All sorts of stuff

Travel wrap up section

Okay, we can finally let OK sleep..  Oh, wait.  Not quite.  As I’ve mentioned before one of the pluses of the blog is that sometimes people actually respond and give me feedback.  Such as the lady whose parents grew up in Henryetta.  As fate would have it, the posting of Cattlemen’s Café engendered another (what is it about Oklahoma?).  A long time follower, who actually dates back to the days when the “bottom feeder” was actually at the bottom of the F-18 status report wrote me a little note.  He was in OKC and on the advice of a friend went and ate at Cattlemen’s.  His experience was much different than ours.  His steak was very good, more like the “goal” picture in the blog.   As surprised as I was, I know he has a pretty good palate, so will take it as reported.  He said if he was out that way again, he’d revisit.  Currently we have nothing on the books that will take us to OK again… I was a little relieved that he had a good experience, which might restore a little faith in TripAdvisor. 

Local Movement Section.

Arrivings

Our little San Souci area not far from us continues to be in a state of flux.  After the departure of Bollywood and Monterrey, whose spaces continue to be dark, things are changing.  One of the newest things is “Wag n’ Wash” where you will be able take your dog or cat and either pay for a wash and grooming or do it yourself.   It is in the spaces formerly occupied by the Credit Union.  It now looks like

As it turns out the owners are veterans of Historic St. Mary’s City and when I was there (taking the picture) they spotted me and invited me in for an insider tour.  They were feverishly getting ready for their opening (which is shortly, they hope!).  

You never know what you find in pet stores

They have very nice “washing stations”

And will have all sorts of pet food, equipment, and even a bakery in store which will turn out freshly baked goodies for your little darlings.  They said that the franchise offers over 150 recipes!  Wowser!  Anyway, they are very nice people and operated a veterinary clinic for years and years so are quite knowledgeable about things canine and feline. 

and there is more activity across 235  from San Souci as well.  What does this area really need more of?  Another place to get pizza! (pizza pizza)

Their founder Mr. Illitch not only turned out pizza, but owns the Red Wings, so that’s at least something.

The Going…sort of

And right across Millstone Landing Road, the liquor store "Twist" has changed ownership

Out with the old, in with the new

Not sure what the status of the seemingly popular Lime Lounge is going to be.

Chasing Cocoa.. a Mystery

I am very confused on the trail of "Cocoa’s".   As you might remember, it opened years ago in the Park, as Cocoa’s Cantina (southwestern food) in the spaces vacated by Lone Star.   You know that one with the funny porch sort of by IHOP.  Anyway, that Cocoa’s closed, and eventually a very similar looking Cocoa’s (Authentic Caribbean Jerk) re-appeared in the spaces vacated by Charlie’s Deli, on 235 south of Gate three.   Well, that didn’t last too long either, and it was dark for quite a while (still is}, but look at this…

I drive by there fairly often, and that sign has been up for weeks, with no visible sign of activity.  Anyway,  Cocoa’s then appeared in the back of the (old)  Belvedere,

in place of Casa Grande, who high tailed it to Leonardtown and lived in the building that is now the Rex.  Anyway, I THINK that Cocoas is open

Now recently there was a little note in the Enterprise and indeed, THIS has opened on Great Mills road across from St. Mary’s Square.

So the elusive Cocoa (If she actually exists) keeps being a moving target.  Oh, by the way, there are now pick-em-up trucks parked in front of the “original” one with the funny sun porch. WOW.

Cost Savings Section

And lastly (finally) you might have noticed that Staples (in First Colony by Lowe’s) has, like a cell, divided into two entities.   The (vacant) non-staples side sprouted a sign the other day

A Staples employee said it is like a dollar general, except everything is fiVE bucks and under.  That will bring even more class to the area.  Not to be snarky, but it IS right next to BJ’s..

New Product Section

we tried it, it's okay.  I think the standard is still Kraft Deluxe (HAS to have the pouch, not the bag of cheese)

Old Slogan Section

DFD

Oklahoma Dining Two (the bad one)

Well, my faith in TripAdvisor has been somewhat shaken.  As we’ve discussed before, going blind into a new city for dinner is always a struggle.   One shot, where to go?  I have had pretty good luck using TripAdvisor as a guide, sometimes (depending on time available) checking things like Yelp and just googling “Restaurants in XXXX” and seeing what’s there.  Usually things at the top tend to be things at the top elsewhere, and narrowing down to “French” or “fine dining” also helps.  Sunday was our last full day in Henryetta (and Oklahoma), so we drove back up to OKC to stay over before a Monday morning flight back to reality and BWI we decided to eat “out”.   So, we went into the above mentioned process.

Without refining the search(es) much, two places commontly appeared, Kitchen 324, and Cattlemen’s Steakhouse.   Reviews were pretty positive for both.  Usually 324 was rated just above the steakhouse, but they were rated in the top five in OKC out of the 1380 restaurants in the city.  I checked with FOJTY and he actually had been to the “Kitchen” and said they pretty much liked it. 

But, in the end, we decided that when in cow country, eat cow.  So going to an out and out steakhouse might be rewarding.  They tout themselves as “Oklahoma’s Oldest Continually Operating Restaurant”, located in the stockyards, and opening in 1910.  The “home” tab on their website after giving a thumbnail history boldly proclaims: “Today, Cattlemen's is known not only for its unique history, but mainly for its terrific food [feeder underline] - perfectly aged steaks, legendary breakfasts, and the best cup of coffee that Seattle couldn't touch”.  Well then… and also, it was not far from the Hotel..

So, with the trusty intelligent phone helping us, we drove over to the place which was indeed in what appeared to have been the stockyard section, which is now kind of run down amongst a few blank storefronts (this is actually one corner of the restaurant as you approach the front through the alley – parking is behind the place)

But there is no doubt you were in the right place

While we were headed for the front door, a tour bus pulled up in front and disgorged many tourists, and I thought “Oh no!”.   The arrival of a tour bus at a restaurant runs red flags up in the feeders skewed vision of dining, but mercifully they went to an annex next to the main building.  Having seen reviews mentioning “it was worth the 45 minute wait” we entered with some trepidation (a phone call before leaving the motel got a rather snippy “we have no idea sir” (when questioned as to a possible wait on a Sunday evening). But once inside, no worries; we were seated in one of the many booths that seem to be the standard seating arrangement. 

It is left to the sharp eyed readers to see how many hats they can count (the statue in the foreground doesn’t count)

There was another room off to the left of this picture, maybe they have tables in there. 

Our server, who (proved to be very friendly) arrived almost as soon as we did,  After determining we did want “to get an appetizer started for you”, he did determine that we wanted a cocktail.  With some struggle, MFO finally got across that she wanted a Gin Gimlet, and once again I figured the writing was on the wall and ordered one of their Margaritas.  After what seemed too long, my up Margarita arrived, and a cocktail glass of clear liquid and three skewered cocktail onions arrived.   Although not knowing OK drink preferences, a taste revealed there was no hint of lime.  When pointed out to the server, he apologized and said the bar served up (as you probably guessed) a Gibson.  After shooing the waiter a bit and sipping, we finally turned to said menu which again reflected (not only the lights) the historical aspect of the place  .It entered on steaks of course, but they also offered other non beefy things (fried catfish, fried shrimp, Hawaiian chicken). 

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One of the things they are apparently “famous" for are the “Lamb Fries” offered both as an appetizer and an entrée.  Well, it turns out that the lamb fries use the…. byproduct of the lamb neutering process.  Nuff said, I didn’t try them.  Not pictured on the menu above (in probably a futile attempt to let your read it) is a lot of verbiage on how they achieve the “perfect steak” starting with a “closely guarded house secret” aging process.  It goes on..”……the “PERFECT STEAK” is then hand-cut (never frozen) in our own butcher shop, then broiled over a sharp, hot flame from real charcoal that finishes the meat to a sear on the outside—juicy and tender within! Order your steak according to the How do you Like Your Steak?” chart below:

Rare Red cool center

Medium Rare Red warm center

Medium Pink hot center

Medium Well Hot center, trace of pink

Well done Charred outside, broiled throughout

It what has become a steakhouse necessity, there are “sides” you can order besides your baked potato and Cattlemen’s salad, a choice of grilled shrimp, fresh sautéed mushrooms, steamed broccoli with cheese sauce and the seemingly ubiquitous mac and cheese.   I never have quite understood why I would like a dish of gooey noodles coated with cheese sauce with my steak.  Anyway, this has probably dragged on longer than you wished, I decided decided to have their Cattlemen’s Strip Sirloin (Thick, center cut strip sirloin) medium rare.  MFO decided to try their Broiled Salmon.   After some debate we decided on one order of the Fresh Sautéed Mushrooms.   A sort of bright spot (I’m sort of tipping my hand here) was the wine list which had a pretty good selection, and resulted in an order of a Honig sauvignon blanc and a Carpe Diem Cab.

The room was pretty full, with most tables occupied, many family groups, and what I presumed was local folks out for a Sunday night dinner.  DFD was pretty loose (as I said a few ball caps, some western hats, mostly flannel shirts), but hey, probably Just Right dress.    Once again the bugaboo of “expectations” raises it’s ugly head.   When you hear the term “strip Steak” does something like this come to mind?(borrowed from the web)

Compare this to the Cattlemen’s offering served to me:

Where’s the sear? And what is it swimming in?  it’s not fair to call it dishwater, but it does come to mind.  Whoops! That parsley kind of slipped, and couldn’t be a plainer baked potato.  And then came the crowning blow!  Here is a restaurant that has been cooking steaks for over 100 years, probably cooking that many every day, they make their living on (see above) “terrific food” and presumably have many experienced cooks in the kitchen.   As he drops the steak, the server says: “would you please cut into the steak to see if it is done right?”  Swear to God it wasn’t: “to your liking”, it was “done right”.  I asked him if he had doubts, or didn’t trust his kitchen, and said he just wanted to make sure.  I suppose there are diners that think this is great, but it sure puts me off.  He didn’t ask MFO about her salmon, nor maybe the rolls, just their bread and butter item, Steak!  And those “Fresh Sautéed Mushrooms”? 

Do they look “fresh”?, and how hard is it to remove those woody stems that are so ugly (and all standing at attention), and what are they sitting in?  Needless to say, they mostly were left untouched, after a taste resulted in a soggy, chewy, piece of food.

I will say that the steak did have some flavor, but “thick”? nope, maybe a good half inch.

So it wasn’t the best experience we have had lately.  How in the world can this establishment be rated in the top five in Oklahoma City?  What would number 10 be like?  I don’t know anybody from there, but there has to be better options.  Maybe if the description would say something about: “harking back to the golden years of stockyards, looking into the past” or something like that, but geez.  Terrific food?  No way.

I don’t imagine most/any readers will have the opportunity to eat (yes, eat) in OKC, but don’t waste your time and money on Cattlemen’s Steakhouse.  And never mind

DFD

PS I went to TripAdvisor and condensed much of the above, and never (nor expected to) got any feedback.  Swallowed hard and gave them two bullets.  

Oklahoma Dining One (the good one0

We came back from “the farm” after communing with the critters, and had another great homemade lunch, and then kind of relaxed.  It being the last night of the “group” in Henryetta, we decided to go out” for dinner (not to mention reducing the workload on MFON’s wife).   Even though MFO’s sister headed back to Wisconsin earlier in the day, we still numbered an even dozen with kids of varying ages.  So the age old “where to go” came up.  Oddly enough even though it was Saturday, the kind of go to in Henryetta, the “Classic Diner”, does not serve on that day.  So after a bit of thought, MFON’s wife came up with “Mona’s Rose of Sharon” restaurant.  One nice thing about a small(ish) town is that most people know each other so the Owner was alerted that 12 people were about to descend for dinner.  No problem.

So we got into a variety of vehicles and did a short drive over to the restaurant.   They have not been here too long

Inside is bright and clean, with a nice painting of the namesake on the wall

As you might surmise from that name, the management are people of faith, and indeed keep a copy of the Holy Bible on the counter (in the “x” frame on middle right)

Mona’s serves all three meals, and there is a “one menu does all” covering all three meals in a single two sided laminated sheet.

Probably can’t read much, but breakfast offers just what you would expect: eggs, ham, sausage, pancakes, waffles..in almost any combination you might think of.   Just a couple of notes, no scrapple, and under drinks you can get tea, coffee, or pop!

On the lunch and dinner side of things, so surprises, sandwiches (including fried bologna), salads (including a hamburger salad), and burgers, headlined by “Mona’s Famous Burger”, and a “Bubba Burger” which was two patties.  

Apparently one of their specialties is “Fried Pies” (down in the lower right of the dinner menu).  More on that later..On Friday’s they apparently have a fish buffet.   On top of the buffet table (which I guess is not used during dinner service) was more condiments and hot sauce bottles than I have ever seen

There was a blackboard with daily specials, one of which was a “fried Hamburger”.   In fact that word “Fried” seemed to be pervasive, as in the little tent card with appetizers (including the hand “breadeded” onion rings.

So anyway, we got down to business and ordering our food.  The ladies were very efficient in taking our choices on a little pad, being very careful to make sure they heard correctly, etc.

I chose the Famous Burger (voted best burger in town) with mostly all the stuff, and elected to have some onion rings.  I won’t go through the whole litany of other stuff, but when it came out everything was very good.  My burger was sizable, cooked as I wanted it,

And those onion rings were real onions, didn’t look like they came off the truck and the breading was hot and crunchy.   Maybe it was that extra “ed”.  Ha ha..

A Chicken Fried steak was classic. And those fries were also not from a truck

I think I might take some issue with the black board “fried hamburger”

It was kind of a takeoff on a croque-monsieur, but characterized by its owner as “a bit heavy”.  Pretty dense. 

After ingesting all that protein and the rings, I really wasn’t craving dessert, but feeder duty demanded I try one of the “Handmade Fried Pies”.   Which, I did

I'd have to say it wasn’t memorable. I think the picture kind of tells the story.  The dough was a bit soggy, the glaze heavy, and the filling was pretty glutinous.  If it were memorable I might remember what it was… I think maybe lemon..

Anyway, besides the pies (IMHO) they do a great job.  All the food was good, served hot, friendly service (water glasses kept filled).

I’m sure by this time you’re all wondering about “Just right”.  Well, I think so.  Delivers exactly what you expect.   Only caveat is that it hasn’t been there very long.  I may have to rethink that criteria.

Oh, and another feature was that one of the youngsters finally lost one of his front teeth that have been dangling for a few days.  I have a great picture which I will share with his mom and dad. 

DFD

Cows and other critters...

After a little detour for Cows and Fishes (next post down), we return to Oklahoma where I am sure there are both.  And in fact we can testify that that there are plenty of cows, and we even saw some up close.

MFO’s nephew lives well out of Henryetta (see interesting footnote at the end of posting) and has a few acres there.  We went out there for breakfast the day after the graduation ceremony (Saturday).  MFON's wife prepared quite a spread, featuring locally produced sausage and bacon as well as eggs and biscuits ‘n gravy.

After stuffing ourselves on the sausage and bacon, we took a little walk around his house and property.  These little darlings live in a pen near the house.  How can you not love these?

They love to come and see you

and like to hang out together

They also keep sources of those eggs we had

And then there’s “Norman” (I may have the name wrong, memory fails, but pretty sure starts with "N")

Norman is a proud member of the Limousin breed of cattle, originating in France.   I kept a fence between us and admired it from afar.  His wife also keeps a very nice garden

Not only does he have the animals on the property, he also owns more acreage out of town where he keeps a larger herd of cattle

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As well as some imposing grown up critters

And king of his domain

The barn that was being constructed (not on his property)

Was being done by the Amish

And of course to manage a farm, you need real toys

It certainly was refreshing to get “out in the country” and see real animals.  Not that we can’t see them around here, but not quite in the quantities we sat at MFON's farm.  Turns out you have to feed the critters, so it takes a fair amount of effort on his part.  They have two kids (human variety), so they have quite a happy life.  We spent the rest of that day sort of hanging out and enjoying the bucolic (okay, now I’m getting poetic, so I should quit).  That evening we had a dinner at a local restaurant (that i think might make a "just right" list), and then the next day MFO and I headed back to OKC where we had another interesting dinner experience.  I’ll cover both in the next edition, keeping this one to the four legged critters. 

As we replaced thoughts of cows, goats, chickens, with thoughts of rental cars, standing (or sitting in this case) in lines airports, more than once Walt Whitman’s poem from “Leaves of Grass” came to mind:

I think I could turn and live with animals, they are so placid and

self-contain'd,

I stand and look at them long and long.

They do not sweat and whine about their condition,

They do not lie awake in the dark and weep for their sins,

They do not make me sick discussing their duty to God,

Not one is dissatisfied, not one is demented with the mania of

owning things,

Not one kneels to another, nor to his kind that lived thousands of

years ago,

Not one is respectable or unhappy over the whole earth

Pretty pertinent, eh "Norman"?   

And animals are always

DFD

Footnote: Doing the blog is always interesting.  After remarking about Henryetta in the first Oklahoma edition, i got a back channel note from a reader who has suffered me almost from the inception of the Feeder.  Turns out her mother and several relatives are from there.  She was back for a reunion a couple of years ago, and enjoyed the vicarious visit..  Small world..

Where the wind....

comes... well, you know

Preface (probably slightly boring as most Preface's (Prefaci?) are, but required reading to understand what follows)

Well, we (I’ve) almost recovered from our whirlwind (pun intended) weekend jaunt to Oklahoma.   Funny, when we told people we were taking a trip there, the almost uniform response was:  “OKLAHOMA!  in MAY?”   Well, yes.  As I briefly mentioned in the last edition, our grandnephew (tough to sort out these titles) was graduating high school, and all of the Otto clan was also attending resulting in sort of a family reunion, so MFO was keen to go.  There were a couple of boundary conditions that made it a bit more challenging.  MFO was signed up for second session of “Protecting your Documents”, the workshop on disaster response concerning archival things.  That was taking place again at the B&O museum from 8am to 4pm on Thursday, the day BEFORE the graduation in Oklahoma.  And, at the other end of the stack of the books, believe it or not, she was to receive yet another pair of rewards from the County specifically recognizing her contributions to the Historical Preservation Commission and also her work with the Newtowne Neck State Park master plan development.  SO, that meant we could not leave BEFORE the workshop ended Thursday afternoon and had to be back the following Monday evening.  (Isn’t this riveting reading?)  So we turned it over to the capable talents of the Cole Travel folks and they set us up with flights, rooms, and a car. 

Now before proceeding, (if I haven’t driven you off already); one more thing.  It’s easy to blog and blab about a plate of pasta or servers wanting to know if you’re still working on that (which will come eventually) but covering a family event is a bit sticky because I am very reluctant to ever post pictures of relatives nor kids here.  SO, I’ll have to be kind of circumspect in some areas. 

Okay, to begin the odyssey I get in the MOMSTER and head for Baltimore, waaaaayyyyy ahead of time, but I find it hard to sit around for hours just waiting for a departure time.  Since I had done the trip before, I made it with relatively little trouble and then sat for an hour or so waiting for MFO.   We got to BWI about two hours before our 7 something take off.  Parked in Long Term A, making note of the location of the MOMSTER

Another nuance this time was driven by my knees and a tight connection in Atlanta (right on the way to OKC, right?).   Our travel person said, I’ll just order a wheel chair for you.  Swallowing pride along with Advil, I accepted.  Apparently it’s flagged on your record or boarding pass or something.   Turned out it’s not a bad deal.  Straight to security past lines, “pre check” is almost guaranteed, and you get “driven” right to the gate.  A new experience.  Only cost is tipping, which I usually do on the extravagant side.  One short story, and then we’ll move on.  The young man that guided my chair in Atlanta was a football player for maybe Georgia, some school that made you take notice anyway, but he blew out BOTH acl’s near the first day of practice.  End of career, now pushing wheel chairs in airports.  Sure there might be more to the story.

Anyway, we boarded (first, another benefit) and got aisle aisle seats on Southwest.   We had to sit in the penalty box at BWI for a while but eventually took off for Atlanta.  Besides bags of peanuts and (bad) pretzels, this was dinner (for which the $5 fee was forgiven because the flight attendant''s card reader wouldn't work (on either of my cards):  Her quote: "This piece of....(deleted)!"

We arrived in Atlanta a few minutes AFTER our flight to OKC was supposed to board, but as usual, one delay, all delays and we made connections easily (with the help of the acl guy).  By the time we got to the Hotel, it was well after one (am) local.   

Kind of a leisurely wake up on the day of the Graduation, and we went over to Enterprise to get the rental auto.   Apparently they don’t “pick you up”.  Turned out they were strapped for intermediate cars and we wound up with a “premium” 2015 Cadenza.   Nice ride.  So, armed with phone GPS, printed out Streets and Trips, direction, maps, we struck out for our destination of Henryetta, Oklahoma, about 90 miles east of the City.  Saw lots of this, and Casinos practically every ten miles.  Native American territory, you know.

We finally got to Henryetta

 Of course you know of Henryetta because it is the birthplace of Troy Aikman (there’s a trivia winner for you).  The town dates from 1885, and for a while was a coal center, then glass manufacturing, but today there’s not much left of the downtown,  with lots of vacant buildings, but there are still a few interesting places.  One of which was a “just right” restaurant which we’ll cover in a later edition.

Sorry FOJTY, didn't get to sample

And this right next to the Hotel:

The Hotel was a Day’s Inn, welcomed by “that guy” you see on TV

which was nice enough with a big atrium where the “clan” could gather and let the younger set run around.

while this may be boring as advertised, it kind of sets the background for what turned out to be a very enjoyable trip for us. For once not in a big city, but a peaceful rural setting, including real live farm animals (MFO’s nephew has a farm besides his regular day job).  Plus we got to talk with the side of the family which we don't see often. It also included two notable dining experiences, the “just right” place in Henryetta, and a lousy, well, "interesting" one in OKC the night before we returned.  In between, our host provided some great homemade food, for which we were occasionally

DFD