Explore the National Park System extensively and not only are you likely to come across some incredible vistas, diverse natural resources, and rich history, but also some incredible meals in the lodge at day's end, or even at the start of your day.
Without question, you're also likely to sit down to a meal that didn't live up to your expectations. And that's not terribly surprising when you consider trying to feed hundreds of people a day with the challenges of having the necessary ingredients as well as the necessary staff.
That said, there really are some incredible meals served at places such as the Old Faithful Inn (Yellowstone), El Tovar (Grand Canyon), The Ahwahnee (Yosemite), and Big Meadows Lodge (Shenandoah), just to name four well-known lodges. Linda Ly (pronounced Lee) was so impressed by the meals she encountered on her travels through the parks that she put what she considered the best into The National Parks Cookbook | The Best Recipes From (and Inspired by) America's National Parks.
"I have always been a longtime fan of the national parks. Road trips have always been my preferred way to travel and explore the country, and there's just something about the national parks," Ly replied when asked during an interview what intrigued her about a parks cookbook. "The grandeur of them, the history, how these are such pristine, untouched wildernesses, and a lot of the different parks that you go to. I've just always been intrigued by them. As I started writing the book and diving into the history, I was intrigued by how long they've been around how they were formed, and the traditions that they've kept up."
When asked whether she's ever had a bad meal in the park system, Ly said she tries to give the chefs some leeway because of the challenges they're up against.
"The challenges of cooking in the park are pretty amazing," she said. "I remember when I was interviewing, and even reading about some of the restaurants that I have recipes for in the book, what it took to just get a meal on the table and credible, especially when you're thinking about these far-flung places. Like national parks in Alaska, where to them 'local food' is anything that's in the state, right? ... Just how to get the food down to the actual restaurant or lodge takes quite a bit, like if you were to go down to the Grand Canyon and to the Phantom Ranch, they have to haul all of their groceries in by pack mules. So there's quite a lot that goes into just like what you think is an ordinary bowl of stew."
Before this cookbook actually gets down to detailing specific recipes, Ly provides a section on kitchen essentials. Not only does she discuss the types and sizes of saucepans, pie pans, and even loaf pans she recommends you use, but she gets down into finer details concerning ingredients, such as never using unsalted butter, the egg sizes she prefers, type of flour that goes into her breads and popovers, and the olive oils she likes for cooking and "drizzling" over dishes.
Running more than 200 pages, this 9-and-a-quarter-inch by 9-and-a-quarter-inch hardcover book will lie open nicely on your counter without need of a paperweight to keep the pages open. While Ly arranges the recipes she chose by region as well as "The Top Ten National Parks"*, there's no need to keep your meal within one region. You can be adventurous by starting, for instance, with the Blue Cheese-stuffed Dates with Prosciutto from Death Valley National Park before a main course of Moose Drool-braised Bison Short Ribs from Yellowstone National Park with a side of Charred Cactus and Corn Salad from Carlsbad Caverns National Park followed by Mile-High Blackberry Ice Cream Pie from Shenandoah National Park for dessert.
To quench your thirst you might go with the Huckleberry margarita from Grand Teton National Park, the Red Current Caipirinha from Rocky Mountain National Park, or the Prickly Pear Aqua Fresca from Indiana Dunes National Park.
Now, not all the recipes in the book came from park restaurants. After all, there is no lodge dining room at Carlsbad or even Rocky Mountain. Nevertheless, Ly's own concoctions were inspired by the parks. One example is the landscape surrounding Carlsbad that "is filled with cactus. A lot of the trails that lead into the caverns are lined with cactus," she said in explaining her inspiration for the Charred Cactus and Corn Salad.
Ly, a cook who likes to write from her home in Bend, Oregon, said the book was somewhat costly to produce, at least from the perspective of testing the recipes in her own kitchen for her family.
"For a lot of these recipes, if I couldn't order [the ingredients] through my local grocery store, like specific types of seafood that I needed, then I ordered online," she explained. "So for things like bison short ribs, which you can't really find here, I ordered it direct from Montana or Wyoming. Then for lingonberries and some of these other more unusual berries, I actually ordered them frozen from Northwest suppliers. You can find pretty much almost anything online."
To hear more about Ly's recipes and their inspiration, and her cookbook, be sure to listen to the National Parks Traveler's podcast on April 16.
* Ly's top 10 parks: Great Smoky Mountains National Park, Grand Canyon National Park, Rocky Mountain National Park, Zion National Park, Yosemite National Park, Yellowstone National Park, Acadia National Park, Grand Teton National Park, Olympic National Park, Glacier National Park.
