London’s bus route 19 might be where all the beautiful people are seen, but East Austin’s new double-decker #19 is where you’ll find absolutely gorgeous cheesesteaks and burgers. I unsuspectingly ambled into the trailer park they share with Lucky J’s and Cafe Racer on Saturday evening (or was
Hailing from a long line of beer- and brat-loving Germans, it should come as no surprise that my tastebuds are quite attuned to things like saurkraut (the presence of which always caused an uproar at the dinner table when we were kids, as my younger brother referred to it as
Unless you’ve been living under a rock (make that a hot rock with some Kobe beef on it), you are probably aware that Uchi–Austin’s nonpareil avant-garde sushi and Japanese fusion restaurant–has replicated itself on the north side of town, specifically at 4200 N. Lamar (916-4808). In a smart move, chef-owner
You gotta give Andy Zubik props. Not only does he create fabulous breakfast and lunch items at his trailer, Zubik House, he’s also unbelievably friendly and kind. Take this recent interaction, which I witnessed at the downtown farmer’s market on Saturday: Grumpy lady with two toddlers: Gimme two kolaches. Andy:
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
Yes, folks, I just had a birthday. And no, I won’t tell you how old I am this year. But I will tell you about the best thing that happened to me on that lovely day: a visit to Bananarchy, in South Austin! Here’s how it works. Order either a
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
Today marks the official start of summer! We Texans understand, though, that Mother Nature likes to give us a nice hot summer preview (complete with humidity!), which is why today I present to you . . . A juicy, sweet, sumptuous, refreshing, hallmark of the season: the watermelon. You
I braved a sushi trailer in June and lived to tell about it. Starting today, I’ll be posting a weekly Trailer Thursday edition of our Eat My Words blog to let you know which food trailers are toothsome and which are tasteless. For my initial foray, I picked one that
Last summer, I hopped on what can only be described as the canning bandwagon. Home canning and preserving seemed to take the world by storm—at least that’s what all the blogs were saying. I had to join in the fun. Only one thing was stopping me: I had no idea
You can’t miss him. The man in the red beret. Nope, he’s not a Frenchman … he’s our Texas wine guy, a colorful gentleman who never shies away from a good time. When the mood is right, you might even spot him wearing a purple suit. If you’ve been following
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
This weekend, after a long bicycle ride, I found myself perusing the cheese counter at our local specialty foods store. I took my time browsing through what the case had to offer, picking up plastic-wrapped parcels of perfection in every hue and hardness, as if the cheese counter were not
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
You’re wine savvy, for sure. So, quick, what’s the most visited winery in America? Beringer? Robert Mondavi in Napa Valley? Kendall Jackson who has bought up many small, distressed Sonoma county wineries, or….maybe Gallo? Hold on to your spit cups. It’s the Biltmore winery estate in Asheville, North Carolina, George
I must have been a strange child. As I divulged to you earlier, in my early years, I did not like honey. Or rice. I would push rice around my plate to convince my parents that I’d eaten it all. Years later, both parents told me they were never
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
Spring (thank goodness it’s finally sprung) generally brings change. For me this means that after many years of apartment-dwelling, my fiancé and I are moving to a house, complete with a backyard, in a city that allows for—hold on to your hats, folks—backyard chickens. Oh yeah, we’re talking Martha Stewart
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
Call me crazy, but growing up, I was not a fan of honey. It always tasted saccharin-sweet and it was… Just. Too. Gooey. I know, a little kid worried about gooey stuff. Weird. Anyway, the only thing I liked honey on were my mom’s famous peanut butter and honey sandwiches.
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
Kale is one of those ingredients that doesn’t get a lot of face time, likely due to its equation with super-health-food. Is it dark green? Yep. Widely available at health stores? Yessiree. Does it appear in superfood smoothies? Uh-huh. Well, I’m here to say one thing today: Give kale a
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
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,
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
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
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
I’m having fun trying all the great little eateries in Texas Monthly’s new neighborhood close by St David’s. Lunch is usually a sandwich-shop adventure, but for breakfast there’s currently only one choice for me, and that is a stuffed croissant from Lava Java, the coffee shop that’s part of Longhorn
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
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.
I just got back from the most amazing food conference, in San Antonio. I think I gained five pounds. I’m also a lot smarter than I was the first day. It was the Latin Flavors, American Kitchens conference (Oct 14-16) put on by the Culinary Institute of
We all followed the bad news about publisher Conde Nast’s plummeting ad sales, and we all watched as their food magazines got skinnier and skinnier. (You could practically slip them under a door they were so flat.) But the bets were that, if CN closed any of them, it would
