If you’ve been here for any amount of time, someone has probably mentioned JJ’s SnoCones. And if you haven’t gone out there yet, go do it. They open for the year some time in March and I’ll have to find out, but I think they close up in September.

When we first got here, it was one of the places that many of the people we met recommended. We were not and have not been disappointed.

I grew up eating these things in Puerto Rico, they were called “piraguas” or “Raspados”, (translates to “scraped”). They would literally have a block of ice and scrape the top or side of the ice with a hand plane, you know, the kind you scrape wood with and produce those little curls of wood. I don’t know if it was a plane or not, but it looked like it. I found the picture to the left here of the actual instrument used.

Anyway, JJ’s is one of the only places whose ice is “shaved” around here, and it’s reminiscent of what I experienced in Puerto Rico.

So, I go and ask if they have Guava, they don’t. Tamarindo? No. But you know what they did? They got some. Man, Guava/Tamarindo is so yummy.

OK, so they told me that Pickle Juice is one of the biggest sellers. That’s crazy. I have not tried that and I’m not sure I will.

This week I tried the Snozberry…that was really good. My wife tried the Yellow Cake Batter with cream and it was like eating frozen yellow cake batter.

We’ve tried the Wedding Cake, Bahama Breeze, Coffee, Chocolate, Tutti Frutti, bubble gum, and others.

I was told the Charlie Brown is a good one, but haven’t gotten around to that one yet.

You can add cream, Ice Cream, a gum ball and even buy a pickle if that’s what you want. My suggestion is to try flavors with the kiddie, then graduate. Like I said, so far, all the flavors have been excellent.

Kiddie: 8 oz. - ¢.75
Shorty: 10 oz. - $1.25
Small: 12 oz. - $1.75
Medium: 16 oz. - $2.00
Large: 20 oz. - $2.25
Jumbo: 24 oz. - $2.75

They are on the corner of Villa Maria and Carter Creek, right next to the Blockbuster Video. That little shack with the funky spray paint all over it and usually a line of people.

The owners and workers are really great people.

They are open every day from 12:30 - 8:00pm except Sunday, they’re open from 1:00 - 7:00pm.

Enjoy

jorge

We have a prayer meeting at our house on Monday nights where around 5 families get together, each bringing some dish or side or dessert. We eat, then hang out, then pray and sing songs. It’s a perfect way to start the week. We all look forward to getting together.

Well, this last week, we were blessed to have our desert supplied by Delicious Moments, and Husband and Wife team who caters small parties in the College Station and Bryan area.

They brought us a whole bunch of really yummy mini cheesecakes. They were so good. Everyone commented on them and wanted to know where they came from. I was happy to tell them that Zack and Lauren from Delicious Moments brought them over.

Being the first time we used a catering service, I was not sure what to expect, but let me assure you, Delicious Moments has set the bar pretty high, at least in our eyes.

They emailed me in the morning asking me what time would be good for them to drop off the food, then in the afternoon (way before people started to arrive), I got a call from them telling me they were on their way.

They brought the cheesecakes in cute little pink boxes, and they looked just perfect. They brought us original and peanut butter cheesecakes. Wow, they were good. In fact, there were way more than we needed, and were looking forward to having some the next day, but at the end of the night, while my wife and I were cleaning up after everyone left, we looked in the boxes and they were all gone. Bummer. They were obviously very good, maybe even the best in town!

We were all very impressed with these guys, and will definitely be the first company we call.

They also offer a personal chef service and in home cooking classes.

They even offer to go to the grocery store for you. Here a quote from the Delicious Moments website:

How many people hate grocery shopping? Either it takes too long, you have little kids who seem to always throw a tantrum once you get to the store or who just want to load the cart up on candy and cookies, you’re too busy to find time to grocery shop, you hate waiting in long lines, crowded aisles, finding a close parking spot, etc. Well, if you just want someone to do your grocery shopping for you, call us up and let us know! We would be happy to be of assistance! Just send us your list and we’ll do the grocery shopping for you! Simple as that.

Call these guys soon, even if your event is later this year. Visit their website for more catering, personal chef and cooking class information.

jorge

Are you wanting to go out to eat or call in a to go order, but you can’t find the restaurant’s website, and you don’t know what to order? Well, College Station and Bryan restaurant menus can be viewed at a website called “Aggieland Menus”.

Aggieland menus is a cool website that lists many (if not all) of the restaurants in town, and links to a pdf of the restaurant’s menu. So even if the restaurant doesn’t have a website, chances are, the menu is posted at AggielandMenus.info.

It’s a free service, so if you are a restaurant owner, contact them. And if you are a restaurant owner and need a website, contact me…it’s what I do.

Here’s what they have to say about their service:

Aggieland Menus is a guide serving the restaurants and consumers of Bryan-College Station, Texas. We are a free service that provides the most information about your restaurant to the most important person… your customers!

They have a rating system on the site, a place to write a review on the restaurant’s own page. It’s very well organized, and a great resource.

We just recently downloaded Spice Bowl’s menu for my wife’s parents. They wanted to try something different, and have another look at the prices.

I also downloaded the Pho John’s menu to see if they served Bubble Smoothies…they do.

It’s just a great idea to serve the restaurants in town.

You can even subscribe to the site with a syndication reader and get Aggieland Menus news as soon as it’s posted on the site. Nice. (click on the little orange RSS button in the corner).

And by the way, don’t you think the best menus are the ones with beautiful pictures of food items on them? I love those.

You should call in an order and eat in! Or order from Freebirds and go eat at Central Park.

jorge

Freebirds is a wonderful place. They make these gigantic burritos that are so wonderfully tasty and filling and just awesome.

The first time I had one of these was back around 1992 when my older brother (who was attending A&M at the time) invited me to come and play my guitar for some of his friends. My songs back then were mostly geared toward Junior High, chock full of body function humor and other things that most people wouldn’t necessarily like.

Well, It was great then, and it’s great now. In fact, other companies have imitated them, like Habanero’s Grill in San Antonio, and Chipotle’s.

Although those other restaurants are good, Freebirds is really the best. They have 4 tortilla choices (flour, whole wheat, spinach and cayenne). Chipotle’s only offers white tortillas and Habanero’s in San antonio at least offers Whole Wheat.

Freebirds has 4 sizes, and although ‘ve seend them make one, I’ve never ordered a “Super Monster”. It’s really big. Like 1 and a half pounds.

The Freebirds Restaurants are on University and Hwy 6, down in Northgate (across from the A&M campus, one on Rock Prairie over by Kroger’s, and one next to Old Navy.

They offer a punch card where you can get a free burrito after you’ve bought 10, and they don’t limit it to the cheapest burrito…you can order it however you want it, and it’s free. Totally worth it.

One of the fun things about Freebirds is the tradition to make a foil sculpture with the foil you peel off the burrito. There are some really creative sculptures up on the walls. I’ve left a few.

They’ve got quesadillas, salads, chips, guac…just a great place.

A “regular” Freebird chicken Burrito will run you $5.75. They’ve included tax into the price, so “no chump change”. Nice.

Now, it can be a little daunting your first time, but just tell the server it’s your first time. Y’ll choose a tortilla size and flavor, they’ll steam it and ask you if you want rice, cheese, and what kind of meat…you can even chose dark or white meat. Choose from three kinds of beans, cilantro, onions, hot sauce, etc. Then you keep moving down the line and get all your other stuff in there piled high. Some items are extra, but they’ll tell you first. Then the’ll ask you if it looks good, and take it off the line and wrap it in foil.

I suggest you stand the bird on one end, then unwrap it a couple of inches at a time, eating it down toward the table.

Oh, the “death sauce” is pretty hot, and their BBQ sauce is really tasty.

Looks like there might be some Freebirds outside of Texas in the future. That’s fun. There’s 4in College Station, 4 in Austin, 4 in Dallas-Ft. Worth, 3 in Houston, 1 in San Marcos, 1 in San Antonio, 2 in Lubock, 1 in Norman Oklahoma, and I believe there’s on in Santa Barbara, California…the original.

Go eat one.

jorge

We recently went to Central Park in College Station. The grounds are very nice, and although the playground is fairly small, there were other things to do.

There’s a basketball court, pavillions, baseball fields, picnic tables, paved trails, a pond and ducks.

Lots of ducks. And geese. We took peanut butter and honey sandwiches, goldfish crackers and granola bars, and those ducks ate almost everything we threw at them. I mean toward them.

My kids don’t eat the crust of their sandwiches. My mom always made us eat ours, and for the most part we make our kids eat theirs, but not when there are ducks around.

There is one goose in particular that is pretty big, and apparently the scout, well, at least not afraid to come right up to you.

In fact, at one point, I found our 4 year old (who we call the “Bug Whisperer”) petting it…practically hugging it.

I’m not convinced ducks like peanut butter, but they ate just about everything we threw at them.

The pond was very pretty and well kept. Looks like it’s stocked with fish and you can actually catch them, so bring your rod. The regular Texas Parks and Wildlife limits for bagging apply to this pond. The Central Park pond has Trout and Catfish in it.

Here are some tips on releasing fish:

Quickly play and release fish.
Keep fish in water as much as possible.
Remove hook with pliers or cut line.
Gently place fish back into water.
Revive fish by holding upright in water and moving back and forth, gently forcing water through gills.

Enjoy

jorge

You know the kind of jeans I’m talking about. The kind that some of us wore (or parents wouldn’t buy for us) in the 80s. You know, the kind your father-in-law wears to cut down trees and work under the car.

Well, those jeans don’t look like they’re worth much, but in fact, you can buy them at Abercrombie and Fitch for around $80.

Well, you don’t need to pay that much anymore. There’s a place in town called “The Exchange”. It’s been there for a while (on Harvey across from Shivers) and has recently (2007) changed management, and even what they do. As of this writing, the signs are still up that say otherwise, but they don’t sell stuff on ebay, and they don’t buy used clothes (they used to).

I’ve been told they are changing the name to “The Alternative,” I’ll let you know when that happens.

They are now a Brand Name Retail Store, selling brand new items of clothing like Abercrombie, Hollister, American Eagle, Aeropostal and more.

Nothing in the store is over $20.00. That’s right, brand new jeans for less than $20.00. I’d say that’s something to go and check out.

They’ve actually been having issues with people thinking they are the same shop they used to be…even with all the new signs stating “new management” and “brand name clothes” etc. So go in and check it out, but don’t take your used clothing.

I had family come from England looking for Abercrombie stuff and were completely amazed at what they found. They told me the same jeans in England were selling for $200.00. In fact, the same jeans at the Abercrombie and Fitch in the mall ran about $80.00 - $100.00.

The General Manager told me that they get 2000 pounds of product in the store every 2 weeks. They get the stuff that doesn’t go to the outlet stores, overstock and other items. They pick through the stuff they get, pull out the good stuff, iron and steam them and put them on the racks.

This is brand new stuff, it’s just gets to the store a little wrinkled. The staff here takes very good care of making the clothing look perfect.

Apparently they get other things in the shipment, like a pogo stick, framed art, clocks, signs…and they sell those things too.

The store is clean, the dressing rooms are very nice, and there’s a waiting area/lounge that’s even stocked with children’s books. Nice touch.

There’s also a Post Office branch in the corner of the store, so no more waiting in line at the post office.

The staff is very friendly and know what’s in the store at any time, so you can always call and ask to see if they have what you are looking for: (979) 985-5151.

Go check it out.

jorge

If you haven’t seen the College Station City-Data site, check it out.

City-Data is a site that has compiled information from several different sources on just about anything you want to know about a city. The city page includes maps, stats like race, income, education, employment and unemployment, geographical data, crime data, sex offenders, weather, schools, radio and TV stations, zip codes and area codes among other things. It’s a great site to check out if you are considering moving to an area.

Below, I’ve list some stuff from the College Station page that I think is of interest.

Population (without students): approx 75,000

Zip Codes: 77840 and 77845

Estimated median household income in 2005: $24,218 (it was $21,180 in 2000)

College Station	$24,218
Texas:	$42,139

Estimated median house/condo value in 2005: $144,500 (it was $119,500 in 2000)

College Station	$144,500
Texas:	$106,000

Median gross rent in 2005: $681.
Percentage of residents living in poverty in 2005: 39.2%

Races in College Station:

• White Non-Hispanic (75.7%)
• Hispanic (10.0%)
• Black (5.4%)
• Other race (4.5%)
• Chinese (2.3%)
• Asian Indian (1.9%)
• Two or more races (1.9%)
• Korean (1.5%)
• Other Asian (0.8%)
• American Indian (0.7%)

(Total can be greater than 100% because Hispanics could be counted in other races)

Unemployment in September 2007:

Here:	3.7%
Texas:	4.4%

Percipitation highs: May and October

Percipitation lows: February and July

Hospital/medical center in College Station:
COLLEGE STATION MEDICAL CENTER (1604 ROCK PRAIRIE ROAD)

Average household size:

This city:	2.3 people
Texas:	2.7 people

Average Travel time to Work: 15 Minutes

There’s a whole lot more info on the City-Data page. Interesting stuff.

Jorge

If you haven’t tried Vietnamese food, Rosie’s Pho is a great place to start. There’s a big Asian population here in College Station, and the Asian Market on Texas over by the Tractor Supply will prove it.

As will the amount of Asian food restaurants.

Personally, I don’t completely like the Americanized Chinese food that’s over fried and over sauced. It usually has me in the bathroom within the hour. Well, sometimes I like it…not the bathroom part.

My favorite is Vietnamese. And almost always, I get the Bun, which is a rice vermicelli noodle bowl with salad on the bottom and some sort of topping. I like mine topped with spring rolls and BBQ pork.

I usually opt out of the fish sauce…I don’t like the smell or the taste of it, but I always squirt my noodles with Hoisin Sauce, garlic Chili Sauce and a little Soy Sauce.

Here’s a Wiki Definition of Hoisin Sauce:

Hoisin sauce, or Haixian Sauce, (hǎixiānjiàng) also called suckling pig sauce, is a Chinese dipping sauce. The word Hoisin is a romanization of the Chinese word “海鮮” as pronounced in Cantonese. Despite the literal meaning of “seafood,” Hoisin sauce does not actually contain fish. It is similar to the sweet noodle sauce made from fermented soybeans, but has the added ingredients of garlic, vinegar, and chilli peppers. Additionally, it tastes less pungent than sweet noodle sauce. Mandarin-style Hoisin sauce ingredients include water, sugar, soybeans, white distilled vinegar, rice, salt, wheat flour, garlic, and red chili peppers, and several preservatives and coloring agents. Traditionally, Hoisin sauce is made using sweet potato.

The vermicelli bowl is a large bowl of vermicelli rice noodles (the thin white ones), served over lettuce and sliced cucumbers, then topped with roasted peanuts, pickled carrots (and sometimes onions), cilantro and mint sprig, and then your choice of meats or spring rolls.

Pho is a noodle soup, which is traditional Vietnamese restaurant fare, but I’ve never been able to not be excited about the noodle bowl, and I get the same thing every time. Maybe next time.

As far as appetizers go, check out the Summer Rolls. They are lettuce, mint, and usually a few shrimp, wrapped in a thin white rice wrap. We call them surgical glove rolls. They usually come out with a sweet peanut/Hoisin Sauce to dip in.

We usually come out of there nice and full, and also pretty happy that we got some salad in us at the same time. It’s always so freah tasting. Very nice.

Oh, when you go in there, you’ll notice there’s a colorful poster to the right of the cashier. Those are “bubble” smoothies. I’m not sure what they call them, but you’ve got to try one. My suggestion is the Honeydew Melon with Black Pearl Tapioca Balls. My second suggestion is a Mocha with Black Pearl Tapioca Balls or Coffee Jellies.

Black Pearl Tapioca Balls have a very slight sweet taste, and the texture is like a Gummi Bear. They don’t taste like the Tapioca you might be used to. It’s really just a texture thing, but it’s really cool. There’s something very “addicting” about drinking/eating one of these. Just try it…for $3, you won’t be out much. The Coffee Jellies are like very concentrated Jello that’s been cut up into small cubes…very cool taste and feel. They have Mango Jellies too, and they are yummy as well.

There are a few other places in town that have these smoothies, and they are all made similarly, but Rosie’s Pho has the cheapest. Asian Cuisine and Tea House Restaurant next to Play It Again Sports has a cool machine that seals the top on the cup and you poke the straw through the top.

You’ll notice that you get these smoothies with a huge straw…that’s so you can suck the balls out.

The staff and service at Rosie’s Pho is Really great…they even made “Child-friendly” chopsticks for our kids…which they loved (pictured at the top of this post).

Oh, I almost forgot, you should also try the Iced Coffee (ca phe sua da). They brew a strong cup of coffee in a “drip filter” onto about a half inch of Sweetened Condensed Milk, then pour that over ice. Yum. Usually the coffee has chicory in it so it’s real strong, but kinda nutty, and very tasty.

Enjoy

Jorge

Tanglewood park is a great park in town. It’s one of three “Splash Pads” in Bryan and College Station (one at Tiffany Park, and another at Lincoln Center).

These Splash Pads consist of fountains and even a water bucket that fills up and splashes down. It’s great fun in the summer and spring. It’s about the size of a basketball court…maybe smaller, and there’s a controller to turn it on when it turns itself off. The cycle is about 10 minutes, and the controller is just a post with a round top that is touch activated.

I read this about the Splash Pads from the Eagle website:

Based on the popularity splash pads in Bryan/College Station, city officials are considering including more of these features in future projects, so be sure to keep the look out for new splash pads this Summer.

I called the City of Bryan Parks and Recreation, and they told me that the water is City Water, just like you’d get out of your faucet.

Tanglewood park has several covered pavillions, three playgrounds, a sand volleyball court and loads of picnic tables.

We really like this park. Not as much variety as Austin’s Colony (well, except for the Splash Pad) but great playgrounds, and although it’s a well know park, we’ve never had trouble finding empty picnic tables.

You can get there from Villa Maria, 29th or Texas Ave.

And just so you know, here’s a website that sells these Water Play Features. I don’t know if Bryan and College Station get them any cheaper, but we can assume that these are approximately the price our city paid as well. I guess that’s what our taxes are paying for. I’m OK with that. Parks are fun.

Go play.

Jorge

I’m going to go ahead and stick with the word “Gooeyest”, although it’s probably not an “official” word. Ayway, Mr’ G’s Pizzeria on University is my pick for the gooeyest. Very tasty pizza…and they had a whole wheat crust…that’s great.

Another place in town that has a whole wheat crust is Double Dave’s. I’d have to say that Double Dave’s is our favorite pizza in town. You have to ask the cooks to make a whole wheat pizza for the buffet…well worth the wait. We always ask them for two…it’s what we like for our family.

Back to Mr. G’s restaurant. When I first went in there, I just wanted to pick up a menu and get a dessert. We got the cream and chocolate canoli. I’m not exactly sure what it was called, but it was very tasty.

That’s when I found out that you can actually order from Cenare’s next door, and eat it at Mr. G’s.

Cenare’s and Mr. G’s is owned by the same people, and they are connected by a door on one end of the restaurants.

We liked the idea, so we got a large whole wheat pepperoni from Mr. G’s and a Gnocchi with Pesto Cream sauce from Cenare’s.

The Gnocchi was excellent. We had never tasted a cream pesto, and we are big fans of the potato pasta dumpling (Gnocchi).

I’d say that the only thing we didn’t like about the whole experience was that the Gnocchi ran out very quickly (6 of us eating it) and considering it was around $10, I sure wanted more. Maybe if I was the only one eating it…oh well. It was just so good.

The pizza was very good. So, why did I choose “Gooey” well, you know those pizza commercials where they pick up the slice and it’s attached to the rest of the pie with long strings of cheese? Well, that’s what happened. These strings of cheese went on forever.

So, we’re all eating, enjoying ourselves, and I hear some “gagging” coming from my boy’s direction. Turns out he had swallowed some pizza, and hadn’t bit through the string, so his little esophagus was not happy. I grabbed the end sticking out of his mouth and pulled out what seemed like about a foot of cheese. OK, maybe not a foot, but it was long. He was fine.

Anyway, the “large” pizza was a huge 16″, and the service was great. We sat and ate outside. Very nice.

I think they charged us around $13 for the large whole wheat Pepperoni Pizza (although a whole wheat pepperoni is not on the menu).

Next time we might try the Gyro Pizza on Whole Wheat. Sounds good.

Also, we thought the ranch dressing was over-salted. I did not tell the owner, but we won’t order it again. See, we make our own ranch at home and maybe we’re just used to not so much salt. I never know if I should complain or not. I didn’t feel like it deserved a complaint. Everything else was just great.

They’ve got TVs on with sports or cooking, and the atmosphere is great.

Enjoy…careful with the gooey cheese!

jorge