Samoa Cook House - California

by Gail
(Auckland - New Zealand)

We were travelling around the US with our children then 5 and 7 years old. Meals were often fast food.....you couldn’t get McDonald’s in Samoa where we had lived, or Fiji where we were living..... so it was a popular favourite with the children. We parents, were always looking for a change.


Intrigued by a settlement called "Samoa"....we decided we just had to see this other Samoa which not only sounded interesting being an historic forestry logging community....but the fact we could have a meal in the Samoa Cook House that was just as the loggers enjoyed when the forestry was a working community in the 1800’s.
We had no idea what to expect. I remember driving through plantations of pine forest....the old machinery the kids enjoyed exploring, and the Cook House..... a long, low wooden building. Inside the long tables were covered in red checked tablecloths, with wooden chairs on either side. The set menu sounded scrumptious.


The Cook House Menu


Entree then soup served in a thermos jug with huge chunks of freshly baked bread. Salad came piled high, vegetables, potato....the food was unlimited. You could eat as much as you liked. Coffee or tea and dessert....I can’t remember what....pie of some sort... was squeezed in!

It was a homely, fresh and tasty meal...and soooo filling! As we ate it was easy to slip into the era of the original Cook House and imagine the loggers eating heartily. The waitresses were attentive and kept the food coming....until we said no more! Just as they did for the loggers.....read the Cook House history below.

Afterwards we explored the Samoa Cook House Museum and enjoyed looking at the old artifacts and reading the history of Samoa.

This meal was many years ago.....but the Cook House is still just as it was, judging by the information on the internet. Having survived in it’s original form since the 1800’s there is no reason it would have changed greatly....so I suggest it here as one meal I have NEVER forgotten. Which considering the number of meals eaten in any number of countries means...it made a big impression! It wasn’t luxurious...but had a wonderful ambiance and was a novel eating experience.

If you are travelling near Eureka, California....then take a short detour to Humbolt Bay and have a meal at the Samoa Cook House.