Buc-ee’s

Buc-ee’s or as Josh calls it; Boo-Chees, is a place that Texans are really proud of. One of my friends was even told to stop there as a part of a to do in Austin bucket list.

Buc-ee’s was talked up so much that the first time I visited one of the locations with a group of other first timers, we were all just saying “ok?” Not really getting the hype. But we had gone out of our way to visit a mega-gas station so that was probably our bad. Who puts a gas station on a must do list anyway though?

Admittedly, Buc-ee’s is the ideal stop on a road trip. They have all the cliche knick-knack souvenirs in little shapes of Texas that you could ever desire. Snack options are as abundant as gas pumps and bathroom stalls.

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Are groceries a hobby?

If you started trying to come up with all the grocery delivery services you’ve seen thrown around lately, I would guess you could at least finish counting on one hand. I tried one and it was fine. It did what it was intended to do; cut out the verb part out of grocery shopping. For list-making people it does make some sense.

But it is not for me.

I love food shopping. When traveling to a new city, grocery stores hit near the top of the itinerary. That’s how I ended up at Central Market on one of my first trips to Austin. Albeit, I was underwhelmed after reading glowing Yelp reviews of the miraculous Central Market. Some bulk tea and perogies made it into the shopping cart but it wasn’t exciting.

Yet here years later I am living in San Antonio. Something is different now. Maybe my heart could just sense that Austin is home to Whole Foods and Central Market was a stranger on that turf. As a part of Alamo City based HEB grocery store chain, Central Market is absolutely at home in the Alamo Heights “neighborhood” (it’s technically it’s own landlocked city – think of it as San Antonio’s Vatican City) here.

And every time we go we love it more.

Bulk spices are one of the main draws. Spices are the spice of life, after all. And bulk candy. And bulk tea. And bulk oil. And bulk corn nuts (Josh discovered his love of bulk corn nuts at Central Market). You’re probably reading this and thinking it sounds like Whole Foods under a different name but CM truly is a unique entity and you are truly wrong.

Throwback Tuesday

It has been a moment or two since I last maintained a blog. While there is a lot of love in my previous endeavors, starting fresh makes the most sense given how much the tides have turned since my former pursuits. Still, I’ll pick up where I left off by going back to my pun-filled roots.

Speaking of “fresh” and “tides,” I am creating a new trend of Throwback Tuesday. Sure someone out there – probably lots of someones – have beat me to it, but we all know Thursday is the traditional day for throwing back. I guess that makes my blog not so traditional.

Food is the beating heart, the nucleus, the very foundation of my Instagram account. As it is with 99.9% of people in my demographic. You can quote me. As such, it’s an easy topic to kick off this first official Throwback Tuesday (lots of pics to put with content).

Just five days ago was the well-known but little understood (to non-Mexicans aka gringos) holiday of Cinco de Mayo. And if you were a fan of my old blog you already know that I have an affinity for holidays both famous and obscure. Especially the obscure but we’ll get to that later.