon, Big Pine. While I didn’t get a chance to head to the East Side of California over the summer, I was lucky enough to break away during the winter. However, that means going “around the horn” through Mojave. There are benefits to this route, one being the Indian Wells Brewery in Inyokern the second includes driving through the towns of Lone Pine, Independence, Big Pine and Bishop.

Big Pine, gateway to the Palisades Mountain Range and the Ancient Bristlecone Forest is home to one more local treasure, Dick’s Smoke Wagon. Driving North, on the East Side of Main Street in Big Pine is a large mobile trailer parked on a concrete slab. The trailer is familiar to me, but it’s out of place. This trailer has been parked in Bishop for as long as I can remember. So why is it parked here in Big Pine and why is it parked next to what appears to be a renovated commercial kitchen?

 

I approach the trailer, walk up the ramp and talk with the sole occupant. After a ‘hello’ the man in the trailer rolls right into telling me the finishing times of each of the things he’s smoking, ribs, ribs, ribs; all several hours away from tender completion. Not good for my time schedule. “But if you’re here for lunch, I’ve got all my sandwiches ready, along with beans, coleslaw, and home-made jalapeno poppers.” Oh yes, I’m ready for lunch.

 

I proceed to order the bbq pulled pork sandwich with bbq baked beans and a vinegar based coleslaw. But is this a sandwich? The bottom of a small white dinner roll is placed in the middle of the center island of the take-away container and covered with a heaping portion of pork, bbq sauce, and topped with simple slivered cabbage. The top of the bun is laid to rest on the mass of pork. It is as though Dali has influenced the construction and inspiration for the surreal pork sandwich. The perfect unblemished little bun riding on top of pork carnage, underneath, the bun’s other half, immersed in a sea of bbq sauce and pork. Technically a sandwich, meat sandwiched in between two pieces of bread, yet unworkable as a sandwich eaten with your hands. Adding to the total experience and scene, a converted mobile trailer with smoke billowing from the front, parked on an industrial concrete slab, with a view of the snowcapped Sierra Nevada range. A surreal masterpiece!

Normally, people get lazy when they pull pork and allow large hunks of fat to mix in with pure meat. Not at Dick’s Smoke Wagon. Pure meat in my sandwich. The sauce is tangy, not too sweet, with nice spice notes. It’s a balance moment, all the aspects of great sauce. The beans and slaw were very tasty. The coleslaw had more vinegar than mayo, crispy, well integrated and offered a bit of cutting acid to the sweet bbq sauce and the richness of the pork.

 

I chatted with the pit master a bit after eating my sandwich. We discussed who made the Smoke Wagon, the development of the commercial kitchen, and the upcoming trout season. Before I continued my drive, I figured I’d ask if I could take a bottle of his BBQ sauce.

“Excuse me. Do you bottle your sauce?”

“No, just make it fresh each day depending on what I think I need. If I bottle it, it wouldn’t be fresh would it?”

Now how can I disagree with that?! I hope my readers can make it to Big Pine and try Dick’s Smoke Wagon. They are also on FACEBOOK.

Click to read more ...

Whiskey Creek, Mammoth Lakes

Normally, I eat upstairs at Whiskey Creek for simpler fare, fish tacos or a burger, but I felt like a steak and salad. So downstairs it was for The Whiskey Wedge and the Friday night Prime Rib. The metaphor for my dining experience is appropriate for the season in which I'm dining, a 16 year old youth snowboarding with buddies on the slopes of Mammoth for the first time. Fast, somewhat haphazard, and the youthful urge to get down the hill without much style or grace but proclaim to all that he just carved up another killer run.

 

The Wedge was uninspired, as though they didn’t try. Sure the lettuce was cold and generous, but the bleu cheese dressing was loose and underseasoned. The candied walnuts, an afterthought simply put on the side of the salad. There was also some other reddish dressing put over the top of the bleu cheese dressing, to what end I don’t know. Nothing special really, although it came out very quickly from the kitchen.

 

As for the prime rib, it looked perfect and medium rare, but was missing a roasted crust around the outside. Secondly, a brown sauce was poured all over the meat, for what reason I have no idea. The prime rib was cooked properly, so why add some canned or bottled sauce to it? The sauce was horrible and tasted like Campbell’s reduced beef broth combined with pureed mushroom soup, desecrating the prime rib. I took the mashed potatoes and created a dam around my prime rib mitigating some of the damage wrought by the foul sauce.

Another worry I have, the wine list is dated, which may indicate problems with buying habits of both consumers and the staff. There seems to be plenty of wine and plenty of choices, almost too many when it comes to the offerings by the glass, all indicative of confusion rather than vision for what Whiskey Creek should be, a premier dining property in town with clear direction other than speed and tons of offerings. When I see 02, 03, 04 Cabs on the list, that have had recent releases, it begins to worry me. I'm all for having verticals of wine but it's un-necessary at a place like this. They should have recent vintages of the most popular wines in the LA and San Diego area.

As I opened with my reckless snowboarder metaphor, one thing about downstairs at Whiskey Creek that I couldn’t complain too much about…they’re fast; but if I had to do it over again, I’d eat upstairs in the bar. I think this place could be a real gem in Mammoth if they only took a step back, re-evaluated what they were doing, slow down, and think about what they want to do as a professional snowboarder, just go fast and board or step up their game and board the half-pipe with style.

Click to read more ...

Thai Thai, Bishop, CA

 

Thai Thai at the Bishop Airport: Build it and they will come, should be the motto for this Thai restaurant. Located on the grounds of the Bishop general aviation airfield, Thai Thai has carved out a niche in the Bishop dining scene.

 

Not an elaborate menu for lunch, one page with about a dozen choices. There are a few Thai classics with Pad Thai of course. I went with the deep fried spring rolls and Thai fried rice.

The spring rolls were fried fresh, were nice and crispy, and filled with vegetables. A sweet and sour sauce accompanied the spring rolls. Good, hot and crunchy but not particularly Thai, more Chinese in flavor than Thai. I have tended over the years to appreciate the fresh and unfried spring rolls in Vietnamese cuisine, but as fried spring rolls go, these were very good.

 

The Thai fried rice was another story. This rice was spicy, flavorful, and was more of what I expected from a Thai restaurant. The heat of the dish didn’t come all at once, it built with each bite, almost forcing you to eat more and faster just to work up the necessary perspiration to combat the heat building in your mouth. The shrimp in the dish were cooked properly and there were whole pieces of basil throughout the dish.

 

I wish I had more time in Bishop to eat at Thai Thai at least 3 more times to try a few of the classics. My Jedi senses tell me that this place is a winner and unique among the restaurants along the East Side of California and HWY 395. I look forward to coming here again (and yes, I told my climbing buddies about this place every chance I get).

Click to read more ...