Dear Oklahoma…

So Oklahoma City, yeah. This trip has officially come full-circle. We passed through Oklahoma at the start of our trip 12 days ago but did not stop. Even though I had discovered the raw restaurant 105 Degrees via ye olde google search, time was not on our side and we’d have to waste a good deal of time to try it out. We pledged to come back on the return trip. I mean, c’mon… gourmet vegan dining in Oklahoma City?! We needed to get to the bottom of this.

As it turns out, 105 Degrees’s menu was is created by New York City’s Pure Food and Wine‘s Matthew Kenney. The space houses a living cuisine academy and boutique, another unique destination on our vegan roadtrip. Starting our day with some thrifting we worked up an appetite that grew through our attempt at finding the restaurant’s space. But it was well worth the wait and folly. I started with a first course of kimchee dumplings in a pool of sea foam and sprinkle of black sesame seeds. The dumplings were amply stuffed with a delicious kimchee medley.
My main course was their Arrabiata, a potato gnocchi in a hot chili-tomato sauce around a bed of wilted spinach and some dollops of aged raw chevre. The portion was heated (not above 105 degrees!) and the perfect portion to leave a spot for one of their yummy desserts.
That dessert, a citrus poppy seed cake with vanilla bean cream frosting topped with a blueberry compote. It was the perfect end of a very impressive meal. Here I am below with a cheek full of the cake’s delicately-texture “cake”. I couldn’t put my finger on what the base of this dessert was. I stopped trying to figure it out and quickly became a member of the clean plate club. Check CandyPenny’s blog for details on her special raw Oklahoma City meal.After lunch we headed back towards Texas. On the way we spied a billboard for The Toy and Action Figure Museum in Paul’s Valley, OK. Another exciting and interesting road find, we had to check it out. The museum was home to local artist and collector Kevin Stark’s personal collection. It exhibited over 10,000 pieces including a very extensive bat cave jam-packed with a ton of Batman artifacts. This was the most impressive and extensive exhibit. There were also showcases of DC, Marvel and WWF (WWE?) action figures, a GI Joe section and a relatively small Star Wars wall.
The museum also had a display of Alternative Baking Company‘s vegan cookies! Here the friendly museum employee poses with the cookies. Best action figure museum snack ever.
Oklahoma soon gave way to the Lone Star state. The end. I’ll have one more day in Austin before heading back home to my life, sans car. But not without a few more vegan eats inland…