ADA, OKLAHOMA

[faleentoby]

I would appreciate any input on this.

I must travel to Ada, Oklahoma and yes i realize it is probably not the most highly populated area for Jewish families, but does anyone know of any kosher restaurants or places to purchase already prepared kosher food there? There WILL NOT be anywhere to prepare food, so raw anything that requires cooking is out.

As a last resort a good restaurant for fresh fish would have to suffice.

Thank you in advance.

[redriverbeef]

I live outside of Ada, and lived in the Washington DC area for 25 years. Trust me, there's no great restaurants here. There is a pretty good Greek type restaurant, and an Italian restaurant, but after than, McDonalds.

[MDhaliwal]

Having traveled to Ada, I can guarantee that Kosher is not part of the standard vocabulary in the area. Luckily, a Whole Foods opened up in Oklahoma City about three weeks ago (I've been told). It's quite nice and has a wide assortment of items that could work (fruits, vegetables, vegan items, etc). In Ada itself, there's a very large Walmart, which has a full grocery store. Going back to the bread comment, ironically, finding bread was one of the tougher items while I was in town. Luckily I found a package of parve bagels!

Besides for that, it's few and far between. As an aside, there's at least a movie theater in Ada with very low ticket costs and current films. Doesn't really help feed anyone, though it can help take your mind off food for an hour or two!

[PotatoPuff]

Get instant soup, mashed potatoes, rice and oatmeal. Bring a SMALL plastic electric tea kettle (about 10 bucks at Bed Bath). Just boil some water, and voila, oatmeal for breakfast, soup for lunch, rice or potatoes for dinner....

[queenscook]

They used to sell something that looked liked a coil that would boil water in a mug when plugged into the wall. It was only a few dollars and all you would need other than that was the mug. Cheaper, and more important in these days of limited baggage, smaller than an electric kettle, if they are still sold.

[bagelman01]

called an immersion heater, sells for about $5

[SoCal Mother]

The takeaway from this is that evidently one cannot depend on the kashrut of an in-room coffee maker, jokes about irons notwithstanding. Someone might have put something trefe in the part where the coffee and filter go. Ugh!

[melrpep]

So, when are you going to be in Ada? And for how long? And why? I'm Jewish & grew up in Ada, OK. None of the Jewish families there keep kosher, but I'm sure they'd do what they could to help you out. Also, there is a very good Greek restaurant - Mazin's Greek House - that has quite a few vegetarian options.

[SoCal Mother]

In all seriousness, get a whole bunch of those Meal Mart shelf stable meals and either ask the hotel to nuke them for you or maybe you can cook them at your work.

[faleentoby]

I never realized that one question would/could result in some of the responses. The trip to Ada is coming up very shortly and it will only be for about 4 nights on business. Very long days. I did speak to a lovely man the other day whose phone number was listed as a Shul in town. As it turned out it went directly to his business office. He was very sweet and quite informative and basically told me the same thing that you have. The families there used to have the kosher meat trucked in but it was given up a while ago

[mamaleh]

I read an online article last year about how to cook in your hotel room, if you don't have a kitchenette and you are not allowed to use your electric frying pan or crockpot. There were some pretty interesting suggestions, such as making ramen noodles and even a chicken breast in the coffee maker, or making grilled cheese with the iron. I've landed in some pretty remote places over the years and after several days of cold meals assembled from local supermarkets, or overpriced reheated packaged kosher meals (these can be outrageously expensive if you are traveling with your family), I've contemplated compiling a list of creative hotel room meals that can be made from most supermarket or health food store aisles and some disposable bowls, a can opener and plastic utensils. Most of the creative items I've prepared are cold or room temp such as: Rice, tofu, cashew, red peppers, chutney, and spinach salad made with precooked rice; Pre-cooked rice noodles, tofu, teriaki sauce, frozen peas; Precooked rice topped with smoked salmon, cream cheese cubes, sliced avocado, sesame seeds, nori, and soy sauce. I bought a disposable BBQ and BBq'd veggie dogs in the park. I have even heated pre-cooked rice, noodles or beans by using the heating element and thermal envelope that comes with the La Briut meal instead of eating the La Briut meal, although my kids do like their spaghetti and meatballs :) Has anyone else made any successful balanced kosher experimental hotel room meals?

[craigcep]

How do you kasher an iron?

[zsero]

You don't. But you can wrap food in foil and put it on the iron.

[ferret]

I did this a lot in college. Stupid easy. Just prep your sandwich, wrap in foil and then press on high heat. Timing depends on your iron, but less than a minute a side usually. And butter the outside of the bread.

[SoCal Mother]

ROTFL.

[mamaleh]

I bet you could make some pretty good cheese quesadillas this way too -- if you could find kosher cheese. Maybe soy cheese from a health food store. Could you make an omelet with an iron?

[mamaleh]

I found the article. In case you ever wondered if the coffee maker in your hotel room was used for anything other than making coffee http://www.wikihow.com/Cook-Food-in-a...

[SoCal Mother]

So the iron could be trefe? Laughing uncontrollably...

[mamaleh]

Next time I iron a shirt in a hotel room, I'm going to do a smell check for chazzer fleisch before leaving the room wearing it :)

[ferret]

Did no one spend any time away at college? It's all about improvisation. As far as treyf irons go, I can see chometzdik (spray starch) but treyf really requires effort.

And there are probably thousands of posts on this subject out there:

http://miniandmicro.blogspot.com/2009...

[SoCal Mother]

If this iron cooking thing catches on, no hotel iron will be safe from trefe...

As they say in Monte Python, "This is silly - stop the sketch!"

[bagelman01]

http://chowhound.chow.com/topics/771537

There's a whole thread in General Chowhounding Topics from this summer about cooking in a hotel room

[faleentoby]

Thank you all very much for your informative and speedy replies. I really appreciate them. I have found that there is actually a walmart supercenter in the town and they do have some amy's meals among other things...not like sitting down to a nice hot meal, but certainly better than bread and water LOL. We have been so spoiled over the years living in NJ/FL/IL with having kosher food readily available and during those times had not realized just how fortunate we were. Wishing you all a belated Shana Tova.

[queenscook]

I'm glad the OP found out what his/her local resources will be, but I still want to point out to everyone that there are very few places in the US that anyone has to make do with "bread and water." In fact, bread itself is pretty hard to find kosher outside of Jewish areas, but because of national brands and national hechshers, almost any standard supermarket will have enough to get by for any number of days. When my husband and I travel to areas outside of Jewish communities, we almost never bother taking any food beyond bread; we can always find enough locally, and don't have to shlep anything. This is especially true when we fly, since it's now so expensive to carry extra suitcases.

[faleentoby]

Sorry, if i confused you. Evidently my sense of humor didnt quite come thru here. I was exaggerating about 'bread and water' and honestly assumed that had come across.

[queenscook]

I wasn't confused. I was really just trying to point out how easy it is to find kosher food, because such a high percentage of "regular" food is hechshered. When I have the need to explain kosher to non-Jewish (and even non-frum Jewish) colleagues, I often use brands like Heinz, Skippy, Hershey's, etc. to show them how much kosher food they eat without even realizing it.

[cheesecake17]

You reminded me of something funny... When my husband and I went to Paris and London, we brought some snack foods with us. Coworkers couldn't believe the prep work it took to travel somewhere for kosher keepers. One coworker decided to go "kosher" for a two days, eating only kosher packaged food, preparing only what would be considered kosher at home, and only eating in kosher restaurants. Her comment: keeping kosher is a full time job!

[CloggieGirl]

It gets a lot easier when you know on sight what stuff is officially kosher but not heckshered.

[craigcep]

Why do you even need bread? I have found that many grocery stores, even in non-Jewish areas, have matzah. Doesn't make for a great peanut butter and jelly sandwich, but it does the trick on Shabbat.

[queenscook]

When we travel, it's for vacation, and very rarely will that include Shabbos. My husband is very regimented about what he eats, and likes bread with his meals. I, on the other hand, don't always have bread at home, but when I travel, I often buy peanut butter and jelly or tuna or things that I prefer to have on bread. Since we're not carrying other food, generally, to stick a loaf of bread in the luggage or car is really no big deal.

[SoCal Mother]

In many areas Thomas and Sara Lee bagels and pitas are kosher, as well as some other national brands like Mr. Pita. You can also find kosher tortillas almost anywhere. Mission is our favorite but several other brands are kosher as well. Target brand bagels are kosher.

We were surprised to find the pitas in the refrigerator case in Hawaii.

[SoCal Mother]

Target brand: bagels, cream cheese, nuts, yogurt (!), tomato sauce, snack foods. They also carry standard grocery items.
Walmart brand: granola bars, beverages, many other items. (I don't shop there often.)
Costco: many products and there are Costcos in places you wouldn't expect like England and Mexico.

[cheesecake17]

Surprising how much stuff at walmart (especially a superwalmart) is kosher! We went to one at the end of the summer to do some stock up shopping (great prices on HBA and baby gear) and I decided to check out the grocery section. Pasta, canned tomatoes, some dairy, snacks, chips, canned chilis (!), beans, soy sauce, spices (50 cents!), breadcrumbs.... lots of certified products at great prices.

[tamarw]

Does Amy's make Kosher meals?

[zsero]

Yes.

[Prettypoodle]

Kosher and quite good IMO.

[faleentoby]

Yes i believe all of her products are although i have not checked out every single one...they are not bad in a pinch for a frozen something.

[zsero]

No, not all Amy's products are kosher. Check the label. And it's not "her", it's a company.

[Prettypoodle]

The last time I looked maybe three canned/jarred items were NOT kosher. All the frozen foods were the last time I looked. The website will tell more.

[ferret]

Ada is so far from civilization that you're unlikely to find anything resembling Kosher food. You can probably get snack food, fruit/vegetables and peanut butter from a Wal-Mart but as far as real meals go, I'd have to guess there's next to nothing there. May be a good week to pretend you're vegan.

[vallevin]

Or bite the bullet and spend the money and get Noah's ark meals, they will be shipped frozen and you reheat double wrapped.

[faleentoby]

Thank you for introducing me to the Noah's Ark web site. I had never heard of them before and its nice to have information for future travel needs. Most of my travel is for business rather than pleasure, so I am arriving either very late the night before or the morning of early appointments and work thru to the evening. There really is no time to start driving around seeking food to first start cooking/heating etc...but this way it can be deadly available. I appreciate the input.

[faleentoby]

Vallevin I just reread what i had typed. My new spell check evidently didn't care for what may have been a misspelling of the word "readily" and somehow i ended up with "deadly".....please forgive.

[queenscook]

Any decent-sized supermarket will have national brands of kosher food (packets of oatmeal, tuna, peanut butter, cans of beans, cookies, maybe things like chummus, cereals, pretzels & chips, etc.) as well as fresh and canned fruits and vegetables, milk, juices, etc., but I wouldn't bet on finding anything already prepared.

I assume "There WILL NOT be anywhere to prepare food" means you won't be in a hotel/motel room where you could pay extra to have a microwave put in the room. There are microwavable meals you could bring, if you could get a microwave. They used to have meals that had their own self-heating mechanism, but I don't think I've seen them for years.

[zsero]

LaBriut meals are still around. Also, if you're at a hotel you can take your microwaveable (e.g. Meal Mart) meals to the concierge or front desk, depending on how fancy the place is, and ask for it to be heated in the staff microwave, or if there is a hotel restaurant you can take it there and ask for it to be heated in a microwave in the kitchen. I've done this successfully at several hotels of varying qualities. I've also had meals microwaved at airports, by whichever food vendor appeared not to be too busy. Ditto for getting hot water for noodle soups, etc.; just go up to a random food vendor and ask.

[vallevin]

Oh yeah! http://labriutemeals.com/main.htm

[faleentoby]

And have dreams about Srulies or Shallots.

[weinstein5]

You might check with Chabad in Oklahoma City or Tulsa -

As for seafood I think the you will find is Red Lobster or fast food