The Taco Joint, Richardson, Texas
“Inconceivable!”
“You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means.
—-William Goldman, The Princess Bride
Tag Archives: Photography
Bicycle Tour de Taqueria – Tacos of Oak Cliff
There is nothing better in North Texas than the few spring days when the sun is shining and the day is warm – yet the killer summer heat is still a little off into the future.
Saturday was one of those days and I headed down to the Bishop Arts District for a bicycle ride – a tour of Taquerias in Oak Cliff.
Our first stop was Cool & Hot at 930A E. Eighth St. – Streetview
Hot & Cool Tacqueria
Oak Cliff, Texas
Bicycles stacked up in front of Hot & Cool
Cool & Hot is a converted gas station right off the Interstate – it’s mostly a drive-thru. It’s open 24 hrs a day from Thursday through the weekend – something to remember on a late night trip home.
Then is was on to Taqueria Tiquicheo at 110 S. Marsalis Ave. – Streetview.
Taqueria Tiquicheo
This was my favorite stop on the tour – more of a sit-down restaurant. The regulars were there for menudo or other specialties – the sweaty bicyclists descended like a cloud of taco-eating locusts.
Taco Selections at Taqueria Tiquicheo
All the spots offered pretty much the same traditional selection of Mexican style tacos. This is the sign from Taqueria Tiquicheo. If you think of tacos as hamburger stuffed into crunchy corn shells – well, these aren’t what you are thinking about. Served in foil in soft flour or corn tortillas with a little onion, cilantro, and a lime wedge – along with the house special hot sauces.
The fillings:
Fajita – grilled steak
Tripa – Tripe
Nopales – Cactus (a vegetarian option)
Lengua – beef tongue
Chicharron – fried pork rinds
Pollo – chicken – one person said this was “surprisingly good”
Barbacoa – slow cooked meat, the original sorce of barbecue
Chorizo – chopped sausage
Next was on to Jefferson Boulevard – the main commercial drag through the area. The next Tacqueria was a very small, unlabeled spot with a small dining room.
El Padrino #1. – Streetview
El Padrino #1 on Busy Jefferson Blvd. in Oak Cliff
Lengua Tacos from El Padrino
These are the Lengua Tacos from El Padrino – I ate them on top of a newspaper stand on the street.
Then we rode off through the residential streets until we reached Los Torres Taqueria, 1322 W. Clarendon Dr. – Streetview
Los Torres Taqueria
This was the most conventional restaurant that we visited, yet still it had that family feel to it.
And that was about all the tacos I could take for one spring afternoon. I split off and rode home – a little overfull and a bit overheated. But it was still a good time.
The Bicycle Is the Product Of Pure Reason Applied To Motion
“To ride a bicycle is in itself some protection against superstitious fears, since the bicycle is the product of pure reason applied to motion. Geometry at the service of man! Give me two spheres and a straight line and I will show you how far I can take them. Voltaire himself might have invented the bicycle, since it contributes so much to man’s welfare and nothing at all to his bane. Beneficial to the health, it emits no harmful fumes and permits only the most decorous speeds. How can a bicycle ever be an implement of harm?”
― Angela Carter
Bicycle Drag Races, Continental Bridge Park,
Dallas, Texas
Bicycle Drag Races, Continental Bridge Park,
Dallas, Texas
Bicycle Drag Races, Continental Bridge Park,
Dallas, Texas
I Can Dream
I can think. I can sleep. I can move. I can ride my bike. I can dream.
—-Bill Walton
The end point of February’s Critical Mass Bicycle Ride was the park on the Continental Bridge. They had bicycle drag races planned, and it was a lot of fun.
Bicycle Drag Races, Continental Bridge Park, Dallas, Texas
Bicycle Drag Races, Continental Bridge Park, Dallas, Texas
Forget What You Want To Remember
“Just remember that the things you put into your head are there forever, he said. You might want to think about that.
You forget some things, dont you?
Yes. You forget what you want to remember and you remember what you want to forget.”
― Cormac McCarthy, The Road
Tom Wesselmann
Mouth # 11, 1967
Dallas Museum of Art
I have always loved this piece of modern art in the DMA. I remember it from when I first moved here thirty four years ago. I worked downtown and would walk over to the museum at lunch and look at this (and other, of course) work of art to help make the day bearable.
Those were the olden days, ancient history, when you could take a lunch and get a needed break – unlike today where lunch is something you gobble at your desk while answering emails.
There was this cool little gift shop across the street from my office – in the old building that has since been converted into the Joule hotel. They had a postcard of this painting. I bought it, no reason, I simply wanted to own the image so I could look at it whenever I wanted. The young redhaired shopgirl asked me as she slid the card into a thin paper bag, “Do you know where this is?”
“Of course,” I said. “I go over at lunch and stare at it.”
I have no idea what she thought of that. She didn’t say anything.
Fade Surprisingly Quickly
“Memories, even your most precious ones, fade surprisingly quickly. But I don’t go along with that. The memories I value most, I don’t ever see them fading.”
― Kazuo Ishiguro, Never Let Me Go
Mural, Fair Park
Dallas, Texas
I have always loved the Art Deco Murals along the Esplanade in Fair Park. I think they are among the many unappreciated public artworks in the city. The ones along the southern side have been beautifully restored.
However, the murals on the North Side – exposed to the southern sun – are very faded and in need of loving care (and very hard to photograph). I hope they get some, they are just as gorgeous as the others.
Mural, Fair Park
Dallas, Texas
Dharmapala Vajrabhairava
“Letting go gives us freedom, and freedom is the only condition for happiness. If, in our heart, we still cling to anything – anger, anxiety, or possessions – we cannot be free.”
― Thích Nhất Hạnh, The Heart of the Buddha’s Teaching: Transforming Suffering into Peace, Joy, and Liberation
Buddhist God
Dharmapala Vajrabhairava
Tibet 18th century gild bronze
Dallas Museum of Art
I Wear the Chain I Forged In Life
“You are fettered,” said Scrooge, trembling. “Tell me why?”
“I wear the chain I forged in life,” replied the Ghost. “I made it link by link, and yard by yard; I girded it on of my own free will, and of my own free will I wore it.”
― Charles Dickens, A Christmas Carol
Sculpture
Jason Mehl
The Cedars, Dallas, Texas
Honey In My Veins That Makes My Blood Thicker
“What is happening to me happens to all fruits that grow ripe.
It is the honey in my veins that makes my blood thicker, and my soul quieter.”
― Friedrich Nietzsche
Andrew Rogers
Australian
Ripening
1999
Frisco, Texas
Bird’s Building Its Own Nest
“There is some of the same fitness in a man’s building his own house that there is in a bird’s building its own nest. Who knows but if men constructed their dwellings with their own hands, and provided food for themselves and families simply and honestly enough, the poetic faculty would be universally developed, as birds universally sing when they are so engaged? But alas! we do like cowbirds and cuckoos, which lay their eggs in nests which other birds have built, and cheer no traveller with their chattering and unmusical notes. Shall we forever resign the pleasure of construction to the carpenter?”
― Henry David Thoreau, Walden
Joan Miro
Spanish, 1893-1983
Oiseau (Bird)
1968-81
Bronze
Cullen Sculpture Garden, Houston, Texas
One of the nice things about travelling to different places and looking at the art is finding the same sculpture in two settings.
What is even better is finding very similar sculptures by the same artist – compare and contrast. Two Miro birds, one in Houston, Oiseau, and one in Dallas, Moonbird.
(click to enlarge)
Moonbird, Nasher Sculpture Center
Bill Chance 