Bon Appetit

Traveling presents many opportunities to expand the culinary palate. We recently traveled to the Oregon and Washington coasts and agreed before we left home that we would try to sample food from restaurants that were unique to the areas in which we were traveling rather than dining at chain restaurants.


Our first stop was in downtown Long Beach, Washington, where we sampled fare at a nautical-themed restaurant called "Benson's by the Beach". The restaurant was under new ownership and offered breakfast and lunch every day. We sampled a vegetarian sandwich with onion rings and a breakfast omelet, both of which were excellent.

We also enjoyed lunch at "Dooger's Seafood and Grill", which was also located in Long Beach, Washington. The menu choices for vegetarians was much more limited, but we were able to enjoy a vege-burger and a salad. We later found out that it was a family-owned chain restaurant specific to the north Oregon coast (Cannon Beach, Seaside and Warrenton) and one on the Washington coast in Long Beach, Washington.

Later in the week, we journeyed across the bridge into Astoria, Oregon, where we enjoyed an interesting meal at the "Bridgewater Bistro", where 80% of the menu is gluten-free. Many of the foods on the menu were very unique and somewhat expensive. We sampled a very small house salad with organic greens and hazelnuts, served with homemade bread, and a Mediterranean veggie wrap with french fries. We were told they were adding a vege-burger to their menu the next day but they weren't prepared to serve it early.

Our final stop was a family-owned Mexican restaurant, Casa el Mirador, in The Dalles, Oregon, where we enjoyed fresh guacamole, warm tortilla chips, enchiladas and burritos.

Yes, traveling opens the door to culinary opportunities if you take the time to find the little, out-of-the-way or unique restaurants and avoid the major chain restaurants.