It's been an uneventful few days off, which is just the way I like it. The cool thing is that I still have four more days off, including weekend days, and the house is picked up. The lawn is cut and edged. Laundry and dishes are done.

The El Campo Ricebirds did lose tonight, in stunning fashion I might add -- 21-14 to the Foster Falcons -- but that's been the only blemish on an otherwise perfect vacation.

I usually use vacation days to check out some food spots here in Norman and beyond that I have seen but haven't had the chance to try. As a public service to you, I'm posting some thoughts about each.

1. Furr's Fresh Buffet -- I-35 in Moore

Not only am I a Furr's aficionado, I was part of a team that worked on their current Web site at furrs.net, and I have a sign in my laundry room from Furr's noting that you, too, can take home some pie for only $5.99.

I would estimate that I've eaten at Furr's possibly 250 times, which is probably not as much as old folks but it's more than the average hipster. I've ranted about society and culture and general hipster disdain for the buffet, but if good choices are made, then it can be a healthful experience.

I only make a few good selections, and then their Millionaire Pie ruins everything.

Alas, if you know your Furr's culinary lineup, then frankly there is nothing new about the "Furr's Fresh Buffet." It is literally the same food as the cafeteria. However, instead of lining up cafeteria style, patrons go-and-grab Golden Corral style.

Unfortunately for Furr's, I think the cafeteria setup works much better, and I'm not sure that it's not because it subconsciously takes us back to our school days. I recall the servers in Dallas, and I always enjoyed that I got my chicken fry and pan-fried potatoes served up with a little sass.

By the way, the chicken-fried steak and pan-fried potatoes combo is Furr's best dish. I had some of that, and I had some "hand-carved roast beef," which meant that some guy who could not speak a lick of English cut meat I was perfectly capable of cutting.

I had my regular selection of veggies -- broccoli, spinach, sweet potatoes and cabbage. Frankly, the vegetables were much better in Furr's cafeteria format because the food always tasted as if its sauces shared pans, if you know what I mean. Gave it a down-home flavor.

What really stunk about this place is that it was basically overflowing with people, and I definitely understand why hipsters look down on this place. Three-fourths of the eating crowd is literally morbidly obese.

I read a funny thing recently about socioeconomic status and food. The rich eat fancy food in tiny portions, while the poor folk are looking for mass quantity and value. Everything comes down to socioeconomic status in one way or another.

Not that I agree with hipsters looking down on my buffet-enjoying brethren, but I understand it. Once these folks filled up the joint, it was clear they weren't going anywhere anytime soon. They'd get plates No. 3, 4, 5 and 6, and the rest of us would stand in line waiting for them to finish.

Sure, the place looked nice, but the charm just isn't there, and when it comes to food, it tasted better at the cafeteria. Plus, the "Fresh Buffet" costs a buck or two more than its cafeteria counterpart.

2. Mackie McNair's Western Sizzlin' - I-35 & NW 12th Street, Moore

I had heard of this place from countless radio ads, and I see it everyday on the way home from work, but I had never tried it. And, I should say up front: I dig this place.

First, it has ambience, and this joint reminded me of a place we visited in Vegas. The buffet was only $6.99, and while the food wasn't that great, the place wreaked of some place gamblers would come and load up between drinking binges.

Seriously. In an hour there today, I saw some real characters walk into this place.

But best of all, lunch is only $6.99. Dinner is $8.59. Again, I think the food is a bit subpar, and so I'd generally pass on dinner, but it's a great lunch joint if you live nearby.

I should note that, to me, the standard is the Sirloin Stockade in Okmulgee and Pig-Out Palace in Henryetta. My friends in Norman know I am a big fan of the GC (Golden Corral for all the uncool cats), but those two places I noted whip the daylights out of the Corral.

Anyway, I don't want to delve into the virtues of those two places.

3. Himalayas - Berry Road in Norman

However, I did stop by a new Indian joint here in Norman, called Himalayas. It's just south of Robinson Street on Berry Road, and it's been open for three months, the owner told me. And, I should note that I had plenty of time to talk to the restaurant's proprietor (at least I think he was the owner) because the place was completely empty for lunch buffet.

Given that vacation for me means that I'm eating lunch at 3 p.m., then perhaps it makes the absence of lunch customers understandable. However, given that I love Indian food, it caused me a twinge of sympathy.

First, the standard for Indian buffets, for me, is Dallas' Taj Express on Lemmon Avenue. They are honored by the Dallas Observer year after year for their "creative use of spinach," for their creamed spinach -- technically called panak paneer, which is an extremely, extremely fattening dish that tastes wonderful. And it has spinach, which means it can't be all that bad for you, right?

Alas, Himalayas promotes itself on serving fine south Indian cuisine. Southside in the house. Heck, I wouldn't know south Indian from anything else; however, one very American dish they served stood out -- potato soup.

Now, I love my mom's potato soup. It's not that creamy, thick stuff you're used to. This is more of a thin soup, literally a combination of potatoes, water, milk, onion and salt. It is wonderful, but Himalayas' rendition was pretty darned good, too.

I had their tandori chicken, and I had some goat (tastes like chicken, smells like goat). I had several other typical Indian buffet side dishes, and it was all good. Not great. Not that I'm totally bagging on Misal's, but I'd rather go to Himalayas. First, Misal's is overpriced, and it frankly reminds me of Pei Wei, which is the Olive Garden of Chinese food.

It's generic and not that great, not that I hate Pei Wei or the Olive Garden. But if I'm given a choice, I'm more apt to eat at a "joint" instead of a chain. And, I know Misal's is not really a chain, but they darned sure do everything they can to make themselves seem bigger than a mom-and-pop.

Finally, I stopped by Rudy's barbecue in Norman, just south of Highway 9, along Chautauqua Avenue. However, I didn't eat there because they don't offer "meals." They offer food by the half-pound and pound and sides by the bowl, and from a usability perspective, it was just a pain in the butt.

I asked the drive-thru person about the availability of a two-meat combo, which every barbecue joint has, and he was like, "Uh, we don't do that."

Pain in the butt. I went to Van's Pig Stand, and I have to give it up to them: Their $5.99 polish sausage plate is the best barbecue deal in town, a town that now has THREE barbecue places. See, all of you judge your barbecue on the cow, but I like the pig.

The one place I didn't try this week but might on Tuesday is Fat Sandwich; however, I am hesitant to eat there because I still try to at least marginally healthful, and it's pretty much impossible there. Besides, I can't imagine going back more than once, which is the point -- to find some place you can patronize over and over.

So, let's summarize my local food findings over the past few months, including on this vacation.

Keepers: Van's Pig Stand was always a keeper, and I've eaten there for two years now, but I wanted to be sure and note it here. Chicken Express is the best fried chicken joint ever. It blows KFC, Popeyes, Church's, Charlie's, etc., away. Mackie McNair's Western Sizzlin' didn't have the best food, but it was adequate, and it was a great value. Plus, you cannot beat the ambience.

Maybe I'll return: Himalayas was an adequate Indian buffet, but it wasn't great, and I'd rather continue searching for my Indian nirvana (to mix religious metaphors) than to patronize this one just because it's local.

No, thanks: Going to Furr's Fresh Buffet the other night was like going to a "fancy restaurant" with a giant crowd but with the same menu Furr's has always had minus a little taste and a lot of ambience. Also, barbecue joints should offer meals. Don't make a single guy come in there and buy a pound of this and a bucket of that. Sell a darned meal for $7.59 and be done with it. So, a return trip to Rudy's is out of the question for me.

Now, I do believe Rudy's is a Texas outfit, which might mean that their barbecue is greatness. However, in terms of food, this is a to-go world, which is why places like IHOP, for example, are investing their marketing dollars in letting people know they can get meals to-go. In a college town, given the competition that exists, they're making a giant mistake here.

Still, I ask the barbecue gods, can we not have a Dickey's, please? The one at Central Expressway and Knox-Henderson in Dallas, outside of Mikeska's in El Campo, is the best barbecue joint on the planet. However, Van's is growing on me. Pretty good barbecue. Terrific ambience. Wish their sides were bigger, but ...

OK, now I'm hungry again.