Ah, the “Half Elwood” rather than the “Full Elwood”.
@ClutchLinkey My sister was in Russia back when it was part of the USSR. Due to shortages, they spent serval days being fed cucumber washed down with Champagne. The cucumbers were not sorted, and so contained a fair number of males; which are apparently very bitter. 
Also in TX so i’m aware of the naming weirdness of these 
On my way to Houston from Austin there’s a place in Brenham TX called Weikels that makes some amazing kolaches but i havent tried their klobasnek.
I haven’t tried looking for a bakery or place that makes cachitos in Austin 
i can always ask around for a recipe if you’re a baker. My mom’s bound to have one
I feel attacked at how accurate your statement is
Huh, there was me thinking cucumbers were more likely male.
@Grey_Devil there is a very large community of Venezuelans in south florida. arepas are easy to find and always delightful! always with cafecito, please!
@anon23281680 loves me some kolaches! my first wife’s family were all of Czech heritage and her grandmother made damn fine kolaches! my fave was her poppyseed version. my own grandfather would take me to a bakery in West (funny name, as it is actually southeast of Waco) and they made fabulous kolaches - their apricot was divine! not much i miss about texas, but these are some…
I would never live in Florida but if i ever had a reason to it’d be over the easy access to Venezuelan food. But thankfully i can find stuff here, it’s become easier the last 5 years or so.
Some of my fave kolaches are apricot as well 
good to see i’m not alone in that.
I could spend the rest of my life eating nothing but a bagel with cream cheese and a coffee for breakfast and be perfectly satisfied.
As long as they were good bagels and coffee, anyway.
Hah I literally recommended this place to my aunt and uncle the other day. They’re travelling across the US with a camper, they stopped to see us in Austin so they’d already been to the Czech Stop in West, and they were on their way to Houston to see my mom. Brenham is like perfectly in the middle from Austin to Houston so we almost always stop there for a leg stretches, dog walks, and kolaches
My aunt was midly appalled that all these places are in, or attached to, gas stations but I guess that’s kind of common in texas. I’ve eaten some pretty good food in gas stations.
I don’t love the idea of food places in gas stations but i have softened my stance on that as time has gone by. Weikels is great, and i hope their trip has been enjoyable 
that’s definitely a bucket list thing for me, would love to take a long road trip across the country.
The funny thing being a western Canadian is:
It wasn’t until I lived in the states that I heard people call it Canadian Bacon. And they just served ham calling it Candian Bacon…
Peameal Back Bacon (the good stuff) is pork loin and neither ham nor bacon. Its more popular in Ontario but its in most shops in my area.
It’s is also a lot less popular in my region than pork belly bacon, but it has its place.
It does sound odd but also, is it so different from a bogeda in new york or something similar in any other city? A corner store that sells some basic staples and has a grill in the back?
Possibly the best taco place in Austin is in a literal shack, not in but next to a gas station. So cheap I don’t know how they turn a profit, either. On weekends they do menudo and it’s packed non stop. It looks like someone chopped up a mobile home and glued it back together but who am I to judge? It’s probably 30 miles away and I still go there once a month.
How can you have a male cucumber? Only the female flowers become fruit.
In order, the only flavors of (Czech, not Texan) kolaches I will eat: poppyseed, and then apricot. Full stop…why bother with the other options?! 
The shadiest looking taco place is this one that i drive by on the way to work, and honestly i haven’t worked up the courage to check it out
But i am all for hole in the wall food joints. My fave is a small food truck on E 53rd & Ave F, i haven’t been there in a while and need to hit them up again.
My grandmother made massive quantities of kolaches in her lifetime, always looked forward to them. When I was in college she’d send me care packages of caramel rolls, kolaches and cookies. Always apricot - she had a grove of apricot trees in the back of her house. I miss those so much.
They were different than the ones you see in TX - the apricot was completely enclosed instead of sort of being “on top”. She was norwegian but there were a lot of czechs and germans where she lived so I don’t know if they were something else they just called kolaches.
I love arepas and am constantly on the lookout for new fillings. If you have any recommendations, I’m sure the food thread would be happy to hear them!
I’m not a cucumberologist, but, apparently, the males are unpalatable.
@anon87143080 I was not aware of that. I probably misunderstood what my sister was telling me. I was most likely too shocked by the idea of eating cucumber and drinking champagne repeatedly throughout a week.
Thankfully they’re easy to make if you have access to the type of corn flour it uses. Filling-wise i can drum up some fillings, link me to the food thread so i don’t forget about it by the time i get home
I make arepas at home sometimes, not too hard although getting used to the goldilocks temperature, time, thickness, amount of water in the dough etc takes practice, same as tortillas or bread.
It’s a really good way to use up some leftovers. Have some left over brisket or roast pork or chicken breast or something? Cook some beans, add onions, peppers, cheese, beans, avocado
Hm I wonder if thanksgiving arepas would be good? Turkey, stuffing, gravy?
