In the meantime I have wanted to post about one of my favorite places in Texas for a while and it just kept getting pushed down on my "edit" list. Texas has some fun names for their towns/cities. There are the foreign names: Paris, London, Florence, and Moscow, for example. And then there are the hard to pronounce names: Nacogdoches, Waxahachie, Bexar county (the x is silent), and Pflugerville.
But my favorite is West, Texas. No, not west Texas. Don't be silly. I've only been there once and it's obvious that the people have to be overly-wonderful to make up for the landscape. (I think I worded that perfectly. How can anyone be offended by that?.....)
West, Texas is about 60 minutes south of Dallas and Brian and I used to pass it every time we were driving from Searcy to Temple. The reason it caught my attention? Those people are so cute and clever!
The heritage is purely Czech and you know it the minute you drive into it. (And, actually, that is the same minute that you drive out of it). They have a convenience store/gas station/Czech deli that is called the Czech Stop. I LOVE IT! And, recently, they opened the Czech Inn. Ha! And according to the website there is also a Czech Point Collectibles, but I've never seen that one.
I usually annoyed Brian enough on our road trips that by the time we made it to West he was very focused on making it to his parents house without throwing me out of the car. So we never stopped. And then the one time he offered we had a cranky toddler in the back who was about to crash since we forced her on a flight to Dallas very early in the morning.
Since I was driving by myself from Dallas-Temple last month I decided to give in and stop where they've been telling me to stop for over 10 years - the Czech Stop. When I walked in I did not expect all the signs to be in Czech. If it weren't for the Czech girl in national costume painted on the ladies restroom door I would not have known which door to enter. I would have met a very unhappy Czech man, probably.
Thanks to my in-laws I was introduced to kolaches very early in my dating relationship with Brian. Who would have guessed it but there is a lot of Czech heritage in Texas. If I were to describe a kolache I would have to put it in the same category as a donut but they're not as dense. More light and fluffy. The pastries are usually fruit filled but you can also get them with cheese or meat. I ordered a dozen of fruit variety. I only ate two. I was pretty proud of myself since I could have used the "I'm pregnant and will eat whatever I want" excuse. But then I saw the sausage. I love sausage. And not really the breakfast kind. More like the Italian kind with peppers and onions that the sell at Yankee Stadium for $57 (or what feels like $57). Polish sausage will fit into this category as well as bratwurst. And the Czech stop had my kind of sausage. I controlled myself and only got one sausage and cheese filled kolache. As I was eating this gooey delicacy I felt my heart shudder (in a bad way) and I feared for the fetus but my body is stronger than cholesterol! I can't imagine eating more than one of those a year. Or maybe once every two years.
When I walked into the house with my Czech Stop bag Brian just shook his head. He knew that I now had one less item on my Bucket List.
2 comments:
I heart the Czech Stop! It's the only good thing about the drive from Austin to Dallas!!
Uh...Temple is pretty sweet there lady I don't know, and we have better Kolaches at the Kolache Kitchen. But, the Czech in is awesome. I also like the Tex Inn, but not located in West.
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