Tummy time USA (4)

It seems we're always playing catch-up at the Tummy Time USA blog. It might be morning down here by the Gulf of Mexico in Galveston, Texas as I write this, but tummy time is still back in Austin, having enjoyed yet another great sampling of good American cookery.

If you read every blog posting on this trip, you'll recognise this photo from the previous post, where we had so much fun listening to the music of the Texas Swing Kings at Artz Ribs. But we also tucked into Artz' ribs and other delights while the band played on.

Now, I could have easily opted for a familiar looking rack of baby back ribs at Artz, but I did notice that several diners at other tables were chowing down on what looked like brontosaurus ribs, which I later discovered have the formal name of 'Artz Country Style Pork Ribs' and so I ordered those instead. The aroma is smoke. The texture is one of imminent collapse the moment a tooth gets near it, and the quantity is large, despite there being, technically speaking, just two ribs on offer. The little pot in the centre contains home-cooked beans in a spicy sauce, and potato salad and coleslaw make up the numbers, along with half a pickle, two big raw onion rings and a little pot of tomato ketchup.

Pammy got the same coleslaw, potato salad, beans and ketchup, but she opted for Artz Shrimps, two spicy skewers of prawns, as we Aussies call 'em, that she said were very nice indeed.

As far as traditional food goes, the combination of artless presentation and sheer, finger-coating deliciousness at Artz Ribs was hard to beat, but the day after, at lunchtime, we enjoyed another side of what's on offer in Austin.

This is the quiet interior at Perles, on South Congress Street (most of the patrons were inexplicably out in the 90°F heat of the inadequately shaded area at the front, but we were exhausted by that same heat and wanted to escape to the air-con and the iced tea inside).

Salads are an odd thing in America. If you order a salad, you get it first, usually plonked in front of you within one minute of placing the order. At least this time round the salad took a few minutes to arrive. This nicely compiled, almond-decorated toss of baby lettuce leaves included finely sliced red onion and radish. The gerbera is there because it was there. In Australia we have salads 'on the side', but over here they're an appetiser.

For my entree, which is what the Americans call their main course, I had (for the second time in Austin) a truly delicious South-West style variation on your classic deep-fried salt and pepper calamari. In the South-West style they cook the calamari along with lightly battered slices of peppers. This time round, at Perles, they used both red and green peppers. Two nights earlier, at another spot, they used just green Jalapeno slices as well as slices of lime, and I do think the first version was slightly better than Perles', although in both cases the calamari flesh itself was very tender and tasty.

Pammy opted for tuna tartare with a quail egg on the side, served with salad garnish and lightly toasted sourdough. Notice how she always chooses the healthy and interesting option? She's been doing it for years. Pammy takes her time reading a menu and always finds things that others haven't noticed. The verdict? Excellent!

We called the waiter back moments after he had glided by, depositing these on the table in one smooth motion. "Excuse me, what are these?" For a moment it was as if we had pointed to the knife and fork and asked what they were, but with only the slightest pause and intake of breath he explained: "These are hush puppies, they come with all our seafood meals". Now, you'll have to let me fast-forward for a moment and explain that now I am in Galveston and have had time to Google 'hush puppies' it all becomes clear to me. The waiter was patient with us... hush puppies are served traditionally with seafood in the US. They're little deep-fried balls of cornmeal dough (ours had real corn kernels inside, plus they were lightly spiced, too). But I wouldn't exactly jump up and down about how wonderful they are. They were OK, but sometimes it's a mystery why certain foods catch on to become such a national culinary institution. It might be all about the sauce. Our dipping sauce was a light sour cream sauce. If there's one thing I've noticed about American eaters, they're dedicated dippers and dunkers, that's for sure.

Another claim to fame for Austin is our first two cups of truly good coffee from a large, Italian, benchtop espresso machine. On the left is Pam's Americano coffee, on the right my cappuccino with an extra shot. Both were enjoyed at Annie's on South Congress. In one of my earlier blog-postings I had mentioned that the coffee here so far had merely been no worse than instant coffee, but since then we have met the enemy, and he's awful. The 'enemy' of good coffee is a dripolator/percolator glass carafe where about an inch or two of truly dreadful, stewed coffee remains on the heat pad, having been made several hours earlier. The waitress at the breakfast diner comes over with the deadly black inch of awfulness swirling at the base of the jug of death and asks us "do you want some coffee?" Whatever you do, no matter how longing for a hit of coffee, say "no".

As well as enjoying a truly fab cup of fresh espresso machine coffee at Annie's we also tried their breakfasts. I couldn't resist the idea of a breakfast taco, but unfortunately they brought out two on the one plate. Way too much breakfast for me, but inside the taco was a light and tasty mix of scrambled eggs flavoured with chorizo sausage and only a little bit of cheese. That red sauce on the left was a very good fresh tomato salsa, I discovered only after taking the photos. I should have artistically drizzled the salsa over the tacos, shouldn't I?

Pammy's healthy breakfast omelette (three eggs) was filled with vegies such as broccoli florets, corn and carrots. The fruit on the side looked a bit odd to us, but you get all sorts of things piled into little ramekins which are then parked on the plate when you discuss ordering something 'on the side' with the wait staff.

And so the theme of dining well on interesting food continues here at Tummy Time USA. Our stop here in Galveston, Texas is merely an overnight stay on the way through to Lafayette in the heart of Cajun country in Louisiana, where Tummy Time V will no doubt have a lot of boudin, gumbo, jambalaya, blackened fish and much else to talk about. However, before we chow down again the next thing we'll be telling you about is Galveston itself. Talk about the home of historic houses! It looks wonderful and we're exploring it before we once again get back on the road and head East.

Dry times in Texas

Texans are great people, I like them a lot, they're very friendly and very quick to ask "where are y'all from?" and then strike up a conversation. But you could forgive them for being not quite so laid-back, welcoming and friendly, because the whole state is doing it tough, with a long and disastrous drought making life harder and less prosperous for virtually everyone. What they need is one of those Caribbean tropical storms to fall short of being a hurricane and turn into a big, slow-moving rain depression that dumps a dozen or two inches of rain all over the parched earth over the course of 10 or so days. Everyone hopes this will happen soon, and I won't be complaining if it washes out a few days of our travels. Texas needs rain!

So, we knew all about the drought by the time we arrived in Austin, but that didn't stop us visiting the local Zilker Botanical Gardens. We knew they wouldn't be at their best – in fact they'd probably be at their worst – and so it's a tribute to the good, basic bones of these fine gardens that they still looked so good. Here are some photos of our day at the gardens, but I thought it would be only appropriate to start with the plants which barely know there is a drought on, the cacti and succulents.

You won't get many plant names out of me here because I don't know them, just a few short notes where there's something to note, such as the superb variegated foliage on this succulent.

What surprised me at the Zilker was the size of the cactus and succulent garden. It's tiny, but it makes up for that with some interesting specimens.

Some people just curl up with horror at cactus spines. I'm a moth to their flame.

Yikes!

I see cacti as the little guy's friend. Anything big and dopey is jabbed and encouraged to rack off fast, while anything smaller than the spines can feel right at home. It's land rights for littlies, the ants and bugs and beetles, etc.

That's enough spiny stuff. Onto some foliage, a few flowers and some pleasant surprises.

Broad leaves backlit by the sun, always a lovely sight.

In the more shaded spots the foliage colours stood out when next door to the bone-dry, sunburnt sunny spots.

Another shade-lover shrugs off the drought.

In the Japanese gardens the bamboo plantings were suffering from the lack of water, but the bamboo-lined walkways still had enough charm to look good.

Many of the trees were visibly suffering from dryness, and even if the drought is broken they might not bounce back, but this Montezuma Cypress seemed unaffected, its very fine foliage a brilliant, healthy looking green.

Little pockets of flowers soldiered on in the shade and the semi-shade.

This is the red-flowered form of the pink one above.

Flowers weren't plentiful, and so I had to flip the digital camera's switch to macro to get up close to these tiny and plentiful purple Tradescantia blooms.

There were a few sun-loving plants in full sun that were blooming their head off, such as this orange dazzler and a purple-flowered, silver-foliaged local type of sage.

Severe local water restrictions mean that all the ponds, pools and waterfalls which are such a feature of these gardens were turned off. Several ponds were bone-dry, but a few have been allowed to soldier on to keep precious waterlilies and a big golden koi carp alive.

There's a Japanese garden here, and it's not at its best right now, as its water features are such a key part of the design. However, several bridges, arches and this lovely bamboo house provided a taste of what it must be like in its prime.

And it's not just Japanese structures which provide old-world charm. The Zilker includes a number of faithfully re-created buildings from the region's early days (such as this Swedish settler's hut, a tiny schoolhouse and a blacksmith's workshop). They're really well done, built in the rough yet practical way things were done in times long ago.

Several times while wandering around the Zilker we spotted little squirrels darting about, but we couldn't get a good shot of them. Each time they'd spot us, scamper around to the 'blind' other side of the tree where we couldn't see them, then scamper up high, out of harm's way. Then, about 100 yards from our hotel room, as we passed by a park in the centre of the city, we ran into this guy.

Fortunately I had my camera in hand and managed to bang off a couple of photos before the inevitable blind-side disappearing trick was performed yet again.

I remember several years ago when I went out to see a long-anticipated singer perform, only to have him walk on stage and apologise that he had a sore throat and wouldn't be at his best that night. He still impressed and pleased us and we walked home thinking "how good would he sing if he was well!"

Well, it's the same with the Zilker Gardens. We've seen them probably at their worst, and we came home impressed enough. Here's hoping it rains real soon, Texas, rains a lot for a week or two at least, and that Austin and its gardens get their fair share.