Mexican Food

I was really looking forward to some good Tex-Mex when we moved here. Unfortunately, I’ve been a little disappointed. With one major exception, I find the Mexican restaurants in this area to be pretty much like the Mexican restaurants in the Portland area; lots of rice, beans, and cheese. Everyone serves chips and salsa, but the salsa IS different. I’ve yet to find any chunky salsa being served. Most places serve both red and green salsa. They are almost puréed. But the most unusual thing about the salsa is that the red salsa is usually served warm. I find this a bit odd, but it seems to be the norm here. The other major difference is the nachos. Instead of a heaping platter of chips covered with meat, cheese, tomatoes, sour cream, etc., you get a plate of 6 to 12 chips (thicker than the regular chips) each “decorated” with the standard ingredients. The first time I ordered a nacho, they asked me if I wanted 6 or 12. Boy was I confused! I had no idea what the waitress was talking about.

The one exception to the usual fare, is a place called Hugo’s on Westheimer in Houston. We went there for our anniversary in February. This is a NICE place, with the most interesting menu. It kind of reminded me of Andina’s in NW PDX. (My favorite restaurant ever!!) They serve things like Squash Blossom Soup, 4 kinds of ceviches, cabrito with nopales (roasted goat meat with prickly pear cactus), and pan fried grasshoppers, to name just a few dishes. When we went, I had a dish consisting of 3 little pastry-like shells with goat, rabbit, and lamb filling. Rick had roasted pork in plantain leaves. They also have a rather extensive vegetarian menu. A little on the expensive side, but if you go for lunch, it’s pretty reasonable for an upscale restaurant.

I’ve also been told that a place called Ninfa’s is pretty good too, but I haven’t tried it yet. (Sorry Bert.)

So now that I’ve established the overall mediocrity of the local restaurants, can someone please explain to me why I’ve gained 20 pounds since I moved here??

Things are different in Texas, Part II

OBSERVATIONS

I was rather pleased with my first post – the one about bugs. But unfortunately, when it came time to write another post, I felt somewhat paralyzed. I thought the next post had to be just as good as the first one, so I didn’t write anything! I finally decided to give myself a break, and just write SOMETHING… so here it is.

I make lots of observations each day, and mentally note them to include in a future blog. Before I begin, let me make one thing clear – my observations are of the part of Texas where I live. I’m in Spring, about 20 miles north of Houston, just inside the Harris County line. Fun Fact: Did you know there are 254 counties in Texas, and only 36 in Oregon. Considering the total square miles of each state, Oregon counties average more than two and a half times the size of Texas counties – 2732 sq miles vs. 1033 sq. miles.  (Please excuse the math geek in me.) So here we go....

Observation number one: Gutters

As I recall, gutters are REQUIRED in Oregon. I remember many a real estate appraisal that required gutters be repaired, replaced, or installed. Not so in Texas. Most houses either have NO gutters, or only have gutters on the front of their house. Some houses will have a piece of angle-iron on their roof to direct rain water away from the front door. You might find this odd, especially since the Houston area gets more average annual rainfall than the Portland area – 50 inches vs. 43 inches. The big difference is in HOW the rain falls. In Oregon, it will drizzle for days on end. In the year I’ve been here, I don’t think I’ve seen it drizzle more than once, and then for only a few hours. Instead, when it rains here you feel like you’re in a tropical monsoon. We can easily get 2 or 3 inches in a couple of hours. (Sometimes we have to drain water out of the pool so it doesn’t overflow.) Then when it stops, the sun comes out and it’s lovely again – although often quite humid. When the rain is its most intense, the gutters don’t really do much anyway – they ALL overflow. Another interesting difference is that the downspouts don’t tie in to any sort of storm management system. The water just gushes out on your lawn, into your flowerbed, or across your driveway. The streets, however, have huge curb cuts that allow for rain runoff to flow into the storm sewer. I swear, a small animal or child could get swept into these gutters!

Now if I continue here, I will be talking more about the weather and less about gutters, so I think I’ll stop. The weather will be another post for another time. I promise, I’ll try to post something much sooner this time and not wait 6 months. Let me know if there are specific topics you’d like me to discuss. I’d be happy to accommodate your interests.

BUGS!!

A good friend of mine, and former Texan, told me as I was about to move south that she could never live in Texas again because of the BUGS. I didn’t think too much about it at the time – I thought she was just being “girly.” I should have taken her warning to heart.

This place must be heaven to an entomologist. There are SO MANY bugs here – of every shape, size, color, and species. There are butterflies and dragonflies, very noisy cicadas, and in very small numbers (so I’ve read) even fireflies. But there are also lots of nuisance bugs too. The kind you don’t want to be around.

At first, we bought some off-the-shelf bug spray. (Sorry to those that may be offended by the application of toxic chemicals, but we weren’t taking any chances on the organic crap.) We did want to be responsible exterminators, however, so we read the label first. It listed a variety of bugs on which it was effective, including “firebrats.” I had NO idea what a firebrat was. Well, now I know. Partly because I looked them up on the internet, and partly because I'd seen them in my house! For the uninitiated, a firebrat is much like a silverfish. And anyone that lives in Oregon is probably familiar silverfish. (And just why are they called silverfish? The name brings to mind visions of Coho or Chinook – not nasty little insects!)

But in reality, there are really only THREE major insect issues here: Cockroaches, mosquitoes, and fire ants.

Fire Ants are really an outside issue. They are tiny red ants that build big mounds of dirt – rather sandy looking – in your yard. If you should accidently stand too close, or mow over the top of them, you’re in for some serious discomfort. Their bites sting like heck, then itch, then turn into what looks like a pimple with a spot of pus on top. And rarely do you get just one bite – they travel in gangs. Nasty little critters.

Mosquitoes are also an outside issue. Even Oregonians know about them. It’s just that in Texas, they seem to be more abundant. So abundant in fact, that in many areas “vector control” trucks that drive through your neighborhood under of cover of darkness, spraying insecticide all over your community. One of the reasons we moved to Texas is for the weather – I just didn’t know that I would need to bathe in insecticide before I could enjoy my coffee on the patio! It seems I am the mosquito’s FAVORITE snack. They adore me! Some people say it’s because I’m so sweet. But then they laugh maniacally – so I’m pretty sure they are being sarcastic.

And then there is the cockroach. Oh the lovely, lowly, cockroach. Although cockroaches are BIG, they are basically harmless, with the exception that they can spread disease. (What kind of disease, I don’t know, but they travel through icky stuff, then spread it wherever they go.) But they don’t bite, or sting, or anything particularly aggressive like that. HOWEVER… anyone that has ever had a cockroach in their house knows – your basic, even primal response is to scream, run, panic, and in general act as if they can breathe fire or consume you in a single bite! And if TWO people see the same cockroach, the panic compounds exponentially. The usual method of extermination is to place a container (glass, jar, etc.) over them, slide a stiff paper underneath, then scoop them up and flush them down the toilet. Quickly! Before they climb out! The problem is that the critters move so quickly, it’s hard to get that container over them. I tried spraying one with (a lot of) RAID, but it didn’t really even slow down – and then it started charging me! I finally placed the whole can over the top of it and left it until morning. (Yes, it was deceased in the AM.) If you are lucky enough to just “watch” the response, and don’t have to be involved in the “capture” of the creature, it can be quite comical. Kind of like watching the Keystone Kops (for those of you that are old enough to remember them.) I’ve learned a lot about cockroaches since moving to Texas. Like I didn’t know that Palmetto bugs are really cockroaches – the flying kind. (Haven’t seen any of those yet, thank goodness.) And cockroaches “breathe” through their skin. Therefore, they can live for days even if they’ve been decapitated (OMG!) I’m happy to report that we’ve only had a few cockroaches in our house. But it was enough to sign up for regular pest control.

So there you have it. Maybe I should have started my blog with something more pleasant – like the Crepe Myrtle trees that bloom all summer long, or the tropical fruit and hibiscus that grow in my backyard. But no… I had to go straight to the bugs! I hoped you enjoyed my BUG-BLOG and will come back for more. -kk

Observations from My New Home State

I've decided to start a new blog. I've known people who moved to another state, but never really heard from them about what their new home state is like. Communications usually just consist of emails that ask how you're doing, and share what they have been doing. I'm going to take another approach, and talk about how TEXAS is different from Oregon. I have a long list of topics to get me started. My first topic will be BUGS, but check back every so often to see if I've added any updates. Thanks for visiting. I welcome your comments. -kk