“She taught us, she fed us, she entertained us, and best of all, she wrote down the how-to of Corbitt hospitality in five cookbooks, giving us confidence that the civilizing pleasures of the table were within our reach.”
Hope Rodriguez's recipe for the Texas breakfast staple.
CUQUITA’S2326 N. Henderson, 214-823-1859; cash only. Pozole (hominy stew) and lengua (tongue) make the menu more Mex-Mex, but there’s plenty of Tex-Mex at this fine place. The homemade lemonade is a nice little appetizer all by itself, and you’ll still feel like ordering simple and flavorful burritos (bean, chicken, and
CHANGO’S TAQUERIA3023 Guadalupe, 512-480-8226. This bright little taquería near the university is great for a quickie (meal). The menu is minuscule, with mostly tacos and burritos, and you stand in line to order, but the corn tortillas are handmade right on the spot—a mesmerizing operation—and the food is not
The Big EnchiladaEnchiladas Zacatecanas from Las Manitas, AustinQuick: define “enchilada.” Most people would say it’s a rolled or folded tortilla filled with something savory, topped with a sauce, and blanketed in melted cheese. And that would certainly be one correct definition. But if you go by the etymology of the
Aldaco’s100 Hoefgen, Sunset Station; from downtown, go east on Market Street under I-37, north on the service road, right on Commerce, and right on Hoefgen; 210-222-0561. Last year twelve tables, this year fifty: Tiny Aldaco’s has moved into a cavernous but spiffily remodeled railroad terminal practically next door to the
La FogataCalle Matamoros Ote. 750, 011-52-89-22-47-72. A great place to cool your heels after tramping around Reynosa. The white walls, dark carved-wood bar, and arched stone window frames exude serenity. Cabrito (order the shoulder cut) is tender; the butterflied beef filet (medium-well-done unless you specify otherwise) comes in a
EL DORADOBelden at Ocampo, 011-52-87-12-00-15. The point of visiting the former, original Cadillac Bar is not to eat, though you can certainly do that here. The point is, and always has been, to have an ethereal Ramos Gin Fizz, laugh and carry on, see somebody you haven’t seen in ten
MARIA BONITA1612 N. Eleventh, 956-687-7181. Carved lava-stone columns add a touch of Mexican character to an otherwise unremarkable space, and the food is more authentic than is the norm hereabouts. Grilled items, a specialty, are served on tabletop braziers to keep them hot (ask for a platter so they won’t
BIGO’S PARRILLAAvenida Alvaro Obregón 48 at Azucenas, 011-52-88-16-25-29, and one other location; personal checks accepted, no credit cards.“Todo al carbón” (“Everything’s grilled”) at this little brick-fronted cafe on a major tourist strip. Families and dates chow down on good, smoky fajita meat in the world’s smallest corn tortillas. On the
COTULLA STYLE PIT B.B.Q.4502 McPherson, 956-724-5747. You can get decent, not-too-Americanized Mexican food at busy, barnlike Cotulla, which is famous for its barbecue and its huge variety of mariachis (borderspeak for “soft tacos”). Guacamole: 4.5 (avocado and fixings). Chips: 3. Salsa: 1 (totally bland). EL TACO TOTE5603 San Dario, which
CASA DEL SOLAvenida Lincoln at Calle Ignacio Mejía, 011-52-16-13-65-09 or 16-00-88. Casa del Sol makes the most original chile relleno in Juárez—a beautifully simple ancho (a dried, ripe poblano that’s been plumped up) filled with sour cream and ricottalike panela cheese. It tastes like a sun-dried tomato, but better. Almost
BLUE AGAVE1340 West Gray, 713-520-9696. Order pollo gordo (“fat chicken”) and you’ll be gordo by the time you finish the generous breast stuffed with spinach and pepper cheese in chipotle cream. Your wallet, however, will be thin: Most entrée prices are in the teens. This trendy, exuberantly tacky spot does
THE ORIGINALMEXICAN CAFE1401 Market, 409-762-6001. With its bright, bouncy colors, paper flowers, and pots of bougainvillea on the patio, the Original could have been created by central casting. Depending on what you order, you’ll finish with a smile or a grimace. The fajitas Jalisco, so tantalizingly described on the menu,
BENITO’S1450 W. Magnolia Avenue, 817-332-8633. What a find! You’ll think you’ve died and gone to Mexico when you walk into this little old-fashioned place. Sopes—thick corn-cake tarts—come smeared with refried beans, grated cheese, and (unfortunately) tasteless green-chile sauce. A gigantic Oaxaca-style chicken-and-mole tamal wrapped in a banana leaf would feed
Recipe from Rough Creek Lodge, in Glen Rose.
Supermarketer.
As the nation’s largest chain of natural and organic foods supermarkets, Austin-based Whole Foods Market is where the trendy buy such necessities as tea tree oil toothpaste. But now patrons no longer have to shop in person to make a statement. In late March WholeFoods.com opened for business, offering some
A family feud threatens to close the best barbecue joint in Texas.
An A&M extension class gets beefy.
A recipe for success.
Portobello mushrooms and paella alongside the schnitzel and sauerkraut: In the Hill Country town of Fredericksburg, there’s clearly something cooking.
Growing up in Harlingen, Cheryl Clark cooked for family friends, but only for fun. Then, at fifteen, she lied about her age to get a real job in a restaurant, and ever since, like a soufflé with extra egg whites, her star has risen to extraordinary heights. After attending New
A notion for the starving people of the world: let them eat cacti.
A year after she was forced to file for bankruptcy, Houston’s Ninfa Laurenzo is cooking up a way to save her popular restaurant chain.
By chain-sawing three acres of its research vineyard near Fort Stockton, the University of Texas System uncorked quite a controversy.
What happens when the modern world gets its hands on the lowly burrito? A food fad is born.
Culinary assimilation.
Spicy-food impresarios turn up the heat on each other.
Superchef Stephan Pyles, the culinary hand behind Dallas’ Star Canyon, is opening a new restaurant this fall: AquaKnox. The name refers to the street on which the restaurant is located, Knox, and the menu’s featured ingredient, which comes from the water. “It’s a fish restaurant,” he says simply. Pyles plans
Once, before fast-food franchises and ecotourists took over Alpine, the Gallego family’s Mexican restaurant survived and thrived. Today, the kitchen is closed.
New restaurants in Dallas and Houston are serving up authentic interior-style Mexican dishes that turn the tables on Tex-Mex.
Chicken? For the birds. Fish? In the tank. From Buffalo Gap to Galveston, the faddish food these days is steak. Here are ten prime places to enjoy it.
It started as a hippie sandwich shop in Austin. Now, more than two decades later, Schlotzsky’s is finally kicking the competition in the buns.
Saucy Katherine Anne Porter’s recipe for mole.
APPETIZER:Western Bar-B-Q sushi. Barbecued eel with shiitake mushrooms, cucumber, avocado, and sesame seeds, served at the Texas Rock and Roll Sushi Bar at the Hyatt Regency Hotel, Waikiki, for $2.25 per piece.SALAD:Sweet Pea Guacamole. Recipe using frozen peas instead of avocado, excerpted by the Austin American-Statesman from The $5 Chef,
In the sixteenth century, potters emigrated from Talavera de la Reina in Spain to the new colonial settlement of Puebla in Mexico and began crafting their majolica- inspired earthenware, known as Talavera. Although some factories in Puebla still produce high-quality pottery in the old style, most of the vibrantly decorated
To survive at a time of heady demand for craft brews, the mid-sized Spoetzel and Celis breweries have partnered with major corporations. Still, they’re keeping their local flavor.
Ace in the Whole.
“I feel like I’ve been put through a blender!” says Grady Spears, the executive chef and co-owner of Reata restaurant, whose maniacally successful second location opened in May atop Fort Worth’s Bank One Tower. “On Saturdays we’re serving nearly six hundred customers. It’s just nuts.” Spears may be grousing, but
This spring, Texas’ leading white-bread maker was ordered to pay a fine of $10 million and settled a lawsuit for another $18 million. Why does the company have to cough up so much dough?
Penne for your thoughts: You’ll never say basta to the pasta with vegetables and mixed greens at the Presidio in San Antonio.
Upper-crust bakers in Dallas, Houston, San Antonio, and Austin are turning out heavenly handmade loaves that make store-bought seem stale by comparison.
Wally Mejía designed his first wedding cake for a friend in 1989. It was a five-tiered butter-pecan-creme-filled extravaganza adorned with intricate scrollwork that imitated the architectural treatments he’d admired in France the year before, when he took a pastrymaking course at the Cordon Bleu. “The guests surrounded it and took
Introducing El Rey, the Venezuelan chocolate that is wowing chefs everywhere, thanks to the efforts of a Texan with a taste for treats.
Marketing the Texas pecan like the California raisin seems to make good business sense. So why do small Texas growers think it’s a shell game?
An Addison snail breeder gets fresh with the world.
How to cook up a culinary craze: Mix talented chefs, native ingredients, classical techniques, and good publicity. Name result “Southwestern.” Let spread across globe.
Two mythic cultures, one great love affair: How France has taken us to heart.
BESIDES THE TASTE OF ITS CHIPS, Frito-Lay’s advertising has had a lasting impact on Americans. Grown-ups can still sing all the words to “Ai-yi-yi-yi, I’m the Frito Bandito” and “Munch a Bunch of Fritos.” Only time will tell if the supermodels’ plug for Baked Lay’s will join the ranks of
