This is for all Texas Freepers.
In 1976, I was sent to Goodfellow AFB in San Angelo, TX to audit a cryptographics course. My hosts took me to a restaurant called "John Zentner's Daughter." Anybody ever heard of it?
Their specialty was a top sirloin served on a 22" platter. It literally hung over the sides. It was slathered in this dynamite garlic-butter sauce. The placemat was the "doggie bag." The waitress said that I would definetly need it. The tossed salad was an entire head of lettuce carved out, tossed, and put back in the head. Endless pitchers of sweet iced tea were included. I think the whole bill was like $15 bucks. One of the most memorable meals I've ever eaten.
I've often wondered if that restaurant was still open. Other than that experience, San Angelo was pretty much blah...
Hard to believe a town that produced Jalapeno Sam Lewis could be "blah" - but just about everyone I've known from there has said the same thing, lol.
I've visited only briefly and have never spent time there. I *thought* they had a huge public *Lamb Fry* every year or maybe just a *Rocky Mountain Oyster Fry*, but I didn't find anything in google when I just looked. I love, love, love lamb fries and I'm sure, judging by your food tastes, you would've found it, if it had been there.
My two favorite places for lamb fries, year-round, are Cattlemen's in OKC and Big Texan Steak House in Amarillo (both on or near Rte66, note). I believe I could eat them every day. Your "hog nut" dumplings sound interesting - I'm tasting steamed pot-stickers with a lamb fry stuffing in my mind's palate, lol. Yum!
Though I'm not familiar with Zentner's or their daughter's, I've at least heard of them. There was a place near Lake Livingston in E TX that served a sirloin like you described. And it was fork tender - delicious. Some people liked it as CFS, but I didn't.
I have to be in the mood for CFS (like, haven't eaten in a week or something) but sure love the gravy. Got spoiled when we had a restaurant in The Galleria during an earlier oil boom that served Chicken-Fried Filet Mignon - and there is nothing to compare to it. That's another I won't even dare to try at home, for risk of ruining a perfectly good filet.
And I *love* the idea of the lettuce bowl salad. I've never run into that in all my many foodings. Sounds better than a bread bowl of Italian Wedding Soup or pumpernickel loaf of Spinach Dip. With a ton of Brockles on the iceberg, I'd be in heaven.