Back in Black

Howdy! I'm back from the hinterlands and here to report that all is well in the land of chicken-fried steak and Mexican food. From a truck stop breakfast to Shiner Bock on tap, I ate well and can report that good food is alive and well in rural America. Ironically, the most popular restaurant in our tiny town in Western Oklahoma? The Chinese buffet. Complete with crab rangoon, odd looking shrimp dishes, and the ever popular soft-serve ice cream machine, how, you ask, do I know it's the most popular restaurant in town? Why, it's the one everyone goes to after church on Sunday!

Now, the drawbacks. It's all red meat all the time out there. Sometimes, that meat is deep fried. When you're not eating meat, you're eating carbs. Bread is served and eaten at every meal, even if the meal is pasta. Milk is whole. Period. Other than plain iceberg lettuce with tiny slivers of carrots and celery (a token salad served to make me happy), nary a vegetable passed o'er these lips for four days. I had onion rings with a BBQ sandwich yesterday and might have to count those.

In the meantime, my stomach is glad to be home and back on its regular diet of salad (served with scotch eggs), yoghurt (full fat with honey), and pulled pork. Hmmm. Maybe I'm more dedicated to the Oklahoma diet than I thought. Maybe it's true -- you can take a girl out of Oklahoma, but you can't take the Oklahoma out of the girl. Thank goodness the color black is slimming.