Bulletin E-Edition:
more photosCustomers enjoy the Old West atmosphere at the Tumalo Feed Company in Tumalo. The restaurant provides customers with a dance floor on weekends with live music.
Andy Tullis / The Bulletin
Food like you get on the ranch
From ‘mountain oysters’ to grilled steak, Tumalo Feed Company cooks it up fine
By John Gottberg Anderson / For The Bulletin
Published: January 23. 2009 4:00AM PST
As adventurous food lovers, we consume a lot of offal things. Liver, kidneys, heart, brain, tongue and intestines find their way into our digestive systems in various forms. From sweetbreads to foie gras, blood sausage to tripe, many of us don’t think more than twice before sticking our forks into an animal’s internal organs.
So what is it about testicles that makes us shrink away?
Considered a delicacy in some European and Asian countries, these male organs typically come from gelded calves. In North America, they are most frequently found in ranch country, where they are camouflaged behind the ambiguous moniker of “mountain oysters” — although they are certainly no relative of shellfish.
Considered best when served fresh, they can be sauteed, braised, poached or deep-fried.
The best place to find mountain oysters in Central Oregon is at the Tumalo Feed Company, where they are prominent at the head of the appetizer menu. Sliced and deep-fried in strips, served with barbecue sauce and a spicy German-style mustard, I find them slightly sweet and surprisingly tender. Not many years ago, I might have cringed at the very thought of taking a bite.
Cowboy-sized portions
There’s a lot of good stuff on the menu at Tumalo Feed Company, though nothing else is as exotic as mountain oysters. It’s a menu dominated by steaks, prime rib and barbecued ribs.
There are also five chicken dishes, roasted quail, and a half-dozen items of seafood, led by pan-fried trout.
This is dinner for a hungry cowboy.
Every entree includes a starter of onion rings, a green salad, potatoes, beans, garlic bread and a choice of dessert. On both of my recent meals in Tumalo, I came home with a full box of leftovers, enough for a couple of lunches.
The onion rings, deep-fried but not greasy, are served with a homemade salsa similar to a chilled marinara sauce. I found it only mildly spicy.
My house salad was better the first time around than the second: On my first visit, chopped romaine leaves were mixed with the iceberg lettuce, whereas the second salad was pure iceberg. Each salad also had shredded carrots and red cabbage, packaged croutons and a slice of beet. Dressings were tangy each time: honey mustard and huckleberry vinaigrette.
Steak and shrimp
The Feed Company is first and foremost a steakhouse, so I considered it my duty to order a steak. I thoroughly enjoyed my char-grilled rib-eye steak, although it was definitely on the rare side of medium rare, which is how I had ordered it. Still, the meat was tender and tasty, and I had no inclination to send it back for more cooking.
The 15-ounce steak came with ranch-fried potatoes — coarsely chopped with skins on, sauteed with a little chopped onion and pepper — and a portion of red beans in a zingy sauce with garlic bread.
At my second dinner, I chose Tumalo shrimp, described as “six prawns sauteed in a spicy tomato cream sauce.” There were actually seven large prawns, cooked tender in their shells. They were smothered in a spicy, stew-like blend (not a creamy one) of chopped tomatoes, onions, minced garlic and jalapeno peppers.
Garlic bread was served with this meal as well. Instead of potatoes, a wild-rice pilaf accompanied the shrimp. The rice wasn’t particularly inventive, but it was cooked just right.
Dessert is also included with each dinner. The choice is between rainbow sherbet (my choice on one visit), a vanilla ice-cream sundae, a root-bear float or an after-dinner liqueur.
Old West atmosphere
The Tumalo Feed Company is true to the mood it projects from its false-fronted yellow building, a landmark on U.S. Highway 20 for about 100 years. Known since the 1960s as the Tumalo Emporium, it was purchased in 1991 by business partners John Bushnell and Robert Holley. (Five years later, they also bought Niblick & Greene’s at Redmond’s Eagle Crest Resort.)
The well-lit main restaurant is split in half by an entrance area lined with photographs and press clippings. Red-checked tablecloths give a homespun flavor to tables and booths that are served by friendly waitresses in cowboy boots.
A rear lounge is candlelit and decidedly more intimate in ambience. Cowhide upholsters the bar stools and red velvet backs the banquettes in this classic Old West-style saloon. Longhorn skulls and Western paintings and photos cover the walls. There’s no television, but classic country music plays on the speakers and weekend evenings bring couples to a dance floor for two-stepping to light live music.
Perhaps the dancers stepping livelier began their evening with mountain oysters.
SMALL BITES
The One Street Down Cafe has celebrated two months of business in downtown Redmond, serving breakfast and lunch seven days a week. The morning menu features omelets and other egg dishes, along with pancakes and French toast; the lunch list has a good choice of salads and sandwiches, including the One Street Club. Open 7 a.m. to 3 p.m. every day. 124 S.W. Seventh St., Redmond; 541-647-2341, www .onestreetdowncafe.com.
Also in Redmond, the Toucan Cafe opened Jan. 12 with South American-style breakfasts, lunches and pastries. It shares space with Santiago’s Mate Company. Open 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday to Friday. 528 S.W. Sixth St., Redmond; 541-504-8870.
RECENT REVIEWS
Marcello’s Cucina Italiana (A): Brick arches accent a warm and spacious restaurant, a hidden treasure in Sunriver. Every dish, from veal Marsala and seafood-rich fettucine puttanesca to pizzas and salads, is expertly prepared. Service is attentive and prices moderate. Open 5 p.m. to close every day (lounge open at 4 p.m.). 4 Ponderosa Road (at Beaver Drive), Sunriver; 541-593-8300, www.sunrivernet .com/marcellos.
Cafe Yumm! (B+): Launched in Eugene in 1991 on the premise that rice and beans are a healthy, nutritious meal, Yumm! expanded to Bend in December 2007. Budget-priced, with particular attention to vegetarian and other special diets, the cafe serves excellent soups and salads in an atmosphere of industrial chic. Open 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. Monday to Saturday, 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. Sunday (winter hours). 325 S.W. Powerhouse Dr. (The Shops at the Old Mill District), Bend; 541-318-9688, www .cafeyumm.com.
Bo Restobar (A-): Sleek and stylish, with a Euro-Asian appeal, this casual offshoot of Typhoon! Thai restaurant offers dishes rooted in a variety of Asian cultures. An evolving menu is strong in small plates and noodle dishes, like beef yakiniku. Try the lemongrass trout grilled in banana leaves. A friendly bar staff specializes in exotic drinks. Open noon to 11 p.m. Monday to Thursday, noon to 1 a.m. Friday, 4 p.m. to 1 a.m. Saturday. 550 N.W. Franklin Ave., Suite 118, Bend; 541-617-8880, www.borestobar.com/bend.html.
Applebee’s Neighborhood Grill & Bar (B-): There are nearly 2,000 Applebee’s across North America and Europe; the two in Central Oregon are faithful to the corporate model in food and atmosphere. Entrees are decent but not top quality, and side dishes are sub-standard. Prices are moderate, service polite but inconsistent. Open 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. Sunday to Thursday, 11 a.m. to 11 p.m. Friday and Saturday. 3197 N. U.S. Highway 97, Bend (541-318-5720) and 3807 S.W. 21st Place, Redmond (541-923-4777), www .applebees.com.
John Gottberg
Anderson
can be reached at janderson@bendbulletin.com.
ARTICLE ACCESS: This article is among those available to all readers. Many more articles are available only to E-Edition members. Sign up today!
comments powered by Disqus
