Wednesday, December 2, 2020

800 and Beyond!

 After getting home from the Michigan trip and being at 799 Triple D visits, my thoughts turned to getting to number 800!  As I started to plan it I got a message from Andy Pollin at the ESPN radio station in DC, the classic AM-630 (I grew up listening to the great shows on AM-630 like "Harden and Weaver" and Tom Gauger).  Andy, who had interviewed me about my Triple D travels a few months earlier wanted to do another one with me as a follow up as 800 was getting close.  I had a great time with Andy, it was a fun conversation!

With the COVID pandemic still an issue I looked at a few places to travel and saw that Texas seemed  to be a safe place to travel.  There was one place in Houston that I had yet to visit and there were a few places in Austin that I had yet to get to so I could do both, get to 800 and keep going.

I took an early morning flight to Houston and met up with my friend and Consistency Team co-worker, Lora, to set out for 800.  "Irma's Original" is in downtown Houston practically next to Minute Maid Park, home to the baseball Houston Astros (also the place where the Washington Nationals won their World Series championship just a year earlier in 2019!).  Irma's is a very eclectic place decorated with pictures, posters, colorful lighting and neon signs.  We arrived about 10a for breakfast and interesting enough they don't have a menu for breakfast. Our friendly server read off the the menu and we both chose the breakfast tacos.  Irma's is a family run place and all the staff seemed to be part of the family!  They told me that Irma was at the market shopping for the restaurant but would be arriving shortly.  As we waited they brought us a basket of chips and salsa and the salsa was very tasty and not too spicy. Soon our meal was delivered and the tacos were excellent!  Beef and cheese mixed with scrambled eggs.  I am not a huge egg fan and asked for light eggs and it was perfect! Very tasty and not too spicy.  The staff then presented us with a complimentary breakfast dessert!  Sopapillias,  puffy fried dough topped with nuts and honey, it was delicious! After we finished and waited for Irma to arrive we walked around and admired the very fun décor.  Irma's has hosted a lot of celebrity guests including a number of super star baseball players.  When Irma arrived she spent a few minutes with us, such a nice lady!  Both Lora and I felt like we had become part of the family and she graciously signed my book!  










After saying our goodbyes to the staff Lora brought me back to the airport so I could continue my trip to Austin and the quest to 900!  It was great to share this with Lora and although I wasn't sure beforehand, Irma's was the perfect place for the milestone 800th visit and without Lora this wouldn't have been accomplished, thanks Lora!

After a long mechanical delay I was off the Austin on the short 30 minute flight.  I immediately got my rental car and headed out.  Heading north I arrived in the early evening at "SLAB BBQ and Beer".  I walked in and headed to the counter to order my meal.  They have a large menu of sandwiches (or sammiches, as they call them).  They have fun names with a number of celebrity and movie references.  I ordered the McDowell ( a reference to the movie "Coming to America").  The McDowell is a rib sandwich topped with house made pickles, onions and a mustard based sauce on the side called "Soul Glo Sauce" (if you know the movie, you'll get the reference).  The sandwich was delicious, maybe one the best BBQ sandwiches I have ever had and the sauce was not needed, it was that good.  The bun made it even better!  As I finished, my server came over to sign my book and we talked a few minutes, she was on the show when Guy visited and took a picture of the book for the owner to see, thanks Abby for that! SLAB is a a must if you're in the Austin area!









SLAB motto is "Low, Slow and Bangin' " and they do it!  Abby told me that their goal is do it 100 and they did that, too!  I headed out to my next place just a few miles away.  

"One Taco Taqueria" is a small place that makes all their food, fast and fresh when ordered.  They make all their tortillas fresh.  Mexican Street tacos are their specialty and as I looked over the menu I decided to try the two that they featured on the show with Guy and also try the fresh Guava drink.  The place is nice, the tables all feature Corona beer logos and they have Mexican Soccer jerseys on the walls.  After a few minutes my tacos arrived.  I got the "Gringa"; a flour tortilla stuffed with marinated pork, cheese, cilantro, onions and pineapple; and a Taco Yucateco; a corn tortilla stuffed with Cochinita Pork, black beans and spicy pickled onions.  Both were really good, I really enjoyed the Gringa, very tasty!  The sweet of the pineapple really added to the flavor.  





The next morning I headed out to get to last few places in the Capital of the "Lone Star State".  Let me tell you that Austin is one huge road construction project!  I though it was bad in Northern Virginia, Austin has us beat by a mile (and a slow mile at that)!  My first stop was at a food truck.  "Valentina's Tex-Mex BBQ" was about a 20 minute drive from the hotel, which was a blessing because you have to order in advance on-line and I had just enough time to get there before my order was ready.  They feature tacos, sandwiches along and BBQ meats by the pound.  If you want to try Valentina's they are open from early morning until mid afternoon or until they run out and after getting back after the visit half of the menu had sold out!  I chose the Ultimate Bean and Cheese Taco, a flour tortilla filled with refried beans, cheddar cheese, bacon and a huge portion of pulled pork.  It was awesome, Tex-Mex is not one of my favorite types of cuisine, but this taco could make me a Tex-Mex fanatic!  After finishing I met the owner and one of his buddies who really lives the life!  He is local to Austin but travels all over the country photographing different BBQ restaurants and BBQ pits!  We talked for a few minutes mostly about Guy and how generous he is to the small restauranteurs.  These types of comment I have heard from people all over the USA!  Valentina's is a carry-out only place but they do have a small picnic area tht include a wash basin, an very important when eating BBQ!







I headed to my next stop which was a bit of a drive especially with the traffic and road construction.  "Pieous" is the only place in Austin on my list that was open only for carry-out.  It's located along a busy road west of the city.  They feature Neapolitan style pizza, pastrami, and pasties.  I decided to try the Marinara pizza, a pizza with sauce and toppings but no cheese.  I got it with sausage.  The sauce was tasty with a real garlic kick.  The crust was chewy and tasty.  I ended up having a few slices and saving the rest for later as a snack or maybe a cold pizza breakfast.  My server signed my book and he manager gave me a t-shirt, a very nice gift!  From what I could see it looks like a place that can be real fun, I hope to be able to go and eat in when this pandemic ends!






After a relaxing afternoon I headed to to my last Austin place.  Austin (or ATX it's known) has a lot off food trucks.  There are several places in the downtown area that have 4 or 5 food trucks with all types of cuisine.  "Boteco" is a Brazilian food truck in a food truck garden.  Their website showed the hours of operation to be from 6p-10p.  I arrived about 535p and waited for the truck to open.  The one employee was just waiting in the truck but didn't open until about 610p after two other customers showed up even though he saw me waiting, very frustrating!  I decided to try the Coxinha, which was 3 deep fried balls filled with chicken and cream cheese, I would describe it as the Brazilian Crab Rangoon.  It was very good, but the attitude and service from the staff made it a big disappointment for me.  I don't like to be negative so I'll keep it at that.






I finished the first part of my trip and it was a eventful trip.  I was able to get to my 800th place and start my quest for 900.  The second part of the trip would take me to San Antonio and one of the first places that Guy ever went to for "Diners, Drive-ins and Dives" but that's another story. My count stands at 805! 


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