Out in Southern California, L.A. food critic Jonathan Gold makes fun of authentic Mexican chef Rick Bayless — read all about it in Gustavo Arellano’s food blog “Stick a Fork in It.” And don’t miss Bayless responding to Gold in the comment section. They have such inspiring culinary conversations out there.

This was the first year [...]]]>

Out in Southern California, L.A. food critic Jonathan Gold makes fun of authentic Mexican chef Rick Bayless — read all about it in Gustavo Arellano’s food blog “Stick a Fork in It.” And don’t miss Bayless responding to Gold in the comment section. They have such inspiring culinary conversations out there.

This was the first year for Gustavo ¿Ask a Mexican? Arellano as a preliminary judge at the Austin Chronicle Hot Sauce Contest. Gustavo showed real promise–he sampled a whole lot of good, bad and horrible salsa and came out smiling. So we invited him back for next year. And back home in Orange County, Gustavo was just named managing editor of the OC Weekly. Congratulations, Amigo!

The CIA San Antonio campus at the Pearl Brewery Complex on the north end of the Riverwalk is undergoing a major expansion at the moment. The new CIA building will celebrate its Grand Opening in October with an open house. CIA Antonio, officially became the Culinary Institute of America’s third campus in 2008. The school was [...]]]>

The CIA San Antonio campus at the Pearl Brewery Complex on the north end of the Riverwalk is undergoing a major expansion at the moment. The new CIA building will celebrate its Grand Opening in October with an open house. CIA Antonio, officially became the Culinary Institute of America’s third campus in 2008. The school was founded to realize a dream – El Sueño – to elevate Latin American cuisines to their rightful place among the great cuisines of the world, and to expand diversity within the foodservice industry.

Certified Master Chef David Kellaway, the managing director of CIA San Antonio, assured me that his definition of Latin American cuisines definitely included Tex-Mex and that regional Texas cooking will always be part of the learning experience.

Kellaway arranged for me to take a tour of the construction site. I was delighted to see an underground barbacoa pit is being built into the extensive outdoor cooking area. The school’s new construction is expanding the campus from 5,000 to 30,000 square feet. The combined buildings will include 7 different student cooking areas, a bakeshop, a public demonstration kitchen, and a Mexican-style kitchen.

Kellaway knows his way around Texas. He grew up in Houston and has lately been spending weekends with his kids at the beach in Galveston.

Foodways Texas board member Melissa Guerra hosted a coffee to update San Antonio food writers, media and interested food lovers about the formation of the new organization and invite their involvement. The meeting was held Friday at 8:30 in the meeting room of the new Earl Abel’s restaurant at 1201 Old Austin Highway. The restaurant kindly [...]]]>

Foodways Texas board member Melissa Guerra hosted a coffee to update San Antonio food writers, media and interested food lovers about the formation of the new organization and invite their involvement. The meeting was held Friday at 8:30 in the meeting room of the new Earl Abel’s restaurant at 1201 Old Austin Highway. The restaurant kindly donated the facility and a continental breakfast. The meeting drew more the thirty interested individuals–attendees included representatives from the San Antonio Express-News, Texas Department of Agriculture, Culinary Institute of America, as well as editors, publishers and food bloggers from the Alamo City and Austin.
Representing Foodways Texas, Melissa Guerra was joined by former Southern Foodways Alliance president and Foodways Texas board member Toni Martin, University of Texas oral historian and author Marvin Bendele, and Foodways Texas board member Robb Walsh. Joe York’s SFA film “Buttermilk: It Can Help” was shown as part of a discussion about the kind of work that SFA does and Foodways Texas hopes to accomplish.
“The mission of Foodways Texas is to preserve, promote and celebrate the diverse food cultures of Texas.”

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?