by Langeranger » Mon Aug 03, 2015 9:53 pm
Jim, Road trips are always a challenge. My wife and I spent several days in June traveling, relying considerably on Wendy's for baked potato and side salad, both naked for a nutritious and inexpensive meal. I wrote an account of the trip and am including the most interesting dining experience of the entire run which happened to be our last day out. Here it is.
Our last night on the road. Muskogee, Oklahoma. The town made famous, or infamous, by songwriter and Country crooner, Merle Haggard. I called a local Subway. A woman answered. Sez I, “Hey, I heard that some Subways now have some vegan items on the menu.” That’s all I got out of my mouth before she stopped me. “Not in Muskogee, she giggled.” To the yellow pages I go. I spot The Magic Wok. Well, that’s encouraging. A bit of magic might be just the thing I need. An enthusiastic man with a high-pitched voice speaking good English, tinctured with an accent, answers. I figure he acquired the accent somewhere considerably east of Muskogee. He quickly convinced me he could fix a meal without using oil in his Wok. I think he even used the word “steam.” My kind of guy. “Pass the Wal-Mart, turn right, look for the Sonic. I’m right next door.” Explicit directions. Let’s go Royanna!
We wheel into the drive of what we quickly opine to be the shabby corpse of the snazzy Sonic “right next door.” For a moment, each of us I’d guess, wondered whether The Magic Wok had ever passed a health department inspection. From superficial appearances it might take some magic to clear that hurdle. Inside we discovered (1) we were the only patrons, (2) a small dining area where a dishpan size mixing bowl sat on a table, heaped with carved, raw chicken, (3) to read the menu board and the miscellany of, mostly hand-lettered, signage would take several uninterrupted minutes, and (4) the magic man with the Wok, all smiles, rightly guessing I was the guy on the phone minutes earlier. Probably in his mid-fifties, Steve Chang came to this country from Taiwan at age 22. He’s lived in New Jersey, Colorado, and California, and now Oklahoma. A few curiosity questions from me were all it took to prompt a non-stop, table-side account of his life as we snarfed down the meal he prepared to our specs. His parade of words was interrupted only (but frequently), by a peal of enthusiastic laughter. He told us of learning to cook by watching a chef where he worked. Later, at home, he’d try to mimic what he’d seen the older man do, tweaking the result, until his father gave his approval. His grown daughter is to visit Taiwan soon and has been given permission by Mr. Chang to remain there if she so wishes. We learned that he routinely puts in fourteen hours a day, keeping the magic place going.
Royanna and I are both a bit puzzled by our decision to not leave when we first laid eyes on this dilapidated eatery; particularly after we went inside and saw the raw chicken at room temp. Clearly, it wasn’t a pleasant place to dine. On the other hand, of all the meals we had on the road, Steve Chang’s Magic Wok was one of the more nutritious, but more lastingly, it’s the one that makes a memory. Put another way, Steve’s joint was no Wendy’s. And though we’ll never go back, I’m glad we went once.
good eatin', Don