Texas Bucket List

Texas Bucket List

The Texas Bucket List – Lindale Candy Company in Lindale

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Lindale – When life gets a little sour, candy is the perfect pick me up. Well, if you need something to brighten your spirits and you happen to be on the east side of our state, the Lindale Candy Company is one sweet stop. Since 1946, peppermint has been a part of the lineage of Lindale and it’s a tradition that Kaitlin and Jeremiah Cagle carry on today. “Everybody’s a kid in a candy store, but it’s a joy to be the candy man,” said Jeremiah.

The Cagle’s are the fourth owners of the candy company and when they decided to be the purveyors of this particular type of candy, they did it the same year they pledged their love to one another. “We prayed on it and just felt like God’s timing was crystal clear and the fit was just a perfect marriage,” said Jeremiah. “God’s just been completely evident in everything we’ve done from day one to day now.”

Peppermint sticks are the centerpiece of the Lindale Candy Company as that’s what founded this foundry of confectioneries when Candy Jim Withrow and his wife Ruby started this business a year after World War 2 ended. “We really had to come in and kind of dust off the beauty of what was here for 77 years,” said Jeremiah. “Not many people can say they show up to work every day and use a 75-year-old pair of scissors.”

Purchasing a business that’s been around longer than you’ve been alive means you’re also gaining some loyal, long-term customers, as well as a lot of pressure not to ruin their favorite shop. “We have people come in and talk about, ‘Oh, I’ve been coming here since candy man Jim was around, and y’all are doing a great job of carrying on the tradition,’” said Kaitlin. “So to hear people say that and know that we are carrying on something that they have such fond memories of, it’s a pretty awesome feeling.”

The process of making peppermint is so popular that it draws a crowd, even on the hottest of days in the Lone Star State. It seems getting see and sample this simple treat is worth sitting through the lengthy process it takes to create it. “We really find that the adults are more captivated than the kids,” said Jeremiah. “We know, again, of just four other places in the entire country that still hand pull their hard candies. It is a very labor-intensive technique, a lost technique.”

Candy canes, candy pieces, even preposterously sized peppermint sticks are all big sellers, but nothing is as popular as the dolls adorned with striped candy clothing. “That is something the original owner started,” said Kaitlin. “At first we thought it was kind of crazy, but it was a tradition that we wanted to carry on. Some people eat them, some people try to keep them. We’ve heard of some people being devastated because theirs broke after so many years. So yeah, I don’t know what most people do with them from here, but you could eat it.”

Peppermint is popular but Kaitlin’s confection of choice is chocolate. Kaitlin has been making her chocolates through her own company, Kaitlin’s Confections, since 2013. Owning a candy shop has allowed her to bring her sweets to the storefront. “It’s an art for me, so I just would get lost in it, and I just really enjoy it,” said Kaitlin.

With all the smiling faces and happy little humans running around their shop, the Lindale Candy Company has provided more than just a sweet gig for the Cagle’s, it’s a feeling that they’re doing exactly what they’re supposed to be doing. “That’s what it’s all about, really for me. It is. When I say I wanted to make people happy, I think that the people who know me are proud because that’s what I’m doing,” said Jeremiah. “It’s an emotional feeling. I just have always enjoyed seeing people smile, so it’s a good feeling. For whatever reason, it makes me tear up every time I think about it.”

 

 

 

 

 

The Texas Bucket List – Kanji Sushi in Bryan

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Bryan – For folks who have never stepped foot in Aggieland, visions of burgers and big beers might fill your head.  But over in Bryan, there’s a superb sushi stop that might just be one of the most exquisite in the entire state. “We really basically wanted to bring the top tier sushi, right here,” said Tai Lee.

Chef Tai is of South Korean decent, but he’s been a part of Bryan/College Station since well, his college days. “I Came here in 1998 to attend Texas A&M University and loved Aggieland so much, I decided to stay,” said Tai.

During his time in school, Tai got a job making sushi at one of the only sushi bars in College Station at the time. There he met Soon Park, and that changed his life forever. “The gentleman who taught me how to make sushi, Master Chef Soon Park, has a very successful restaurant, sushi bar outside of Chicago,” said Tai. “Then he stayed as a friend and a mentor, since he first taught me how to make sushi, back in 2002.”

Over the years, Tai went on to open several successful restaurants in B/CS but never dabbled into a sushi endeavor, so he called up his old buddy Soon. “We wanted to present a sushi with a heightened level of a sense and a style and a flare that was not previously available here, in Bryan-College Station,” said Tai. “Everything has to have certain meaning. Why? It’ll have a certain name, why it would have certain flavor, different sauce, ingredients. So, we put a lot of thought into it. Something that Chef Soon has done it for 35 years.”

Logan Burke has worked with Chef Tai since 2018 and he was in charge of putting together 4 sushi rolls before Tai takes things to the next level. “We’re really getting a chance to provide the community with something maybe that they haven’t seen before,” said Burke. “I used to be that guy that says I ain’t eating sushi, it’s bait. But now, once I tried it, I’m like, this is fantastic.”

Logan started things of with Kanji’s number 1 seller, the Chef Soon’s Special Roll which starts with a high end nori covered in a particular type of rice. “We want to be true to the roots,” said Tai. “So, a lot of the preparation, ingredients are very authentic. We’re not using shortcuts by using American grown rice. We’re using Japanese rice, actual short grain rice. The Japanese guests who come here or people who lived in Japan identify those rice. ‘I can’t believe you actually use this rice.’ I say, ‘Absolutely.’” Spicy mayo, fresh yellow tail, avocado and jalapeno are added. Once rolled big eyed tuna is placed on top along with a truffle vinaigrette, black pepper and micro greens.

The Chef Tai’s Signature Spicy Tuna Roll starts off with what else but spicy tuna. “A lot of the American sushi bar uses Sriracha as their base for spicy tuna. I wanted to do something different,” said Tai. “So, I would say nothing against sriracha, but I want to try my own. This is something that I created 21 years ago, when I was still working at a former sushi bar. The sauce is inspired by Korean chili paste, but I wanted to make it into a sushi.”

Add in cucumber, avocado, roll it up and add some big eyed tuna, spicy mayo, and flame kiss it. “Now here comes the fun part,” said Tai. “Activate that mayo, get a little extra flavor going on. Bringing out the flavor in the mayo.” Chef Tai sauce, eel sauce, fried potatoes, microgreens, flying fish row and sesame seeds close it out.

The Summer Roll features house spicy mayo, spicy crab mix, avocado, and cucumber that’s rolled up with Nordic salmon and lemons then topped with spiced sunomono and pico de gallo. Finally, the Cowboy Steak Sushi Roll, which almost seems paradoxical. “I know Texas loves steak,” said Tai. “I said, ‘Okay, I understand we’re sushi bar, but you could make steak as a sushi topping.’ Sushi only means it’s sour in Japanese, referring to a seasoned rice, that’s the base and a foundation of making sushi rolls or nigiri sushi. So, I say, Sushi has nothing to do with the fish. You can have sushi with a steak, you can have sushi with a vegetable, you can have sushi with a pickle because it only refers to the seasoned rice.” All that’s left is to add asparagus, spicy mayo, roll it up and top it with more steak, eel sauce, torch it, throw on shredded green onions and seasame seed, and the Cowboy Steak Sushi Roll is complete.

Before I could sit down and enjoy these four rolls, Chef Tai had a special treat for me and if you want to experience this, all you need to know is one word. “One of the very popular dishes that we do here is actually called omakase,” said Tai. “So omakase in Japanese translation is trusting the chef. I’ll definitely make sure you get the best experience on any sushi that we can offer, that is based on seasonal and a market availability. If you were to tell me, ‘Hey, I cannot do salmon for X, Y, Z reasons,’ no problem. I’ll be happy to get you something different.” Chef Tai carefully selects several different fish for a 9 course nigiri and sashimi offering that is ever so delicately put together, and just like that a sushi feast fit for a king is ready to roll.

Starting with the sashimi and the nigiri, every piece was a knockout. From the lighter yellowfin nigiri to the bolder flavors of the squid and uni, every bite was decidedly fresh and flavorful. The rolls, to nobody’s surprise, were wonderful as well, packing in layers of sweet, spicy and umami flavors that were all addictive.

Well, with fine flavors from all over the world, Kanji Sushi in Bryan-College Station is a spot you definitely want to reel in on The Texas Bucket List.

The Texas Bucket List – Cajun Wok in Victoria

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Victoria – When it comes to good food across the Lone Star State, you never know where you’re going to find it!  Take Cajun Wok in Victoria for example.  This extremely clean, well-lit kitchen is in the last place you’d expect to find it. A convenience store. “Everybody that comes here, they be like, ‘Huh, I never seen a thing like this,’” said Darielle Gartica, who started this business with her partner Dominique Randle.

When they first walked into the Beverage Wall convenience store to see if it was the right location for their business, it was a no brainer. “It looks amazing,” said Dominique. “I mean, he keeps it clean and it’s like, ‘Let’s do it.’ This area was perfect for us. It had everything we needed to get started, so it was like, ‘Let’s go.’”

Gas station dining gets a bad rap, but the Beverage Wall’s cleanliness and organization makes it work for both Cajun Wok and their customers. “A lot of our customers that come from the other side of town, they was like, ‘I didn’t know what to think when I pulled up and it was a convenience store,’” said Darielle. “But now everybody’s kind of giving them that heads up, ‘It’s a convenience store, but you’re going to love it in there.’”

Even though the shop is pristine, extremely well-organized snacks aren’t the reason I’m here.  I’m looking for something with more seasoning, and that’s where Cajun Wok gets things cooking thanks to their infusion of Cajun and Asian flavors. “We love this type of food, so it really wasn’t that hard for us to get it done,” said Dominique. “We eat it all the time, so we know what the flavors need to taste like. We know what each dish needs to make it a complete dish.”

This business got started for Darielle and Dominique during the pandemic. Cooking these dishes and then dishing them out of home sounded like a great idea, but there was one little issue called the law. “The Public Health came shut us down, all nice and cute like,” said Darielle.

“He was actually really nice though,” said Dominique. “It was probably the nicest anybody could have told me this. ‘I’m sorry, y’alls food looks really amazing, but we’ve got to close you guys down.’”

So they moved into the convenience store, and boy has it been convenient. “Business happens,” said Darielle. “We prayed for a long time for it, so it’s really showing up now.”

Dominique was ready to get down with my dinner so she started putting together their signature dish. “This is going to be our fish shrimp hot box,” said Dominique. “Now what we have here, I’ll call them the elements because nobody wants to be yelling, ‘I got your sausage, corn, and shrimp!’ The elements for our hot box, I have them here already, which we’re going to take and drop in our boil pot where the magic happens. You got whole onions, we got all our seasonings, got onions in there, bell peppers. All for flavor, all for flavor.”

As the elements boil up, Dominique takes garlic, onions, peas, and carrots and sautés them on the grill with some coarse pepper. “Only seasoning we’re going to take here,” said Dominique. “Darielle always says, ‘I like to be able to see the pepper in the food.’ I’m like, ‘Okay.’”

After adding some steamed rice to the flattop, the fish gets reeled into the recipe. “I’ll come grab my fish here, which already seasoned up and battered for us,” said Dominique. “This is swai filet. It’s in the catfish family. Yeah, everyone always asks us, ‘Is it catfish?’ No, it’s swai.”

The rice is the first thing finished and it gets topped off with spice. “We’ll hit it with our little seasonings,” said Dominique. “This is Cajun Wok season here. Little cayenne for the heat. So we come and get our shrimp out of here because they don’t take long to cook. You smell it. You smell that pot?”

Three sauces are added on the side including tarter, remoulade, and something special. “That’s our blessed butter,” said Dominique. “We call it our blessed butter. You have to bless the food before you eat it, right?”

After all her hard work preparing the food, Dominique puts just as much love into plating the meal. “Presentation is everything to me,” said Dominique. “Because if it looks good, you’re going to want to eat it, and then when it tastes good, that’s just a plus.”

Top it off with the fried fish and we’re almost finished. “Add food glitter (parsley), make it look good,” said Dominique. “And we’re done. That is the fish and shrimp hot box.”

Opening up the takeout box housing the completed hotbox created a whirlwind of both visual and olfactory sensation. The smell of seafood, butter and spice is matched by the gorgeous piece of fish sitting atop the rice, shrimp, corn and sausage, all of which is tied together by the food glitter. The fish itself is hot and flaky, and the light flavor of the swai allows the spice to shine alongside the tarter and remoulade sauce.

If you can break free from the hypnosis caused by the fish, you move onto the boiled shrimp, which were born to be dipped in the blessed butter. The butter itself is thick and incredibly flavorful, and the shrimp serves as a perfect delivery method. When you run out of shrimp and have blessed butter to spare, the rice at the bottom does a great job of soaking it all up to round out your meal.

Well, if you’re looking for some tangy, terrific seafood that’s accompanied by some sensational signature sauces, come into South Victoria and see that the Cajun Wok is well worth a stop on The Texas Bucket List. “Man, it just gives you such a great feeling to know that you served out a dish that people just enjoy and want to keep coming back for more,” said Darielle. “It’s an amazing feeling, amazing feeling.”

The Texas Bucket List – Remembering Columbia Museum in Hemphill

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Hemphill – The serene beauty of East Texas isn’t often interrupted. Occasionally you might hear a train far off in the distance or come across a few wild hogs hanging out under the trees.  But on February 1st, 2003, this part of our state saw the unimaginable take place in the sky above. The Space Shuttle Columbia was returning from a 16-day mission when it disintegrated upon reentry and broke into pieces over East Texas. “Those astronauts were 16 minutes back into Earth atmosphere and they were 16 minutes from home, and we lost them,” said Veronica Thomas, an Air Force veteran and one of the founders of the Remembering Columbia Museum in Hemphill. “38% of the shuttle was recovered in Eastern Texas, over 85,000 parts.”

Marsha Cooper, a member of the Texas Forest Service, is another person who was in Hemphill when the tragedy occurred. She also helped found the museum, and she’ll never forget that fateful Saturday when the pieces of the shuttle started falling from the sky. “I knew it was them. I knew it was the Shuttle,” said Cooper. “I was home on a Saturday morning like everybody else. I have an insert fireplace at my house and that thing went to shaking, the windows went to shaking. And all of a sudden, the sonic booms went to going off, and I didn’t know what was going on. 9/11 hadn’t been, what, two years before, and I didn’t know if we were under attack. And people thought a train had derailed. They didn’t know if the refineries down in Houston had blown up. I mean, everybody was calling, ‘What’s going on?’ Just looking in the sky and you could see the smoke trails through the sky. Still hard to look at to this day.”

Cooper knew that a recovery would be starting quickly, so she headed to the Texas Forest Service office to get ready. “You could see the debris,” said Cooper. “You could see the white Kevlar stuff that was on the side of the road. You could just see things everywhere, and I knew it wasn’t trash. Everybody just started pulling together and doing what they do best, doing great jobs.”

Veronica Thomas was also a part of the massive recovery effort that took place during the following days. “133 federal and state and local agencies involved in the recovery effort, and the rest volunteers,” said Thomas. “There were, I think, 125,000 volunteers. To date, it is still considered the largest recovery effort in the United States.”

Those efforts and the memories of the Astronauts lost that day are preserved at the Remembering Columbia Museum, an idea that came to the founders a few years after the tragic accident. “We didn’t really know what we wanted to do or how were we going to do it,” said Cooper. “We just didn’t really know what to do. We wanted to meet with the family first because we wanted them to be on board. We wanted them to approve what we were doing. It was important to us, whatever we did that the families of Columbia were in agreement on it.”

Through working with the families, the founders were able to create a plan for a museum that everyone involved would see as a good way to honor those lost on the Columbia Space Shuttle. “The family said that if there’s a museum or anything to honor our loved ones, it must be about education,” said Thomas.

And that’s exactly what they’ve done, by creating a place that doesn’t just honor the memories of the astronauts, but also accentuates their contribution to science and NASA’s mission of space exploration. “Our kids in a 200-mile radius here, they don’t have a NASA to go to and learn and do field trips,” said Cooper. “It’s a long way down there.”

Each astronaut lost that day has a display with personal items donated from family members.  One of those items is a set of wings that pilot William McCool’s father brought to the museum himself. “We walked right back here. He told us who he was and he was his father, and he actually had on these gold wings right here,” said Cooper. “And he said, ‘Can you open this case?’ And I said, ‘Yes, sir, we can.’ We opened the case. He said, ‘This is where they belong.’ So those gold wings were to be presented to William McCool when he got back. And so his gold wings sit here and his father put them there.”

Other items include debris recovered from the wreckage, such as a CD brought on board by mission specialist Laurel Clark and contacts that belonged Commander Rick Husband. “The family members have either given them to us or loaned them to us, trusted us with their loved one’s possessions,” said Thomas. “Each display case tells you a story about the individual. It gives you a complete snapshot of who that person was.”

The most compelling portion of displays showcase the careers and accomplishments of these 7 incredible heroes. “These astronauts were educated,” said Cooper. “And we wanted to make sure that their story was told, because each one of them has a story about their education and about what they did in their careers and everything.”

So we remember Rick Husband, William McCool, Michael Anderson, Kalpana Chawla, David Brown, Laurel Clark, and Ilan Ramon for their contribution to mankind and for inspiring the next generation of scientists who look to the stars. “To me, it represents faith, closure, tenacity, and just not giving up, and seeing the big picture,” said Thomas. “The story needs to be told over and over and over again. We must never forget.”

The Texas Bucket List – Check It Twice – Texas Toy Museum in Austin

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Austin – In early 2017, The Texas Bucket List stopped by the Austin Toy Museum on the East side of the Capital City.  The crammed collection of curated characters from the 80’s and 90’s was put together by Caleb Zammit and back then, he was just getting started.  “I think at my 30th birthday I was like, ‘I think I’m going to open a toy museum,’” said Caleb in our interview in 2017.

Seven years later Caleb has grown in age, but his love for collecting childhood mementos has stayed just the same. “The whole reason for the business is to have room for my stuff,” said Caleb.

Like many kids, Caleb always wanted to expand his toy collection as a kid, and never had much interest in downsizing. This tendency stayed with him into adulthood, and nobody ever seemed to understand his desire to keep growing his collection. “When I was little I had too many toys,” said Caleb. “And then my wife wanted it out of the house too.”

Caleb eventually found a solution to satisfy everybody, by turning his passion into a business and opening the Texas Toy Museum. Now in his new location, just down Congress Avenue from the state capitol, Caleb’s compilation has grown more and more, now occupying over 5,000 sq. ft of space. “We’ve tried to round out some of the collections, like a complete line of G1 Transformers, a complete G.I. Joe, real American hero line, just kind of finishing those collections off,” said Caleb. “All the collections are growing continuously, so eventually we’ll need a bigger spot than this too.”

Most of these toys from thirty and forty years ago are not just put in case to be displayed, they’re put into dioramas that take days to set up. “When I make these, I usually look at the old Sears catalog, the displays or the inserts that they put in with the toys and get a lot of inspiration for that,” said Caleb.

Rambo, Robocop, ET, and the A-Team are all on hand, but the G.I. Joe collection takes up an especially large chunk of the display room. “So we’re still working on a lot of our displays as we moved in, but we got G.I. Joe about halfway done,” said Caleb. “It’s a lot of toys to set up and put a little museum wax on their feet so they don’t fall over a thousand times.”

The displays in the museum feature toys on land, sea, and air, so it really feels like stepping into a toy world as soon as you enter. One of the more spectacular toys is a G.I. Joe U.S.S. Flagg aircraft carrier, which can carry quite the toy collection all on its own. “It’s the largest toy ever made still, seven feet long,” said Caleb. “Nobody’s topped it yet.”

90’s kids are represented at the museum as well, particularly by the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle collection. “And then we have the Ninja Turtles diorama that we just made for here,” said Caleb. “Added a bunch of buildings. Still need to get up some of the flyers, but this is mostly done. Ninja Turtles from the first toy line and the second toy line and even the 2012 toy line all mixed together.”

While Caleb’s collection was sparked by his love for his favorite toys, he has come to appreciate just about any line of toys out there, as long as they’re beloved by someone the same way he loves his favorites. “Yeah, we were a little bit light on the girl toys upstairs, so we definitely needed to round that out more and add more Gem and the Holograms, Barbie, Popples,” said Caleb. “Any other line that people have been requesting, we’ve tried to add.”

You’ll also find a lot more video games at the Texas Toy Museum and admission lets you play all you want. “I would love to sit my son in front of this with my daughter and say, ‘Okay, this is called the Oregon Trail. Play,’” said Caleb. “I see a lot of that, parents teaching their kids about the Oregon Trail and try and make it all the way. A few people make it all the way, but not a lot of people make it with all their people because at least when somebody gets bit by a snake and dies.”

Irish playwright George Bernard Shaw one said “We don’t’ stop playing because we grow old, we grow old because we stop playing.”  Well at the Texas Toy Museum, you can take yourself back to a time when playing was a part of life and just for a movement feel young again. “I enjoy bringing back people’s childhood memories for them,” said Caleb. “Because it’s all locked away somewhere in there. And it was a good time for all of us, so we all need that remembrance of simpler times.”

The Texas Bucket List – Hotel Saint George in Marfa

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Marfa – If you’ve never been to Marfa, it’s hard to explain how unique this corner of the Chihuahuan Desert really is. Situated far from any major city, it’s usually a quiet hub for activities around Big Bend, and happens to have some mysterious lights and lots of art. Now in order to enjoy all these unique things to do, you have to find a place to stay, and if glamping doesn’t really get you going, there’s a hotel here that makes you feel like you’re in the middle of a modern city.  The Hotel Saint George.

Emily William is the GM of Hotel Saint George, and she moved out to Marfa in 2017 without knowing she was going to stay there. “It was pure accident, which is a pretty common story out here,” said William. “I had what was supposed to be a three or four-month consulting job with Marfa Public Radio. And Tim Crowley, the owner of this property, and I had got to talking, and he asked me to stay for a while and work on some projects. And about nine months later, I was the general manager of this hotel.”

The Hotel Saint George is the only full-service hotel within hundreds of miles, so it sort of sticks out in the small town of Marfa. “It was just the right time for Marfa to again, A, have more and more contemporary accommodations, and accommodations that were a little more upscale than perhaps the town could’ve supported a decade prior,” said William

Despite only having 1,800 people, you may think that this is a sleepy town, but Marfa has so much to offer. “The day-to-day pace is so different from cities that you really have to take a step back and take stock of how dynamic the town is,” explained William. “Culturally, in terms of restaurants, people’s projects, new buildings, the town has really changed remarkably.”

That’s thanks to all the folks bringing culture with them from across Texas. “It’s a place where you want to talk to everybody you meet because they’ve all got an interesting perspective on what they love about this part of Texas, what they love about Marfa specifically, what they’re doing, and that’s really where you find the interesting things about Marfa,” said William. “People with big ideas and big dreams, and that means interesting bars, interesting restaurants, concerts, all kinds of stuff that you just don’t see in places this tiny and far-flung.”

One of those big dreams was the Hotel Saint George, the first hotel of its kind in this small town that offers guests a different experience in these parts. “When you bring the kids out for Thanksgiving break, everybody’s camping, it’s really nice to have a place where you can have a cocktail and a nice bed, big screen TV, large bathroom before you spend another seven hours driving back to Austin or wherever,” said William. “If you’re going to go all this way out, you might as well do it in comfort.”

The other part of Marfa people enjoy is the food and at this hotel, you don’t have to go far for a good meal. “Their solace is at least they know they’re going to have a place to eat dinner and breakfast the next morning, more importantly,” laughed William.

What also makes the Hotel Saint George unique is the art in every room and every hallway, which you should expect in a town like Marfa. “It’s a town that really supports creative work,” said William. “Almost all of the art on the property is by artists who either live here and work here or have some really meaningful connection to Marfa or the area. You see really distinctive artworks in the rooms, in the hallways down here, and it’s not unusual to just run across the people who made them. Most of them live down the street.”

And that encompasses Marfa, a Texas town that still has deep roots with locals while inviting those seeking refuge from the big cities, but expecting the finer things in life, all while getting some fresh desert air. “You don’t really have to go very far in any direction to be spending time in really quiet, open spaces,” said William.

The Texas Bucket List – El Taco Loco Birrieria in Odessa

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Odessa – Over the years of checking things off the list on The Texas Bucket List, we could never find much to eat in Odessa but boy has that changed!  Between Curbside Bistro and Brantly Creek BBQ, this part of the Petroplex has come a long way, and now you can include El Taco Loco Birrieria on the list! “It’s good stuff, man,” said David Ibarra. “People love it, dude.”

David Ibarra and his sister Lupe started this taco truck after moving to the area with their whole family from California. “We heard about Odessa, Midland, how they had work out here, and then we literally just picked up and left and we came over here and just started fresh,” said David.

Working in the oil fields was David’s original plan but when he got to west Texas, he noticed something. “Well, there’s not that much food anywhere over here in West Texas that’s like Cali so I’m like, ‘We need to bring in more to Odessa and Midland,’” said David.

Birria became their specialty. “We’ve been cooking birria probably my whole life,” said David. “Originally, it was my mom’s recipe that she used to cook for us. And then my sister, well, she kind of modified it, got it down to a… Even my mom’s like, ‘A dash of this and a sprinkle of that,’ and it wasn’t refined. My sister refined it. And yeah, so it’s been in our family for years.”

Now birria tacos and burritos are nothing new, but at El Taco Loco they get crazy with it by putting birria in a preposterously sized portion of food they like to call the pizzadilla. “It’s like a really big quesadilla,” said David. “It’s three flour tortillas, it’s loaded with cheese in each layer, birria meat, cilantro, onion, and then it’s topped off with sour cream, salsa verde, and a little bit more cilantro and onion just to garnish it. And then you get your consommé, you dip it and we slice it up in a pizza. It’s just really good. People love it.”

Talking about El Taco Loco’s crazy creations is one thing, but now it’s time to step into the truck and see what makes their birria better than the rest. Idalia’s inside working the grill, and she got started on the tacos by dipping some corn tortillas in consume and getting them grilled up. “She’s doing the birria taco,” said David. “So this is our number one bestseller.”

While she grills up the classic birria tacos, Idalia gets started on the pizzadilla by giving some extra large flour tortillas the same consome treatment and tossing them on the grill. She lays the three tortillas required for a pizzadilla on the grill and loads them up with a pile of monterey cheese and a healthy heap of birria. “It’s a good amount, man. It feeds like four people, depending how hungry they are,” said David. “If they’re really hungry, two people maybe. I know people who come and get it just for themselves.”

The tortillas get loaded up with onions and cilantro, then stacked on top of each other into a pizza box before getting sliced like a pie. Once the pizzadilla is constructed, Idalia adds the finishing touches. “Then she tops it up with some more cilantro, more onion, garnish it,” said David. “And then you get your consommé, you dip it and we slice it up in a pizza.”

All the food comes out hot and fresh off the grill, and it’s hard to resist digging in right in the parking lot. Up first are the classic birria tacos, served with a cup of consome. The birria is beyond awesome, and the fresh onions and cilantro help this rich dish to really shine. “The flavor and just the kind of juices and just the mixture of everything makes it amazing,” said customer Eric Valdez. “It’s amazing. I mean, it’s something that I think Odessa’s needed for a really long time.”

Up next is the pizzadilla, which almost has a gravitational pull drawing customers to dig right in. It puts other Mexican-inspired pizzas to shame, and picking up a slice exposes just how loaded the thing is with birria and cheese. There’s so much beef and cheese that every bite is a perfect bite, and it suddenly becomes apparent why someone would want to try and tackle this beast solo.

Well, if you happen to be in the Petroplex looking for a pizzadilla, coming to El Taco Loco Birrieria is definitely well worth a stop on The Texas Bucket List. “Recently, I started thanking God a lot,” said David. “I’m like, ‘Man, He blessed me.’ So I’m like, ‘He blessed my family.’ We’re doing so good. My parents worked so hard their whole lives. We weren’t rich, we weren’t well-off so we’d have to work for everything we had. And to finally get to somewhere where we have something and it’s growing? It’s like I’m proud, you know?”

The Texas Bucket List – Fort Worth Stock Show and Rodeo in Fort Worth

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Fort Worth – Rodeo. It’s part of who we are as Texans. The official sport of the Lone Star State, the very first rodeo was held in 1883 in Pecos. It’s the one that started it all but today, rodeo has really grown. The Fort Worth Stock Show and Rodeo is considered the granddaddy of all Texas rodeos as it was first held in 1896 and it’s been continuously running ever since! “Rodeos just got a special part,” said Matt Brockman. “It’s a special part of who we are and what we do.”

Matt Brockman has been a part of the Fort Worth Stock Show and Rodeo since 2008. “This is Cowtown,” said Brockman. “Some say it’s the city of Cowboys and culture. Some say it’s the modern West. Some say it’s where the West begins.”

Now Fort Worth might be famous for its stockyards and yes, you can still see a herd of longhorns make their way down East Exchange Avenue just about every day of the year. But the reason the rodeo is here has everything to do with this history of the stock yards. “The trail-driving era had come to an end,” said Brockman. “The Fort Worth Stockyards, though, had been established and was a major location where cattle were driven to and sold, but there was no place to harvest them, to process them. They were loaded into rail cars and shipped off to Chicago and Kansas City, and the organizers of the stockyard said, ‘We need to do something to attract the attention of these meat packers in Chicago to bring plants to Fort Worth.’ They went out onto the banks of Marine Creek right next to the stockyards building, the exchange building and tethered a bunch of cattle out there for a day or two and had a competition and awarded some prizes, hoping that word would get to Chicago, and I guess it was a success. They did it the next year and the year after that, and in 1903, Armour Company and Swift Company both established and built plants there, adjacent to the stockyards, and we were off and running by that point.”

In 1908, the stock show moved to the newly constructed North Side Coliseum and history was made. “The world’s original indoor rodeo in 1918, and we’ve been having professional rodeo ever since,” said Brockman.

Today, you’ll find the Fort Worth Stock Show and Rodeo at the Will Rogers Memorial Center where you can stroll Simmons Bank Plaza and get the perfect view of downtown Fort Worth. “What city has got a public events place like this that they can come year-round and experience what makes Fort Worth so unique and special?” asked Brockman.

The rodeo itself is held in Dickies Arena, a 14,000 seat stadium that opened in 2019.  It pays homage to the history of the stock show and rodeo by having the exact same attributes as the former arena. “The footprint of that actual competitive arena is the same footprint that we had in the Will Rogers Coliseum,” said Brockman. “The bucking chutes are the same. It’s the same exact diameter, even down to the dirt. We got the dirt from the same place, so the dirt’s just like it is in Will Rogers. The color schemes, the layout of the arena, the dimensions, it fits Will Rogers Coliseum to a tee.”

The history preserved by the new arena makes it beloved by long time fans and participants in the rodeo. “If you went to the old building, it was so historic and it was so special, and they’ve carried it over,” said Matt Reeves, who has been rodeoing for 20 years. “The arena is the same. Man, if you want an extremely great fan experience, they have it.”

The 2020 American Steer Wrestling Champion has had a lot of success over the years, especially in Fort Worth. “Running steers for good money and having an opportunity to win at rodeos like this is always a rush,” said Reeves. “If this doesn’t get you excited, you’re going to have to find something else to do.”

On the stock show side of things, you’ve got students like Emerson Dean from Decatur. “I could not imagine doing anything else with my life right now,” said Dean. “I’ve been showing since I was in fourth grade, so about nine years.”

She is one of hundreds of 4H and FFA members from 239 out of Texas’ 254 counties that are represented at this stock show. All of the members care for their animals throughout the year in order to earn scholarships for school. “This is my passion, so I find it more fun than stressful, but it’s a lot of work,” said Dean. “It’s amazing to keep collecting the scholarships and knowing that, again, my hard work is being paid off and someone truly sees how passionate and how hardworking I am.”

The Fort Worth Stock Show and Rodeo has been allowing younger participants for decades, and the youth competitions are seen as one of the most important parts of the annual show. “We began holding youth competitions back in the 1920s, and what’s so unique about the stock show and what I’m so proud of about the stock show is, these young men and women, a lot of them come from rural areas, but a lot of these young men and women come from the suburbs,” said Brockman. “This place is a gateway. It’s an incubator for these young men and women to get exposed to the livestock industry and the food industry and prepare themselves for a potential career.”

Texans are known for their tough tenacity and the folks involved in farming, ranching, and rodeo always seem to have it.  Seeing those skills being put to use in the arena makes coming to the Fort Worth Stock Show and Rodeo something worth saddling up for on The Texas Bucket List. “This event is truly, I believe, woven deeply into the cultural and social fabric of Fort Worth,” said Brockman. “It’s just what we do here.”

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Texas Bucket List – Jewboy Burgers in Austin

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Austin – The Capital City of the Lone Star State has never been accused of being boring when it comes to food.  And for burgers and burritos, an eatery with a brazen name will make you do a doubletake. “JewBoy is that celebration of culture I was talking about,” said Mo Pittle, the Jewish guy who started the restaurant 3 years ago. “It’s the culture I was raised in, and the area I was raised in, with the things that I saw as I traveled the country, it all came together.”

Known for their hamburgers with a little Hebrew inspiration and burritos influenced by Pittle’s El Paso upbringing, there is no denying that JewBoy Burger has been the go-to for grub since he opened his brick and mortar location in the middle of the pandemic.

“It’s hard to believe sometimes. I hate to sound like a cliché, and obviously as a writer, you try to avoid them, but it’s super cliché,” said Pittle. “For me, food presents an opportunity to be expressive and creative and generate a narrative.”

Mo graduated from UT back in 1996 with a degree in marketing.  He was incredibly successful in the business but after a few years, it just got to be too boring. So he opened a food truck….for fun! “You can sit in a boardroom and spew acronyms all day,” said Pittle. “’Let’s discuss the ROI on Q2 and why the CRM is underperforming.’ I wanted to hit myself sometimes. With food, the tangibility is so gratifying, man. You hand somebody a bag and they open it up and their eyes get big, and they take a picture of it, and they eat it and they show it to their… I watch people interact here. There’s a ton of gratification that comes from all that positive energy, and it makes it easier to engage. It makes it easier to care about what you’re doing.”

The one thing Pittle doesn’t compromise on is quality.  His burgers consist of his favorite things in life and yes, that does include bacon.  But the one thing you’ll never find on his burgers are tomatoes. “I hate tomatoes, and all due respect to the people that grow tomatoes, fine people, and it’s a fine vegetable for somebody else,” said Pittle. “For me, it’s the devil’s fruit. It’s a vile, invasive, bitter fruit that just leaves its stain on everything, so I dislike tomatoes. We don’t serve them here.”

Before serving up his beloved burgers, Pittle spoke about the reason, and the meaning, behind the name of his restaurant. “I always tell people, ‘Look, if you’re uncomfortable, don’t say it,’” said Pittle. “It’s okay. I have a woman that comes in, she goes, ‘Love your burgers, hate your name.’ Certain terms age better than others. Certain terms are a little bit more malleable, I would think. There’s terms that are just never going to be acceptable. The honest version, we used to use the term homeboy a lot when we were kids. It’s a real common colloquialism amongst Hispanic kids. So my version of homeboy for a Jewish guy is JewBoy. I’m just a Jewish cholo. Again, if you’re uncomfortable with it, I understand that. I don’t need you to say it to order it. I don’t need you to be happy with it. I would like for you to listen and consider and recognize that the more we talk, the better things get. We lose the ability to communicate, we lose everything.”

Communication consists of a few things. Talking, listening, reasoning, and understanding.  It helps if you have empathy or if you have a healthy habit for debate, but the key is to just not be a jerk.

“I have said this over and over again. This is not a license to be anti-Semitic,” said Pittle. “This is not a license to come in here and tell me the worst Jewish joke you know. I have a few of them, but I won’t put them on camera either. But that’s not what this is about. This is a celebration of culture. This is where we look at all the different places that feed into here, and we celebrate them.”

Now that the name and the story of JewBoy are cleared up, we can move on to the main attractions; burgers and burritos.

The Texas Bucket List – Polmedia Polish Pottery in Seguin

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Seguin – There are all sorts of stops on The Texas Bucket List in Seguin, including Burnt Bean BBQ, Son’s Island and the Pape Pecan House Nutcracker Museum.  But the newest addition to the list of Seguin favorites is a shop that doesn’t sell anything native to Texas, but is loved by Texans, nonetheless.

Polmedia Polish Pottery is the largest distributor of Polish pottery in the world. Since 2006, Polish native Monika Papiez has been working for Polmedia in Seguin, and she hasn’t lost any love for the fine stoneware she helps provide to the American people. “It’s my passion,” said Papiez. “So, when we get shipments from Poland, it’s like Christmas. Every day is Christmas. When we’re unpacking, they create new patterns and new shapes every year. So, the best is when you receive shipment of new stuff.”

Papiez says that there are two main reasons why Polmedia landed in Seguin all the way from Poland. “Weather,” said Papiez. “No winter here, so it’s nicer. And another thing, there is no tax, state tax, so it’s cheaper.”

From painted pigs, vibrant vases, to beautiful butterdishes, there are all sorts of ceramics here, and Papiez says that no two pieces are ever alike. “It’s impossible because machine is not doing the work,” explains Papiez. “This is the human work, and they use little stamps that are cut in a soft sponge and they going to just press the sponge to the paint, and then on the clay.”

Every single one of these fragile painted pieces comes from the same place in Poland. “Everything is made in a little town called Bolesławiec,” said Papiez. “Every single person that lives around Bolesławiec and in Bolesławiec itself, they either work with the clay, or they are glazing, or they are the painters and they are painting. They all work for all the workshops that make, well, the Polish stoneware.”

Papiez says that the popularity of Polish pottery is largely due to the influence of Army wives, and they’ve done such a good job at popularizing the stoneware that it’s now more popular here than it is where it comes from. “Polish pottery is so popular with the Army wives,” said Papiez. “You have no idea. All of them, they know what is Polish pottery from Bolesławiec. They retire, they come back, they bring all the Polish pottery with them to United States, and now this is spreading. Polish pottery from Bolesławiec is more known in United States and right now in the whole world, than in Poland itself.”

The beautiful and intricate patterns that cover Polish pottery are what catch most people’s eye, but it’s the functionality that keeps people coming back for more. “You can freeze it, you can put it into oven up to 480 degrees, microwave, dishwasher safe, and easy to clean,” said Papiez. Before adding a caveat. “Sudden temperature changes, no bueno.”

The prices of the pottery can vary drastically from piece to piece, and the cost of each piece comes down to the patterns it displays, and ultimately, how much work went into producing the piece. “Here we have high unikat level, from Ceramika Artystyczna, especially,” said Papiez. “This is one of the biggest and the most known factories in Poland. They have eight levels of unikat patterns. Each pattern level is going to translate to the price of the piece.”

Polmedia Polish Pottery has also worked with the suppliers back home to create some Lone Star-inspired pottery. “We have few patterns that we just made, especially for Texas, with Lone Star and the longhorns,” said Papiez. “I have to tell you, we are working hard with all the workshops to make it more homelike here in Texas.”

At the end of the day, Papiez and Polmedia Polish Pottery have stuck around because they provide a product that is unique in both quality and aesthetics. “You cannot find anything else as beautiful, colorful, cheerful, and functional as Polish pottery from Bolesławiec,” said Papiez.