A Culinary Wedding: Part 1

In high school the Fiance was apart of a culinary academy with his childhood best friend Phil. You wouldn't know it now, especially since Fiance will only cook a can full of Dennison's chili on the stove and leaves the rest to me. Phil, however, went onto culinary greatness at Johnson and Wales, and ended up in Napa where he started his own winery and works as a fine wine specialist.

Somewhere between college and Napa, Phil met his now wife Shara who is a Director at the Culinary Institute of America. This past weekend I had the privilege of experiencing first hand what happens when two foodies decide it's time to get hitched.

The fiance and I drove up to Napa, stopping in at Mike's Roadhouse in Kettleman City, CA.

I specifically chose this stop because the Yelpers seemed to diverge greatly on how many stars this place deserved. It also helped that the local Chevron tauts one of the lowest gas prices on the road halfway to Napa, at least compared to Harris Ranch, which I'll get to later.

Despite the fact that Mike's advertises a $4.95 Country fried steak and eggs special, I quickly forgot about all of that when I walked in and was met with farmhouse kitsch and the most impressive collection of pedal cars. There were barrels of various hard candy flavors lining the walkway that split the restaurant from the gift shop/pit stop that got my mind running about who I know that might actually enjoy a bag of hard black liquorice. I came up with no one.

We were quickly seated and given what I remember to be a pretty standard diner type menu with two very key differences: An attention to low carb and other healthy dieters and a variety of Mexican food options. Thank the lord for local farm workers or I would have never had the most expansive Carnitas Tostada salad of my life.

We started with the Chili to share because when I think truck stop, I think chili. Fiance said it tasted like Wendy's chili. I felt like Wendy's chili would have been less greasy but who knows, it might have been the chunk of cheese they stuck in the middle of it. Kudos to them for providing whole wheat crackers though, I wouldn't have expected it.

When my salad came out it was massive. A seriously generous serving of carnitas flanked with tons of avocado, beans, lettuce, tomatoes and cheese accompanied by salsa and sour cream on the side all on a fried flour tortilla. My mouth waters thinking about it right now. The carnitas was VERY good and in skipping the fried flour tortilla, I was pretty happy to find a high veggie, high protein lunch option in a world of fast food chains.

The Fiance on the other hand would have probably been just as happy at the locals Carl's Jr. considering the fact that he got a burger and fries that looked a little like a Famous Star with french fries.

Our bill came out to about $30 with tax and tip but we did end up buying something else on the way out for the bride and groom:

A 3d greeting card along with a bag of salt water taffy.

(Pictures courtesy of Yelp.com and Tableandhome.com)