The fried softshell crab and grits I had for lunch at Brennan’s of Houston the other day raises the bar in the seafood and grits competition. The softshell crab was extra crispy and very juicy, the stoneground grits were excellent and the pool of gravy surrounding the whole thing didn’t hurt any either. Wow! If they [...]]]>

The fried softshell crab and grits I had for lunch at Brennan’s of Houston the other day raises the bar in the seafood and grits competition. The softshell crab was extra crispy and very juicy, the stoneground grits were excellent and the pool of gravy surrounding the whole thing didn’t hurt any either. Wow! If they have his on the brunch menu this weekend, you better order it.

I thought I was being pretty damn clever last summer when lobster got cheap and I served lobster and saffron grits with Veuve Clicquot champagne at a dinner party. But I like softshell crab and grits even better.

There’s a recipe for softshell crab and jalapeño cheese grits in John Besh’s cookbook, My New Orleans, so I guess the combination has been around. It’s an evolution on shrimp and grits and catfish and grits–old Southern combos traditionally eaten for breakfast with crispy bacon.

Thank the lord that underwater oil gusher has been at least partially capped. Next week we’ll do a Gulf seafood appreciation thing and I’ll share a couple of recipes for shrimp grits, so stay tuned.

Update: Here’s what our Memorial Day barbecue looks like after five and a half hours of smoking. I think the pork is done, but I’m going to hit it with a wine jelly and mustard glaze just for the hell of it.

It wouldn’t be Memorial Day without barbecue, right? So I fired up the smoker at [...]]]>

Update: Here’s what our Memorial Day barbecue looks like after five and a half hours of smoking. I think the pork is done, but I’m going to hit it with a wine jelly and mustard glaze just for the hell of it.

It wouldn’t be Memorial Day without barbecue, right? So I fired up the smoker at 11 am on Sunday and invited people over for lunch on Monday. Usually I cook whole pork shoulders, but these “country-style pork ribs” were on sale for a dollar a pound at HEB. This is just a pork shoulder cut into strips anyway. I got some of John Henry’s Texas Pig Rub at Allied Kenco the other day, so I figured I might as well try it. These will only take three or four hours to cook. We’ll eat some tonight for dinner and then reheat the rest for the barbecue tomorrow.

This Kobe brisket has been out in my freezer for awhile, so I defrosted it for Memorial Day. I sprinkled it with Bellville Meat Market Brisket Rub. I’ll probably bring the brisket in late tonight and finish it tomorrow morning.

I put a water pan on the smoker to keep things moist and avoid burning the end of the brisket closet to the heat. I am burning charcoal in the middle of a square of split seasoned oak logs. The temperature is around 275° F.

The other day I twittered a smartass remark: Authentic Mexican is to Tex-Mex as the Ballet Folklorico is to Freddy Fender. My fellow food writer Colman Andrews asked if I meant by that Tex-Mex was more fun and closer to the truth. His question caused me to reflect for awhile.

I have often faulted Diana Kennedy for [...]]]>

The other day I twittered a smartass remark: Authentic Mexican is to Tex-Mex as the Ballet Folklorico is to Freddy Fender. My fellow food writer Colman Andrews asked if I meant by that Tex-Mex was more fun and closer to the truth. His question caused me to reflect for awhile.

I have often faulted Diana Kennedy for assuming that the only way to champion authentic Mexican cooking was to trash Tex-Mex. I don’t want to make the same mistake in reverse. I love Mexico and most of its food. I eat antojitos in Houston taquerias and taco trucks all the time.

Its the “authentic Mexican” restaurants for gabachos in the U.S. and their ritualized recreations of relics like mole Poblano and chiles en nogada that remind me of Ballet Folklorico performances. People rave about the sophistication of this stuff, but both the food and the music strike me as stilted imitations of an outdated tradition.

Nobody is calling Tex-Mex sophisticated. It is a raw and primal half-breed border culture. I first heard this Freddy Fender Tex-Mex love song when I was in college and it still hits me hard.

Tex-Mex outlaw Freddy Fender, born Baldemar Huerta in San Benito Texas in 1937, started singing Elvis Presley songs in Spanish for the Mexican market after he got kicked out of the Marines. He recorded “Wasted Days and Wasted Nights” in 1959, then spent three years in Angola for possession of marijuana. His number one hit “Before the Next Teardrop Falls” was recorded in 1974. He went on to win three Grammys before he died in 2006.

Today is the release date for my newest cookbook, The Tex-Mex Grill and Backyard Barbacoa Cookbook. Here’s a new recipe video in honor of the [...]]]> Today is the release date for my newest cookbook, The Tex-Mex Grill and Backyard Barbacoa Cookbook. Here’s a new recipe video in honor of the big day.

Smoked boudin at Boogie's

At left, Mariano Martinez visits the world’s first margarita machine which he donated to the Smithsonian Institute. For the full story, read the account by Rayna Green, a curator in the Division of Home and Community Life at the National Museum of American History. Its in her blog for Cinco de Mayo. Here’s an excerpt:

“I am [...]]]> At left, Mariano Martinez visits the world’s first margarita machine which he donated to the Smithsonian Institute. For the full story, read the account by Rayna Green, a curator in the Division of Home and Community Life at the National Museum of American History. Its in her blog for Cinco de Mayo. Here’s an excerpt:

“I am a curator who specializes in American foodways (among other things), and a member of the team that brought Julia Child’s kitchen to the National Museum of American History. In the summer of 2003, in the course of developing a public program on Tex-Mex food, I got to know a Houston food writer named Robb Walsh. Robb had just written a wonderful book, The Tex-Mex Cookbook, a history of the phenomenon he calls an American regional cuisine. In that book, he told the story of a Dallas restauranteur who invented the frozen margarita machine. Robb told me that I had to go and get that machine for the museum.” -Rayna Green

I was talking to Lori Moffat at Texas Highways Magazine about Houston’s wacky ethnic fusion dishes yesterday. I thought of Kaiser, the lovable head chef at Himalaya on Hillcroft. Kaiser served me a plate of his wildly spicy Pakistani fajitas the other day. Kaiser calls the dish “steak tikka” on the menu and serves it with [...]]]>

I was talking to Lori Moffat at Texas Highways Magazine about Houston’s wacky ethnic fusion dishes yesterday. I thought of Kaiser, the lovable head chef at Himalaya on Hillcroft. Kaiser served me a plate of his wildly spicy Pakistani fajitas the other day. Kaiser calls the dish “steak tikka” on the menu and serves it with hot flatbread. But the inspiration in unmistakable. The seasoning blend even contains the natural tenderizer papain–just like most fajita recipes. There’s also lots of chile powder, cumin, garlic, and other spices in the Tex-Mex masala.

Kaiser loves Tex-Mex almost as much as he loves his native Desi cuisine. And everybody loves Vietnamese fajitas.So why not Pakistani fajitas?

Freetail Brewing Company's Rye Wheat Beer

Freetail Brewing Company is an outstanding brewpub in San Antonio. I had a glass of their terrific rye wheat beer at the art gallery Box 13 Art Space over the weekend. The brewpub was giving away their beer as part of a charity benefit for Art Lies magazine.

The guy pouring [...]]]>

Freetail Brewing Company's Rye Wheat Beer

Freetail Brewing Company is an outstanding brewpub in San Antonio. I had a glass of their terrific rye wheat beer at the art gallery Box 13 Art Space over the weekend. The brewpub was giving away their beer as part of a charity benefit for Art Lies magazine.

The guy pouring the beer was from San Antonio. He said the beer had a distinct banana and cinnamon aroma. The beer was delicious–very tart and refreshing–but bananas?
“It tastes a little a citric,” I said, “like it was brewed with orange peel.”

“Well, yeah it has orange peel in it,” he conceded. But he insisted it smelled like bananas. I didn’t get that. But what do I know. I wonder if they put banana peel in the mash with the orange peel?

If you’re driving hungry on Highway 71 this weekend, consider skipping the burgers and kolaches at Hruska’s in Ellinger and visiting Gil Vrazel instead. Gil’s Bar-B-Que Shack is that little place just south of Hruska’s that’s only open on Saturday and Sunday. Gil and his wife work at the auction barn in Columbus on weekdays. They [...]]]>

If you’re driving hungry on Highway 71 this weekend, consider skipping the burgers and kolaches at Hruska’s in Ellinger and visiting Gil Vrazel instead. Gil’s Bar-B-Que Shack is that little place just south of Hruska’s that’s only open on Saturday and Sunday. Gil and his wife work at the auction barn in Columbus on weekdays. They smoke their homemade Czech sausage, pork roast and brisket on the weekends only. The old smoker is tucked away in a screened-in shed behind the “main shack” which houses a couple of tables, a fridge for the drinks, and the cash register.

Like all shade tree barbecue operations, you have to appreciate Gil’s on its own terms. The pork was wonderful and so was the sausage on recent Sunday afternoon around 2 pm. But the brisket was all sold out. I guess I need to get there earlier to try the beef.

For a real treat, eat at the picnic table under a grove of live oaks out back.

This salad at Que Huong restaurant at Beechnut and Wilcrest came highly recommended. It’s a pile of watercress with cold sliced rare steak and shrimp tossed in a light fish sauce and vinegar dressing. It’s #303 Goi Bo Tom Rau Muong on the menu. The dish comes with shrimp chips and an extremely funky dipping sauce [...]]]>

This salad at Que Huong restaurant at Beechnut and Wilcrest came highly recommended. It’s a pile of watercress with cold sliced rare steak and shrimp tossed in a light fish sauce and vinegar dressing. It’s #303 Goi Bo Tom Rau Muong on the menu. The dish comes with shrimp chips and an extremely funky dipping sauce called mam nem, a concoction of fermented pickled mudfish mixed with pineapple. You can dip the steak and shrimp in the foul-smelling nectar–or not. I kind of liked the flavor, you just have to ignore the rotting swamp water aroma.

The last time I ate a Que Huong, I ordered #301 on the cold salad menu, the jellyfish salad topped with seafood. This extremely refreshing dish is sometimes called “Summer Delight” or “Seafood Delight.” It’s Goi Sua Do Bien in Vietnamese. When the waiter delivered it, he asked, “Why do you Anglos always order this salad?” Before I could answer, he advised, “The steak and shrimp watercress salad is much better. Don’t be afraid of the smelly dipping sauce.”

With a challenge like that, I had to try it.

Truth is, I liked the steak and shrimp salad just fine. It’s a nice change of pace. But when the weather gets hot and sticky, I am thinking I will go back to the “Summer Delight.”