Hell Bent for Texas and the Country Kitchen
(This is my first blog entry done from an iPad, and I still have a lot to learn about how to make the same technologies work that seemed so easy on my computer. Bear with me!)
We could have taken more time, but we decided to make it all in one day – Pensacola to Bryan/College Station, Texas, to see old Texas friends. We made it out the door at exactly seven a.m. – a miracle, and chat chat chatted our way across the remaining few miles of Florida, flew across Alabama, zipped across Mississippi. About when we figured we were half way, and were hungry for lunch, we found ourselves back in familiar territory – the Atchafalaya Basin, Bayou Teche and serious Cajun country. And – we also needed gas, so drifting into the gas station on fumes, we breathed a sigh of relief and focused on our next project – what to eat, where to eat.
An answered prayer – The Country Kitchen. As we drove into the parking lot, AdventureMan lowered his window and said “Can you smell that??” The smell of smoking meat pulled us happily inside, where we ordered BBQ chicken. I did something I never do – my phone rang and I had to make a quick decision on a side, and I went with cornbread dressing. What a blessing of fate, while it is something I probably should not eat much of, it was SO delicious, hot, spicy and sweet. It was hard to resist. I also had the sweet peas – they were out of green beans. AdventureMan had very much the same, except with rice.
SO Good.
If you find yourself outside of Lafayette, LA, find this gem. The cooking is all real food, probably not the healthiest, probably they use fat in just about everything, but it is oh, so delicious.
Now Google tells us that the quickest way to get to Bryan, TX is to get off the Interstate at Beaumont, TX, just after crossing the state line. This road is hilarious – two lanes, with speed limits of 70 on several stretches, churches along the way with names like Cowboy Church and Lonesome Dove Chapel, and a stand set up selling Mayhaw jelly.
It was a very very long drive, and, at long last, we arrived at our friends’ beautiful, serene house, spent the evening laughing and catching up, with never a silent moment, we all just had so much to say. Finally, exhausted, we fell into bed, only to rise ready for more chat the next morning. Aren’t old friends the BEST? No matter how much time has passed, you can pick right up, share your hearts and you can talk about everything.
It was a joyful breakfast, again full of tears and laughter, and then, the painful parting. We have this wonderful memory though – just as we were about to leave, we asked about those Mayhaws. what were they, and then we asked about a song AdventureMan can almost remember, “Way Down Yonder in the Paw Paw Patch,” which our friend knew and sang, and as we left we were all laughing once again.
The Jordan Valley Restaurant Opens at 9th and Bayou Boulevard
We’ve been waiting. Ever since we read in the papers that this restaurant would open another branch not too far from us (the first is downtown on Palafox and the second is on Navy Boulevard) we’ve been eager to visit the newest restaurant and wish them well. As you know, we love “Mediterranean” foods 🙂
First, the dishes take us right back to our earliest experiences eating out in the Middle East, when we lived in Jordan. The dishes are perfect!
For our first visit, on opening day, we were overwhelmed with choices, so we ordered a lot of appetizers, saving the swarmas and shish taouks for another day:
It was good. We couldn’t really eat it all, but it was fun having all those old familiar tastes. We hope they do well.
The East Hill Market
We’ve driven by this market a hundred times, at least a hundred times, but when I came back from Seattle, AdventureMan had eaten there, and had a surprise for me.
Muhammara. Fresh, home-made Muhammara, and it tastes just like the real thing. It IS the real thing!
I am thrilled, and eager to visit the East Hill Market for myself.
We go for lunch the next day, and I order the three salad special – and oh my. No, that is not potato salad at the bottom, it is a curried chicken, with pecans and cranberries – oh yummm. I also got the broccoli and the bean salad, again and again, oh yummm!
AdventureMan had a sandwich, but we’ve been back so many times, I’ve forgotten which sandwich this is:
This is where you can see the salads, and . . . the desserts. Watch out. The desserts are irresistable. If you look . . . you lose all resistance.
The East Hill Market is not undiscovered. It teems with life; people eating in, people taking out. The food is all prepared on-site, none of this pre-processed stuff. There soups are delicious. Their salads are tasty. Their rosemary bread is lovely. It is a total WOW.
They also have shelves full of wines, condiments and delicious extras. 🙂
Just a Little Less Alien
It’s great having friends who all returned to the USA after our years of living in Qatar (and Kuwait) so we can share our experiences, our frustrations, our challenges. It’s been two years for me since AdventureMan and I made the big decision to retire, and in Pensacola, not Edmonds, WA.
Pensacola is a pretty cool place to be retired. One of the best things, after living in Kuwait especially, is the traffic. People might complain, but the traffic here is laughable. It’s very calm. Traffic might be waiting two lights at a stoplight, but hey – people wait, don’t just drive right through. No one has ever pushed me into a round about, or anywhere else, unlike Qatar, when I got in some young man’s way, and he pushed me out of his way (!)
When you go to the symphony, or to church, or to aqua aerobics, in the worst traffic it might take ten minutes. There are restaurants everywhere, many of them pretty good. The worst restaurants are usually better, cleaner, faster than most of the restaurants in Kuwait and Qatar. The only cuisine we have not been able to find here is Ethiopian, and we can drive to Atlanta or New Orleans and get that.
It’s been two years . . . there is something in me that starts getting a little restless, starts looking at my household goods with an eye to getting rid of, giving away, cutting down on weight. At the very least I might have to paint something, or change the furniture around . . .
My friends are suffering many of the same challenges, the challenge of being an expat back in the USA. What was formerly comfortable is not such a good fit anymore; we have changed, and we are trying to cobble together lives that can accomodate the changes.
I had a minor triumph; I realized that after two years, I am starting to have people I can go sit with when I walk into a crowded venue. It may sound like a small thing, but the fear of having to sit alone in a crowd where everyone is visiting and sharing is a little daunting. Who wants to look pathetic?
But my expat friends and I laugh; in expat world two years makes you an old-timer. When new people come in, you are expected to show them around, show them where (and how) to shop for things, where to get things fixed, altered, where to go to pay your bills and how to pay them. Two years makes you and old hand, often with one foot out the door, getting ready for the next posting or contract.
Three of my friends went back to their home locations, only AdventureMan and I settled in a new place. While I am making some progress, two years in, I still wonder who my friends will be? Will I ever feel at home in Pensacola?
Rainy Saturday at 5 Sisters in Pensacola
It’s been rainy and dark the entire day, and I know what I need – I need to go to Five Sisters. We had planned to go to the huge Pensacola Mardi Gras Parade, but as the rain came down, my spirits were also dampened. There was a time – and I could see in AdventureMan’s eyes, he was hoping this wasn’t one of those times – when I would have said “We HAVE to go, even if it is raining!”
He has a little cold and I drift in and out of allergies, and standing a couple hours out in the rain and hollering and catching beads is probably not what mature people like us should be doing. (A part of me is greatly depressed at being so ‘mature’.)
But I know just the thing. Five Sisters. As we drive up, a parking space becomes available, always a good omen, and as we walk to the door, we are greeted with divine fragrances of smoke and grilling meat and we are starting to feel better already.
On the menu board, one of the specials of the day is BBQ Shrimp. Ummmm, ummmmmm, doesn’t that sound good on a rainy day. I order the BBQ Shrimp with cheese grits and a salad, AdventureMan orders the Seafood Platter. Bluesy music, some old hits from the 60’s and 70’s, and our food comes.
My BBQ Shrimp was AWESOME. Today it was tangy, vinegar-y and Tabasco sauce, the essence of Louisiana. It came sizzling hot, but the shrimp still had the shells on, which AdventureMan tells me is the way it comes when it is BBQ Shrimp in the South. Oh well, it is a good thing that the shells are on and I have to work to get them off before I can eat each one, if I didn’t have to get those tails and shells off I would probably gobble them down in no time at all! As it was, I was able to bring about half of the shrimp home to savor later. 🙂
AdventureMan said on the way home “Oysters sure are rich, aren’t they?” I just laughed, I like oysters cooked, but mostly I like them steamed, and even then, they are so rich I can’t eat many of them. If you deep fry them, you just add rich on rich. His dish was fish, shrimp and oysters, deep fried, and some of 5 Sisters fabulous fries, which he didn’t eat, and didn’t need because there was so much seafood on the Seafood Platter:
As we left, it was still raining, one of those days that went from dark to dark grey to not-quite-so-dark grey to a couple moments of light grey and then back to dark grey and now it is almost dark once again. We don’t often have a day with no sunshine in Pensacola, and it is very very sad when that one day is the day of the Pensacola Mardi Gras Parade and it pours down rain just as the parade is starting. Sometimes life just isn’t fair. But Five Sisters puts a smile back on our faces every time.
Lunch at Bangkok Garden in Pensacola
“Have you tried Bangkok Garden?” our friends asked. “They used to be down on Navy Boulevard, but got blown out by one of the Hurricanes and weren’t around for a while, then one day we saw them open again over on Fairchild.”
No, we hadn’t noticed, or if we had, we hadn’t thought it might be a really good place. The next day it was my turn to choose where we would go for lunch, and AdventureMan pretended to be enthusiastic, but Thai food isn’t his favorite. He doesn’t not like it, he just doesn’t like it the way I do. Or at least he didn’t, until we had lunch at Bangkok Garden. 🙂
I wish I had thought to take a photo of the lunch menu. They had a very good selection to choose from, and the prices were $5.95 – $7.95 for a small soup, Thai spring roll, and main dish with rice.
It is family run, and they work hard. Bangkok Garden was full of working people at lunch, from delivery men to attorneys and officials. The food was served hot and fresh, and it was delicious.
I had the Basil Chicken, which was the way I like it, very Basil-y:
AdventureMan had the Cashew Chicken, which had lots of cashews, not peanuts. We had thought we would share, but the serving dishes are not really conducive to sharing a lot.
We agreed – we will go back soon. Even AdventureMan was happy. It is a real deal, delicious fresh Thai food at a reasonable price.
Cioppino at Franco’s in Pensacola
I didn’t even know this restaurant existed until I went for a group meeting there a while back. It has the feeling of having been a long-time favorite for many Pensacolians, so when we ordered the Cioppino, we were astonished at how good it tasted.
Often, in restaurants, we will hear someone ask the waiter “Is it spicy?” The waiter will reply something like “There is a little bit of horseradish in the cocktail sauce, but you don’t have to use it.” And, of course, there is a bottle of hot sauce on every table, down here, ubiquitous as salt.
We both has the Cioppino; it was delicious. It had bite! As we washed our hands, we could hear loud chatter – in Italian – coming from the kitchen, always a good sign in an Italian restaurant.
Service is friendly, knowledgeable and efficient.
We look forward to going back, but we wonder if we will ever be able to order anything but the Cioppino – you know how you look over everything and then say “oh, I know it all looks so good, but I LOVE their Cioppino!”
Boss Oyster in Apalachicola
Many years ago, Boss Oyster was our favorite place to go in Apalachicola. One time we went there and just ate oysters. Oyster stew, a whole variety of raw and steamed oysters, then some fried oysters. That was lunch. When dinner came, we didn’t even want any dinner, oysters are so rich.
This time, we didn’t pig out. 🙂 And we still love Boss Oyster 🙂
I don’t know any word to describe it but funky. It isn’t all modern and it is not pristine. It’s funky. It has character. It has charm. Some people would hate it, some would turn up their noses at it. Not us. We love Boss Oyster.
This is our table:
And here is what I ordered this time: Gouda Gouda Oysters. Oh Yummm.
I barely remembered to take a picture of the oysters. I totally forgot to photograph anything else. Sorry! We just got carried away having a good time!
Up the Creek Raw in Apalachicola
Near the Water Street Hotel was the Up the Creek Raw Bar, and we went there for lunch and enjoyed it so much we went back for dinner. GREAT oysters.
I don’t do raw, so I had mine steamed, but they were all good. My favorite favorite part was the Crab and Lobster Bisque. I liked the cup I had with my oysters at lunch, so I had the bowl for dinner. It was really that good.
The Crab and Lobster Bisque:
Oysters, Raw:
Steamed Oysters:
Grilled Grouper:
I loved the bisque. The place was jammed with people, having a good time. I don’t know why I didn’t like it better.
Cajun Specialty Meats / Cajun Express in Pensacola, FL
This is just such a sweet story, a moment of magic, so I am going to share it with you. A group of foreign visitors was taken to have lunch at this place, the Cajun Speciality Meats in Pensacola, and as they were trying to decide what to order, the waitress noticed they “weren’t from around here.” In short order, plates appeared at the foreign visitor’s tables with all kinds of samples of the Cajun specialities offered at this restaurant, and the visitors were totally wowed.
So was I, when I heard about it. It takes so little to make an impression, so little to make people glad they visited our country, and these little moments of magic just make me so proud of the generous spirit it demonstrates. I hope the people at Cajun Meat Specialities got as big a thrill from doing it as the guests did from receiving it.
So, back in Pensacola, we are hungering for some of that gumbo, and laughing, because actually Pensacola has a lot of Cajun influence, too. We didn’t really have to go to Louisiana, there is a lot of it right here in our own back yard. I told AdventureMan the story of Cajun Meat Specialities, and he said “Let’s go there!”
So we did.
It is such a cool place. I did not realize that in addition to serving hot meals (gumbos, etoufees, Po’boys, boudin) they also carry a grocery store full of prepared Cajun specialities, all frozen. You just take them home, thaw, heat and serve. I am thinking how easy it would be to do a dinner, and never really have to cook, LOL!
As their name would imply, they also have fresh made andouille sausage, and other meats:
We had the Cup and a Half: a cup of seafood gumbo and a half portion of Po’Boy – Yummm:
They are on Heinberg, the street behind McGuires’ Steak House:
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