The Rat Pack Does Mongolian Barbecue

One of our fellow rat-packers is fairly particular about what she eats.  She usually does not prefer exotic things like Asian or Indian food.  However, she recently discovered Mongolian Barbecue and we have now enjoyed a couple of visits to the Oriental Buffet at 61st and Sheridan which has a good one.

It works like this.  You walk down a line stocked with all sorts of raw ingredients like chicken, beef, pork and shrimp.  There are also several vegetables such as onions, cabbage, mushrooms, carrots, peppers, etc.  You fill your plate with the raw ingredients you want.  Then, you take a bowl and mix the sauce you want from ingredients like curry juice, soy sauce, sesame oil, hot pepper oil, pineapple juice, etc.

You then give your plate and the sauce bowl to a cook behind the bar.  He throws your dry ingredients onto a huge, very hot grill and cooks them for you.  In the last few moments, he adds the sauce and stir fries it a bit more.  The result is delicious, very healthy and even low in calories.

The Oriental also has full Chinese buffet as well as a salad bar and even an ice cream machine.  So everybody gets something they like.  The staff is also friendly and doesn't mind us sitting around and talking for an hour or so after we have eaten.

We were there again last night and as usual, a good time was had by all.

More Front Porch Music

Here is some more front porch music on my new Martin. The song is something I remember from my youth. I can't remember the title. The picture is from left to right, my mother, my uncle Earvin, my maternal grandmother and my uncle Eugene who taught me how to play. The guitar he is holding appears to be a pre-war Gibson L Model, perhaps an L-5. It would have been worth the good part of a years "crop" back then and now it would be priceless.

Front Porch Music

This is the kind of music I heard in my youth. It was played on front porches and even at the general store. True to the form, I did not use a mic nor any effects. It is a raw acoustic recording of me playing a Hohner Crossover harmonica in a rack accompanying myself with a Martin LXM guitar. The sound is kind of raw to my tastes and I was amazed at the amount of reed rattle a nearly hundred dollar harmonica produces in an acoustic recording. But, the sound is also authentic. This is pretty well what front porch music sounded like around our place in the 1950's.

The song has no name. It is what my uncles used to call a breakdown. They did live radio back then. When they had to "stretch" they would go into one of these "breakdowns" and vamp until they ran out the clock. My uncle Eugene taught me some basic breakdowns when I was five or so.

At any rate, this is in remembrance of my Uncle Eugene who took the time and trouble to give me the gift of music when I was too young to appreciate it.

Post Script:

This was my first recording with my new Martin LXM guitar. I have had it now for a couple of weeks and I think I have developed a friend for life. It is very small guitar, 3/4 sized actually. It is made for children and adults who travel. But, it has a HUGE voice and more than adequate tone. It is easy to play and easy to haul around. I can play it all evening if I want to without developing cramps as I play or spending the night awake with aching shoulders.

The guitar is made in Mexico. I wish it had been made in America but I doubt that it could be under the current administration since it uses all high tech laminates whose manufacturing processes would cost a fortune to license in the US due to environmental restrictions. And, that brings up another point. I had avoided this guitar for months because of it is made of plywood. Problem is, whatever Martin did, they did right and their little plywood axe sounds much better than many solid wood guitars I played.

Sometimes, a musician develops an emotional attachment to an instrument. I have several guitars and ukuleles. Some of them are pretty good instruments and some are just adequate. I have played this little guy every morning and evening since he arrived on my front porch and I can see myself doing the same thing every day for the rest of my life. It is that comfortable. Thank you Martin for making a good quality, inexpensive guitar.

Good Time Over A Bad Meal

The Rat Pack went out Wednesday night for the five dollar spaghetti dinner special at Spaghetti Warehouse. I can't say much good about the meal. My soup was cold, my pasta was lukewarm, the chicken topping I ordered for it was a frozen entree that had been nuked. I have had better pasta out of a Korean War era C-Rat can warmed up over a heat tab. The only things really worth talking about on the table were the sourdough bread (which was good) and the really overpriced pitcher of Sangria. I suppose it would be really, really hard to screw up Koolaid and table red.

But, the talk around the table was pleasant as was the company. The conversation went something like this: Mike was deeply engrossed in getting his quite sophisticated, self installed home security system installed and working right. Maddy was exercised about Rush Limbaugh for calling Georgetown law student Sandra Fluke a whore. I have been reading a book about the destructive effects of meth on small towns and talked some about that. Vacation plans went around once or twice. We're kicking around the possibility of renting a beach house together next fall after the students clear the beaches. Probably someplace on the Redneck Riviera in Mississippi or Alabama.
















But, as usual, good food or bad, a good time was had by all.

The Rat Pack Takes A Cruise

Bill Plays At Photography

Back in the stone ages we used to have to develop film in darkrooms and apply our artistic bent through both the camera lens and electro-mechanical monstrosities called "enlargers." Now, with digital cameras and photo processing software, it is all so easy. But, despite that ease, I gave up photography when I began the long path toward becoming an attorney. I am coming back to it now. Recently, I decided that life is too short and I have lived too long to give up the simple pleasures God gave to us to make life enjoyable. I used to particularly enjoy doing character studies of people. Here are few shots from our recent cruise:

Bill and Sheila Eat Indian

After a string of spring like days, it was a raw and windy night in Tulsa. The kind of night you think twice about going out into. But, we decided to go ahead and Sheila suggested we try the new Indian restaurant at 4844 S. Memorial for our regular Friday night outing. I'm glad she did.

Himalaya's Aromas of India serves a buffet style meal for lunch and dinner every day. Tonight, there was a wide range of interesting choices on the buffet. I had a lamb meatball, Chicken Tiki Marsala, Chicken Curry, Chicken Tandoori, my favorite deep fried spinach leaves, a vegan potato and vegetable dish and fried bread. Every choice was fabulous. The chicken in the curry and the Tiki Marsala was buttery, almost melting in your mouth. The ground lamb was well seasoned with mint and cilantro.

After we were seated with our buffet plates, the head waiter asked if he could make us a "crunchy Indian salad." He proceeded to take a couple of large salad bowls and begin scooping up various items and sauces from the buffet line. In a couple of moments he sat the bowls before us. After one bite, we were both hooked. It was an intriguing mixture of tomatoes, onions, lentils, Indian crackers, other things we could only guess at and what tasted like several Indian sauces. The result was a delight to the palate. The mixture of textures was fascinating. The flavors were clean and at the same time savory and homey. The salad could have been a meal in itself.

We finished the meal with Mango custard poured over chopped apples and bananas and an interesting dish made from pineapples, raisins, nuts and cream of wheat. All I can say is that as unlikely as the latter dish sounded, it was nothing short of fabulous and I found myself wishing I had eaten less earlier in the meal so that I could have had more of it.

Despite its humble home, Himalaya's Aromas of India serves one of the best meals in Tulsa. It is a little pricey, around twenty five dollars for two, but the food is nothing short of fabulous. It is exotic, intriguing and satisfying. The staff are friendly and helpful and the surroundings, while humble, are spotlessly clean. We will be going back often.