Okay, along the way up and down to Lake Tahoe, we discovered some nice food chains. Not national chains. They just have a couple of outlets around California.
One of them is Perko’s which we drove into off the highway near Sacramento, when we looked for food. It was closest to the highway exit. Family restaurant. Ribs were good, as was my pulled pork sandwich. Mom had the steak, also nicely cooked. (but still, nothing beats Swinging Steak in Mexican Hat)
Also, Texas West Barbecue that we found in Folsom (just outside Sacramento) was good. Smoked ribs. You can tell by the red hue in the meat. But you have to tell them to re-grill it before serving it. This setup was simpler. You look at the menu, then line up at the cashier to order. They bring the meal to you.
Now I keep wondering where my food picture are… and I realised, they’re in my mobile phone. But I’ve not been as good with the food photos this time. It seems to be such a hassle to always document with photos.
Well, since we’re on food, I also found Burmese food at a place called Yamo – 18th and Mission – in San Francisco. The chicken noodle soup was not just tasty, had coconut, red onions and cilantro.
Wah! Got photo!
I don’t know if it’s really Burmese or not, but it tasted good. It’s very mild, but I added some fried dried chilli, and that spiced it up a bit. Quite close to the Malay type of Laksa, but with chicken. And with more coconut. Now, I’m not a fan of yellow noodles in Singapore, because of the use of alkaline (kee), but this one had no alkaline smell or taste, and had a good bite to it. Only $5.25, I’d go back and eat it again.
Here are photos of the tiny place, which is just a bar and stools. Maybe a total of 10 seats.
Also another place I spotted in San Francisco at 16th and Sanchez called Ike’s Place. Sells sandwiches. Didn’t try it. Had a line at 12:30pm, when I passed it. Still had a line when I passed it at 5pm. Smelt good. And from the reviews I’m taking a look at now, apparently, everyone thinks it tastes good too.
Okay, back to the route toward/back from Lake Tahoe. We stopped by the towns of Placerville, which turns out to be hangman town, where people used to get hanged.
There’s an old gold mine, where you still can pan for your own gold and apparently, some people come with metal detectors and still find bits of gold there. I didn’t go panning for gold, although I might have, had I had time. There’s an interesting olive oil shop, called Winterhill there. If you buy a bottle of olive oil, you can have it refilled for a much lower price. Darn bottles cost a lot of money.
We also stopped at another town called Vacerville, which seems quite ordinary, but turned out there was a meeting of old car enthusiasts there. Some peoeple spend years rebuilding the cars. We spoke to one family who rebuilt the car for 6 years.
So there, you have it. Lake Tahoe is hmmm… but toward it and around it, it’s more interesting.
For those who like shopping there are premium outlets at Folsom and Vacaville along the way too. And I discovered that the AA card has some use at Outlets. All those coupon booklets they sell for $5, are free for AAA/CAA/AA members. I find actually Tanger Outlets a bit more interesting than Premium Outlets. Do I sound like a shopping pro? Haha.