Tea Makes Me Happy

It's almost 7:00 am and I've only been up awhile, just long enough to have made a pot of coffee, done some reading, and read some blogs. I have been awake, off and on, for much longer, but only up since about 6:15. For reasons unknown, I awoke about 2:00 am and again at 3:00 am and yet again at 4:00 am and 5:00 am, remaining awake for at least 20-30 minutes each time. Perhaps a noiseless alarm clock has been secretly implanted in my brain? I'll have to get a brain scan next chance I get to confirm or debunk that theory.

Yesterday, I had a lot of errands on my plate and I intended to do them. I needed to go to the office, I needed to look for paperwork on the last two times we had foundation work done on our house (because we need to get more done), and I needed to take care of a number of other tasks that I just can't get done on weekdays. Need and want, though, competed for my time yesterday and want won.

Mywife and I went seeking a light Italian food lunch at a place called Angelo's in the Lakewood area of Dallas. Unfortunately, we did not bother to confirm that the place serves lunch on Saturday, which we learned it does not. So, we walked across the street to Matt's Rancho Martinez, where we had a decidedly un-light lunch. Matt's is a fixture in Dallas and has another location (I've not been there). This location, though, is the one "everyone" knows about. And it is truly Tex-Mex. Normally, I would have ordered enchiladas or tacos or flautas, but the chicken fried steaks caught my attention.

I went for the "Bob Style" CFS, which is topped with sour cream, chile con queso, and guacamole and is served with rice and beans on the side. My wife opted for a CFS, too, but ordered the Tampiqueno style, which is topped with tomatillo sauce, sour cream, and cheese and also is served with rice and beans.

We were dumbfounded at the food. The CFS were the most tender cuts of meat we've ever eaten in a chicken-fried steak. Rather than the traditional (within the last 15 years, anyway) method of coating the steaks with a heavy batter and deep frying them, Matt's puts a very light coating of spiced flour and pan-fries the meat. Whatever possessed us to order CFS in a Tex-Mex restaurant I'll never know, but I'm glad we did. It was unbelievably good! Of course, I cannot eat again until two months after my next birthday, but these next few months of fasting will have been worth it.

After our life-changing experience with Matt's CFS, we went wandering around with no particular objective in mind. We stopped at Jimmy's Food Store, a place I could have spent hours buying wonderful Italian foods and wines. The lunch we'd just had, though, apparently quenched my desire to buy anything remotely related to food. Jimmy's is a spectacular place, though, that if it only were around the corner from me, would serve as my sole source of food and I would be very, very happy. They serve eat-in or take-out sandwiches there, too, that are to die for. Unbelievably good stuff. Over the last few years, many more people have caught on to Jimmy's, which is good for Jimmy but bad for patrons looking for a place to park within blocks of the place. It used to be easy to get into Jimmy's, but now after 40+ years, it's a foodie vacation spot, populated by large numbers of 30-somethings, plus a fairly good number of geezers who won't be shoved aside by the newbies.

After we got home, I checked my email and found that the Coca-Cola company had actually responded to my plaintive cry for help in finding Gold Peak Tea. When my wife was in the hospital several months ago, having an implantable cardioverter-defibrillator implanted in her chest, I bought tea for her in the hospital cafeteria and we both loved it. I checked and found that it was Gold Peak Tea. More research revealed that it is distributed by Coca Cola. Yet more research revealed that the stores the Gold Peak website claims should carry it do not. So I wrote to them. Lo and behold, they sent me a list of about 8-10 stores (all Albertson's) that they said should carry it. And, sure enough, I went to Albertson's and found it. In the cold case. It's plain, unsweetened tea, but it is kept in the cold case, not with the other bottled teas. I have no idea why it is so good, but it really is the best tea I've ever had. And so I bought a bottle of it for $2.29 and decided it's probably going to have to be our "special celebration tea."

So, what will today bring? I suspect I'll get to do my errands today, but since there's so little weekend left, I'll have to rush and stress to get them all done. Yet another reasons for reversing the poles...5-day weekends, followed by 2-day work-weeks.