Svacina Project

Last Sunday, my good friend Lori and I spent seven hours or so at the South Texas Polka and Sausage Festival at the Knights of Columbus (KC) Hall in Hallettsville. Lori and I both know the hall well. I learned to dance in that hall with my Dad. I'd seen my Uncle Bobby play drums with the bands  Kross Kountry and then The Velvets  in the hall in the 1970s and early 80s. My grandparents' 40th wedding anniversary party was there. And I attend the Morkovsky family reunion every year there. But I'd never had more fun in the hall than I did on Sunday. The only way I could have had an even better day would have been to dance more.  But Lori and I were working. If you've been reading my blog, you'll know that Lori and I are producing  a multi-media traveling exhibit called  Texas Czechs: Rooted in Tradition , which will open in October.  We are deep into both fundraising and doing the research, writing, and filming of the exhibit's content. Sunday, we scored the H

Austin may the State capitol and the live music capitol of the world, but it is not the "Kolache Capitol of Texas." That honor (or designation) was bestowed on Caldwell, Texas in 1989 by the Texas Legislature. However, if you've got a craving for kolaches in Austin, I offer my humble recommendations as a Texas-Czech, a foodie, and a baker of kolaches myself. I am biased by these perspectives, without a doubt, so my choices for respectable kolach purveyors in Austin make up an extremely short (but worthy) list. (This post is part of the Austin Food Blogger Alliance's Austin City Dining Guide 2013 .) First, a lesson for the uninitiated. Kolaches are a type of pastry brought to Texas by Czech immigrants. They've morphed over the generations and what we call kolaches in Texas are similar, but not exactly like their great-great-grandparents in the Czech Republic. They're not even exactly like their cousins in Nebraska, Illinois, Iowa or other places in the