Road food and mile high pie

Road trips have their own unique food experiences. They can be either incredible or profoundly bad but the one thing you can rely on is that they will give you a glimpse of local life no matter where you are.

Recently I have been taking road trips East from MN to WI, to visit a relative hospitalized there. The first trip, on the tail of the frantic phone call that gave me the heads up on the issue, I drove East without looking at much around me, just lost in thought about God's great plan and how we all fit into it and bent and determined to arrive in one piece after sharing the road with multiple 18-wheelers as bent and determined as myself. On that trip home, at dusk, with the intensity of the previous days issues having been toned down, all I wanted to do was get home and despite the beautiful sunset, I noticed little else.

This last time I was in the backseat, the driving being done by my more than capable husband, and the urgency being much less than the previous week. I could focus out the window and watch what went by. Of course, driving in WI means that you are in farmland and cheese country. Signs for cheese are everywhere. And at each little town we passed I wondered about the local food joints and what tasty nuggets of local fare they may be offering. When the afternoons visit came to a close, and an evening meal was necessary, we went to a place called the Norske Nook, in lovely downtown Osseo, WI. A famous place, no doubt, as the signs along the Interstate might testify. Their specialty is sweets, pies of all kinds, sweet rolls big enough to feed a large family and a menu full of comfort foods and lefse wraps. The owners fav was a Cod wrap, which my stepmother ordered and claimed tasted like lutefisk might. None of us accepted the proferred tastings. The food was good, comfort food at it's finest, certainly not bad but definitely not something I would want to eat regularly. Of course, the french fries with my French dip were out of this world as a gastronomical treat, deftly seasoned, crunchy out and mealy in but also straight out of the fat fryer and onto my plate. Even dragging them through a bowl of homemade beef gravy didn't remove the image of them being plastered right into my arteries. But in my mind, eating something like this once in a while is all right, making a habit out of it is not. This is where it's hard to draw the line through what can be thought of as a 'bad food' and what can be called 'bad for you food'. While a roast beef sandwich and fries is not 'bad' it is not healthy to eat all the time. And being in Smalltown America means having to mostly forego finding a good restaurant with healthy offerings. Then it came time for pie, and hoooo boy.....the two pieces brought to the table for sharing couldn't have been more polar opposites. The Cherry Crunch was a sweet/sour delight with a very flavorful crumb topping and a crust that crumbled perfectly in your mouth, a manageable piece for anyone. The French Silk made us all burst out laughing at it's absurdity. This pie slice had to have been at least six inches high, and then came the whipped cream. My son, the Sweet Freak, took one look at it and partially lapsed into a sugar coma just at the sight. The rest of us nearly broke open at the seams from the hearty guffaws. My dear husband, ever the practical type, said "No thanks" to either piece. I had a bite of the mile-high pie and thought I might lose a few molars from the unbelievably sweet taste. The rest of them, bless their hearts, took to the pies like lost sheep at the feed trough. My poor son was not allowed to eat to his hearts content since he has not yet figured out the key to moderation, but even carving off a substantial slice of the chocolate pie did nothing to eliminate it's bulk. I couldn't imagine one person ever being able to consume such a ridiculously gargantuan thing unless it was the only thing eaten at the meal. But I suppose that many do, based on the popularity of the place.

Wow, after all that, today I just feel like eating some grains, lots of veggies and a whole lot of water. Probably that's a really good idea. At least we didn't stop at the Cheese Haus or I may have some lovelies beckoning me from the fridge. *sigh* Oh to be at the age where what you eat matters more than how it tastes!!