So the major disappointment with moving to Texas has been...

THE BEEF!

On our few trips out here before the move, we had a few awesome experiences with eating beef at restaurants.  For some reason, the beef at the various local outlets (supermarkets, Costco) have been extremely mediocre.  I have no idea what's going on.  Usually, the Costcos are well-known for the quality of beef - but not at our local branch.  I've gone a few times and I've always come out saying "WTF is up with the lack of marbling?"  Even the prime beef is not well-marbled.  And the beef's like 25% more expensive!!!  It's like the Irony Gods decided they needed to mess with with me, and decided if they were going to pick *one* thing to screw me over on, it was going to be the beef.  FU Irony Gods!

Seriously, if any of you guys have an explanation, I would love to hear it.  The only things I could come up with is that maybe the Texas beef is 100% antibiotic and hormone free - that all other forms of beef are shunned.  Or maybe the "tenderizing" that a lot of retail locations do is frowned up on Texas.  Or maybe all the Texas restaurants buy up all the good beef.  Or maybe Texas beef is crap, but none of the retail outlets wants to buy beef from outside the state.  I have no friggin clue!  I should have suspected something when I had an awesome steak at Pappas Brothers (one of the best steakhouses in Texas) and the guy tells me they get their beef from Nebraska.  WAT?!?  They don't use Texas beef?!?  Someone enlighten me!  I'm too much of a cheap ass to have *all* my steaks "imported" from stockyards.com.  But I'm going to do what I have to do.

WHAT'S FOR DINNER?

Oh boy!  I think I'm officially becoming a redneck.  One of the two closest supermarkets to our house is a Super Walmart.  Being a Northeasterner, I've never really had a great impression of Walmart.  But our local Walmart is much nicer than the few Walmarts I've been to.  It's waaay nicer than the Super Target (the closest supermarket).  So I take a look at the wine section, and I find that they have their own wine called "Oak Leaf."  I say, "LOL! Walmart Wine for $2.77 a bottle."  And they allegedly won "over 40 medals!"  Medals given out by the owner's mom?  But curiosity got the better of me, so I decided to get a bottle of chardonnay (white) and a bottle of the cabernet sauvignon (red).  I was really shocked that the wines were pretty good - probably better than most under-$10 bottles I've had.  Since then, I've had all the other varieties.  The only one I wouldn't recommend is the sauvignon blanc (white).  I just find it funny to look at my bar and see bottles of wine under $3 just a few feet from the bottles of wine over $100.  Shoot!  Call me a wine redneck.  But you really can't go wrong for $2.77 a bottle.