South Padre Island – When you find yourself in the tropical setting of South Padre, you have to find something with the same feel when it comes to food. All you have to do is step into the dojo of Jerry Leal, a native of the Valley, creator of Pineapple Ninjaz, who has a reputation for enthusiasm. “We call it creative. It’s crazy on that side of the bridge, but it’s creativity on this side,” said Jerry.

 While trying to pick his brain about pineapples, the plethora of people on SPI that have a passion for this guy passed by in packs! I know we have a lot of fans down here, a lot of people honk and wave at us, but Jerry seems to be more popular. That’s because Jerry’s lust for life and belief in his brand is infectious! “Of course dog, I wouldn’t be this confident if it wasn’t,” he said. “He’s a good guy. He keeps us going,” said Angela Ramirez, an employee at Pineapple Ninjaz.

Now this colorful character has a few products with pizazz. First off is a piña colada that doesn’t pack any punch. “This is awesome, man. I’m going to have to come back for more,” said customer, Johnny Garcia.  “That is the Piña Colada… It’s pineapple with coconut juice, ice, we blend it to make a smoothie. Pour it back inside the pineapple mug, and then we add fresh cut pineapple on top with your option of Tajin Chamoy.…Welcome to South Padre Island,” said Jerry. “Very refreshing beverage, you’ll really like it,” affirmed customer, Richard Gomez.  “Woo-hoo! Aloha, South Padre Island,” added customer, Edna Garcia. “It’s all natural, so it’s nothing that you have to really worry about making you feel uncomfortable… You’re going to feel delighted, and you’re going to keep going with your day here at South Padre… it’s going to give you a fresh burst of energy to keep exploring island life. That’s what we want you to do,” explained Jerry.

 

As for their food, it’s gets heads turning too. Angela Ramirez put together these pineapples covered with all sorts of stuff. “So what we love is seeing their faces as soon as we hand them the bowl, they’re like, ‘Oh my God, what is that?’” said Angela. “That one [the Big Baller Bowl] is going to come with Cajun seasoned jasmine white rice, grilled zucchini fries, lobster, chicken, and shrimp… This is all going to be in a half of a pineapple,” she said. The smell of lobster and shrimp cooking with drizzled pineapple juice is carried by the ocean breeze and it really does put you in the perfect place. Once everything is ready, it’s rammed into the pineapple and topped with a tail. “We put the tail in the back end as a garnish. So it’s probably one of the most popping things on Facebook aside from Justin Bieber, so it’s pretty photogenic,” joked Jerry.

The combination of flavors along with a few sips from a piña colada make the long drive to South Padre so worth it. It’s so savory right off the top, followed by a bit of that Cajun kick, that ties it all together nicely. “Bring an excitement to eating on the island,” said Jerry. South Texas, you are so unique. “This is like being on the big island of Hawaii. But I’m here on South Padre Island, no place like home,” said Johnny. Even the zucchini’s good. “The food is delicious,” agreed Edna. If you’re looking for big flavor, and you want to be a baller, Pineapple Ninjaz on South Padre Island is worth a stop on The Texas Bucket List.

“I think this business has amplified the joy. I mean I’ve been blessed to walk a rocky road, but always gather knowledge through everything that I’ve been through, and reapply it. I’ve had the opportunity to see another day and just keep trying to do something better. And with this it just gave me the opportunity to kind of show out every single day,” expressed Jerry. “This is something that he conceptualized and has built on his own. And my hat’s off to him for that,” said Richard.  “It’s number one on my list, it’s refreshing, it’s sweet, and it’s tropical, and the place to be in South Padre Island,” concluded Edna. “Continue to try exploring flavor. That’s all we can ask for, and visit South Padre Island,” said Jerry.

 

 

 

College Station – Just a few miles from The Texas Bucket List Store and Studio is a bodacious BBQ joint that we just can’t keep secret any longer. It’s down by the Brazos River, but it’s not a van, it’s a trailer, and it’s called 1775.

1775 opened in 2017 but for owner Brad Doan, barbecue has been his business for life. He grew up in the Brazos Valley watching his dad work the grill and eating his mom’s delicious sides, so authentic barbecue is in his blood. “Growing up, my dad always had a charcoal grill, gas grills, and a smoker too”, he reminisced. “A lot of my friends growing up would always come to our house because we always ate good.”

He eventually joined the Army and spent three years stationed in Korea.  Although he enjoyed his time serving, afterwards Brad was ready to come home and get back to doing what he loves most, firing up the grill and working barbecues. He spent a few years helping launch a statewide BBQ restaurant brand, but ultimately, he decided he wanted to come home and build his own business in College Station.

Being a Texas BBQ joint, a lot of folks try to figure out what happened in Texas back in 1775.  Turns out the year 1775 is the birth year of the U.S. Army.  Brad wanted to give a subtle nod to his former branch of service so he named it 1775. Brad runs the place with the help of his mom, Belinda, and his dad, Mark. “There’s nothing like working with your family”, Brad said. “You really appreciate having them here on Earth and being able to see them each day and have them at your business”.

1775 Texas Pit BBQ offers a wide array of signature meats and sides, many of which we sampled during our visit. We started with a deliciously smoky turkey, moved on to a course of sausage, got our hands dirty with a rack of Duroc ribs, and finished off with a beautiful cut of brisket. Their loaded mashed potatoes and cornbread casserole made for the perfect sides to our truly Texas feast.  Trust me on the cornbread casserole.

After all of our Texas traveling, we know one thing is for sure. No matter where you go in this great state, you can always find good barbecue, but every once in a while you find something extra special and that’s what we found at 1775. .

 

Beaumont—If you’re looking for a snack with sight seeing around Spindletop, do we have a savory sandwich shop for you! Over in Beaumont we found Woogies with a really unique offering known as the Swamp Thing!

“You know what you’ve got when you got it,” said Dawn Moses.

“It reminds me of my wife’s cooking.” said Louisiana native, Arthur Richey.

“There’s no sandwich shop in all of Texas like this sandwich shop,” claimed Patricia Brackin.

“There’s a couple of people that don’t like it, but 99.9% do,” said Candie Rutledge.

Candie, her husband Thomas and her daughter Montana take care of hungry customers looking for a crawfish pistolette without having to get pulled into the casinos of cajun country.

“From our door to the casino is 55 minutes… It’s bad. It’s not a good thing,” said Candie.

“Normally to get a pistolette like this you have to go to… Sulfur to get one that good with that kind of bread, and I don’t have to do that no more. [It’s] right here at home,” said Dawn.

“It’s authentic Cajun food,” added Arthur.

It’s not just the pistolettes that have people raving. There’s a particular sandwich that really gets things rolling known as the Swamp Thing.

Just think of the most ridiculous roast beef sandwich you’ve ever had topped with etouffee.

Now this whole Woogie’s thing was brought on by of all things donuts. In 2008, Thomas was tired of doing drywall and Candie has been driving a bus for 11 years so they decided to switch up careers.

“He calls me one day after my route on the school bus and he says, ‘Hey, there’s a donut shop for lease in Bridge City.’ And I said, ‘And?'” continued Candie, “he said, ‘You don’t think we can make donuts?’ I said, ‘I don’t know a thing about donuts. You know something about donuts?'”

That didn’t stop Thomas from taking the plunge.

“We’re there and he says, ‘Yeah, I think we’ll take it.’ I’m standing in the background going … ‘Say no, say no!’ And that’s how we got in the donut business, just like that… I was drug tooth and nail, okay? I was drug by the hair basically to there,” said Candie.

There was a learning curve.

“Our first dozen donuts we sold had to have 15 in a box because the donuts were so little,” she explained.

Eventually they found out the fryer was good for more than just morning pastries. Turns out putting some partially baked French bread in there makes for the perfect pistolette.

Once our breads are browned they’re built into sandwiches.

The pistolette is pretty easy, you only need one thing— Etouffee.

As for the Swamp Thing, it’s a combination of mustard, cheese, jalapeno mayo, lettuce, roast beef, and etouffee.

“In one gallon of etouffee we put three pounds of crawfish,” said Candie.

That texture of the bread is like a warm donut, but not a sweet donut, a savory donut with incredible etouffee in the middle.

“It’s the same way they do the bread back home,” said Louisiana native, Arthur.

“I love Cajun food, I love the roast beef, I love … I just love food,” said Patricia.

“Everybody needs to die with good food on their stomach,” claimed Dawn.

“So I mean, the bread, it’s just the bread. Just come for the bread,” added Patricia.

“There’s not a lot of places that have these outside of Louisiana. So when you find them and they’re good, you visit often,” said Arthur.

Victoria–On a sunny morning in south Texas, we found Mumphord’s Place.  A BBQ joint in Victoria where smoke fills the air while the 70’s soul fills in the gaps.

Here, they do BBQ the old school way.

“My business card says the real deal and that’s what I feel like we do. We do it through the old fashioned way and the real way,” said Mumphord’s Place co-owner, Ricky Mumphord.

Ricky and his brother, Keith, have been smoking their meats at Mumphord’s since 2000, but this tradition of preparation goes back way farther than that. It harkens back to their famous family get togethers that have been going on since 1904.

“Growing up as a kid, I bet you there’s 400 relatives at that family reunion. If you came late, you parked way down the road,” said Ricky.

The Mumphords can trace their roots all the way back to the 1800’s when their great grandfather was dropped off on Indianola Beach.

“The Mumphord side… that goes deep,” said Ricky.

Family is foremost in their lives and when getting together someone always had to cook. Ricky’s father and uncles would get the coals burning to prepare a legendary meal and the boys got a big lesson.

“When we were kids– thirteen, fourteen years old– my dad and them say, ‘Come over here,’ and he’d show us how to get that old hot fire. I remember being a little bitty boy, getting that old heat, just like back there now,” he recalled.

Ricky and Keith’s father never got to see their BBQ business, but he lives on through the tradition he taught his sons.

“We shovel those coals inside of there and that’s the only way we know how to do it. That would have been a nice… I could see him smiling. Yeah. He’d have been proud of us,” said Ricky.

“That’s what they do, man. They come in every day, they come in early, they fire up the pit… This is their calling,” said Victoria local, Kyle Pantel.

“They have a lot of history here in Victoria,” added customer, Reuben Ybarra.

Now when you make this much BBQ every day, a lot of wood is needed. Fortunately, Ricky’s got one of the biggest stacks, but only on Mesquite and Oak.

“Have to have it. For how we do it, we have to have that wood. Just keep it coming… Pecan’s a smoking wood to me, so I don’t like the pecan. It turns into ashes anyway,” he said.

With the sweet smell of smoke in the air, Ricky put together a platter of practically everything for The Texas Bucket List sampler.

Mike, the BBQ cutter at Mumphord’s Place, gets things started with chicken, sausage and brisket.

“We try not to give the fatty stuff unless someone asks for it, you know? And a lot of people like the marbling back here…the moist part, but there’s people that want that fat on that brisket which is I know very unhealthy, but that’s what they want,” said Ricky.

The early bird gets the ribs at Mumphord’s! Next on the platter are some well known ribs that are in high demand.

“Ribs… they sell out quick, though, every day. There’s no saving them…Get there early!”

To round out the platter, some slices of turkey, Mumphord’s one of a kind green beans, and potato salad!

“That’s the talk of the states. I’ve heard that people call from different parts of the United States, talking about the green beans. That’s a pretty neat feeling,” said Ricky.

Every item on The Texas Bucket List platter from the brisket, turkey, chicken, pork chop, sausage, ribs, potato salad, and the unforgettable green beans, have customers raving and craving for more.

“The food, the meat, you need to taste it,” said Linda Diaz.

“It’s delicious. Good old homemade cooking,” added Reuben.

“That’s some art, being able to smoke anything. I’ve tried, I’m not very good at it,” confessed Kyle.

From the smoked meat with incredible old school BBQ flavor, to the unique yet classic sides, Mumphord’s Place does not disappoint.

“Their green beans and potato salad; they’re like no other,” claimed Reuben.

“I don’t think you can describe them, man, you’ve got to try them,” said Kyle.

It’s safe to say that in Victoria, Mumphord is one of its favorite sons.

“The culture of it means a lot to our community,” expressed Linda.

“It’s one of the best barbecue places around, in my opinion,” said Kyle.

Well, if you’re ever in South Texas looking for some BBQ full of soul and smoke, Mumphord’s Place in Victoria, Texas is well worth the stop on the Texas Bucket List.

“My dad kept the family together. That was his whole thing about us. A Week before he passed away he told me, ‘You keep that family reunion going, stick by the Bible, and find reasons to get together’ and we’ve done just that,” said Ricky.

Strawn— If you ever find yourself driving between Fort Worth and Abilene, a stop in Strawn may not seem like something to steer for, unless you like Chicken Fried Steak.

“Oh my gosh, I was like, ‘I got to show you this chicken fried steak,'” said customer, Megan Cronkright.

“We always stop in and get chicken fried steak,” said another customer, Bob Nichols.

“I’d had no idea that it would be anything like this,” confessed Mary Tretter.

Mary is the reason people trek all the way to this small town for something a bit more sizeable than the city—massive meals.

“You never know [about the weekend]. I always say, ‘My business is like a man, it’s unpredictable.’ I always tell people that. It is, it’s crazy,” said Mary.

Considering she serves over 50,000 pounds of chicken fried steaks and over 200,000 pounds of potatoes every year, I think business is moving along just fine.

“They’re famous for their chicken fried steak,” said Megan.

“They just make good chicken fried steak,” confirmed Bob.

Mary got her first job at the only other restaurant in Strawn after the 8^th grade. In 1984, she started working here at the restaurant when it was called the Polka Dot. By 1986, she owned the place and changed the named to Mary’s Café.

“It was tough. It was hard. I will tell you that. I’d wait for the restaurant across the street, for their overflow to come over here, and if I had five or six tables that night, I was excited,” explained Mary.

Things have certainly changed. Today there is a long line of eager eaters looking to fill their bellies.

“It’s incredible that she has maintained actually, I think that her business is probably stronger now, as strong as it’s ever been,” said customer, Bobby Schuman.

Mary is a very hands-on kind of owner—she does it all, so much so that people don’t even realize that she is the fabulous and famous Mary.

“They’ll stick their head in and they’ll say, ‘We want to meet Mary.’ And they’ll look at everybody but me, I’ll go, ‘I’m Mary,’ and I’ve got flour from head to toe, and they’re going, ‘Oh, you’re Mary?’ I go, ‘Yeah, I’m Mary,'” she said. “Sometimes I’ll walk by and I’ll hear somebody say, ‘I think that’s Mary.’ And I don’t say anything, because I’m just like them, just another worker… And if they go, ‘Can we have your autograph? Can we have your picture?’ I’m going, ‘Oh my gosh.'”

Mary was willing to showcase her signature dish, but she didn’t stop there.  She is also very proud of her two pound burgers.

Now, there have been a lot of burgers on the Texas Bucket List, but this is the biggest one yet.

“I’ve had some big ballplayers, him and his friend, they were both big guys. And they come in, they ordered a burger and an order of fries, they split it,” she said.

Since it takes about 30 minutes to cook the burger Mary got to work on a chicken fried steak right on the flat top.

“Right now, I’m [going to] just fill the grill with what I have. I don’t know how many will be on here. Probably enough for about four large maybe,” said Mary.

At Mary’s Cafe, the chicken fried steak doesn’t touch the deep fryer, Mary has her own methods.

“It’s too much batter. It is, just batter that you’re getting when you have chicken. We deep fry our chicken fried chicken, but that’s about it,” she commented.

The chicken fried steaks are finished off with a few final touches. Some butter is splashed on top along with a very secret seasoning.

The burger is topped with cheese and toppings while the chicken fried steaks gets a massive side of real mashed potatoes.

Although one would never expect such a gigantic hamburger to have such good flavor, at Mary’s the secret seasoning is the touch.

On to the star of the show, the chicken fried steak. The flavor, texture and taste of this Texas treat is totally terrific.

“They know how to cook one,” said customer, Bob Nichols.

Chicken fried steak, flipped on a flat top, has a much different texture than you would get out of a deep fryer. Not as crunchy, but just enough crunch to make it incredible. It sure keeps her customers coming back for more.

“Usually, chicken fried steaks are super breaded and it’s not as healthy. And I’m not saying this is healthy, but you know what I’m saying,” said Megan.

“The crust is right, and the meat’s not over done, and it’s just a very well cooked chicken fried steak,” added Bob.

“It’s word of mouth, reputation. Everybody knows, that’s ever eaten here, they remember,” commented Bobby.

Over the years, we have seen plenty of quality across the Lone Star State, and plenty of quantity, too. But Mary, she is the queen of both, making Mary’s Cafe in Strawn well worth a stop on the Texas Bucket List.

“As long as I know, and that man upstairs knows I’m doing my best, that’s all I can do,” said Mary.

Galveston⁠—We’re always looking for good things on Galveston Island and when we came across a little restaurant known for barbecue, barbacoa and tamales it was time to live on island time and make a stop!

Sitting in the center of the city, Pennie’s Tex Mex Take Out is situated in a building that’s been around the block for 100 years and has always been home to some fine food.

“This is Galveston’s best kept secret,” said longtime customer, Robert Quintero.

“I come here at least once a week,” admitted Galveston local, Ben Faulk.

“The food is incredible and it has history,” said customer, Tulisha Dampier, “it’s just happiness.”

“We’re the best little takeout in Texas, man, I’ll tell you what,” said Cameron Moreno.

Cameron is the grandson of Israel Ochoa who was also known as Pennie. In 1978, Israel and his wife, Connie, bought an old meat market and continued the tradition of slicing beef with the added bonus of barbacoa and tamales.

“I came over here and I remember running around as a little kid, seeing them work and how everybody used to come in there. I love my grandfather and my grandmother, and it really put a spark under me,” Cameron explained.

Damaged during Hurricane Ike, the meat market that had been a part of the area for so long was forced to close its doors.  A decade later, a new generation decided it was time to continue the the tradition of cultural cuisine, with an added twist of Texas BBQ!

“Everyone wanted to see it. People loved my grandfather and my grandmother, and I can tell now more than ever in the way they come in and talk about them,” said Cameron.

They brought out the Tex side of things with the addition of BBQ to the menu, which can be a little confusing for folks looking for Tex-Mex of a different kind.

“Some people come in here asking for enchiladas and stuff…We understand where you get the impression,” he said.

Cameron’s dad, Louis, mans the smoker, his Mom, Isis, does anything and everything, while Grandma Connie is still on hand making sure her tamales are worth every cent.

“Oh yeah…She lets me know. I’m the boss in here, but when she walks in, she’s right there,” continued Cameron, “I tell you what. I say, ‘Yes ma’am.'”

“People love her tamales. There’s no doubt about it,” said Cameron’s father, Luis.

“I was real happy that they took it over because…they’re going to make a good business,” explained Connie.

Louis and Cameron put together a plate of monstrous proportions to please our palate. First up is the BBQ, along with ribs, sausage, barbacoa, and tamales!

“They [tamales] are extremely labor intensive. We have to close Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday to make the tamales,” continued Luis, “It’s a process…it’s a whole lot of work.”

“Tamales are a lot of work and we concentrate on the one kind because we do it so well. We just want to make sure that each tamale is perfection,” Cameron explained.

Their hard work pays off! The hardest decision is what to order, because it is all that good.

“The barbacoa, in the morning, that is the best thing,” said Connie.

“Mr. Ochoa has a recipe that beats all recipes,” claimed customer, Robert.

“It’s hard to decide if do you love the food better or the family? Because they’re all equally as wonderful,” said customer, Tulisha.

So whether you’re looking for some Texas barbecue or some Mexican tamales, Pennie’s Tex Mex Take Out on Galveston island is well worth the stop on The Texas bucket List.

“It’s one of those Texas gems that you’re going to hear from someone, as word of mouth” Tulisha explained.

“Food is wonderful. People here are wonderful,” confirmed Robert.

“Before you kick the bucket…try Pennie’s,” said Connie.