25. Tapped

There’s a nice little pub that I frequently go to in Moscow, Idaho. It’s called “Tapped” and it specializes in craft brews from throughout the Northwest and Inter-Mountain region. It serves great food at a reasonable price and it has a light airy atmosphere that is welcoming to families. I like to go there with friends and drink a beer or cider and eat some of their bacon wrapped dates. You can always sit in front and look out the windows onto the street. The windows are just like a huge removable wall that is open on summer nights so that the atmosphere is open and fluid between the street and the pub. I love how they have half priced days for certain working groups. Monday is the day for teachers, though I confess to not making it much on those days because it’s a little bit of a drive for a week night. I know “Tapped” is not necessarily a unique place to any small town, it’s just a nice example of one of the many fine things we have here in America. I’m grateful for that little pub on Main Street in Moscow, Idaho known as “Tapped” and all similar establishments throughout our country.

25. Hudson's Burgers

On Sherman Avenue in Coeur d’Alene, Idaho just across the street from a pretentious little mall called “The Shops” is a rather humble little burger joint that has been there for the past century. The place is simply called “Hudson’s Burgers” and that’s just what it is. There are no frilly fries or other side attractions, just burgers. And it’s always fresh ground beef. Yes, you can order them with cheese if you’d like and there is ketchup (even spicy ketchup) and pickles as well and maybe a soft drink. But that’s it. There is a bar where maybe 12-15 people can sit and eat, but since the place is always packed you’d best order it to go and find a table at one of the nearby parks to eat it. And don’t stand there trying to decide if you want Pepsi or Root Beer because there are plenty of people standing outside the door on the street waiting to place their orders. This is the kind of place to fill a logger’s belly, not some frilly tourist joint where you have five Italian names for a small, medium and large. “Hudson’s Burgers” is a slice of the good old days right in the middle of a tourist haze and it’s a breath of fresh mountain air for me.

24. Pumpkins

Come fall another great American food source that I enjoy makes its annual appearance: pumpkin (and squash to a lesser extent). As old as American Thanksgiving is the pumpkin pie and the scary jack-o-lantern carved from pumpkins is an annual favorite. But now in the 21^st century everything comes up pumpkin. We have pumpkin spice lattes, pumpkin crème centered Oreos, pumpkin waffle mixes, pumpkin spiced creams for our coffee and on and on. I won’t deny that I grow pumpkins every year just so I can carve some Halloween jack-o-lanterns, have some pumpkin pie and stuff at least one with a traditional autumn stuffing that I bake in the oven.  I still have pureed pumpkin in the freezer so that I can cook up a batch of pumpkin waffles at any time now. There are definitely certain American foods that define us as a people and pumpkin is one of those foods. Now as autumn comes in, harvest those pumpkins and join me in a pumpkin spice latte toast to that amazing squash, the pumpkin. 

23. Corn

Corn is a word claimed by Americans to mean something very specific. It is not, as the original and current British definition, a synonym of grain. Here corn is a plant that grows anywhere from 3’ to 15’ tall with large tassels at the top and ears on its stalk that have row after row of kernels. This native plant is also known as maize. Field corn is perfectly worthless for human consumption but you will see fields upon fields of it in this country as a staple food for our cattle. But we Americans like corn every bit as much as our cows (probably even more), we just prefer the sweet variety. We eat it in myriads of ways from just gnawing it directly off the cob to soaking it in lye and turning it into hominy. We grind it up into flour and cornmeal for breads, tortillas, hush puppies and Johnny cake. We pop it and coat it in butter and salt or some sugary concoctions (often just made of that very corn itself distilled into corn syrup). While you can find some varieties of corn in Europe, most Europeans view all our American “maize” as unfit for human consumption, though you’ll still find a popped variety in their cinemas and they do sweeten some of their beverages with high fructose corn syrup. It is a distinctly American food, shared with our brethren in all of North and South America. But it is in our US melting pot that we have concocted the plethora of ways to consume that oh so a-maizing grain. And however corny it may sound, I, for one, am grateful for corn.