Tee hee hee…….
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When will you arrive in Las Cruces?Comment
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One of my goals on this trip was to be at Tejas on a Thursday. Those of you that were here for the MeatUp might remember the briskets that were corning for pastrami which is available on... Thursday's.
After all the time I have spent building up the pastrami in my head, I was prepared for it to be good, but nowhere near as good as I hoped it would be. I was disappointed that the choices of bread for the sandwich were a roll or sourdough. NO RYE? I was sure that this was the first sign that this pastrami wouldn't be able to live up to the buildup I had given it in my head.
And then I had my first bite... Holy crap! Why have I been eating pastrami on anything other than toasted sourdough? It was almost a perfect bite of heaven. With everything else that Tejas does so well, I should not have been surprised that they would absolutely nail the pastrami as well.
In my efforts to not gain 36 pounds on this trip, I limited myself to the sandwich and 2 sides. The carrot souffle, and the pinto beans. The carrot souffle was very good and the beans were excellent.
We did a pretty good job of leaving fat and happy.
As a great bonus I had company for lunch in the person of the amazing Panhead John We also had a good lunch at a Chinese place yesterday, but neither one of us had brains enough to take a single picture, so according to the rules of The Pit, it didn't happen. He was kind enough to share some brisket and sausage with me, but I'll let him give his own opinions on those.
As I was leaving Tejas, I got to a four way stop, and saw this place.
Well hell... I've got to stop and see what it's all about. Turns out it's a family shop that has been in business for 15 years making some pretty good looking Damascus knives. I didn't have a lot of time to really look everything over, but the few I did put my hands on felt pretty good.Comment
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Will gave me a slice of his pastrami sandwich and let me tell you, damn! Probably the best bites of a sandwich I’ve had in years! I don’t have much experience with pastrami except for lunch meat stuff, 🙄…I know! , but the 2 or 3 bites I had was sandwich heaven. I couldn’t get over how good that bread was, and the pastrami too. 🥰
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We both arrived a few minutes before opening, and since we had some time to kill, Will and I exchanged some helpful knitting and crocheting tips with each other. I showed him a shawl I recently knitted and he was very impressed ! We were the 2nd and 3rd persons in line but it started filling up soon after. I ordered a slice of fatty brisket, 2 pork ribs and a link of their famous chili relleno sausage. We split some sides of pinto beans, poblano Mac and cheese and summer corn salad.
When I held up the brisket slice on my fork, it fell apart before I could snap the pic!
Overall our lunch today was outstanding! The brisket was moist and tender with a great bark, ribs were tender, smoky and flavorful, sausage was excellent and the beans were also very good. Mac and cheese was also pretty good. The only minor disappointment was the summer corn side. Will and I both agreed it would have been better served hot, rather than cold. I also was impressed today by the amount of seasoning I found in their meats. It was enough to notice but not enough to offend anyone. Well done Tejas! 👍👍Last edited by Panhead John; September 4, 2026, 07:41 AM.Comment
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With the New Mexico MeatUp over I'm back here to chronicle the trip home.
First stop to stretch the legs was in Fort Stockton TX. Being a holiday, there wasn't much that was open, but I didn't mind just getting out of the truck and walking around a little.
I also swung by the oldest house in Fort Stockton. She's just needs a little TLC and maybe a coat of paint to be move in ready.
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Drove by this on I-10. Not sure what it's called. I'll let you come up with your own name for it.
Next stop for gas and a bite to eat was in Sonora Tx and Pit Stop BBQ, where I got the chopped brisket and sausage sandwich, with beans and slaw.
The sandwich wasn't bad and definitely better than a fast food burger, but Texas Monthly won't be stopping by anytime soon. The slaw was out of a bucket, so not bad, but nothing special. The beans had a distinct cumin and chili powder flavor that makes me think that they are doctoring up canned beans.
They had a craft root beer in the fridge you pass by on the way to ordering, and it was pretty good.
I'm tucked into the motel for the night and probably headed to or in the vicinity of Lake Charles LA. tomorrow. I have a delivery to make, and maybe, just maybe, I will actually get to a couple of places that have been on my list for more than a few years now.Comment
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Jerod Broussard I took the bridge on the way out. It's pretty cool. Going back 210 will be closer to hotel, so that will be the way. -
WI Bubba Wow, not many people see drinks from the Dublin bottling co. It was about 15 miles from our house in Comanche. They were famous for their Dublin Dr. Pepper, made with real sugar not corn syrup. It had quite a following. Eventually Dr. Pepper company stopped letting them make it. Now I believe their 1891 soda is the old original recipe for Dr. Pepper.
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Another great day on the road! I pushed down the road a little bit harder than I normally would have yesterday just to put myself within an easy drive to Spring, Texas this morning. After just a few hours of driving, I got to knock another place off the list of must try places. This time it was La Cocina Taco House.
I didn't make it there when we were all in Spring for a MeatUp, but both Mosca and 58limited said that the green egg tacos were amazing, and I don't think you can get a much better recommendation than that.
From the made to order tortillas, to the incredible fillings, these things were amazing. I got one green egg, and one "all the meats". The green egg was better, but I would happily eat one or two of either of them for breakfast every day for the rest of my life.
After that, I rolled on down the road a little ways on that rutted dirt track that people in Texas call I-10. Seriously, how much construction can you do on one Highway, and stopped in Beaumont Texas to have lunch at 1701 Barbecue. Another one pf those places that has been on my list for a long time. I ordered the Trinity Platter which is usually brisket, ribs, and a sausage. When I told the guy behind the counter that's what I wanted, he informed me that they don't have brisket today, but instead, they have tri-tip. There are certainly worse things that can happen...
The ribs were easily in the top five best I've ever had anywhere. My choice for the sausage was the jalapeno and cheese, and it was also very good. The tri-tip ended up being the weakest meat on the tray. Don't get me wrong, it was good, but the chimichuri they used was mostly cilantro and it over powered the meat. And despite the evidence of a smoke ring, there was no discernable smoke flavor on the, in my opinion, under seasoned meat. As amazing as it looked, it just fell short on flavor. For a side, I went with the dirty brisket rice that was also very good. With just a little bit of luck, I'll have a good excuse to go back there tomorrow and get a chance to try the brisket.
All in all, it's been a really good day.Comment
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Panhead John I hopped over to Lake Charles after lunch at 1701.Last edited by WI Bubba; September 9, 2026, 04:21 AM.
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I met Will at 1701 BBQ for lunch today. Since he was driving through my area anyway he graciously offered to carry some of my purchases to me. I couldn't carry them on the plane and I would have had to mail them instead. Will was able to try the brisket today, I'll let him post about it.
I had the 1" thick pork steak and it was quite possibly the best pork steak I have ever had. It was fork tender, the smoke ringing extended almost to the middle of it, it had a good black pepper flavor with lots of smoke. Snow's BBQ is famous for their pork steak as well but it does not have as much pepper as this one from 1701. Snow's tastes like seasoned salt which is basically what they use for seasoning. Not bad at all, in fact I really like Snow's pork steak, but now I think that I like the one from 1701 better. I got the dirty rice as the side.
Last edited by 58limited; September 9, 2026, 03:45 PM.Comment
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David and I just can't seem to get enough of each other and had to be together just one more time before I ride off into the glare of the morning sun.
Mostly I really wanted to try the brisket at 1701. So since I had a good excuse, that's what I did today.
It's often been mentioned that when you are comparing one top notch place to another, you are really just splitting hairs. The brisket was of course great. Is it as good as the last time I had brisket at Tejas, or Brisket and Rice? Not to my tastes, but the difference is so small that I would gladly eat any of them. I think the bark on the one slice I had at 1701 was a little lacking in flavor. I also know for a fact that if a brisket that good ever came off my smoker, I would never shut up about how perfect it was. But we are comparing the best of the best here, and in that light 1701 is not at the top for my tastes.
The ribs were just as good the second time around. I clearly have a lot of work to do on my rib game, that I thought was pretty solid.
I switched up the sausage today and got the boudin sausage. It was my first time trying boudin, and now I know why it's a thing. I can't compare it to anything else, but it was good enough to make me want to make my own, and try it other places too.
Of course my eyes were bigger than my stomach so I got a side of very good mac and cheese, plus some nanna pudding. My belt regrets the nanna pudding, but my belt doesn't know how good the nanna pudding really was. Stupid belt. I don't regret a single bite if it.
Best of all, I got to have lunch with one hell of a nice guy. You can't ask for much more than that.Last edited by WI Bubba; September 9, 2026, 05:05 PM.Comment
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Well, you are about to drive through the boudin homeland, there is even a "Boudain Trail," so I encourage you to stop and get some for the grill. There are several places with great boudin but since you want to go to Laura's I recommend exiting at Scott and buying some at NuNu's. In my opinion they have some of the best boudin but I haven't tried them all
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One of our Regional Directors transferred from Mississippi to Michigan and he brought Boudin up. I had never heard of it. He went back down over the holidays some years ago and brought me back five pounds of it. We really enjoyed it. I have never seen it up here in Michigan anywhere.
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In addition to having a fantastic lunch today, I also spent a little time playing tourist.
It's not a huge museum but what is there is very interesting. It was especially interesting to see the internal diagram of the old steam powered pumps. Basically a PD (positive displacement) pump being driven by steam pressure, driving another PD pump to move water. It sounds simple by modern standards, but back then it was cutting edge technology. And having seen first hand what happens when things go wrong with a modern PD pump, I have to think those early experiments were no joke when you are dealing with steam under pressure.Comment
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Today was a bitter sweet day. I didn't need to be out of the motel until the 11:00 checkout time and lunch was just a 10 minute drive. But it was also my last BBQ stop on this trip. 🥲
I knocked another long time joint off the list today with a stop at PaulstheRibList joint in Lake Charles LA. For all the Texas folks that skip this place heading to or home from a Louisiana MeatUp, you're missing something good.
If I thought I could get it back to Wisconsin, I would have gotten a slab or three to go. 😁
The flavors are not Texas BBQ, but they really good. I got the 2 meat plate with brisket and ribs, with slaw and mac and cheese for sides. I could tell from how it wiggled on the cutting board that the brisket was going to be nice and tender. The bark had a really good flavor. Different from a Texas brisket and I can't really explain the difference, but it's different and it's good.
The ribs were also too notch. 1701 in Beaumont has set a new bar for ribs for me, but the ribs at Paul's are right up there around that same level. Put a gun to my head and and force me to choose and 1701 wins, but it's closer than I thought it would be. The sauce that comes on the side with the ribs is a KC style red with more heat than a KC sauce. It really works well with the pork.
The sides were okay, to very good. The slaw is made in house, and tastes okay, but I think it would be better if it had another 6 hours to set the flavors into the cabbage more. The mac and cheese was very good. Very creamy with a good sharp cheddar cheese flavor. I'm pretty sure they are using sodium citrate in the cheese sauce because it doesn't lose much of that creaminess even when it starts to cool down.
When I was nosing around back by the pits, I got a chance to talk to one of the pitmasters and one thing lead to another and we started talking about turkey breast. I explained my technique for turkey breast, and got that smile you get when someone doesn't want to hurt your feelings. So I pressed him to tell me what he thought I was doing wrong. That turned into a Midwest goodbye. But I have something new to try when I get home. I'll detail his technique when I pull a turkey breast out of the freezer and give it a once I get home.
Tomorrow morning starts the trip home. While I would love to keep wandering around trying new places and new to me foods, I would also very much like to walk outside and not melt. It's supposed to be in the upper 70's when we get home, and by Sunday highs in the mid 60's. I can't wait!Comment
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