Did you know that olives grow in Arizona? California, yes. Greece, for sure. But Arizona?

I recently learned about Arizona’s olives when I visited the Queen Creek Olive Mill, an olive grower, olive oil producer, and agri-tourism destination just outside of Phoenix. They serve up lots of olive goodies, too.

While olives are not native to Arizona, Queen Creek General Manager Rob Holmes explained that olives have been growing in the region since the 1800s. The “mission” variety arrived with the 19th-century Spanish missionaries.

Queen Creek grows 16 varieties of olives on their more than 2,000 trees. Nine of those varieties are mature enough to harvest.

According to Holmes, Queen Creek makes its olive oils by blending the oils from several different varieties. They bottle fresh oils about every six weeks.

They infuse some of their oils with natural flavors, ranging from vanilla to lemon to chili (even chocolate!), which you can sample in their market. If you’re really keen on olives, take their 30-minute Olive Oil 101 tour, where you can learn more about olive growing and oil production, with samples of their products, of course.

In Queen Creek’s del Piero cafe, many of the dishes are made with olives or olive products, from bruschetta to sandwiches to baked goods. They use olive oil in their cakes, brownies, and their deservedly popular olive oil waffles. (Check out their website for tips on baking with olive oil).

If you’d like to try making these delicious olive oil waffles at home, here’s the Queen Creek recipe:

Olive Oil Waffles
Adapted from del Piero at the Mill

At Queen Creek Olive Mill’s del Piero restaurant, they make these waffles with their vanilla bean-infused olive oil. You could substitute a mild fruity olive oil and add a small amount of vanilla extract.

Ingredients:
2 eggs, separated
2 cups all-purpose flour
4 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. salt
2 tsp. brown sugar
2 cups milk
1/2 cup vanilla bean olive oil (or 1/2 olive oil, plus 1 tsp. vanilla extract)

Method:

1. Beat the egg whites until soft peaks form. Set aside.


2. In a separate bowl, mix all dry ingredients. Add milk, olive oil, and egg yolks to dry ingredients and mix until smooth. Gently fold in the egg whites.


3. Preheat waffle iron. Oil lightly or spray with non-stick cooking spray.


4. Pour approximately 1/2 cup of waffle batter into iron and cook to desired crispness. Repeat with each additional waffle.

Yield: Six servings

If you go…
The Queen Creek Olive Mill (25062 S. Meridian Road, Queen Creek, AZ, 480-888-9290) is just east of Mesa, Arizona, in the Phoenix metropolitan area. You can get travel information about the region from the Greater Phoenix Convention & Visitors Bureau or from the Mesa Convention and Visitors Bureau.

Have you tried baking with olive oil? Do you have a favorite olive oil recipe? Please leave a comment and let us know. And if you have a food post – on any culinary topic – that you’d like to share, link to that post here, using the handy-dandy Mr. Linky widget below:

Tasty Travels!

Carolyn

Is meat an essential ingredient in pancakes? I never thought so.

But that was before I met up with pulled pork pancakes.

Here’s the scene: It’s noontime on a Saturday at The Red Wagon, a grunge-hip storefront in a former pho joint, on a jaggedly gentrifying, East Vancouver grunge-hip block.

An eclectic mix of diners has braved the line-up that snakes around the corner. There’s a tweedy greying couple, a trio of tough-looking black-clad women, and young parents with a toddler who’s made Dad a multicolored necklace of blocks that he’s unashamedly strung around his neck.

Inside, the coffee is hot, the vibe is laid-back, and plate after plate of pancakes comes out of the bustling kitchen.

You can get your pancakes without meat, and they’re a worthy choice, puffy and tender with a slight buttermilk tang.

But layer those fluffy pancakes with chili-scented pulled pork and drench them in real maple syrup punched up with a healthy dollop of Jack Daniels, and you’ll wonder why you haven’t been slathering pork on your pancakes your whole life.

If you go…
The Red Wagon is at 2296 East Hastings Street, Vancouver, BC, 604-568-4565.

From downtown Vancouver, hop on an eastbound bus #14, 16, or 135 and get off at the corner of Hastings and Nanaimo. It’s about a 20-minute ride.

If you’re not a meat-eater, the Red Wagon also makes an excellent tofu scramble, sauteed with spinach, tomatoes, mushrooms, and fresh basil—a well-composed dish, not a haphazard vegetarian afterthought.

This weekend is a great time to explore East Vancouver, when the neighborhood hosts the 15th annual Eastside Culture Crawl, and nearly 350 local artists open their studios to the public.

The Culture Crawl runs Friday, November 18 from 5 to 10pm, and Saturday-Sunday, November 19-20 from 11am to 6pm.

Now it’s your turn to dish on a neighborhood joint. Please leave a comment and tell us about a favorite local eatery or unexpectedly excellent local plate. Thanks!

Tasty Travels!

Carolyn

“Do you speak Cantonese?” the man at the next table asks, setting down his Sing Tao Daily and peering at me over the top of his reading glasses.

I shake my head.

“Then why do you come to a Chinese cafe? Why don’t you eat at Tim Hortons?”

I smile at him. “That would be too boring.”

He smiles back, but quickly turns serious. “Maybe you don’t like this food,” he worries.

I shrug. “But maybe I do.”

It’s 7:30 a.m. in Richmond, British Columbia, the suburb just south of Vancouver.

Along Number 3 Road – the four-lane main street jumbled with Asian malls, restaurants, and new apartment towers – it’s early-morning quiet, except for the whir of the SkyTrains passing overhead.

When I turn down normally bustling Alexandra Road, the shades are still drawn at most of the Chinese, Japanese, and Korean eateries that give this four-block strip its nickname: “Food Street.”

Inside the brightly lit Kam Do Bakery, though, it’s already busy. Plates clatter. Newspapers rustle.

If it weren’t for the glass panels etched with water lilies and jumping koi that separate the plum-vinyl booths, and the conversations I overhear in Cantonese and Mandarin, I could be at Denny’s, instead of in a Hong Kong-Style cafe.

Except at Denny’s, no one would care why I’m here for breakfast.

The older man wearing a dark windbreaker at the table on my opposite side wants to chat, too. He sips his milky coffee and advises that you can ask for as many refills as you want.

He tells me that he moved to Vancouver 25 years ago from Hong Kong, and he just moved again to Richmond, after selling his Vancouver house for $1.5 million.

“If I’d waited and sold this year instead,” he muses, “I’d have made $500,000 more.”

He shakes his head, “But you never know. You never know.”

I turn back to Man #1 and ask if he has a favorite food here. He laughs nervously.

“No, really,” I say. “What would you suggest that I eat?”

There’s a long pause while he thinks.

“Have a bun,” he finally recommends. “Maybe you’ll like the bun.”

Looking across the other tables, I see three types of breakfasts.

Bowls of thin ramen-style noodles in broth, topped with fingers of pink ham or mounds of shredded pork.

Sandwiches on thick pillowy white bread, bright yellow butter oozing from inside, surrounding more pink ham.

And eggs. Served with buns.

I choose the Hong Kong version of bacon and eggs. My perfectly over-medium eggs come with two thin pork chops – a bit chewy but meaty and hot. The bun is soft, golden, and slightly sweet.

“You’re right about the bun,” I tell Man #1. “I do like it.”

Man #2 asks if I’ve been to Hong Kong, and I say I have, several years ago on my way to China. He tells me he still misses Hong Kong, but he has a better life in Canada.

The air is fresh here, he says. There is good opportunity. And life is more free.

He smooths his gray hair, picks up his check, and scoots out of his booth.

“Nice to meet you,” he says. “Remember, more coffee is free, too.”

I can’t leave without sampling the pastries, neatly lined up in the display case out front.

I try a date cake and a red bean cake, but my favorite is the “wife cake” (Lao Po Bing 老婆饼), a flaky golden pastry with a slightly sweet, gelatinous filling made from candied winter melon.

Tim Hortons?

Sorry, but it’s no contest.

If you go…

Kam Do Restaurant & Bakery is at 8391 Alexandra Road, Richmond, BC, 604-231-9216. You can walk from the Canada Line (either Aberdeen or Lansdowne station) in about 15 minutes.

Kam Do has a second bakery-only location near the Richmond-Brighouse SkyTrain station at 6211 No. 3 Road, Richmond, 604-284-5611.

What’s the best advice—food or otherwise—you ever got over breakfast? Please leave a comment and let us know.

And if you’re a food blogger, join the fun! Here’s all you have to do to link your post to WanderFood Wednesday.

Photo credits:
Real estate photo by Roland (flickr)
Coffee cup photo by Odolphie (flickr)
All other photos ©Carolyn B. Heller