Texas Culinary Icons

Breakfast Tacos

The taco is the Mexican version of a universal portable peasant food: some kind of flat bread – in this case, corn or flour tortillas – with a savory filling. The Tex-Mex breakfast taco is the definitive morning repast of choice in these parts: heading east from here, the Amer­ican South truly begins when they disappear from the culinary landscape, and once we travel west of the Trans-Pecos, corn tortillas become scarce, and big, stuffed flour tortillas are known as burritos.

Breakfast tacos are omnipresent in Austin – warm corn or flour tortillas stuffed with scrambled eggs and your choice of a variety of accompaniments including crisp bacon, spicy Mexican chorizo, refried beans, fried potato cubes, pico de gallo (a fresh relish of onions, tomatoes, cilantro, and chopped peppers), and/or grated cheddar cheese. Ordered to go, the tacos will arrive wrapped in paper or tinfoil and are often served with tiny containers of fresh salsa on the side, the better to spice them up to your personal taste. This hand-held mainstay of the local cuisine is available at countless Mexican restaurants, taco trailers, and many local convenience stores, made fresh daily. They'll set you back anywhere from 99 cents to $1.99 each and get your day off to a nourishing, affordable start. While it's true that some regional and national fast-food chains have developed their own versions of breakfast tacos, so many fresh, tasty, local options abound that it really won't ever be necessary to go the prefab route while visiting here. After starting every day of your Austin sojourn with a breakfast taco feast, you'll become habituated and wonder how you ever lived without them. That's a promise. Here's a reliable list to help get you started. – V.B.W.

Maria's Taco Xpress

2529 S. Lamar, 444-0261
www.tacoxpress.com

Torchy's Tacos

Four locations
www.torchystacos.com

Tamale House

5003 Airport, 453-9842

Taco Shack

Seven locations
www.tacoshack.com

Polvos

2004 S. First, 441-5446
www.polvos.ypguides.net

Juan in a Million

2300 E. Cesar Chavez, 472-3872
www.juaninamillion.com

Changos Taqueria

3023 Guadalupe, 480-8226
3005 S. Lamar, 416-1500
www.changos.com

Rudy's Country Store & BBQ

Four locations
www.rudys.com

Barbecue Brisket

Barbecue cooked in Texas is the best in the nation, period. And the best barbecue in Texas is that which is produced in what's called the "Barbecue Belt" – basically a 30- to 40-mile swath that roughly parallels I-35 on a map, starting around Georgetown and heading off toward San Marcos. Austin is the buckle of that belt. It includes the towns of Taylor (and Lexington if you stretch it out), Elgin, Lockhart, and Luling (and Gonzales if you pooch it on the end). In these towns you can find the high holy temples of American barbecue: Louie Mueller Barbecue, Taylor Cafe, Snow's BBQ, Southside Market, Black's Barbecue, Smitty's Market, Kreuz Market, Luling City Market, and Gonzales Food Market. Head west, and you have Opie's Barbecue, the Salt Lick, Inman Ranch House, and Cooper's Pit Bar-B-Que. It's the barbecue bucket list, and none of them is more than an hour away.

Barbecued brisket is unique to Texas. Edgar Black Sr., of Black's in Lockhart, was the first one to start cooking brisket around these parts. The rich folks bought the steaks, and most of the rest became smoked sausage. Edgar Sr. decided that the brisket was a cut that would benefit from many hours of low and slow smoking. He started a trend, and while the rest of the country soaks their brisket in pickling spices to make corned beef, Central Texans like it seasoned simply, slow-smoked, sliced, and served on a piece of butcher paper.

Just because you're eating brisket doesn't mean you have to pass on the sausage, pork or beef ribs, or shoulder clod (basically the chuck shoulder roast). Some use live-oak or post-oak logs, some add pecan, and some believe in the powers of mesquite, but regardless of the wood, it's all going to be coated with a spice rub and cooked slowly in clouds of fragrant smoke. Whether you're eating in town, just outside town, or out of town, there's incredible barbecue to be found around Austin. – M.V.

Artz Rib House

2330 S. Lamar, 442-8283
www.artzribhouse.com

Sam's BBQ

2000 E. 12th, 478-0378

Ruby's BBQ

512 W. 29th, 477-1651
www.rubysbbq.com

Louie Mueller Barbecue

206 W. Second, Taylor, 512/352-6206
www.louiemuellerbarbecue.com

Smitty's Market

208 S. Commerce, Lockhart, 512/398-9344
www.smittysmarket.com

Kreuz Market

619 N. Colorado, Lockhart, 512/398-2361
www.kreuzmarket.com

Chicken-Fried Steak

It is only fitting that a state with a storied history of great cattle ranches and legendary cattle drives would claim a slice of fried beef round known as chicken-fried steak as a quintessential dish. Why "chicken-fried" steak, you may ask? Because the original trailside and home-style versions of tenderized round steak were prepared in the same manner as a boned fryer – dredged in seasoned flour, liquid (milk, buttermilk, or eggs), more flour, and then pan-fried in a cast-iron skillet of hot grease. This style of cooking rendered a toothsome piece of beef encased in a crackling crust, often napped with cream gravy flecked with cracked black pepper and bits of crust left in the skillet and usually paired with fluffy mashed potatoes.

The cooking style changed when the dish made the transition from ranch-house table to roadside cafe menu. In the interest of speed and efficiency, chicken-fried steaks were prepared in the deep fryer. This version wasn't quite perfection, not really as good as the one from Grandma's table, but much easier for the restaurant cook. As the popularity of the dish spread and restaurants proliferated, an economical, restaurant-ready frozen product emerged on the market: wafer-thin, machine-tenderized, and prebreaded patties packed three, four, or five to a pound. These pieces of mystery meat are often served with a watery instant gravy mix and reconstituted powdered spuds – quick and cheap, edible and filling, but not the genuine article. No, sir, not by a long shot.

In order to savor the authentic chicken-fried steak experience, you want a 5- or 6-ounce piece of tenderized round steak of legitimate thickness, hand-breaded in seasoned flour, and fried to crispy perfection. It should arrive at the table under a mantle of velvety, peppery cream gravy, nestled against a serving of real mashed potatoes. Add the salad and vegetables of your choice. Grandma has long since gone to her reward, but we're confident you can find a real chicken-fried steak at these local eateries. – V.B.W.

Hoover's Cooking

2002 Manor Rd., 479-5006
13376 Research #400, 335-0300
www.hooverscooking.com

Threadgill's

6416 N. Lamar, 451-5440
301 W. Riverside, 472-9304
www.threadgills.com

Arkie's Grill

4827 E. Cesar Chavez, 385-2986

Hill's Cafe

4700 S. Congress, 851-9300
www.hillscafe.com

R.O.'s Outpost

22112 Hwy. 71 W., Spicewood, 512/264-1169,
www.rosoutpost.com

Stallion Grill

5201 Airport, 866/435-1184
www.stalliongrill.com

Z'Tejas Grill

10525 W. Parmer, 388-7772
1110 W. Sixth, 478-5355
9400-A Arboretum Blvd., 346-3506
www.ztejas.com
Try the chicken-fried rib eye.

Frozen Margaritas

There are plenty of colorful anecdotes from the 1930s and 1940s about the origins of the tequila-based cocktail known as the margarita. Some of the stories feature movie stars and bartenders in Mexican resorts or savvy hostesses from the American Southwest. Regardless of its origin, the margarita – tequila, triple sec, and lime juice in a salt-rimmed glass – became popular with Americans traveling in Mexico, and demand for the cocktail increased in the United States as tequila became more widely distributed.

The widespread emergence of margaritas as the perfect liquid complement to Mexican food in Texas is somewhat easier to track, because liquor by the drink became legal in our fair state again in 1971, after a very long dry spell. Mexican restaurant patrons enjoyed margaritas straight up or on the rocks until an ingenious Dallas restaurateur began serving an iced version prepared in a blender. The new version proved very popular, but Mariano Martinez had trouble keeping up with customer demand for the blended drinks, and quality control was sometimes an issue, as well. Martinez experienced a eureka moment looking at a 7-Eleven Slurpee machine one day in 1971 and realized it could be the solution to his problem. He bought a used Slurpee machine, did some tinkering, and consulted chemist John Hogan about developing a recipe for margaritas that would emerge stable and semifrozen, just like Slurpees or soft-serve ice cream. (Sugar is the secret ingredient.) The rest is history – the new frozen cocktail really hit the spot with heat-parched Texas restaurant patrons, and because Martinez never got a patent on his innovation, restaurants and bars across the state were soon serving their own versions of frozen margaritas to thirsty consumers.

That original retrofitted Slurpee machine from Mariano's Hacienda has now joined other American innovations in the Smithsonian. It was replaced by several machines designed specifically for the production of frozen margaritas, now a regular feature in just about any Texas Mexican restaurant with a liquor license. Most restaurant drink recipes are carefully guarded secrets, and as with all Mexican dishes, folks here have very strong opinions about where the best frozen margaritas can be found. Our favorites are made with real fruit juice (or, in some cases, purees of fruits such as mango, strawberry, or avocado) and as little sugar as possible, rather than the telltale, bright green, artificially flavored mixes. Some of our favorite frozen margaritas can be found at the restaurants listed here. – V.B.W.

Fonda San Miguel

2330 W. North Loop, 459-4121
www.fondasanmiguel.com
Try the mango frozen margarita here.

Curra's Grill

614 E. Oltorf, 444-0012
www.currasgrill.com
The only place in town with an avocado frozen margarita.

Manuel's

310 Congress, 472-7555
10201 Jollyville Rd., 345-1042
www.manuels.com

Güero's Taco Bar

1412 S. Congress, 447-7688
www.guerostacobar.com

Texas Chili Parlor

1409 Lavaca, 472-2828
www.cactushill.com/tcp

The Cedar Door

201 Brazos, 473-3712
www.cedardooraustin.com
Also famous for its Mexican Martini.

Nuevo León

1501 E. Sixth, 479-0097
www.nuevoleoninaustin.com

Pecan Pie

"Pecan" is from an Algonquian word meaning a nut requiring a stone to crack, but that native tribe obviously wasn't familiar with the modern paper-shell hybrids. The tree is native to the South Central United States and grows all the way from Illinois to Veracruz, Mexico. Pecan production first started as a commercial operation by merely gathering native nuts and selling them to the highest bidder. Texas native pecans were shipped to Europe for sale as early as 1840, and today, Texas averages 60 mil­lion pounds of pecans annually, divided equally between natives and orchard-grown hybrids. Texas is the largest producer of native pecans and second only to Georgia in the production of hybrid varieties.

The nut is so popular in Texas that in 1919 the Texas Legislature made the pecan the state tree. In 1909, Gov. James S. Hogg asked that a pecan tree be planted as his headstone so the nuts could be sent all over Texas to be planted, making it a "land of trees." Some call the pecan the miracle tree, producing not only good strong wood for furniture and cooling shade in the heat of summer but also nuts that can reduce cholesterol. Majestic in the landscape, it produces a wood quite worthy for barbecuing, it keeps our seniors out of trouble (by gathering and cracking nuts), but more importantly, the pecan makes a damn fine pie.

A Texas pecan pie should have a rich, flaky crust, and the filling needs to be primarily nuts and not just a bunch of goopy gelatinized filling with a thin layer of nuts on top. It should taste like roasted pecans, with a buttery brown-sugar flavor that isn't too sweet. It should be served by someone friendly who has either a drawl, a twang, or both. And if you're lucky, it will be warm, with a scoop of Blue Bell Homemade Vanilla nestled next to it. For great local versions, try these. – M.V.

The Old Pecan St. Cafe

310 E. Sixth, 478-2491
www.oldpecanstcafe.com
The only pie the restaurant makes.

Texas Pie Kitchen

9702 Ochiltree Dr., 491-5227
www.texaspiekitchen.com
Great pies from a nonprofit opening a pie shop to employ and train neighborhood folks with barriers to employment.

R.O.'s Outpost BBQ

22112 Hwy. 71 W., Spicewood, 512/264-1169
www.rosoutpost.com
Kathy Osban's pies are the stuff of legend!

Texas Pie Co.

Place orders at 491-5227 or www.texaspiecompany.com

Wimberley Pie Co.

13619 RR 12, Wimberley, 512/847-9462
www.wimberleypie.com

Blue Bell Ice Cream

Texas' own Blue Bell is the third most popular ice cream in the country, but it's sold in only 16 states. That speaks volumes about the loyalty of its customers and the quality of the ice cream. Blue Bell began in 1907, down the road not far south of Austin in a little town called Brenham. A group of local farmers were blessed with too much cream and decided to open a butter-churning operation, and the Brenham Creamery Co. was born. With more milk came the decision to add ice cream to the mix, and soon the company was delivering by horse and wagon to local customers. In 1930, that little German-American creamery decided to name itself after a local wildflower, the Texas Bluebell (Eustoma grandiflorum).

Now Blue Bell has four plants, one in Okla­homa, one in Alabama, and two in Brenham. The milk from 50,000 Jersey and Holstein cows from dairies within 200 miles of Brenham is delivered every day. That milk produces about 50 different rotating flavors a year – a core list of 17 permanent flavors, plus others changing region to region, based on what is seasonal. The ice cream is made in rows of 60-gallon, small-batch freezers, and the company's goal, according to President Emeritus Howard Kruse, is "to fill our customers up on taste, not on fat and sugar." Blue Bell still makes half gallons, and the ice cream isn't pumped full of air like its competitors'. Blue Bell is so good that LBJ used to load up the galley freezers of Air Force One to haul it back to D.C., and in 1995 Atlantis shuttle astronauts insisted it be launched with them into space.

An essential piece of travel gear while in Austin is a spoon, since Blue Bell is sold in many convenience stores, and you never know when you might need a fix. Word: The new Mocha Madness flavor is deliciously addictive! For more civilized tasting, there are several Central Austin spots that serve Blue Bell. – M.V.

Austin Hilton

500 E. Fourth, 482-8000
www1.hilton.com

Shady Grove

1624 Barton Springs Rd., 474-9991
www.theshadygrove.com

Threadgill's

6416 N. Lamar, 451-5440
301 W. Riverside, 472-9304
www.threadgills.com

Big Top Candy Shop

1706 S. Congress, 462-2220
www.myspace.com/bigtopcandyshop

Tiff's Treats

1806 Nueces, 473-2600
11011 Research, 349-2200
www.cookiedelivery.com/austin