The movie Food Inc. talks about a “curtain” being placed between the consumer and the meat in the grocery store. “The industry doesn’t want you to know the truth about what you’re eating. Because if you knew, you might not want to eat it,” the narrator says. Michael Pollan and the producers of Food Inc. complain that meat processors won’t let them inside their plants. (Golly, I wonder why?)

I agree that consumers need to know more about the animals they are eating than the label on a styrene package in the grocery store can provide. That’s why I wrote the Houston Press and Dallas Observer cover story Mystery Meats. And that’s why I took a video camera inside the slaughter house and meat cutting room and taped the whole process during the class. If you want to remove the “curtain” between you and the meat you are eating, then take a look.

The recipe for this “Backyard Barbacoa” will be included in my next cookbook: The Tex-Mex Grill.

Luling City Market Sausage Smoker---Robb Walsh

I’ll be giving the BBQ history lecture for students taking BBQ 101, a three-day professional training session sponsored by the National Barbecue Association at the Texas A&M Meat Science Center in College Station. The course begins on the morning of Tuesday May 12 and ends on Thursday May 14th after lunch. The class is intended for barbecue pros, but open to anyone.
read more BBQ 101 Class at Texas A&M »

photo by Robb Walsh

One thing this book did do, if nothing else, was inspire me to go out and try my first Galveston Bay oysters (though as of this writing we’re a bit closer to the Easter endcap of the Texan oyster season that I’d have liked). As Walsh promised, they were different than any other oyster I’ve ever eaten: tremendous in size — some were half the size of my fist — with creamy, soft flesh that was an entirely different flavor than the briny, salty East Coast oysters that had previously made up the entirety of my oyster-eating repertoire. Consider me converted, Walsh. -Paula Forbes

photo by JC Reid

Twenty-four members of the Houston Chowhounds group descended on Misho’s Oyster Company in San Leon on Saturday April 25 for a Sex, Death & Oysters signing event.

Misho Ivic took everybody aboard an oyster lug and explained the working parts. The Croatian-American oysterman lead a tour of his oyster processing plant. Refreshments in the form of oysters and Bloody Marys were devoured. Jim Gossen of Louisiana Foods also supplied a gallon of campechana crab salad. It was beautiful day and a good time was had by all.

Canada’s National Post reviewed Sex, Death & Oysters in the April 3 issue in a book review titled Slimy, Salty and HIstorically Vital–in their format each review ends with the question “Buy It or Skip It?” Thank goodness the book got the “Buy It” verdict!

Read the full review:
read more Slimy, Salty, and Historically Vital »

I had oysters for breakfast in honor of Ariel Barkhurst’s review of Sex, Death & Oysters in the San Antonio Express-News, which is headlined: “Writer Says Oysters Should Be Everyday Fare.” Here’s Ariel’s review:
read more Everyday Oysters »

SXSW Texas BBQ Panel

The first thing visitors to SXSW in Austin want to know is: “Where is the nearest barbecue joint and what do I order when I get there?” So this year Joe Nick Patoski organized a Texas barbecue panel at SXSW featuring John Morthland from Texas Monthly, Rick Schmidt from Kreuz Market, the Kitchen Sisters, photographer Wyatt Spadden and myself. The panel discussion focused on the basics, but there was still plenty of room for debate. Afterwards, I signed a whole lot of copies of the Legends of Texas Barbecue Cookbook at the SXSW bookstore.

Reactions were swiftly posted:
read more Texas Barbecue: A Metaphor for Life? »

Welcome to the new blog-omatic, photo-centric version of robbwalsh.com complete with recipes, slideshows, and an in-your-face cookbook bazaar. The old robbwalsh.com website did a great job for many years. It was a big, state-of-the-art, cutting-edge deal just to have a website back when Pableaux Johnson (aka Bayoudog) built that first one over a decade ago.

Now Pableaux has dragged me kicking and screaming into the new era of “blog landing pages” with the shiny new site you are looking at here. I like to sit at my desk clicking the refresh button and watching the photos at the top change. The images up there are mine except for the cattle barbecue sign which my daughter Julia shot and the cheese enchiladas which appear courtesy of Paul H. Howell.

Actually, I won the rights to the cheese enchilada photo in a golf bet. And if the cheese enchilada photo suddenly disappears, it will be because Paul won it back–probably with a long twisty birdie putt that falls in the hole thanks to sheer luck.

Anyway, thanks to Pableaux Johnson for the spiffy new site, to Julia Walsh for the barbecue sign image and to Paul Howell for letting me win at golf. And thank YOU for visiting. Come back soon–and often!

-Robb Walsh

From the Houston Press Eating Our Words blog:

This recipe originally appeared during the rodeo barbecue cook-off. It’s complicated, but the results are spectacular.

Borrego actually means mutton in Spanish, but for some reason, Anglos are more comfortable translating it to “lamb.” Which is odd when you think about it, since Anglos are usually squeamish about eating veal, suckling pig, tiny cabritos and other baby animals.

Mutton used to be a traditional meat in Texas barbecue and is still found at a few African-American barbecue joints such as Ruthie’s in Navasota and Sam’s in Austin. So call this “Mexican mutton barbecue” if you like.The smoky-flavored, falling-off-the-bone tender meat this recipe yields is even tastier than the the stewed goat dish called birria.

Mexican barbacoa is still made in a smoker by a few Tejano barbecue enthusiasts, but commercial pit barbacoa is all but extinct in Texas. Vera’s in Brownsville is one of the last restaurants in the state to use a real pit to make barbacoa. In the old days, Mexican ranch hands used to wrap cow heads up in canvas or maguey leaves and bury them in the coals. (In the movie Giant, Elizabeth Taylor faints when they unwrap the package and show her the head.) But health departments frown on such traditional barbacoa these days.
read more The Tex-Mex Grill: Barbacoa de Borrego »