Page 54 - Motorcycle Trader (February 2020)

LIFE ON THE ROAD

There are approximately
three different riding/
dining categories.
There’s the ‘specific
location’ ride, where
you and your posse go
specifically to a café you
regularly frequent, and pretty-
much nothing on the menu is
a surprise. The food there is obviously good or you
wouldn’t be sitting there – you are discerning gentlefolk
after all. No surprises to be had here, so let’s move along.
The next category is the ‘unexpected mid-ride
hunger’. You’re out and about, ranging across a wider
territory, but still one with which you’re fairly familiar.
You haven’t specifically stepped out with food in mind
but now that you’re out there and hunger strikes. How
do you respond?
This is a situation replete with unexpected surprises,
some good, some bad. Cafes you’ve ridden past without a
second thought are suddenly calling your name.

ARE THEY ANY GOOD?

In any sort of moderately populated area, the e
way of telling the relative shortcomings of an
of eatery is by the number of customers you
fight your way through to make an order. I
in several smaller towns that only have t
cafes and you always find one is standi
while the other couple look slightly sa
more staff than customers. There’s u
nobody’s eating there. So, while fol
might make you a sheep, you’ll al
well-fed sheep.
The last category is the ‘far fro
You’re on a trip for holidays/business a
travelling interstate. If you’re anything like
be on the lesser-used byways rather than droni
down the bigger corridors which means the pickings,
foodwise, can be of extremely variable quality.
You can quite easily find yourself in a town with
only one café. In that case, the café in question will
often be attached to one end of a roadhouse and could
be either a gastronomic dream or a gastroenteritis
nightmare. A good indicator of quality is the presence
of a large semi-trailer parking area. If the roadhouse
has one of these, and it looks like it’s fairly well-
frequented, the food is probably of reasonably good
quality. Truckies are known for being fairly handy
with a knife and fork and any place that attracts their
time of pulling over in numbers can’t be too bad. If
there’s more than one café to choose from then the
rules of engagement, as listed in the ‘unexpected mid-
ride hunger’ category apply.

54 MOTORCYCLE TRADER