You would think a roadway as busy as Eureka Way would be lined with more and better restaurant options than having to order via a microphone and eat in your car, but most of the eateries are expressly designed to get you driving again as fast as possible. Maybe it has to do with the number of medical facilities and high schools on that street – necessary to be sure, but not really the sort of business zoning that attracts restaurants.

An oddly-shaped little plot at Eureka Way and 11th Street has been home to a series of sit-down restaurants. Back in the 1980s it housed a very good Italian restaurant, followed by (among others) the Donut Wheel, the ill-fated Avocado’s, Brick’s, and Uncle Mike’s Burgers. Uncle Mike’s had barely let the paint dry before Madayne took over, opening their second Redding location (the other on Hilltop Drive).

The dining room is relentlessly boxy, with small aqua wooden-topped tables and banquette seating along one wall and a lengthy counter on another, metal chairs to be moved around as needed. There’s a divided-off space in the center with picnic tables. When you walk in, order and pay at the counter (there is also another counter on the other side of the room which mainly serves coffee drinks), then take a seat and wait for your food to be delivered. While you wait, you can peruse the t-shirts, mugs, books, and coffee for sale.

On M. de Joie’s first visit, she ordered and then asked for a receipt but was abandoned by the cashier, so she never got it. She supposes the cashier had to confer with others in front of and behind the coffee bar who all seemed to be busily sending and receiving texts.

Trinami sandwich, 1/2 $8.50, plus hummus & veggies, $1.00 with meal, $1.50 a la carte

Trinami is the name given to a sandwich built with smoked tri-tip, pastrami, Swiss cheese, and chipotle sauce on what the paper menu described as a baggett. The menu also said it came with fries, which were nowhere to be seen. While the sandwich was delicious, this was by far the smallest half-sandwich M. de Joie has encountered in a very long time. It was a good thing she ordered the hummus & veggies on the side since that $8.50 half sandwich was terribly lonely all by itself. It would have been nice to have a spoon or some other implement to scoop up the hummus after running out of baby carrots, but waitstaff was nowhere to be seen – maybe involved in a texting scheme to take over the world. Actually the hummus was very good scooped up with fingers.

Black and blue salad, half $9.50

M. de Joie was surprised at the generous serving of salad, given the incident with the half-sandwich, and wonders if they got it right or she was given the wrong portion. No way to check now. At any rate, the salad was delicious, with thinly-sliced warmly grilled tri-tip and a generous amount of blue cheese.

It was while she was eating this salad that M. de Joie began musing about the wisdom of tipping. Now she is fully aware that the subject of tipping is a volatile minefield, but she’s going there anyway for the purpose of this story. Service/tipping is for, you know, service. You are seated in a restaurant, your waitperson brings you menus, takes your drink order, brings your drinks, takes your meal order, brings you your meal, checks back to see if you need anything, and in general makes sure you get everything you want/need. That fulfills the concept of service. Now at a place like Madayne, when you pay by card you are asked right away if you want to tip, and the options are spelled out on the automated screen (15%, 20%, etc.).

M. de Joie is a generous tipper in exchange for good service, knowing that waitstaff put up with a lot of abuse and are not paid well, but something stuck in her craw about this. How do you know what you want to tip for service when you haven’t had any service?

No one came to take Femme de Joie’s order: she gave it at the counter. No one checked to see if she had everything she needed. Someone did come around and plunk down the salad, but that was it. Since she’d had to get her own water, she could have easily gotten up to get her own salad too. Was delivery of a salad, a walk from the kitchen, worth a buck-fifty?

NorCal breakfast burrito, $6.99

The old smears on the tables had been wiped away and replaced with fresh smears. A burrito filled with breakfast staples – egg, potato, bacon, ham, Cheddar – then lightly grilled was really very good, with all the fillings hot and cooked just right, though it did scream out for some salsa. Reluctant to have to get up and go disturb the waitstaff, M. de Joie decided to take a chance on a bottle on the table labeled “Madayne Sauce – a fresh take on ketchup.” She had noticed it on her first visit, mainly because the bottles on the table were half empty and left uncapped. Not feeling impetuous, she poured some onto her plate and tasted it before saucing the burrito. It was sweet ketchup with a hint of heat and a decided moldy flavor, and not the delicious type of mold like Brie.

M. de Joie also ordered coffee since they flog it tirelessly ($2.25). She won’t make that mistake again, though she was impressed at how a cup of coffee can be bitter and watery at the same time.

What to say about Madayne? The food is pretty good but overpriced. You’re hit up for a tip for service before you even sit down. Staff is friendly but elusive: you’re pretty much on your own. There doesn’t seem to be any one person in charge and the staff seems lackadaisical about taking care of basic details. Femme de Joie only visited the Eureka Way location and it may be different at the Hilltop Drive branch, but she’s not really interested in spending more money there to find out.

Madayne Grill & Espresso, 1970 Eureka Way, Redding, CA 96001. 530-245-9160. Also Madayne Eatery & Espresso, 930 Hilltop Drive, Redding, CA 96003. 530-224-1111. Open Monday through Friday, 7:00 AM to 8:00 PM, Saturday 8:00 AM to 7:00 PM, Sunday 8:00 AM to 8:00 PM (Hilltop branch closes at 7 PM on Sunday). Cash and cards. Parking lot. Vegetarian and vegan options. Beer and wine. Website at http://madayne.com/

If you haven’t lived in Redding long, you might be surprised to know that Market Street used to be part of California’s main thoroughfare. The Highway Formerly Known As 99 ran from Mexico to the Oregon border and was quite the accomplishment in interstate highways. When Interstate 5 was completed – likewise an accomplishment – it decimated businesses along 99, including Market Streets north and south (AKA State Route 273). Looking at it now, it’s hard to believe that it was lined with perfectly respectable motels, restaurants, and other businesses (remember the Coliseum Roller Skating Rink? Chesty’s Floor Shop? A&W? Paul Bunyan?).

A Denny’s Restaurant operated on 273 in the 1960s and ’70s; it morphed into the Lime Tree Restaurant, which later became AJ’s. Four years ago Roque and Tiferet Carbajal opened Sweetie’s in that old Denny’s, serving up their seasonal specialties like heirloom tomato Benedict and strawberry-rhubarb cobbler alongside home-smoked & barbecued meats to an appreciative customer base. Now Roque Carbajal has opened Roquito’s Taqueria on South Market, take-out Mexican in a tiny building that formerly housed to-go pizza and was perhaps best known as “that place next to The Tropics.”

Though there are a few picnic tables on the south side of the building, Roquito’s is really a take-it-home kind of place. There’s just enough room to squeeze inside and order; you watch your food assembled in the tiny kitchen. Or phone your order in ahead and pick it up; Femme de Joie wished desperately she had done this while waiting behind a customer who ordered a LOT of food yet seemed to not know what each item actually was.

Nachos with grilled chicken, Roquito style, $7.50

“Roquito style” is available on all menu items for an extra dollar and is worth it; it includes cabbage, pico de gallo, Jalepenos, cilantro, onion, lime, and a spicy creamy sauce drizzled over. Although M. de Joie had her misgivings when she saw the nachos being assembled in a smallish-to-medium-size Styrofoam take-out box, the end product was more than the sum of its parts. Melty cheese sauce ladled over house-made chips with all of the Roquito toppings plus morsels of grilled chicken made two very generous servings and we wound up scraping the box for leftover smidgens of sauce. The chicken got a bit lost amidst all the competing flavors so a more strongly flavored meat like carnitas or barbacoa would work better – or no meat at all.

Smoked carnitas torta, $9.50

Many Mexican restaurants don’t offer tortas; if they do, it’s likely inoffensive and unmemorable. The crusty grilled bolillo roll was necessary to hold the juicy filling – the house spicy sauce, lettuce, tomato, onion, cheese, and delectable smoked pork carnitas all pressed together. The smoked carnitas was one of the better versions in town, with real wood smoke taste on pull-apart shreds of pork. In fact, an order of the carnitas alone would be fantastic – it’s that good.

Carne Asada burrito, $8.50

Roquito’s does a few things differently: whole wheat tortillas instead of white. Ranchero beans (pintos in a smoky sauce) instead of refried. And brown rice in place of the usual reddish annatto “Spanish” rice. So you can have a giant burrito and a lot less guilt. This was filling but not heavy with niblets of grilled carne asada beef peeking though – again, the meat got a little overwhelmed by all the toppings, but the little bites were delicious on their own.

Roque Carbajal is onto something here. The limited menu – no enchiladas, no chile rellanos, no tamales – lets Roquitos focus on just a few things and do them very well. Staff is efficient, friendly, and helpful even when the little foyer is packed. Grilled meat from Sweetie’s is on tap. Prices are reasonable for the quality and serving size. They serve Cholula Hot Sauce in to-go packets. Is it too much to dream that Sweetie’s and Roquito’s might be the harbinger of a Renaissance of South Market Street?

Roquito’s Taqueria, 2605 South Market Street, Redding, CA 96001. 530-768-1103. Open Monday through Saturday, 11:00 AM to 8:00 PM. Closed Sunday. Cash and cards, no checks. No alcohol. Parking is wherever you can find it – there’s a vacant lot to the north of The Tropics. Vegetarian and vegan options. Follow them on Facebook.

If you live in the US of A, chances are good that you own a grill – according to the Hearth, Patio and Barbecue Association, 75% of Americans own a smoker or grill, and 61% of them use it year round. No statistics are known to exist on how many people refer to grilling as barbecuing, but it’s a safe bet that “most of them” is the right answer.

If you get home from work and start up the Char-Broil or set fire to some Kingsford Briquets to cook some tender steaks or burgers, that’s grilling. If you light a wood fire in a big ol’ half-barrel and pull up a cooler full of beer to while away some serious hours tending tough hunks of meat, you’re talking either barbecuing or smoking. It’s all in the technique and window-dressing won’t cut it: serious pitmasters know that anyone who talks extensively about their 50-ingredient secret barbecue sauce recipe is an unworthy poseur and amateur. Real barbecue is expensive and time-consuming; there are lots of restaurants with the barbecue name that just flood some cooked chicken with sweet gloppy sauce and assume you don’t know the difference, or care.

Femme de Joie had heard good things about Old Mill Eatery & Smokehouse in Shasta Lake and thought it was time to head north to check it out. It opened some ten years ago and was taken over by new owners in 2015. In a light-filled faux log cabin chalet on Shasta Dam Boulevard, they serve three meals a day to a variety of tourists and locals, grandpas in overalls and hipsters with flashy hair tints, business folk and families, all of whom come for the generous portions and real smoked barbecue. Service is helpful and friendly albeit sometimes a little leisurely.

House-made corned beef hash and eggs, $12.95

Canned corned beef hash isn’t worth the time and effort to make it attractive and palatable; you may as well serve a fry-up of Alpo. Homemade is a different story. Old Mill mixed pink shims of house-smoked corned beef mixed with hash browns and crisp-fried, a bit on the salty side but both crunchy and tender at the same time. More hash browns alongside had a golden crackly top and moist insides to go with eggs cooked sunnyside up.

Smokehouse breakfast with ham, $12.95

Very often the ham part of ham-and-eggs is a neat little soldier of a ham slice, uniformly cut from a pressed loaf, microwaved or held in a heating tray until needed. A nicely browned 8-ounce slice has some texture and character and heft as it was here.

A large flaky biscuit baked in-house was a breakfast in itself along with peppery thick cream gravy redolent with bits of sausage. The biscuit was not quite baked all the way through, though, so the inside was a little gummy.

Old Mill Cheese Steak, half $11.95, full $14.95

Skip the drive to Philly and get this one instead. On the lively and spicy side, luscious smoked tri-tip meshed with mushrooms, onions, and bell peppers in a coat of melted cheese. A really delicious and messy sandwich.

Potato salad and dirty rice, $3.95 each

Side orders are done especially well at Old Mill. House-made new potato salad, a far cry from that weird yellow sweet paste sold in plastic tubs in supermarket refrigerator cases, was crunchy with celery, creamy but not mushy, and lightly peppery. Dirty rice was outstanding – often made with chicken livers and giblets, this savory, fluffy rice was chock full of smoked beef niblets and seasoned generously with cayenne.

Smoked brisket sandwich, $12.95, side of baked beans $2.95, cole slaw $2.95

At dinner, full plates of smoked meats are available, but they can also be ordered as sandwiches for lunch. Smoked brisket, though on the salty side, was juicy and tender with visible smoke rings – lots of smoke taste here, though the amount of meat on the sandwich was a bit scanty. The house-made baked beans had a snappy vinegary tang with diced bacon flavor. Femme de Joie assumed the cole slaw would have a creamy dressing and was pleased to instead taste a piquant apple cider vinegar-based sharp dressing that paired well with smoky meats. A A tiny cup of barbecue sauce tasted of ketchup, sugar, vinegar, and liquid smoke; the brisket did not deserve to be sullied with it.

Though not everything was perfect, there are many good things going on at Old Mill Eatery & Smokehouse – enough to warrant a drive up I-5 to Shasta Lake. If you crave barbecue that isn’t coated with sticky bottled sauce, this is worth trying out on your way up to the dam (go have a look while there’s water in it).

Old Mill Eatery & Smokehouse, 4132 Shasta Dam Boulevard, Shasta Lake, CA 96073. 530-275-0515. Open daily, Sunday though Thursday, 7:00 AM to 8:00 PM, Friday and Saturday 7:00 AM to 9:00 PM. Parking lot. Cash and cards, no checks. Beer and wine. Not much for vegetarians to see here. Follow them on Facebook.

A show of hands, please: Who remembers where all the old local taverns/bars/dives were? Better yet, who actually patronized them? Anyone?

Possibly the most infamous was the Oak Grove, which one night became an ungodly flaming cocktail and is now a grassy lot under an oak tree. But there was also 2-Me’s on Hilltop (run by a man named Twomey) where a Subway now stands. Urban renewal took out the Old Crow Club on California, US Bank rises above the old Ricardo’s location at Placer and Pine, and all that remains of Jomar’s is a width of dirt on Railroad Avenue where you can pull over and park. There are still plenty of the old watering holes around, but they are somewhat of an endangered species as they are slowly replaced with wine bars, microbrew taprooms, and upscale bars serving 16 varieties of Pacific Northwest gin and imported ice.

A more recent addition to the local bar scene is a space on Hartnell across from the Hen House. Bubba Thrasher’s was there first, then closed and made room for 21 Taps. Jr’s Across the Way followed in 2012 with a kitchen in addition to the bar (apparently Jr’s served pretty good burgers).

A few months ago, Fusion Lounge Bar & Grill opened in Jr’s place. The premise is a new one for Redding: fusing elements of Asian cuisines (Lao, Thai, Vietnamese, etc.) with American and Mexican dishes to create such hybrids as the Pho-rito, Pho-nudo, and the Senganator Burger, while also functioning as a neighborhood bar.

Despite their new sign, it’s easy to drive right past as you toodle east on Hartnell, lost in a sea of metal auto repair and machine shop prefab buildings. The parking lot is one of those long narrow ones that passes by a long row of metal doors behind Fusion, makes a U-turn, and sneaks back out to Hartnell.

Fusion’s black and blood-red concrete block walls, easy-clean tables and floors, and a truly goth restroom took a note from the punk club playbook circa 1976, but the clientele was a mixture of locals, auto shop employees, hipsters, and families. (Note: family-friendly until 9:00 PM.) There’s a pool table near the back and a smoker’s patio out the side door. Sit at the bar or one of the tables and waitstaff will come take your order. Service was friendly and fairly fast; servers are knowledgeable about the food. Specials are on a backlit writing board at the end of the bar.

Baller Bowl, $10.99

This was an interesting mixture of a taco salad (deep-fried flour tortilla bowl) with crunchy mixed cabbage salad, deep-fried shrimp, and tataki of tuna, Sriracha and wasabi drizzle, and a soy dressing on the side. The tataki (seared ahi with sesame crust, thinly sliced) was so very much like fine filet mignon that only its tendency to melt delicately on the tongue belied its origins. Alongside were crunchy fried shrimp that made a nice contrast to the ethereal tuna. The soy dressing, however, proved to be very salty, and toward the bottom of the cabbage salad M. de Joie regretted pouring the dressing over. Sriracha and wasabi were nice to smear the shrimp in, but mixed on the plate they tended to look septic.

Fusion fries, $7.50

Femme de Joie ordered Fusion Shrimp but what was delivered was Fusion Fries, as she discovered when she couldn’t find anything but chicken in the toppings. This could be a variation on nachos or potato skins: Jo-jos – seasoned crunchy potato wedges – were topped with melted cheese, shredded chicken, cilantro, diced tomatoes, Jalapenos, and Fusion sauce. Fusion sauce is a somewhat spicy, smoky red sauce with hints of Thai curry – think of it as an exotic fry sauce. It was quite good when first delivered but after fifteen minutes or so, the potatoes got pretty soggy (there was a lot of sauce). This was plenty to share among two or three people.

Calamari, $8.00

Calamari is a popular appetizer in restaurants but it is almost always straight out of a frozen box, already breaded and ready to deep-fry and serve up with “our own garlic aioli.” Fusion’s salt-baked calamari was wonderful: thick bite-sized morsels with a dusting of tart tamarind and garnished with fried green onions and Jalapeno slices, this was addictive and original.

Kaliang Fin, $3.00

M. de Joie had never heard of Kaliang Fin and cannot find any reference to it elsewhere, so it may be an original specialty. Korean flour made from mung beans is cooked with water, cooled to produce a gelatin-like block, then cut into small pieces and served in a cold and slightly sour broth. The gelatin cubes had the texture and taste of hard-boiled egg white, slightly sulphuric and bouncy. The broth didn’t have much personality other than tartness and seemed to be mostly a vehicle to support the mung bean jelly. On the side was a small amount of house-made fermented bean & chili paste to mix into the soup – the paste was spicy-hot and delicious, though M. de Joie didn’t really think it helped the soup much. KF (as it’s called on the menu) did have a refreshing quality that might be appealing if one had overindulged in too much rich food and drink, but overall M. de Joie felt she probably wouldn’t order this again.

Fusion Burger, $9.99 with garlic fries ($1.00 extra) and pepper jack cheese

This towering burger, piled high with lettuce, tomato, onion, bacon, roasted eggplant, Fusion sauce, and a fried egg, was in no way reminiscent of a franchise burger. Goopy and drippy, the thick burger fell apart as the egg yolk and Fusion sauce disintegrated the bun, and was overall luscious, juicy, and a wildly delicious messy mixture of tastes. Garlic fries on the side were on the greasy and slightly limp side, but Femme de Joie loved the plentiful garlic bits.

In an unlikely location far from the main hubs of Redding, Fusion is trying out new and exciting ideas, and for the most part they work. The menu is wisely kept small and manageable, with weekly specials thrown in. Prices are more than fair for the amount and quality of food. Though there were a few missteps, overall Femme de Joie loved the intent and direction of the kitchen. If you’re looking for something new to try, drive out to Fusion and sample their innovative dishes.

Fusion Lounge Bar & Grill, 2704 Hartnell Avenue, Redding, CA 96002. 530-768-1360. Open Monday through Thursday, 11:00 AM – 10:00 PM, Friday 11:00 AM – midnight, Saturday 3:00 PM to midnight. Closed Sunday. No minors after 9:00 PM. Cards and cash; no checks. Full bar. Vegetarian and vegan options. Parking lot. Follow them on Facebook.

Until very recently, Femme de Joie’s only visit to 970 Hartnell was about seven years ago when a vintage furniture store was there; she and  Amico del Signore picked out a leather couch which went from “this great oxblood sofa” to “that Godawful purple couch” in just a few short years. The sofa found a new home about the same time Kanya Market replaced the furniture store.

Femme de Joie had originally planned to write about another Asian restaurant (which shall go nameless); unfortunately, the beef pho she ordered turned out to be Ptomaine Pho. After a dreadful night on the bathroom floor, she elected to not make a second visit to that establishment. But then   Amico del Signore discovered that Kanya Market not only sells Asian groceries but also has a small cafe and persuaded her that this might be worth checking out. And so it was. In addition to a wide variety of the usual items – soy and fish sauces, sesame oil, canned lychees, curry powder, teas (including “Sliming Tea” and no, that is not a typo), gigantic bags of rice –  Kanya also carries some fresh greens, fresh noodles, and the delightfully-named Snake Brand Prickly Heat and Baby Face with Aha.

Due to the dark window tint film, it’s impossible to see inside; instead, look for the neon “open” sign on the front. When you walk in, you are entering the grocery side of Kanya. Walk straight ahead toward the cash register, then turn right into the restaurant. You can order to-go at the counter, pick up some already prepared food from the refrigerators or the racks nearby, or sit down at one of the snappy black and white tables to dine in. Each table is stocked with a roll of paper towels, a stack of deep bowl spoons, and containers of forks and chop sticks. Service is friendly and helpful.

Bahn mi, $3.00

Bahn mi – Vietnamese sandwiches –  are available on the to-go rack to the right of the cash register. They include pork, “meatloaf” (more like pâté), pickled daikon and carrots, and cilantro on a sliced, mayonnaise-spread French roll. It wasn’t bad but it would have been fabulous if it hadn’t been so flabby in texture; more crunchy vegetables and a crustier roll would make it sing.

Mango drink out of the refrigerator, $1.25. Not quite as mango-y as the name suggests, but a very good foil for the spicy food to come.

Fresh spring rolls, $5.50

M. de Joie was surprised at the generous serving of spring rolls – there was surely enough to share. Accompanied by tiny cups of sweetish peanut sauce and bottled Thai sweet chili sauce, the rolls were like small portable salads. Filled with lettuce, rice noodles, cilantro, and shrimp, these were wonderfully refreshing and crisp.

Papaya salad Lao style, $5.00

Most shoppers have seen the giant overripe papayas in supermarkets here; their musky scent and perfumy taste is loved by some and reviled by others. But in places where it grows freely, green papaya is treated like a vegetable and made into salads. Kanya’s papaya salad is offered in Thai style or Lao. Both use fish sauce in the dressing but the Lao version uses fermented fish sauce (padaek) which has a more pungent aroma and taste. Green papaya was shredded and tossed with peanuts, tomatoes, green onions, and the padaek-infused dressing, served with a wedge of raw cabbage and plain rice noodles.

Femme de Joie ordered the salad with “medium” heat but either she was misunderstood or Kanya has a wicked idea of what medium heat is. It was fiery. She does enjoy hot food, but this was a challenge. The raw cabbage and noodles helped tame it, as did that mango drink. Still, she’s unsure if she actually liked the salad or not, since she was mostly concerned with not spontaneously combusting.

Yellow curry with pork, $8.00

This smooth curry with potatoes, onions, carrots, and cubed pork also carried its own measure of heat, though not as pervasive as the papaya salad. The creamy texture and warm spiced sauce were delicious eaten as a soup or poured over steamed rice. This would be excellent comfort food on a cold day.

Yum Nam, $6.00

If there was a Thai version of a chef’s salad, this would be it. It contains sour pork, AKA naem, a fermented Thai sausage, which explains the somewhat earthy smell of the dish.. Mixed with “meat loaf” (again, strips of pâté), celery, cilantro, green and red onion, and roasted rice seasoning powder, peanuts on the side, this was wonderfully crunchy with soft porky bites, hot and sour – one of the most interesting and exciting dishes M. de Joie has come across in recent memory.

Khao Soy, $5.00 for small bowl

This might be the Thai version of grandma’s chicken soup – broth filled with Ho-fun noodles (made from rice and looking like a wide egg noodle), a very generous amount of white meat chicken, bean sprouts, shards of cabbage, and fermented bean and ground pork. It might remind you slightly of pho but has its own savory taste and textures in a rich chicken-y broth.

M. de Joie likes Kanya very much. The portions for the price are excellent value, service is fairly fast and friendly, and the cooking is usually spot-on and high quality. She also enjoys prowling around in the market, picking up various jars and bottles of condiments to try out, and suggests that if you stop in to have lunch, that you also look through the grocery and maybe pick up some chile-garlic sauce (which Amico del Signore and Femme de Joie love more than Sriracha) or some pork buns to go. It won’t cost much and it’s a good introduction to Thai cuisine.

Kanya Market and Thai Video, 970 Hartnell Avenue at Churn Creek Road (across from the fire hall), Redding, CA 96002. 530-222-7609. Open daily, 10:00 AM to 8:00 PM. Cards and cash; no checks. No alcohol. Vegan and vegetarian options. Parking lot.

It might surprise some folks to learn that the Redding strip mall known as Cypress Colony was once a Southern Baptist Church. When that congregation upped sticks and moved elsewhere, developers turned the Sunday school classrooms into shops and offices; the former sanctuary became a restaurant. It seemed like a promising plan – after all, Cypress has plenty of traffic and plenty of nearby businesses with employees who presumably need lunch and dinner. Perhaps it’s the intense traffic flow (if you’re not already in the turn lane, you’ll never get into the parking lot) or the lack of neon signs to grab your attention that has caused previous businesses to go under. Femme de Joie remembers a Mexican restaurant in that spot where she grabbed a burrito one very busy day a few years ago; after that Umstead’s BBQ lasted a couple of years.

Jim and Laurie Harris operated a “gourmet sandwich shop” in Washington but have restaurant history in Redding: the old Perry’s Pizza on Lake Boulevard (which introduced us to square pizza in the 1970s) was run by Harris’s father.  The Harrises opened Jaimitos Tacos about a year ago.

The menu is on a board behind the counter; order and pay, then wait for your food to be brought out to you.

Chips and salsa, $2.50 ($3.00 to go)

The chips were freshly fried and unsalted, but the salsa was very thin, like V-8 juice that had a few minced onions and cilantro tossed in, inoffensive and indifferent as well as difficult to scoop up on a chip.

Taco al carbon, $3.00

Though not really al carbon (cooked over charcoal), this grilled-and-sauced taco was deliciously messy with a light sprinkling of cheese and cilantro leaves to oomph up the flavor.

Bean and cheese burrito, $3.99

The menu board read, “Bean and cheese (only) burrito,” and they weren’t kidding. Other than a smear of mild red sauce, this was nothing but beans and cheese, no onion or other garnish. Truth in advertising to be sure, but a bit on the bland side.

Steak torta, $6.99

On a soft fresh bun, steak torta had plenty of colorful fresh toppings and was a filling meal, but the steak turned out to be very soft shredded beef, cooked long enough to be easily consumed by someone who had forgotten to put their teeth in. While it wasn’t bad, it was unmemorable other than for the squashy texture.

Top row: two fish tacos. Bottom row: steak taco and pork taco, $2.25 each.

M. de Joie loves fish tacos, but not these. Thin fried parallelograms of an unknown fish were very dry and required a lot of salsa; there was a surfeit of chopped cabbage and onions. Eventually we were presented with a thimble of sauce that tasted very much like cole slaw dressing, which helped, but it should have been on the tacos in the first place.

Femme de Joie and Amico del Signore had a brief debate over which was the steak taco and which was the pork, finally deciding on the basis of the color of the meat, since they tasted the same and both were as pulpy as the filling for the torta. We did appreciate that two corn tortillas were used on each taco.

While the food is inexpensive and the service fast and friendly, nothing Femme de Joie tasted at Jaimitos Tacos had that addictive gotta-have-it quality that brings people back in. Meat fillings were overcooked to flabbiness with unexciting seasonings, the salsas bland and without personality. It wasn’t bad but neither was it particularly good. And there was an unfortunate incident on one of her visits where M. de Joie could very clearly hear a loud, deep masculine voice emitting from the back, chewing someone out in a sarcastic manner. “You thought you were being helpful by doing it this way, but do us all a favor….”  Whoever it was doing the berating, be advised: No customer wants to hear that kind of thing and no employee should be talked to like that.

While she wouldn’t strenuously object to being taken there by someone who was paying, Femme de Joie probably wouldn’t stop in there on her own and wouldn’t make a special trip there.

Jaimitos Tacos, 916 East Cypress Avenue at Larkspur, Redding, CA 96002. 530-768-1047 (not the number on their receipts, which belongs to some poor guy who constantly deals with phone calls meant for Jaimitos). Open Monday through Saturday, 11:00 AM to 8:00 PM. Closed Sunday. Cash, cards; no checks. vegetarian and vegan options. No alcohol. Parking lot.

Some 20-odd years ago, Femme de Joie had a close gal pal who lived near the Perko’s in Westwood Village. If we were out and about doing Girl Stuff, she’d often say, “Let’s grab a bite at Perko’s.” The options in that area being severely limited, M. de Joie went along with this, but was invariably underwhelmed. The food wasn’t inedible; it was indifferent and inoffensively tasteless and bland. The scrambled eggs stick in Femme de Joie’s mind as resembling  the powdered eggs served in her college cafeteria. It was food as fuel – nothing more or less. After her friend moved away, M. de Joie moved Perko’s to her list of places she would never again have to darken the door.

Recently, friends TC&C recommended the Humble Joe’s on Hartnell Avenue to Amico del Signore. These  are not people who patronize the House of Carrot Sticks or Fanny’s Flophouse & Pizzeria; they enjoy a good meal in clean, comfortable surroundings. Femme de Joie was highly skeptical, but TC&C had never given bad advice yet, so we headed off to breakfast. It was good enough that we returned and ordered the exact same breakfasts a week later.

In the interim between breakfasts, M. de Joie learned that  Humble Joe’s owner Tom Lachuassee had been the operator of Perko’s but had grown disenchanted with the direction the company was going, so struck out on his own nearly three years ago. Perko’s soldiers on elsewhere, but the two Redding and one Anderson locations are now local.

Masterpiece Omelet with Cheddar cheese, red onions, green onions, and bacon plus hash browns, $10.48

Biscuits and gravy (included with omelet)

The Masterpiece Omelet is one of those build-your-own concepts: start with the basic cheese omelet at $8.99 and add ingredients to taste. Sometimes those are a rip-off to an unsuspecting or distracted diner, but in this case was a good value, with a surprisingly abundant amount of crisp bacon plus sauteed red onions and green scallions. Likewise, a lavish serving of hash browns on the side with melting interior and crackling exterior was twice the amount of potatoes normally served up in most breakfast houses. A peppery, creamy gravy topped the biscuit.

Oaxacan pileup, $11.49

Not the most elegant of names, but this interesting variation on huevos rancheros makes you forget the semantics.  A stack of hash browns, crunchy corn tortilla, shredded pork verde, a tomatillo cream sauce, and eggs made a delicious and unusual one-dish breakfast. Again, portions were generous.

Reuben with potato salad, $11.99

M. de Joie liked the Reuben sandwich with plenty of sauerkraut and pastrami plus rather good potato salad (did not appear to be out of a deli carton), though she thought this was not as good a value as some of the other dishes on the menu.

Fish tacos and chips, $12.49

Generally speaking, Femme de Joie likes fish tacos very much. She would describe this as fish tacos for people who don’t like fish or tacos. She cannot claim to be an expert on fish sticks because she has never knowingly eaten one, but that is what appeared to be the center of attention: fish sticks carefully cut into rectangles and placed carefully on top of cubes of avocado and iceberg lettuce which was on top of slightly warmed corn tortillas with minced red onion and tomato, ranch dressing and bottled salsa on the side. It was an impressively large amount of very bland food. The fries on the side were not bad.

Femme de Joie did not visit the Anderson location so can’t comment on that, but the Westside Humble Joe’s suffered from lack of upkeep – in particular the fabric booth covers showed dismaying amounts of built-up grime where many hands and feet had made their unsightly impression over time. However, the Hartnell location is well-kept and cheerful. They cater to seniors – even though Femme de Joie and Amico del Signore are what might be termed Extremely Advanced Youth, they found themselves the youngest people in the place, which lead to being able to overhear very loud conversations from other patrons whether we wanted to or not. We now know everything there is to know about renting a car in Spain, and M. de Joie wonders if the lady in another booth will let her family know how much they hurt her feelings (she certainly repeated it often enough that everyone within earshot knows it).

However, overall M. de Joie liked Humble Joe’s. Service was fast and friendly and the food, while not haute cuisine, was better-than-average coffee shop quality. Stop in and give it a try.

Humble Joe’s Chophouse and Grill, 10 Hartnell Avenue, Redding CA 96002, 530-221-1144. Also 2631 Balls Ferry Road, Anderson CA 96007, 530-365-3308, and 6400 Westside Road, Redding CA 96001, 530-244-0738. Open Sunday through Thursday, 6:00 AM to 9:00 PM; Friday and Saturday, 6:00 AM to 10:00 PM. Serving breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Cash and cards. No alcohol. Parking lot. Very confusing website at http://www.humblejoes.com/

If you are of a certain age and grew up in the North Valley, you probably have some indelible memories of summer. Your family car might have been a Ford Falcon or a Rambler with vinyl bench seats (sans seat belts) that got hot enough to leave burn marks on bare legs. There were no shopping malls; all stores faced a street and you walked outside regardless of weather. You might have attended a school that didn’t have air conditioning. And the summer light was intensely, squint-inducingly bright. As we now look through a glass darkly, idyllic long hot summer days of yore have turned in adulthood into an endless string of days to slog through the best we can.

And yet now and then, Femme de Joie yearns for a bit of a return to those old days, to revisit that place and time before satellite radio, factory outlet shopping centers, and drive-through coffee floggers made every freeway exit exactly like every other one. There are places that resist the urge to tear it all down and build nice new uniformly sterile business districts, instead reveling in their past and refusing to share in the growing sameness of America.

One such place is Cottonwood. In the heat of the day Main Street has a starkness and silence that might be one person’s post-apocalyptic vision, but to Femme de Joie it’s a slice of North Valley summers past. No doubt there are longtime residents who will protest that sentiment – “You shoulda seen it before I-5!” – but downtown seems to have retained much of its historic flavor. No refrigerated air between shops. No franchise Crate-and-Barn. No chain restaurants. And what’s there isn’t prettied-up much for the tourist trade: it’s what it is, take it or leave it. Femme de Joie kind of likes that.

Macias el Michoacano looks a great deal like the diners and coffee shops M. de Joie recalls from childhood-era road trips. She guesses it was built about the same time as the motel-slash-RV-park right next to it, probably in the early 1960s. Set off Main Street on a sort of frontage road/circle, It’s easy to drive right past (which she did).  The building hasn’t been updated in years except for a new exterior coat of paint now and then and strings of Christmas lights around the windows. The interior is, for lack of a better word, shabby, with a lot of red duct tape holding upholstery together, some posters curling off the wall, and an evaporative cooler struggling to keep up.  It isn’t retro-inspired: it IS retro.

Cooking was done by a young man and service by a friendly woman who didn’t speak a lot of English. Food is cooked to order so expect to wait about 15 minutes or longer. House-made chips were fresh and hot. The table salsa was very mild; another salsa, a puree of dried chiles is available on request and it is quite hot – mix it with the mild for a good compromise.

Huevos rancheros, $6.99

When you order Huevos Rancheros, you never really know how it will be presented, but most often it’s fried eggs smothered in tomato-based salsa. The tomato-and-chile salsa was there but only a light covering along with an equally light pour of crema, with eggs fried well done on corn tortillas. Accompanying it was really wonderful homemade refried pinto beans – definitely not out of a can, these were about half mashed and half left whole, slightly smoky, with a scattering of cheese. One of the better renditions of this dish to be found in the area.

Chile verde burrito, $7.99

Surprisingly plain in appearance, the filling was tangy and tart with tomatillo-and-chile sauce and pot-roasted shreds of pork. No attempt was made to dress this up just for looks, but after tasting it, M. de Joie didn’t mind the starkness of the plate. Savory and not spicy-hot, the simplicity of well-made chile verde didn’t need a garnish on the side.

Tripas (tripe) taco, $2.59

The mere thought of tripe makes most people retch, but M. de Joie enjoys the pungent flavor against simple corn tortillas. If not cooked properly, tripe is extremely tough, but these niblets were only slightly chewy; the contrasting garnishes of onion, cilantro, and lime enhanced the flavor without covering it up.

Chile rellano and cheese enchilada lunch combination, $7.99

A chile rellano was the only disappointment. There was far too much gloppy semi-melted cheese on top; the filling was a mass of unpleasantly chewy, stringy cheese. Too bad, because the fresh chile (instead of canned) was nicely cooked and non-greasy, but the excess of unpalatable cheese ruined it.  Cheese enchiladas weren’t nearly as gummy as the rellano, with a stronger-flavored sauce made of a puree of dried chiles. Mexican sour cream topped the dish, which is noticeably runnier and more sour than American-style sour cream.

Macias el Michoacano isn’t going to be everyone’s cup of tea. If you’re put off by a somewhat dive-y cafe that has seen far better days, steer clear. It won’t win any awards for looks and the upkeep is minimal. But there were steady streams of locals coming in for to-go orders and more than a few repeat customers, enjoying the rock-bottom prices and unpretentious simple food. It might not be worth a special trip to Cottonwood, but if you’re in Cottonwood shopping for antiques or Christmas ornaments, give it a try.

Macias el Michoacano, 3800 Main Street, Cottonwood, CA 96022. 530- 347-6036. Open daily, 10:00 AM to 9:00 PM. Beer and wine. Cards and cash, no checks. Parking lot. Vegetarian options. Follow them on Facebook.

Not everyone loved the old Hatch Cover Restaurant, but it held a warm place in Femme de Joie’s heart from many get-togethers with family and friends over the years. She loved the retro-70s vibe with the piped-in Pablo Cruise-y music, the cozy sofa nook in the lounge, that weird painting of the man in black heading down the stairs in the lighthouse, the cute waiters in Hawaiian shirts, even the cherry-scented liquid soap in the ladies’ room. The food wasn’t haute cuisine, to be sure, but it was competently prepared and great value for money. (There was a Chico branch of the Hatch Cover too, set so far back from the Esplanade that it was barely noticeable under the trees.) It just about broke M. de Joie’s  heart ten years ago when she drove past the old Hatch Cover and saw all that lovely wood from the interior broken and tossed into dumpsters like worn-out holey socks.  After a series of unfortunate and untoward events, the late Rivers opened and closed two years later; in 2012, Redding restaurant empresario Joe Wong opened View 202 on that spot.

Clearie’s, Moonstone Bistro, Nello’s Place, Cafe Paradisio, Market Street Steakhouse, Peter Chu’s, Gironda’s, and View 202, among others, all compete for the diner looking for that special occasion restaurant. What is that special something, that je ne sais quoi, that makes the consumer choose one place over another?  Is it the buzz, the bartender who knows your special drink, the dark corner where a discreet affair can be carried out, the salad dressing? With the demographics and population of Redding, a place like View 202 needs to set itself apart from the others, to court consumers seeking white-tablecloth occasion dining. But are they getting their money’s worth?

Femme de Joie enjoys a well-appointed restaurant interior as well as a kitschy one, but she can’t figure out what’s going on at View 202. It was as if three or four decorators were each given a section to work on – a white wall splashed with big blowsy flowers befitting a ladies’ tearoom; the patio’s mishmash of black wicker chairs, white plastic chairs, and red and purple sofas; an ultra-modern exterior; plain faux-granite tabletops, concrete floors, and Ikea-inspired hanging lights. It appears to have been inspired by Carnival Cruise Line ships, not to dis Carnival.

Ahi avocado burger and cup of Pismo Beach clam chowder, $15.00

When Femme de Joie orders a burger, she expects to get, you know, a burger. She would not have described this as a burger. Four thin slices of ahi – a meaty-textured fish – were seared rare and placed on a rather good brioche bun along with an extremely small fan of thin avocado slices.  The wasabi-lime slaw was overwhelmingly bitter;  a couple of black soy beans does not an aioli make. Other than the bitter slaw and the buttery brioche, this was one bland sandwich.

Femme de Joie doesn’t know what distinguishes Pismo Beach clam chowder from any other creamy clam chowder, though perhaps it was the lump of melted cheese she found glommed onto the bottom of the soup cup. The soup was on the thin side but the cheese was on the thick side, so it balanced out.

Cherry Tart, $5.00

On a visit for dinner, M. de Joie asked if she could sit and have a drink before dinner. The hostess offered her “the couch.” Where couch? Outside, inside? It turned out to be on the patio, as there were Happy Hour specials “on the couch,” though it wasn’t clear if those specials could be had not on the couch. The hostess seemed determined that the couch should be occupied.

Once M. de Joie had her Cherry Tart, described as a whiskey sour with fresh cherries (the Maraschino cherry didn’t qualify as fresh and there weren’t any other cherries in the glass), she became invisible for an hour. Other than one waitress asking if she would like to order a bar snack, M. de Joie was completely ignored. While Femme de Joie is of that age where she is passed over in favor of younger and hotter women, it seemed a bit remarkable how completely she was forgotten. Eventually she had to get up and go find the hostess to ask to be seated for dinner, who began preparing a place for her on the by-then chilly patio- which M. de Joie demurred in favor of a table indoors.

Warm bread came with herb olive oil made with celery, basil, parsley, and capers as described by the female waitstaff who filled water glasses- she said she made it. The oil was delicious, the bread average.

Maseca calamari, $13

Spicy Fresno chilies and the medium-hot sauce were the best things about this appetizer. While the breading was evenly cooked, the calamari strips were floppy, not crisp, and on the oily side.

Steak frites, $19.00

When food processors became popular in the late 1970s, purees suddenly appeared on every plate. Purees of turnips and zucchini, carrot and beet, potatoes and apple. It was part of the nouvelle cuisine movement, which happily disappeared quickly as diners realized they didn’t particularly care for baby food on their plates.  Remember Nora Ephron’s great line, “Pesto is the quiche of the ’80’s”? Sous-vide appears to be the food processor of the 2010s. Sous-vide is translated as “under vacuum” but might be better described as “in a boiling bag.”  It’s the darling of certain modernist chefs but to Femme de Joie, it’s an annoying fad that will eventually wind up on garage sale tables alongside Bacon Bowl makers, Taco Salad Shell makers, and Salad Shooters.

So: The steak did not appear to be grilled; it appeared to be cooked sous-vide with grill marks added later. While sous-vide ensures an extremely tender steak, it also eliminates the flavorful crisp and seasoned browned exterior – the Maillard reaction.  The interior is one uniform color – here, pink (M. de Joie ordered it cooked rare) – and one uniform mouthfeel (soft). However, with the fatty, enveloping coat of butter – not just a melting pat, but a cold cream-like swath – any exterior browning was completely smothered. Limp shoestring potatoes were so salty with Parmesan and bacon that even a salty-food addict such as M. de Joie couldn’t get through them.  Described on the menu as “grilled bistro fillet, crispy pancetta and brown butter sauce atop a mountain of Parmesan shoestring fries,” this was a far cry from the simple and superb steak frites served in even the meanest French bistro.

Smoked corned beef sandwich with chopped starter salad, $13.00

House-smoked corned beef was smoky but also very dry and fibrous. Combined with bacon-braised sauerkraut and aged white cheddar, it made for an unpleasantly salty sandwich.  A very small chopped starter salad served in an even smaller bowl was awkward to stab with a fork but freshly made and crisp.

Side of macaroni and cheese, $6.00

M. de Joie liked the intense Cheddar taste of the macaroni and cheese; though it was a little watery when first served, the sauce thickened upon standing to cling to al dente pasta.

What to say about View 202? The view is nice from the patio. Waitstaff was mostly helpful and friendly (though it bugs M. de Joie when she asks a question and gets, “Uhhhh, I’m not really sure….” Just say you don’t know, then go find out). But the food misses the mark – so much and so often so that she felt it was a waste of good ingredients as well as overpriced for the end result.

Speaking of overpriced: an uninspired glass of Markham Sauvignon Blanc (year unknown; why isn’t the year on the wine list?) cost $9/ $32 for a bottle, yet BevMo sells it for $10.99. Alexander Valley’s Redemption Zinfandel was a much better wine but View 202 priced it the same as the Markham; Wine.com sells the 2012 for $12.99.  Even more shocking, $14 a glass for Chateau Ste. Michelle Riesling, available at BevMo for $6.99 a bottle. If you want to bring your own wine, View 202 charges $18 corkage (compared to $12 at Nello’s Place and $15 at Clearie’s and Moonstone Bistro).  Femme de Joie has nothing against restaurants making a profit – that is why they’re in business – but she does object to blatant gouging.

Obviously Femme de Joie is missing whatever View 202’s fans see in it. She has no problem with spending money in high-end restaurants if the product is worth the price, but she doesn’t see that value at View 202. She might have a glass of iced tea on the patio, but she’ll eat elsewhere.

View 202, 202 Hemsted Drive, Redding, CA 96002. 530-226-8439. Serving lunch, dinner, and Sunday brunch. Open Monday through Thursday, 11:00 AM to 10:00 PM,  Friday and Saturday, 11:00 AM to midnight, Sunday 10:00 AM to 10:00 PM. Cash and cards. Parking lot. Vegetarian and vegan options. Full bar. Website at http://view202redding.com/

In his 1983 book “Third Helpings,” journalist Calvin Trillin investigated the infamous Fried Chicken Wars of Crawford County, Kansas. It seems that Chicken Annie had made a name for herself in the 1930s until 1943, when Chicken Mary opened up her fried chicken palace at the corner where customers turned off the main road to get to Annie’s.  There was subtle guerrilla warfare between the two restaurants – little digs, “accidentally” directing drivers to the wrong restaurant –  that finally came to a head in the 1970s, when a road may or may not have been named in honor of Chicken Annie. Chicken Mary partisans denied involvement with the sign being torn down. Eventually Chicken Annie’s grandson and Chicken Mary’s granddaughter married and opened their own chicken restaurant.

Femme de Joie isn’t sure who brought the first wood-fired pizza oven to Redding, but so far there have been no squabbles, no shots fired, no attempts to sabotage the mozzarella.  As far as M. de Joie can tell, the proprietors like each other. Cinders was the first to jump through the building code hoops to bring their pizza indoors – it took an eternity – but now they have set up a successful shop in Market Square. A varnished wood counter with red plastic stools allows diners to watch pizza being made; or sit at wooden tables inside or outside the shop.  Service is friendly; if they’re busy expect to wait about 20 minutes for your order.

Half Caesar salad, $5.00

M. de Joie isn’t sure about those asymmetrical bowls – they tip, and one side lower than the other makes it hard to mix with a fork – but she did like the crunchy Romaine and shards of Parmesan cheese in the Caesar. She’s given up expecting real Caesar dressing in restaurants (it involves a raw or coddled egg) but this lemony dressing was pleasant in its place.

Greek pizza, $10.00

Greek pizza included feta, mozzarella,  fresh basil, olive oil, Kalamata olives, sun-dried tomatoes, and balsamic reduction. Femme de Joie liked the toppings, especially the balsamic reduction contrasting with salty olives and feta, but thought the crust was undercooked and a bit doughy.

Half Greek salad, $5.00

Spinach and spring mix, sun-dried tomatoes, Kalamata olives, and feta with balsamic reduction and olive oil

Again, the odd bowls made this difficult to eat.  Sweet-tangy balsamic reduction and olive oil against the salty mixture of Mediterranean ingredients made for a light and refreshing salad, though the sun-dried tomatoes were in unwieldy hunks that couldn’t be cut into manageable pieces with a fork.

Margherita pizza, $8.00

Margherita is the Little Black Dress of pizza.  It has nothing to do with the tequila drink, and doubt has been cast about whether it was really named for Queen Margherita, but it’s the Pizza Standard.  The fresh basil was the best thing on this pizza: it was underbaked, leaving a globby morass of mozzarella and much too much sauce floating on top, never adhering to the crust.

Pepperoni pizza, $8.00

This was a wonderful pizza, Though there was a lot of oil – hard to avoid that with pepperoni – the sausage was spicy with crisp edges and the crust was baked so that the bottom was slightly crisp, the interior chewy, soft and naan-like.

Cinders have wisely limited their menu by not including sandwiches and lasagna and bread sticks at the restaurant; they normally offer about six pizzas at any one time along with specials. Ingredients are high-quality and fresh. The prices are right for individual pizzas and salads.  Femme de Joie would like to see the pizzas baked longer to become a fusion of topping/crust rather than separate goopy sliding elements.  Don’t fear that random blackened bubble – that’s going to happen with the unpredictable temperature fluctuations in wood-fired ovens.  There are good things going on here and M. de Joie hopes they get better,

Cinders Wood Fired Pizza,  1415 Market Street, Redding, CA 96001 (in Market Square at the north end of the mall). 530-605-0665. Open Monday through Saturday, 11:00 AM to 7:00 PM (though they may run out of dough and close early). Cash, cards. No alcohol. Parking lot. Vegan and vegetarian options; gluten-free crust offered. Website at http://cinderspizza.com/ or follow them on Facebook.