Day Trips

Photo by Gerald E. McLeod

Just Oxtails Soul Food defies any narrow culinary classification other than just good eating. The award-winning eatery on Houston's south side has turned Southern cooking into an art form and dining an adventure.

Each day of the week, owner Ken Washington offers a rotating menu of popular American foods, but it's the oxtails that are more than just part of the name. The articulations are served in thick, brown gravy. Each section of bone is about the size of a fist and loaded with tender pieces of meat. "First timers say that it tastes as good as steak or better," Washington proclaims.

Cultures around the world have different recipes for using oxtails. In Jamaica, it is used in a spicy stew with butter beans. In Korea, oxtail is a delicacy called kkori gomtang. Italians call it coda alla vaccinara and serve it in trattorias around the country. Traditionally it is cooked in a watery sauce with raisins, pine nuts, and chocolate.

All that fly-swishing by the cow produces a powerful muscle that is well marbled and robust in flavor. Cooking the rich, gelatinous meat takes a while, but the slow cooking produces a tasty broth that is ideal for use in a stew, sauce, or gravy. "We call our gravy '40-weight gravy,' because it has the thickness of heavy-duty motor oil," Washington says with a laugh. "It's never watery."

Oxtail used to be a very lowly cut of meat but has become highly prized. Like many other less-desirable parts of the cow, it was often sold as offal. "They used to nearly give the tails away," Washington says. "But not anymore."

Washington says the price for the oxtails has more than doubled in the last few years as chefs discover the intense flavor hidden in the tailbone. Because oxtails can be hard to find in grocery stores, he also sells raw oxtails to local cooks.

Mastering the art of cooking the oxtails took Washington several years of experimenting. "One of the nice things about the oxtail is that it can be cooked many different ways," he says. After a stint in the military, Washington started a catering business in 1996. That led to opening the restaurant with his wife, Carrie, in 2002.

The restaurant offers six meats and 10 side dishes served cafeteria style. The choices range from smothered pork chops or chicken and dumplings to candied yams, turnip greens, and mashed potatoes. The cafe is also known for chitterlings, another Southern specialty.

Just Oxtails Soul Food is at 4207 Reed, east of TX 288 and south of downtown Houston. Food is served from 11am to 9pm. Most dinners with three sides are less than $10, with a large tumbler of iced tea. To see what is cooking today, call 713/733-8111 or go to www.justoxtailssoulfood.com.

919th in a series. Day Trips, Vol. 2, a book of "Day Trips" 101-200, is available for $8.95, plus $3.05 for shipping, handling, and tax. Mail to: Day Trips, PO Box 33284, South Austin, TX 78704.