I like In-N-Out. Who doesn’t? Yet every time I eat there — i.e. every time I go to California — I walk out with the same slightly befuddled look on my face. Was it really that great? Sure, the ingredients were fresh, and you don’t feel like you’ve just had a meal from McDonald’s. But still. It wasn’t that great, was it? In the end, wasn’t it just a burger? A good one, sure, but not that amazing.

Of course, the myth might be what makes In-N-Out what it is today. The way they’re not franchised, nor are they a public company. The little bible quotes hidden away on cups and wrappers. The minimal menu. The (not so very) secret menu. Add that to the fresh ingredients, and all of a sudden the burger seems a bit more special than what it really is.

But if you look at it as a standalone food item… Well… You can get pretty much the same burger at D. Lish’s. And a better one at Crazy G’s. At least according to me.

But hey, In-N-Out… Definitely awesome for many reasons. Just not that awesome.

So excellent is it, that Guy Fieri — probably the best chef ever! — featured it on Diners, Drive-ins and Dives, aka the Citizen Kane of food television. We kid you not. About it being a featured restaurant at least.

Douchebag love aside, Southern Kitchen is pretty dang good. We are, not surprisingly, talking southern cuisine here, which includes their quasi-famous sweet potato pie, and awesome it is.

Yet, still, I have to say the combination of catfish, grits, and their hot sauce might have had it beat. Chicken & More right here in Spokane does an excellent catfish, but honestly, Southern Kitchen does it better. Pair it with their mango lemonade — served in a jug the size of my head — and you got a meal going. And of course, everything is prepared from scratch.

Find Southern Kitchen on 1716 6th Ave in Tacoma.

As for our favorite Guy. Well, SNL might have said it best…

Hey, it’s excellent.

That’s a good thing, of course.

Be it the always excellent Chocolate Stout (great on bottle, double great from tap) or one of their many special brews, you will find them here. And of course, there’s always the opportunity to pick up a growler or bottles. Or atire.

And for the sake of variety, the Brew House still serves its own beers. The Menage á Frog, for example is well worth checking out.

The point being, if you go traveling, even to the west side of the state, there’s a lot to experience outside of Seattle’s city limits. Issaquah Brew House, conveniently located in downtown Issaquah on 35 W Sunset, offers up great ales and decent food. Definitely worth a look if you love the Rogue. And who doesn’t?

(Take one heart away if you go for the food only.)

There are many things to like about Vietnam. Their grilled meatballs, for example,  are super flavorful. So are the “Vietnamese coffee” and “Vietnamese lemonade.” But, really, if you’re going to enjoy the restaurant properly, you can might as well just go for the “BBQ Platter,” which at $25 includes pretty much every dish ever cooked in the country of Vietnam. I kid you not! The thing is huge, and yes, includes the meatballs.

And in what can only be considered somewhat of a cruel joke, the menu states it can serve “up to 2 persons.” Seriously? The platter in question is about the size of the table.

Regardless, it is delicious. And so are the desserts — some sort of beans and dairy concoction — with recipes so secret they won’t let you remove them from the premise in takeaway boxes. Hardcore, although good as they were, really have nothing on the meatballs which they should probably be more protective of.

A rather amusing aside was one of the waiters; a jovial man who had lived for about a month in Spokane in the early 2000s. He didn’t, shall we say, love it, and insisted — and I seriously mean insisted — there would be feet of snow waiting for us when we returned. This was in mid-October. Thankfully he was wrong.

Vietnam Cafe is definitely worth a visit if you find yourself in the Philadelphia area. Make sure you get the meatballs, though, as they are amazing.

Web: http://www.eatatvietnam.com/vietnam_cafe.cfm

Address: 814 S 47th Street

Here are a few destinations we found on our voyage that come recommended both by locals and us alike:

Donnie Mac’s Trailer Park Cuisine: Located at 1515 W Grove St, Donnie Mac’s look is (if going by their description at least) both shabby and chic, but the food is neither (probably also by their own description). “The Worst Burger” lives up to its name, seeing that it’s not a true hamburger, but a black bean burger. And it’s good, served on ciabatta with a fresh pico de gallo style sauce. Definitely worth checking out, particularly with the outdoor seating (OK, that might be a moot point shortly) and good selection of music.

Bittercreek Alehouse: This is without a doubt, personally, my favorite Boise spot, and one of the better alehouses I’ve seen. The selection on tap is great, consisting mostly of local and northwest brews, including SFB local-ish favorite, Laughing Dog IPA.

And while tapped beer tends to be the way to go, Bittercreek’s selection of bottles is impressive. Very, very impressive. If you want to try a $100 Belgian, this is the place to go. For the rest of us, there are more affordable alternatives, like Nøgne Ø’s # 100. Bittercreek Alehouse is pretty great, and I can see why Imbibe named it one of the 100 best alehouses in the country. Their web site.

Red Feather: Bittercreek’s sibling pub is more of a gastropub, and a pretty good one at that. We have it from sources that Boise restaurants aren’t too big on “locavore” and “organic,” and while we don’t know if this is true or not, Red Feather does both really well. Grab a $6 carafe of  mimosa and try their huevos rancheros. It makes for a good time.

Pie Hole: We didn’t get to try the famed Flying Pie, but Pie Hole was definitely good for a late night slice. Their thin-crust potato bacon is a good way to end a night.

One thing is the cinnamon roll which is huge. I mean huge. The picture does not do it justice; this thing was about the size of my face. The real winner, in my view anyway, was the bear claw. Filled with strawberry and covered with a light frosting, it was the perfect sweet way to start off a drive back to Spokane with marathon-educed stiffness.

Word has it the food is excellent there too, but with lines out the door and an hour wait, we didn’t get the chance to check it out.

But hey, there are always other marathons.

Yet while you’d expect SFC to be another chicken fast-food chain like KFC, it actually isn’t. In fact, SFC seems a bit confused about what exactly it is. Sure, you go up to a counter and place your order, but then you sit down at a table which has been set with plates and utensils, not unlike any “regular” restaurant. And the food is prepared from scratch. In fact, chicken didn’t even seem to be their main menu item. Instead…

That’s right. Shawarma! And I have to say, it was pretty damn good at that. The same thing went for the falafel, which even had avocado in it, and tasted really refreshing.

SFC is really just like KFC in name only. I mean, is KFC a hip place for teens on dates to hang out?

I think not.

As it turned out, I was definitely off on the latter. There are western, particularly French, influences in the town, certainly, but spend a night or two in Tangier, and go for a walk in the more middle-class neighborhoods, and there is little doubt you’re in a Muslim country. Ladies, dressed in traditional, yet very fashionable, outfits, and cafes filled with men (only), drinking tea and watching soccer. Not that it’s all that different from here, but the split between the sexes and the differences in fashion serve as reminders that you don’t have to travel far from Europe to see a fairly different world.

Anyway, food and beverages. All pretty dang good. The lamb kebab, for example, were juicy with just a bit of spiciness to them. And of course no Moroccan meal can go without kuskus, served this time with chicken.

My favorite was still something as simple as the tea. Just simple straight forward tea, with mint leaves soaked in it and (lots of) sugar. Definitely worth sipping down by sea.

And if that’s not to your liking, there’s always another KFC rip-off. But more on that later.

Murcia

Murcia received some (I assume) unwanted attention for having the first death in Europe related to some sort of flu bug that was going around. Odds are that is the only time you’ve heard of the region as it is often described as a place both Spaniards and tourists avoid. This is really too bad as Murcia, the city, really is a pretty awesome place, with an old town that consists of dozens of sizable plazas, all equipped with cafes and tapas bars. And churches. Not sure why, but there were at least one per plaza, but I digress…

This is definitely a place to sit down and try out some hot chocolate or a coffee based drinks. While Italy might have made more of a name for itself for the latter, I can truly say that any espresso based drink I tried was awesome. Pretty refreshing, after the common “oh, stop inconveniencing me with your fancy schmancy cappuccino order” attitude we see here. Anyway…

While I can’t for the life of me remember the name of the tapas place we tried, it had some of the better beef tenderloin I’ve had in a while. Being a bit more inland, Murcia’s tapas are mostly meat based, and often served on slices of baguette.

Valencia

The third largest city in Spain is in many ways probably the one city anybody should visit if they’re in the south-eastern part of the country. And, again, the food is awesome here.

La Taberna de la Reina, located centrally in Plaza de la Reina, is a pretty big lunch place for workers in the area. Again, the tapas here are served on bread, though the majority of it is seafood. Very very fresh seafood, some smoked, some fried, and all delicious. Make sure to sample a variety of the cheeses too, as, and you probably already know this, Spanish cheese are really quite great.

Also, and this goes for most cities in Spain, make sure to check out the food section in the department store El Corte Ingles. If a major chain can hold as high standard they do in Spain, a country with nearly 20% unemployment, I can’t help but think Fred Meyer is looking a bit puny.

Cartagena

Another city with a nice old town. This is where I probably had my favorite meal of the trip, though I didn’t note down the name of the place, nor did I take a picture of it. But, let’s try to describe it: Walk from the water up the main pedestrian street in old town (you really can’t miss it) and a few blocks up, on the left, you’ll see a restaurant with an outside seating area that stretches almost a block. Go in, and order the shrimp in garlic, and then cry over how good it tastes. Fresh shrimp and perfectly balanced garlic sauce. Man. I miss it already.

Torre de la Horadada

This little town, where we spent the majority of the time, is difficult to find as it’s not marked on any road signs. Follow Pilar de la Horadada, south of Torrevieja, however, and you should be able to locate it. It’s a beautiful little sea town, with a boardwalk that leads you to a small plaza with about a dozen restaurants. Here there are three you need to try:

First, there’s Lilly’s, a continental European style restaurant owned by a German. Their pate platter is delicious, with cheeses and olives, and is a flavor-kick that suits any warm Mediterranean evening. And the savory crepes? Unlike anything I’ve ever seen before, and I mean that in a good way.

Also in the plaza is one called Manuel’s or something similar. Try the plate with tomato jam, goat cheese, and bread, and you will be a happy person. The same goes for the pizzas which are great.

Finally, there’s Heladeria Galan. If you follow us on Twitter, you might already have seen the gelato they serve there. And it was good. It was oh so good.

Furthermore…

And lastly… Worth trying is churros and chocolate. The churro is a bit different than its Mexican cousin, in that it’s thinner and more dense. It goes perfectly for dipping in a hot chocolate sauce, in other words.