26 April 2011
I had been feeling the blues all day. I was dealing with some work drama and feeling the onset of depression about the fact that I was about to start two months of hellaciously long work weeks (80-90hrs to be exact). I called up one of my favorite eating buddies, Jason, and told him to drop everything! We were going out for pretzels, beer and who knows what else!!
Apparently April 26th is national Pretzel Day! Seeing that food and eating are some of my favorite things to do, I was thrilled to discover that there was an actual day designated to celebrating a particular food item. It seemed like a perfectly good excuse to drink beer and wash my sorrows away.
The celebrations were being held at the St Arnold's Brewery (http://www.saintarnold.com/). St Arnold refers to itself as "Texas' oldest craft brewery." It is named after a French religious man from centuries back. Apparently there is a legend involving St Arnold and a magically filling beer mug and hence he became the patron saint of beer? Or so I gather. St Arnold has been open since 1996, run by just 29 people, they brew five of the their beers year round and the others are seasonal beers. Last night I sampled the winter stout and the summer pils as well as their always available brown ale. Jason tried their root beer as well as the pils. The root beer was creamy and flavorful. All of the beers were enjoyable, but I have to say that even though it might be spring now, I liked the winter stout the best. The event that night cost $7 and for that we got a half pint glass to keep and unlimited beer as well as some other pretzel day perks. After running a fast paced 5 miles on a hot Houston day, the beer was already going to my head after half pint number one.
The beer hall environment of St Arnold's was bustling that night in honor of the Pretzel. According to St Arnolds, "Monks used scraps of dough and formed them into strips in the shape of a child's arms folded in prayer. The three empty holes represent the Holy Trinity." To celebrate this glorious holiday, a few other Houston food vendors would also be at the brewery. Slow Dough Bread Company (http://www.slowdoughbreadco.com/), "Houston's artisan bread company" was there making pretzels, and Burger Guys (http://theburgerguys.com/) had made mustard using St Arnold's Fancy Lawnmower beer. There were tubs of pretzels for snacking on and there were also pretzels for making jewelery with. People had made pretzel bracelets, pretzel necklaces, and pretzel head pieces.
Unfortunately Jason and I arrived a bit late so they were already out of Slow Dough pretzels and Burger Guys mustard. We got a bowl full of regular old pretzels sticks and sat down at one of the long tables. There was a kissy couple across the table that had long ago abandoned a delicious looking half eaten pretzel. They'd clearly had enough beer to drink by then and soon after we arrived, they left the beer hall with arms around each other. After they departed, I told Jason of my irresistible urge to try the pretzel they left forlornly sitting on the table. Jason looked at me like I was a schizophrenic girl on crack. Was it really that wrong to have a taste of that delectable freshly baked artisan pretzel across the table? If I didn't eat it, it would just end up wasted in the trash can. It wasn't as if anyone had directly put it in their mouth either, just ripped off pieces from this giant pretzel.
I reached my hand past Jason and across the table to that soft mound of dough sitting, cold and lonely, on a piece of parchment paper. Jason screeched, "Kate!" and hit my hand away. I took another gulp of my pilsner and re-thought my strategy. I tried to distract Jason by showing him the paper on the table listing interesting facts about pretzels (80% of American pretzels are made in Pennsylvania, the average American consumes 2lbs a year, the Swiss incorporate a lucky pretzel into their marriage ceremonies) while I reached for the pretzel again. Jason had been drinking more root beer than beer, so he was quick to catch on to my ploy this time and he smacked my hand away again. I was beginning to feel defeated. I really wanted that pretzel! These hard pretzel sticks were dry and unsatisfying.
A few moments later, my pretzel savior arrived and his name was John. John asked if he could sit across from us and he immediately inquired about the pretzel remnants. John, an employee of Rudyards Pub, was also a late-comer who'd missed out on the free pretzels. He asked if the pretzel was ours and I said no, but that I too was interested in eating it. He unabashedly grabbed it and ripped off a piece and then offered some to me. I gave Jason a grin and went for it. John and I savored every last bit of the pretzel and I will damn well say that it was probably the best pretzel I have every had. We dipped it in the leftover beer-flavored mustard which was also glorious. We even did a "cheers" move with our pretzel bits, banging the bread pieces together in celebration. I can only imagine the shock and horror that skittish little Jason felt at that time.
After John and I were done with our pretzel-lovemaking session, Jason decided he'd better remove me from St Arnold's before I did any thing else foolish. We said goodbye to John and his weathered-looking lady friend who were going home with a bag full of left-over mustard containers. Jason said he was hungry and wanted to eat dinner now. That pretzel had filled me up quite well, but I'll never say no to more food!
I suggested we try out a new restaurant in my neighborhood, Montrose, called El Real Tex Mex (http://elrealtexmex.com/). This restaurant just opened up an old Art Deco theatre that used to be called Tower Theatre. It serves up what it claims is the real-deal classic Tex-mex food. The space is interesting with high ceilings and a dining area in a loft area above the main room. They project old black and white western movies on the wall that used to be the movie screen. The old marquis is still on the front of the building and now lists the restaurants opening times (as late as 3am on weekends).
It was a good thing we went on a Tuesday night because we had no trouble getting a table. I had tried on a Friday to get a seat and found the place as crowded as a popular bar at midnight on weekend. Jason and I opted for a seat outside, under the marquis, as it was a lovely summery night. A lively guy named, Dennis, showed us to our table as our server.
Soon after sitting we got our basket of thin crispy chips and freshly delicious salsa. For dinner, Jason ordered steak quesadillas and I got something called San Antonio puffy tacos. Dennis said those were one of his favorites that he eats a few times a week. I wished I was in the mood to try their margarita but I'd already had my share of alcohol at St Arnold's. My favorite thing about El Real's menu was the section about lard. They have a brief blurb about the wonders of lard and how they make their own pig lard. Apparently lard is healthier than many of the other cooking fats. Who would have thought? I always said I loved all things pork related...
Jason said his steak quesadilla was probably the best quesadilla he'd ever had. I think I would agree. The outside was so crispy! If I hadn't read the blurb on lard, I'd have guessed it was butter, but perhaps pork lard would be replacing butter as my favorite fat! My puffy tacos were great too. Apparently a puffy taco is kinda like a deep-fried taco shell. It is a little crispy, but a little soft too. I had one filled with BBQ pork and the other with a flavorful ground beef. It was too much for either of us to finish. I will definitely be back to try their enchiladas, fajitas, and margaritas next time. It could be the perfect late-night fix after a night of beer drinking. All in all, I'd say that April 26, 2011 (unlike April 29, 1992) was the best Pretzel Day ever!
Some more fun facts on Pretzels:
-In the 1,400 years since the pretzel was invented, bakers have come up with a wide variety of shapes and flavors. The history of this adaptable snack shows its versatility.
-The world can thank a frustrated teacher with leftover bread dough for the invention of the soft pretzel. In A.D. 610, while baking bread, an Italian monk decided to create a treat to motivate his distracted catechism students. He rolled out ropes of dough, twisted them to resemble hands crossed on the chest in prayer, and baked them. The monk christened his snacks pretiola, Latin for "little reward." Parents who tasted their children's classroom treats referred to them as brachiola, or "little arms." When pretiola arrived in Germany, they were called bretzels.
-Perhaps because of its religious roots, the pretzel has long been considered a good-luck symbol. German children wear pretzels around their necks on New Year's Day. In Austria in the 16th century, pretzels adorned Christmas trees, and they were hidden along with hard-boiled eggs on Easter morning.
-The phrase "tying the knot" came from the Swiss, who still incorporate the lucky pretzel in wedding ceremonies. Newlyweds traditionally make a wish and break a pretzel, in the same way people in other cultures break a wishbone or a glass.
-In Austria, signs outside many bakeries depict a lion holding a pretzel-shaped shield. According to a legend that dates to 1510, pretzel bakers working before dawn heard Ottoman Turks tunneling under Vienna's city walls and then sounded an alarm. The city was saved, and the bakers were awarded their unique coat of arms by the Viennese king.
-Hard pretzels were "invented" in the late 1600s, when a snoozing apprentice in a Pennsylvania bakery accidentally overbaked his pretzels, creating crunchy, seemingly inedible, knots. His job was spared when the master baker, attempting admonishment, took an angry bite out of one--and loved it.
-Julius Sturgis opened the first commercial pretzel bakery in Lititz, Pennsylvania, in 1861. He received his original pretzel recipe as a thank you from a down-on-his-luck job seeker after Sturgis gave the man dinner.
-Until the 1930s, pretzels were handmade, and the average worker could twist 40 a minute. In 1935, the Reading Pretzel Machinery Company introduced the first automated pretzel machine, which enabled large bakeries to make 245 pretzels per minute, or five tons in a day.
-More than $550 million worth of pretzels are sold in the United States annually; 80 percent are made in Pennsylvania, where hard pretzels originated.
-The average U.S. citizen consumes up to two pounds of pretzels per year, but Philadelphians snack on about 12 pounds of pretzels per person every year.
-And then there's Joey "Jaws" Chestnut, the 2007 World Pretzel-Eating Champion, who ate 21 soft pretzels in ten minutes.
-President George W. Bush was munching on a pretzel in the White House when he choked and lost consciousness while watching the 2002 Baltimore-Miami NFL playoff.
-Pretzel bakers may have been the first to advertise "We deliver!" Medieval street vendors carried pretzels on a stick and sold them to the locals. Today, soft pretzels remain a popular pushcart item in Philadelphia and New York City.
-Joe Nacchio, of Federal Baking in Philadelphia, holds the rec-ord for baking the largest pretzel: It's 5 feet across and weighs 40 pounds.
http://recipes.howstuffworks.com/pretzel-facts.htm
