Steve and the Tank! - Medford Bob Says

Wednesday, April 25, 2007

Medford Bob files the following report from his Oklahoma road trip:

REPORTING FROM OKLAHOMA

Tonight we went to Prague, Oklahoma to have dinner at a charming little place called the “Catfish Roundup”. Right away I knew we were in for a treat as it was situated next to this really nice trailer park right behind where the big rigs were parked. I knew it would be classy because the trailer people had their own commodes, both ladies and men, on the outside of the building. We went inside and naturally, there was a large fish tank with the aforementioned delicacies swimming about. I don’t know if you’ve ever seen a live catfish but think of it as a New York subway rat with no feet that swims. Mighty fine eating ahead I’m thinking. I gotta confess that I feel about catfish the way I feel about venison. All my life I’ve heard “ it’s really delicious if it’s cooked right”. The answer on venison is, “I don’t care how you cook it, I hate it”. Tonight, we were dining at the catfish Four Seasons. Anyway, we go into the dining room and right away I notice it is decorated with the really good cheap paneling which served as a backdrop for all the mounted fish hanging on the walls. The maitre d was a young man who was dressed in an Okie hip hop interpretation of the uniform of the establishment. We still don’t know how he kept his pants up and I didn’t understand a word he said. We follow him over the uniformly stained indoor outdoor to our booth with the silk flowers and Formica tabletop. I sit down and look around the room and realize there may not be a full set of teeth collectively among the diners. Almost directly across from me is a tableful of truckers, one of whom had the most beet red face I’ve ever seen, and just kept staring at me. I wasn’t sure if he wanted to plug me or plug me! Either way I don’t think it would have mattered to him. Almost immediately we are approached by a young lady offering the house amuse bouche, apple fritters! What a delightful and whimsical interpretation. It made my heart stand still! Literally. Our waitress, Amanda, comes over, hands us the menu, and asks if we’d like to order. Call me old fashioned but I still have this crazy idea I’d like to see the choices before I commit. While we are deciding, the roll girl walks by, sees we have no food yet, and decides that we don’t need bread. What a health nut! Amanda comes back and Alma and I decide, what the heck, we’ll have the catfish. I mean, when in Rome right? Let me digress by saying that this place was recommended by Alma’s daughter Rox who “loved the batter around the fish because it had such a great flavor”. Rox lives in Montana, and when I asked her to describe a four star restaurant there she said “there isn’t any”. Anyway, the catfish dinner came with potatoes, coleslaw and something called hush puppies. Now, being from the Northeast, I thought a Hush Puppie was a soft suede shoe. And I wasn’t far off because while the outside of this thing was crispy (as was everything else except the cole slaw), the inside can only be described this way- “ if tofu were sand….” The catfish was as OK as a bottom feeder fried in hot grease can be. And Rox, the “great flavor in the batter” is called pepper. But at least we got our rolls. After we asked for them. And they were hot and good. But let me not be unkind. I think the food and the atmosphere blended harmoniously and I would recommend the “Catfish Outhouse” to anyone traveling on route 40 near Prague Oklahoma. Just stay away from the truckers.