Comparing Smitty's with Kreuz's

Well, It has been a while and I have been lazy to write this note, but I am leaving Texas and I guess it is time I do this.

We finally went to Kreuz Market to try their stuff, and I can tell you we were not disappointed at all!

As you can read elsewhere, Kreuz market started in 1900 by Charles Kreuz as a meat market and a grocery store. To avoid the meat to spoil Charles smoke his cuts and used some others to make sausages, and that is how he started his barbecue business. He eventually passed his business to his sons and son-in-law.

                                           The founders (Picture taken by Mayra Gonzalez)

In 1948, Charles Son-in-law, Edgar, bought the market from the Kreus and he eventually sold the grocery store and kept only some of the “side items” of the Kreuz Market menu.  The business was sold to his sons Rick and Don who run it until Don retired in 1997. But later, in 1999, Rick was forced to move from the original location and went to a new and bigger location about a quarter mile north from the old one. The old location is Smitty’s barbecue today.

                                                          The place (Picture taken by Jorge M. Gonzalez)

And that is how this “competition” started. Some people say that Smitty’s is the best, others say it is Kreuz’s.

So, in order to compare with Smitty’s we had to go to Kreuz. We ordered basically the same we had tried in Smitty's a few months ago, Sausage, Pork, Brisket, and we added Cole Slaw, beans and Sauerkraut. They included the crackers and the bread (typical side items of Kreuz).

The verdict: Kreuz is way better than Smitty's for us! A very savory sausage (even though I liked the taste of the Smitty's sausage slightly better). Kreuz's brisket and pork were tastier, softer and more savory than Smitty's. The Cole slaw was OK. The sauerkraut and the beans were two great bonuses! Both were very tasty!

                                                       The meal (Picture taken by Jorge M. Gonzalez)

So, there it is! ... and my first note of 2013 in this blog is done, remembering the nice flavors of a Kreuz Market meal!

... passing through downtown Houston

Even though I have visited Houston many times, I have only been in downtown only once!  This is not something to be proud of or to brag about, is just a simple fact.  Downtown Houston was the original site where the city was founded by brothers John Kirby Allen and Augustus Chapman Allen in an area where the White Oak and Buffalo Bayous meet. That spot is now known as Allen’s Landing and that piece of land was bought from John Austin’s widow, T.F.L. Parrot.

I have passed many times to its side in my way down to the Hobby airport, but have never entered it. That was until the first weekend of November 2012. … however, shame on me! ... I went through, looking for the place where a Korean festival was held, could not find a place to park, and went out as I went in …

... pretty fast, I guess ...!

A Houston Landmark ...

It was 1968 when Czechoslovakia is invaded by Russia; Francisco “Morochito” Rodriguez wins the first Venezuelan Gold Medal in the Olympic Games; “Bloody Monday” marks one of the most violent days of the Parisian student revolt; Andy Warhol is shot in his loft by Valerie Solanis; Martin Luther King Jr. and Robert Kennedy were assassinated; Jacqueline Kennedy marries the shipping magnate Aristotle Onassis; Apollo 8 is the first manned space ship to orbit the moon; and John Martin Milkovisch "got sick of mowing the damn grass."

Absolutely true, 1968 was the year that Mr Milkovisch, a retired upholsterer who resided in 222 Malone Street, in Houston, Texas, decided he was tired of taking care of his garden and decided to replace his lawn with cement slabs covered with marbles, curious stones, metal pieces and all sorts of interesting junk.

    

Once the front and back yard were done, he also started covering the outside walls of his house with flattened out beer cans.  

                   

He also adorned the fences with other parts of beer cans, beer caps, beer bottles and other beer paraphernalia. “Curtains” made of long chains of bottoms, pull-tabs and tops of beer cans started hanging from the roof eaves. Curtains, mobiles, fences, sculptures, windmills, and wind chimes were places everywhere. After 18 years of work that house virtually disappeared under a “mantle” of aluminum and the whole beer covered house unexpectedly helped to cut energy bills!

                         
                                                John and his wife Mary in front of the house

Today, the house is known as the Beer Can House and it is a folk art house owned and operated by the Orange Show Center for Visionary Art, an organization founded to preserve works of extraordinary imagination and provide people with the opportunity to express artistic vision.

 
                 John's working place                                            John's tools

                                                         

Amen to that!  ... Prost! 

... the best barbecue in Texas?

Lockhart is a small city which is the county seat of Caldwell county. Almost 13 thousand people live here. The city was originally name "Plum Creek" thanks to the battle of the same name which was won by the Texans over the Comanche, back in 1840. The name was later changed to Lockhart.

                                          Caldwell County Courthouse, Lockhart, Texas 
                                          ©Mayra F. Gonzalez

Even though Lockhart has played host to numerous film sets (i.e. A small town in Texas, 1976; What's eating Gilbert Grape, 1993; Waiting for Guffman, 1996; The Faculty, 1998; The Newton Boys, 1998, it is widely known for its Barbecue joints. The Texas legislature (house resolution No. 1024, 76th legislature, regular session, 1999) proclaimed Lockhart as The Barbecue Capital of Texas.

Some of the most famous Barbecue places here are: Blacks Barbecue, Chisolm Trail barbecue, Kreuz Barbecue, and Smitty's Market Barbecue.

Well, passing through town at noon was a good idea and we went to the first barbecue place we could find. ... and it was Smitty's Market.

Front Left: Sign showing name, map, and activities in Lockhart. Smitty's market in the back

©Mayra F. Gonzalez

This place was established by Nina Sells in the building where Kreuz Market was originally located. Smitty's Market has been named one of the Best Barbecue in Texas by Texas Monthly Magazine.

We entered through a dark, smoky-scented hall with old benches 'attached' to the walls, and ended up in front of the guys selling the stuff. We decided on Sausage, Brisket, and Pork chops. They are traditionally served on butcher's paper and accompanied by a few slices of bread and a plastic knife. Once you pay, you can proceed to the adjacent big room with long communal tables.

Sausage, brisket, pork chop at Smitty's Market 

©Mayra F. Gonzalez

The people that serve you are not of the friendly type (at least, not the day we went!), but the customers that surrounded us were! Once inside, we asked for cole slaw and someone pointed out the freshly made barbecue sauce (... not that the place recomends using, anyway!) .

Our thoughts on  this small feast? The sausage was O.K., good taste, but we prefer the consistency of the sausages we frequently buy from Snook, TX (Slovacek). (... but also from the Meat Market in Giddings, TX!); The brisket was a disappointment, too dry, it was sort of  O.K., not a big deal, we prefer the brisket from either C & J Barbecue and J. Cody's, in Bryan, Tx, or Junek's BBQ in College Station (Wellborn), TX (... the main reason for such comparison is that we live in College Station, and we have visited and enjoyed those three Barbecue places!); The pork chop was also Ok, nothing out of the ordinary. The Cole Slaw was really good (for me; my wife did not cared much about it!) and the Barbecue Sauce was not good at all (I understand that a staple of the place is to eat with no Sauce, which is fine with me!).

Next time in Lockhart we'll try another place, will compare, and let you know!

I am out for now! Buen Provecho!

... why this new blog! ...

Even though I started another blog (http://beignetsycafeconleche.blogspot.com/) at the beginning of this 2012 and have been lazy to continue it, I decided to start this new one ...

... the purpose? When I started http://beignetsycafeconleche.blogspot.com/ I did not have a clear purpose and wanted to write whatever came to my mind. ... In this one I will try to talk about travelling and food, places I have visited, or something related to such visit, ...

... but why this name? A camouflage passport is a passport issued in the name of a non-existent country that is intended to look like a real country's passport.

Even  though I was born and raised in Venezuela, one of the most beautiful and incredible countries in the world (...for me, anyway ...!) I have lived out for quite a few years now. Even though Venezuela now might be great for some and bad for others, (especially if we are referring to political issues ...!) there is no doubt that the country is completely different that what it was when my  family and I left, back in 2001. ... hence the reason for the chosen name!

Ahh! ... even though the other blog was written in spanish, this one will be in english ... I need to practice! ... (... but of course, I will probably slip a few phrases or words in spanish ... let's see how this goes! ...

To finish this, let me show you an old picture of one of my favorite places in venezuela. The picture was taken by the great U.S. naturalist William Beebe and it appears in his book "High Jungle."

Rancho Grande Building, 1948, Henri Pittier national Park, Aragua, Venezuela