Birria My Heart in Bethany
Happening over to Papa Angelo’s Pizza, just south of NW 39th Expressway on College, last Sunday a new Mexican Cafe caught my eye.
I should be more specific, a proclamation on the window of said restaurant caught my eye: hand-made corn tortillas. “Yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Claus!” cried my inner chowhound.
So, the next night Lori and son Luke decided to try out this potential diamond in the rough on the southwest corner of College and NW 39th Expressway called Birrieria Diaz. The banner proudly states the place serves: Estilo Calvillo, Ags: meaning “in the style of Calvillo, Aguascalientes.” That’s no surprise, considering all the other local eateries with ownership from that region: namely Abel’s.
The name refers to the restaurant’s signature dish, birria. The Diaz family specialty, which is commonly a goat recipe, served as a beef or lamb dish. On Monday, only the beef was available. It was braised low and slow in chiles, onions and a tomato. It’s served with the aforementioned corn tortillas, which you can also order fried into tostadas, and fleet of accoutrements: diced onions, cilantro, dried chiles, red onions mixed with habaneros, radish and lime wedges.
The Diaz family doesn’t know me personally, but they know my heart. This is my kind of eating. And they’ll soon get to know me better. Luke tried some tacos al carbon, which he loved. Lori had the cheese enchiladas with red chile sauce. The enchiladas were as far from Tex-Mex as Calvillo is from San Antonio. The cheese was Mexican cotija and the onions plentiful. We also tried a couple dorados, which are potatoes wrapped in a fried corn tortilla dressed with cheese and choice of lettuce or cabbage and a mild tomato sauce.
The young lady running the counter informed me they’d opened last Friday and were so slammed they had to take their menus off the tables and rely on the taqueria menu for now. She said they need to hire more cooks before returning to a standard menu, which will happen soon.
If you’ve been let me know what you thought. I plan to go back down the road when they’ve added staff and menu items. If you want to join me, let me know.
Wayne’s Orange Crush-Pineapple Ice Cream
Last week, I wrote a column about my dear friend Wayne Singleterry, a great man and a great foodie.
In our Norman bureau, we did a Dirty Santa party every year. In preparation for it, a questionairre was circulated to help giftors satisfy giftees. One question read: Favorite Food?
The query sought a response to help guide the giftor toward a gift card suitable for the intended. Typical answers included: Italian, Barbecue, Mexican, and etc. But Wayne was far from typical.
His answer? Bacon.
Wayne was also known to say things like: I’ve had too much salt today, I need something sweet; or I’ve had too many sweets today, I need something salty.
I remember his exact menu the two days his death: The Sooner Schooner from the new-at-the-time Norman Hideaway and fried shrimp at the Norman Pearl’s. Perhaps his two favorite meals, outside of the Indian Taco, doubtlessly his favorite thing to eat on Earth.
One day we happened into a short-lived cafe on Berry called Country Favorites, who that day had Indian Tacos as their lunch special. Wayne called Country Favorites every day until they closed to ask if it was on special. When they had it, we were there.
I like to think that those final two meals were no accident. We found later that he knew treatment for his condition was no longer treatable. He knew the end was near, and he chose his favorite meals. No words can express how honored I feel to have shared those meals with him. He is one of my true mentors, and I miss him dearly.
After last week’s story, I got many lovely emails from Wayne’s family, one included the original recipe. It was also pointed out that our own Melba Lovelace included his recipe in her book “Recipes: Yours, Mine and Ours,” published in 1989.
With that information, I did something I should’ve done many, many years ago — check our archives. I can’t tell you how many inexperienced reporters I’ve chastised for not using the information we have under our very own noses. Paybacks are hell, I guess.
Anyway, with guidance from Wayne’s sister-in-law Maye and Melba Lovelace, here is what she wrote back in 1988 before including the recipe in her cookbook the next year:
Here’s the real scoop about Wayne Singleterry.
A reporter at The Oklahoman, Singleterry is one of the celebrated contributors on “food day at the office.’ When he brought Black-Eyed Pea Salad, everyone thought it was wonderful.
But when I asked Wayne if I could share the salad recipe with readers, all his office-mates started telling me their favorites, which included his ice cream.
He said some of his fondest memories are of summertime ice cream parties making homemade ice cream surrounded by family.
“We had big shade trees in our yard in Marlow, and we’d take turns sitting on the ice cream freezer,” he said.
He’s now helping make memories for his friends.
“Easter’s a good holiday to catch people who don’t have family around,” he said, so he traditionally has an Easter brunch at his home in Norman.
For this brunch, he digs out his two ice cream freezers, one electric and one manual, and gets the ice cream frozen and packed to set aside to mellow before his guests arrive.
Wayne’s Orange Crush-Pineapple Ice Cream
Ingredients
- 1 can (8 oz.) crushed pineapple
- 1 can (14 oz.) Eagle Brand sweetened condensed milk
- 6 cans (12 oz. each) Orange Crush
Directions
- Mix pineapple and condensed milk in freezer can.
- Slowly add Crush, pouring it against the side of the can to retain as much carbonation as possible.
- Mix a couple of strokes, then freeze.
- This can be eaten right away or stored and mellowed.
Source: Wayne Singleterry
If Heaven is a No Brunch Zone, Are There At Least Potlucks?
As part of my ceaseless endeavor to be George Lang when I grow up, I’d like to take this opportunity to brazenly pilfer his Video of the Day concept to share this little beauty from the 2-aughts.
Minister Cleo Clariet and his Katherine Lane appeared on the “The Kay Bain Show” in Tupelo, Mississippi, (which explains the photo of Elvis Presley that adorns the set) in May or June of 2004. Bain’s show has been a local fixture in Elvis Country for years.
In this little diddy, Minister Clariet and his then-fiance warble about the first meal of the day and it’s place in the Great Hereafter. Sadly, the good minister was called home in December of that year. Here’s hoping, he’s got a stage to sing from in some International House of Pancakes in the sky.
