The stars at night are big & bright...

quote:

Originally posted by buffetbuster

Paul-
Yes, those photos are from the town of West, Texas. So what is the best time to show up to get them fresh from the oven. I'm assuming it is early in the morning or do they make them all day long?

Al-
We just stopped at the first kolache place we could find, right next to the highway. I would have loved to have gone into town to explore a little more and grab a full meal, but we were quite happy with what we got. You have to respect how the Czechs really hold on to their traditions.

I flew into DFW and arrived about 7:00AM. By the time I rented a car and headed south on interstate toward Waco, I arrived in West, TX about 8:30AM and they were taking them out of the oven as I was there. The kolaches were fresh and hot.

I got several different kinds including hot sausage and cheese and some fruit ones.

Very very good.

Paul E. Smith
Knoxville, TN

Thanks for the appetizing report. Everything looks fabulous.

Wednesday April 23 cont.

Johnny and I arrived at Hoover's about five minutes early. While I was taking some outside pictures of the place, ChiTownDiner pulled up in a vehicle just slightly smaller than a school bus. I figured out later than this was to carry all the kolaches him and his crew planned on buying in the next few days!

We had such a great time talking with CTD, that the waitress must have come over around four times to take our order without us being ready. Anyway, I have already posted CTD's food pics in this thread here.
http://www.roadfood.com/Forums/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=27061

Johnny went for the barbecued chicken, with sides of carrots and cabbage

and I went for the four veggie plate, including mac & cheese, squash, green beans and black eyed peas.

CTD ordered the chicken fried steak, with sides of fried okra and jalapeno creamed spinach. Plus, a Cajun Ham Po' Boy, with another side of mac & cheese. Hard to believe all this food was for only three people!

One of the great things about eating with people as unselfish as my cousin and ChiTownDiner is being able to try so many different dishes. And we all got to try everything! The standouts for me were the chicken fried steak, the spinach and the green beans. But truthfully, everything was good.

To drink, Hoover's serves their lemonade in pitchers. No glass, just a straw! This is delicious lemonade, too.


Somehow, we managed to have room for dessert. Serving five different types of cobbler, we each decided to get one. Johnny is a huge mango fan and that was one of the choices. But, the waitress talked him out of it, since she said it wasn't as good as the others. Here is what we ended up with.....

one peach, one blackberry and one cherry, with everyone sharing. Not satisfied, CTD also ordered us a piece of sweet potato pie.

Great food, great company, what a memorable meal!

http://www.roadfood.com/Reviews/Writeup.aspx?ReviewID=506&RefID=506

ChiTownDiner had noticed a frozen custard stand near his hotel, so we decided to further abuse our bodies there. Here is CTD and my cousin chatting outside Sandy's.

The custard wasn't very good, but after all of that great food, how could we complain.

Johnny and I retreated to our hotel for the night, so that we could get off to an early start the next day.

Much more to come.....

Buffetbuster is being modest...he really knows his way around these menus and was a great inspiration for the ordering. This being our first meal together, an order needed to be established. From this stop forward - 1 - review and question all apsects of menu paying special attention to pie and dessert choices in general, 2 - as food arrives, no sampling until the pictures are taken, 3 - after all pictures including retakes are complete, sharing is permitted, 4 - sample you own selections, 5 - pie and dessert orders are decided, 6 - more pictures, 7 - follow steps 3 and 4!

Originally posted by buffetbuster

Wednesday April 23 cont.

Before heading into the city, we decided we would see some of the countryside west of Austin. This was my first time in the Hill Country and there really is some beautiful scenery.

We ended up in Marble Falls at Blue Bonnet Cafe for lunch. How about this for a sign?


Pie Happy Hour? PIE HAPPY HOUR!!! Now, this is a concept I could get behind. My name is buffetbuster and I wholeheartedly approve this message! Of course, we were here at the wrong time, but still..... This is an idea that I hope spreads like wildfire!

Wow, you guys are hitting all the great spots!! The Bluebonnet is legendary. We travel from the DFW area to San Marcos frequently to canoe, so this is a favorite stop. Did you guys get a bag of bread? They make homemade rolls and bread and give away extras from the day before. They say that it makes great croutons, but even day old, it always gets eaten! They also have a great cookbook that has their pie recipes included.
This is a great report, keep it coming!
Dutchgirl

buffetbuster, I'm just catching up on your trip. I don't know how you do it. A "Pie Happy Hour", talk about RoadFood.

twinwillow, I never put two and two together. I was just quoting what the menu said. Now I'm worried about getting sued from the girl in the photo.

dutchgirl-
Thanks again for the compliments. I agree that the Blue Bonnet Cafe is a wonderful place. No, I did not know anything about a bag of bread. Wish I had known. Truthfully, my cousin and I were so mesmerized by the pie case that we undoubtedly had tunnel vision.

joerogo-
Isn't Pie Happy Hour a great concept? I definitely think more restaurants should have this.

ChiTownDiner-
I genuinely do appreciate the patience everyone eating with me shows, in waiting for me to take multiple pictures of the food before they can start eating. I know it can't be easy when the food looks as good as some of this does.

Thursday April 24

Since I love San Antonio and Johnny had never been there before, we got up early to go see the city. But before heading out of Austin, we made a quick stop at The Big Kolache.

ChiTownDiner had stopped in at this place just the day before and raved about the place, so we were anxious to try it. But, the young lady he had spoken to the day before had called off sick and frankly, the whole place seemed very disorganized. Apparently, they are under new management and they had a very difficult time just figuring out how to use the cash register. No matter, these were terrific kolaches.

I bought four fruit ones and one with Elgin sausage. Johnny bought several himself and once again really liked the ones with the Elgin sausage and jalapeno. My apologies, but none of the photos turned out acceptable to post. Sorry!

Once we got on the road, we still wanted to stop for a regular breakfast. So we hit the New Braunfels Smokehouse,

which was conveniently located very close to I-35.

Johnny had the eggs, grits and sausage breakfast,

while I went for a bowl of fresh fruit

and the breakfast smoked sausage.

The sausage was juicy with a wonderful strong flavor. I would love to come back at lunch sometime and try some of their other meats.

http://www.roadfood.com/Reviews/Writeup.aspx?ReviewID=511&RefID=511

Once we parked in San Antonio, we headed straight for the Alamo.


The park ranger gave an especially great talk about the history of the building and the battle itself. It was so good, I went over and shook his hand to thank him. Unfortunately, no photos can be taken on the inside of the building.

From there, we made the short stroll over to the River Walk.

Much more to come.....

Great write-up, buffetbuster. I have a good friend of mine who's a transplant from the Lone Star state and he still annually orders his Thanksgiving turkey from the[url='http://www.nbsmokehouse.com/']New Braunfels Smokehouse[/url] and it is always fantastic.

Oh, and about not being able to take photos inside the Alamo: a photo has been long circulating around "the internets" purporting that [url='http://z.about.com/d/hotels/1/0/c/a/arcade.jpg']this[/url] is what's inside said hallowed ground. I, for one, believe it.

i95-
It is quite true. Unfortunately, we forgot to bring our quarters!

Re: Hoover's in Austin. I go there often when in Austin to visit my son. I once had their "smothered pork chops" and thought I died and went to "pork chop heaven". Damn! they were good!

Thursday April 24 cont.

I have always really enjoyed the Paseo del Rio in San Antonio. Here are some photos from the boat ride we took.






After getting off the short boat ride, we did some exploring and I did some souvenir shopping. Soon it was time for lunch.

A co-worker of mine named John happened to also be in San Antonio at the same time. His daughter Kylie is stationed in the Air Force nearby and recently made him a granddad for the first time. So he and his other daughter Kaitlyn rode his Harley all the way down from Pittsburgh. While John was in town, he went to the Harley shop and fell in love with one of their new bikes. So, he traded his in, while he was down there. Here is John, proudly displaying his new ride.


We met John and Kaitlyn at Olmos Pharmacy for a quick lunch.

This is a classic old time lunch counter, with a small menu and great milkshakes and malts. Here is my cherry shake.

I love it when it comes in a silver beaker, like that!

The food itself was fine, but nothing special. Johnny's cheeseburger

my grilled cheese

and John being the macho biker, put jalapenos on his tuna fish sandwich.


After saying goodbye to John & Kaitlyn and wishing them a safe trip back to Pennsylvania, Johnny and I headed back towards Austin.

http://www.roadfood.com/Reviews/Writeup.aspx?ReviewID=2991&RefID=3010

Much more to come.....

Can't wait to see your dinner choice...

CTD-
No hints.....I want you to be surprised!

I can't confirm this but there's a rumor
that Texas officials were putting up this
sign along I-35 following buffetbuster's
departure from San Antonio:



Again, this is unconfirmed.

But, still...

WOW, this is some report, Buffetbuster, Cliff...
and your cousin Johnny keeps right up with you! Was Johnny already a Roadfood guru beforehand? (if not, he's got the good energy for it)

I like your full tray at Bryce's cafeteria... mine tend to look like that, too.

That Cattleman's steak, the KC Strip looks like it meets my high standards! (for starters I like the exterior crust)
And those dinner rolls look so good...!

That Olmos Pharmacy burger looks like a few of the mediocre burgers I came across in Dallas. (that roll is crumbly, a bad sign, too)
And they burnt your grilled cheese ...

I've got to put a kolache on my list for next time. Never had one before.

That BBQ Chicken from Hoovers looks real good.(nice and crispy, the way I happen to like it) (I prefer if they cut in half, though...less work for me to do)

Great pics, Cliff! Do you use Flickr?
(if so, I'm wondering if there is a way to resize them all at once to "medium", instead of individually) (all this editing, pasting, and posting seems to take longer than it should)
(So I welcome any shortcuts !!!)

Inquiring minds' will be on here later tonight to see what you had for dinner!!

--ellen--

p.s. It was real nice seeing both of you in Austin...

i95-
Great stuff!!! Wait until you see what ChiTownDiner, Johnny and myself do to the poor town of Hutto!

quote:

Originally posted by buffetbuster

Wait until you see what ChiTownDiner, Johnny and myself do to the poor town of Hutto!

I smell...

And it doesn't even matter which way the wind is blowing...

quote:

Originally posted by The Travelin Man

If there's one thing I cannot stand on this site, it is how long some people take to finish their trip reports!

ROFL!!!!!!!!!

So suddenly this seemingly strange message that appeared on the scoreboard at the University of Texas - Austin is beginning to make some sense.

Ellen-
Thank you very much for the nice comments! I feel bad that I have been so completely engrossed with trying to get my own trip report done, I haven't had the chance to check yours out, yet. You of all people know that doing one of these trip reports is fairly time consuming and it can be tough to try and get it done in a timely manner. Just ask, oh nevermind..... But, we wouldn't do it if we didn't enjoy it, right?

I use photobucket. I am not very good with computers, but found it to be very easy to use. That is why I say, if I can post photos, anyone can! Sorry I can't help you with Flickr.

From what I know about you, I think you would have loved Cattleman's Steak House in Fort Worth. Great steaks in even better atmosphere.

To answer your question about Johnny.....we started going on vacation together about the same time as I bought my first Jane & Michael Stern book (the 1997 Eat Your Way Across the USA). All I had to do was take him to a few places and he was hooked, too.

Howard Baratz-
Well done!!! Coincidentally, if there is one person I would love to share a meal with, even more than ChiTownDiner, it would be Steelers NT Casey "Big Snack" Hampton, who also happens to be an ex-Longhorn. I can only imagine just how many chicken fried steaks he has eaten in his lifetime to get to be that size!

Howard Baratz?? No way.
That poster's been dead for years.




And dead is, well, dead.

I am LOVING this report!!! I check it several times a day to see if there is anything new lol :)

Just as Mark Twain once said, "Reports of my death have been greatly exaggerated."

Leania, I've been whistling 'Deep in the heart of Texas' all weekend in its honor.

quote:

Originally posted by Leania_1stone

I am LOVING this report!!! I check it several times a day to see if there is anything new lol :)

Welcome to Roadfood, Leania; I see you are a fairly new member, but you are definitely one of US ! You've got that like-minded Roadfood spirit! (the way you keep checking back on the forum; yes !)

I keep checking this forum, too, the way someone would check their fridge to see if anything new suddenly appeared.

Thursday April 24 cont.

I fell asleep in the car, only for Johnny to wake me up when we made our destination. The first thing I see is a giant cherry pie. Did I die and go to Roadfood heaven?

The exterior at the Texas Pie Company in Kyle has to be an all-time great Roadfood storefront.

Since we were running out of time in Texas, we had to pass up buying a full pie and concentrated on buying the mini pies.


Johnny went for the chocolate fudge and the pecan,

while I went for the chess and strawberry/peach. We also bought ChiTownDiner a cherry pie, which we kept forgetting to take with us and had to eventually throw away. Sorry!

All the pies were quite good and tasted fresh, with Johnny being especially pleased with the pecan. If you haven't seen it, Bruce & Sue just did an excellent logbook on this place. And the girls who waited on us seemed very unhappy, too. How could you be sullen working around pie?

http://www.roadfood.com/Reviews/Overview.aspx?RefID=5412

Much more to come.....

I've been dreaming of that pie for days...and nights also!