Iron Heart Coaster - World Tour 2010-2012
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So we're due for another update, since it's been a few days. Looking over my pictures, there are a lot of food and/or drinks shots, which gives the impression that I'm a 400 pound alcoholic. Sadly, it's just that meals are generally the highlight of my boring days.
I'm trying to cut back on the overly caffeinated beverages with mixed success. Nonetheless, some days I need the kick, so here it is, the breakfast of champions:
For dinner Thursday night, I grabbed some food from one of our favorite Greek restaurants, Yia Yia Mary's. There's another place that I prefer for gyros, but that's something for another post… Anyway, I had moussaka and grilled asparagus, and baklava cheesecake for dessert. The wife had a truly uninspiring Greek salad (not worthy of pics). Oh yeah, and I grabbed a handful of candies that I've only found at that restaurant- ouzo flavored. Man, I love those things.
Today was errand day. First, we grabbed some sushi for lunch at a new(ish) spot; mostly because we had a coupon. The wife loves coupons. Overall, not bad and very friendly people working there. I'm always a bit weirded out when the folks making sushi aren't Japanese, though. Does that mean I'm a bad person?
Lunch was followed by some shopping for the kid. As the wife went looking for clothes, boredom set in, leading to my favorite photo of the day:
Finally, we swung by the Asian grocery store. I love the Asian grocery store. It always has the coolest stuff. Not just the groceries, but there are multiple shops and restaurants in there, too, so you can get all kinds of fun things. We got bubble tea and Korean food. Kimchee pancakes are surprisingly filling, in case you've ever wondered.
And here are some random things I found wandering the store aisles.
Roasted duck and pork
Apparently, dragonfruit is in season. Too bad I'm not exactly sure how to eat them.
Score! I have such a hard time finding squab with the feet still intact.
And that baby pigeon will make you thirsty, so what to drink?
Mmmmm, refreshing.And finally, while I'm not planning to make my own soy milk any time soon, we loved this particular appliance:
I'm guessing that "Germany" is the name of some industrial park in Kowloon. -
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Now that I'm responsible for documenting my life for the WT, I realize how astonishingly dull said life can be. For the last few days I've basically been sitting at a desk and staring at my laptop. I haven't gone anywhere particularly interesting, nor done anything particularly noteworthy. The best I can come up with for you right now is some of what I've been drinking the last couple of days.
As I mentioned in an earlier post, when I was in Charlotte for Christmas, I picked up some beers that I can't find locally. I've been working my way through them since I got home; at a leisurely rate of one new beer per day. Yesterday's new beer was this:
The sake flavor really comes through, which is a either a good or bad thing, depending on your preferences. I haven't decided yet which way I feel about it.And as a bonus, the bottle opener I keep in my bag (gotta be ready for anything, right?):
Considering that it was just a cheap souvenir I picked up at an ABC store in Vegas, it's a surprisingly good opener.Tonight's beer was this:
Since the label's damn near impossible for me to photograph, it's the Baltic Porter from the Duck Rabbit Brewery in Farmville, NC. The mindset of the founder/brewer sort of reminds me of Iron Heart:
I like how he's committed to making dark beer- stuff that isn't for everyone. I grew up in NC, and getting folks to drink anything darker than iced tea is an uphill climb.Anyway, that's all for now.
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Maybe you can work out a deal where he gets some decent pants from IH. Poor guy's wardrobe is shameful.
Friday I decided to take a different route back to Houston and made a stop in the tiny town of Shiner, which is known for exactly one thing: being the home of the Spoetzl Brewery and Shiner beer. In operation since 1909, Spoetzl is the oldest independent brewery in Texas. For the first 60 years or so of its existence, Shiner beer was only sold within a 70 mile radius of the town of Shiner. It went statewide around 1989 (when a new owner brought the brewery back from near death and bankruptcy) and is now in 37 states and Mexico.
Yep, it's even a state landmark:
In the little sample cup is Shiner 102, so named because it's the anniversary beer for Shiner's 102 year of operation. They just finished brewing the first batch the night before I took the tour. Talk about fresh…Sadly, they don't allow pictures in the brewery, which is a shame- there were some great pictures of the brewery through the years, some old taps and beer making tools and a magnificent chair donated to the company back in 1995 when an expansion was completed. Called the King Gambrinus chair by employees, it's carved out of a single piece of wood with ram's heads for armrests (rams are a Shiner emblem) and a likeness of Gambrinus with a mug of beer at the top of the back rest. It's really awesome and I wish I could show it to you.
I stopped to fill up the tank in my car and, as is my habit, I checked the drink section of the gas station for offbeat energy drinks. I love silly energy drinks, the goofier the better. My two favorite finds are Hooters energy drinks, which taste nothing like buffalo wings or fake boobs, the two things for which Hooters is famous, and Ed Hardy energy drinks, which, according to the can, are "Like A Tattoo For Your Tongue!" which sounds... good? Naturally, I was thrilled to find a new one:
What makes it even better is this, on the back label:
It's actually not bad, but since I'm a city boy, I'm worried that the rednecks will be out for blood now.Then I headed on up the road, passing lots of nothing. Texas is a big, flat state. Some people like wide open spaces, but I find it dull. All that open space is good for one thing, though- cattle ranching. You know you're in the country when you see signs like these:
And no tour through Texas is complete without a picture of cattle.
These aren't the aforementioned Black Brangus, by the way, they're Red Brangus. I'm slightly depressed that I can even tell the difference and that I can name a half dozen breeds of cattle off the top of my head. What has living in this state done to me?Then I hit the town of Moulton. Don't let the location (middle of nowhere) and the size (really tiny) fool you. Moulton is hip. Moulton is badass. Moulton is street, mothafuckaz. How do I know this?
That's Bobkatz, with a "k" and a "z".
Hells, yeah, bitchez. -
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awesome updates
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Update time again!
This past week has been fairly slow. There is the usual assortment of beers:
And one disappointing BBQ joint:
The sides were good, the peach cobbler was actually very good and the sausage was OK. But the true test of a Texas BBQ spot is the ability to do brisket, and this just wasn't impressive. Oh well, maybe the next one will be worthwhile…So that was most of the week. However, this weekend, I did do something noteworthy, though I have to admit, I didn't take the coasters with me. But before I go on, how about a little something to set the mood?
This Saturday was the inaugural Austin Gorilla Run, which is a charity race to raise money for the Mountain Gorilla Conservation Fund, an international organization working to save the world's last remaining mountain gorillas. These are the gorillas made famous by Dian Fossey. At the time of her murder in 1985, there were only 248 known mountain gorillas in the world. Now there are over 740 in the jungles of Rwanda, Uganda and the Democratic Republic of Congo. The race is different from the usual in that every participant wears a gorilla costume.
The morning started off with a costume contest
Then we lined up for the start in front of City Hall
Then we ran a 5K
And as a bonus, I got my picture taken with Miss Texas US 2011
You'd be surprised at how warm a gorilla costume is.:)
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Funnily enough, I though the woman taking our picture was far more attractive. She was the woman working the Kind booth behind us in the shot. Miss Texas is maybe 5 feet tall (she was wearing 4" heels and still barely reached my chin) and had on false eyelashes, hair extensions and probably about 2 pounds of makeup. She couldn't have weighed more than 100 pounds. Not really my type.
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^I agree on the lady and… I want an Iron Heart Gorilla suit now.
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LOl, I used to run Marathons and i always admired the guys that were willing to wear a costume - which was either way too cold or way too warm for the actual temperature..Gorilla costume must have felt like an oven
We can do anything
http://bybeatle.com -
Yeah, that's why I want it as leisure suit and to go on dates, not for running marathons.
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Chris you are the Iron Heart Coaster - World Tour 2010-2011 Champion.
Incredible updates, why the hell aren't you on the other World Tour?? ???
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Well, my leg of the tour is done, but as I was going through the pictures from the last month, I decided to do a final post that was more of a summary of the entire leg, rather than just what I've been doing for the last few days. None of these made it into my other posts, so this is kind of a B-sides album. Hope you don't mind…:)
At Christmas I asked Mom about an old sewing machine she has tucked away in a corner. She never uses it and told me I can have it. Beautiful little thing, isn't it?
One of the newer restaurants on the Houston scene is a place that has a menu comprised solely of dishes made with macaroni and cheese. Yeah, apparently they thought it wasn't a strong idea, either. They added a panini section for those of us who don't think of mac & cheese as a full meal. My wife loved it, though.
Here's another one of my purchases from the Asian grocery store.
I haven't worked up the courage to drink it yet. And in case you're wondering if that's a bad translation, or some sort of marketing puffery, check out the ingredients:
Coasters are multifunctional; just check the TTxBeats Coaster Comp thread if you doubt me. I didn't do anything as aggressive as that stuff, but I did make a pocket square out of one. Kinda dapper, don't you agree?
to be continued…
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B-sides cont…
After the Gorilla Run, I drove a few blocks to get a quick pic of the Texas Capitol.
There are a number of things about Texas that disturb me, but the state has constructed some truly magnificent public buildings and perhaps more importantly, dedicated considerable money and effort into preserving them. The Capitol is a prime example of this.Texas held a nationwide design competition in 1881 and architect Elijah E. Myers, who also designed the Michigan and Colorado Capitols, won. Completed in 1888 and built out of “sunset red” granite (yeah, it's pink, they know) from a nearby quarry, the building is second in gross square footage only to the National Capitol in Washington, D.C.
Random fun fact: the state didn't pay for the construction. Instead, Texas traded about 3 million acres up in the Panhandle region for costs. That land eventually became the XIT Ranch, at one time the largest ranch in the world. Thus concludes our history lesson of the day.
On one of my drives from Houston to Victoria, I stopped for lunch- BBQ again. I've been meaning to stop at this place for a while, since it's usually crowded (a good sign for any restaurant) and because the building fascinates me.
Yep, that's right, there are two trees growing through the building. It looks like they built an expansion to the dining area and decided not to cut the trees down. I like it.
And an obligatory pic of my lunch
For the record, much better than the other place. I should go at a normal lunch hour instead of 4pm; the place was deserted.As you've seen, I've been trying a lot of different beers. Based on Katsushin's rec in the What's your favorite Beer thread, I tried this one:
Pretty solid, Katsushin, thanks.I also liked this one, which is a bit surprising, since I don't really like coffee:
The Hitachino Nest brewery does some interesting beers. If you come across any, you should give them a try, just for the novelty. Their Belgian style white beer is actually very good, for what it's worth.Now, I've already showed you pictures of cattle, so what else is Texas famous for?
OK, besides arrogant, narcissistic, blowhard jackasses…
That's right, oil. Black gold. Texas tea.
So here's an obligatory picture of a pump jack:
Pretty simple mechanism, really. A motor, usually powered by natural gas, drives the head up and down and draws oil out of the bore hole; basically like an old fashioned hand pump water well. Extracted oil is either sent out through pipelines, or if the well isn't close to a pipeline, stored in tanks for trucks to haul away at regular intervals. Like this:
Aaaaand that's enough of that.
To close it all out, I leave you with this picture:
Only in Texas, right?
In fairness, I should mention that the Double Shot closed, taking away any reason to go to Schulenberg.
