Merv's Texas Adventures

Ah, thanks for the tip! We did get a bag of Hill Country Fare country style hash browns, but I figured it's hard to screw up raw potatoes to be cut up in a certain way.

It didn't occur to me before, but it would seem that H-E-B brand is supposed to be slightly above the national brands and Hill Country Fare slightly below.

 

I knew that moving here, I could be SOL with respect to potstickers or dumplings, which sort had become a go-to when the kids got hungry or we were too lazy to cook. Being able to cook dumplings in different ways (dependent upon the thickness of the wrapper) helped in us not getting bored of them. They can be deep-fried (Gyozo), pan fried (potstickers), boiled, or steamed. Think of it this way, when we get hungry for a snack, we make dumplings - instead of eating cookies or chips. (Truthfully, we do both).

Now there are two Asian markets in Corpus. I have not visited them yet so I have no idea. It's probable these stores may carry the dumplings that we like. That is dumplings that taste reasonably authentic or good. Then again, maybe not. I was pretty particular with even the Asian brands. I faced this situation with some trepidation, as anything I tried from the big grocery chains tasted wrong. The Trader Joe's potstickers were even worse as they seem tailored to the tastes of emaciated white people of Calabasas, CA.

So during my first visit to H-E-B, I was amused that H-E-B carried their own line of potstickers. Why not I figured?

The instructions on the back were very legit on how to cook them - not that I needed them.


They turned out to be pretty good. The flavor is correct. I know this when my kids ask for them.

There are many different styles and approaches to dumplings. The H-E-B ingredients (pork, chopped cabbage, green onion, some chopped carrots) and seasoning were legit. The wrapper is on the thin side, but it keeps it shape and doesn't tear (important). I've tasted homemade (with premade wrappers) dumplings just like this from other Taiwanese families, so yeah, legit. I am curious who the heck H-E-B consulted - obviously not anyone from Panda Express. Maybe someone from Houston. Lots of Chinese / Taiwanese live in Houston.

The only thing I would do is add a little bit more emulsifier, like egg, and a bit more salt or soy sauce to what's inside the wrapper. This is a matter of preference though - as would the addition of chives. I would also prefer thicker homemade wrappers made from scratch, but this is super labor intensive. Potstickers, the pan fried method, require a thicker more substantial wrapper IMO.

However, since the wrappers were on the thinner side, I figured why not steam them? I just tried just that and voila. Personally, I feel the H-E-B Potstickers are best when steamed or boiled.

Looks like Kroger borged Dallas already. (BTW, I hated Kroger when I lived in Michigan, and went to the other grocery stores when I could). Kroger is Ralph's in SoCal. The branding is hilarious as Ralph's sounds so SoCal, e.g. Ralph Furley. Kroger sounds too Germanic for SoCal. Ralph's is decent, but it depends upon where you live. The meat selection at the Ralphs at the Calabasas Commons sucked ass, but the Asian food section was actually good.

The grocery store business is super competitive. As I alluded to, at one time, 40 years ago, California had a lot more chains. There's been massive consolidation since when I was a kid. Maybe this is the reason why H-E-B avoided Dallas? Doesn't make sense to beat each other up to the point of having unprofitable stores. Or maybe there are politics or secret no-compete handshakes involved? Maybe I watched too much Dallas (TV show) and the shenanigans of J.R. Ewing? (I watched Dynasty more, until the plots got super weird out of desperation for ratings).

P.S.

There are baggers at H-E-B! Holy shit, I had forgotten about this function. The last time I remember any grocery chain in California having an effective number of dedicated baggers was 1982. There was a grocery chain called Pak-n-save around that time that did away with baggers. The idea was bag it yourself and save a little bit. It failed, but the deleterious effects of eliminating dedicated baggers at grocery stores became widespread in California.

 

Nice subtle "I have a sub zero fridge" brag

 

I may have no choice. We bought a house, still under construction. New construction, particularly in more "upscale" parts of town, means 48" wide and counter depth. Not too many options. I wish we got to the house earlier because I would have asked for standard 36", but the cabinets are already in and painted.

Anyone with expertise in this area please help me. A possibility is with 2 x 24" columns or an 18" and 36". All options are gonna be expensive. It's a bad time too because refrigerators and graphics cards seem to be on backorder because of the virus.

 

It's official now.


Now this was a surprise and different from California. In California, the DMV handles both driver's licenses and plates. It's a serious fricking pain in the ass with massive lines with legal and illegal residents alike where appointments need to be made weeks in advance if you don't want to spend an entire day there.

In Texas, the DPS (department of public safety) handles driver's licenses and the Tax Collector handles your registration and gives you your plates. I thought I would have to wait a while because I didn't want California plates on the Jeep. It turned out that the process was fast. In California one registers the car at the DMV, and then waits anywhere from two to six weeks to receive the plates in the mail.

In Texas, one gets the car inspected - no smog check in Corpus, just stuff like wipers, lights, tint, etc. After this, one takes the inspection report, proof of registration (CA is OK), and proof of insurance to the local Tax Collector's office. The one in Corpus was closed, so we headed up to the one in Port Aransas, which was a tiny little portable building. We arrived at 10am. There was no line. After showing the lady our requirement documentation, she handed us our plates. I was like holy shit, we get our plates right then and there? No wait?

BTW the VOID sticker on the registration paperwork is supposed to be for boats and motorcycles. It's marked VOID because this registration is for a car. The reason it's even there is because only one form would be needed for all types of vehicles, thus saving money on materials and processes. Wow, that's a concept I am totally not used to, a government entity trying to be thrifty!

Note that the Texas plates do not have the letters stamped into the metal. I assume this is yet another cost savings. As such, less metal is needed. Using less metal is also good for the environment. There are no stickers affixed to the plate (stupid idea). One sticker, easily removable, is affixed to the bottom of the driver's side of the windshield.

Here we go.


Those with Jeeps know about the Jeep wave. There are variants to the practice, but from what I have observed in California, it is typically done with one hand near the top of the steering wheel. When one passes another Jeep, one raises four or two fingers. In Texas, it's done in the same way - I do see the two finger victory variant more often than in California. I believe that in other areas, the etiquette may be different, such actually waving, but I have not seen this yet.

The Jeep wave is practiced more consistently in Corpus than in SoCal. Those who do not do the wave more often than not have out of state plates. There seem to big four kinds of cars in Corpus in this order of popularity: Big Truck, Jeep, Honda Civic, Muscle Car.

One thing for sure. I will need bigger tires (on a slightly smaller wheel). The tread on the current tires will be gone by the time hurricane season comes around this year. I will feel more comfortable about bigger tires (with some air let out) when taking it to the beach south of here where the sand isn't as fine and packed so dense. BTW, everybody has big tires on their trucks and Jeeps here!

 

It's called the get out of ticket card, or mitigated ticket card. Also, in California, one of our neighbors was a detective in the LAPD. We talked with him quite a lot (his wife was our real-estate buyer's agent seven years ago). Cops aren't exactly popular right now, and they have an absolutely difficult job, getting rocks thrown at them, being asked to do dumb shit like break up COVID parties or close down restaurants, while getting their budgets slashed, so this was our way of showing support. The support is sincere.

I'm not a fan of unions, but police unions are the only thing that will protect individual officers if they happened to be at the wrong place at the wrong time where they needed to discharge their weapon. Honestly, if I were a cop during these times, I'd just say f**k it and let the perps get away. (This is why I would make a shitty cop). We've seen mayors of big cities throw their officers under the bus and many police chiefs who simply said f**k this. Doesn't seem worth the skewed media attention because it's guilty bad cop unless proven innocent five times over. And even then, the perp with the gun who shot at the cops or tried to wrestle the cop's weapon away - he was such a nice boy.

 

California may have the same problems FL is having. The big pension fund CalPERS has $400B in assets. That's HUGE! No one knows how it will fare. It will be fine if the fund gets the returns of the great bull market in the past 10 years; but as we all know, past performance doesn't not guarantee future performance. I detest pensions because they are inherently ponzi schemes. The temptation to add new members to keep them funded is too great. The pension payouts are crazy. I think it's screwed because I think we will be entering a new era of Japan-like stagflation because of our government debt and aging population.

 

Freedom!



This goes on for 60 miles until the Mansfield Channel, which separates North Padre from South Padre Island. The path begins just south of Malaquite Beach. We made just past the 20 mile marker at Big Shell Beach. The beach is covered with sea shells. We decided to turn around since high tide was coming.

The first 10 miles is easy, any vehicle can make it in this stretch because the sand is fine and packed down tightly. Past 10 miles, it gets slightly gnarly, so we had to switch down to 4H. We don't have knobby tires, so we aired down to 28psi, which helped a lot, so we didn't have to go down to 4L.

Haha. Convinced the wife we needed bigger and wider wheels and tires. Must go faster and safer!

Jeep wave participation was 100%.

P.S. This would never be allowed in California. I could see dozens of people getting stuck every day and several fatalities a week. We say quite a few folks camping out or fishing by the shore. Drivers were respectful, reduced speed when necessary, and kept safe distance. Except one lady in a Buick SUV who I felt was going too fast and too close coming from the other direction. Sand is unpredictable in terms of steering. Super fun when I'm keeping the wheel at the 3 o'clock position just to keep going straight. However this is frightening when people coming the way other don't keep a good distance.

 

How cow, that's like an alternate universe version. Crazy that it's a public highway.

Didn't see any auto fossils, but did see an old TV tube.

 

I heard that the 11-00 Foundation plates do actually work though when being pulled over the the CHP. I mean, you are coughing up thousands and thousands of dollars.

As far as car getting keyed, there's no evidence of this happening. I do hear that "people say this happens", but I've never seen or heard it happen to anyone I know*. (And there are plenty of stickers of all sorts in California). That's like saying folks cars with Biden / Harris stickers will be likely to be vandalized by Trump supporters, because Trump supporters are racists, less law-abiding, or more likely to be violent. Or that BLM people more likely to key cars with thin blue line stickers. I refuse to believe these things. I'm sure there are isolated incidents which are super amplified by the news - but I believe that people are good and law abiding.

And even if it does more happen than I think, I refuse to cower in fear from political vandals. The truth is, I'm more likely to self-vandalize the Jeep from driving off-road.

*I had a friend who had his car keyed, but he was a self-righteous asshole and probably said or did something to someone on the road or in the parking lot. That's another story though.