El Paso, TX Food (L&J Cafe, Luigi's Home Style Pizza, Nolita Corner Bistro, Convention Center Tacos, and Chico's Tacos)

Let's start out 2017 with some posts about the foods from some of my travels in 2016 which were never published. I spent just about a week in El Paso, TX. This was my second trip to Texas in 2016, but this time I was in a totally different part of the state. I guess because Texas is huge, I got a totally different vibe of of the state on this trip compared to last. Both good, just different. The food was different as well. Much more of a Mexican influence, although tacos almost seemed less prevalent. Read on...

L&J Cafe:

I was expecting good Mexican food in El Paso. L&J Cafe was my first experience with Mexican food in the city. They were located in a historic building with a view of a cemetery. L&J seemed to be an happening place with a wait when I arrived, plus people all around town were recommending it as a good Mexican restaurant..

I tried the Machaca Plate. This was new to me and consisted of shredded beef mixed with scrambled egg, tomatoes, onions, and jalapenos. Refried beans, rice, and tortillas were served on the side. Pretty tasty. Trying something new at a Mexican restaurant was a nice break from the standard enchiladas, tacos, and tortillas that pretty much everyone serves.

Luigis Home Style Pizza:

I found out it's hard to find restaurants that are open for business on weekends in downtown El Paso. Luigis was one of the few places serving food when I went looking on a Saturday afternoon. They had a pizza buffet going on, but it looked really sad and unappetizing. A fresh pizza was ordered instead. We had it topped with pepperoni, onions, black olives, and green chilis. This was my first tasting of green chili in the area. They made a very nice topping...

Nolita Corner Bistro:

This was another restaurant in downtown El Paso which was recommended. Burgers aren't normally my first choice on a menu, but the Toreado Burger caught my attention mostly because I didn't know what a toreado was. Turned out a toreado is a roasted jalepeno. The burger was topped with the toreados, provolone cheese, sliced avocado, mushrooms, and cilantro. I picked something called Sidewinders as my side which I actually enjoyed more than the burger. These were a combination of a wedge fry and a curly fry, with some really tasty seasonings.

El Paso Convention Center Tacos:

I had these from a food truck at the El Paso Convention Center. Pretty standard Mexican style tacos with meat topped with cabbage, cheese, and lime. 

Chico's Tacos:

Chico's Tacos was a local chain with several locations, most of them open late at night. I visited the original Chico's Tacos location on Alameda Avenue which has been around since 1953. This place was interesting. The tacos which Chico's serves weren't like tacos I know. These were rolled up tortillas filled with ground beef, then drenched in a pool of red sauce and covered in cheese. The tacos were tasty junk food, but I don't know if I'd rush out to get tacos like this again.

Juarez, Mexico:

El Paso and Juarez, Mexico are basically one city with a pesky international border. My hotel was located a few blocks from the border and I could see more of Mexico than the United States from the hotel's window. Because of this, I had to venture into Juarez while I was in El Paso. After the easiest border crossing/customs I've ever been through, I spent a few hours in the city. I didn't have any food in Juarez, but something food related worth noting was The Kentucky Bar. The Kentucky has been around since 1920 and their claim to fame is having invented the Margarita.

San Antonio Food: Casa Rio and Mangonadas

After a few days in Austin, I headed south in Texas to San Antonio for a day. Everyone who I spoke to in Austin told me I'd be terribly disappointed with the city and not to waste my time with the two hour drive to San Antonio. I'm not sure why San Antonio has a horrible reputation among Austin residents, but I throughly enjoyed my day exploring the city. I toured Spanish missions, I rented a bike and rode along the San Antonio river. When it was dinner time, I found myself in the San Antonio River Walk section of downtown. I took the canal tour boat ride and had a restaurant called Casa Rio pointed out...

Casa Rio:

Casa Rio is the oldest restaurant along the San Antonio River Walk. That little factoid made me decide to have dinner there. I ate outside along the river where there were nice views of passing boats, people strolling, and a gang of attack ducks that were going up to tables then biting diners if they weren't fed. It was very entertaining.

I ordered the Deluxe Dinner. This came with a cheese enchilada, tamale, crispy beef taco, chili con carne, chili con queso, mexican rice, refried beans, and a guacamole salad. It sounds like a lot of food, but I didn't realize how much it actually was until food started being delivered to my table. I got a basket of chips and salsa first. This was soon followed by the guacamole salad. Their guacamole salad was shredded lettuce and chopped tomatoes topped with a big scoop of guacamole. Tortilla chips covered in queso also came out with the salad.

The plate with the rest of the food soon followed. Standout items on the plate were the the tamale and the chili con carne. As with many Mexican restaurants, everything else was pretty standard and tasty enough.

At $11.25, all this food was pretty reasonable. Nice environment and good food. I'd return to Casa Rio.




Cathedral of San Fernando Food Stand:
Later that evening I went to the Cathedral of San Fernando where they had a projection mapped light show on the outside of the building. In the park outside the cathedral, there were a few food trucks and a couple permanent food stands feeding the tourists.

One of the permanent food stands had an interesting menu. They had corn in a cup, mangonadas, and funnel cakes. I had never heard of a mangonada before, so I decided to give it a try.

It turned out a mangonada was basically a Mexican version of an Italian ice. I had a mix of strawberry and lime. It was served in a large cup. The mangonada was sweet and refreshing!

Austin Food #4: (Kolache Shoppe, Naegelin's Bakery, and Der Lindenbaum)

This is the last of the foods I tried in the Austin area on this trip. You can read about some of my previous Austin food adventures here. Today's blog post is pretty much about German/Eastern European foods. I didn't realize before my visit, but Texas was settled by a lot of German immigrants that brought foods over from Europe. This blog post is talking about some of these foods. We are starting at Kolache Shoppe...

Kolache Shoppe (Austin, TX):

I became aware of a kolache when I was at a Four Rivers and noticed they had kolaches available on their menu on Saturday mornings at breakfast time. I never got around to visiting a Four Rivers early enough to try a kolache, but I found out that they are a sweet or savory pastry popular in parts of Texas.  When I went to Austin, I put trying a kolache on my list of regional foods to eat. Google told me the closest place to where I was staying with the highest reviews was called Kolache Shoppe. They were located in a old looking strip mall in the suburbs of the city.

I decided to try a sweet and savory kolache and ordered a blueberry and a jalepeno sausage. The kolaches were interesting, but not exactly what I was expecting. The bread that made up most of the kolache reminded me a whole lot of a King's Hawaiian Roll. It was mushy, slightly sweet white bread. The blueberry kolache had a pool of blueberry jam baked into an indentation on the top of the bread.

The jalepeno sausage kolache was sort of like a pig in a blanket. The sausage was baked into the bread. For some reason this one caught me off guard. I wasn't expecting to see a whole sausage in the kolache. I was thinking crumbled sausage for some reason.

I was a bit disappointed with my first kolache experience. I was expecting some sort of delicious pastry and ended up with dinner rolls...


Naegelin's Bakery (New Braunfels, TX):

I ventured a bit outside of Austin and found myself in the town of New Braunfels, TX. This town was founded by German immigrants and still had lots of German influences around the city. There were German restaurants, a beer garden, and German desserts from the oldest bakery in Texas. I went into Naegelin's Bakery and saw they also served kolaches. Since I wasn't impressed with my first kolache experience in the state, I figured I'd see how a place that had been around since 1868 made them.

Naegelin's Bakery had several varieties available. Not nearly as many as Kolache Shoppe had, but still plenty to choose from. I asked the woman taking my order what her favorites were and she recommended the bratwurst and the breakfast sausage.

These kolaches were different from what Kolache Shoppe served. These were also similar to pigs in blankets, but the bread was much denser with a yellowish dough. Out of my two kolache experiences, these were far superior to the mushy white bread that I had the first time, but I still can't say I'm sold on kolaches. These were tasty enough, but I think I would have much rather have had some other sort of German desserts which Naegelin's Bakery sold.

I've since been told I should have also tried a chain called Kolache Factory for good kolaches. They initially came up on my first search for nearby kolaches in Austin, but they had an average 1.5 star review so I passed. Next time I'm in Texas, perhaps I should attempt to find a Kolache Factory for a third kolache data point. I wonder if their kolaches would be different from what I tried as well?





Der Lindenbaum (Fredericksburg, TX):

Fredericksburg, TX was another town nearby Austin that I visited during my trip. Like New Braunfels, there was also a whole lot of German influence here. Because of this, I decided I should have German food for dinner. I ended up at a restaurant called Der Lindenbaum.

I ordered the Currywurst. I don't think I had ever tried currywurst. It came with two sausage links with a large bowl of curry sauce. Mashed potatoes and sauerkraut came as sides. The thick, slightly sweet and slighty spicy curry sauce was delicious. It was definitely better than the sausages themselves and made its way onto the potatoes as to topping. The sauerkraut was really good too. It had fennel seeds, along with other flavors tasting like dill and lemon. I would have eaten a whole plate of the sauerkraut alone!

Austin Food #1: Torchy's Tacos, Terry Black's Barbecue, and Voodoo Doughnuts

I recently went on a trip to Texas. Most of my time in the state was in Austin, but I did make a couple excursions to other nearby cities.

I was told that the two foods I had to try in Austin were breakfast tacos and barbecue. When I questioned what restaurants were good for these two foods, I was told it didn't matter because the standards for these foods were set so high in the city. Anything subpar apparently doesn't survive in Austin when it comes to these two foods. With that in mind, my first food adventure in Texas was to find some breakfast tacos...



Torchy's Tacos (University of Texas and Barton Springs Food Truck Park):

This is a local Austin chain. Somehow I have a T-shirt from Torchy's Tacos. I don't remember exactly where I got the shirt, but I recognized the name because of it and stopped into the Torchy's Tacos just outside UT on my first morning in Austin. I had The Wrangler, filled with scrambled eggs and potatoes with smoked beef brisket and jack cheese. I also had the Monk Special, with eggs, bacon, green chilies, and cheese. As my first introduction to Austin's breakfast tacos, I was impressed. These had a whole lot of flavor happening inside the tortillas and were overflowing with the fillings. I think I preferred The Wrangler a little over the Monk Special, but both were good.

I also happened upon another Torchy's Tacos for lunch during the trip. This Torchy's was in food truck form, located in the Barton Springs Trailer Park. I came across several of these food truck parks around the city and they definitely are an improvement on Orlando's food truck scene. The trucks are centered around actual structure, with tables, air conditioning, and bathrooms. That way you're not standing in a hot parking lot trying to eat your food. Food truck prices in Austin didn't seem to be horribly inflated like Orlando's are either.

I tried the Republican and the Crossroads tacos. The Republican was a flour tortilla filled with grilled jalepeno sausage, shredded cheese, and pico de gallo. I'm not sure what I was expecting, but the hot dog-like sausage in the tortilla threw me off a little. It was okay, but I don't think I'd get The Republican again. Crossroads was filled with smoked beef brisket, grilled onions, jalepenos, cilantro, jack cheese, and a slice of avocado. This was the much better of the two tacos.

Terry Black's Barbecue:

To cross my barbecue in Austin off my list, I had dinner at Terry Black's Barbecue. Someone told me this was the second best barbecue in Austin. The number one barbecue choice involved lining up way early in the morning and waiting hours to get in, so I decided to pass on them. Second best was good enough for me because Terry Black's had some delicious smoked meat!

Terry Black's had an interesting setup. All the sides were buffet style where you served yourself, then your meat would be added onto the plate by an employee. I decided to try the brisket with macaroni & cheese and beans as my sides. I've sampled barbecue brisket in Florida here and there, but none compared this brisket. It was tender, almost creamy. The meat had a thick, peppery crust. It had a very nice smokey flavor. I don't like using superlatives, but I think I'm going to rate this as the best brisket I've ever had! Rather than the baked beans in barbecue restaurants that I'm used to seeing, here they served pinto beans. Pretty tasty. The macaroni and cheese was okay, but nothing noteworthy.

Voodoo Doughnuts:

When I was in Denver last year, I was told I needed to try Voodoo Doughnuts. I never got there, but when I passed by another Voodoo Doughnuts location in Austin, I decided to give them a try. There was a really long line almost out the door. With that many people wanting doughnuts, I was expecting something amazing.

I had one of their Voodoo Doughnuts. It was vaguely person shaped, covered in chocolate icing then topped with an icing eye and mouth. Inside, the doughnut was jelly filled so the blood oozed out as you  took a bite. Overall, I liked the concept but the doughnut was nothing exceptional taste-wise. It was a generic jelly doughnut with way too much icing. I wouldn't wait in that line again.

Comfort Suites Breakfast

I ate the included breakfast provided by the Comfort Suites that I stayed at in Marshall, TX. I had scrambled eggs, eggs with some sort of meat, a biscuit, and a waffle. These hotels don't seem to do much fruit in the breakfasts.

Gucci's Pizza in Marshall, TX

After a day of traveling, I ended up in Marshall, TX for the night. The motel clerk recommended Gucci's Restaurant as having the good Italian food, as opposed to the Italian restaurant right across the street. After eating, I really hope Gucci's can't speak for all Italian restaurants in Texas.

The pizza topped with half green peppers and half ground beef with a sesame seed crust was served. I am almost certain that Gucci's used pre-made pizza crusts. The crust was a horrible, dense, foamy bread. I say foamy because if the crust was poked with a fork, the holes would close up and appear that it was never stabbed. Although the crust had seemingly magical powers to heal itself, one thing it couldn't do was connect with cheese. Every bit of cheese, sauce, and topping slid right off the crust. Sometimes this happens if there is too much sauce on a pizza, but there was actually very little sauce on this pie. It's hard to tell exactly how much sauce the pizza started out with though because a lot of it got absorbed into the crust, making it kind of soggy. Perhaps this soggy crust couldn't provide a surface for the cheese to bond itself to.

Whatever caused the flaws with this pizza, I've had better pizzas than this pie from the frozen food section at the Supermarket...