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Show of hands, please: how many of you were first introduced to Mexican food by Taco Bell (en-chi-REE-toe,TAH-co)? And how many of you were shocked to learn that Taco Bell is not actually Mexican food as served in Mexico?

Ooops. Sorry. Femme de Joie just realized that she may have committed the culinary equivalent of saying there’s no Santa Claus. Well, as long as she’s busily destroying fondly-held beliefs, Chipotle isn’t Mexican either. Neither is that place you had lunch at on the cruise excursion at Cabo. And neither is… well, pretty much any Mexican restaurant that commits any of these sins. That doesn’t mean the food doesn’t taste good, but don’t call it authentic. (See this article for another take on authenticity.)

Mostly what we get here in NorCal is a pan-TexMex-California take on Mexican food. That’s not a bad thing – cuisine evolves with available ingredients and changing tastes. But we do tend to pile on every available ingredient until a simple taco morphs into a promiscuous behemoth, unrecognizable except by name and inevitably topped with Brobdingnagian mounds of shredded processed yellow cheese.

So it’s refreshing to find a small unpresuming restaurant that serves simple, tasty food with a minimum of excess and little acknowledgment of trends. Las Dos Marias has been serving their simple Mexican dishes in a tiny space on Bechelli Lane that was once home to Bartels Burgers. You can go inside to order at the counter and have a seat at one of the five or six small tables, or avail yourself of their drive-up window. The menu is not elaborate – the usual combination plates, burritos, quesadillas, etc. Service is fast and cheerful.

Salsa and chips, $1.99

The prices are low and portion size reflects that: if you want chips and salsa – usually included with an order in Mexican restaurants – you have to order them separately. M. de Joie liked the chips but the salsa was bland and watery, as though it had been in the freezer and lost its punch.

Chile verde burrito, $7.99

Looks plain and is plain, but the ingredients were top-notch. Creamy refried beans meshed with the tangy tomatillo-based verde sauce and bites of pork to make a satisfying burrito filling.

Carnitas enchiladas, $7.75

M. de Joie liked that the simple grilled carnitas taste didn’t get smothered with too much melty whatever goop. Just enough sauce and a feathery dusting of cheese was all the adornment the enchiladas needed. The rice was a bit dry but with savory, almost smoky flavor; more of those homemade refried beans on the side rounded out the plate.

Small chicken tortilla soup, $2.99

This was a special not offered on the regular menu, but it hit the spot on a cold day. A tomato-chili enhanced chicken broth with carrots, onions, celery and crisp tortilla chips was lighter than it looks and made a terrific lunch starter.

Combination plate of tamale and a carnitas taco, $8.00

It wasn’t listed on the menu board, but Las Dos Marias was happy to create this combination by request. A carnitas taco was one of the best tacos M. de Joie has had in a very long time – very juicy with tender pork, pico de gallo, and a dollop of guacamole on warm flour tortillas. Tamales are a house specialty – you can order them by the dozen – and this one was excellent, a generous amount of pork filling inside the masa case and slathered with a warm-ish red chili sauce.

Femme de Joie doesn’t cruise down Bechelli Lane much, but she’d be willing to make a detour for a lunch at Las Dos Marias. Inexpensive and well-prepared food with clean, unadulterated tastes is sometimes just what the doctor ordered, and this small unpretentious place fills the bill. Give it a try.

Las Dos Marias, 2640 Bechelli Lane, Redding, CA 96002. 530-226-8011. Open Monday through Saturday, 11:00 AM – 8:00 PM. Closed Sunday. Cards and cash, no checks. Vegetarian options. No alcohol. Parking lot. Drive-through window. Website at LasDosMarias.org or follow them on Facebook.

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/

Back in the late 1980s, there was a Peacock Restaurant on Lake Boulevard near… oh dear. Femme de Joie was about to say it was near Timber Lanes, but that bowling alley had closed up by that time. So it was near Joann’s Fabric… but that’s moved twice since then. Well…. it was in the strip mall that is fronted by A&W (which M. de Joie thinks of as being on South Market Street, but oh dear again, that hasn’t been in that spot for a million or so years).

Let’s start over.

Does anyone remember when a new steak house was about to open in Anderson twenty-some years ago? Two Feathers was the name; it was custom-built and heavily promoted in the local rag as the next big thing, with calls going out for high-class servers and bartenders and dog catchers. It opened and closed again with astonishing swiftness before M. de Joie had a chance to bask in its glamour, so she’ll never know if it was great but just misunderstood or ahead of its time or what the story was. At some point when Femme de Joie wasn’t paying attention, the old Peacock closed in the 90’s and then reopened a few years ago in the Two Feathers space.

Peacock is situated favorably right next to a motel – sharing their parking lot, actually – and right off Interstate 5, meaning they’ve got a couple of built-in audiences. Such places can survive and be terrible because they don’t need local customers; their patrons will come in, eat, and goest away in their shiny car in the night, never to return. Still, M. de Joie read favorable things about Peacock and wondered if it was anything like it used to be when it was on Lake Boulevard.

The interior seems oversized when you look up at the circular light fixture built into the oddly high ceiling. And it’s relentlessly pink except for the carpet, which is relentlessly green and needs replacing. Still, it’s clean and cheerful, with wide windows letting in natural light. There’s a constant flow of customers, some of whom seem to be regulars. Service ranges from efficient to friendly.

Hong Kong chow mein, $9.25

Hong Kong chow mein is usually a melange of stir-fried vegetables plus shrimp, beef, chicken, etc. bound in a light sauce and served on top of pan-fried noodles. The noodles were pan-fried but really didn’t have much personality other than a little crunch; the same could be said for the meat-vegetable topping. It wasn’t unpleasant but it didn’t have that zsa zsa zsu that makes you want to order it again.

Wor Won Ton soup, $7.50 medium, $9.25 large

Wor Won Ton soup, with a delicate broth, plenty of filled won tons, shrimp, and fresh leafy spinach, was a treat on a cold day. The medium order is enough for two people to share or one person to enjoy as a light lunch. This was a winner.

Szechuan beef, $9.75

It’s deja vu all over again. Szechuan beef appeared to be virtually the same dish as the Hong Kong chow mein, minus the noodles and shrimp. Two small dried red chilies had been tossed in almost as an afterthought but they didn’t have that light char indicating they had been in the wok for any length of time, so the requisite heat was missing and the sauce tasted the same as the chow mein’s. And two slices of beef seemed to have been added from the frozen stage; they stubbornly clung to each other, resulting in raw undersides. Oops.

Luncheon combination plate #2, $8.00

Down at the bottom of the menu page listing luncheon specials are a few combination plates. Those were a terrific bargain and the food was noticeably better than the a la carte plates. Egg foo yung is too often an omelet hockey puck at sea in a glutinous brown salty sauce. Here it was puffy and light with a thin flavorful gravy. Sweet and sour pork was particularly good, with a not-so-sweet sauce and cubes of pork with crunchy exterior and tender insides. Sometimes you feel that egg rolls could just be wrung out and the oil recycled, but this one was non-oily and freshly cooked.

Soup of the day – comes with luncheon combinations

Here again, soup was very good. Beneath that eggy surface lay a good mix of tiny tofu cubes, chicken, diced Chinese BBQ pork, carrots and peas in a slightly salty broth. Adding a few drops of the hot oil from a small jar on the condiment tray made it sing.

Luncheon combination #7, $8.50

M. de Joie loved the perfectly stir-fried crunchy vegetables in almond chicken laced with a light chicken-y sauce. It was a little short on chicken and almonds, but she didn’t mind because the rest was so good. Now about that doughnut in the center of the plate: that was advertised as “fried prawn,” and there was indeed a small prawnish creature inside, but a truthful menu would have described it as “fried batter ring with a hidden shrimp prize.”

Femme de Joie liked Peacock, though it does have its flaws. The luncheon combinations were far better than similar plates in most Chinese restaurants, and the soups were warming and tasty. A little bit of attention to detail could fix the problems – a spicy dish being decidedly unspicy, some ginger and garlic added to a stir-fry. Peacock is worth a visit if you’re in Anderson and maybe even a special trip from Redding for lunch.

Peacock Chinese Restaurant, 2881 McMurry Drive (between North Street and Balls Ferry Road), Anderson, CA 96007. 530-365-9833. Open Tuesday through Thursday, 11:00 AM to 9:30 PM, Friday 11:00 AM to 10:00 PM, Saturday 12:00 PM to 10:00 PM, Sunday 12:00 PM to 9:30 PM. Closed Monday. Cash and cards, no checks. Vegetarian and vegan options. Beer and wine. Parking lot.

For six decades there’s been a whole lotta cooking going on in that tiny concrete block building on Placer, the one across from Holly Bail Bonds. Back in the 1960s it was home to Jan’s Frost Shop, run by a swarthy burly hirsute man who called everyone sweetheart and who made the most fabulous greasy pastrami sandwiches and French fries. After Jan’s closed, a series of fast food cafes opened including (in no particular order) Between the Bun, a hot dog place whose name escapes Femme de Joie at this moment, the first home of now-permanently-closed Brick’s, Wilda’s, and at least one or two others now lost to the vagaries of memory.

Ma Der Ma Der Sap House opened in that little building just a few months ago, serving Thai/Lao fusion with AmeriMex influences. Staffed by three energetic young men working the flattop, they use minimal equipment in a cramped kitchen to quickly turn out innovative specialties. Customers come from the nearby offices and most seem to already have their favorites from the short menu board above the counter.There are a few tables inside; in good weather sit on a barstool outside and eat at the ledge on the side of the building. Service is fast, helpful, and cheerful. For those wondering about the name: Ma Der Ma Der means “come over, come over.” Sap means “tasty” but also means “spicy-hot” or “chile hot.”

A quick primer on Sap House sauces, fifty cents for a small cup with about two tablespoons of sauce: roasted Jalapeno is by far the mildest and would be acceptable to nearly all palates. Honey-Sriracha is like a hot and sweet orange-colored ketchup; if you like Srirachal you’ll like this. Roasted Thai chili sauce moves up considerably on the heat level; it is similar to bottled chile-garlic sauce, but hotter. M. de Joie didn’t quite have the moxie to sample the roasted Habanero sauce but has to assume it will take the top of your head off.

Sapprito, $9.50

The cafe’s namesake dish is an Asian take on a burrito. Packed tightly in a flour tortilla are 2 eggs, mushrooms, onions, bell pepper, Lao sausage, tri-tip, sticky rice, and your choice of sauce; the tortilla is grilled just enough to give the exterior a little browning and crisp texture. If you have any doubts about whether the combination of Thai/Lao/Mexican is a good idea, this will lay them to rest: the flavors and concept work. Two people could easily split one sapprito for lunch.

Philly cheese steak fries, $8.00

A registered dietitian would probably have harsh things to say about the Philly cheese steak fries: it combines French fries with cheesy, oniony fried strips of ribeye steak. It’s not on any known sensible diet plan. The fries – the bedrock – make it a carbaholic’s nightmare. But this gooey, salty mess of sandwich filling is as addictive as potato chips: you cannot have just one bite. It’s not health food but then Ma Der doesn’t claim it to be. If the photo looks a little fuzzy, well, that’s steam rising on a cold day.

Blackened shrimp tacos, two for $7.00

If you just can’t bear all the goodness of the goopier dishes, the blackened shrimp tacos are more salad-y. While they aren’t actually blackened, lots of spicy rock shrimp with a squeeze of lime give a little kick to the rabbit food underneath, all held together in a flour tortilla canoe. M. de Joie thought that a creamy sort of dressing would be good to bind it all together, but it was quite delicious without, light and tangy.

Femme de Joie likes this little place, innovative without pretense and a good value in old Redding, which despite the number of offices really isn’t served well for fast non-junky lunch restaurants. Everything on the menu is under $10, can be split if you’re so inclined, and is already packed in a to-go box. Make it as mild or wild as your palate approves. If you’re looking to have something different and exciting for a workday lunch, try Ma Der Ma Der Sap House & Grill.

Ma Der Ma Der Sap House & Grill, 1718 Placer Street, Redding CA 96001. 530-691-4194. Open Monday-Saturday, 10:00 AM to 7:00 PM. Cash and cards; no checks. No alcohol. World’s worst and tiniest parking lot; many signs saying, “no restaurant parking.” Better to park on Yuba, Oregon, or Placer instead. Vegetarian and vegan options. Follow them on Facebook.

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.

Apparently no one in Redding had ever heard the phrase, “Location, location, location” when the old Ramona’s Mexican Restaurant opened. Or maybe it’s just that the edge-of-downtown location was pretty good way back when. There was a lively, uh, bar scene and, robust, uh, personal entertainment industry. And of course there was no Mt. Shasta Mall or much of anything in Enterprise, so most people lived and shopped and dined out downtown, or close to it.

After Ramona’s closed – sometime in the late 1970s, M. de Joie thinks – it became a steak house called Grady’s, which did Okay (the Joe Clubs incident aside) and there may have been another similar steak house after that. In 2002 Jim and Penny Gironda opened their eponymous Italian restaurant, which was bought by Deja Vu’s Karline Niver last year.

Niver has brought back lunch service,- making sense in West Redding, which has a lot of white-collar professionals but not so many sit-down lunch spots. The interior design is sleeker and more polished, while the menu has undergone a slight revamping. Service is friendly and helpful, though once in a while it seems as though not all waitstaff has their signals straight about who is waiting on which table – not enough to be problematic, but slightly confusing.

Crispy calamari appetizer, $11.99

Femme de Joie loves calamari but has to admit that most of the time one restaurant’s version is indistinguishable from another’s. Amico del Signore has always been blasé at best about it. But the extra-crunchy calamari accompanied by a spicy roasted tomato cream sauce is much better than most, with crisp breading and just enough heat to elevate this above the average. It made a fan out of A. Del Signore.

House salad, $4.99

You never know if a simple green salad will just be poured out of a giant Costco bag with some bottled dressing. Gironda’s salad is something to look forward to, with house-made dressings and a nice mix of fresh vegetables and greens. We would gladly order a giant bowl of this if it was on the menu.

Roasted apple pizza, small $15.99, large $18.99,

Apple and arugula on a pizza? Why not? Pizza is a suitable vehicle for all kinds of toppings, and it works well here. Enhanced with gorgonzola (a great accompaniment to apples and arugula), salty proscuitto and sweet caramelized onions and roasted garlic, this is a winning combination of flavors and textures on a crisp crust. Warning: one dedicated eater can finish an entire large pizza with ease. Just so you know.

Catch of the day, shrimp picatta on linguine, $24.99

Femme de Joie loved the sharp lemony caper sauce on the shrimp and the pasta. Both were cooked perfectly and were a nice change from overly-buttery scampi presentations. The carrots were not quite cooked and not quite raw, so picking them up to eat seemed like the only possible solution.

Pasta special, $19.99 – Beef Stroganoff with smoked Gouda sauce and New York steak slices on linguine

Smoked cheeses are one of those food that always sound tempting but which M. de Joie usually finds disappointing, a cheap way to cover up bland cheese. However, the judicious use of smoked Gouda in this fanciful version of Stroganoff was the right touch to give the creamy sauce a little oomph and character. The beefy taste of tender strips of New York steak were a good match for the slight smokiness.

Catch of the day, Salmon on fettucine, $21.99

The waitress thought the salmon was a 6-ounce cut but it was more like a 4-ounce cut when it arrived. Moist and flaky, it could have done without the bit of cheese on top, but was still enjoyable with garlicky fettucine. Simply cooked fresh green beans were a pleasant side vegetable.

Femme de Joie likes what the new owner is doing at Gironda’s, from the pared-down, sophisticated decor to the updated wine list. Overall service has been good to exemplary; the food is very good and becoming more innovative while still holding on to the classics. While it isn’t quite a white-tablecloth sort of place, Gironda’s is nevertheless a good place to take a date while casual enough to be comfortable and relaxed. If you haven’t been in a few years, check it out.

Gironda’s Restaurant and Bar, 1100 Center Street at Trinity, Redding CA 96001. 530-244-7663. Open Monday through Thursday, 11:00 AM to 9:00 PM, Friday 11:00 AM to 10:00 PM; Saturday 4:00 PM to 10:00 PM, Sunday 4:00 PM to 9:00 PM. Parking lot. Full bar. Cash and cards; no checks. Vegetarian and vegan options. Website at www.girondasitalian.com or follow them on Facebook.

You’re at the airport waiting for your flight. You feel a bit peckish, maybe a little anxious, and decide to throw caution to the wind and get something to eat. You think about comfort food: a stack of warm cookies, a cheeseburger, a triple gin and tonic – but when you actually start looking at the prices, the trip back down to earth nearly shatters your ankles. Ten dollars for a bowl of soup? Thirteen bucks for an Irish coffee? Twenty-one for a glass of Cabernet Sauvignon? Even as you reluctantly fork over $9.75 for a sad cellophane-wrapped turkey sandwich, you already know what it tastes like: the lonely humiliation of being the last one chosen for the softball team.

Fortunately for those who fly in and out of Benton Airpark, the situation is much happier. You might not think of dining at the airport, but West Redding is fortunate to have the Airpark Cafe close at hand, open to the public and pilots alike. Taken over by new owners a few months ago, it’s a cheerful place to enjoy a leisurely breakfast or lunch while enjoying the views of the mountains and planes landing and taking off. The outdoor deck is pleasant even on hot days with canopies and misters. Service is friendly, though a bit on the slow side.

Reuben sandwich, $7.99, with house-made potato salad; small house salad, $2.50

Grilled Reuben sandwich needed just a bit more sauerkraut – it was pretty thinly spread – but otherwise was tasty and a good value. House-made potato salad was much better than the stuff in industrial-packaged tubs you so often get in small cafes – creamy and slightly sweet. Femme de Joie was expecting a salad of bagged iceberg lettuce so it was a nice surprise to get this salad of dark greens and tomato instead – and at a good price.

Chicken fried steak breakfast sandwich, $8.25, side of hash browns, $2.50

Whoever thought of putting chicken fried steak into sandwich form is one smart cookie. This isn’t diet food by any means, but it was tender and savory with a thin omelet, cheese, and smear of gravy inside the bread. Hash browns were crisp on the outside and tender inside.

French toast combo, $8.25

Freshly made French toast was light and fluffy alongside crisp bacon, eggs cooked as requested, and hash browns. A very good deal for the money.

Side order of two biscuits ($1.50 each) and gravy $1.50

The gravy was definitely made in-house, as evidenced by the swirl of sausage fat that hadn’t quite been incorporated. Great sausage flavor and not too salty, this went nicely on fresh biscuits and smeared on the hash browns.

French dip supreme with mushrooms, onions, and Swiss cheese, $8.25, sweet potato fries on the side

Airpark Cafe had some very tender tri-tip available, and that smokey taste made this French dip rise above the ordinary, a juicy and messy combination. Sweet potato fries were out of a freezer bag but were crisp and non-greasy.

Florentine Omelet, $8.99, home-style potatoes on the side

The Florentine Omelet was a special of the day, with spinach, tomatoes, and ham, covered in Hollandaise. Eggs were tender and filled with fresh ingredients; the lusciously rich Hollandaise was missing the requisite tang of lemon and was more like a thick eggy butter sauce. Home-style fries were a bit undercooked.

Cobb salad, $7.99

Cobb salad included dried cranberries, feta cheese, fresh apple, red onion, tomato, candied walnuts, and strips of grilled chicken atop a mesclun mix – this would probably be called a half-salad portion in most restaurants, but the price fit the portion size. Light and refreshing, this made a good lunch.

Airpark Cafe is a little gem in an unlikely place above the tarmac, not far from the Dog Park – hence the dog bed and dog water bowl on the deck. The low prices and friendly atmosphere make up for the somewhat slow service. It’s quite small so is unsuited for a group of more than about eight people, and is up a flight of stairs (Femme de Joie assumes there is another access from within the building it’s housed in, but doesn’t know for certain). It’s a good value with tasty food in an area where restaurants are thin on the ground. Worth checking out.

Additional bonus: they are currently offering a tri-tip dinner and a movie on Saturday nights in the hangar; schedule at flyhillside.com

Airpark Cafe at Benton Airpark, 2600 Gold Street at Airpark Drive, Redding, CA 96001. 530-241-4204. Open daily, 7:00 AM to 3:00 PM. Cash and cards; no checks, Beer and wine. Vegetarian and vegan options. Parking lot.

It seems to be an inescapable part of growing older: asking, “Do you remember -” and increasingly finding the answer is, “No.” The Rite Spot, Shasta Maid, Redding Bakery, Shasta Bakery, the Shack, Midway Inn, Ramona’s, Holly Cafe – for longtime locals, those exist only in memories; sometimes the location has been erased, paved over or left to the nonstop erosion of time.

Femme de Joie was just a wee tot when she and Maman de Joie visited the old Gold Street Cafe – in particular she remembers a slice of caramel layer cake; a few days later she asked Maman if she thought the cafe still had any. Over the years there were many visits to Gold Street Cafe; it was inexpensive, quick, and the diner-style food was pretty good, with the homemade pies in a glass display case a standout. Then the cafe was sold a couple of times and finally closed in late 2014.

A few months ago a banner appeared on the east wall of that building, announcing that Trendy’s would open soon. Now Femme de Joie has to say here and now that she thought Trendy’s was an awful name for a restaurant. It sounds like a place in the mall selling cheap fall-apart jewelry to teenage girls. But the reviews on Yelp and Trip Advisor were generally positive, and the food photos looked luscious, so how bad could it be?

The old pastel paint and faux-Victorian decor is gone, replaced with sleek black and white paint and accents of red. A major and much-needed change was changing the restrooms around so you don’t have to walk outside the building to get to them. Service is generally fast and on the chatty side.

Corned beef hash and eggs, $11.00

Corned beef hash is made in-house and did taste homemade, though there didn’t seem to be a lot of it on the plate. Amico del Signore asked for hash browns and was told Trendy’s doesn’t serve them, but that the garlic herb house potatoes were “really special.” We found them not-special without much garlic or herb taste, just home fries by another name.

Griddle cakes were recommended with the corned beef hash and the waitress assured us that “everything is homemade.” From where M. de Joie sat, she could clearly see the restaurant-sized boxes of Krusteaz Pancake Mix on a shelf in the back, so she wasn’t terribly surprised when the pancakes proved to be very sweet with overwhelming vanilla taste. Perhaps the Krusteaz is used for a purpose other than pancakes, but having used this product herself, Femme de Joie feels this is the “homemade” pancake batter. Some people consider adding an egg and milk to a mix to be homemade; M. de Joie is not one of those people. It reminds one of the very old joke about the young bride who went all over town looking for a box of scratch because her new husband told her that’s what his mother made cake from.

Country Fried Steak, $11.00

Eggs were ordered straight up; they arrived runny on top. While M. de Joie doesn’t mind this, most people would strenuously object being served uncooked egg white. Likewise undercooked was the roux for the gravy; the gravy tasted of raw flour. The country fried steak also suffered from raw flour underneath the crisp exterior – probably from cooking too fast so that the outside was done before the entire coating was cooked. The steak itself separated into curious layers when prodded with a knife.

Biscuit and gravy would have been good if (A) the biscuit had been baked all the way through and (B) not smothered in the raw-flour gravy.

Femme de Joie is a clean-plate ranger, but left quite a bit of this meal on her plate. Amico del Signore declined to accompany her on subsequent visits.

Two carnitas gringo tacos, $12, with house-made potato salad

The carnitas tacos were quite good, with juicy, tender meat, a spicy aioli over avocado slices, and melted cheese cradling the inside of the flour tortilla taco shell. The menu promised jicama slaw but what was delivered was cabbage. Potato salad had lots of dill pickle and was one of the better restaurant potato salads M. de Joie has tasted, There was a lot of empty territory on the plate, though; for $12.00 you’d expect a bit more actual food.

The Bomb Burger, $12.00, with fries, extra $1.00 for garlic and Parmesan

This is one of Trendy’s most popular items, or so the waitress said. The 1/3 pound burger itself was good, but the Cholula fried onions didn’t have any Cholula taste (there’s an oversized bottle of Cholula on M. de Joie’s kitchen counter at all times, so she’s quite familiar with the pequin-arbol flavor). The onions had a nice light crunch at first but as they cooled, the crunch morphed into a bready, starchy texture that didn’t enhance the burger and mostly wound up back on the plate, along with the none-too-fresh flap of leaf lettuce. The garlic fries were probably wonderful when they were hot, but Femme de Joie didn’t get to experience them then. When they arrived at her table, they were lukewarm and gummy. Maybe they were cooked at the beginning of the 15 minutes it took to get the order and had been patiently awaiting the burger.

After reading the glowing reviews online and hoping Trendy’s would carry on the diner food legacy of Gold Street Cafe, it’s almost as though M. de Joie visited an entirely different restaurant. There’s nothing wrong with Trendy’s that some basic timing and cooking practice can’t fix. But when the food is disappointing, the menu prices seem even higher than they are – and they do seem pricey for portion size and quality. She hopes that some simple kitchen management will take care of the problems. Trendy’s has plenty of fans, but right now Femme de Joie doesn’t see whatever it is they see.

Trendy’s. 1730 Gold Street at Railroad Avenue, Redding, CA 96001. 530-768-1499. Open Monday-Friday, 6:00 AM – 2:00 PM, Sunday 8:00 AM – 2:00 PM. Closed Saturdays, Cash and cards; no checks. No alcohol. Vegetarian and vegan options. Parking lot. Follow them on Facebook.

Anyone who has lived in the Redding area more than a few years knows that until quite recently live music was as rare as jackalopes. Oh, sure, if you were over 21 you might have gone into Ricardo’s to hear some band that got stuck here on their way to getting stuck in Lodi, or heard Norm Bailey and the Nervous Kats at a dance at the Moose Lodge, but that was about it. Concerts? Well, the Turtles played at the old Shasta High School auditorium (now U-Prep) in the mid-60s. There was also a concert by the 1910 Fruitgum Company and the Ohio Express – who can forget the immortal lyrics, “Yummy yummy yummy I’ve got love in my tummy”? The situation improved in the 1970s when the civic auditorium occasionally hosted a touring musician with an open date on their schedule like Jeff Beck or a young Dire Straits, but venues for local music just didn’t exist.

These are happier days for music fans. In the past couple of years numerous bars and restaurants have started featuring live music at least one night a week. (A News Cafe’s own Hal Johnson has taken on the arduous task of compiling listings weekly.) California Brewing Company is one such spot that opened up two years ago next to Holiday Market in Palo Cedro. A small dining room is augmented by a courtyard that serves as an auxiliary dining room & stage in good weather. In bad weather – well, squeeze together to make room for the musicians. When there’s no live music, you can watch a silent TV while listening to piped-in oldies.

Though primary focus is on their beer, CBC offers a simple menu that goes beyond salty bar snacks. The focus is on fresh, uncomplicated dishes that appeal whether you’re quaffing a brew or sipping an iced tea.

California Club Wrap, $9.99, with side of deep-fried green beans, extra $2.00

You heard it here first: Femme de Joie predicts that crisp-fried green beans will replace sweet potato fries as the next ultra-popular restaurant appetizer. In the same way that deep-fried mushrooms have an almost meaty taste and texture, grassy green beans were transformed into vegetarian snacks that a carnivore would snarf up in a nanosecond. On a hot day, the salady California club wrap – lightly dressed chicken salad enfolded in a tomato flour tortilla (though colored tortillas never seem to actually taste like whatever they’re tinted with) was filling without being overwhelmingly heavy.

Adult Stout Float, $4.99

Years ago, when a friend described the stout-and-ice-cream dessert he’d had at a Portland restaurant, M. de Joie privately thought that sounded really disgusting. Fortunately, tastes change. Dark and spicy house-made stout poured over chocolate ice cream, eaten while listening to the Trammps sing, “Disco inferno, burn that mother down,” is a pleasure M. de Joie doesn’t expect to ever find again in this life. Not for fans of super-sweet desserts, this was like carbonated dark bitter chocolate in a glass. Lovely.

Baja California Burger, $10.99

Yes, $10.99 is a lot for a burger – unless it’s a 1/2 pound burger. Topped with fresh Jalapeno, pepper jack cheese, and sliced avocado, the Baja California was one of the better hamburgers Femme de Joie has tasted around the area – the burger still juicy despite needing a longer cooking time, with abundant and spicy toppings. More of those green beans on the side – they’re worth the $2.00 upgrade from salad or fries.

Bacon, lettuce, & tomato sandwich with French fries, $6.99

This was a special deal sandwich, hence the lower price. The fillings were all fresh and tasty but it was a bit on the skimpy side. To be sure, you get what you pay for. The fries were quite good, non-greasy and very lightly salted.

Palo Cedro isn’t a long drive from downtown Redding and this little oasis is a pleasant reward for making the trip. The limited menu doesn’t overtax the small kitchen so service is fairly speedy. Service is friendly and helpful. Though there isn’t a children’s menu, all ages are welcome.

And now Femme de Joie gets on her soapbox, which she carries with her everywhere: Yes, there is frequent free live music. But there has been an influx of people coming into CBC, occupying chairs and tables, and ordering a glass of water. While that isn’t illegal, it takes up seating that would otherwise be used by customers who would happily pay good money to order food and drinks, which is what keeps the restaurant in business and keeps the live music coming. If this trend continues, it would certainly make sense for California Brewing Company to institute a cover charge or minimum purchase, and M. de Joie couldn’t blame them if they did. All this to say – if you want to listen to live music, don’t sponge off the good nature of a place like CBC.

California Brewing Company, 9348H Deschutes Road, Palo Cedro, CA 96073, in the Holiday Market shopping center. 530-222-2739. Open Wednesday and Thursday, 4:00 PM – 9:00 PM, Friday and Saturday, 4:00 PM – 10:00 PM, Sunday 12:00 PM – 6:00 PM. Closed Monday and Tuesday. Cash and cards; no checks. Beer and wine. Vegetarian and vegan options. Parking lot. Website at California Brewing Company or follow them on Facebook.

Back before Mary Lake was just a lake and not a subdivision, when Buenaventura was a city in Colombia, when the Benton landfill was a landfill and not a rolling landscape, there was a laundromat and little store at Placer and Pleasant in Redding. The store went under different names – Rex’s Market for a time and maybe one of the Holiday chain – while the laundromat was grim and slightly seedy. You didn’t linger any longer than necessary to wash and dry.

As the population grew on Redding’s west side and beyond, a much larger supermarket and shopping plaza came in. Now that old store is a church and part of the laundromat has become Zippy Food Mart (where they once served Korean food) with a gas station on the corner. (Curiously, just a couple of blocks away Google maps show “Methodist Church Ferry Road Anderson” on Mesa Street. What’s up with that, Google?) Redding’s Ultimate Pizza fills out the north end of the old laundromat.

Though it’s got the look of a strip-mall place serving cardboard crust with ancient freeze-dried cheese, M. de Joie took note that Redding’s Ultimate Pizza’s been quietly chugging along since 2008. If it was truly awful, the law of the jungle surely would have done it in by now, so it was time to check the pizza out. The interior is modern and cheerful but utilitarian with easy-clean floors and tables. Pizza by the slice is available if you just want to grab and go. There’s a TV constantly on that apparently only gets basketball games. Service is friendly.

The menu includes the usual beer-friendly appetizers (garlic beer-battered extra spicy cheesy whatevers), salads, sandwiches, and a variety of pizzas and calzones, some with cute names like the Elvis Pesto and the Diestlehorst Delight. Pizza takes about 15-20 minutes from the time you order – a good sign that they aren’t just defrosting and nuking.

Small dinner salad, $4.19

If a restaurant kitchen gives consideration to the simplest dishes, that’s a sign management is looking at the entire menu rather than just focusing on one or two mainstays. What Femme de Joie was expecting was a pile of Costco bagged lettuce. She was pleasantly surprised to get a well thought out composed mixed green salad with sliced zucchini, olives, onions, and tomatoes. The small salad, fresh and crisp, was a generous enough serving to be shared.

Primavera pizza, $13.39 individual size

A variation on the classic Margherita pizza, the Primavera shows off the tender thin sourdough crust. Minimalist toppings – garlic, olive oil, tomatoes, cheese – made for a very light, non-greasy pizza. Of the items she tasted at Ultimate Pizza, this was Femme de Joie’s favorite.

Original calzone (Canadian bacon, salami, mushrooms, onions, garlic), small $8.79

Calzone in Italian means “trouser leg,” not to be confused with pantaloni, “pair of pants.” How it got from trouser leg to pizza parlor is one of those culinary idioms that probably makes more sense in the original language. (After a quick look at Reverso Context, M. de Joie could amuse herself all day by looking up sentences such as “Fuori dai pantaloni, orribile donna.”) The crust becomes more important in a calzone as it has to prevent leaks while remaining tender and pliable, and this one filled that bill. Despite the heavy ingredient list, this calzone held together nicely. It wasn’t quite as hot on the inside as one would expect so the ingredients were completely cold and/or it wasn’t baked quite long enough. Still, the flavor and texture combination worked well.

Sergeant Pepper’s Lonely Artichoke Hearts Gourmet Veggie pizza, $13.39 individual size

Femme de Joie couldn’t bring herself to say the entire name when ordering. However, the pizza was really quite good – even the thicker crust didn’t seem bready and gummy like many thick-crust pizzas. Artichoke hearts are the vinegary slightly pickled ones, so that tang may not appeal to everyone, though the taste is a nice contrast with white sauce. And the vegetables weren’t cooked into submission but retained their own tastes and textures, rather than being smothered with cheese and sauce.

To be clear, M. de Joie has eaten better pizza in other places, so she can’t say this is game-changing transcendentally fabulous world-without-end pizza. It sounds snobbish to add the qualifier, “It’s really good for Redding,” but she is not comparing to anywhere else, so it would be true. If she gets a Jones for pizza and doesn’t feel up to making it at home, Redding’s Ultimate Pizza is on Femme de Joie’s list of contenders in this town (and it’s a pretty short list). Stop by and grab a slice to give it a try.

Redding’s Ultimate Pizza, 1730 Pleasant Street at Placer Street, Redding, CA 96001. 530-241-8646. Open daily, 11:00 AM to 10:00 PM. Cards and cash; no checks. Beer and wine. Vegan and vegetarian options. Gluten-free crust available. Parking lot. Website at Redding’s Ultimate Pizza or 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 has long been the fervent wish of Femme de Joie that some enterprising soul would open up a Middle Eastern/Greek/Turkish restaurant in the Redding area. She vaguely recalls a short-lived one in a food court somewhere in Enterprise back in the 1970s or early ’80s, and an equally short-lived one on Antelope Boulevard in Red Bluff. Her two visits in 2011 to The Greek Shack on Hartnell left her underwhelmed (who knew you could buy frozen gyro slices from Amazon?), and never thought of stopping at Xander’s when toddling along Churn Creek until she’d already passed by.

At the corner of Eureka Way and Walnut Avenue, right across the street from the track and field shared by Shasta High School and U-Prep, stands a building that has hosted a slew of fast-food joints. M. de Joie can only remember three for sure: one of the Bartel’s Burgers chain, a Quizno’s, and an otherwise forgotten place that served salami burgers (that would be salami atop a burger) which a friend of hers adored. Last summer Anthony’s Mediterranean Cuisine moved in, and so far they seem to be thriving. Serving a simple menu of Middle Eastern salads, sandwiches, and sides, Anthony’s is run by the same party behind The Greek Shack and Xander’s.

There are some booths and bar tables; eat there or take out. Go to the counter to order and pay and they’ll bring your order to you. Staff is cheerful and helpful.

Lamb gyro plate with Greek salad and hummus, $12.99

It isn’t easily visible from the dining area, but Anthony’s has one of those vertical spits that holds a big ol’ hunk o’ packed minced lamb slowly rotating by a heat source; the toastiest part is shaved off for the lamb gyro and cradled in a pita bread with lettuce, tomato, and tzatziki sauce. It was a bite of Nirvana to gyro-deprived folks like Amico del SIgnore and M. de Joie. Almost as good as the gyro was the small fresh Greek salad with feta, Kalamata olives, and a tangy dressing, and the mellow tahini-infused hummus with the nutty flavor of garbanzos.

Chicken gyro plate with Greek salad and hummus, $11.99

The chicken gyro was the same arrangement as the lamb, but we did not love the pressed rectangles of chicken food product (hard to call it chicken as chickens are not normally rectangular). All wrapped up with pita & accompaniments, the sandwich was adequate but not awe-inspiring like the lamb.

Babaganouj (served with pita), $4.99

A vegetarian/vegan staple, soft roasted eggplant smoothed out with tahini, garlic, and olive oil was a mild-flavored dip to go with pita wedges. It was pleasant enough but needed more tahini and garlic to ramp up the flavor.

Vegetarian dolmas, $4.99, with wedges of pita bread

Dolma means “stuffed” and can refer to a variety of vegetables (zucchini, peppers, etc.) filled with rice and whatever else the cook has on hand. Stuffed grape leaves, those cigar-shaped bites common to numerous Mediterranean countries, are usually what we think of as dolmas here in the US. These were on the soft-to-mushy side and the rice filling was bland, even with a squeeze of lemon and some tzatziki to dip into. A disappointment.

Falafel wrap, $7.99

Though the fried falafel balls were pretty darn salty by themselves, the salt wasn’t as noticeable when eaten as a wrap on pita bread with tahini, loads of fresh parsley, a spicy-warm pickled pepper, and – surprise! – a strip of purple pickled turnip (don’t knock it until you’ve tried it). Despite the frying, the sandwich made a light lunch.

Overall, M. de Joie is a fan of Anthony’s Mediterranean Cuisine. Though not every dish hit the mark, she’ll be back for the gyros, the hummus, and the salads. And there’s quite a bit yet to be tried, including the previously unknown-to-her manakeesh (flat breads with various toppings). Prices are fair for portion size and quality and most of the dishes can be prepared quickly if you’re in a hurry (the exception being the kebabs). If you’ve never tasted the foods of the Middle East, this is a good place to give them a try.

Anthony’s Mediterranean Cuisine, 2475 Eureka Way, Redding, CA 96001. 530-768-1333. Open every day, 11:00 AM to 9:00 PM. Cash and cards; no checks. Vegan and vegetarian options. No alcohol (though they have a cold case with a lifetime supply of Red Bull and Rockstar). Parking lot. Follow them on Facebook.

Redding and Anderson have their share of what Maman de Joie called “hard-luck spots” – places where businesses opened optimistically, closed quietly, and another business moved in rapidly – lather, rinse, repeat. For whatever reason, those locations seemed almost cursed, Bermuda Triangles of hopes and dreams that disappeared into the nether world where small businesses go to die. The cafe in a minuscule strip mall at 2083 Balls Ferry Road seemed destined to be one such place – Femme de Joie recalls a sandwich shop (run by the guy who used to host a free Thanksgiving dinner at his home) and an Italian takeaway in that slot, among others.

About ten years ago, Becca’s Cafe evolved out of Miners Cafe in that little strip mall and seems to have put the curse to rest. Run by Marvin and Becca Howsmon, this little diner has become a local favorite for its extremely reasonable prices, unpretentious menu, and well-prepared comfort food, as well as the friendly proprietors. When Amico del Signore tried describing it to a friend who was unfamiliar with it, the friend finally said, “Oh, that religious place?” Well, the walls are decorated with the sort of tchotchkes and bric-a-brac you see in many small cafes, including a poster with Psalm 23 and similar artwork, there’s a rack of Chick tracts by the cash register, and they wish you a blessed day when you pay your bill. No one whacks you upside the head with a Bible or proselytizes. They’re busy cooking and serving.

Chicken fried steak, $7.99 with biscuit and gravy

No one will ever claim that chicken fried steak is health food, but it makes a delicious breakfast when well-prepared with a crisp crust and tender, juicy interior as it is at Becca’s. A generous pour of peppery cream gravy over the biscuit on the side was enough to smear on the hash browns too. Owner Becca confirmed that they buy frozen hash browns but do not pre-cook them as many restaurants do – they cook to order, which makes them taste more like homemade.

Ham, tomato, mushroom, and cheese omelet with avocado (upon request), $7.99

Becca’s does omelets particularly well, with tender eggs and a plethora of fillings that are never gummed together with too much cheese. This one was a three-egg, but the menu indicates you can order a four- or five-egg omelet as well.

Ham and eggs, $7.99

Your basic diner breakfast of ham and eggs depends largely on the quality of the ham – will it be dried out and over-salted, or lightly browned and tender? In this case it was the latter, a more than fair serving for the price, with biscuit and gravy on the side.

Bacon, mushroom, and Swiss cheese omelet, $7.99

Even if you’ve cut back on bacon, sometimes its siren song calls to you; just a little bit can satisfy that craving as in this omelet. Though that second slice of cheese somehow hit the plate rather than the eggs, the rest of the omelet was on the mark: again, fillings (particularly crisp bacon) that weren’t obscured with excess cheese.

Avocado burger, $7.99

To be sure, the burger is a pre-made patty, but it had not been lingering in a freezer for six months. Cooked to order (not held on a steam table), it was still juicy and flavorful.

Fish and chips, $7.99

This was the only item Femme de Joie tasted at Becca’s that she wasn’t crazy about. Rather small portions of fish were on the dry side and unmemorable. She did like the simple fresh salad on the side.

Onion rings, $3.50

Yes, out of a freezer bag, but deep-fried at the right temperature – crunchy and not overly oily.

Becca’s is hardly fancy or au courant, and if you’re high-maintenance you might not love it. They use lots of pre-made and frozen foods. It gets noisy with kids and adults chattering. You have to slip to the (tiny) restroom through the kitchen and the kitchen staff isn’t going to dress up in their best duds to impress you. The ceiling vent could use some repair and cleaning. Not a hipster in sight, though we spotted a couple of folks who appeared to have just rolled out of bed. Sometimes it gets pretty crowded and you might have to warm a bench beside the front door to wait for a table (the whole place seats about 40 people). But the prices can hardly be beat with special extra-cheap menus for seniors and kids, and the portions of tasty fare are generous for the price. The coffee costs $1.00 – no, it’s not Blue Bottle, but it tastes pretty good for one dollar. Becca’s might not appeal to those seeking a fine dining establishment, and for those people there are all those other restaurants offering such things. For everyone else, drive on down to Anderson and check it out.

Becca’s Cafe, 2083 Balls Ferry Road, Anderson, CA 96007. 530-365-4511. Open daily, 6:00 AM to 2:00 PM. Parking lot. No alcohol. Cash, cards; no checks. Vegetarian options. Follow them on Facebook.

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.

Even the most dyed-in-the-wool ardent Reddingites have to admit that it gets intolerably hot here in the summer. (You think it’s bad now? Imagine what it must have been like for the early settlers, clad in voluminous layers of heavy fabrics and garments with nary an air conditioner in sight.) Many stay indoors and turn the thermostat as low as their electricity budget will allow. Some head for the mountains to camp or to the lake to poach gently until well-done. But for Femme de Joie’s money, the best bet is to endure the 3 1/2 drive to Humboldt County and enjoy those cool ocean breezes (until she has to turn around for another 3 1/2 hour drive back home).

The Eureka Times-Standard reported in 2011 that the City of Arcata put a cap on the number of chain businesses allowed within city limits, a ruling some might find draconian but which M. de Joie finds utterly delightful. If one really needs to patronize a franchise or big box megastore, Eureka is a ten-minute drive away, but locally owned and operated businesses rule in the home of Humboldt State University. Yes, you can get a Big Mac in Arcata, but you have to drive all the way north to Valley West off Highway 101 to get it. Wouldn’t it be better to just stay close and enjoy some real food instead?

Golden Harvest Cafe has been serving up breakfast and lunch since at least the early 1980s (when Femme de Joie discovered it). Sean Balissa and Dorothy Myers bought it in 1998 with the intent of having a restaurant friendly to both vegans/vegetarians and carnivores. The lines out the door during Sunday brunch attest to their success in appealing to a wide range of tastes. M. de Joie and Amico del Signore have always been so stuffed after a breakfast that they have never tried the lunches.

Cajun potato cakes, $10.19, eggs $1.50 each

Golden Harvest features several variations of potato cakes for breakfast – a sort of potato hash with eggs atop. Cajun potato cakes were spicy-hot with cayenne-heavy Cajun seasoning, crisped all around, and savory with pepper jack cheese, olives, onions, and sausage (tofu sausage upon request). Definitely on the hot and spicy side, this was an unusual and delicious potato breakfast dish.

Golden Toast, 2 slices for $7.89

Remember the 1960s fad for cornflake-coated fried chicken? This variation on regular French toast beats that by a mile. Embedded crunchy cereal gives texture and sweetness to normally soft Texas toast slices.

California Benedict with avocado and tomatoes, Hollandaise and garlic cream sauce, $11.39

Sometimes you just have to have something unapologetically artery-clogging, but it better be worth it. The California Benedict fills that bill. We couldn’t decide whether the house-made Hollandaise was more delicious than the garlic cream sauce, and they were even more heavenly smooshed together on the plate. Crispy hash browns on the side were perfect with tender insides and crunchworthy outsides.

Chicken fried steak and eggs with biscuits and gravy, $13.99

This was quite simply the best chicken fried steak either M. de Joie or A. del Signore has ever tasted. Made with pounded New York steak and cooked until the batter was crisp but the interior medium-rare, tender and juicy, this was worth every calorie-packed bite. Sometimes gravy on the side is too salty, gummy, or otherwise a letdown, but Golden Harvest’s gravy was a perfect balance of creamy, savory, and peppery. Likewise, biscuits were tender and flaky.

Golden Harvest Cafe recently expanded to include a Eureka location, though it’s hoping too much to expect them to open a Redding location. The Eureka location presumably does not include the angry Arcata ghost who resides upstairs; it is rumored that he/she hates loud techno music and throws cutlery at the kitchen staff if the music is too loud. Femme de Joie did not hear or see said ghost so can’t provide independent confirmation, though she would definitely pay extra to experience this.

Everything we’ve tasted at Golden Harvest Cafe has been nothing less than wonderful, including coffee from Humboldt Bay Coffee Company (placed in a carafe on your table). Vegans and vegetarians are well-provided for – do not sneer at their house-made tofu bacon, as it is crisp and smoky with great bacony flavor. Though there are many fine places in Humboldt County to enjoy breakfast, Golden Harvest has to rank in the top three.

Golden Harvest Cafe, 1062 G Street, Arcata, CA 95521. 707-822-8962. Also 1707 Allard Avenue, Eureka, CA 95503, 707-442-1610. Open daily for breakfast and lunch 7:30 AM – 2:00 PM. Cash, cards, no checks. Kids’ menu. Vegans and vegetarians well-provided for. Beer and wine. Parking lot behind the building (access off 11th Street) or street parking ( feed the meter). Website at http://www.goldenharvestcafe.com/index.html or follow them on Facebook. Menu pages (pdf) here, here, here, and here .

The term “Mongolian barbecue” was first used by Chinese actor Wu Jau-nan when he opened a restaurant in Taipei in 1951. In “Unmentionable Cuisine,” the late Calvin Schwabe described Mongolian barbecue as being Taiwanese and similar to certain cookery from Korea (bul-gogi) and Japan (teppanyaki and jingisukan). The “legend” about Genghis Khan’s soldiers cooking their meals on their shields or helmets are amusing, but Femme de Joie finds it unlikely that entire armies would be sent out on lengthy campaigns with no thought to who was going to feed all those men and instead decide that they should just rustle up some grub on their own.

The building at 2151 Market Street in Redding has been a Bermuda Triangle of bars and restaurants, some good (River City Bar & Grill), some bad (a bar M. de Joie visited long ago to hear an astonishingly loud and spectacularly awful band; she has forgotten both the name of the bar and the band), and the neither here nor there (Zippers, Rainbow Lounge, Eddy’s Grill, et al). To stretch a metaphor beyond all reason, businesses in that spot became a Flying Dutchman of doom. Femme de Joie thinks this may be because the location is apparently invisible; when she tries to describe it to someone (“South of Jiffy Lube. Kind of across from Mallory’s Florist”), the response is invariably furrowed brows and puzzled expressions.

Succeeding where its predecessors have failed is Kahuna’s Mongolian BBQ. Though kahuna is a Hawaiian word and Mongolian is, well, Mongolian, the name seems appropriate for a Pan-Asian restaurant concept. It’s been packing them in for over a year and is one of the few downtown restaurants open every day for both lunch and dinner.

The interior has a tiki-bar kind of feel with a lot of fake orchids and wood paneling. When a customer is seated, waitstaff asks if they have ever been there before. If this is the first visit, the procedure is explained and your order for white or brown rice is taken. Ramps and steps lead customers down to salad bar tables filled with a selection of thinly sliced meats, raw shrimp, parboiled noodles, vegetables, tofu, and eggs.

Diners fill a bowl with their choice of ingredients and then move to a sauce bar, where they choose as many sauces as they like (Thai chili sauce, beer, garlic oil, teriyaki ,and so forth) to ladle over the filled bowls. Just to the left of the sauce bar is a shelf with shakers of seasonings (thyme, chipotle, sesame oil, lime juice, etc.). Moving to the left is an open window to the grill itself, a small selection of last-minute additions (peanuts, coconut, sesame seeds) to toss onto the now-brimming bowl before handing off the food to one of the cooks.

The cooks do a sort of ballet around the grill, maneuvering the food with a long pair of “swords.” When it’s cooked, the food is slid off the grill into a fresh bowl and handed back to the diner.

There is a certain sameness to what all the food looks like when it’s come off the grill, a sort of swirly brownness. The end result is really up to the diner and their wise (or not) choice of ingredients and sauces. It might be tempting, for instance, to load the bowl entirely with shrimp, and some people probably do that, but it’s more fun and interesting to combine a variety of vegetables and meat with different sauces. In theory you could eat at Kahuna several times a week and never have the same flavors, textures, or ingredients repeated.

Since Asian food is chockablock with allergens – soy, peanuts, gluten – a sign says that if you tell the cooks about your sensitivity they will clean the grill before cooking your food. Femme de Joie did not witness this happening on her visits so she cannot say exactly how they clean the grill – whether that means only scraping the top of all detritus or actually scrubbing the surface to remove trace amounts. This may seem frivolous to non-allergy sufferers, but a person with a peanut allergy could die if they ate a meal cooked on the same grill that previously had peanuts on it – so ask, ask, ask.

But there are a couple of things newbie diners ought to be aware of. From Kahuna’s website:

Lunch includes one bowl of stir-fry and rice, $10.99 (you may take your leftovers home).

Dinner is TWO times through buffet line maximum, including our steamed white rice, and flour tortillas $14.99 (If you do not finish your first bowl you make take that home, but if you do get a second there will be no to go boxes

Seniors (65 and older) and children (5-10) – Lunch $10.49 – Dinner $12.99 (same as Dinner explanation)

So if Femme de Joie understand this correctly: you may buy dinner for $14.99, for which you are entitled to two trips through the buffet line. If you do not finish your second bowl of food – which you own, since the understood contract between a diner and a restaurant is that the customer pays for their food – you cannot keep it. The restaurant will throw your food away. Bad customer! At lunch, it turns out, you get one trip through the buffet line BUT (what the website does not tell you) is that if you want shrimp or lamb (which are included on the dinner buffet), that is $3.00 extra – making the lunch buffet cost as much as dinner, but you get half as much.

Femme de Joie must be missing something here. Such a policy can only result in arguments between customers and waitstaff, who will suffer the brunt of righteous anger, and waste of perfectly good food. However, the website does not say that a customer cannot place the leftover food in their own to-go box (which are available in bulk at Cash and Carry) or a piece of aluminum foil, thoughtfully folded and tucked into a pocket before entering the restaurant. And really: $12.99 for a five-year-old’s dinner? If management is afraid of grifter children and seniors defrauding them left and right, perhaps a look at “small” meal option is in order.

Other than that, Femme de Joie likes Kahuna’s. It’s rather fun, you know exactly what you’re getting, and staff is friendly and helpful (though they do tend to disappear after they’ve delivered your drink and rice). It does get crowded with long lines, so visiting before or after peak dining hours is suggested.

Kahuna’s Mongolian BBQ, 2151 Market Street, Redding, CA 96001. 530-244-4200. Open daily, 11:00 AM to 9:00 PM. Cash and cards. Beer, wine, low-alcohol cocktails. Vegan and vegetarian options. Gluten-free and other special diets accommodated (but ask about how the grill is cleaned). Parking lot. Outdoor seating available. Website at http://kahunasmongolianbbq.com/

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/

Pity the poor cilantro hater. Genetically disposed to loathe the pungent herb ubiquitous to Latin and Asian cooking, they find themselves the object of disbelief, mockery, and repeated attempts to recruit them to the legions of cilantro lovers. There are online support groups via Facebook,
communities such as I Hate Cilantro (“The most offensive food known to man”), blog posts (“I just thought somebody had emptied a bottle of Old Spice on my pizza”), and haikus (“Evil leaf from hell/ go back to where you came from/ you are not wanted”). Julia Child claimed she would pick cilantro out of any dish and throw it on the floor.

Femme de Joie has to admit that her first encounter with cilantro was not a pleasant one. Inspired as a teenager by Elena Zelayeta’s cookbook “Elena’s Secrets of Mexican Cooking,” she optimistically planted some and was horrified at the stinky, nasty herb that resulted; she had thought it would be more like parsley. A few years later at the dearly departed Sam Wo’s Restaurant in San Francisco, she encountered some cilantro in a bowl of won ton soup and had to pick it out carefully (she had already encountered the legendary Edsel Ford Fung and did not wish to draw any more attention to herself).

M. de Joie can’t remember when she eventually succumbed to the charms of this lovely herb, but she thinks it must have been a gradual adjustment similar to what Dr. Jay Gottfried of Northwestern University suggests. A life without cilantro would certainly limit one’s ability to enjoy certain cuisines. And that brings us to Thai Hut in Redding. It surely would be hell on earth for someone who hates cilantro but a tiny slice of heaven for everyone else. Situated in the old Wall Street Pizza building, there are perhaps eight tables inside and half a dozen outside in front. Cheerful and helpful waitresses do their best to keep up with the lunchtime crowd – and it does get crowded.

Nam Koaw, fried crispy rice salad, $8.49

This dish goes by half a dozen other names and spellings.Similar to the minced duck lettuce wraps served in Chinese restaurants, this version is so much more complex. A fine mince of crispy rice, preserved pork, coconut flakes, green onions, cilantro, and peanuts, you scoop it onto a lettuce leaf, wrap it up as best you can, and attempt to pop it into your mouth without spilling any; if that fails, just use a fork. This was wildly delicious. Listed as an appetizer, it was enough for lunch.

Lunch specials all come with a salad with a sweet mustardy dressing, light and refreshing.

Curry of your day, $7.99 as lunch special

During an extremely busy lunch hour M. de Joie ordered pork in yellow curry and got chicken instead. Since it had taken 50 minutes to get that, she didn’t feel up to returning it. However, it was not a disappointment: chicken breast strips with assorted strips of vegetables in medium heat yellow curry were all cooked perfectly. The savory sauce was good enough to lick the bowl clean. She was less crazy about the sweet and sour sauce that accompanied the egg roll, as it was overwhelmingly vinegary.

Bean sprouts, Jalapenos, cilantro, basil

Small beef pho, $6.75

It wasn’t that many years ago that pho was an unknown in Redding’s Asian restaurants; fortunately it’s now served in at least half a dozen places. Thai Hut’s version used a lighter beef broth than M. de Joie has tasted elsewhere, and there didn’t seem to be as much beef in the bowl in other places, which is probably a reflection of the bargain price. Plenty of noodles, though, and a generous plate of the standard fresh add-ons helped make up for that.

Chicken wings, $7.49

These were by far the best chicken wings Femme de Joie has ever had in a restaurant: very flavorful, crisp, non-greasy, and a generous serving. They were wonderful eaten as is, though she mixed some incendiary chili-garlic paste into the sweet and sour sauce to pour over, and that was delightful too.

M. de Joie likes Thai Hut very much and will definitely return. The prices are low ($7.99 lunch specials) and the generous servings of well-prepared food have produced a loyal fan base. It can be agonizingly slow at lunchtime, so try to schedule a visit outside of peak hours. Be advised: cilantro is served.

Thai Hut, 1165 Hartnell Avenue, Redding CA 96002. 530-222-8405. Open Tuesday through Saturday, 11:00 AM to 8:00 PM, Sunday 11:00 AM to 4:00 PM. Closed Monday. Cash and cards; no checks. Beer and wine. Small parking lot. Vegan and vegetarian options.

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.

Jane and Michael Stern, those chroniclers of true American food, wrote in their 1986 travelogue-cum-cookbook “Real American Food” of the Southern phenomena of combining food and unrelated commerce: “Drive along a country road in the Mississippi Delta and you will come across Upholstery Repair-Catfish Parlors, Flats Fixed-Barbecues, and Seamstress-Tamale Stands.” In “American Fried,” journalist Calvin Trillin described interrogating a Muskogee, Oklahoma resident about a local barbecue joint – “They have plates there?” Trillin asked suspiciously. In the end he wrangled directions to a highway diner where the proprietor flapped down butcher paper topped with wax paper topped with first-rate barbecue.

Somewhere along the way west, cuisine became sanitized. Not to mock food safety laws (well, perhaps a little), but we do tend to fear food that isn’t served in a regulation restaurant setting. Whether it’s a Roach Coach or Pilot Death Dogs or a Gut Bomb, people seem to get a little nervous about eating food served in unfamiliar territory.

There’s probably no business more ubiquitous to California than gas stations, almost all of which now have some form of mini-mart inside. Suppose all that room devoted to prepackaged junk food was converted into small cafes?

That’s what happened at the Valero Station on Churn Creek Road, where El Delicioso Burrito lives. Yes, you can still get your candy bars and Zig-Zag papers at the cashier, but look just a little further back and you’ll see a small dining room. Walk back and you’ll see the menu above the counter. Order and have a seat – it never takes very long. Service is friendly and fast.

Carne asada burrito. $5.99

The first time Femme de Joie visited, she went through the drive-though. There was a bit of confusion and she wasn’t sure what she would wind up actually getting, since the disembodied speaker voice doesn’t seem to have a firm command of English, and M. de Joie’s Spanish is limited to “comer el lapiz” and “es muy puerta.” It was confusing, and not in a hilarity-ensues kind of way.

But the burrito delivered was a good one; filled with a generous scoop of slightly crispy beef kernels mixed with tomato, onion, guacamole, and cilantro, it was savory, not greasy, and a good value. Salsa verde on the side was indifferent.

Fish tacos with rice and beans, $7.99

Fish tacos are one of those items on a menu that could go either way – like the little girl with a curl in the middle of her forehead, when they’re good they are very very good, but when they are bad they are horrid. Fortunately, these were the good ones, crunchy and fresh out of the deep fryer, each wrapped in two corn tortillas in a futile attempt to keep the taco from splitting and the filling tumbling out. Toppings were fresh as well; the pico de gallo available at the serve-yourself salsa bar was particularly good on these. Femme de Joie was less crazy about the rice and beans on the side, dry and tired; M. de Joie couldn’t bring herself to finish either one.

Beef enchiladas, $7.99

Enchiladas were surprisingly light and non-greasy, filled with cubelets of braised beef and topped very lightly with cheese and shredded lettuce. The hot salsa at the salsa bar was not flamethrower hot and worked well on these. The refried beans and rice were much improved with this combo plate.

If you’re feeling peckish out in Big Box Land, it isn’t always easy to find something to eat. El Delicioso Burrito isn’t a place to sit for hours savoring your meal, nor is it comparable to a place like La Cabana, but that isn’t really its goal. It’s fast food – but it didn’t come packaged frozen in a corporate portion-controlled box from Cleveland. It’s all prepared to order in the tiny kitchen. While Femme de Joie wouldn’t make a special trip to eat there, she certainly wouldn’t spurn it if she was out shopping for a solar-powered hairbrush at Megastore R Us and needed some lunch. Inexpensive, quick, flavorful, open early to late – consider stopping in.

El Delicioso Burrito, 1275 Churn Creek Road inside the Valero gas station (at Old Alturas), Redding, CA 96003. 530-222-2921. Open daily, 7:00 AM to 11:00 PM. Small dining room and drive-though. No alcohol. Vegetarian and vegan options. Parking lot. Cash and cards; no checks. Follow them on Facebook.

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Page Summary

Simple Mexican Food at Las Dos Marias
What’s the Attraction at Madayne?
A Mixed Bag at Peacock in Anderson
Tiny Ma Der Serves Big Flavor in Old Redding
Healthy Take-Out Mexican at Roquito’s Taqueria
Gironda’s Blooms Under New Ownership
Come to Airpark Cafe for the Views, Stay for the Food
Trending Downward at Trendy’s
Palo Cedro’s California Brewing Company is Worth the Drive
Local Pizza Makes Good at Redding’s Ultimate Pizza
Lao Meets Thai at Kanya Market
The Flavors of the Middle East at Anthony’s Mediterranean Cuisine
Becca’s Cafe in Anderson is a Local Favorite
Jaimitos Tacos – Where’s the Zsa Zsa Zsu?
Start the Day at Arcata’s Golden Harvest Cafe
Kahuna’s Mongolian BBQ Livens Up Downtown Redding Dining
View 202 – All That Glitters is not Gold
Delicious Bargains at Tiny Thai Hut
Fire and Pizza at Cinders
El Delicioso Burrito: Don’t Fear Gas Station Cuisine

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Where to Eat in Redding and Shasta County, California

Entries tagged with vegetarian

Simple Mexican Food at Las Dos Marias

What’s the Attraction at Madayne?

A Mixed Bag at Peacock in Anderson

Tiny Ma Der Serves Big Flavor in Old Redding

Healthy Take-Out Mexican at Roquito’s Taqueria

Gironda’s Blooms Under New Ownership

Come to Airpark Cafe for the Views, Stay for the Food

Trending Downward at Trendy’s

Palo Cedro’s California Brewing Company is Worth the Drive

Local Pizza Makes Good at Redding’s Ultimate Pizza

Lao Meets Thai at Kanya Market

The Flavors of the Middle East at Anthony’s Mediterranean Cuisine

Becca’s Cafe in Anderson is a Local Favorite

Jaimitos Tacos – Where’s the Zsa Zsa Zsu?

Start the Day at Arcata’s Golden Harvest Cafe

Kahuna’s Mongolian BBQ Livens Up Downtown Redding Dining

View 202 – All That Glitters is not Gold

Delicious Bargains at Tiny Thai Hut

Fire and Pizza at Cinders

El Delicioso Burrito: Don’t Fear Gas Station Cuisine