Tulsa Food

Looking back over the sumptuous feasts I’ve devoured last year in Tulsa restaurants, I’m amazed by the quality. Not so long ago you’d have to fly to New York or Paris to find dishes like these. I’ve made a list of the ten best dishes I ate in 2011 — not an easy job — and here they are, in no particular order. Many of these dishes were one night only deals but if you go to the restaurant that served them, you know you can get something just as good. Well, almost as good. And if you ever run into a food snob who says, “well Tulsa is fine if you want frito pies, but you just can’t find anything to compare with the top restaurants in my city!”, just show him any one of these photos and he just might change his mind.

1. Chef Marcus Vause. Lobster with caviar and foie gras.

It doesn’t take a genius chef to throw the three most expensive foods together. But it DOES take a genius chef to make it work. The Brasserie’s New Year’s Eve menu offered this, a whole (and very small) lobster tail topped with a dollop of caviar and lounging on a pillowy raviolo stuffed with rich foie gras. Surrounding it, and binding all the flavors together, was a lake of a rich cream sauce made with sea urchins. You won’t find this on the regular menu, but go on any night and you’ll find dishes worthy of this list.

The Brasserie Restaurant & Bar
3509 S Peoria Ave # 161
Tulsa, OK 74105-2517
(918) 779-7070

2. Chef Michelle Donaldson. Pork cheeks.

Michelle Donaldson cooked up a storm at Polo Grill. Now, she’s working with Erik Reynolds at Smoke. Just before 2011 ended, she served Berkshire pork cheeks, grilled and then braised for 13 hours in red wine and mirepoix, with a spicy apple slaw and a polenta cake accented with maple syrup.

Polo Grill
2038 Utica Square
Tulsa, OK 74114-1635
(918) 744-4280

3. Chef Ian van Anglen. Quail Baklava.

Gemma’s Woodfire Kitchen has a worthy menu but it’s in the daily specials that Ian van Anglen’s talents really shine. This is one example… roast quail, pounded thin and wrapped in phyllo dough, topped with crunchy fennel and surrounded by two kinds of olive puree.

Gemma’s Woodfire Kitchen
3410 S Peoria Ave
Tulsa, OK 74105
(918) 289-0800

4. Chef Erik Reynolds. Fish Special.

It’s rare to find a steakhouse where the best thing by far is the fish. But Smoke is that steakhouse. Erik Reynolds has a secret source somewhere in or near Florida that ships him fish, so what you eat was swimming in the Atlantic the day before. This is one example. Grilled grouper with kale, cherry tomatoes, and rich, sauteed morels in a wonderful smoke-infused broth made by smoking garlic for 4 hours and then braising it in wine. I never knew why people like grouper until I ate this dish last April. I’d never had it perfectly cooked before. And the morels were fabulous beyond description. (As I recall, Jeremy New designed this sauce, but the fish special is almost always created by Erik.)

Smoke on Cherry Street
1542 E. 15 St.
Tulsa, OK
(918) 949-4440

5. Chef Justin Thompson. Duck Two Ways.

Juniper is amazing. The menu changes every week, depending on what local produce is available, and Justin Thompson is at the peak of his game. I chose this dish, which is available every week, as just one example of his protean talent. That’s a duck breast over butternut squash puree. There’s a bit of a sweet sauce, and there are some unexpected spices in the puree, but the meat is the star of the show. It had a rich, meaty, pleasantly gamy flavor and was perhaps the best duck I’ve ever tasted. On the left, duck confit is paired with a tart apple salad. (Please remember that I’m listing the 10 best in no particular order, Justin’s one of the best chefs in town.)

Juniper Restaurant & Martini Lounge
Downtown
324 E 3rd St
Tulsa, OK 74120
(918) 794-1090

6. Chef James Shrader. Bento.

All of James Shrader’s dishes are crafted with gem-like perfection. So I’ve picked those tiny $3 miniature dishes which showcase this talent on a miniature scale. Here, two exquisite jewel-like bentos share a bowl. A mini filet mignon garnished with caramelized onions sauteed in bourbon and a lamb sausage topped with onions marinated in a blend of citrus juices.

Palace Cafe
1301 East 15th Street
Tulsa, OK 74120-5803
(918) 582-4321

7. Chef Paul Wilson. Cajun dishes.

Paul Wilson is now working at Juniper and Lunabread is now closed. So if you want dishes like the fabulous Cajun feasts that appeared at Lunabread last spring, you’ll have to go to Louisiana, rent a motorboat, cruise up some bayous, stop when you see a country shack with smoke up the chimney. Rural Cajun just doesn’t travel, and with Lunabread gone you missed your one chance to try it without having to fight off alligators.

8. Mi Tierra Ceviche.

You can’t find Peruvian food as good as this in New York or anywhere else outside Peru. Dishes invented by the Incas, dishes brought by French chefs fleeing to Peru in 1790, dishes brought by Chinese immigrants to Peru, dishes cooked by Indians in the Amazon jungle. Mi Tierra has fine renditions of the entire panoply of Peruvian cuisine. And none is finer than their take on Peru’s most famous dish, ceviche. Made from raw fish macerated in citrus juice, it’s very simple, but it has to be done exactly right.

Restaurant Mi Tierra
6703 E 81 St
Tulsa (just east of Sheridan)
918-477-7155

9. Chef Joe Davidson. Ribs.

Anthony Bourdain called the Kansas City branch of Oklahoma Joe’s the best barbecue in the world. And now Joe has come home to Oklahoma.

Oklahoma Joe’s BBQ
333 W Albany St
Broken Arrow, OK 74012
(918) 355-0000

10. Chef Doug Atkinson. Red Deer Chop with Mole Coloradito.

A Red Deer Chop served with an Oaxacan Mole Coloradito and sweet cornmeal pancakes ($28). Red deer, a close cousin of elk, isn’t native to America. The meat, lean but with a rich, buttery flavor, was flown in from Australia. But the sauce was the star of the show. Moles, complex sauces that take hours, even days, to prepare, are the apex of Mexican cuisine. And the peak of that peak are the seven classic moles from Oaxaca, impossible to find even in New York, and, unless you are invited to private houses, difficult even in Oaxaca. But there it was on my west Tulsa plate, tingling my tongue with hints of exotic spice. Doug Atkinson no longer cooks at Go West, and he is much missed.

Go West Restaurant and Saloon
6205 New Sapulpa Rd
Tulsa, OK 74131-2436
(918) 446-7546

Brian Schwartz:

Born in NYC, age 0, on my birthday. College in Oxford at age 16. Law School in New Haven, Conn. 6 years travel in Africa and Asia. Haven’t done much lately. Still, I’m the only Tulsa member of the little-known Omega Society.  www.theomegasociety.com

I speak enough Chinese to order food not on any English menu. Spanish French Italian too (not fluently but food-ently) My favorite restaurant is Jean-Georges in New York. But those NYC chefs would sell their soul to get the produce available from the farms around Inola.

“A writer writes alone. His words tumble forth from a magical inner void that is mysterious even to himself, and that no one else can enter.” And yet, the most important thing to me the writer is YOU. Without you to hear them, my words are worth less than silence.