That’s Amore If your relationship (with your sweetie or with chocolate) needs a jump start this Valentine’s, try one of these novel Texas-made gifts. Austin’s Dr. Chocolate (512-454-0555) promises to cure the Valentine’s Day doldrums with one of its Pizzas d’Amore, cleverly garnished with candied cherries (standing in for pepperoni)
Attention, Houston: Claire Smith is back. Residents of the Bayou City became the young chef’s loyal followers during the six years that she owned the Daily Review Cafe and mourned when, in 2000, she decamped for Chicago. Happily, it didn’t take too long for her to come to her senses
Now serving: the best new restaurants in Texas, including a glamorous international kitchen in Dallas, a hot sushi spot in Austin, and—the best of them all—a drop-dead room with a globe-trotting menu in Houston.
CAT’S MEOW “Where the heck is that?” everybody said when I announced I was headed to Carol’s at Cat Spring. Good question. Physically, the historic German community (population: 76) is some fifty miles west of Houston. Spiritually, it’s in a world of its own. Winds rustle the live oaks,
BOWS TO HOLLEY Mark Holley confesses that interviews make him nervous. But the 44-year-old executive chef of Pesce, a seafood restaurant in Houston, is going to have to get used to the attention, especially if the accolades keep rolling in: My Table, the Bayou City’s foodie magazine, recently named
SHOW ME THE COOKIES! I love cookies. They’re a quick, compact treat, perfect for anyone under constant deadline pressure. While reflecting on the subject of cookies recently, I realized that I don’t make them nearly as often as I want to eat them. Instead I rely on the kindness and
A recipe from Ruben Ortega of Backstreet Cafe, in Houston.
UNDERGROUND GOURMET Troubles with your love life? Truffles could be the answer. We’re speaking of the exotic fungus, a purported aphrodisiac as well as a turn-on for any epicure. Truffles grow underground in Europe (especially France and Italy) and in Oregon, and with the peak of the season each November,
PIE AND MIGHTY Just because you’re too busy to bake a holiday pie doesn’t mean you’re a bad person. Give yourself a break and order one of these superlative pies by mail. The monster apple pie from Texas Heritage Provisions Company, in the East Texas town of Jasper, stands more
Five modern twists on traditional recipes make mincemeat out of store-bought desserts.
From the Neiman Marcus Cookbook.
What Julia Child is to French cooking, Diana Kennedy is to Mexican: a pioneer in her field with creativity to spare and strong opinions about everything.
A GOOD SIGN After preparing for an academic career, Houston native Scott Tycer decided instead to do what he loved: cook. He set his sights on owning his own restaurant by age thirty, a feat he accomplished by thirty and a half. Three years later, Aries is thriving in Houston,
FIRE AND ICE Autumn will arrive on September 23 and fall fashions have been in the stores forever, but as usual, the thermometer might as well be hanging in a sauna. What to do? Have the season-spanning drink known as an affogato—a shot of espresso poured over a scoop of
HORSING AROUND My latest favorite spot for a cheap date is Pegaso Café Mexicano y Taquería, a bustling eat-and-run place in the heart of Dallas’ downtown financial district. At breakfast and lunch, this retro-hip creation of local restaurateur Monica Greene is all business. You line up, place your entrée
Four restaurateurs talk about Tex-Mex, chile con queso, chips, and heartburn.
Texas author Sharon Hudgins talks about livingand cooking a Tex-Mex mealin Russia.
LEAN AND GREEN You can find the slim, distinctive chiles called long greens or Anaheims growing in areas throughout the Southwest United States, but by almost universal assent, the ones cultivated around Hatch, New Mexico, are the best. Supposedly the local soil, altitude, and rainfall provide conditions that make these
NOT MY BACK YARD What’s in a name—or, rather, a slogan? To me, the “gourmet backyard cuisine” at Jasper’s in Plano is about 90 percent gourmet and 10 percent backyard (not that there’s anything wrong with that). What’s more, curtains made of bronze mesh and arty room dividers of pencil-thin
AMERICAN PIE We hold this truth to be self-evident: that no Fourth of July celebration is complete without the consumption of vast quantities of fried chicken, potato salad, cherry pie, and such. If you don’t have a time-honored family recipe for cherry pie, you might consider starting a tradition by
WATER WORLD Take to the water the Texas way this summer—in a tube on a river. If you want sustenance afterward, check out these three favorites of ours. The behemoth of Central Texas river restaurants is the 950-seat Gristmill in the historic hamlet of Gruene, on the Guadalupe. With nearly
Writer-at-large Suzy Banks talks about fuzz, a parade, and where to find the best Texas peaches.
Ah, the supremely simple pleasure of picking a ripe peach from the tree! Unfortunately, many who are used to this annual rite of summer will be disappointed this year, because a late freeze decimated the Hill Country crop. “We are looking at a 99.999 percent loss,” says James Kamas, of
And that's not all. From wine to cheese, the plentiful offerings at Central Market make my mouth waterand my life so much better.
PETAL PUSHERS So many edible flowers covered our plates that we thought about requesting machetes to hack our way to the food. But, hey, we weren’t complaining; that’s what we had come for. Six days a week chef Edward Vervais of the Carriage House Kitchen at the San Antonio
ALAMO: Original Willie B’s Bar-B-Q, for its rib botana (Mexican snack) platters; 320 S. Alamo Road, 956-702-1370AUSTIN: County Line on the Lake, for its potato salad not overwhelmed by mayo and sparked by just-right amounts of celery, pickle, and onion; 5204 FM 2222, 512-346-3664BALLINGER: Lisa’s Cafe, for smoked cabbage, available
Dan Winters, who shot this month's photo essay, "Cuts Above," discusses finding the right piece of meat.
Senior editor Patricia Sharpe, assistant editor Katy Vine, and others talk about this month's cover story, "Pit Stops."
To those who say barbecue is an art form, we say, “Amen.” Presenting the elite meat to eat—along with beans, bread, and sauce—from some of the state’s top pits.
Unless otherwise noted, all places take credit cards.ABILENE: Harold’s Pit Bar-B-Q We didn’t catch pitmaster Harold Christian singing gospel songs to his customers, but we’re told that isn’t an unusual occurrence. This cozy little room, packed with nine picnic tables, seven booths, and a congregation of athletic trophies, is where
We admit being partial to the small, independent barbecue joint run by an ornery cuss who has smoke in his eyes and sauce in his veins. But we also concede that chain operations sell some darn good barbecue. So while we included only indies in our top fifty list,
Cooper’s Pit Bar-B-Q MasonThe name “Cooper’s” has long been synonymous with Llano, but now the Mason operation of the same name has overtaken its distant cousin. Cooper’s Pit Bar-B-Q was opened in Mason in 1953 by the late George Cooper, whose son Tommy (also deceased) cloned it a decade later
NEED A TEXAS-STYLE GIFT for a friend? Barbecue is the answer. Of the many places that ship, we’ve tried and like these. All send the cooked and frozen meat in an insulated box, generally accompanied by reheating instructions. Prices do not include shipping unless otherwise noted.City Market in Schulenburg, 800-793-3440;
A Southern staple, from Hoover’s Cooking, in Austin.
A recipe from Helen Corbitt, who reigned as Neiman Marcus's head chef for seventeen years.
Invite a few friends over for a good ol' fashioned crawfish boil!
In our annual roundup of the restaurants everyone's talking about, you'll find a bare-bones taquería, a bastion of cowboy chic, a snazzy deconsecrated churchand dishes that range from soup (squash blossom) to nuts (toasted cashews with chocolate-swirled bread pudding). Not to mention a little French place in San Antonio that's
Sharon Hage is chef at the reputable York Street restaurant in Dallas.
The perfect complement to a few slices of brisket, a slab of ribs, and a couple of links of sausage.
Orange-Zest Biscuits From Nellie Connally. Servings 16
Texans love to say that everything’s bigger here, but when it comes to the waistlines in one in four of our largest cities, that’s nothing to brag about.
In April 2001, Texas Monthly ran a feature on tortillas, including a list of local factories in selected cities in Texas where you can buy freshly prepared masa for making tortillas or tamales. Here is an updated list of the factories that were still open for business in November 2001.In
Watching tamales being mass produced is a bit like watching sausage being made: it takes the romance out of the process, to say the least. Once you’ve seen the two huge drums mixing the masa and tumbling the mechanically shredded meat—and the extruders ejecting one never-ending tamale from two concentric
Airy breads with sweet or savory fillings, kolaches are the Czechs’ best-known contribution to Texas cooking. We show how to make them with three different fillings.
Texas Celebrity Cookbook
Three friends, seven years, untold pounds of barbecue pork chops and prime rib, and a single tradition that elevates the experience above mere food.
How the Stubb's barbecue empire outlasted the death of its namesake—and proved that spice guys sometimes finish first.
“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
