Bonsai Asian Bistro (Coeur d'Alene ID)

 The Bonsai Asian Bistro is located in Coeur d'Alene, ID.  I have blogged them before, but when out with friends enjoying a beautiful day by the lake, it seemed like a good thing to revisit them when we got hungry for lunch.  This time, instead of going to the Bonsai at nighttime, it was midday!

This place is located at 115 S. 2nd St, near the waterfront downtown area.    It's easy to walk to from the beach and boardwalk area.   Of course, the real draw to return, for me personally, was to add to my day the experience of the lovely little stream that runs through the lower level of the restaurant.  I love that feature!  Besides that, Asian food just sounded like fun to eat with friends.

Outside seating is a possibility too... when the weasther is like it was on this day, and there is a lovely little brooke that makes its way past your tables when you do, but if you eat inside.... upstairs you have a great view of the water... and downstairs....

                                  you get to
                              dine with turtles
                                   and fish!





 Last time, as well as this time, I really enjoyed the living turtles and the fish that swim in the water and bask on the rocks while you eat.

They had an extensive menu... making it hard to select, so we went with the three dish special, and so did our friends.

 Among our selections were the Carmelized Garlic Noodles, General Tso's Chicken, Tempura Vegetables, Kung Pao Chiclen, and Mongolian Beef and Carmelized Garlic Noodles with Prawns... with rice, both sticky rice and brown rice.

 and just when you thought that dinner was over... you can pick whether or not to have dessert!
We decided on the Mt. Fugi Molten Madness and the Bonsai Cheesecake Brulee.

Mt. Fuji exploding with chocolaty flavor.

Cheesecake Brulee

It was great fun to revisit Bonsai again.
Read the first TASTY TREK visit here.

G.W. Hunters Steakhouse (Post Falls, ID)

Hunters is located at 615 N. Spokane St. in Post Falls.  It's a steakhouse, which one might think means it's the place to go for dinner after 4:00, but we went there for breakfast and it was great.

As the name suggests, it is the kind of place hunters and gatherers would enjoy, because they specialize in steak, and because the place is decorated with taxidermed American wildlife...making it a great place to see how big some animals are... like bears and wolves and beavers.


Their specialty is at Hunters is meat, like elk and buffalo and you will find that on the menu as well as beef, pork and chicken, as well as fish.   You might say that it's a rather wild kind of place!

Shakey Jake displays the cinnamon roll.

I do however think another specialty they have is cinnamon rolls, as demonstrated here by "Shaky Jake."

Breakfast for us, was sausage with pancakes, french toast with bacon, and eggs, and coffee.

Paul Bunyan (Coeur d'Alene,Is)

The sign for this place is as big as....well, need I say, Paul Bunyan.  On second thought, it is actually bigger than the legend says he was.  All I know is that this is one big sign!  You cannot miss Paul Bunyan's Pak Out when driving along Northwest Blvd in Coeur d' Alene.

Paul Bunyan, as you folklore buffs may know, was a very large lumberjack who traveled with his Blue Ox named Babe.  There are some photos of lumberjacks around the restaurant inside.  Evidently, the owners in the past have had connection to the logging industry, and those loggers work so hard, they probably needed a great little sandwich shop to eat at. back in the 1950's when this place got it's start.

 It's a small spot, looks and feels like it's been here a while, but I was truly surprised at how busy the place was.  I watched with amazement as car after car drove up to the "Pak Out" window and the little place filled up inside too.

 It's your typical burgers and fries kinda place....

We had burgers.  Geo had the Paul Bunyan Burger... on the right.... and I had the "Deluxe."
We also had onion rings and a huckleberry shake.



The burgers were.... burgers, but the shake was amazings as were the onion rings.

In typical local NW fashion, they had all the necessary dipping sauces  to offer too.




















So this is Paul Bunyan's. Coeur d'Alene.  However, I saw there is another Paul Bunyan burget place on my way to Sandpoint.  That Paul. He gets around.

Ben's Yogurt and Deli

Today, it was all about the deli.... I mean there I was hungry for lunch and there was Ben's, just waiting for hungry ol me.  So this time, instead of driving past, I went in.

 They have a great selection.  One customer who was eating saw that it was my first time here and told me he goes there often... loves the food, and that is really fresh.  He was right.  It is good.
I had a veggie wrap....with cheese and avocado.. and all the veggie fix-ins... "To Go."

Ben's is great.  It's clean, friendly fast and fun.... (I happen to think of frozen yo cream yogurt with toppings as "fun.")

I had driven past many a time in my travels around town and I had heard rumor too that this was a great little spot.  I just had to try it for lunch, and as advertised, it was very good!  But the best to me, is the frozen yogurt.... just ask Geo   Yo Cream frozen yogurt is become a once a week adventure for us.


Yo Cream is 25 calories per ounce, made with real fruit ingredients, uses no rBST and contains live cultures.... so it is good food!

Ben only has six flavors (as compared to some yogurt shops that have maybe twelve or ten, but he has toppings galore! The fresh fruit stand even offered blackberries that day, yum!  And I noted too that he has good sanitation practices.  He has signs requesting for parents to assist younger children and he keeps a hand sanitizing station right next to the self serve machines.  I liked that part a lot.

I found Ben's to be a friendly neighborhood mom-and-pop type of food stop with the added plus of offering self-serve frozen yogurt.