Uncle Julio's, Dallas, TX

Tony and I went to Dallas this weekend to visit David and shop a bit. We spent a while Friday at the downtown original Neiman-Marcus; we started to do the buffet in the Zodiac Room, but we weren't hungry enough to spend $26 a person on a buffet. We ended up at Uncle Julio's for lunch. They had table signs saying they were temporarily using a different salsa due to the Florida hurricanes, but I loved the salsa they served. It was a dark, smoky salsa with a nice bite and a smooth after taste. I also love their guacamole. David and Tony got tanked up on margaritas, but I abstained....I hate tequila! For dessert we had a big plateful of miniature sopapillas.

Palace Cafe, Tulsa, OK

Tony was up and dressed when I got home from Mass this morning and wanted to go eat, so we landed at the Palace Cafe for a couple of bloody Marys, then we decided to eat. Tony had a mushroom omelette with oyster mushrooms and sausage patties, and I had an artichoke, onion, mushroom, and goat cheese scramble with house smoked peppered bacon and some lovely custardy French toast topped with pecans and real maple syrup. We converted to mimosas when the food arrived.

Aroma's, Bartlesville, OK

Today is my parents' 51st wedding anniversary, so last night we had a family dinner to celebrate. I drove up to Bartlesville and we went to Aroma's, an Italian place downtown. They were packed. The local high school seemed to be having some kind of winter formal last night, and the restaurant was half full of girls in $500 cocktail dresses with uncoordinated purses and uncomfortable boys who removed their suit coats and hung them over the backs of their chairs. I also found it very interesting that when it came time to deal with their checks, it was the *girls* who flipped out mummy and daddy's plastic to pay....

Anyway, we started with some very lovely crab cakes presented on a bed of mesclun greens and accompanied by what could best be described as a lime mousseline sauce. They were each good sized and thick, and appeared to have been breaded in Japanese bread crumbs. They had good flavor and just enough cayenne bite to be interesting. The salads were heavy with spinach and watercress, and the house dressing was a balsamic vinaigrette.

Our entrees were all different. My dad had a beef medaliions dish that looked like a thick tomato based beef stew served over a huge bed of garlic mashed potatoes, and included haricots verts and long whole baby carrots all of which were al dente (which my father hates!) and some very interesting sweet roasted peppers of some type. Mom had the Tuscan tuna special, which I talked her into doing "medium" rather than well done, that was a huge serving of grilled tuna and vegetables over a citrus seafood risotto. My main course was a serving bowl full of seven large round ravioli filled with a flavorful herbed ricotta mixture and swimming in a rather-too-thin lemon cream sauce. Because service from the kitchen had been rather slow, the waiter brought us another complementary serving of crab cakes.

For dessert, mom had an Italian cream cake, dad had a triple chocolate cake, and I had a bowl of zabaglione with assorted fresh berries, and the waiter got extra credit points for bringing our coffee *after* we had finished our desserts.

All in all, it was a very nice dinner for Bartlesville. Service was slow, but there appeared to be only three or four waiters (plus assistants) in the entire restaurant, and the high school dance crowd taxed their efficiency--a normal Saturday night would have been better. Our waiter was very nice, too, seemed to be well trained, and he had a charming European accent.....I wasnt' sure if he was Italian or eastern European, since I heard aural cues for both, but I did notice he was wearing a shirt with subtle Latin phrases printed on it, so maybe he was an Italian.

Carrabbas, Tulsa, OK

I'm stuffed. I have *got* to start a diet and start going to the gym again! Tony and I met Jake and Trey for cocktails and then went to dinner at Carabbas for a big Italian feast. I'm usually not that big of a Carabbas fan (it's a national chain that originated in Houston), but tonight was actually pretty good. We had a nice bottle of Ducorosso chianti, and shared calimari and mussels for appetizers. After salads, I had a big baseball-cut, medium rare fileto fiorentina that was the best steak I've had all month, which came with some interesting haricots verts style green beans buried in shreds of parmesano reggiano and a really tasty serving of a corkscrew pasta the name of which escapes me in a spicy red sauce. Dessert was a cake covered with fruit and whipped cream (it had a proprietary name, but I don't remember it), and then I had a Chambord with whipped cream and a cappuccino. All very tasty.

Buffalo Run, Miami, OK

We went to Joplin last night to pick up our friend Jake and then the three of us went to Miami to the new Peoria Tribe Buffalo Run Casino, which just opened last week, to cheer Tony up.

The casino is in a very unusually shaped building that's sort of onion dome shaped in profile, but very long. It has the usual assortment of gambling machines and bright flashing lights, plus a whole bunch of large crystal chandeliers hanging from the ceilings. At one end of the building is a large meeting hall, which is to be the venue for music concerts and boxing matches. In the other end of the building are the administratiive offices plus their fine dining room.

Dinner was very interesting. This is Miami, mind you, and I don't mean the Miami in Florida, so fabulous food is not something one expects. For Miami, the menu was *very* expensive, but by Tulsa and Florida prices, we thought it quite moderate. The most expensive entree on the menu was only $21. It's a very nice restaurant, which could be white tablecloth if they wanted, but they opt for bare tables. The main disappointment, though, is they don't have their liquor license yet, so we could only drink 3.2 beer.

For our appetizers, all of which were $9 each, I had four very nice cheese encrusted grilled scallops presented on a plate with a rolled crostini in the middle like a tower, with a sprig of rosemary in the middle of it, Tony had a fresh mozzarella and beef steak tomato salad drizzled with balsamic vinegar, and Jake had a shrimp cocktail served with two dipping sauces. Next was a Caesar salad for Tony and me and a house salad for Jake, which automatically came with the entree. We were somewhat distressed that the waitress brought these things all at the same time, rather than serving them in proper courses.

Then, before we were finished with our two first courses, she arrived again with the main courses. Jake and Tony had rib eye steaks and I had a porterhouse. Mine was tasty, but I thought it was rather over marinated. I did like the accompaniments, which included a bourbon spiked sweet potato puree, a mashed red new potato (with skins) and roasted sweet corn combination, and a melange of sauteed squashes, onion, and herbs. For dessert we all shared a single chocolate mousse cake, which was commercial.

I liked the food on the whole, plus the prices were fine. The waitress was friendly and down home (she kept calling Jake and Tony "Hon"), but the problem is that the wait staff is not trained to the level one would expect for such a menu and restaurant. Our waitress had not tried many of the menu offerings, and could not identify several things served on the plates. I don't blame her, though—this is a management shortcoming.

We gambled a bit. I made $10 and I think Tony made $40. Then, we went to The Stables, another Indian casino in town, for cocktails. Eventually, we took Jake back to Joplin and we made the long trek home in the drizzle. I was glad to be home!

Lido, Oklahoma City, OK

Twas a drizzly, cloudy, wet day today. Justin and I decided this morning to go shopping in Oklahoma City . We had lunch at Lido, a nice Vietnamese place in the Asian district. We both ended up with vermicelli bowls, Justin chicken and me beef. He had an interesting dessert which was a sort of coffee-sauce ice cream sundae. I had a creme caramel. We had to leave town about three to get back to Tulsa, since I had to teach a class tonight. I wish I could have cancelled it. The students were all asleep tonight.

Denny's, Tulsa, OK

We wandered over to the Denny's near my friend Justin's house for breakfast this morning. While we were there, a black postman came in and sat in a booth near us. A little later, a white couple came in and sat in the booth between him and us. After about five minutes, a waitress came over and took the white couple's order and then left for the kitchen. So, the postman got mad and left, and complained to the manager on his way out. She gave the usual apologies, though she didn't sound overly sincere. After he left, I heard the manager making catty comments about the mad customer to co-workers. Now, didn't Denny's get sued in a national class action lawsuit for racial discrimination about a decade ago? I guess those punitive damages just weren't enough to convince Denny's to stop their patterns of discrimination. This is one of the reasons I oppose all the "tort reform" movements being pushed by doctors and insurance companies all over the country. These "reforms" are capping non-economic damages and especially punitive damages. It all makes no sense to me. We can trust a jury to decide whether or not to kill a criminal, but we can't trust them to fairly assess damage awards for tort victims.

Enough of my soap box.

P.F. Chang, Tulsa, OK

My 79 year old mother and one of her friends drove up to Tulsa this morning in her friend's big black Lincoln land yacht, and I've been out shopping with them since 11 a.m., serving as navigator, tour guide, and chaperone. :-) They have interesting shopping tastes. We ended up at Utica Square, so we happened upon P.F. Chang, and wandered in there for dinner. We each had different hot teas....me with my usual organic green....and then shared spring rolls and crab wontons for appetizers. Our entrees were sweet and sour pork, orange peel chicken, and lemon scallops, accompanied by brown rice. The scallops were especially good tonight, being large and meaty, and the lemon sauce added just the right amount of tart sweetness. For dessert, we all shared a banana spring roll with coconut-pineapple ice cream. As you know, Chang is a national chain, and while they are sort of high end for Chinese food and I always enjoy my food, I still find them to be appallingly expensive. With tax and tip, the three of us spent $72, and we didn't have any alcohol or multiple multiple courses or any extravagant foods like lobster. A $24 Chinese dinner just seems a little excessive to me. After all, it's *just* Chinese! ;-)

Greek's, Pawhuska, OK

While I was in Pawhuska today, I had an hour to kill and since it was the noon hour, I finally went to this little restaurant which has been there for years called "Greek's." It wasn't at all what I expected. There wasn't a single Greek item on the menu, not even baklava. I'd heard it had a Mexican menu, but there wasn't a single Mexican item on the menu, either. It's basically a diner with burgers, chicken fried steak, and fried chicken. I usually like diners, but this one wasn't my favorite. The chicken fried steak was okay, but I didn't like the gravy. It had an odd look to it, which made me think that they used water instead of milk to make it. The french fries were dipped and very good, though.

I still had some time to kill after lunch, so I went to the Osage Trading Post out on the highway and bought a pound of dried Indian corn for my Thanksgiving dinner and a two pound sack of blue corn meal. The corn meal price has gone **way** up....it used to cost me $5, but this one was $8. I may have to start cooking with mundane normal white corn meal in the future!

After Pawhuska, I went to Bartlesville to visit my parents, and my mother had cooked this huge lunch with a big roast beef and baked sweet potatoes and steamed cauliflower with cheese melted over it and baked apples and other stuff....so I had to not mention my lunch in Pawhuksa. No wonder I'm getting fat! She also sent me home with a bag full of homemade oatmeal cookies, which I'm busy devouring as we speak.

Cypress Grille, Tulsa, OK

An interesting twist of events tonight allowed me finally to visit and eat at the now not-so-new Renaissance Hotel down at Highway 169 and 71st Street. About a year ago or so when they opened, I was supposed to have sung at a huge charity reception they held, but I had way too much musical stuff going on that weekend, and I didn't do the job. Anyway, my friend Jake's business brought him back into Tulsa this afternoon for a meeting that had been scheduled for nearly a month. Then tonight, the other parties were mysteriously silent and absent. I didn't want him to have to dine alone, so I threw my tie back on and then Tony and I drove down to join him.

The John Q. Hammons Renaissance Hotel is a large hotel and convention center which is touted as one of the most luxurious in Tulsa. It is, fortunately, three times as tall as any of the shopping centers and stores in the vicinity, so we always had our goal in sight. The problem was figuring out how to get into the parking lot! It appears to be right on the highway, but there is no ingress from the highway access road. We ended up driving all around the Super Target, then touring the scenic back side of Target with its huge collection of trash and box dumpsters, before we accidentally happened upon a small street that led us into the parking lot. The complex is sprawling. The hotel is a tall tower, with a pool and fitness center extending out on one side and a promenade and multi-ballroom conference center spreading out on the other side. Rather than valet park, we found a slot near the building and entered, but managed to enter the conference center. That was ok, since it gave us a chance to do a mini-tour.

The decor is typical expensive hotel faux-luxe, and the decorator made the interesting decision to do a cowboy country French theme in the public areas. We saw several shocking sofas with the backs and sides upholstered in cowskin, and then large coral-orange leather cushions were used in the seating areas. I'm always amused when outsiders decide that a "Tulsa theme" requires cowboy decor—don't they realize the cowboys are in Oklahoma City, and Tulsa is just Indians and oil men? Anyway, I digress. As we made our way towards the hotel lobby, we noticed that the hotel was built around a central atrium, and the floor level was so thoroughly filled with trees and plants it was like entering a jungle. Straight ahead across the atrium was the hotel bar, which was completely open to the atrirum area.

We met Jake at the bar, where he was waiting on us as he sipped a sweet vermouth on the rocks. We took bar stool seats by him, and eventually a bartender/waitress type person came by to give Jake some change. She talked to us a little bit, but did not take our drink orders! Then, she disappeared for quite a while before finally returning to see if we wanted to drink anything. For such a supposedly high class hotel, I was getting quite unimpressed with their service and style! I was also rather appalled to note the attire of the hotel patrons sitting in the bar. Several men were in blue jeans and polo-style shirts, but what really took me aback was a gentleman sitting at the bar clad in a white undershirt! While we waited, I procured a menu from behind the bar to see what they offered, and it was kind of interesting that a bar called "Merlot's" did not offer anything other than house wines by the glass! When the bartender finally took our orders, I ordered a Dubonet, but not only did she not have any Dubonet in the bar, she didn't even know what it was! Tony ordered a manhattan, and she asked him what kind of bourbon he wanted, totally ignorant of the fact that manhattans are made with rye, not bourbon or canadian whiskeys. We both settled on glasses of Dry Sack sherry, and by this time, I was totally not surprised that the sherry was served in regular generic wine glasses.

Finally, we wandered into the "good" restaurant, a place called the Cypress Grille, located just a few steps away from the bar. It appeared to be a nice hotel restaurant, with a maitress d'hotel and an elegantly appointed dining room with white tablecloths all around. We were led to a nice corner table with a good view of the entire restaurant. Menus were presented in oversized western-style leatherette folders and the wine list was similarly displayed. There was also a small printed menu which appeared to have seasonal items.

I was rather surprised at the wine list. It was lengthy and used rather small print, but only took up the two inside pages of the folder. Nevertheless, it took a while for me to look through all the wines; I was struck by the fact that not only was I not familiar with most of the vintages, but over 90% of the wines were from California, with the remaining 10% having one Italian wine, two high end French champagnes, two or three Australian wines, and then the rest from Oregon and Washington. I also thought it odd that the list did not name the vintage years, especially since similar wines from the same vineyard can vary widely, even from adjacent years. Anyway, as a tablewide wine compromise, I selected for us a Frei Brothers Russian River Valley Pinot Noir, which turned out to be the 2002 vintage when it arrived at table. It was a nice little wine with a beautiful deep ruby color and a lightness that segued into a surprising complexity of aftertaste.

Now, on to the important stuff: food. We started with crab cakes. Two average sized crab cakes came on a large dinner plate, surrounded by a fan-cut half avocado, a bouquet of watercress dressed in an orange olive oil aioli, and some very intriguing pink grapefruit and mango "salad", also dressed in the aioli. The crab cakes were nicely done, though a little bit breadier inside than I would have preferred, and I also think the entire dish would have benefitted from a little cayenne in the mixture.

There were three soups on the menu, a tomato basil, a lobster bisque, and the seasonal scallop and butternut squash soup, so I opted for the scallop and squash, whilst Jake and Tony each ordered the lobster bisque. A little later, our waitress came back to report that the scallop and squash soup "wasn't up to Chef's standards," so I had to pick something else, and sort of acquiesced to the lobster bisque. The soup presentation was quite entertaining! We were each presented a large soup plate that was artfully garnished with a little miniature garlic chai creme brulée, chunks of lobster tail meat, whole fresh corn kernels, tiny green onion sproutlings, and minced fresh herbs. The waitress then used individual gravy boats to pour the soup over the creme, lobster, and vegetables. I found the soup itself to be rather ordinary, but I was quite entertained with the additions, especially the garlic chai creme brulée.

While our waitress was doing her tableside presentation, I told her that out of curiosity, I would love to have a little spoonful of the scallop-squash soup, just to taste. Of course, the "not up to Chef's standards" line usually means they are out, or they didn't make it that day, so I didn't expect to get anything. Soon after, though, the waitress returned with another soup plate and gravy boat, and, without mentioning the fact that she brought the tomato basil soup instead of the scallop and butternut squash soup I'd requested, served me a complementary bowl. It was also interestingly presented. A drizzle of basil and olive oil painted designs on the bottom of the bowl, and a bird's nest of fine threads of merlot-poached pear sat in the middle. This tomato-basil soup was excellent. It had a nice acidity and crispness to it without being sharp, and tomato flavor was full and rich. Next time I'm at the restaurant, this is definitely what I would order.

After the soups, we moved on to salads. Jake had the "signature" house salad, which looked like mixed greens with feta cheese, poached pears, and nuts. Tony had a Caesar, which was artfully presented with layers of crostini and large thin shavings of parmesano reggiano amid the romaine. I had a Moroccan tuna salad, which featured lightly seared sushi-grade ahi tuna rubbed in surprisingly mild "Moroccan" spices, then sliced and laid on a bed of curly endive and watercress, and drizzled with green goddess dressing, a dressing I'd not had in years!

Finally it was time for the plat, or "entree" as the menu called it. There were so many tempting choices, from a planked salmon with Israeli couscous to a lamb osso bucco to a fresh grilled monkfish, I had a hard time choosing. Tony had the ribeye steak, which must have been good, since he nearly licked the plate clean. There was a base of what appeared to be roasted fingerling potatoes capped with a large grilled portobello mushroom. The medium-rare steak rested atop this, and was garnished with a tangle of deep fried potato threads. I couldn't tell if it was sauced or not.

Jake and I both opted for the house signature dish, paella. Now, while nothing compares to some of the fabulous paellas I've eaten in Spain, I have had quite a few good paellas stateside, too. This version was an interesting submission. In keeping with the luxe atmosphere of the restaurant, there were quite a few pieces of lobster tail in the mix, along with quartered slices of an unusual Portuguese sausage. There was also a good representation of large shrimp and probably more than a dozen mussels in each plate. The odd thing, though, was the rice. Usually, a saffron rice is made for paella, with distinct, tender, individual grains of long rice, and the saffron gives the mix a bright yellow color and delicate flavor. The Cypress Grille version was made with arborio rice, which is the short grain rice traditionally used for Italian risottos. This was an interesting choice, because arborio rice is very starchy and gives a risotto or other dish a "creamy," almost gruel-like consistency, but with the interesting characteristic of having a chewy "tooth," since the inside of the rice grain never gets quite completely done. I didn't like this. It was more like a seafood risotto than a Spanish paella. I also didn't taste or see the presence of much saffron, and I noticed a lot of diced yellow tomato in the rice, perhaps to add more yellow color. So, I ended up picking out all the seafood from the paella and leaving the rice on the plate. Never fear, though, I'm not going to starve or get malnourished! I daresay, though, that for a restaurant's featured "signature" and most expensive ($30 a serving) dish, I was rather disappointed with it.

While we waited for our dessert course, the waitress served Tony and Jake espressos with natural sugar crystals on a stir stick. I ordered regular coffee, and the waitress brought a big French press to the table. The other guys both had creme brulées (a pumpkin version was on the menu, but neither was brave enough to try it). They were given their ramekin of brulée on a large plate, which was side-by-side with a large French nut cookie molded into a bowl shape and filled with kirshwasser-macerated fresh berries. I asked for a cheese plate, and was brought a big plate full of way too many cubes of cheddar, cubes of Swiss, and a cracked pepper rolled mini-brie, all atop a liberal sprinkling of snipped fresh chives. I ate all the brie, but didn't even dent half of the cheddar and Swiss cubes. Along with dessert, Tony and I both savored a Fonseca port, which had interesting anisette-flavored overtones.

And, keeping with our theme of interesting twists during the evening, as we were being served our desserts, Jake's cell phone rang, and his truant business contacts were on the line. I never did hear what the problem was, but they arranged to come to the hotel and meet Jake in the bar as we left the restaurant. We had a brief handshake with them, and then Tony and I left, leaving Jake and his colleagues to conduct their belated business. I don't mean to be tacky, but I think Jake, who's a man of impeccable taste and gourmet appreciations, got the better end of the deal with Tony and me as dinner companions, cause those guys he met did not impress me as the type to know which fork to use, let alone enjoy such a lovely meal as we had.

Corner Cafe, Tulsa, OK

What is it about a diner that makes eating there so intrinsically satisfying? My friend Philip and I lunched at the Corner Cafe, a little diner in a dilapidated building at 11th and Peoria. If one doesn't mind the cemetery across the street, it has a lovely view of the downtown Tulsa skyline. I ate like a pig. The first course was an iceberg lettuce salad which contained a couple of dark red slices of a roma tomato which was actually ripe! The cafe makes their own ranch dressing--which is something we used to call buttermilk-herb dressing. The main course was three big slices of grilled calf liver and onions, with a mound of thick mashed potatoes and brown gravy sharing the plate. A side dish of blackeyed peas seasoned with bacon came, too. All of this food cost only $4.75! Philip turned his nose up at my liver (am I the only guy in the world who likes liver??) and ordered the grilled ham and cheese sandwich on Texas Toast, accompanied by a huge plateful of crispy French fries, and his lunch was only $3.85.

Abruzzi, Tulsa, OK

As I was pulling out of the parking lot after class this afternoon, my good friend Jake called to announce that he was in town on business and wanted to do lunch. We went to Abruzzi, a lovely, but not well known, Italian trattoria in Kingspoint Village at 61st and Yale. It's a fairly small restaurant in a narrow space with a vaulted ceiling, Venetian plastered dark burgundy walls, and dark woodwork. Since it was a late lunch and he has plans for a business dinner later tonight, we just ate lightly. We started with delicious bowls of clam chowder, with large chunks of clam and potatoes in a rich, brown cream soup that was heavily scented with black pepper and fresh basil. Our salads were big bowls of mixed greens, with lots of curly endive and raddicchio, as well as green and red leaf lettuces and romaine, scattered with tomato wedges, freshly made croutons, and a liberal grating of fresh mozzarella cheese, dressed in their house herb vinaigrette. For a pasta course, we each had two large handmade ravioli stuffed with a liberal amount of ricotta and other cheeses--the cheese filling was actually nicely flavored (often ravioli filling is bland)--topped with a hearty meat sauce featuring ground Italian sausage (the anise seed is always a tell-tale give away!) and garnished with fresh basil leaves and freshly grated parmesano reggiano. We're both watching our weight, so we passed on the Italian cream cake, and had big cups of coffee with whole cream.

Fuji, Tulsa, OK

After class tonight, Tony and I were out driving around and he was hungry as usual, so we landed at Fuji, the local "good" Japanese restaurant and sushi bar. We munched on a big bowl of edamame (steamed and salted soybean pods), and Tony had some kind of mixed seafood salad, which he offered to let me taste, but he ate the whole thing before I could reach my little chopsticks across the table. We both got miso soup and a lettuce salad with the house sesame-soy dressing with our meals. Tony had a deluxe sashimi platter and I had sushi in a bowl, which is a lovely lidded lacquered Japanese bowl filled with sushi rice, then piled up with a trio assortment of Japanese pickles and rolled slices of seafood, including tuna, salmon, yellowtail, squid, octopus, and two sort of unidentified fishes. There was also plenty of gari (pickled ginger root) and wasabi (green Japanese horseradish). Tony was washing his dinner down with a big can of Sapporo beer, but I wasn't in an alcohol mood tonight. I always like going to Fuji, especially when somebody else is paying!

Basil Spice, Tulsa, OK

This morning my friend Justin and I shopping and opted to make our luncheon at Basil Spice, an interesting little Thai restaurant in a converted Taco Tico building which has been around for, I don't know, five or six years. We had a very friendly and well informed waiter who liked to talk about all the favorable reviews the restaurant and specific dishes had gotten. We started with chicken and vegetable-stuffed steamed dumplings with fish sauce and scallions. For a main course, I had the cashew nut special, which was a pleasant melange of chicken, cashews, water chestnuts, onion, carrot, shredded mushrooms, and deadly little red pepper pods, all in a light brown sauce. Justin had the "Amazing Thailand," a dish highly touted by the waiter, which was a hot spicy chicken and peanut combination in a peanut sauce presented on a divan of stir-fried broccoli. Both dishes came with jasmine rice. We split a Thai ice cream for dessert, which was a bowl of vanilla ice cream with some sort of exotic Thai fruit that was a translucent pearl color with an al dente tooth and a slightly sweet fruity taste, and then garnished with a heavy sprinkle of ground peanuts.

Montana Mike's, Bartlesville, OK

For my father's 77th birthday dinner, we all went to a chain restaurant called Montana Mike's, a hunting and fishing themed steakhouse. I've been there before....could be better, could be worse. Interestingly, their only Oklahoma restaurants seem to be in Bartlesville and Miami, with none in either Tulsa or Oklahoma City. Anyway, the waitress was a bit preoccupied tonight, and appeared only rarely.....which is unusual in a town like Bartlesville where the hired help is usually overly solicitous. We started with tossed green salads, which were okay, but the greens lacked crispness. My bleu cheese dressing was tasty and had actual chunks of cheese in it, so it passed muster. My entree was a large t-bone steak, medium rare, served sizzling on a hot cast iron tray, accompanied by a baked sweet potato dripping in butter. There was brown sugar on the side, but I opted not to use any. The steak was very tasty and flavorful, but I could tell from the texture that it had been fairly liberally doused with papain extract (meat tenderizer made from papaya fruit). There was enough of a bone to take home to Trevor, the dog. We didn't do dessert there, since my mother baked a red velvet cake frosted in milk chocolate icing.

Wild Potato Buffet, Cherokee Casino, Catoosa, OK

We're just in from the Cherokee Casino-Catoosa. Tony and I zipped out there after Will and Grace for the dinner buffet at the Wild Potato Buffet and a little gambling. This is the first time I've done their dinner buffet—usually we do the post-midnight breakfast buffet (it's a steal at $2.95 per person!)—since I had a buy-one-get-one-free coupon. It was an okay buffet, but I don't know that I'd want to do it often at $10.95 per person (includes drinks and tax). I think it's about $2 over priced for the variety, quality, and types of food. Anyway, they had a very tasty German potato salad on the salad buffet and I was rather intrigued with their version of the buffet standard shredded carrot and raisin salad.....they added small pineapple chunks, sunflower seeds, and the mixture was curried! The soups were *both* minestrone. I didn't eat it, but Tony said it tasted like it came from a can. LOL Lots of fried foods and meats tonight, plus they had lots of pasta--stuffed shells, tortellini, and some kind of chicken fettucine casserole. I did enjoy a lot of their vegetables, though. We were too late to have the roast beef from the carving station or the barbecued ribs the remnants of which I saw laying around here and there. Dessert was fun. They have a chocolate fountain. You can skewer your own fruits and marshmallows, dip them in the fountain, then garnish them with all kinds of nuts and sprinkles.

Costa Azul, Tulsa, OK

I went with a friend to a little Mexican restaurant called Costa Azul, over on the ethnic side of town. It was our first visit, and was surprisingly good. I was also pleased to notice that they seem to stay open quite late. There weren't any hours posted, but it was nearly 11 when we left, and we saw new people coming into the restaurant then. Most places in Tulsa close at 9! It was a little bit of an adventure, since our waitress had limited English, and she seemed equally unable to understand my Spanish. Nevertheless, we had a huge basket of hot, fresh tortilla chips on our table as soon as we were seated, accompanying by little bowls of tasty salsa. The salsa was pleasant....I tasted both tomato and tomatillo, with some cilantro and onion, just a touch of heat, and I particularly liked it cause it wasn't sweet. While we were making up our minds, we ordered a bowl of chili con queso, and the waitress brought us a **huge** bowl of queso blanco with herbs and spices, and we enjoyed it quite a lot. We finally decided upon our entrees. My friend ordered an enchilada sampler, which he reported to be tasty and which I noted was enough food for two or three people! I had an El Salvadorean dish called puppitas, which were sort of like little thin corn meal pancakes around a layer of pork and cheese, kind of like a quesadilla, with a pickled cabbage slaw and an orangey pepper sauce. I didn't much like the cabbage or sauce, but I thought the puppitas were very good. We both followed dinner with flans. Their version was very dense, almost chocolatey in taste. All in all, it was a nice meal, and only cost about $25 for the two of us. We plan to go back.