Traveling for long drive events and golf trips means we’re eating out far more than we’d like, and that’s usually where clean eating gets hardest to control. You can’t check what oil a restaurant kitchen is using, and most places default to whatever’s cheapest — which almost always means seed oils. So on the road, our rule is simple: find the spot doing things properly, and build a plate around ingredients that are hard to mess up.
This stop delivered exactly that. Soft-boiled eggs finished with chili flakes, dill, and a good drizzle of oil, paired with a thick slice of toast from a local bakery making everything in-house. Next to it, a stacked sandwich loaded with meat, melted cheese, pickles, and a side of chips — the kind of order that looks indulgent but is really just simple, whole ingredients stacked high.
The eggs are the real win here. Soft-boiled with a jammy yolk is about as close to a guaranteed clean option as you’ll find on any menu — there’s really no way to hide a bad oil in a boiled egg. Add real bread and it’s a full, satisfying plate without a single ingredient we have to second-guess. When we travel, we specifically look for bakeries and cafés that bake their own bread on-site rather than sourcing something shipped in and preservative-heavy — it’s usually easy to tell from the crust and crumb alone.
The Lineup
- Soft-boiled eggs — finished with chili flakes, dill, and good oil
- House-made bread, toasted, from a local bakery
- A loaded sandwich — real meat, real cheese, pickles, and chips on the side
- The rule of thumb: when the menu doesn’t tell you the oil, order something too simple to fake
Traveling for competition means we can’t control every kitchen we walk into, but we can control what we choose off the menu. A little bit of research on the local bakery scene goes a long way — and it usually leads to the best meal of the trip anyway.