Food | Down Home Traveler

Spring in Texas is …. well perfect. The temperature is in the 60’s and 70’s with a slight breeze, the sun is out and its the perfect weather to just get in your car, roll the windows down and check out a new destination. Trips don’t have to be long, they just have to be an adventure. With that said, we decided to take this adventure to College Station, TX.
Our plan would be to take I-35 south to Waco then Route 6 south would being us straight to College Station. Before we would get to the home of the Aggies, there was only one thing on our mind…exit 353.

Does this place look familiar to you…

…if it does then I’m sure your mouth is watering already. If not, it will be shortly!

Exit 353 is in West, Texas, about an hour and a half (depending on your speed) south of the DFW area, more importantly the home of the Czech Stop. This restaurant / bakery, convenience store, gas station, rest area is a pit stop must for anyone traveling thru this area. And to say this place is popular is definitely an understatement. Don’t be alarmed or discouraged by the sight when you arrive, unless you arrive before 9am (which is the only time I haven’t seen the parking lot packed) you will be wondering if this is really worth the stop – the answer “YES!”, hands down.

The place will be busy, but this is a good thing. I mean – would you really want to stop somewhere with an empty parking lot? Yes, there is typically a line you will be thankful because it will only buy you more time to decide what you desire in their enormous selection. (The line also moves fast so don’t forget you do need to decide, or just get one of everything!)

The Czech Stop is famous for their kolaches. Before I came to Texas, I don’t think I really understood what a kolache was …. yea, yea – I know. (I came to Texas and my whole conception of food changed.) A kolache is kind of like a pastry, made with this semi-sweet dough filled with, well pretty much anything you want. It kind of looks like a biscuit or a roll but the filling is what sets it apart and will make you crave them whenever you think about heading south on I-35

The Czech Stop does a great job providing you with an absurd selection of kolaches. Ham and cheese, sausage and cheese, jalapeno and cheese, pepperoni kolaches, to name a few…

…along with sweets – raspberry with cream cheese, strawberry with cream cheese, cream cheese and pecan kolaches, all warmed up by the time you are done paying and ready to eat as soon as you walk out the door. They also offer various selections of breads, cookies and pies. My personal favorites are the sausage kolaches and the raspberry and cream cheese sweets.

Next time you are in the area make sure you exit 353… you will be thankful – oh so thankful!

For more info: http://www.czechstop.net/home.php

I can’t say I have a ton of experience attending cookoffs. Since I have moved to Texas, I have learned that Texans love nothing more than their two-step, football and food, more specifically BBQ. It all sounds pretty good to me. So last May I came across this “Steak Cookoff”. I’m always up for a trip but throw in steak, even better!

Hico is a small town about an hour and a half south of Ft. Worth, home of Billy the Kidd. The Texas Steak Cookoff occurs the third Saturday in May and wherever you are – its well worth the trip. I’m getting hungry just thinking about it. Let me paint a picture for you – the streets were lined with smokers and BBQ’s of all shapes and sizes. You could look down the street and just see smoke – oh what a beautiful thing! If I remember right, they said the amount of entries doubled between 2009 and 2010. This even has also been featured on the Food Network. I believe in 2010 there were 84 tents (teams).

We started off the day purchasing a $25 bracelet. This entitled us to appetizer sampling from any tent and a steak dinner. That’s right – steak dinner (I’ll get to this in a minute).

The appetizers were not the typical appetizer, they were damn good appetizers, bacon wrapped shrimp, stuffed mushrooms, etc. Each team could opt to enter into an appetizer contest.

Then came the steak. Each team started cooking steaks which would be submitted to judging (sounds like a hard job to be a judge here). While the teams were cooking you could get check out their get-up…

visit with the teams and check out the unique team names…

…play washers or corn hole (aka bags) and sample some of their steaks. Once the steaks were submitted and judging was narrowed down to the top 30 teams each person could go to the tent of their choice where you would get a steak cooked to liking, baked potato, salad and beverage. This event is also BYOB.

Not bad, eh?

We were there for a good 8+ hours, did not get bored. How can you really?

(Quebe Sisters Band… awesome!)

Along with the food mentioned above there were craft vendors, giveaways, live entertainment and local celebrity chefs cooking up some of their favorite dishes. Doug Moreland also played last year.

I really loved this painting by Kenneth Wyatt.

Make sure you put this event on your calendars – remember 3rd Saturday in May. Tell some friends, grab some beer, bring an appetite and get ready for some steak!

For More Info: http://www.texassteakcookoff.com/

Down Home Traveler

Tag Archives: Food

I-35, Exit 353

Texas Steak Cookoff, Hico Texas 2010-05