Sunday, September 29, 2013

El Rancho "Puff Taco" Multimillion Dollar Enterprise not mentioned in TACO USA?

TACO USA is a great read

 if you are interested in the TACO.


This book is 290 pages hardback; index is 21 more pages of references, etc.   What I found lacking was the mention of the El Rancho Mexican Restaurant business in San Antonio from 1941 to 1980. In one paragraph, Mr Arrellano mentions the "puffy taco."
So, I put wrote to Mr Arrellano on FaceBook since this Californian has a "Ask a Mexican" page.  I am sincere about what I say; but I will see if he bites..ha! We had a multimillion dollar food industry with warehouse and kitchen that served 12 full standing restaurants by the time they were sold in 1979. No mention?

"Mr Arrellano. First, I have to say I really enjoyed your Taco U.S.A. book. You used a references to the "Puffy Taco" on page 136. May I introduce you to my deceased parents, Henry and Agnes Westrup, who were the originators of the "Puff Taco" in San Antonio. I was born upstairs of the Mexiquito Mexican Restaurant on Nogalitos Street in 1944. By that time, this first restaurant had been in business since 1941 serving puff tacos. Because Dad was not able to raise menu prices due to WW2 food restrictions, he realized that he could open another restaurant, change the name, and raise menu prices.  39 years and 12+ restaurants later, El Rancho Mexican Restaurants were employing a minimum of 150 employees, 12 managers and 12 assistant managers in training. Anyway, I just wanted you to know that I was so pleased with your extensive research. It was a fun read. Muchas Gracias."

Sunday, June 30, 2013

Did anything like this ever happen to you?

I was just minding my own business driving home and turned  to see that on the outside of my car window a bird had left a big purpley-white blob that was so juicy it ran down my hot window and dried? Yuk!
Oh well, I thought I would take care of it as soon as I got home. 
I was drinking iced tea so I could splash it the window and wipe it off. 
This was my thinking.

What follows happened in 30 seconds:
I parked the car and took the napkin from inside the door to wipe with, sucked up a mouthful of ice tea, looked around to make sure I was by myself, and spit it at the window. Most of the tea hit the window, the rest ran down my chin. Good. I was almost finished.

I started wiping and cleaned off most of the bird doo with the napkin. When I saw sticky gum on the window and my napkin. There had been gum in the napkin. Oh no. 
I pulled the napkin away from the window to see a long string of sticky gum stuck to the window like hot mozzarella on a pizza. 
Now what? 


Knowing you can get gum off anything with ice, I quickly drank the rest of the tea to get to the ice. As I put each little cube on the gum, it quickly melted in the hot sun. The gum had to get cold to come off.  

Well, the last of the gum is still on my window. I will have to go after it with a big ice cube and a razor blade. Do they still sell blades or do I have to get my leg shaver with aloe to try to get the gum off?  
How did this get so hard?