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Table scraps

Best of bites

The Best of Whistler is just around the corner with locals voting their favourite bands, retailers, make-out spots and restaurants.

I’d like to narrow the latter category down to a more bite size vote with my own Best of Whistler eats around town starting with lunch stops — listed in no particular order.

 

Best place for repeat visits on a budget

I think I can take credit for eating the most vegetarian taco salads from Dups, tucked behind Marketplace. Owners Taylor Wilson and Dan Mullen start grabbing for that crispy tortilla shell even before I’ve opened my mouth to order.

I come here time and time again because food is fresh (you can actually watch staff spoon out fresh avocados for the guacamole), tasty (beans and meats alike are seasoned in house) and healthy (although I don’t think I’ve ever asked them to hold the sour cream). I can order and have dinner on the fly within in minutes, with bills never running more than $10.

Most of the people pulling up a stool to the casual eat-and-go hangout are on a first name basis with the owners because locals just keep coming back again and again — some say, it’s just Taylor’s damn good looks and Dan’s razor sharp wit.

It’s also the only place in town that can legally roll a phatty and take pictures of customers with it and post it on the Phatty Burrito Wall of Fame.

This little Mexican gem is even going to be highlighted in the National Post as one of the best places to eat in Whistler. But the real seal of approval comes from my four-legged friend Teddy — he prefers not to be classified as a canine.

On nights that I am really lazy, Teddy and I will share a chicken taco salad. He eats the rotisserie-roasted chicken. I try to make my way through the salad and Teddy finishes what’s left over. It’s the only vegetables he’s ever eaten and the beans are a great source of protein for both of us.

So six paws up from the two of us.

 

Best Chocolate Chip Cookie

Chocolate chip cookies are like crack to me. They are the perfect fuel to get me through a never-ending pile of writing, and the perfect reward for things like meeting a deadline, cleaning your house or walking the dog and breathing. They instigate memories of a blue furry animal with googly eyes singing “C is for cookie which is good enough for me” and teatime with ginger snaps dipped in tradition.

I’ve scoured Whistler Village in search of the perfect chocolate chip cookie and found it with so much relish that every time my sister comes to visit me from Vancouver Island we visit our favourite cookie go to: Ingrid’s Village Café.

It’s easy to miss them though. There is a lot to distract: the vegetarian burgers (also another must-have on sister visits), toasted turkey sandwiches and grab-on-the-fly samosas.

You’ve got to look hard to notice the large chocolate chip cookies wrapped individually and shelved in a large plastic case to the right of the cash register.

Cookies are firm on the outside, chewy on the inside and scattered with large chunks of dark chocolate.

Don’t make the mistake of asking if they are homemade, like I did. However, my sister-visit ritual withstood the broken fantasy of someone’s face splattered with flour bending over a large mixing bowl. Baked in house, you can almost envision it — and if not, order Whistler’s best veggie burger instead. You won’t be disappointed.

 

Best Egg Sandwich

It was either a heads or tails guess at trying to figure out what I’d find in my brown paper lunch bag packed by dad during my elementary and high school years.

It was either egg or tuna sandwiches.

So I have at least spent a cumulative six years of my life, at five days a week, eating egg sandwiches — sometimes with green onion, other times with diced sweet pickles.

And while I wasn’t able to look at, let alone eat, a tuna sandwich for many years afterwards (unless it was made with relish by my Papa Wright), egg salad sandwiches have continued to make their way onto my work desk.

And they are always from The Cracked Pepper Kitchen Café in Function Junction.

I know, how can anyone get excited about egg sandwiches: they are plain, common and really not rocket science.

Cracked Pepper manages to rise above the soggy Joe with the perfect combination of salt, pepper and mayonnaise with lettuce on rye-swirled bread. Nothing fancy here: no celery ornamentation, no onion additions. But if you are really smart, you’ll realize the secret from turning this lunch pickup into something truly fabulous with the side order of ripple chips that accompany all of their sandwich orders.

For as long as I can remember, my mom always put potato chips in our sandwiches on boating trips; the crunch and salt turning the usual sandwich suspect into a special treat.

So go on and try it. Open the lid and throw in some chips on your next trip to Cracked Pepper, whether it is in one of their grilled Italian paninis (cool combos with goat cheese, fresh basil and tomato) or more traditional with egg and tuna salad. I’ve even been known on occasion to buy the tuna — usually when all of the egg sandwiches are gone after the lunch rush.