“I take to the open road, healthy, free, the world before me.” ~Walt Whitman
“I take to the Texas road, hungry, free, kolaches before me.” ~Elda Eats
Not that I’ve ever needed a reason for a good road trip, but what better reason to take to the open Texas roads than for kolaches? And what about a quest to find the best kolaches in the state? Well, we couldn’t find a reason not to, and so that’s what we did. We drove around the kolache regions of the great state of Texas (aka The Republic of Texas for you foreigners…) in search of the best kolache, and also to see tulips in bloom like nowhere else this side of The Netherlands. Wow, you must be thinking! And yes, it was a great quest and a fun and efficient way to tick a few things off the old bucket list, if you will, but it ended up being more than that.
Of course it did, you’re thinking.
I spent most of a Friday and a Saturday in April driving around and while I probably didn’t need the reminder, I was reminded of how beautiful Texas is, and especially that time of year: bluebonnets and Indian paintbrush along the sides of farm roads & highways; cows eating the greenest spring grass, dead skunks all along the road (I saw quite a few!), friendly people who let you take a parking space or who actually see your turn signal and wave you in, gas stations that sell and serve some of the best food this side of Paris, not to mention clean—and I mean clean—gas station bathrooms, the most beautiful horses grazing, Texas flags flying in the breeze, mom and pop restaurants that still love Elvis and a good bacon cheeseburger, and those small family-owned-and/or-been-there-forever places that take so much pride in making things like kolaches. God bless their souls! And God bless the best friends who come along for the ride—I love you, Cindy, Esther, Patt!!! XOXOXO
Now, as a Texan, if you travel around the world, you get asked all kinds of questions about your horses, or your guns, or the Dallas Cowboys or The Alamo (or even the Spurs since we do like our international players) or about how we all live in some sort of John Wayne western. Legitimate questions all, but what people don’t always know is that Texas is pretty diverse and a whole lot of people from all over the world have contributed culture that helps make Texas so, so great. And when I say culture, I mostly mean food. (Just kidding, but this is about food, so…) And so this kolache quest was a tribute to the beautiful and yeast-bread loving Texas Czechs! Bless those in West (a town in Texas, not a direction to drive toward), who, a long time ago decided to change up an old-country recipe and fill that delicious dough with fruits and cheese and the best sausage this side of Eastern Europe no doubt! If you’re from Texas, you probably grew up with family pit stops in West or Ellinger or maybe you just knew the ones served in elementary school or at the local gas station (kolaches in the morning, fried burritos in the afternoon—God bless Texas gas stations!) or maybe after this post, if you didn’t grow up eating them, you’ll make a little trek yourself to see what all of the fuss is about (do it!) In any case, I did grow up eating them, and loving them, and depending on what direction we were going, ended up eating a lot of them in West or a lot of them in or around the Houston area. Eventually I was bound to ask myself which ones were best. And so I did. I made a list or two, and planed a road trip where the main purpose was to eat and judge kolaches.
Here is where I ate: Kountry Bakery and Oakridge Smokehouse in Schulenburg; Weikel’s Bakery in La Grange; Hruska’s in Ellinger; The Village Bakery, The Czech Stop and Slovacek’s in West. Some others along the way were sampled (from some pretty good gas stations and donut shops), and I missed a few that are still on my list (notably: Green’s Sausage House in Temple, Old Main Street Bakery in Rosenberg, Two Czech Chicks Kolache Shoppe & Bakery in Danbury, and a few others closer to home that I’ll eventually get to…) but I decided that my winner was likely to come from the seven listed above so they were essential.
A few notes: Maybe Village Bakery had an off day but I did not like their sausage at all and I tried both the plain with cheese, and the jalapeño with cheese; and I also did not really like their fruit kolaches either. Strange I thought. I also discovered I do not like poppyseed kolaches. Eek! Not sure why I thought trying those was a good idea. Daylight Donuts has a damn good kolache for a donut shop! Oh yeah, and traffic on 35 sucks. Back in the 90’s they killed all of those bluebonnets that used to be in the median to add extra lanes and it barely makes a difference. Also, why has there been construction since 1991. Ugh.
Anyway, back to the quest… I tried to not be biased because I’ve always loved two the most anyway (Czech Stop and Hruska’s) so I really wanted to try them all with an open mind and a pure stomach, and I think I did that. Of the seven, let me say that, except for one, in my opinion, you can’t go wrong. Six of these places are so good that if your first ever kolache came from one of them you would be in food heaven with nothing to complain about. And so how to judge? For me, I always get a sausage with cheese & jalapeño so I judge the sausage, the cheese, and the jalapeño; and of course, I always judge the bread. I give extra points for the quality and texture (not just the taste) of the sausage, how much cheese and how many slices of jalapeño; then you judge on whether or not it’s warm (or more important did they ask you if you want it warm—all in West do this, but only Hruska’s asked of the other ones). You also may judge if they spell your name correctly on the bag, or if you get lucky and get a heaven-sent kolache where extra cheese caramelized on the bottom of the dough (if you eat kolaches and this is important to you, you may know what and where I’m talking about…) Anyway, all of this is how I judged.
My winner? Hruska’s and Czech Stop are so, so good to me. So, so very good! It’s almost hard to choose one over the other but if you make me (or if I make me), I’ll choose that usually ever so crowded place in West (for many of the reasons stated above)—and maybe they also win because their sweet kolaches are the best hands down, I think. (Although Oakridge has the best lemon kolache!!! I love them for this.) I want to say they tied really. But since I said this was the quest for the best, I’ll pick Czech Stop because many times I get the one that has that caramelized cheese at the bottom. True story.
God bless Texas. Amen.
#eldaeats XO
#CzechYourselfBeforeYouWreckYourself #GoWestYoungGirls #DoughsOverBros #HruskasOverBabushkas #52things #52thingsextra #eldas52things #czechstop #hruskas #slovaceks #kolaches
