It’s a sad country song that I know I sing over and over again, but when driving across the fruited plains of Oklahoma, you start to realize the down and dirty truck-stops of years gone by have been increasingly replaced by the corporate culture of expected eateries like McDonalds, Subway and Baskin-Robbins.
However, at a few of these travel plazas, you’ll find dishes like chicken vindaloo and veg thali right next to the typical potato wedges and deep fried burritos; you see, in Oklahoma, there’s a number of Indian-owned truck-stops with full-on traditional restaurants that are holding it down, including one outside of Shawnee.
I was coming back from a trip to Tulsa the other evening when I stopped at the beautifully-named Biscuit Hill Travel Plaza, 12501 Valley Road. With a moniker like that, I was stereotypically expecting a few heaps of home-style vittles, possibly of the buttermilk variety. Instead, I came across Tandoori Indian Restaurant, open and ready for my business.
The travel stop itself is filled with country-fied items like fishin’ worms, cases of Coors and glass-blown bongs, all things the typical backwoods buyer is in the market for these days, I guess. But off to the side in the small dining area—still closed-off due to Covid-19, natch—a television showing a Hindi news-program was busy reporting as, a few feet away, fanciful foreign snacks from India lined the shelves.