JCC Tomo-spiced karkana ribenes - the foodies' thread

Pain Perdu - Queenie's Cafe & Bakery, Tulsa, OK



Queenie’s is in a slightly more upscale area of Tulsa than a lot of the restaurants I’ve been going to on this journey. By and large, this journey consists of little hole in the wall, mom and pop type places. Queenie’s is a bit different. It’s a small sidewalk café and it looks to cater to the hipster population of Tulsa (and, yes, Tulsa, OK, actually has a really large hipster contingent). It’s got the bright neon colored chairs and the servers have handlebar mustaches and the girls wear bow-ties. This may give you hives, I don’t know, but the food is undeniably superlative. Pain Perdu is a French dish; it literally means “wasted bread,” and so it’s basically French Toast just with some slight variations. In short, it’s bread, baked there on site, soaked in a mixture of milk, egg, butter, vanilla and various other things and then toasted right up. A sprinkling of powdered sugar and it’s ready to go. A small bottle of syrup and some butter is provided on the side; neither are strictly necessary – the dish is sweet and buttery already. Anyway, this was amazing. It was light and fluffy and melt in your mouth delicious. There are some other dishes to try at Queenie’s and I’ll definitely visit the place again. But even making a special trip in order to try something else, it’s going to be a huge temptation not to just get this dish again. French Toast or other like dishes are generally awful in restaurants. It generally comes out too soggy or too dried out; this one is absolutely perfect. Highly recommended. 4 stars.

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Tilapia Fillet - White River Fish Market & Restaurant, Tulsa, OK



So, I went back to White River to check out their broiled tilapia. I don’t even know really where to begin with this except to say that it’s the best fish I’ve ever had. Obviously, it’s fresh, coming from White River, but it’s just incredibly flavorful, tender and juicy. I took my first bite and my eyes literally rolled up in my head. It’s meals like this that remind me of why I think food can be an art form and keep me going on this journey. The meal comes with a couple of sides and I want to talk about one of them by itself here shortly, but it’s the fish that will blow your mind (and keep you coming back to White River). Like I said when I talked about the catfish, I’m a huge catfish fan, but this meal eclipsed even White River’s magnificent catfish fillets. Genuinely mindblowing. 4 stars.

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Hush Puppies - White River Fish Market & Restaurant, Tulsa, OK



Okay, so the hush puppies at White River come as sides with the entrees. You’ll typically get a couple with whatever meal you buy. But they’re worth talking about for a minute anyway by themselves. I’m kind of a hush puppy fanatic and these are easily the best I’ve had. They come to you hot; the breading is perfectly crunchy and the inside is moist and chewy. These also have a light dusting of chopped peppers sprinkled through which adds an absolutely perfect spicy bite to the meal. These things are really just a textural masterpiece; the crisp outer shell breaks open to reveal this delicious, corn bread center . . . I mean, they’re just wonderful. Highly recommended. 4 stars.

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Just to say that I'm in Paris for the next three weeks, so expect dissertations about croissants, cheese, wine and all the goodies this place has to offer

 

That sounds delicious! I'm about to roast a turkey tomorrow (I bought it for last Thanksgiving, plans changed and I didn't have the crowd I had expected and I'm just now getting the chance to thaw and cook the bird) and have been gathering all sorts of recipes to try with the leftovers. I might have to give this a go, thanks!

 

Brisket - Wilson's BBQ, Tulsa, OK



This one’s been around since the sixties and their slogan is “U Need No Teeth to Eat Our Beef.” Yeah, well, it’s Oklahoma. It’s also true. Frankly, you hardly need a tongue. Their brisket is best when it comes sliced. It’s one of the most tender meats I’ve ever encountered. I touched a piece of the brisket with my fork in order to get it into my mouth but when I speared it, the meat just collapsed. I ended up eating this with my fingers because it was so tender that, well, in a way, the sliced brisket kind of morphed into chopped brisket as I went. It’s incredibly lean meat, no fatty parts, just tender, juicy, flavorful beef. The barbecue sauce is delicious, a slightly sweet twang adding to the meat flavor perfectly. I think it’s safe to say that this is the best brisket I’ve ever had in my life. My mouth is literally watering now just writing about it. I’ve only been to Wilson’s once; right about now, I’m feeling like a second visit may be in order. Highly recommended. 4 stars.

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I was invited for dinner in this very Parisian brasserie called Le Zeyer in the 14th arrondissement of Paris, and it was everything you could hope for. It's a traditional high-end brasserie where the waiters wear black suits and white aprons and balance gigantic platters of seafood and choucroute garnie above their head to reach your table. It was established in 1913 and it's still exactly that, with typical Belle Epoque furniture and decoration that make you feel like you stepped back in time the moment you walk through the doors. We had the full works: poached eggs with Basquaise bell pepper salad for starters, onglet aux échalotes (hanger steak with shallots) as a main course and chocolate mousse for dessert, all this with a lovely wine from the Loire area. I thought I was going to blow up after all this This is a place where I couldn't afford to go on my own (I didn't see the bill; my educated guess would be around €50 per person, which is actually not so expensive by Paris standards) but the food was excellent and what you pay for isn't just an excellent, sophisticated meal: it's the classy decor and the stylish waiters and the little trip to pre-World War I France. If you're into that sort of time-travel and you enjoy luxury every once in a while, I recommend the place.

 

There was a time where I would indulge myself and have an expensive dinner once a month. Good times...

 

Yeah. Life "before the crisis"

 

I'm now craving sloooooow cooked melt-in-the-mouth brisket. You can keep all the sinister-looking side dishes, though.

 

Yeah, I don't know why BBQ joints even bother with the sides. Has anyone ever eaten the potato salad at a BBQ joint? Doubtful.

Perfect example actually:

Smoked Baked Potato - Wilson's BBQ, Tulsa, OK



I like a good baked potato now and then. It seems a simple enough thing to create, but the sheer volume of mediocre baked potatoes you run into out there in the great big world kind of belies that thought. This one’s a fine baked potato. It’s good. It comes out steaming perfectly. A dollop of butter, a dollop of sour cream and a dusting of grated cheese come as part of the package unless you specify otherwise and you’ve got to move fast if you want to do anything with those toppings because by the time the potato hits your plate, they’ve all gotten a solid start on melting completely into the potato. You can get the potato “loaded” which means they’ll add a meat of your choice; I didn’t opt for that. Anyway, it’s not legendary or anything, but it’s a good solid baked potato. I mean, whatever. 2 ½ stars.

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Jarritos - Cancun International Restaurant, Tulsa, OK



Back to Cancun for another beverage. Jarritos is a Mexican bottled soda. They aren’t terrifically hard to come by around here; you can find them in some specialty grocery stores here as well; Tulsa has a pretty large Hispanic population. I had some of this kind of soda when I went on a trip to Mexico back in high school and I’ve genuinely never forgotten the fantastic apple soda I had then. Cancun didn’t have apple in stock when I went back, so I went for orange flavored which is a classic. It comes out in a glass bottle and it is beyond chilled. It is genuinely bracingly cold. My first slug was almost painful actually, it was so cold. The flavor of Jarritos is intense and the carbonation really pops (no pun intended). On a hot day, there’s nothing like one of these straight out of the (incredibly intense) cooler at Cancun. No apple though. Oh well. Probably they’re all good. Orange certainly is. You may be able to find these being sold retail near you, if you’re lucky. If you can and you are, then buy some. And put them in the coldest cooler you’ve got. Recommended. 3 ½ stars.

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Double Meat Cheeseburger - Claud's Hamburgers, Tulsa, OK



Claud’s Hamburgers is a tiny little place. There are about twelve seats down a long counter. Just the other side of the counter is the grill. When I stepped in the door, I could have touched the person sitting at the counter in front of the door. Once I was seated, I could have reached across the counter and easily touched the restaurant owner himself where he stood with his back to me working the grill. When my burger was done, he didn’t even turn around; he just back-handed it to me from where he stood. But this is a great cheeseburger. It comes with onions grilled into the meat, a swipe of mustard and a couple of pickle slices. None of the other usual fixings, but that’s okay actually. When you order a double, the cook takes two hamburger patties and rolls them together before flattening them out again on the grill. Instead of two separate patties on your burger, you have one extra big one with a large section of meat sticking out of the bun on all sides. I like the minimal approach to this burger. Not a lot of overpowering toppings, not an overbearing greasiness, just some really flavorful, lean meat that’s allowed to, as it should, be the main attraction. This isn’t a monster like the One Pounder at Hank’s, nor does it have an instantly distinctive, somewhat divisive flavor like the Harden’s Hamburger. It’s just a perfect cheeseburger that I can’t imagine anyone not loving. Highly recommended. 4 stars.

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Ohhhh I could go for that right now.

 

Me too. I can't sleep and I feel like eating something really tasty and comforting right now

 

I could devour that in a few minutes. I'm hungry.

 

Westside Burger - Linda-Mar Hamburgers, Tulsa, OK



Linda-Mar is a tiny concrete box, painted bright yellow and red. There’s room for about ten people in the tiny dining area; any more than that and you’re just going to have to literally be touching other people. And there’s a TV in one corner of the room that plays Andy Griffith episodes from opening to closing. Their signature dish is the Westside; the restaurant is located way on the west side of Tulsa. The Westside is a double meat-double cheese burger on thick slabs of Texas Toast instead of the more traditional hamburger buns. It . . . isn’t very good really. It’s very greasy, the vegetables were soggy and the meat wasn’t flavorful at all. The Texas Toast is a welcome change-up from the usual hamburger formula; it was crisp and buttery. But on the whole, I kind of wouldn’t recommend this at all. It’s a shame, because the bustling, loud, packed environment is a kind of cultural experience by itself. But maybe it’s the experience that keeps people coming back; it certainly doesn’t seem to be the food. Recommended against. 1 ½ stars.

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That looks awful.

 

The prior burger looked more appetizing..

 

Agreed. The toast instead of a bun sounds like a good idea though. I find that hamburger buns are often too soft, almost mushy. I like my bread to be crisp.

 

Jarritos is everywhere around here, and I love it to death.

I promised some recipes and I'm totally slacking. I'll post some when I get home.

 

My favorite Jarritos flavor will always be Tamarind. Seriously, you gotta try it.

 

I will!

 

I will give that one a try as well. It's one I haven't tried. But seriously, you find flavored pops made here in America, like orange pop and lemon pop and such, but Jarritos just . . . the flavor is just so much more intense.

And my food project has finally progressed; we leave Tulsa behind finally (and what an ignominious way to go, with the Westside, the worst meal I've encountered thus far on my journey). Vinita's about an hour from Tulsa, up toward the Kansas border. We'll stay in Oklahoma for a bit, but we'll be leaving the state shortly.

Chicken & Dressing - Clanton's Cafe, Vinita, OK



Route 66 runs right through Vinita and one of the most famous attractions there is Clanton’s Café. On my first visit there, I noted that the couple at the table next to mine had a Route 66 tour booklet and were talking about their next stop. I asked where they were from and they cheerfully answered that they were from England and that they were in the US specifically to do a Route 66 vacation. I knew Clanton’s was a restaurant known by foodies all over the US; I had no idea the news had spread to other countries.

But on to the Chicken & Dressing. The Chicken comes shredded, a top a slice of bread and topped with brown gravy. I’ve never been a fan of dressing (it’s one of the many reasons I loathe the traditional Thanksgiving dinner) and the dressing, which comes on the side, didn’t change my mind, but the chicken was some of the best chicken I’ve ever had, no lie. This type of chicken is a dish much revered in the southern United States and I’ve had it a few times in my life; this was easily the best. The menu has a note next to the Chicken & Dressing that confirms I’m not alone in that assessment; Ronnie Dunn, of country music duo Brooks & Dunn, has said publically that Clanton’s Chicken & Dressing is the “best in the world.” I’m not a Brooks & Dunn fan, really; but ol’ Ronnie got that one dead right. Highly recommended. 4 stars.

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Next time, I'll talk about the meal that Clanton's is probably the MOST famous for. Interestingly enough, it's not very good, not nearly as good as this one.