Happy Birthday to Reba McEntire.
The rodeo queen and Oklahoma native is celebrating another year around the sun today, and she doesn’t look a day over 25. If music hadn’t worked out for Reba, she really should have considered a comedy career. No, I’m not referring to her time on the hit TV show Reba, but rather her natural charm in interviews.
In 1982, Reba sat down with Miller & Company, and during the interview, she was asked how she fuels her body on the road. We all have an idea that road life does not equate to the most nutritious meals when you are eating arena food or the truck stop’s finest. She notes that while she is on the road, she eats a lot of hamburgers and hotdogs but finds that she gains the weight back when she is at home eating home-cooked meals.
So, what is Reba’s favorite thing to cook?
Well, she tells us that she loves to cook Rocky Mountain oysters. Now, this delicacy has many different names depending on the region of the country you are in. So, mountain oysters, calf fries, lamb fries, or whatever they are called in your neck of the woods (if you are unfamiliar)… they are fried bull testicles.
Being early in her career and the southern lady that she is, she probably did not want to outright say, “Yeah, I love me some bull balls.” But in the process of tiptoeing around explaining what they are, she just tickles herself.
When the interviewer asks her to elaborate on what this dish is (clearly, he isn’t friends with many country folk).
“Uhh… I’ll tell you later.”
At this point, Reba is in such a laughing fit that she can’t even speak. When the interviewer says that he has heard “rumors” about the dish, she takes that as him acknowledging that he knows what calf fries are. Then, the best part of the interview comes into play. He asks Reba if she discloses to friends that she entertains what she is serving them when she makes calf fries.
“No, we tell them it’s fish.”
I hope Reba is enjoying some mountain oysters on her birthday today. May this year be filled with good eats and belly laughs like this one. God bless her Oklahoma roots for showing in this interview because it is pure gold.
