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Longtime North Texas Chain El Chico Serves Warm Memories
It’s now accepted wisdom within the state: The words “hot plate!” roared by a server is something of a culinary covenant guaranteeing Tex-Mex transcendence. As soon as that steaming dish hits the table, you just know it’s going to be good. El Chico. 503 I-30, Rockwall.
Find Your Place in the Sun at These Total Solar Eclipse Events
On April 8, the daytime sky will turn twilight when a total solar eclipse passes over Texas around 1:30 p.m. From Del Rio in the southwest to Texarkana in the northeast, communities along the path of totality will go dark as the moon passes between the sun and Earth, completely blocking the sun for a duration of a few seconds to more than four minutes depending on your location. It’s a rare phenomenon to experience, and the United States won’t see another celestial event like it until 2045.
Texas Treehouse Retreats Bring Guests Closer to Nature
For travelers seeking experiential accommodations, staying in a Swiss Family Robinson-style treehouse retreat is a thrilling opportunity. In Texas, these options range from rustic cabins to whimsical hideaways to luxury glamping getaways. Head toward the Hill Country, Piney Woods, and North Texas, where tree species like live oaks, cypress, and loblolly pines thrive. When staying in a treehouse, just remember: The trees are alive, growing, and going through seasonal cycles. A treehouse may sway on windy days, shed bark, and release sap. But being this close to nature is what the experience is all about.
See Early 20th-Century Big Bend Through the Lens of Photographer W.D. Smithers
In one of his pictures documenting life in far West Texas, photographer Wilfred Dudley (W.D.) Smithers shows a water-delivery boy in Presidio using a can to scoop water from the Rio Grande into a canvas bag draped over a burro’s back. The bag is waterproofed by locally made candelilla wax, and a cow horn serves as its spigot.
Armadillo World Headquarters Strikes a New Chord
The Armadillo World Headquarters never grew old. But its legend sure as hell did. As a venue, it lasted not quite 11 years, from mid-1970 to the first hours of 1981. But in the 43 years since it closed, the Armadillo’s legacy has loomed over Austin. As a potent combination of music, art, and progressive values, it hasn’t been replicated.
Recipe: Chorizo Cheese Dip
Brown ground beef in a skillet for about a minute, then add in the chorizo. Cook together for 8-10 minutes. Add Ro-Tel and cheese. Cook over medium heat and continously stir until the cheese is completely melted and tomatoes are fully integrated into the mixture. Serve with chips.
Chorizo de San Manuel Remains a True Taste of the Rio Grande Valley
Odds are, if you’ve scattered chorizo across a breakfast taco or indulged in gooey strands of choriqueso at a restaurant, the smoky protein at the heart of the dish was produced by Chorizo De San Manuel. Arguably the Rio Grande Valley’s most iconic brand, it can now be found on grocery store shelves from Hawaii to Maine—and even overseas. But before it became a worldwide phenomenon, the spicy breakfast favorite was the specialty of a small general store in San Manuel, a town about 30 miles north of the border.
Roadside Oddity: The Giant Uvalde Cut-outs
Our state is full of novelties, many of which have a peculiar story of how they came to be on their particular bend of the road—and we’re on a quest to tell them all. Is there a roadside oddity you want to know more about? Tell us what you think we should investigate next.
A Transformative Weekend Getaway in Historic Laredo
Directions to Laredo are easy. Get on Interstate 35 and head south. Go far enough and you’ll get there eventually. Coming from the Valley? Take a left at the Whataburger in Falfurrias and keep going. The flat scrub of South Texas leads to this sprawling border town spread across a jagged crook in the Rio Grande. Today, 250,000 people live in the city that was originally founded as a Spanish colony in 1775. Laredo has long been a nexus where Mexico and Texas commingle. Its most popular and enduring cultural festival, the monthlong George Washington’s Birthday Celebration held every February, features a jalapeño festival and a debutante ball in full U.S. colonial garb.
The Elisabet Ney Museum Is a Historic Austin ‘Hidden Gem’
At the corner of East 44th Street and Avenue H in the Hyde Park neighborhood of Austin stands a three-story stone structure that looks like a small medieval castle, with a keep (or fortified tower) and a colonnaded portico at the entrance. If you lived in Austin in the late 1800s, you might have caught a glimpse of the building’s original owner, the famed sculptor Elisabet Ney, lounging on a cot on the flat second-floor roof. She loved to sleep beneath the stars.
Inside Valentine Texas Bar Is a West Texas Fairy Tale
It’s easy to miss Valentine Texas Bar. The building on State Highway 90 looks just like any of the other remote West Texas town’s crumbling adobe, especially with the restoration work at the adjacent HiWay Cafe. Casual passersby would never know there’s a party going on inside the building.
The Smithsonian’s Traveling Exhibit Is Coming to Texas
It doesn’t carry the name recognition of the Alamo, Nacogdoches, Goliad, or other key players in Texas’ history, but San Augustine in deep East Texas has plenty to boast about. It was the first Texas town to be laid out in the standard American grid system. When the 1832 plat detailing it all was recently pulled out of storage, among the signatures of witnesses was future Texas governor’s Sam Houston, who had a law office there.
Experience Pottsboro in North Texas Like a Local
When Dianne Connery moved to Pottsboro in 2010, she was ready to retire. After years working in gerontology consulting in Plano, she just wanted to enjoy the view of Lake Texoma and live the small town life in the community of 2,873 about 77 miles north of Dallas. “I didn’t want to work, I didn’t want to volunteer, I didn’t want to meet people—I just wanted to do my own thing,” she says.
In Her Element
In Poor Richard’s Almanack, Benjamin Franklin writes, “Half the truth is often a great lie.” One of my half-truths is that I’m not an outdoors person. When I think back to school field trips, I was far more excited about going to the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston than I was to the Oil Ranch—too much heat and hay for my taste. And when I was forced to help my mom plant flowers in our yard, I did so with ample teenage attitude. Truthfully, I wanted to dunk those Dusty Millers into their holes and toss some mulch on top so I could resume watching TGIF reruns, preferably with Fruit by the Foot in hand.
It’s a New Season for Fort Worth’s Abraham Alexander
With Valentine’s Day on the horizon, Abraham Alexander’s love song “Tear Fall Down” is filling the airwaves.” The track, which comes from his debut album, SEA/SONS, was inspired by the story of family friends celebrating their 50th wedding anniversary. Alexander’s smooth, angelic, and way-too-persuasive voice, plus his lyrical tales of love, loss, and hope recall soul crooners like Usher, Sam Cooke, Bill Withers, and Gilmer native Johnny Mathis.
Send Your Love a Valentine from Valentine, TX
How To Texas is a recurring column offering step-by-step instructions on how to be Texan. We’ll guide you through the cultural traditions, customs, eccentricities, lifestyles, and activities you’ll find on your travels that make the state uniquely Texan. For one month every year, Ismelda Ornelas plays Cupid. She’s...
Nixta Taqueria Chef Edgar Rico on the Joys of Tacos
“Tacos have always brought me joy,” says Edgar Rico, executive chef and co-owner of Nixta Taqueria in East Austin. Originally from the Central Valley of California, Rico grew up with a passion for cooking and was already writing recipes in kindergarten. “I loved watching and assisting my mom in the kitchen,” Rico remembers. “Then, it became deeper and deeper, particularly with food television of the ’90s, watching the shows of Alton Brown and others on the Food Network.” In 2022, Rico won the James Beard Award for Emerging Chef, in 2023 he was named one of Food & Wine’s Best New Chefs, and he’s cooked for a president and a pop star.
Wild Child
When I was 11 years old, my parents put our family home in the suburbs of Houston on the market. They received an offer quicker than expected for above asking price. But there was a catch: Our family of six had to move out within the month. Our future home was nothing more than a handshake and blueprints at the time. So, my older brother, Mike, 13, and my two younger brothers, Matt, 10, and Eddie, 8, helped our parents load our furniture and boxes of our clothes, books, and toys into a storage unit. Then we went camping for the next six months.
The BAPS Mandir Temple Outside Houston Is an Architectural Wonder
What appears to be a white marble palace in a faraway land is in fact one of the state’s grandiose Hindu places of worship, known as a mandir. Located in Stafford, a suburb 20 miles southwest of Downtown Houston, the Bochasanwasi Shri Akshar Purushottam Swaminarayan Sanstha (BAPS) Shri Swaminarayan Mandir is an architectural wonder, representative of India—and all are welcome inside.
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