Route 66: Road Food
What did we eat? Just what you'd expect: burgers, fries, hotdogs--and oatmeal pie!
After weeks of writing about our adventures on Route 66, I think I can hear faint muttering, “Are you ever going to get around to talking about the food? And where’s the recipe for that oatmeal pie you mentioned?” (Yes, it’s here! Skip to the bottom of this post if you’re impatient!)
Okay, you’re all too polite to actually say this, but I know my audience. It’s all very well to wax rhapsodic about Elvis suites, car museums and curio shops (see my previous post here), but where’s the beef? (In case you’re baffled by that reference, you can check out the 1984 Wendy’s commercial here.)
In fact we ate a whole lot of beef (though not from Wendy’s!). Heading along what’s sometimes called Main Street USA, it wasn’t surprising that we mostly consumed what might be considered the all-American diet: burgers, steak, meatloaf—along with other meats, hotdogs, sausages, meaty chilis, tacos, brisket, fried chicken, pizza, even some barbecued salmon and turkey. Vegetables and fruits were in short supply—at least from the vantage point of this spoiled California girl!
Most of it was accompanied by plenty of caloric sides—fries, mac and cheese, baked potatoes, cheesy grits, and capped off with ice cream, pies, shakes, a cookie or two, and so on. As you might expect, a lot of it was quite delicious, though a little voice in my head kept reminding me that eating such a carb-, fat- and sugar-laden diet for 21 straight days probably wasn’t the wisest option. But, hey, why not go out with a bang? Excess is the American way, right? If you like one burger, why not have 10 on a bun layered with cheese, ham, bacon and egg, or, if you prefer, attempt to polish off a 72-ounce steak with all the trimmings in an hour or less (see photos below)? Step right up, madames et messieurs!
In the mornings, this moveable feast was carried on at a string of Best Westerns at which we stayed courtesy of the company’s sponsorship of my husband Jeff’s PhotowalksTV channel). Those breakfasts usually included waffles, some stamped with the “BW” logo, and in Texas, poured into a mold in the shape of the state! There were also eggs, sometimes scrambled, or cheese omelets in perfectly shaped half-moons, most a bit pre-fab, with the exception of one lodging in tiny Shamrock, Texas, where eggs were made to order by a calm cook as two little kids scurried around her in a small kitchen.
There were also hashbrowns, sausages, bacon, and at several of our stops in Missouri, Oklahoma and Texas, biscuits and gravy, a nod to the Southern heritage that infuses these states. And always, there were cereals, mostly sugary, and, if you were lucky, some fresh fruit and oatmeal. At the Springfield, Missouri Best Western Route 66 Rail Haven Hotel, which claims to be the very oldest in the chain (it’s also the home of that Elvis suite!), the manager told me that foreign visitors were liable to mistake the biscuit gravy for waffle batter and pour it into the hot waffle iron. Not a good outcome for the iron or the waffle!
Favorites
Undoubtedly some of the best food of our 2,400-mile-plus journey came at the start in Chicago. How can you top deep dish pizza, gourmet Italian and fluffy omelets that melt in your mouth?
But then came a sumptuous meal at Cheever’s Café in Oklahoma City. You couldn’t really improve on what I ordered—molasses chicken, cheddar green onion grits and grilled Brussels sprouts with pistachios and goat cheese—not your usual Route 66 fare, or maybe it was and I just didn’t do enough research to discover other more sophisticated offerings. My dinner was enough for two, even three, but we got greedy and ordered a chocolate layer cake to cap off the evening.
And now I really must try making molasses chicken. I’d never have thought to flavor roast chicken with the dark sticky stuff, but I’ve used honey and apricot jam before, so why not molasses? Have you ever made such a dish?
Pie-eyed
Pie and the Mother Road just go together, right? I don’t think I sampled enough pie, though we did try to make up for lost time at the Pine Country Restaurant in Williams, Arizona, with three large slices of cream pie. Here’s Jeff hamming it up with two of the flavors, coconut cream and chocolate peanut butter.
But our unexpected favorite was the oatmeal pie at the Rock Cafe in Stroud, Oklahoma. It arrived with a little square of vanilla ice cream on top. You could easily name this dessert “Humble Pie.” It seemed like it flew in from another era, possibly the Great Depression or earlier. When I did a little research, I came across a recipe for “Old-Fashion Oatmeal Pie” on Food.com from Steven L. About the history of this simple dessert, he wrote:
"This great pie recipe goes back over 100 years. The recipe came from my grandmother's grandmother who was living in Charleston, South Carolina during the 1860's. Family history has it, that during the Civil War, since pecans were in short supply in the South, oatmeal was substituted for the traditional pecan pie and the results were astonishing. Now served at every family gathering since that time."
When I asked the server at Rock Cafe for the recipe, she surprised me by obliging without a murmur, saying it was often requested.
It was on a page with recipes for other popular menu items, including meatloaf and cornbread and was as sparing in detail as many recipes I’ve come across in old cookbooks.
But of course I had questions. For example, what kind of syrup?
“Whatever you have on hand that costs the least,” the manager told me.
I ended up making the pie twice. For one, I followed a recipe that called for quick-cooking oatmeal, light corn syrup, an extra egg, spices, vanilla and salt. I made my own crust using a recipe from Dorie Greenspan. I thought the pie overly sweet and a little too gooey, but my husband said it was great. It definitely had a strong pecan pie vibe.
I then decided to use the recipe I’d gotten from the Rock Cafe and modify it somewhat, subbing maple syrup for the corn syrup (not the cheapest option, but a great flavor enhancer), reducing the sugar by a quarter and using a mix of brown and white sugars. I added some toasted walnuts, vanilla, cinnamon, nutmeg and ginger and used a pre-made crust from Trader Joe’s. I do like this second pie better, though I think I’ll make my own crust next time.
Oatmeal Pie
Ingredients:
3 large eggs
1 cup maple syrup (or corn syrup if you prefer)
3/4 cup sugar—half brown, half white (or all white or all brown, if you prefer )
1/4 cup melted butter
1 teaspoon vanilla extract*
1 cup old-fashioned oats, whizzed briefly in a food processor to make them smaller, or 1 cup of quick oats
1/4 teaspoon sea salt
1 teaspoon cinnamon*
1 pinch each of ground nutmeg and ginger*
1/3 cup walnuts or pecans, lightly toasted*
1 9-inch pie crust, unbaked
*Optional
Directions:
Preheat the oven to 325°F.
Melt the butter in a saucepan and then let it cool for a few minutes.
Mix together the eggs, syrup, sugar(s), cooled butter and vanilla (if using) in a large bowl.
Add oatmeal, salt, spices and toasted nuts (if using)
Pour the filling into the pie shell.
Bake for 45 minutes to an hour. If the pie seems to be baking too rapidly, cover lightly with foil.
When it’s done, the pie might have a very slight wobble in the middle, but it shouldn’t be too loose. Allow it to cool for about an hour (if you can wait!) before slicing.
Serve with vanilla ice cream, whipped cream or custard sauce. I found that when slices fell apart, just throwing extra crust on top of the filling in a bowl and topping it with a good helping of ice cream or whipped cream made it taste like an oatmeal crisp minus the fruit.
Variations: I could see adding some raisins, dried cranberries or other dried fruit or even fresh fruit to the pie, or perhaps layering crumbled pie with fruit, ice cream or yogurt in a parfait. I could also see reducing the sugar still further to 1/2 cup.
If you want another cool (literally!) take on oatmeal pie, with the oats in the crust and the ice cream as the filling, check out this recipe for RICO pie from a foremost pie expert, Kate McDermott, whose excellent Substack newsletter just celebrated its fourth anniversary.
Thanks for reading, liking, sharing, commenting and subscribing. It boosts my spirits, along with my numbers!
My Route 66 saga is over, but Jeff’s continues. Please do check out his excellent second chapter here:
See you next time.
Ruth
In 1961, after my father retired from 20 years in the Navy, we were uprooted from my Pacific roots (Pearl Harbor and Long Beach) and landed as far inland as I could have imagined- Kingman, AZ. My parents took over a small cafe just outside of town on Route 66, the Hilltop Motel Cafe, where I would run out to offer the arriving long-haul truck drivers news of the day's specials, including my mom's famous cherry pie. Pie! There was always pie. Glad you are still finding it.
Loved reading about your trip. Glad it was you and not me. I'm such a picky eater I don't know what I would have done. Were there groceries where you could buy anything healthy? Looking forward to tasting the Oatmeal pie though. That's right up my alley.