Dinner in Dallas

Before we arrived at her apartment this Christmas, I had not seen Debbie since Thanksgiving of 2008. At that time, her son lived with her and she was together with her daughter's dad. My son was also living with me and I was also living with my daughter's dad (my then husband). But that was years after we originally met. We met through our children, my youngest and her oldest, who became neighborhood playmates in 2000, when they were in elementary school.

It seems such a short time ago that our children met but so much has happened since then and the kids are now all grown up. I have no idea how time seems to pass so slowly when it is happening but goes by so quickly in retrospect. (Sigh.)

As it happened, Debbie moved up to the Dallas suburbs when she was breaking up with her daughter's dad -- not too long before my husband left me and I wound up moving out of Texas. But the two of us have somehow managed to keep in touch. Needless to say, I was very excited to visit with her. In addition, I wanted to go with her to two particular restaurants: One old favorite, Pancho's Mexican Buffet, and one that I heard press about all the way in Northern Wisconsin and wanted to try, Tallywackers. First up: Pancho's Mexican Buffet.

One nice thing about Debbie is that she likes a lot of the same foods that I do. That means that any time we go out to eat and I choose the restaurant, she is impressed by how I always know where to get good eats. (I don't really -- unless I have been there before, but I like that she says I do because it makes me feel good.)

I had Anne call Debbie from the road to let her know we should be arriving soon. She answered that she had just gotten home from a long day and her daughter was at a friend's house so she thought we should go out to eat. Amazingly, I was thinking the exact same thing! I suggested we go out to Pancho's Mexican Buffet and she agreed quickly (thus enabling my covert dining plan) -- even though we had to drive out to Arlington for it. (Thankfully, she drove.) That was good because it would have taken some rerouting and hard figuring to make the Pancho's stop happen in Houston. (It would have happened. It just would have taken rerouting and hard figuring.)

Sopapillas and honey

For those who are unfamiliar with Pancho's, it is a Texas restaurant chain of cafeteria-style Mexican food and diners can have as many "seconds" as they want. All they have to do is raise the flag on the table and their server will happily bring whatever they order next.

There used to be a Pancho's near Fort Hood when my then superhero was stationed there. That is how we learned Pancho's existed. But the Fort Hood location closed and relocated to Temple after regular deployments to Iraq began. The Temple location closed, too, after not too long. Then a Pancho's opened in Round Rock to try to capture a share of the North Austin market when we were living in the Austin area, but the food at that franchise was just not up to standard and they closed pretty quickly. (Today, there are still locations in the Dallas/Fort Worth and Houston areas, but nothing up the corridor between them.)

I think that might have been around the time the rumored change of ownership happened because the guacamole moved from the salad bar to the serving line and calibacitas appeared on the buffet, but I do not know and I do not really care. I was just happy to be there again. I love their cafeteria-style, all-you-can-eat Mexican food. I love trying to turn green by eating fresh guacamole till I can eat no more. And I particularly love chowing down at the end of my meal with fresh, hot sopapillas and honey. Of course, there is a small salad bar, too. But who has room for salad with all that Mexican food available? Not me!

Sigh... If only I still had the appetite of a 26 year old, like I did when we first discovered Pancho's one-of-a-kind buffet. There was so much more I wanted to eat -- and so much more of what I already had on my plate. Now it will be years till I can have more servings.

After dinner, we picked up Debbie's daughter and returned to their place for a good night's sleep. It felt good to be "home" in Texas with my daughter and my long friend (wearing a sweater outside in mid-December and not feeling cold). Except for all the driving and all the charges being racked up onto my charge card, it was shaping into a good vacation.

~To be continued~