Abuelos Mexican Food Embassy, Tulsa, Oklahoma

On another Tulsa adventure, my friend Justin and I went to Abuelos Mexican Food Embassy for dinner.

We started with a big bowl of chile con queso, a white cheese dip, to supplement our complimentary dishes of salsa. I particularly like their "hot" version of their salsa, which has a nice, distinctly smoky taste.

We filled up so much on all that queso, salsa, and chips, we could have gone home then and called it a dinner, but we still had a lot of food to go!

Justin ordered the chicken and chile enchiladas for his main course. The chicken enchilada arrived covered with white sauce and melted cheese, and the chile enchilada was covered in a red, spicy tomato sauce. Rice and beans accompanied the enchiladas.

Feeling more adventurous, I tried one of the house specials, enchiladas de Cozumel. Cozumel, of course, is the famous Mexican seaside resort, so this dish featured all kinds of fresh seafood in a creamy white sauce. The enchilada was nicely stuffed full of seafood, and they didn't skimp there. Along with the enchilada, I got rice and steamed brocolli florets.

Desserts were equally adventurous. Justin picked the dessert nachos, and got an absolutely huge plate (enough for at least two or three) of cinnamon-dusted flour tortilla chips covered with ice cream, whipped cream, pecans, and several sauces. I had the tres leches cake, artfully presented on a pool of custard sauce decorated with raspberry purée and topped with a sliced fresh strawberry.

Shiloh Restaurant, Tulsa, Oklahoma

After hitting the casino and one of the malls, we went to Shiloh Restaurant, a simple and modest eatery located in an old Kettle Restaurant by a small hotel in far east Tulsa.  One really needs to know it's there in order to look for and find it, since there is only a tiny sign by the roadway, and it's easy to miss.  Shiloh has been one of my favorite "comfort food" restaurants for years, and I understand they recently opened a second location in Broken Arrow.

They make some wonderful hot rolls at Shiloh that are provided complimentary for the table, and for those in the know, they also offer some delicious strawberry-rhubarb compote to put on the rolls.  They should bottle that compote, it's so good.  I wish they'd increase their percentage of rhubarb, though, since I like a tarter mix, but I imagine most of their clientele prefers the gentle sweetness of the strawberries.

Naturally, for dinner, I had the country-fried steak with gravy.  If you look at the picture, you'll see some gravy on top of the steak.  Fear not, Southerners, there's plenty more.  In fact, they put gravy underneath the steak.  Along with the steak, I got fried okra and a little dish of macaroni and cheese.

My mother got the chicken-fried chicken, along with okra and a side Caesar salad.  My aunt wasn't very hungry (we'd been to the mall, and she'd gotten an order of French fries at the food court), so she just ordered a bacon, lettuce, and tomato sandwich on homemade bread with some potato salad.  I think the sandwich was bigger than she expected!  We took a big go-box of blackberry cobbler home to my father, where it was quickly devoured.

 

Te Kei's Chinese/Asian Kitchen, Tulsa, Oklahoma

We went to Te Kei's Chinese/Asian Kitchen, a pan-Asian local place that's very much like a P.F. Chang, with higher-end entrees and teas and what have you, plus an elegant dining atmosphere with quality Asian art and artifacts.  Oddly enough, Te Kei's opened in Tulsa just a couple of weeks before the local P.F. Chang franchise opened just a few blocks away.  Tulsans have continued to support the local place, as it's been open for five or six years now, and the food quality and service continue to be much of what I remember from their opening days.

We started our lunch with individual French press-style pots of their vintage green tea, something to ward off the December chill.  I like their green tea.  It has a nice, nutty, warm taste to it.

We did the luncheon specials for our meal.  My mother chose the cashew chicken with fried brown rice on the side.  It was more than she could finish, and included lots of brocoli, napa cabbage, mushrooms, and red bell peppers with the ample chicken white meat and cashews.  

I had the Mongolian beef with brown rice.  The serving was primarily well-flavored, tender beef with a moderate amount of heat, plus some woodsie mushrooms and a lot of scallions.  A few red pepper strips and bean sprouts added additional color and interest.
 

For dessert, we split a piece of their banana cream pie.  They take a cookie crust and glaze the inside of the shell with chocolate.  Creme patisserie, bananas, and whipped cream fill up the shell, and then the whipped cream is garnished with shaved chocolate and a little sprig of fresh mint.  It is always a nice bit of sweet to end the meal.
 

Oklahoma Christmas

We sort of got snowed in on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day in Oklahoma this year.  I can't remember when we last had a white Christmas—we've often had an "ice" Christmas, but usually not white.  The roads being what they were, we couldn't go out to eat (I doubt the restaurants were even open), so I had to throw a few things in the oven.  Here's a little 22-pound turkey I did for Christmas just for my parents and me.  Didn't have any fresh herbs to stick under the skin, so I had to use a few sprigs of parsley.  This is the turkey before I carved it in the kitchen—it's always easier for me to cut things up there and put on a platter than to try to wield sharp instruments at the dining room table.  We also had leftovers from the ham we had on Christmas Eve.

Xmas in New York

Here are some chestnuts roasting on an open fire at one of the street vendor carts by Central Park.

Thanksgiving weekend wrapup

Thanksgiving Day, we'd planned on going to a big group pot-luck thing over on Capitol Hill, but there was some kind of drama amongst prospective guests and we had to regroup. I don't know the parties involved, so I don't know who got whom pregnant. Or whatever. We ended up with a bunch of guys from Laurent's rowing team coming over to his place for an impromptu dinner. Good thing there are still some grocery stores that were open on Thanksgiving Day! Our ultimate menu ended up being much more down home and much less Martha Stewart, although Laurent and I carried on with our original plans of him fixing deviled eggs garnished with red caviar and me fixing wasabi mashed potatoes with green peas (with Yukon Gold potatoes, white pepper, a couple of sticks of butter, and a couple of cups of heavy cream, naturally). Then I got to advise some of the other guys on what to buy at the store that was quick to prepare, and how to doctor up exciting things like Stove Top Stuffing and canned sweet potatoes. The whole thing turned out very well nonetheless, we were (overly-)sated, and there were plenty of leftovers to share. The highlight of the evening, though, had to be when we accidentally came across the Ms. Senior D.C. beauty pageant on television. Watching all those dignified elderly ladies pageant-walking and trying to sing and dance during their talent and evening gown competitions had us all in stitches!

Ledo Pizza, Washington, D.C.

Shrimp and chorizo sausage pizza

Denny's, Grapevine, Texas

Had a long layover in Dallas last night, so my friend David and his son Aaron met me at the airport and we drove to a nearby Denny's for dinner. How wonderful: I fly all the way to Dallas, only to go to a Denny's. We ate typical Denny's food, with the exception of one interesting new dish, a half dozen pancake poppers, which looked like little deep fried fritters dusted with confectioner's sugar and served with a bowl of syrup. Here are pictures of the food and of Aaron. Don't know why I didn't get any pictures of David.....Aaron took several of us, but that was with his own camera.

Wilson's BBQ, Tulsa, Oklahoma

Tonight Tony and I had an early dinner at Wilson's BBQ up in north Tulsa. Wilson's is an authentic old time Tulsa barbecue joint in an iffy part of town. I did notice that they had spruced up the exterior of the building and the parking lot since the last time I was there probably five years ago.

Tony got the short ribs and I had the full beef ribs. Both platters came with bread, cole slaw, and baked beans. The ribs were, as always, delicious and messy. Good thing each table is stocked with a big roll of paper towels.



For dessert, I had a sweet potato pie and Tony got the buttermilk pie. I like their sweet potato pie because it's distinctly spiced and it doesn't taste of pumpkin pie spice as so many sweet potato pies I've had have done.

Villa Ravenna, Tulsa, Oklahoma

Wednesday evening, I went to The Farm shopping center with my friend Tony, where we ate at Villa Ravenna, a northern Italian-style restaurant.

Now, Tulsa doesn't really have much of an Italian community, so there's no "Little Italy" like there is in some of the big cities like Chicago or New York. Nevertheless, Italian immigrants have come to town seeing the opportunity to bring their home town cooking to the Oklahoma prairie. The owners branched off of a family restaurant in Houston called Via Emilia, and they use the same family recipes from Ravenna, an Italian town on the north Adriatic Sea coast. Interestingly, it's in the old Casa Laredo Mexican location, a local chain that Tony's family has patronized for years. The new decor is mostly accomplished with lots of green and red Italian flag colors and bunches of plastic grapes on lattice arbors, but it looks more old-style Italian-American cafe than tacky.

We started off with glasses of chianti while we tried to read the menus in the very dark restaurant; our table was illuminated with but one lighted taper in the center. Tony ordered the avocado salad and I ordered the cream of mushroom soup. My soup arrived so hot I couldn't eat it at first. The bowl was filled with a nice, thick, flavorful soup.



For his main course, Tony got the veal parmegiana. I found their presentation and recipe interesting; there was a layer of ham between the veal and the melted mozzarella cheese. It came with a side of spaghetti.

Speaking of which, I had the spaghetti carbonara. The carbonara was good, but once again, the recipe was interesting and non-traditional. Instead of just using egg and parmesan cheese, they put a little bit of alfredo sauce on the pasta.


In lieu of dessert, we each had a little glass of limoncello.


Overall, I thought the restaurant was nice for Tulsa, but I have to admit that I'm rather spoiled by some of the wonderful Italian restaurants on the East Coast, so the Tulsa place didn't "wow" me. There were a number of interesting entrees on the menu, though, that I would love to try on a future visit, and I've since heard that the osso bucco here is fantastic, so I'll have to check it out for myself.

The Brothers Houligan, Tulsa, Oklahoma

Wednesday my friend Bill took me to lunch at one of his favorite places in Tulsa, The Brothers Houligan. I'd been to the midtown location before, but this was my first time at their newish east Tulsa location.

The daily lunch special Wednesday was fried shrimp, so that's what Bill got. They brought him half a dozen large, butterflied, battered shrimp, and he thought they were very tasty. I got a luncheon-sized chicken fried steak. It tasted good. It was a long piece of round steak with a light breading on it, then the steak was covered in white cream gravy. Bowls of green beans, mashed potatoes, and cream gravy were presented family style for us to share.

El Guapo's Cantina, Tulsa, Oklahoma

Sunday I drove to Tulsa and met my friend Tony for dinner. We went to a Mexican place downtown called El Guapo's Cantina and sat upstairs on their rooftop patio. El Guapo's specializes in Oaxacan style cuisine.

I ordered one of their house specialties, the enchiladas de molé poblano. Mole is a classic Mexican sauce made with unsweetened chocolate (remember, the Aztecs are credited with "inventing" chocolate and bringing it into our modern cuisine via the Spanish conquistadors) and roasted poblano chiles. The dish is made with smoked chicken corn tortilla enchiladas, smothered in the mole sauce, and sprinkled with Mexican cotija cheese, crema (Mexican sour cream), onions, and cilantro. It came with rice and beans. I liked it a lot, and thought the mole had good complexity and a nice mouth feel.

Tony ordered the smoked steak and cheese flautas. After a momentary problem when the kitchen sent him fish tacos instead and we had to wait for the flautas to come up (an attentive manager came over to apologize and comped the flautas for us), his food arrived and looked very artistic. They'd made long flautas, cut them on the diagonal, then arranged them over a bowl full of white cheese queso blanco dip with creamy salsa verde, crema, and pico de gallo. It doesn't look like all that much, but it's a substantial and filling dish. His rice and beans were on the side.

For dessert, Tony got the fried ice cream, which was presented on a large white plate with a lot of decorative strawberry sauce and chocolate sauce around the ice cream. I got the peaches and cream sopapilla relleno. Sopapillas are deep-fried pockets of pastry, and I'd expected to get one stuffed with peaches and cream. Their version, though, had peaches between two flattened sopapillas, with ice cream on the plate and garnishes of whipped cream and strawberry sauce.

The Coleman Room at Buffalo Run, Miami, Oklahoma

Friday we drove up to the Joplin and Miami areas to do the annual family cemetery decorating. After we got done with that, we stopped by the Wyandotte and Peoria tribal casinos. Lots of little wins, but no bigger wins, so I spent all my meagre gambling capital in quest of the big money.

While we'd brought sandwiches from home for lunch, for dinner, we went to the Coleman Room at Buffalo Run (the Peoria casino), since my mother had never eaten there. Some of you may remember my previous review of the place from November 2004, shortly after the casino opened.

They had a special limited menu put together for Memorial Day weekend. My mother had the horseradish-crusted halibut. I had the prime rib. Both entrees came with a salad, baked potato, and a melange of steamed vegetables. Portions continue to be large. Both plates were garnished with an orchid flower and a sprig of rosemary.

For dessert, we shared a carrot bundt cake with cream cheese frosting I thought was surprisingly good, especially considering it only cost $4.

Not much has changed since the first review, other than they have their liquor license now. It continues to be a nice place for the area, but they still are small town and haven't fully trained their wait staff. A typical example of their training shortfalls is the waitress having to come back and ask my mother what kind of potato she wanted with her fish, after the waitress had initially said the fish came with rice, contrary to what the menu said. Apparently the staff hadn't been briefed on the menus.

Georgia Brown's Restaurant, Washington, D.C.

Our new housemate Sean arrived today from Phoenix. He starts his new job at the Senate tomorrow. This afternoon, I Metroed down to the Capitol with him so he'd know how to get to his office building in the morning, and we ended up walking from the Capitol down Pennsylvania Avenue to the White House playing tourist. Once we were done, it was dinnertime and he was a bit hungry, so, as Washington is a Southern town, I thought we should have Southern food and we were off to Georgia Brown's Restaurant on McPherson Square for his first Southern repast.

He ordered the Carolina gumbo, a thick stew of shrimp, andoille sausage, crab, chicken, and duck with Carolina red rice. He seemed to like it, as he cleaned his plate. I had (for the second day in a row) the Alaskan halibut, pan-bronzed and topped with a cranberry maple sage pesto and presented on a bed of grilled asparagus and hominy. I'm glad halibut is in season.

For dessert, he got the peach cobbler with vanilla ice cream, and I had the bourbon pecan pie with chocolate sauce and whipped cream.

Clyde's, Busboys, and Poets

Laurent and I went to go see Angels and Demons after brunch Sunday afternoon.

Before the show, we went to Clyde's of Gallery Place, where we started off with morning bloody Marys. Laurent had sirloin steak and scrambled eggs, which also came with deep-fried potato cakes and caramelized onion. Since halibut is in season right now, I got the pan-seared Alaskan halibut with green bean potato salad and spring vegetable slaw. They do a good job with fish at Clyde's, and my halibut was thick, meaty, and juicy. I thought the potato salad was unusual and good, too; made from slices of fingerling potatoes and julienned green beans, it was dressed with a spring onion vinaigrette.

After the movie, we popped in to the new Busboys and Poets location in Penn Quarter for desserts. After we looked at the menus, though, Laurent decided he was hungry again, so he ate an order of hummus and pita bread and a bowl of chili instead of having dessert. I stuck with the original plan and got the white chocolate banana bread pudding served warm with a scoop of coconut ice cream.

T.H.A.I., Arlington (Shirlington), Va.

Saturday a bunch of us got together to help Laurent move to a new apartment. It was a little rainy Saturday, but we managed to move the stuff in between the moments of rain and nothing got wet. Laurent had a full slate of volunteers working different times throughout the day. After everything got to the new place, some of us stayed to help unpack boxes and put things on the walls and in the drawers. At last, we got done and some of us decided to go to Shirlington (a neighborhood of Arlington, Va.) for dinner. The day's cloudburst finally happened as we walked from the parking garage to the restaurant.

On the strong recommendation of Todd (who was driving), we went to T.H.A.I in Shirlington, a (believe it or not) Thai restaurant that turned out to be very nice with a luxurious contemporary Thai ambiance to the dining room and some exciting food presentations. Too bad I didn't have my camera along.

We started off sharing some appetizers. A supplemented order of spring rolls (the usual order was for three) came and they were unlike anything I'd had before. Each vegetable-stuffed, lightly deep-fried rolls was about one foot long and the four rolls were stacked in an interwoven architectural structure. A bowl of carrot dipping sauce came with the rolls. We also got an order of crab shu mai, which were open faced steamed dumpling stuffed with crab, pork, shrimp, and water chestnut accompanied by a ginger-soy dipping sauce, and presented on a long, narrow, rectangular platter.

Meanwhile, Laurent and Mary were drinking golden frozen margaritas.

For her main course, Mary got the king pad ped, a large oval platter of stir-fried chicken and both shiitake and wood ear mushrooms enrobed in soybean sauce and sprinkled with fried ginger root. Todd ordered a dish called "Penang Perfect," essentially a chicken curry with peanut sauce and coconut milk presented in a contemporary rounded boat-shaped bowl (he says it's what he always gets). Laurent selected the "Kapow Delight," a stir-fry of beef, broccoli, and basil leaves in chili-garlic sauce. All of these entrees came with steamed white rice. I picked the chicken pad thai, the traditional rice noodle dish with chicken, bean sprouts, egg, scallion, and peanuts, artfully arranged on a large square plate.

Desserts were spectacular. Laurent got the banana split bruleé, with caramelized banana halves topped with a row of coconut ice cream, Thai coffee ice cream, and strawberry sorbet, clouds of whipped creams, drizzles of chocolate and caramel sauces. Todd picked the flambé Thai banana, a showy dish of banana halves and segments with coconut ice cream sprinkled with diced orange peel, minced ginger, toasted coconut, and sesame seeds, then flambéed tableside with Grand Marnier.

T.H.A.I definitely goes on my recommended Thai restaurant list.

After dinner, we went to a nice little wine shop in Shirlington Village called the Curious Grape, where they vended not only wines, but cheeses, gourmet chocolates, and an assortment of stemware and accoutrements for wines. Todd got a couple of bottles of Locadi Moscato d'Asti, which turned out to be quite delicious once we got back to Laurent's new place.

Crisfield Seafood Restaurant, Silver Spring, Md.

The other night Robert and I went to Crisfield Seafood Restaurant, just across the D.C. line in Silver Spring, Md. Crisfield's is one of those old eateries that's been around for over sixty years, and the place probably hasn't changed a bit in all those decades.

We'd never been to the place before, and misjudged it as more of an inexpensive diner than it turned out to be. Most of the entrees were in the $20-something range, about the same as one would pay in a more elegant establishment, and fried foods were predominant on the menu. While the food was tasty, I would have been happier had the prices been cheaper to reflect the casual diner-type atmosphere (complete with a large counter with bar stools).

We started our meals with bowls of soup, Robert electing the seafood chowder and me getting the clam chowder. Both were thick, rustic soups with plenty of seafood in them. I had the sense that my soup was super-hot because it had been being held on a steam table for some time during the dinner rush.

For main courses, we opted for sandwiches because they were only $9 or $10 each. Robert got the fried perch sandwich, and got two large filets on his bun. I had crab cake. The crab cake was excellent. It was thick and full of crab, and the outside was so evenly browned that I think it was deep fried instead of pan fried. Both sandwiches came on standard hamburger buns and were served with a nice, sweetish cole slaw (French fries were an available alternative).

I don't know whether or not we will go back to Crisfield's. It was certainly popular with a more mature, white crowd, and stayed full the entire time we were there. If we return, we'll want to try the main entrees and seafood platters.

Tastee Diner, Silver Spring, Md.

Happy Mothers' Day to all the mothers on my readership list.

I just got in from Tastee Diner and a midnight Mothers' Day dinner of roast prime rib for only $14.95, and it was actually a decent meal. Came with collard greens and mashed potatoes with gravy. To answer my friend Justin's question, no, I'm not a mother (obviously), but we celebrate every holiday and use them as an excuse to go out to eat. :-)

Earlier today Robert, Spencer, and I made a Costco run to College Park. Afterwards, we popped into a KFC to grab a quick late lunch. There were two tables of adult families in the KFC celebrating Mothers' Day, complete with corsages and "dress up" clothing; it made me melancholy to think that some people could only afford to take their mother to a fast food restaurant for Mothers' Day. I'm thankful that my family isn't that financially strapped, especially during this national recession/depression.

El Tamarindo, Washington, D.C.

We celebrated Cinco de Mayo with a late dinner at El Tamarindo in Adams-Morgan tonight. I'd had a DeMolay business meeting earlier in the evening, but that was just as well, since the Mexican restaurants in town were all packed tonight. Our 10:30 dinnertime coincided with right about the time the main dinner rush was starting to clear out, so, while the restaurant was still full in both dining rooms, we were able to be seated right away.

We started with margaritas, and they were good ones that actually had some tequila in them. Too bad the waiter was so busy he didn't ever ask us if we wanted refills, cause we would have.

Robert had the pollo de mole poblano, a nice, plump piece of chicken covered in roasted poblano pepper and chocolate sauce, garnished with a sprinkle of toasted sesame seeds. It came with white rice and black beans. I had the chicken avocado salad, a large and surprisingly filling version of a chicken taco salad.

Ikea, College Park, Md.

Yesterday, I made an Ikea run to College Park. Laurent wanted to buy a new dresser and a desk chair. We ate lunch at the cafeteria there and I have to say I was very unimpressed with the crab cakes. Next time, I'll stick to the standard Swedish meatballs.