So Pharr Away

We just passed the town of Pharr TX as the odometer rolled over 9,000 miles for this trip. Probably we'll get back to Rockport with 15,000 miles on the trip odometer.

We did some shopping at a farmers market in Brownsville. Among our acquisitions was some fresh cactus, which, when boiled for 15 minutes and drained, was supposed to taste like okra. Real good on/in eggs, the vendor promised.

Barbara used some in her scrambled eggs. Note, she doesn’t even like okra much. The eggs were meh. Now, what to do with the leftover cactus? (We can’t throw it out until it has gone bad, duh.)

I’ll make shrimp gumbo! First time for everything. We still had several pounds of frozen in-shell shrimp from the Port of Brownsville. So let’s thaw them, and peel them.  I’ll make a stock from the shells.

The “holy trinity” of cajun cooking is celery, onions and green peppers. Put the onion skins and tops in the stock pot, too.  I search for some gumbo recipes. A tempting recipe calls for two tablespoons spicy cajun spice, two tablespoons Tabasco sauce, and a tablespoon of cayenne pepper. I think my wife is hot, but not THAT hot, so I toned it down a bit.

My jar of cajun spice brags it is so bland you can just sprinkle it on food. I didn’t have enough, anyway.

I go off to the market to get flour, more cajun spice, celery, filé powder, petite cut tomatoes, and andouille sausage. I search and search for andouille sausage; the first two employees have no idea what I’m talking about. I ask a third one, saying I’m looking for Louisiana sausage. “Sir, we’re in Texas.” I get some quite different chorizo.

Filé powder? Nope, but it’s  optional in some recipes. I do find some “bold” cajun spice.

One of the “secrets” to gumbo is making the roux to match a penny. A blonde roux cooks the flour only for 30 seconds to a minute. A gumbo roux has to be old enough to drink: 21 (minutes of cooking), stirring constantly so it doesn’t burn. And don’t use butter or olive oil, just oil, like peanut, soy, or canola. Several recipes mentioned keeping a penny by the stove, and to keep cooking until the white flour is browned to the color of a penny, usually 21 minutes. Boring to stir that much, but OK.  I know how to make roux, throw in two tablespoons flour and oil. All finished at 21 minutes, check the recipe and oops, it calls for two tablespoons AND  half a cup. Fixed that problem with stirring another 21 minutes.

Another half an hour later I have a nice roux, add in veggies (including the cactus) and chorizo  to soften them up, and let them cook for at least half an hour. Add in 2-3 heaping tablespoons cajun spice (my old “bland” mixed with my new “bold”). When all cooked together, add the shrimp, cook for one minute and turn off the heat. Five minutes later, all done.

Gumbo is often served over rice, and we had two small portions of brown rice (40-50 minutes) and Louisiana pecan rice (20 minutes) which I sequentially cooked together.

Dinner was seriously delicious. And all this effort just to get rid of some cactus. Bellyband visitors next year may be offered lobster gumbo Bellyband. I imagine asking the Hannaford’s staff for Texas cactus, and being told, “Sir, we’re in Maine.”  Probably will use okra instead of cactus. 

We had an interesting stop in Edinburg at the Museum of South Texas History. Surprisingly comprehensive, it covers local history from dinosaurs, mammoths, ancient Indians, on up to the near present. It recognized the ancient Indians (such as the ones in the Pecos River Canyon), admitting we know very little about them except they have disappeared. The section on cowboys, the iconic Origin Story of Texas, is politely debunked. Cowboys and cattle drives, usually known as vaqueros in south Texas regardless whether Anglo or Hispanic, only were important between 1870 and 1890, despite thousands (?) of movies.

Until there was a railroad in Kansas (about 1870), there was no point in driving cattle to Kansas.  By 1890 railroads had come to Texas. Barbed wire became common, and  soon ranches had fenced in their land. The cattle drives were no more by 1900.

Longhorn cattle, like horses, are invasive species. Both were brought to the Americas by the Spanish, and some escaped. During the Civil War, the population of wild cattle soared since almost nobody was harvesting them.  

After the Civil War, people noticed there were a lot of cattle, so rounding up wild cattle and driving them to the railroad became highly profitable. About two decades later, the wild cattle had been mostly depleted, controlled breeding became possible in fenced ranches, and the romantic story ended, at least in real life, if not the movies.  

Before this trip, I had not heard about the US-Mexican War in 1840s. I had a nice visit/hike to the Palo Alto battlefield, the first major battle of that war. The US army won over a somewhat larger enemy force, due to better cannons, better gunpowder, and better strategy, according to American sources, but victors always write the history books. 

General Zachary Taylor attacked two days before Congress passed the war resolution. Taylor became the 12th US president in 1849. General Arista, the losing general, became president of Mexico in 1851. Both served as President for less than two years.

About 13,000 US soldiers died and about 25,000 Mexican soldiers during the entire war. Mexico lost 55% of their land they had in 1821.  "Manifest Destiny" (empire building, genocide, etc.) was the blunt policy of the US during the 19th century. 

The Mexican army, with the support of their French allies, also was raiding and trying to retake Brownsville in 1859-1863, just before and during the Civil War. 

We've been stopping at just about every historical marker along the Rio Grande (definitely the Slow Lane), which corroborated the museum's story. South Texas was one raid, attack, and revenge after another.

Local elections are the happening in southern Texas now. The streets (and sidewalks and parking lots and  ...) are filled with election posters, with just a picture, a name, and office, but generally no party affiliation or slogans. Women appear to be the strong majority of candidates. Since Brownsville is over 93% Hispanic, it's not surprising that all the candidates have Hispanic names. As we drove the slow road up the Rio Grande, one could tell when we changed voting districts, as all the pictures were different.

One poster stood out to me because it had the slogan "Christian business woman". Really, she has to distinguish herself from all the Muslims and Jews running for office in south Texas? How does self-identifying as a woman in a mostly female Hispanic (which usually are Catholic) pool help her? Or is she "dog whistling" that Catholics are not true Christians? I am pretty sure there was not any gender-bending either. 

Tonight we're at a beautiful state park on Lake Falcon, an international reservoir on the Rio Grande.  Coyotes howled and the stars were brilliant. Pemba listened attentively to her cousins, trying to make out their accent. It was very funny.

Happy Trails,

Krem and Barbara