Pulaski County Yum!
When I think of great food, I always think of the south, but I must say, the south had nothing on dining in Pulaski County Missouri. On a recent hosted trip with my husband Keith, we had some of the best food we have had in a long time.
Our first meal was lunch. We dined in Pulaski County at Barb Bolan’s Market Basket Café in downtown Richland. The café is located in a charming old house.
Bridgette, who works at the Market Basket Café, served us up some great pulled pork, which was the special for the day. I took mine as Pulled Pork Nachos and Keith had a pulled pork sandwich with a fresh, crisp cucumber and onion salad. Keith wrapped up the meal with fresh strawberry cream pie. I had a couple bites and yum!
While I wasn’t able to visit with Barb because she was working a booth at the Tri-County Fair, I was able to visit with her sister Carrie Turner who owns the Burger Stand where we had lunch the next day. Carrie owns the Burger Stand along with Barb’s husband Donnie. She made me laugh when she said everyone is always surprised when they see Barb with Donnie because they always think that Carrie and Donnie are married. Carrie said that the Market Basket Café has been open for about 15 years. “Barb started in a Victorian house, but moved here a while back.”
Besides serving some awesome food, Barb also caters meals and serves as a local flower shop, in fact while we were there, Carrie waited on a young woman who needed a floral arrangement. The Market Basket Café offers a comfortable country setting where locals and travelers alike enjoy great food and service and feel welcome.
After visiting the Tri-County Fair and H.E Warren’s cool historic store and a myriad of other fun activities in Pulaski County, we returned to St. Robert for dinner and our next dining experience in Pulaski County!
We were excited to stop at Café Korea, it was our first venture into Korean food and it turns out we are new converts! The café owned by Mr & Mrs. John Moore was quite busy when we arrived. This is always a good sign. Café Korea is a family restaurant serving authentic Korean and some Chinese cuisine. They offer both dine in and carry out service and they opened in November of 2010.
Our server Mai directed us to a table that had a little area where you could cook. We watched the couple at the table next to us grill their own BBQ items. It was fascinating.
Not sure what to order, we asked Mai what the most popular items on the menu were. Mai said everyone loves Beef Bulgogi and Chicken Teriyaki so we went with that and the crab Rangoon we knew we loved. First they brought us out a series of items in small dishes. The couple next to us saw that we were not sure what to do. They told us that these were sides that came with every meal and explained what each item was. I really liked the cabbage dish and we had fun experimenting with the “sides” along with our entrees. We split the entrees so we had an equal portion of both and we also shared the crab Rangoon even though I may have hogged it a bit!
Neither one of us could decide what we liked the best, the beef or the chicken. Both were just delicious and I felt pretty the choices were pretty healthy!
Café Korea had such a fun mix of people of all ages and from all walks of life. I heard some young soldiers talking and it made me feel sentimental because my nephew went to basic training in nearby Fort Leonardwood. I found what Laura Huffman of Pulaski County Tourism Bureau & Visitors Center said was really true. She said that, “Pulaski County has more authentic (and delicious) international cuisine choices than most rural areas.”
For dessert and a little photo fun, we stopped in Uranus, Missouri right outside of St. Robert. I am diabetic and can’t have much, but a bite of chocolate pecan fudge was calling my name.
We took pictures of the purely fun tourist trap setups at Uranus. I admit, they had us laughing. There is everything from fun dinosaurs for the kids to some adult humor involved. I must say though, the fudge was quite good!
We stayed the night at the wonderful Gasconade Hills Resort, then ate breakfast at the nearby Westwood Café. While I couldn’t eat it because it was
too much sugar, they had the biggest cinnamon rolls, I think I’d ever seen. They offered a nice special of eggs and sausage.
We ate and we were on our way. I was impressed with how well the waitress handled the big crowd and waited on us quickly and provided us with hot food fast!
The Burger Stand owned by Barb’s sister Carrie Turner, was our lunch stop on Saturday. We had spent our morning in Waynesville checking out local
historic sites and some stores and we were ready for some fun food. One of the locals in an antique shop had mentioned that he loved the mushroom swiss burger. Keith and I had a hankering for that after hearing about it. Like Barb, Carrie was working at the fair, so we ordered from a young woman the mushroom swiss burger and some breaded fried cauliflower. Surely that counted as a vegetable didn’t it? It was like a salad because we dipped it in ranch dressing!
Outside of the Burger Stand is a very cool Curly the Clown that Carrie had shared some of the history with us about the day before. “The building had been here with Curly the Clown since as early as the 1960’s,” Carrie said. “Curly the Clown was made in Eureka Springs, Arkansas and there were only about 250 of them made. There are not too many of them left.”
Carrie thinks the clown was made in 1953 and she knows that the building was around in the 60’s because she has a picture with a hula hoop contest dated from the early 60’s. The restaurant is iconic from the places I remember from going as a child. When we were there, the door kept opening and one person after another entered and ordered . Everyone wanted something from the Burger Stand and after tasting our food, we knew why. Great food at a fun place!
Pulaski County Missouri rocks it with the food.
There were several things I would have liked to try at the fair. I saw some kettle corn that I wanted and I also wanted to go back and get ice cream at the Burger Stand on our way home. This darned watching the weight and diabetes keeps me from a lot of fun, but I do manage to get some good eats in I admit! The bites of pie and fudge tamed my demanding inner sugar beast. Thank you Pulaski County for some wonderful dining options. I will be back in September for Cow Days and I am dying to see what other food options you have to offer! This trip was coordinated by Pulaski County USA, Tourism Bureau & Visitors Center.
