Oklahoma

Oklahoma may seem like the Wild West, full of cowboy and Native American lore. There are museums devoted to the study of American Indian culture, and an eminent new one in Oklahoma City. The National Cowboy and Western Heritage Museum there has Southwestern art, like painting and sculptures by Charles M. Russell and Frederic Remington, and exhibits with information and artifacts from day-to-day cowboy life such as barbed wire and cowboy hats. You can see the center where Geronimo was detained and his subsequent burial site in very central Oklahoma a little west of Lawton. There is also a reproduction of a trading post and a prairie dog town right in Lawton. Bartlesville has the one skyscraper that comes from a Frank Lloyd Wright design, the Price Tower Arts Center. You can spend the night here at an inn in the tower overlooking the prairie. There are simple but haunting monuments and museums addressing incidents of the past such as the Oklahoma City bombing and a race riot in Tulsa.

Beef, pork, and Frito pie are common here. You can certainly get some crispy hot fried chicken with okra and black-eyed peas, and there are a few especially popular Mexican restaurants in Oklahoma city and elsewhere. Salad bars, wraps, and juice bars are some of the more typical light fare that can help keep vegetarians satisfied. Cafe culture is on the rise, and Tulsa has some strong entries in the caffeine and entertainment departments. Some offerings are truly surprising, like 100% raw organic restaurants or living food classes in small towns with few other health-conscious offerings.

Some places where omnivores and vegetarians can eat together are Vietnamese, Indian, Thai, and Mediterranean restaurants, and Chinese eateries and teahouses. Tulsa has a wide variety of foods, including gluten-free and macrobiotic offerings, along with the opportunity to drink beer or wine with it. In Oklahoma City, there’s a vegan comfort food truck which offers organic sodas, a Guatemalan restaurant, and smoothies and sandwiches that are completely organic. There are a few interesting options for dessert. Now, I’ll just say I’ve never heard of a shaved ice stand with vegan, organic ingredients, it sounds like a good thing.