Tummy time USA (3)

Well, here we are at Tummy Time III folks and we are eating well, and inexpensively. Somehow we're easily managing to dodge all the cheese and giant servings we were warned about before we departed Australia, and instead we're on a diet of interesting, well cooked food. If only travelling around Australia could taste as good or be of such a consistently high quality, especially out in the country towns.

As I have mentioned in an earlier posting about Sealy's Flats Diner in San Angelo, I forgot to bring my little camera with me when we ate there, and so this crisp shot of the inside of the diner isn't mine, it's from the Sealy Flats Website. Despite this lapse, Pammy came to the rescue as she said she was planning to do some quick sketches of plates she liked, and the meal she had in Sealy Flats did look nice. So here it is, by Pammy.

On the right is a single, large, lightly spicy crabcake surrounded by a semi-circle of green tomatillo sauce and another of red pepper coulis. It was served with a basket of sweet potato fries, and not only did the whole thing look great, it tasted wonderful, too.

At the local San Angelo supermarket we spotted some tomatillos and so we bought a few to show you, as they have been the star turn in several dishes we have enjoyed in the South West of the USA. As you can see they are little green things, smaller than a regular tomato, larger than a cherry tomato, with a dry, papery outer sheath which peels away easily to reveal the smooth green skin. This little fruit is the heart and soul of salsa verde, and many of the green chilli salsas we have been enjoying here.

Next culinary stop was Miss Hatties' in San Angelo. What enticed us there was the sign saying 'Cafe & Saloon', and once inside the joint the true story was revealed. Miss Hattie's was San Angelo's original bordello, which entertained gentlemen (and not so gentlemen) for over 50 years, until the Texas Rangers closed it down in 1946 (I thought they were meant to be the good guys?).

Inside, Miss Hatties did look a bit like a former bordello, but the thing which really appealed to me, not for the first time in the South-West, was the very well preserved and ornate pressed metal ceiling. These are very common in the older buildings of the region, and it's great to see so many looking so good.

Meanwhile, back at Tummy Time III, I had a Chicken Caesar Salad, with the twist that the chicken was little pieces of southern fried chicken. My lord, praise be, it was nice.

Pammy ordered the pineapple shrimp ceviche salad. While Pammy loves pineapples on their own, she is usually quite wary of the word 'pineapple' appearing in tandem with other foods, and so I was surprised when she chose it, but it all turned out well. Pineapple, lovely. Shrimp (prawns) very tender and sweet, and the salad extremely fresh.

Moving on to the next venue in San Angelo, the River Terrace Restaurant, where we had dinner, here's the pear and arugula (rocket) salad which I had for starters. Pam had a broccoli and cheese soup, but the photo I took didn't turn out so well. Here's a hint as to how it loooked though: it was green.

For the course which Americans call 'entree' and which Aussies call 'mains', I had a cumin rubbed chicken breast with a sauce based on plantains (those green-skinned bananas which are used as a vegetable in places like Africa and the Caribbean). The sauce was sensational. The chef here, Earl, explained that he "makes a whole big batch of this sauce each time" and while he didn't give the recipe he did mention that it also included vanilla pods and chipotle chillies. It was such an interesting flavour, and very much Earl's own creation. Pammy had a rack of lamb, I fluffed the photo on it, too (the lighting in Earl's restaurant was a bit low) but it was cooked rare, just like she likes it, with lightly steamed green beans on the side.

No worries about the dessert at Earl's; it's his grandmother's recipe for key lime cheesecake and he says he has been making it all his life. Pastry light, filling tangy and light. Lovely.

Ach du lieber! We landed in Germany by accident the next morning. While driving down to Austin from San Angelo, we stopped for lunch in a picture-postcard town called Mason. It's one of those country towns with a big, green, tree-filled square in the middle where the imposing, columned courthouse stands. On all four sides of the square there's a wide road, edged with rows of old buildings ranging from banks and lawyer's offices through to cafes and produce stores. There was even an Odeon Theatre, a few antique stores and several clothing shops. There was a choice of two cafes there, and we chose 'The Square Plate' and while it was filled with friendly folk talking with a broad Texan accent, much of the food was German.

I had the bratwurst sausage with potato salad and sauerkraut.

And Pam had the Pepperwurst sausage with potato salad and red cabbage. Both excellent. Lots of the names of the lawyers and other business proprietors in Mason were German, and the nearby major town, Fredericksburg, was actually putting on its annual Octoberfest when we passed through later in the day, so this pleasant 'hill district' of Texas (well, it was a bit hilly) is a place where German settlers very sensibly decided to stay.

We're in Austin, Texas right now. We're eating so well here in America. There are lots of good cooks over here, come on over and visit! All we're doing is staying away from chain restaurants and looking for smaller places such as diners and cafes.

It's true that in all of these places we could have chosen far less healthy options, such as burgers, nachos, burritos and enchiladas dripping with cheese and smothered with 'the chef's special cheesy, creamy sauce', but on every menu we have found something interesting and tasty to eat. They cater to all tastes over here, God bless 'em.

Mucho fun in San Angelo

"What brings you to San Angelo?"

"What in the hell brings you to San Angelo?"

"How did you manage to end up in San Angelo?"

"Why are you in San Angelo?"

They're mighty friendly people around here, I like them, but they do have a bit of civic self-confidence problem. Everyone we have come across here expressed something between surprise and bewilderment when they discovered they were talking to Aussie tourists. It was as if the secret was out, there's been a security leak. Somehow two Aussies have discovered San Angelo, Texas, and now they're going to spoil it all by telling the world all about what a great place it is. OK, maybe that's not true, but this interesting West Texas town is off the tourist trail, but that doesn't stop it having a great selection of music, food and local attractions to make a stay here for a few days the perfect break for two people on a long road trip. We had mucho fun here!

Take last night for example. The start of the evening will be featured in Tummy Time USA (3), coming soon to this blog, but after a very good meal Pam and I adjourned to Blaine's Pub, to catch a local country band.

Darren Hoff and the Hard Times might not be the greatest country music band we've ever heard, but they could belt it out, and to their credit they mixed up about 50% the songs they had written with 50% crowd favourites.

Darren's band didn't so much have them dancing in the aisles as dancing on the tables.

Thank goodness the tables are sturdy, as some hefty Texans made it up onto the tabletops. There was a mix of ages and people at Blaine's Pub, and the atmosphere was of friendly, happy party time. Everyone there was a local, and we were given a friendly welcome, along with the inevitable "what on earth brings you to San Angelo?" questions.

After I had polished off my first drink, the friendly waitress asked me if I wanted "a doze-ekkie". Gee, that's a bit brazen, I thought, uppers and downers sold openly. But it turns out doze-ekkie is a Mexican beer. It's spelt "dos equis" and it means "Two Xs". Queensland has XXXX beer, and it turns out Mexico has Two X. As usual, it was served with a sliver of lime, as anyone back home who's familiar with Mexican Corona beers would know all about. We had a great time at Blaine's Pub, and that made it two good musical nights in a row here in San Angelo.

Now, this isn't my photo, it's pinched from the Sealy's Flats website, because I forgot to take my camera the night we went there for a meal and some blues music the night before last. Here's a link to their website, which does a great job of telling you all about themselves, but I will be reporting in on their food in Tummy Time 3.

The fun in San Angelo wasn't just after hours. You could do it in broad daylight if you want to! This is Eggemeyers Store, which is stuffed full of products, ranging from cookware and gourmet food items through to gifts, toys, souvenirs and lots more. However, the real attraction is the building itself, a relic from the early 20th century with beautiful, high pressed metal ceilings.

Here's what I mean about the ceilings, but everywhere there are large model aircraft suspended from the ceiling. This is a retail space designed to make you gawp. We gawped.

No, he doesn't sell cigars. He sells lollipops shaped like the feathers on an arrow.

Around the corner, one block away, stands the tallest building in San Angelo, the Hotel Cactus, the fourth hotel ever built by Conrad Hilton, and he did it in high style back in the roaring 20s.

There are no signs saying 'tourists welcome' at the Cactus Hotel. While using the ATM in Sealys Diner, the owner there suggested we take a look at the Hilton. He said they wouldn't mind if we looked around. And so it turned out to be. The caretaker there was preparing the foyer for a party (it's used a lot these days as a fancy venue for events) and stopped to have a chat. Then he decided to show us around (and yep, he wondered "what on earth brings you to San Angelo?"). This is one of the ballrooms upstairs.

And this is the staircase leading from the foyer up to the ballroom. The caretaker took us up in the old-style lift to the top floor, where we enjoyed some great views from the 16th floor of the whole San Angelo district. Then he took us down to the basement, to the hidden 'speakasy' room where illegal liquor was sold during the 1930s prohibition era. He was such a nice man, really went out of his way to show us around.

Finally, on the way home we stopped off at the local supermarket to get a few basic supplies, and even that was fun. They cater for all religions here with some lovely shelf displays, such as this chocolate shrine.

This display of religious candles at the supermarket no doubt sells like hotcakes to the large Mexican American community here. This supermarket, and all the major supermarkets we have been into so far (I love them!) are just so well stocked. They might have aisles and aisles of rubbish, but that still leaves plenty of room for a vast array of fresh fruit and vegies plus heaps of spices (far more than I have ever seen in any Aussie supermarket). If you want to cook great food from scratch, using real ingredients, then it's so easy here. Sure, they have lots of instant rubbish for people who don't like to cook and don't care about their health, but if you love food and cooking and like to eat healthily, there's a wonderful array of ingredients to let you do that in any good supermarket here.

I'm doing this blog here on Saturday morning, just before we check out from San Angelo and hit the road to Austin. I've updated the map to show that we're in Austin, where we plan to spend a number of days taking in the music scene there. Weather forecast for Austin for the next three days is 91°F and sunny, all three days, so it's Austin here we come, but you were great, San Angelo!

Hopping across waterlilies

With Texas burdened by a long drought, that last thing we expected to find here in San Angelo was a superb waterlily garden, but several locals said "make sure to see our waterlily pond" and so Pam and I made a beeline for it today. Originally the work of one passionate local enthusiast, Ken Landon, the garden has grown to become the City of San Angelo International Waterlily Collection, a fancy title that the garden does live up to. Though they weren't in flower, it has rare Blue Nile Lotus from Africa plus several other endangered species. It also has the five waterlily species native to Texas. But what captures everyone's eyes when you first land there is this sight, below.

Giant Victoria lilies from the Amazon River cover the central pond (the garden consists of a several ponds all linked by walkways which rise and fall to give you varying views).

These lilies are stunning in themselves, but I was additionally fascinated by them as I had, only recently, been reading about the famous glass 'Crystal Palace' exhibition space in London in the middle of the 19th century. It was designed by a leading gardener of the day, a genius of all trades apparently, and he used the structure of the ribs on the back of the Victoria lily as the basis for his design of the Crystal Palace's steel ribs. It's a perfect piece of engineering, provided by the greatest engineer of all, Mother Nature.

Forgive me for banging on about them, but they are eye-catching from any angle.

One incredible trick in this garden is the blue-coloured water, which really highlights the magic going on just beneath the water's surface. This is the core of a Victoria lily, with the babies and new flowers just coming up. Alas, we didn't get lucky by seeing one of the lily's enormous flowers, which are short-lived, but we are lucky to be here in San Angelo.

Here's what I mean by the blue-tinted water. All around the ponds water is recycled via pipes back into the ponds, and it has a strong blue colour as it pours from each pipe.

Once you manage to drag yourself away from the large show-stoppers, the variety of waterlilies on display is wonderful. The peak season for their flowering was just a week or two ago, but generally September and October are the months when this garden is at its best, so we got lucky this time round.

All colours were in bloom, including these pale lemony yellow pretties.

Mauves aplenty.

And if you get close enough to them, you can admire the anemone-like clusters of stamens.

The gardens around the pond edges were just finishing blooming, and they were alive with Monarch butterflies and blue dragonflies. Both proved elusive to catch for a photo, and then this butterfly obliged by stopping off for a feed of nectar. I felt a bit like one of those fashion photographers calling out to his model: "Darling, can I see a bit more of the reverse side of your wings? Got it, lovely darling, thanks."

"Now how about unfurling those gorgeous wings for us, luv? Perfect!"

For a small town which I had never heard of until about three days ago, San Angelo has provided us with so much to enjoy, and to blog about. It's a lively, interesting town fully of friendly folk. We're about to head off to dinner tonight (Friday night) and so I have a Tummy Time USA (3) to tell you all about, plus we founds lots of interesting local shops, and we still have some other snippets to post online about famous names, good and bad, who died young, Billy the Kid and Buddy Holly.

The Weather Report

So far this trip we have been so blessed with the weather that there hasn't really been a lot of weather, if you know what I mean. Just sunny, with the only variations being between warm, hot or very hot. Oh, well, it did pour with rain for one day back in Hilo, Hawaii, but it always rains in Hilo. Today, travelling south from Lubbock to our half-way point to Austin, a nice mid-sized (pop. 100,000) Texas town called San Angelo, we enjoyed a stack of weather along the way, and as we got through it all unscathed, we can happily tell you that it was fun out there. Here's how it unfolded...

Texas is enduring one of its worst droughts in a long time, hence all those bushfires you've been reading about in the news. Any rain is welcome, and they need lots of it to break the drought. But I don't need to explain this to Aussies. We all know about droughts. And so as we headed south from Lubbock, the long, straight and very flat roads offered up a series of thunderclouds such as this picturesque one. As the day wore on cute little lightning bolts flashed down, tickling the ground.

As the miles ground by and the thunderclouds formed, the horizon grew progressively murkier, until the committee of two in our car agreed that there was a dust storm up ahead. Oh joy! Sydneysiders will all remember the great dust storm of September 2009, which I blogged about here. We were going to drive through a dust storm, oh great.

And so we ploughed on into the murk, with Pam heroically snapping away within the car of course (she got some great shots of wet and grimy windscreens!) but with the wipers and washers working away she managed to capture some of the action quite well.

It was quite incredible to be within a thunderstorm (don't worry, the lightning wasn't remotely close) and a dust storm at the same time. Every now and then, by some very strange quirk of clouds, dust and wind, a hole in the sky above would allow in a shaft of sunlight to turn the dust into a glowing spotlight of orange. Mother Nature is just unmatchable down the awesome end of beauty.

Uh oh... what's that? We nervously reassured ourselves that this was no more than a willy willy, a dust devil, one of those little swirling, dusty mischief-makers of the plains, and that's what it turned out to be. But seeing it for the first time was a worrying thrill because it was, for a willy willy (...gulp) a big one. Don't break down, nice little Mazda, just keep on chugging through it all. And the Mazda did its duty.

Much more suddenly than it began, it was all over. It was as if we had burst through a brown curtain into sunnyland again. One moment rain and dust, the next brilliant sunshine, fair-weather fluffy cotton clouds and "what storm?".

We're loving Texas. Out here in West Texas the plains are as flat and wide as any Australian plain (think the Nullarbor or the Hay Plain) and the sky above feels enormous. It really is Big Sky Country.

Tomorrow we'll tell you a bit more about the town we're in again tonight, San Angelo. It's a great spot. Last night we headed out for the Sealy Flats Diner, a spot we knew nothing much about at all (the guy on the motel counter recommended it). Turns out it was a very cool blues bar and diner, lots of friendly people there, and though we were stupid enough to not take our camera with us, at least I did find a You Tube video (not the best quality, mind you) of the band we saw last night playing here at Sealy Flats, working up a storm on stage. And so I'll conclude this weather report with the Jimmy Rose band, live at Sealy Flats, San Angelo.