Dinning In

Here is how we spent our evening.

Early this morning I put four pork chunks called "carnitas" usually reserved for grilling and on sale at HEB this weeks at a tremendous price... our two pound pack was less than five dollars, into the crock pot. I added a splash of orange juice and some onions. Then I let it simmer on low for about four hours.

Three and hald hours later I mixed the juice from a can of Dole Pineapple chunks with half a cup of sugar and some sliced jalepenos . I let this simmer in a non stick pan for about 30 minutes.

Top the pork which is by now falling off the fork with the sauce and served with roasted potatoes...delicious. We had four servings.

Pork- 4.50
Pineapple- .99
Sugar- .12
jalepeno- .04 cents
Potatoe- .1.50 (4)

Seven dollars and eleven cents for four people.

Enough Already!

Riders of the Storms
During the droughts and water rationing in the early to mid 80's, before The Mary Rhodes Memorial Water Pipe we learned not to complain about rainy days in the Coastal Bend. Long months without a drop combined with triple digit temperatures helps us appreciate the kind of gray summer days other communities dread.

But enough is enough. Today flash flood deluges closed, roads, closed schools, hampered business and created adverse driving conditions which lead to accidents and destruction. This marks about the 15th day since summer began which we have had 1" or better of rain. So would whoever is in charge of weather, please act accordingly and shut off the water works for a few days?

TxDOT crews were along major roadways especially in the Northern areas of the city where high waters flooded parts of I37 creating some minor delays as drivers were forced into a single left hand lane. Water was still an obstacle even in this lane (which is the road's crest) especially for smaller cars. At least six cars had to be towed out of the area after engine flooding occurred.
The Texas Department of Transportation remain the unsung heroes of these situations. Few of us ever drive by one of these brave men and women and think about how dangerous not to mention unpleasant standing in knee deep water during a storm and directing traffic can be.

The Yin and Yang of the universe continues unabated:

The bad news inherit in the weather is economic destruction through property loss and loss of business (people simply do not shop as much during bad weather). Some crops will be destroyed.And there is not a thing you can do about it except complain and to date no one has ever complained enough to stop a storm.

The good news is that there will be no water rationing for at least a year. Some crops will be bountiful. Roofers, landscapers, lawn mower repair shops , purveyors of mosquito repellent and auto detailers will have a record week to hopefully make amends for slower sales earlier in the month.

Dinning Out

Luby's

Why oh why do we choose cafeterias?

In the beginning cafeterias like The Colonial in Fort Worth filled a void between fancy restaurant eating and fast food. Fast food at the time was a limited collection of burgers People used to dress up to go the cafeteria. It was a fancy eatery where there were no snotty waiters and you got to see your food before it was brought to the table. The prices were also competitive with full service offering the options of not purchasing a lot and paying nothing for the atmosphere (which was always "nice") and of course there was no tipping. Folks could feel like they had a fancy schmancy meal without having to deal with fancy schmancy nonsense.

I don't pretend to know the history of Luby's but somewhere along the line they lost sight of the Cafeteria Mission of really good food at a really reasonable rate. I can say nothing bad about the decor or atmosphere. It is still nice and very,very clean albeit plastic environment. If I were saving a dollar over the cost of a linen tablecloth and napkin they could cover the place is saran wrap, I wouldn't care . The nasty truth is that Luby's has lost the value edge that so many cafeteria diners want. That is why on any given day at a peak hour you might see 10-15 people inside any of our local Luby's ( just a note : On a recent trip to Austin our host wanted to take us to iHop for Sunday morning breakfast, the line was about 100 people deep into the parking lot with a 40 minute ((Don't make me laugh)) wait time. We opted instead for a neighboring Luby's which had a better than average crowd, still had zero wait time and plenty of seating available). Our Corpus Christi economy is tight and we want a "value" . We are the most "value conscious " city in America.

All the menu prices are under ten dollars which might not sound so bad but a group of four people all on your tab you are out forty bucks after taxes. Add a soup or a salad, four beverages, a serving of Luby's is high dollar. The legendary Lu-ann Platter seems to have vanished from the printed menu which is displayed above the serving line bearing artfully crafted oversized photographs of tempting plates with names like Chicken Piccata , Black Angus Steak and Salmon Almondine. All priced at less than ten dollars with two vegetables and roll. Let's imagine you want to take some clients out to dinner... before anyone has a beverage ,dessert or jalapeño ,pico de gallo, a butter pat and you are looking at about 50- 60 dollars.

Now Luby's has servers but for the life of me I have no idea what they are there for except to collect a tip. Add the tip in and you have spent between 60 and 70 dollars. The servers promptly introduce themselves and then walk off. Too often myself and others get up to retrieve our own ice tea refills. At least those are free. On an earlier visit I attempted to take advantage of my server by asking her to bring me some A-1 Steak sauce. She brought me Heinz 57. I told her I really wanted A-1 Steak sauce, she nodded then vanished. After a few minutes I got up and got it myself from the credenza located near our seats. She returned to say that the manager said they didn't have any of "That kind". I said thank you and did not point out the bottle sitting in front of her.

There are some that will say I am just a cheap arse who doesn't want to pay for top quality dinning. But the quality is simply no longer there in my opinion. It is simply not worth the $15.00 average per person we paid on our last trip. Compare this to any meal at Katz 21 in an elegantly appointed private "room". The cost of food without anything from the bar (as Luby's has no alcohol and therefore it makes a fair comparison) would be maybe ten dollars more.

We paid a visit to the Luby's near Greenwood and SPID. My companion and I agreed to share a portion of cucumber salad which was fresh a delicious with slices of red, yellow and green bell peppers in a light oil and what I think was a splash of citrus juice, very well seasoned. It was an adequate portion. The promised black angus pepper steak turned out to be a chopped steak, well done. This used to be the cheapest thing on the old menu (aside from the aforementioned Lu-Ann Plater. ) Now by selecting the proper cattle they have managed to double the price. The little ice cream parlor in Portland "Yummies" has a half pound black angus burger cooked to order and tasting delicious with hand cut fries and a milk shake for less than the plate of heat lamp finished ground beef laid before us a Luby's.

I found myself constantly comparing the food on the buffet line (which is now stored on serving platers and heated from above by those ultra hot lamps- the more efficient steam tables are gone) to the lavish photography gracing the walls. The best thing about Luby's is the photography. The artist who rendered these works is a genius. He or she has taken the mundane offerings laid before us and turned them into brilliantly enticing works of pure art. Trouble is you can't eat them. We are stuck with the mere shadows of their concepts in the form of the food presented to us.

Because it looked the most like the picture I chose the Whitefish encrusted in almonds. It was surprisingly delicious and hot. I have had previous issues with food being cold in the middle. I accompanied this with new potatoes which were clearly under the heat lamp too long and had a dry taste, someone somewhere threw a lot of oil or butter onto them in a failed effort to rescue them and spinach which is hard to mess up and tasted fine.

My companion chose the chicken piccatta or at least what the line attendant assured us was chicken picatta. The succulent breast covered with sauteed mushrooms and a bubbly hot cheese melt was not on the serving plate. Instead there was a flat breast which looked more like a fish than chicken in the way it was cut. Again the heat lamps had what the flashbulb could not and turned the firm looking grey-brown mushrooms into a soggy black mess with the visual appeal of a decaying leaf and a non-existent taste. The cheese was present too and tasted a lot like warm cheese. There was no melding of flavor or intense party in your mouth feeling. It was dull. There was also a tomato-basil soup which was very thick and could have been good except the tomato seemed rancid, like ketchup which had turned bad. It had a distinctive acrid taste.

The real highlight of the meal was a pie which bore label so we won't venture a guess except to say it was dense and chocolaty and full of pecans. Traditionally the coffee at Luby's is fresh and hot. A good companion to this dessert.

All in all we had- bad soup-good salad- bad chicken- good fish-good dessert. Our final bill was $30.00 with the tip.

My companion has admonished me to say that Luby's tend to vary from location to location a great deal even in the same area and that the food in the Austin location was astoundingly good and offered a greater and more sophisticated variety of choices. Thus noted.