Evo Taco Tuesday

To be in Houston is to love tacos.  It's a requirement. Besides the erratic weather, there are two guarantees in Houston: traffic and tacos. The constant gridlock may inspire new variations of swear words, but we sure do love our Taco Tuesdays. Sometimes even Taco Wednesdays, Thursdays, and Fridays.

Evo Taco is a recent addition to West Houston. Its late Summer debut took a backseat to Hurricane Harvey. We discovered Evo after subsisting on spaghetti, mac & cheese, and more clean out the fridge casseroles than I ever knew were possible.

It's hard to not get overwhelmed by a taco menu that contains everything from a New Orleans BBQ Shrimp to Tandoori Chicken. A good plan of attack is to try at least two different tacos on each trip. Take advantage of the full bar and wash everything down with a pineapple mojito.

My first love was the Mediterranean, but I cheated on it with the Brit (pictured above) and I don't think I can go back. My taste buds won't allow it.

The Brit consists of beer battered Atlantic cod, malted pickle slaw and tartar aioli. It's supposed to have red onion, but I detest onions of any color. They kindly leave them off for me. It's phenomenal.

Evo Taco should be required dining for anyone who considers themselves a foodie. The mash-up of flavors is a palate party and I only scratched the surface of their collection.

The open patio is much more inviting now that the temperatures are dropping to a tolerable level. Kick back with a margarita on the rocks and take in as many tacos as you can.

Happy Belated Birthday Houston

Now that Harvey has left the building for good, I feel compelled to write of something that passed us by with very little notice given the events of last week. It was in the plan to post something on August 30th, which was the 181st year of Houston's existence. Unfortunately, Harvey seemed hell bent on wiping Houston out of existence. My plans got postponed and Harvey's plans were met with resilience and grit. Houston wasn't having it.

Yes, the human toll and the damage estimates are hard to accept. Devastation was everywhere. What happened next, and what the world witnessed was Houston not lying down and taking it. Neighbors helping neighbors, even reporters getting into the trenches and helping with rescues, the tremendous display of compassion was what the county needed to see. That's Houston.

My original thought was to highlight Houston Restaurant Weeks. Every August, a collection of the best dining in town offers a special reduced price menu. It's the best way to sample the more iconic establishments in Houston and at least half price. The proceeds benefit the Houston Food Bank. It normally closes out as August ends, but given the timing of Harvey HRW has been extended through the end of September.

Brennan's was always one of my bucket list restaurants, ever since I saw Terms of Endearment. So, we went for HRW and got seated in the Terms Room.



All I can say is the food was some of the best I've ever had. It began with turtle soup. I was hesitant at first, but decided to eat like it would be my one and only chance. Turtle soup is phenomenal. There aren't any words that can do it justice. It has to be experienced.  It was followed by the Eggs Benedict, my favorite brunch dish. Best Eggs Benedict I've Ever Had. Dessert was a must. You don't go to a place like Brennan's and not get dessert. My husband had the bread pudding and I ordered bananas foster, which was prepared table-side with flames. Again, something that must be experienced by all.

Harvey will be remembered as one of the most destructive storms in history. It did not break Houston. It's hard to describe how I feel about Houston. I have been here almost twenty years and I fell in love with it. The selfless acts of kindness and heroism seen during this crisis demonstrate what I love the most about Houston. It's always been charitable. People look out for one another here. I'm sure that other places feel that way as well, but as of now I haven't seen it on the scale it is here. It's always been like that. Even before Harvey. It will continue now that Harvey is heading for the history books.

Houston will always be strong. Happy Birthday to the city I love and foodies everywhere cannot resist.

Blogging Harvey

I am holed up in my house for at least the next few days. Hurricane Harvey isn't going anywhere anytime soon. Even in Tropical Storm form, it is going to be brutal. My neighborhood is not in a flood prone area. Tropical Storm Allison had no impact on it. Hurricane Ike only managed to rip away a few shingles. This monster may be different. The full impact won't be known for several days. Evacuation would have made no sense because we are not in a coastal area that floods easily. We'd be in gridlock, running out of gas, and fending off road rage.

Found out today that there is no work on Monday. The building will be shut down. I work for a large insurance company as a claims adjuster and we cannot even make it in to work. That's when you know shit has truly gone sideways. It could even be Tuesday too. There's a lot of unknowns right now. Hurricanes are oxymoronic. Their arrival can be predicted but their path can be all over the place.

Since I am going to have some down time, I need to commit to doing some work that I haven't had time to do because of my day job. This blog post is a good start. Any other writing that falls into place is a bonus. Reading along with writing are two loves that get little attention. It's seven o'clock before I get home most evenings and by the time dinner is finished, there's a tiny slice of time for family before I shove off to bed and start all over.

Harvey sucks, but I am going to try to make the most of the situation. Hunkering down with the dogs, family, and a good book with a side of writing sounds nearly therapeutic. I appreciate what I have and  hope that others are able to stay safe during this catastrophic event. Houston and its residents have  weathered many terrible storms over the years and emerged stronger. This one will be no different. We will persevere.

Does Amarillo Ever Cross Your Mind?

Probably not until you're passing through it to get somewhere else. The Texas Panhandle probably doesn't rank high on the list of Spring Break destinations. And that's exactly why I picked it for our family Spring Break trip. Other than the quintessential tourist trap The Big Texan, there were no annoying crowds to speak of.

Amarillo is underrated for a multitude of reasons. It's flat and dusty. It doesn't boast an iconic skyline like Dallas.  No one ever thinks of it until they are driving through it to leave Texas. The Panhandle is not known its offerings to travelers. I've never heard of anyone just going there for the hell of it.

Ironically, some of the images most closely associated with Texas are in Amarillo and the surrounding area. Longhorns, Quarter Horses, and those Cadillacs sticking out of the ground are just a few of the sights to behold.

We went to the Cadillacs not knowing what to expect. It was packed with people, but not so many that it wasn't enjoyable. Empty to half-empty cans of spray paint littered the ground. Some people handed us their cans as they left the site.  We made our marks on the cars, and from the looks of the  layers of paint our initials would probably be covered up by morning.

The mission was to see Palo Duro Canyon. Something about it has existed in the far recesses of my mind over the years. I wanted to see it. Saw the Grand Canyon last August, so I wanted to see the Lone Star state version, the second largest canyon in the United States. It didn't disappoint. Mission Accomplished.