Remember the Alamo

As I’m sitting here in the Dallas Love Field airport, home of the sissy dallas cowgirls, I have a short layover before I head out to my next destination in Kansas City and I’m reminiscing a bit about they previous day I just spent traveling out to San Antonio and other necessary destinations along the way. Yesterday was a truly marvelous day in a number of ways. The Embree’s live about a quarter mile away from the church they attend, so Mark, Beckett, and myself began the day with a quick walk over for mass. At St. Thomas More they have a fairly universal congregation there. There is a large Hispanic population, being so close to the boarder, as well as a number of Nigerians that wear their traditional garb.

After mass we quickly packed up and began on our mission to find better BBQ (kinda like how Snapple is always on the look for better stuff). On the way we stopped in a small Texas town of Praha to see one of the famous ‘Painted Churches’ which was settled by Eastern Europeans that would now be considered from the Czech Republic. After a little bit of walking around and some prayer we quickly were reminded by our stomachs that we had business to attend to in Lockhart, TX the BBQ capital of Texas and by Texas standards that means the whole world. The town is home to 2 of the top 5 ranked BBQ places in Texas and we decided to stop at Smitty’s Market (one of those two) and get a healthy 2 ½ lbs of cow, a bit of pig (sausage links), some pinto beans, and vegetables (pickles and whole jalapeño’s) to split between the two of us. The beef brisket was mighty fine and the pinto beans were very tasty and I was under the impression that this was probably going to be the best Texas BBQ I was going to get to experience for a long time. However, as you may have noticed I’m profiling this BBQ restaurant in the body of the message instead of at the end and there was more BBQ to be had on this the 3rd of August, 2009 in the year of our Lord. The scenery in the parking lot was quite a view to be had as we pulled into the market. We stepped out of the car onto a parking lot of crushed white rocks that painted the underside and toes of our shoes and as we began to walk towards the entrance you begin to notice a neighboring parking lot about the same size that we pulled into that could probably house another 200 cars, but instead of cars it was lined and packed to the gills with cord upon cord of mesquite wood. Stepping inside the market you nearly burn yourself as upon crossing the threshold you walk past the smokers that are heated by an open fire about 8 inches from the door opening. You then notice a large barrel with an even larger man standing behind that barrel ready to take your order and carve up your meat. The lady at the counter then gathers your plates and silverware (ie rose colored butcher paper and a couple plastic knives) and weighs out your meat. We picked up a few beef ribs with a nice thick and slightly sweet BBQ baste on them, as well as a couple links of sausage, and plenty of lean and fat brisket. You then step into the dining room lined with tables that were a little higher class then say a picnic table but that’s about it. The BBQ markets in Texas aren’t about the table linens and candle lighting….no it’s a much more pure love for that black and white, and most of the time brown four legged creature that so many people are in love with down here.

After our Texas size snack was complete we wheeble wobbled back to the car looked down at our shoes and decided that this ground must be sacred so we shouldn’t shake loose the dust from our shoes. I even still have a bit of that dust weaved into the laces of my sandals. We then proceeded back towards San Antonio and arrived about an hour later to see the sights and vainly try and walk off some of the protein we had just consumed. I was really taken a back by how well the city was laid out and that the architecture and décor of the city was a fairly steady southwest theme. We drove around a bit to get our bearings and locate the best place to park to see the Alamo and get the full effect of the River Walk and its surrounding attractions. I had been briefed already that the Alamo wasn’t a massively large landmark even though it’s called the shrine of Texas, so it was a lot of what I had come to expect and it was an interesting place to walk around. The River Walk, however, far exceeded my expectations. It was built a number of years ago as a Storm Water Management device, as I like to refer to it as in the world of Civil Engineering, to control the flash floods that many parts of Texas are prone to. San Antonio as well as many parts of southern Texas is as hot as blue blazes during pretty much any part of the day and even hotter in the late morning early afternoon. However, the genius of the River Walk is that it’s slightly below the elevation of the road and it shaded by the vegetation they planted along the river as well as some of the buildings that tower over the river and so it remains relatively cool (for southern Texas standards). We also got to see a couple churches and the San Antonio Cathedral that houses the remains of the Texas hero’s from the Alamo as they’re referred to.

We then looked down at our watches and realized we must be going if we were going to fulfill our duty and make sure we left no tasty cow behind. Off we were to Luling, TX to the City Market to see if it could redeem itself from the previous visit Mark had made to test the skill of it’s pit master when it came to the beloved Texas brisket. The city market sits about 30 yards back from the train tracks that cut through the heart of the city of Luling and from the outside and even as you step through the door into the dinning hall you could easily miss the fact that this indeed is even a place that serves BBQ. In the back of the dining hall is a room that looks like it would be the office for the owner of the building with walls that close off a small section of the inside layout and seem quite a bit more dim then the rest of the place. As you step into “the office” the scene immediately changes to a smoke house with large brick BBQ pits and a few grisly large men, one even donning an orange hard hat. As Mark and I gorged ourselves at lunch instead of pacing it a bit better we only decided to order around a pound of meat between the sausage and lean brisket. We then headed back out to the dining hall and Mark got some pinto beans to go with the brisket and a pickle, he’s a bit more a man then me to go for sides on this stop. We sit down and pray over our food and then begin in on the brisket and within a few moments Mark gets this dumbfounded look on his face and exclaims how the City Market completely redeemed itself and this is the best brisket he’s had in his life. The sausage link was excellent too…very finely ground and seasoned to perfection. The market lived up to the hype that it was a top 5 Texas BBQ establishment and boy were we content.

Now I’m off to see what Kansas City has to offer in the way of dry ribs and burnt ends! I’ll be here visiting with my brother John and his family that just came back from a 9 yr tour in Korea and are back in the states for a while.