You wouldn't think Palouse—and I'm talking here not about the region, but about the town with 1,011 inhabitants—would be a culinary mecca, and it's not. But the Green Frog Cafe needs to be visited, because it is downright awesome.

Here you can get a good selection of local wine and beer, and they serve Thomas Hammer coffee. The vibe is that of an urban American cafe, more-so than many places in Spokane (which is sad, but more about that another day) and the food is excellent.

We tried the nacho pita which came on a really nice tasting pita, filled with guacamole, sour cream, tomato, olives, cilantro and melted cheddar. It was not too huge and tasted extremely fresh. The same went for the turkey pita; I'm not sure where they got their meat from, but it tasted fresher than what I'm used to from most cafes.

Actually, I'm not sure if anything here is organic or not, but I do know everything is made from scratch and it shows. Just really nice cafe style food. Nothing fancy, but delicious.

If you're heading to the Palouse you should stop at Palouse, the town, and check Green Frog out. Excellent spot, and better than any restaurant in Pullman as far as I'm concerned.

Some people spend much of the summer in Hawaii, others in Milan. We're just so gosh darn local here at SpoCOOL that we have spent a lot of time in the Paris of the Inland Northwest, Pullman.

And honestly, when stuck spending time in Pullman, you probably should spend some time at Cafe Moro. I mean, why wouldn't you? Not only do they pull DOMA coffee, they pull it well. 

This is, from the top of my head, one of the few places in the Inland Northwest where you can get Cafe Cubanos. And they're pretty dang good too, as long as you're ready for an espresso/sugar rush. I personally haven't been to Cuba, but as the Top That has, I will take her word that this is a Cubano worth trying. And even if you don't give a damn about authenticity, I can vouch for its quality: It is excellent.

Moro stays open late most days, and has a limited menu of food. They also have a couple of taps, one dedicated to local Palouse Falls Brewing Company. There are also a handful of bottles to choose from.

I like Cafe Moro. It's a good place to kick back and hang out. The coffee is excellent. Consider me a fan.

Continuing our "when in Pullman" tripping series, one spot you really can't go wrong with is Cougar Country Drive-In. My Pullman knowledge might be rudimentary at best, and this is probably be a spot I'd skip past had I not had an experienced guide with me. It looks a bit… worn down… on the outside. You know. In best Zip's fashion.

The burgers, thankfully, are nothing like Zip's. Here you get nice sesame seed buns and meat that tastes like it actually might be of a decent enough quality. Tomatoes and lettuce and cheese tops it, and all in all it's a simple and good burger. Add some fries-sauce and you actually have what would be a stereotypical Norwegian fast food burger. True fact.

If you're vegetarian there are also a couple of options for you, including a vegan BOCA burger.

Also, the turtle cyclone makes a pretty sweet dessert.

Cougar Country is a pretty laidback drive-in, and it's not something I'd travel miles and miles to eat at. Like, I wouldn't drive to Pullman exclusively for their burgers. When in Pullman, though, Cougar Country serves up some truly great burgers. I kinda wish we had this spot in Spokane.

In the spirit of Nerd Nite, let’s talk Austin. Austin is what one probably would call a cool city. And by cool I mean genuinely cool, not like Portland and Seattle that really want to be cool but aren’t. Austin is vibrant; people in the streets any time of day or night at any time; a happening downtown area with a huge park and river running through it. Think Spokane on a whole lot of steroids and with more of a “European” bend, and you get the picture.

Worth checking out if you’re interested in a good beer and some barbecue is Uncle Billy’s Brew & Que. The beer here is actually pretty good, and the smokey porter goes well with the fairly average food. Not bad, just average. The spot sort of reminds me of The Elk in vibe, just with mostly outdoor seating. It’s definitely a good place for people watching.

Uncle Billy’s sister spot is called Austin Java, which not surprisingly is a coffee shop. The coffee was good and all, but Austin apparently hasn’t quite figured the whole coffee culture out yet. When I asked for a 12oz Americano I was met with a blank stare and attitude informing me that they usually just put the coffee in their standard cups which they aren’t sure how big are. Well, fair enough, I suppose, but if they don’t know the size of the cups, how do they figure out their ratios? Short answer: they don’t. They just pour how they’ve been taught. Kinda like robots.

What else… Austin is the home of Whole Foods, so if that’s your thing, then their main store is gigantic. Think the size of a Fred Meyer, centrally located downtown.

6th street downtown is worth checking out. It’s full of bars and restaurants.

And if you want a Clinkerdagger like experience head over to The Oasis. It is truly a strange and not very wonderful experience, food wise.

I like Austin. They’re very centered on keeping things local there, which I suppose is what they’re slogan indicates, with “Keep Austin Weird.” Because it’s not weird. But it is great.

Over the past week, the SFB Editorial Board „¢ set out on a covert fact-finding mission in the Southwest. Gems were found, dirty secrets uncovered, and… Well, it’ll all be documented here as we see fit.

First: Tempe. Tempe is of course part of the Phoenix metro area. “Of course” being… Well, Roger from American Dad put it best when talking about Mesa, a town similarly hidden in Phoenix’s shadow: “Well, I lived in Mesa. but when you say ‘Mesa,’ people don’t know what ‘Mesa’ is, but… It’s… It’s, I mean, it’s Phoenix. I lived in Phoenix.”

Tempe is home of ASU, and then not surprisingly the home of many cheap-eats spots, a lot of which hold a pretty decent quality. You might not mistake the town for NYC, but then again, that’s hardly the point.

Four Peaks Brewing Company is located just off campus, and is one of a handful of Phoenix area breweries. And frankly, while it wasn’t awful, it probably isn’t causing Northwest breweries too many sleepless nights.

The red flag should probably have been raised when I overheard a waiter mentioning that the brewers don’t really like “flavor bombs.” It didn’t take us long to figure out that he certainly was right about that. Most of the seven samplers were watered down, and just a bit dull tasting. The Oatmeal Stout, for example, was labeled the “regulars’ choice” which sort of suggested it’d be a stand out, felt watered down, and anything but stout-y. Had it been a blind taste test I would probably have guessed it was a dark lager.

The peach ale? Just too sweet. The Hefeweizen? Tasted more like a dull Belgian white. And so on and so forth.

The one standout was the Hop Knot. What was suggested to be the hoppiest ale of the lot was really pretty average on the hop count, but, that aside, it did not feel watered down and had a pretty deep flavor to it. If you ever were to grab a pint at Four Peaks, then Hop Knot is the one to go for.

As for the food, we only sampled a pretzel with mustard sauce. The sauce was actually really quite nice, and had a good kick to it that we felt in our noses. Not too shabby.

Four Peaks wasn’t too bad, just a bit so-so. Worth checking out if you’re a traveling ale hound at any rate.

Oh come now, we do claim to be a food blog, and thus we have to write about In-N-Out Burger at some point. It’s the law.

I like In-N-Out. Who doesn’t? Yet every time I eat there—i.e. every time I go to California—I walk out with the same slightly befuddled look on my face. Was it really that great? Sure, the ingredients were fresh, and you don’t feel like you’ve just had a meal from McDonald’s. But still. It wasn’t that great, was it? In the end, wasn’t it just a burger? A good one, sure, but not that amazing.

Of course, the myth might be what makes In-N-Out what it is today. The way they’re not franchised, nor are they a public company. The little bible quotes hidden away on cups and wrappers. The minimal menu. The (not so very) secret menu. Add that to the fresh ingredients, and all of a sudden the burger seems a bit more special than what it really is.

But if you look at it as a standalone food item… Well… You can get pretty much the same burger at D. Lish’s. And a better one at Crazy G’s. At least according to me.

But hey, In-N-Out… Definitely awesome for many reasons. Just not that awesome.

We don’t care what people say, we like Tacoma! In fact, we like it so much that we stopped by Southern Kitchen on our way back east. And Southern Kitchen is good. Very good. Excellent in fact.

So excellent is it, that Guy Fieri—probably the best chef ever!—featured it on Diners, Drive-ins and Dives, aka the Citizen Kane of food television. We kid you not. About it being a featured restaurant at least.

Douchebag love aside, Southern Kitchen is pretty dang good. We are, not surprisingly, talking southern cuisine here, which includes their quasi-famous sweet potato pie, and awesome it is.

Yet, still, I have to say the combination of catfish, grits, and their hot sauce might have had it beat. Chicken & More right here in Spokane does an excellent catfish, but honestly, Southern Kitchen does it better. Pair it with their mango lemonade—served in a jug the size of my head—and you got a meal going. And of course, everything is prepared from scratch.

Find Southern Kitchen on 1716 6th Ave in Tacoma.

As for our favorite Guy. Well, SNL might have said it best…

As evident by our very first post on this web site, we like to enjoy other towns than Seattle when we travel to the west side. And why not? If you go to Issaquah, for example, there is Issaquah Brew House, a spot acquired by Rogue about ten years ago, which thus has pretty much all the great brewery has to offer on tap.

That’s a good thing, of course.

Be it the always excellent Chocolate Stout (great on bottle, double great from tap) or one of their many special brews, you will find them here. And of course, there’s always the opportunity to pick up a growler or bottles. Or atire.

And for the sake of variety, the Brew House still serves its own beers. The Menage a Frog, for example is well worth checking out.

The point being, if you go traveling, even to the west side of the state, there’s a lot to experience outside of Seattle’s city limits. Issaquah Brew House, conveniently located in downtown Issaquah on 35 W Sunset, offers up great ales and decent food. Definitely worth a look if you love the Rogue. And who doesn’t?

(Take one number off the rating if you go for the food only.)

One of these days I’ll get around to taking a photography class in hopes to improve my Kodak moments. Until then here are some snapshots of food from Dubai, UAE.

We enjoy Philadelphia here at the SFB, and at a recent fact finding mission over there we were expertly guided to Vietnam Cafe by one of the locals.

There are many things to like about Vietnam. Their grilled meatballs, for example, are super flavorful. So are the “Vietnamese coffee” and “Vietnamese lemonade.” But, really, if you’re going to enjoy the restaurant properly, you can might as well just go for the “BBQ Platter,” which at $25 includes pretty much every dish ever cooked in the country of Vietnam. I kid you not! The thing is huge, and yes, includes the meatballs.

And in what can only be considered somewhat of a cruel joke, the menu states it can serve “up to 2 persons.” Seriously? The platter in question is about the size of the table.

Regardless, it is delicious. And so are the desserts—some sort of beans and dairy concoction—with recipes so secret they won’t let you remove them from the premise in takeaway boxes. Hardcore, although good as they were, really have nothing on the meatballs which they should probably be more protective of.

A rather amusing aside was one of the waiters; a jovial man who had lived for about a month in Spokane in the early 2000s. He didn’t, shall we say, love it, and insisted—and I seriously mean insisted—there would be feet of snow waiting for us when we returned. This was in mid-October. Thankfully he was wrong.

Vietnam Cafe is definitely worth a visit if you find yourself in the Philadelphia area. Make sure you get the meatballs, though, as they are amazing.

Web: http://www.eatatvietnam.com/vietnam_cafe.cfm

Address: 814 S 47th Street