Q: I realize the food section isn’t your department, but perhaps you can provide me with some answers. Your magazine’s recent “Feast Around the World” cover story [November 2018] brought me to quit biting my tongue and finally ask why barbecue is considered the official state dish instead of chicken-fried steak. Steve McHugh, one of the chefs featured in that story, comes pretty close to nailing good old Texas eats, although I highly recommend that his grapefruit–chile pequin jelly not be served to children, family pets, or maiden aunts. His roast duck is reminiscent of my mother’s roast duck. We shot our ducks at night while they slept in the rice paddies. (Yes, I know. Not sporting, not legal. I was a grown woman before I knew it was against…View Original PostThe post The Texanist: Why Isn’t Chicken-Fried Steak Our Official State Dish? appeared first on Texas Monthly.
Houston’s Post Oak Hotel recently announced a new menu item that seems as gross as it is grossly overpriced. “The Black Gold Burger,” which costs $1,600 American dollars, is comprised of sliced Japanese A5 Wagyu beef on a black and gold brioche bun, topped with seared foie gras, and is further ruined by the addition of both black truffles and truffle aioli. The price is somewhat inflated by an accompanying bottle of 2006 Dom Perignon. But those only go for about $200, which means we’re still dealing with a $1,400 burger. We sincerely hope no one eats this obvious publicity stunt (which worked, because I’m writing about it.) I personally don’t know anyone who could spend $1,600 on an entire meal, let alone one dish.…
Unlike regular beef, Beyond Meat’s Beyond Beef product—a plant-based ground meat substitute whose sales have surged in the past few years as beef has come under fire for its environmental impact—doesn’t benefit from simmering for hours. But a Texas chili made from Beyond Beef does benefit from simmering: it takes time for the spices to come together, the tomatoes to become deep and mellow, and the texture to develop. For this Beyond Beef chili, first you give the chili sauce a long simmer—and then add the “meat” at the end. And while it might not technically qualify for competition in Terlingua, it’s otherwise a standard bowl of red. No beans in sight. Meatless, Beanless Bowl of Red 2 tablespoons cooking oil 2 guajillo chiles, stems…
Besides the Black Box that the starched and creased young military man carried, there were always two other items aboard President Lyndon Johnson’s Air Force One: Superior Dairies ice cream from Austin and Lady Bird’s Pedernales River Chili. Of the three, no one on the President’s staff doubted which was most important. If the fateful call came reporting that the sky above the Aleutian islands was darkened with ICBMs heading east, a man eating Hill Country chili might feel a slight advantage as he pulled the trigger. Johnson took his chili every bit as seriously as the Box. Aside from Bobby Kennedy, nothing rated higher on the President’s Wrath Scale than greasy chili. Woe to White House Chef Henry Haller if he had not previously…
It’s Hatch chile season. Perhaps you’ve heard? These mild green chiles are an abundant, delicious, and extremely seasonal treat, whether they’re official Hatch chiles (grown in New Mexico) or the related Anaheim chiles (grown elsewhere). How best to make use of them before they disappear again until next year? With apologies to our western neighbors, this is a Texas Chicken Green Chili. It’s based on the tenets of Texas red chili but developed to highlight the flavors of fresh green chiles. That means it’s mostly just meat and chile, and you’re probably going to want to eat it with rice, cornbread, or tortillas, and load it up with garnishes. This recipe is all about making the bright, vegetal flavor of green chiles shine. I almost…
The Instant Pot should be a Texan cook’s best friend. So many Lone Star staples lend themselves well to either pressure or slow cooking: think queso, beans, taco fillings, and stews of all kinds. Chili is at the top of the Texas Instant Pot recipe list. A classic Bowl of Red translates beautifully to the Instant Pot, which cuts the traditionally hours-long process into a forty-minute pressure cook. The end result is a velvety slow burn that wouldn’t be out of place at Terlingua, ready in a fraction of the time. There is a small hitch in the Texas/Instant Pot happily-ever-after story, however: the Instant Pot’s “Beans/Chili” setting. Bless the Instant Pot folks, they’re from Canada and don’t know any better. But down here, beans…
Q: I was born in Corsicana, a place famous for Wolf Brand Chili and fruitcake from Collin Street Bakery. No true Texan eats canned chili, and I’m not sure many eat fruitcake, either. In fact, was Johnny Carson correct when he said that there’s only one fruitcake in the world and people just keep sending it to each other? And if that’s true, then what else does Corsicana have to brag about?Dan Montgomery, FredericksburgA: Fruitcake, canned chili, late-night talk show intrigue, all set in one of Texas’s most-storied little towns? The Texanist’s drool glands have been activated. So, thanks for reaching out, Mr. Montgomery. Let’s dig right in, shall we?It is a universal Texas truth that Corsicana is famous for the world-famous fruitcake made at Collin Street Bakery. And it’s just…
Jeremy Archer was ready to leave the barbecue game and go back to his corporate IT job when the COVID-19 pandemic hit in March 2020. He had opened Archer BBQ in Cedar Park, which he described as “a little shack in a parking lot,” a year earlier, and he could see a restaurant shutdown looming when his lease renewal came due. He was resigned to putting his dream on hold, but one of his regular customers, Brandon Reinoehl, changed his mind. Archer remembered him saying, “You can’t give this up. You need to keep going.” They agreed to partner up, and they found a former coffee shop in Liberty Hill, northwest of Austin, called Agape Java. They changed the second half of the name and…
Clifton Bolner wanted out of the grocery business. He had worked for his grandfather, Joe Bolner Jr., since he was a child, and, with typical Texas swagger, he was looking for a way to prove his own worth. Joe had immigrated from Italy to Mexico and then settled in San Antonio, opening a grocery store there in 1906. After graduating from Texas A&M University in 1949 and serving as a second lieutenant in the Air Force, Clif, as he was known, felt there wasn’t space for him in his father’s business. Then, in 1955, 25-year-old Clif saw a newspaper advertisement announcing that a fledgling spice company housed in a 1,200-square-foot building was for sale by its retiring owner, Mr. Van Zandt. The asking price was…
Joe Martinez’s wife calls him a serial hobbyist. He went through a phase with bowling, then one with drones; gun collecting and hunting were next, and then he bought a Camaro for drag racing. The mechanical problems that go along with racing cars got expensive quickly. “You blow a tranny and that’s four or five grand,” Martinez said of the car he has since sold. Through it all, there was barbecue. He smoked his first brisket 28 years ago on a Weber Smokey Mountain. It wasn’t pretty. “The flat [was] way dry like a leather belt,” he admitted, but practice eventually brought good barbecue. It’s the one hobby Martinez hasn’t abandoned. In fact, he turned it into Smokin’ Joe’s Pit BBQ, a truck he opened…