Oran Food Mart serves up hospitality and good food

I took a road trip to Oran, Missouri, recently. I had never visited before and was following up on a food lead. The drive to Oran was breathtaking. Wild hyacinths were blooming in the ditches, immense white flowers rarely sprinkled with the odd pink specimen. Mingled in was the tall and willowy swamp milkweed, full of delicate pink blossoms. I saw plenty of tiger swallowtail butterflies along with their less showy relatives, the black swallowtail. I spotted two Monarchs along the way and counted myself lucky. I saw an enormous free-standing boulder next to a railroad, a tiny ecosystem complete with its own little tree perched stubbornly on top. The whole thing was backed by a rocky cliff and looked like a scene from a fantasy movie.

At the end of this thoroughly pleasant drive lay Oran, a town I could immediately see myself settling into. The roads were narrow and literally named, with a huge church on Church Street, and an old railroad depot and tracks along Railroad Street. I visited just before school started, and there were people walking around outside, and not just children. I was engulfed by a pervasive feel to the place, slow and laid back, where everyone knows your name and neighbors still pop over to borrow sugar.

I came to my ultimate destination, Oran Food Mart. Glass-fronted with a couple of picnic tables out front, I stepped back in time when I stepped through the doors. This is an old school grocery store, complete with high ceilings and a handful of honest-to-goodness aisles full of grocery and household items. As soon as my nose breathed the air inside, I could smell a delicious trail. Like Pluto with his sausages, I floated toward the back of the store led by the meaty scent, where a robust deli thrived.

Along with the normal supply of fresh cut cheeses and meats, there was a hot cabinet off to the side filled with hand-held meals, such as hamburgers and bologna sandwiches. But that's not what I was after. I was after that delectable smell.

Every Tuesday and Thursday, Oran Food Mart serves up a hot lunch. They start serving at 11 a.m. and stop selling when they're sold out, which is almost always by 1 p.m., I was told by the cashier. Tuesday is always Taco Tuesday when a killer taco salad is served, and Thursday can be a variety of things, such as pulled pork nachos, BBQ smoked chicken halves and kettle beef. The Food Mart also springs for biscuits and gravy in the morning sometimes, and the best way to see what they're serving and when is to check their Facebook page.

The Tuesday Taco Salad from Oran Food Mart, with more toppings that lettuce and choked full of satisfying flavor.Submitted by Rebecca LaClair

I was there at about 11:30 a.m. on a Tuesday, so the smell that drew me in was taco meat, heavy and spicy. I ordered the salad and checked out up front. Then I sat outside and opened the foam container with more than a little anticipation.

This, my friends, is what a taco salad should be. The lettuce was fresh and crisp, not a sad looking piece in the bunch. The greens were merely a vehicle for the extremely generous toppings: crumbled Doritos, black beans, a ton of taco meat, tomatoes, salsa, cheese, onion (which I skipped), sour cream and an unreal dressed-up avocado dip which had been magicked into the best taco salad dressing I've ever eaten. The taco meat reminded me of the tacos my mom made when I was a child, not spicy hot but a perfect mix of chili powder, cumin and other spices, and my mom is the absolute best cook I know. The salad filled an entire full-sized sectioned foam container and was huge and filling, a perfect cherry on top of a fun trip.

I have to take a moment and say how friendly the people at Oran Food Mart are. The woman in the back doing the cooking didn't hesitate to give me her dressing recipe, though she did say that she never measures anything, and I firmly believe that the best cooks never have to. The woman working the cash register had a beautiful smile and endured my questions with good cheer. Pick a pretty day, and take the trip soon to enjoy the flowers. Watch for the huge "stone with tree" on the left and enjoy a hot meal in a nifty town.