Roadfood_ Revised Edition - Jane Stern [181]
Such a pleasant place! At the front door downstairs, you are greeted by a member of the staff and directed to the elevator. Past display cases of Limoges and Wedgwood, you find yourself on the second floor in a broad lunchroom with a window view of Jefferson Street below. The tables are well-worn bare wood, the floral carpet is a muted blue. Coffee is served in Royal Worcester Hanbury pattern cups, and napkins are white linen. Of course, waitresses wear tidy uniforms.
Sandwiches are served on tender-crumb homemade whole wheat bread, and while we adore the mixed green and black olive salad sandwich, and the BLT is exemplary, and a quiche of the day is always available, what dazzles us about the menu is its many ways with chicken. You can have chicken salad, minced chicken, all-white chicken, sliced chicken, or chicken salad Polynesian, that last one mixed with coconut shreds, pecans, and a citrus vinaigrette.
To drink, there are tea and lemonade, and the wonderful house specials known as a Waterford spritzer (lemonade, lime, and sparkling water) and a cold Russian (coffee, chocolate, and whipped cream). Dessert is splendid: filled sunshine cake, made from a decades-old recipe for triple-layer sponge cake with custard filling and seven-minute frosting.
Idaho
Andrade’s Restaurante Mexicano
2137 Broadway Ave.
208–424–8890
Boise, ID
LD | $$
We used to think that the only good food to eat while traveling through southern Idaho was Basque. But Mexican food also abounds, and one of the best places to enjoy it is Andrade’s Restaurante Mexicano in Boise (with a second location in Meridian). It’s a pretty, hospitable place with bright-colored murals on the walls and a shady patio for al fresco dining.
Javier Andrade is known for his salsa bar, where diners help themselves to chunky salsa roja, pico de gallo, four-alarm habañero purée, and a large variety of other tongue-tinglers that are just right for dipping tortilla chips. Our one caution is to note that the salsas are not clearly labeled, so it’s hit and miss, heat-wise, and in our experience, some of these are hair-raising.
Two great ways to start a meal are fish tacos and chori queso, the latter a dense, delicious cheese melted and mixed with chorizo sausage. Favorite dinners include a powerhouse chicken mole, carne asada with grilled onions, and puerco Michoacan, which is pork stewed in a tomato sauce with peppers, onions, and sweet corn.
Cedars Floating Restaurant
1 Marine Dr. (Blackwell Island)
208–664–2922
Coeur d’Alene, ID
D | $$$
Rugged as it is, the landscape of northern Idaho can be irresistibly romantic—especially when appreciated at dinner hour from a table in Cedars Floating Restaurant, which is one of the few eateries that take full advantage of the city’s auspicious setting at the north end of Coeur d’Alene Lake. In fact, Cedars is located in the lake, moored about a hundred yards out at the head of the Spokane River and reachable by a walk down a long, narrow gangplank from the parking lot. Permanently berthed on 300 tons of concrete, the dining room does not bob with the waves (as the original structure did in the 1960s!), but the window tables are virtually on the waterline. Our first visit was on a drizzly September evening when the lake was steel gray, reflecting stormy skies and low clouds creeping down over a forested horizon.
A crackling fire and the lively sounds of an open kitchen provide cozy ambience to the spacious circular dining room, where every seat affords a view of waterfowl skimming over waves and the distant rocky shoreline. Cedars specializes in fresh fish from Pacific waters. Salmon, ahi, sea bass, halibut, shark, and mahimahi are some of the frequently available choices; they are cut into thick fillets and charcoal broiled, served