 |
 |
 |
|
The Hungry Bear Diner
Lac La Hache, BC - 1680 miles along
It was well into the afternoon as I contemplated
trying to reach 100 Mile House, a town still 22 miles
away. I decided I would have a stop in Lac La Hache,
(Axe Lake) which is known for being the longest town
in Cariboo stretching along "some 11 miles" of highway
97. Um, I guess if there is nothing else to boast
about, then go with that... However, as I passed
through the first few miles, I noticed how beautiful
the lake was and wondered why they couldn't have
thought to boast about the lake. Then I thought maybe
they didn't want to boast about their lake being the
most beautiful without creating some animosity between
Williams Lake, McLeese Lake, and 10 Mile Lake, which
were all pretty beautiful as well.
I stopped in Clancy's Post Restaurant for a look but
decided I still had quite a few miles of the town to
see and wanted to be sure and support a local mom and
pop restaurant, so I moved on.
After passing one beautiful scene after another, I
came upon Hungry Bear Diner and thought I'd give it a
go. I was pretty hungry and asked what the special was
only after saying yes to it. She said it was the
turkey cutlet with potatoes and clam chowder soup.
Now, I didn't realize soon enough that I was in the
interior of B.C., very far from any salt water which
therefore made the Clam chowder choice questionable.
When I got the soup, it just didn't look like the clam
chowder from Jimmy Seas up in Martha's Vineyard or the
Forns Family recipe of Falmouth, Cape Cod. I would
have made a bet that it was chicken soup and this was
my first hint that dinner was not going to be
ravenously delicious.
Since I had decided to sit outside, I had to come in
to get my food and bring it out. I was fine with that-
no tipping would be necessary. As I stood waiting, the
cook asked if I wanted any gravy. I struggled for a
second, wondering about this gravy and then said sure.
As she handed me the platter, I was wary immediately.
Turkey cutlet shouldn't look THAT different from say,
chicken cutlet. I didn't know that turkeys had that
much gristle either but they found it and seems as
though they put all of it on my platter. I laughed as
I tried to cut into it, recalling that she asked if I
had "cutlery". She must've meant the Miracle Blade.
As I sawed through with my butter knife, I thought you
really have to be as hungry as a bear to eat there.
Although I can't cook, I'd have taken my PBJ on a
black bean salsa tortilla over this any day.
|
|
|
 |
 |
 |
|
