Life in the Feast Lane : Pigging out along Highway 99 means slicing through the state’s many cultures and cuisines

When I plan a trip up north to Sacramento or the Bay Area, I try to allow an extra day for travel. That way I can abandon the gray infinity of Interstate 5 in favor of the more leisurely drive up my favorite highway: California 99.

But my real reason for choosing 99 over I-5 is connected with my interest in food, for the historic road links a string of ethnic groups, each steeped in the flavors of its country of origin. With a little advance preparation and a few extra hours, the trip along the four-lane highway turns into a wonderful eating experience.

By the time my husband and I reached our final destination in Lodi, our gastronomic adventure included an authentic Basque lunch, a Swedish smorgasbord, a superb grilled lamb kebab sandwich, a towering ice cream sundae, spicy Portuguese-style linguica sausage and a taste of fragrant olive oils topped off with French country-style sausages and pates.

Thus it was that on a hazy morning last January we left the interstate behind and headed off on California 99 north toward Bakersfield. To the right and left of us, fields of cotton extended as far as the eye could see, interrupted here and there by emerald fields of alfalfa. Dozens of oil pumps bobbed up and down hypnotically, permanent reminders of Bakersfield’s economic origins in the discovery of oil. On several occasions, however, strategically placed signs facing the freeway announced: “Farm plus water equals jobs” or, “1 in 10 jobs in the state are derived from agriculture”--facts urban dwellers tend to forget.

In addition to petroleum and agriculture, the Bakersfield area is also a leader in California’s sheep industry. This is thanks to the first Basque sheepherders who saw in the rolling hills stretching toward the snow-covered Sierras a New World version of their native Pyrenees. To this day, Basques of French and Spanish extraction make up a thriving community that perpetuates its culinary traditions by operating several family-run restaurants. Led by the recommendation of a local expert, we made our way to the somewhat seedy industrial area of town for an authentic Basque lunch at the Wool Growers Restaurant. The small neon sign bearing a sheep hanging over the front door was the only way to distinguish the restaurant from its drab surroundings.

Inside, however, an entirely different scene unfolded. When we arrived at about 11:30 a.m., hardly a space was left in the restaurant’s front section. We were invited to sit facing each other on either side of narrow tables set end-to-end across the room. From our central vantage point, we could take in the crowded booths and the quaint flowered wallpaper, as well as the front door that opened and closed incessantly on groups of patrons, many of whom greeted the staff by name. By noon, it was standing room only at the Wool Grower’s impressive bar, and the huge banquet hall at the back was quickly filling up.

Our waitress, Jovita, immediately presented us with a basket of freshly baked bread and a steaming bowl of soup, all served family-style. When we asked if it was homemade, she assured us, in the softest of Castillan accents, that everything served was made in the restaurant. One spoonful of the hearty vegetable soup was enough to win us over. She then placed before us a bowl of Basque-style beans with a side of picante fresh salsa.

By the time the main course arrived we had turned into fans of Basque cuisine. While I savored two succulent, inch-thick lamb chops ($9) slathered in fresh garlic and some of the tastiest French fries this side of the Atlantic, my husband relished every bite of his red wine-flavored oxtail stew ($6.50). A bowl of crisp iceberg lettuce tossed in vinaigrette rounded off the meal.

What better way to follow a Basque luncheon than with a visit to a Basque bakery? That was our plan as we dropped by the Pyrenees French Bakery--open 50 years and still going strong. The small storefront, fragrant with the scent of baking bread, represents merely a fraction of the extensive on-site operation that supplies most area grocers and restaurants with plump loaves of French sourdough ($1.89).

Munching on the crusty heel of a warm baguette, we looked in on the Noriega Hotel, a local landmark since 1893. The long, dark bar at the front of the family-run restaurant seemed lifted straight out of Basque country, complete with small groups of Spanish-speaking men in black berets whiling away the time drinking picon, a local punch made of brandy, grenadine and a few secret ingredients. The hotel also boasts its own private jai alai court. In the early afternoon, the tables in its refectory-like dining room were being covered with red and white checkered tablecloths in preparation for the evening meal. At Noriega’s, meals are served family-style at a single seating at noon ($8) and again at 7 p.m. ($15). Since on this occasion our schedule precluded another Basque feast, we hit the road in search of dessert.

Our destination was Superior Dairy Products in Hanford, a little more than an hour to the north. San Joaquin’s South Valley has long been known as California’s dairy land and has overtaken Wisconsin as the nation’s leader in the number of dairy cattle. Superior Dairy Products has been making bountiful use of local milk and cream products since 1929. Located across from Hanford’s lovely renovated Courthouse Square, the landmark ice cream parlor/diner is still the gathering spot of choice for local ice cream lovers. On the afternoon we dropped by, a handful of retirees seated at the counter were chatting over mugs of steaming coffee, while the pink plastic booths provided a nostalgic haven for those savoring the dairy’s creamy delights. We opted for a scoop of pecan crisp ($1.60) and the S.O.S. (Superior Oversize Sundae, $6.80)--a mini-Mt. Everest fashioned from seven scoops of vanilla ice cream and sherbet, covered in an avalanche of fruit, nuts and whipped cream.

In addition to dairy farmers--many of them Dutch--Hanford once also sheltered our country’s largest settlement of Chinese immigrants, who were brought in from San Francisco to work on railroads around the state. The renovated, half-block-long China Alley (a former Chinese neighborhood) remains a historic legacy to those people, as does the 19th-Century Taoist temple, which is on the National Register of Historic Places. Occupying most of what is left of China Alley, the famous Imperial Dynasty is an elegant restaurant that is celebrated for its fine continental cuisine.

From Hanford, we needed only to drive a little farther up 99 to sample the flavors of Sweden. Swedish immigrants from Michigan settled in the quaint town of Kingsburg in the early 1880s after the railroad came through, and the town commemorates the event with a Swedish Festival each May. (The town also celebrates its heritage with the Santa Lucia Day, this year Dec. 10.) Draper Street, the town’s main artery, is lined with quaint renovated shops, including Juen Olsson Hess’ Svensk Butik. The Olsson family is counted among the city’s pioneers, and Hess presides in full Swedish regalia over a store filled floor to ceiling with Swedish souvenirs and foods. During the annual May festival, Hess and compatriots serve up steaming bowls of traditional yellow pea soup and Swedish pancakes, and host a smorgasbord (a traditional Swedish buffet) in the park next to the town’s Coffee Pot water tower.

When they are not personally introducing visitors to the intricacies of Swedish cuisine, the residents of Kingsburg patronize the Swedish Mill Restaurant and Gift Shop (look for the windmill at the Conejo off-ramp). Every day at lunch and dinner the restaurant unfolds a smorgasbord with salads, roasted meats and special dishes, such as meatloaf baked in a golden pie crust, and thin pancakes smothered in whipped cream and berries (lunch $6.95 and dinner $8.85 per person).

On the outskirts of Kingsburg, acres of vines surrounding the town are visual proof of the importance of the grape to the local economy. One place to sample the dried end product is at the Sun-Maid Growers Store. The cheery establishment stands among warehouses and hangars that make up the Sun-Maid compound. This is one of the best places along 99 to purchase raisins, prunes, almonds and walnuts in bulk or pre-packaged. Whenever I drop in, I like to sample chocolate-covered raisins or newly developed (and delicious) lemon- or orange-flavored prunes, while pondering the purchase of an apron, a license plate or a thermometer, all bearing the familiar Sun-Maid logo of the young girl in her bonnet.

Twenty minutes up the road, the town of Fresno is home to a large population of Armenians. Like their Basque neighbors to the south, they are especially conscious of their culinary heritage and offer it for all to sample in a number of eating places.

At George’s Shish Kebob Restaurant in the Galleria Shopping Center, behind the Fresno Convention Center, Armenian, American and Middle Eastern foods are daily features on the menu. At lunchtime this busy Armenian bistro is packed with county workers and businessmen sinking their teeth into enormous sandwiches bulging with grilled meat or roast chicken.

Owner George Koroyan often mans the stove, and those who sit at the counter facing the open kitchen can engage him in conversation. On my most recent visit, I feasted on what was possibly one of the best sandwiches I have ever eaten: meltingly tender chunks of marinated and grilled lamb stuffed inside a freshly baked pita as airy as a cloud ($6.50). Enough was left of the sandwich, the accompanying rice pilaf and the green salad to make lunch the next day. My husband, similarly, made two meals out of another of George’s specialties, an oversized lamb shank, cooked to such moist tenderness that it made use of a knife quite unnecessary ($7.75.)

Along with ethnic foods, stone fruits and nuts are part of Fresno County’s bounty. If I happen to travel up 99 in early spring, I like to follow the “Fresno Blossom Trail” map through the flowering almond trees on the outskirts of Fresno. (The map is distributed by the Fresno Visitors’ Bureau.) That way I can view at close range acres of orchards awash in a sea of fluttering pink and white petals. In season, there is also ripe fruit--peaches, plums, apples--available in abundance at any number of fruit stands, or at stores such as the pretty Valley Pistachio, a stone’s throw off 99 in Madera. It carries many of the locally grown nuts, as well as jellies and preserves.

A sign for one of those country farm stands recently lured us off the freeway in Merced, right into the parking lot of the Merced County Agricultural Museum, a few miles east of Highway 99 on California 140. The small museum, a reconverted warehouse, is the brainchild of private collector Charlie Parish who has gathered an eclectic collection of old farm machinery and hog oilers, among many other items.

Continuing northward, it would be easy to blink past the hamlet of Livingston were it not for the stop light that halts traffic at the corner of Highway 99 and Livingston Cressey Road. The busy corner holds the Yamato Colony Farmers’ Market, a stand renowned throughout the valley for its local produce, and behind it, the Foster Farms Livingston Cafe, which is owned by Foster Farms, one of the state’s largest poultry producers. If I feel like a snack in Livingston, I stop at the cafe to purchase a box of tasty chicken nuggets, (5 for $2.19, 10 for $3.89) to dunk in the restaurant’s honey mustard or barbecue sauce.

When time permits, in Turlock I stop by Latif’s, the town’s landmark coffee shop, for a linguica sausage sandwich and a mound of golden fries ($4.95). A large population of Portuguese immigrants from the Azores have long had a presence in Turlock, leaving their culinary imprint on the local scene. Latif’s has been part of the Turlock landscape since 1947, although it has been under the ownership of Shirley and Robert Stevens for the past 20 years. The restaurant enjoys such repute that George Bush made a campaign stop here in 1988--a fact commemorated on the back of a stool at the horseshoe-shaped counter.

Turlock melts into the suburbs of Modesto, its immediate neighbor to the north. To this area the Italians brought with them a tradition for making fine wines and olive oil. For me, the locally produced product from Sciabica Olive Oil holds special appeal. Sciabica’s oil has been produced in Modesto since 1936. The Sciabicas grow their own olives organically in their orchard near Sacramento and their Marsala Olive Fruit oil has won a number of culinary awards. Five miles north of downtown Modesto, a newly expanded warehouse and gift store are open to the public during business hours.

In Oakdale, a few miles outside town, fall apple season provides ample excuse to drop by the Bloomingcamp Ranch nestled among rolling acres of apple trees. Joy Bloomingcamp and her husband, Bill, grow more than two dozen varieties and sell them from their apple-filled gift shop. Their in-store bakery specializes in huge apple dumplings, and what may well be the tallest apple pies in the state.

A French-owned operation, the Country Sausage Kitchen in Lodi is a mandatory stop on my Highway 99 gourmet itinerary. The small manufacturing plant is the domain of sausage-maker Gus Foucher and his family who emigrated from France to Canada before settling in Lodi. Gus, his wife, Berthe, and several of their eight children all help in the running of the company. The Fouchers produce a line of sausages, pates and other exquisite deli items such as linguica, a delicious and lean chicken apple sausage, tasty Cajun andouille and a personal favorite, curly links of merguez, a cumin-scented sausage from North Africa.

The Country Sausage Kitchen and all its counterparts along the road epitomize the unique food purveyors scattered along Highway 99--all artisans who to me represent the true “soul food” of California.

GUIDEBOOK

Highway 99 Food

Call restaurants for hours and reservations.

Bloomingcamp Ranch, 10528 Highway 120, Oakdale. Open during apple season; tel. (209) 847-1412.

Country Sausage Kitchen, Gus Foucher and Sons, 15153 N. Jacktone Road, Lodi; tel. (209) 334-1715.

Foster Farms Livingston Cafe, (behind Yamato Colony) corner of Highway 99 and Cressey Road, Livingston; tel. (209) 934-7950.

George’s Kebob Restaurant, 2405 Capitol St., Fresno; (209) 264-9433.

Imperial Dynasty, China Alley No. 2, Hanford; tel. (209) 582-0196.

Latif’s Family Dining, 111 N. Golden State Blvd., Turlock; Hours: Open 6 a.m. to 10 p.m. daily, 365 days a year; tel. (209) 634-5351.

Merced County Agricultural Museum, 4498 East Highway 140, Merced; admission $2.50; tel. (209) 383-1912.

Noriega Hotel, 525 Sumner St., Bakersfield; tel. (805) 322-8419.

Pyrenees French Bakery, 717 East 21st St., Bakersfield; tel. (805) 322-7159.

Sciabica’s Olive Oil, 700 Kiernan Ave., Unit 8, Modesto; mail order tel. (800) 551-9612. Sun-Maid Growers’ Store, 13525 Bethel Ave., Kingsburg; mail-order tel. (800) 246-4849 or (209) 896-8000.

Superior Dairy Products Co., 325 N. Douty, Hanford; tel. (209) 582-0481.

Swedish Mill Restaurant and Gift Shop, 475 Sierra St., Kingsburg; tel. (209) 897-7107.

Valley Pistachio, 20865 Avenue 20, Madera; mail order; tel. (209) 674-0020.

Wool Growers Restaurant and Cocktail Lounge, French Basque lunch and dinners, 620 E. 19th St., Bakersfield; tel. (805) 327-9584.