Years before local was cool, Houston chef Monica Pope was beating the drum for the local and sustainable movement. And now she’s doing a series of cooking classes at Central Market to launch her digital cookbook, “Eat Where Your Food lives.” Her gonzo, five-cities-in-five-days book tour will take
The Food Network Magazine has taken a page from our own playbook and named Reggie’s Weekend Special the best breakfast in Texas, in their July-August issue featuring the top breakfasts across the country (on newsstands June 29). Here’s their blurb on the button-busting special from Torres Taco Haven in
You know, when I see the words “made from scratch” in front of “mole,” I start to hyperventilate a little. And when the tab for sampling this is $3.25. that makes me even happier. And when the mole–on a tender, generous-to-bursting pork taco–is actually wonderful, with deep red-chile flavors, accessorized
Cat City Grill, Fort Worth and Yelapa Playa Mexicana, Houston
Houston
Tost BistroBar, San Antonio and Sushi Raku, Houston
Austin
Hi, my name is Pat, and I am a chocoholic. What began at the age of six as an obsession with milk chocolate (my secret vice was a Saturday matinee and a Hershey’s bar with almonds) eventually morphed into a full-blown addiction to dark chocolate. I’m talking ten or more
Well, I feel sure there must be crawfish boils going on all over Texas, but the only ones I’m hearing about are in Austin. So, here ya go: The Lavaca Street Bar is having a crawfish boil this Saturday, April 24, starting at 3. No cover.
Perla’s–Austin’s very attention-getting seafood restaurant–is celebrating its one-year anniversary with a big ol’ shrimp and crawfish boil this Sunday. It’s all you can eat, including free beer, for $20. Dr. Zog will play zydeco. Co-chef Larry McGuire says they’ve bought 400 pounds of the Louisiana mudbugs, so they need
Many years ago, before he moved away from Austin to the Frozen North (the D.C. area), journalist Jim Shahin was one of the people I turned to in times of freelance need. He contributed to food stories for Texas Monthly, but mainly, he distinguished himself by possessing a barbecue fanaticism
Ahem. I just HAPPENED to be lurking at Perla’s Seafood and Oyster Bar when Tony Bourdain (yes, that Tony Bourdain, of “No Reservations,” on the Travel Channel, sitting on the right) was having a late lunch with co-chefs Larry McGuire (middle) and Tommy Moorman Jr
Il Cane Rosso, Dallas and Rockwood Room, Houston
Houston
Oh, frabjous day. Just got back from a cheese tasting (see dark, slightly out of focus picture, courtesy of my phone). Central Market is now carrying a new line of English cheeses developed by expert and author Julie Harbutt (The World Encyclopedia of Cheese; World Cheese Book. There are sixteen
One of the most fun things I did last year was go eat at a farm, in the middle of a field near Brenham (that’s Central Texas), after riding to the top of said hill sitting on a hay bale. The dinner, attended by several hundred (well, or so it
Am I really writing a blog post on the Bacon Takedown at Emo’s in Austin this Sunday? Apparently I lost my mind over the weekend. But something about the idea of an Iron Chef-style, fat-fueled grease-off is utterly irresistible, especially in the city that spawned the
Hey, Eileen! Look over from your blog!! The Village Voice, that font of information for everything Texan, has debuted a “Happy Hours” app, available through iTunes. This is so obvious that you have to wonder why no one thought of it till now. It features HH listings
[Uh-oh–my bad. Contrary to my overconfident posting yesterday, the tour leaves from Austin, not Fort Worth. Note to self: Never make a reasonable assumption without first checking it.] How many times have you thought, “THIS weekend, let’s throw the kids and the dog and the cat in the car and
Tillman’s Roadhouse Fort Worth and Canopy Houston
Houston
My mouth is watering so much I may have to stop at the dry cleaner’s on my way home: I just read Hudson’s on the Bend prixe fixe menu for Austin Restaurant Week, which starts this Sunday: They’re offering chipotle lobster bisque, hot and crunchy trout on mango-jalapeno
TEX-AS! TEX-AS! TEX-AS!! Hey! We did pretty well in the semifinals for the James Beard Foundation awards, announced a couple of days ago–thirteen Texas restaurants and chefs got nods. Of course, it ain’t like the numbers that New York garners, or Los Angeles (grumble, grumble), but considering the competition,
The authors of the various Roadfood books, the intrepid Jane and Michael Stern (two of the most fun writers I know), put this item in their Roadfood.com email newsletter today. In case you don’t recognize their name, the Sterns travel the country seeking out iconic and quirky eateries. (They used
I just received an email from Side Dish, part of the D magazine web site, reporting the death of Gina Campisi, a member of the famous Dallas restaurant family. Side Dish wrote: “A Campisi family friend confirms that Gina Campisi, of the Egyptian Lounge Campisis and owner of Fedora Restaurant,
Thai SpiceCorpus Christi Chef Pennee Chanyaman and her host-husband, Paul, have moved their thriving operation one block to a freestanding building that’s larger, more visible, and more accessible, all the while maintaining the emphasis on personal attention that made their previous spot so well liked. A subsequent increase in patronage
Plano
This is what Pulitzer prize-winning food journalist Jonathan Gold wrote on Dec. 27, 2009. “While nobody was paying attention, food quietly assumed the place in youth culture that used to be occupied by rock ‘n’ roll–individual, fierce and intensely political, communal yet congenial to aesthetic extremes: embracing veganism or learning
The Hill Country Wine and Food Festival is Austin’s big food event of the year. Read all about it at the web site—lots of fun events this year, which is the twenty-fifth anniversary—including vineyard luncheons, a star-chef dinner, a wine tasting/talk on taking your cellar
Don’t delay, you have just about a week left to sign up to attend the ‘Shroom Throwdown in Houston on Monday, February 1, at Vic and Anthony’s Steakhouse. What the heck IS a ‘Shroom TD? A cookoff–with fungi as the not-so-secret ingredient—pitting ten of the city’s most fabulous chefs against
The most intriguing email of the last week came to us from John Mueller (yes, one of those Muellers, as in the barbecue dynasty of Central Texas). It said, in its entirety: “Have a very Happy New Year. Look for John Mueller BBQ in the very early 2010 in some
Restaurant Insignia, San Antonio and Rosewood Mansion on Turtle Creek, Dallas
Houston
Out of the blue, I got an email from Scott Cohen, executive chef of Pavil, a brasserie I like a lot in San Antonio. This is what he said: “I was thinking about Christmas and decided to make this lamb shank recipe at home so my wife can relax
The carts go around and around, delivering steaming platters and bamboo boxes filled with sumptuous morsels: baked barbecued pork folls, fried taro dumplings, shrimp pancakes, wonderful eggplant thingies stuffed with some sort of minced shrimp–we were so mesmerized that we hardly noticed an hour and a half had passed. Dim
Usually I get the green enchiladas at Julio’s, which is a little hole in the wall on Duval, not too far from the office. Today, the weather was so miserable–though less so than awful, bone-chilling yesterday–that I thought: caldo, yes! I love Julio’s Mexican chicken soup–it’s got a fabulous
Our stalwart and somewhat chilly Big Bend correspondent Fern McDougal writes, ” Far West Texas was hit with a soggy snowstorm Dec. 1, but diners at the Food Shark in Marfa were snug, warm and, I would think, rather amused. “The Food Shark Dining Bus, a rolling dining room, was
Dallas
Ciao Bello, Houston and Justine’s, Austin
A fond look back at 22 Texans who died in 2009, from Farrah Fawcett and Walter Cronkite to Brandon Lara and Joe Bowman.
OK–if I can do this, anybody can do it: I made the Texas Monthly recipe for sausage and deviled-pecan cornbread stuffing (the one we ran in the November issue) for Thanksgiving, and it is fab. (In case you’re wondering, YES, we had somebody test it before we
Oops, I was misinformed. It DOES have calories, but they’re worth it!!! Unfortunately, it’s too late to order one of Bud Royer’s fabulous pies for Thanksgiving, but you should get your Christmas request in now. And while you’re at it, watch the clip of the cafe from CBS Sunday Morning
Oh, this is right down my nerdy little alley. There is going to be a talk on “A Brief History of Tamales” on Thursday, November 19, 2009, 6:00-7:00 p.m. (Reception to follow 7:00-7:30 p.m.) The speaker is Claudia Alarcón (she writes on food for the Austin Chronicle) and she’s going
When your aggravatingly hip friends brag, “Ooooh, we just ate at Boeuf and Stuff, and it’s soooooooooo fabulous,” resist the urge to shove them into a large, steaming vat of creme brulee. Instead, get up to speed your own clueless self. If you live in the Dallas-Fort Worth area, hire
Oh, my bad. I dissed Brussels sprouts. This is going to get me in big trouble with the other half of humanity, which adores the bitter little edible marbles. Anyhoo, even though I see a lot of announcements for cooking classes, this one caught my eye. Anything that’s being taught
Ahem. It’s never too late to have a pie thrown in your face for a good cause. I should know. Yeah, yeah, the picture was posed. But that only means the stylist slammed the pie on my face artistically (not in this picture, the next one, the one you’ll
The best way to go completely nuts this Thanksgiving is with this five-part meal featuring the bounty of our beloved state tree.
Fabi + Rosi European Kitchen, Austin and Tintos Spanish Restaurant & Wine Bar, Houston.
To paraphrase H. L. Mencken, no one ever went broke overestimating the appetite of Texans for red meat. It doesn’t seem to matter how many steakhouses there are in our fair state, there’s always room for one more. And so it was that a month ago I found myself
I’ve often said, if my friend Rebecca Rather, aka the Pastry Queen, hadn’t left Austin and moved to Fredericksburg a few years back, I would now weigh 500 pounds. Everything she cooks turns to gold, as in golden-brown. (Whereas everything I cook turns into. . . . something seriously inedible.
