Food Blog

It’s been a long time since I’ve been out west, but that’s where I developed criteria for picking places to eat while on the road. I’ll give credit for most of these ‘rules’ to Dayton Duncan who wrote them in his book Out West, where he followed the Lewis and Clark Trail.

The criteria are things like never go to a place that has cars in the parking lot with out of state license plates, never pick a place with a ‘waitress wanted’ sign in the window, always pick the place with a parking lot full of pickup trucks, always pick the place with a sign advertising ‘homemade pies’ etc.

While in Arizona I drove around by myself, trying to see as much landscape as possible. Way north of Phoenix, I stopped for a sign that said ‘great food, stop here’. I figured that should be a good reason to stop. Unfortunately, Kid Chilleen’s Bad Ass BBQ wasn’t open yet.

So I drove into Black Canyon City, and the city was bristling with activity. All kinds of vehicles like ATVs, 40 year old Mercedes and Horses were carrying people around for their Saturday morning errands. I passed a small cafe ‘The Four B’s’, with a full parking lot of pick-up trucks, and another busy looking cafe - Byler’s Amish Kitchen. I thought about skipping breakfast, but soon convinced myself to turn around.

It had the requisite pick-up trucks in the busy parking lot, and I thought I heard chickens out back. Good signs. I walked into to a very busy Saturday morning’s business. Everyone (except me) knew each other. I was lucky to get a seat. I got a good one, with a view of the birdhouse town outside the window.

I ordered the country fried steaks, and a biscuit. It came with 2 eggs, hash brown potatoes and some apple butter. It was around 6 bucks with coffee. I expected to find this hidden treasure of a restaurant, with food so good everyone came for miles around. But what I got was decent, cheap food. The steak and gravy weren’t very flavorful, almost completely unseasoned, and the biscuit was fluffy, but plain. You could taste the freshness of the eggs though, and the apple butter was amazing, apply-sweet with touches of cinnamon.

Chicken Fried Steak, Byler’s Amish Kitchen, Black Canyon City, AZ

I liked the place and I cleaned my plate, trying to convince myself that cheap, decent, everyday food didn’t need to be great. The little gift shop/cash register by the door had some preserves and jam for sale and I bought some strawberry-rhubarb jam. It wasn’t until I got home that I realized that it was made in the Upper Penisula of Michigan (by the same Bylers that own the Amish Kitchen restaurant.)

The next morning I was confronted with a 16 dollar chicken fried steak on the menu of the Biltmore Grill, inside the Biltmore Hotel. I had to compare it.

Chicken Fried Steak, Biltmore Grill

At three times the price, it didn’t come with hash browns or any apple butter, but the gravy was made from really flavorful sausage, the steak had a tasty, crunchy breading, and the biscuit was fluffy and buttery. It was worth the price, but who’s going to pay 15.95 every day (or every weekend) for breakfast? Especially without that apple butter.