Friday, January 13, 2012

Ooo-gah Ooo-gah, Oga's!!




Welcome to the first of three triskaidekaphobia months this year, triple the amount of last year..and maybe our last!


Blowin’ the horn:
As a result of my food mania, I get to meet and be around a fair number of people locally who actually do something with food other than consume and write about it.  I hear a lot of them talk about places they go after work, or just frequent to eat and have a good time.  Time and time again I hear that they have been to Oga’s over in Leonardtown, serving Chinese and Japanese Cuisine.  It has been on my “have to go there sometime” list for quite a while.

Serendipitously this week, I had the opportunity to help a friend with an auto related errand in Leonardtown around lunch time, and he suggested we go to Oga’s while the car was being taken care of.  Great idea!  Locals will know it is occupies an unassuming storefront in Leonardtown, sort of between the post office and the “gas place”.  So after a bit of trouble figuring where to park (in back it turns out) we went in.  The dining space is separated from the entrance by the cash register stand and a little partition which affords some insulation from the street.  Once inside there are tables along each wall, and some in the middle, and a small bar in back, which in this case provides sushi, not liquids.  The walls are done in beige with some dark wood lattice work overlaid, which somehow makes it kind of pleasant.  There are no windows in the dining space, which given what you would see is fine.

Lunch service consists of a buffet, which is never my first choice for food service (let me give you money so I can get my own food), but this type of food which is mostly small bits of this and that does soften that position some.  It provides a good way to sample a lot of different things.  So we told the nice young man at the station “two for lunch” and were given a table along one of the walls (toward the gas place).  The buffet itself is along the other wall, and is not huge, a typical steam table affair, with soups, dumplings, desserts, and maybe (from memory) something like twenty small dishes of food.  Everything you might suspect is there: fried rice, general Tso’s chicken, garlic shrimp, chicken (or beef) with broccoli, teriyaki’s, all the standard stuff.  There also were a few Sushi choices.

As fate would have it, we arrived just after a pickup full of workers of some kind (they all had on those day glow vests you see everywhere these days).  They were on their lunch break apparently, and so were doing “take out”, all with Styrofoam clamshells.  Hard work builds hearty appetites, so between them they pretty much cleaned out the buffet bar with the exception of a few bits and pieces here and there.

 And here is where the first of many positives evidenced themselves.  Almost immediately, the pans were replenished a few at a time so that we had a pretty good selection (which improved in a short amount of time) to choose from.  As soon as we were seated, we were offered drinks (water and hot tea for us). When our first plates were finished they were removed, which was good because we required a second trip to the buffet. 

I won’t trouble you with trying to recount all the things I tried, but I will relate the first thing I tasted was the fried rice (which by the way, was fluffy and fresh, not gummy at all) and it was very good (Hey! This is good!) which is saying something for fried rice..  the little bits of meat were tender, not dried out and had flavor.   That applied to everything else I had.  It was all good, fresh (maybe because of the worker folk), and had distinct taste.

On the way out, I picked up their takeout (and I guess regular menu) folder.  It amounts to three and a half (one half for title, address etc.) pages of food choices.  I counted 25 main categories, with an astonishing 221 menu items (I have the spread sheet to prove it)..  Appetizers, soups, fried rice, poultry, beef, pork, special combos, chef specials, sushi (40 some odd choices).  Amazing.  How can they do this?   Well, I suspect the answer is that there are few main ingredients but the preparation is hugely varied.  Anyway, it would be bewildering to walk in cold for the first time..

Now I can see why the food professionals like to go there.  Service is prompt and friendly (no names), food (yes, one visit) very good, and reasonably priced.  Did I mention that the lunch buffet is $6.95?  Now that I have the menu as a guide, I think MFO and will go for evening meal one of these days.  I might even venture to a sushi… but probably Nigiri, can’t hack the Maki yet.  Recommended.   I don’t think other than tasteful casual you would need to worry about


DFD (but leave the ball caps in the car).

Short Sports Extra:

This weekend sees the quarterfinals (?) of the Pro playoffs.  Go Pack, 49’rs, Pats, and Ravens.  Not a big "underdog" fan.   And please people, remember that the name of the professional football team in Denver is the Broncos, not the “Tebows” as seem to be all the rage now.  I am so sick of that.  And again, the reason is not Tim (he seems to be a nice lad), it’s just the darn media that won’t let up.   I don't think i could stand the mania being hyped up by keeping them i the equation.

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