Home > Relish Austin > Archives > 2008 > September
September 2008
USDA requires new labeling on food
For those of you who pay attention to labels — which you should be doing if you’re watching how much you spend on groceries or are in the least bit interested in nutrition — get ready to start seeing some changes.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture is now requiring retailers to label the country of origin on certain products.
The so-called COOL law, six years in the making, says that retailers have to reveal the origin of raw, not processed, products, including raw beef, veal, lamb, pork, chicken, goat, wild and farm-raised fish and shellfish, fresh or frozen fruits and vegetables, peanuts, pecans, macadamia nuts and whole ginseng.
If the food is cooked, smoked, roasted or if it is an ingredient in a bigger dish or is otherwise substantially changed, no label is required, which upsets some consumer groups such as Food and Water Watch.
“The rules also contain a massive loophole that will allow large quantities of food to go without labeling, which, given the recent scandals about the safety of imported food, is unacceptable,” says Wenonah Hauter, Executive Director of Food and Water Watch.
The definition of “processed” creates the loophole, Hauter says. More than 60 percent of pork, the majority of frozen vegetables, an estimated 95 percent of peanuts, pecans, and macadamia nuts, and multi-ingredient fresh produce items such as fruit salads and salad mixes are considered processed and therefore won’t require labeling.
There is a six-month grace period to comply, but keep your eyes peeled for these country-of-origin labels. It will be interesting to see where our food — or at least some of it — is really coming from.
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Eat a local lunch today, dinner tomorrrow
Eat Local Week isn’t until December, but in a place like Austin, every week can be eat local week if you get in sync with local farmers and organizations that are pushing local foods.
Today: Grab a local lunch between 11 a.m. and 2 p.m. at the South Congress Market in the Ragsdale Center at St. Edward’s University.
The university, which has a reputation for serving delicious, locally sourced food, is participating in Bon Appetit’s Eat Local Challenge by serving honey-rosemary glazed chicken with sweet pepper confetti rice and baked summer squash-goat cheese gratin made with ingredients from Wimberley, Dripping Springs, McDade, El Campo and several farms right here in Austin.
(Gez, that chicken dish sounds so good, I think I might head down Congress for lunch there. If you want to meet up, shoot me an e-mail or message me on Twitter.)
Tomorrow: The state department of agriculture has been gearing up for the Go Texan Restaurant Round-Up on Wednesday, which means that at dozens of restaurants around town, you can enjoy a meal that (partially) came from or was raised on Texas soil.
Another bonus: A portion of the cost of each meal is going back to the community in the form of a donation to Caritas or the Capital Area Food Bank of Texas, which is where the next Appetizers with Addie monthly food meetup is taking place at 5 p.m. on October 9. If you’re interested in coming, you can RSVP on Facebook.
Local musicians Kelly Willis and Bruce Robison are helping promote Wednesday’s stateside dining out day with this video shot at the Sunset Valley Farmers’ Market recently.
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Aspiring UK chef dies after eating chili
An aspiring UK chef, who had just passed a physical for work, bet his girlfriend that he could make the hottest chili. He suffered heart failure and died the next day, the Telegraph reports.
His girlfriend says that he woke up at 2:30 a.m. and was scratching himself all over. Officials are doing a toxicology report to find out if the chili was linked to the death.
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ACL food court is a-rockin’
I showed up to serve tacos at the El Chilito booth at noon today, but there were only a handful of people eating so early in the day. They were prepared though: vats and vats of filling ready to go and plenty of still-energetic staff to work the customers.
Oh how things change in just a few hours.
I went back to the booth just awhile ago and things were hoppin’, but not like they were over at Hudson’s. As you’d expect, the lines for chicken cones were already starting to form, and the cheery staff couldn’t be happier that business was bustling (Imagine the tips they are looking at if every customer leaves a dollar. Heck, even if every other customer left a dollar, those Hudson kids are leaving with pockets overflowing at the end of each night.)
Hudson’s chef and owner Jeff Blank was in good spirits, too, not just because his booth was doing well but because everything seemed to be running smoothly with the food court as a whole. He’s been leading the vendors for years now, and each of them that I talked to couldn’t say enough about how helpful he’s been in coordinating this massive event.
Aquarelle chef and co-owner Terry Wilson, who says she was up all night with her son who has a pretty bad earache, said despite not getting much sleep, everything was going well at her restaurant’s inaugural booth.
Click here to view photos of the food offerings at ACL.
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Suzanne Santos: What’s in Your Fridge Friday?
You might know Suzanne Santos as the woman at the downtown farmers’ market with the fruit on her hat. Or maybe you met her once and she told you about how the organization she works for, the Sustainable Food Center, has been putting them on for five and a half years. Or maybe she pointed you in the direction of the farmer who had the last few tomatoes of the season.
Either way, if you’re in Austin and you’ve made any attempt to eat locally, you’ve probably crossed paths with Suzanne. When she’s not working behind the scenes at the SFC, whose programs benefits tens of thousands of people of all income levels in Central Texas, she’s working up a sweat side-by-side with the dozens of farmers and vendors who sell at the market at Fourth and Guadalupe streets downtown every Saturday morning.
Suzanne also recently took the plunge into food blogging in what she has aptly named The Dirt.
But she’s not only the market director, she’s also a customer, filling her fridge with fresh fruits and vegetables, homemade cheese and sustainably raised meat. Everything but the oil, she says.
Now if she can just figure out how to get olives to grow in Central Texas.
Small Gala apples from Bat Creek Farm (now out for the season-apples came, and went, quickly), watermelon from Reese Farm (Bar W Farm still has some Ice Box Sugarbabies as of 9/20), a small lovely mix of peppers, squash and eggplant from numerous farms (I like to make caponata right now), a smidgen of Remember When Dairy whole milk (it’s Friday, I’m going to get some more on Saturday), some of the same dairy’s buttermilk
There’s some ground Longhorn beef from Rasco Farm bought at the Wednesday market, and Watson Farm’s Blackberry Jelly (I also carry Harvest Time Farmstand’s chipotle raspberry too). A jar of homemade pesto, made from local garlic, basil, parmesan cheese and pecans from the market.
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Batali, Paltrow eat their way through Spain
I’ve been waiting all summer for Friday. No, not because the Austin City Limits Festival gets underway (although that is reason enough to get excited), but because the PBS series “Spain…On the Road Again” starts on KLRU at 10 p.m. (A note: The series moves to 9 p.m. on Fridays starting October 3.)
The show, which of course features Willie Nelson singing the theme song, started as an excuse for buddies Mario Batali and Mark Bittman, cookbook author and food writer for the New York Times, to eat their way through a country so rich in food tradition that Anthony Bourdain must have been a little jealous he didn’t get invited.
Then Gwyneth Paltrow, a Spaniard at heart after living there in high school, asked if she could tag along (executives at first didn’t think it was a good idea). Spanish actress Claudia Bassols was asked to complete the foursome, and they took off on a dreamy four-month journey, hitting the best food stops that Spain has the offer. Imagine it: Chatting with Frank Gehry outside the Guggenheim in Bilbao. Digging for clams in the waterways of Galicia. Imbibing with Ferran Adriá of El Bulli.
Maybe one day they’ll invite me on a road trip through what is unabashedly my favorite place in this world (OK, besides Texas :)). Until then I’ll just happily watch from my couch.
So, grab a bottle of Rioja or Albariño and whip up a paella or some simple pan con tomate and join me on a little (televised) Spanish adventure.
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How to take better food pictures
At dinner at Uchi last night (mmmmm, feels good to say that), we kept seeing someone’s flash going off at a table beside us. Someone was shooting the beautiful plates with — gasp — a full flash that not only was annoying to guests but was guaranteed to make chef Tyson Cole’s exquisitely presented food look flat and unappetizing.
With so many food bloggers these days, food photography — and the art behind it, food styling — has taken off. There are entire Web sites dedicated to sharing photos of food (Tastespotting is the big one), and blogs such as MattBites and Still Life With showcase what goes on behind-the-scenes of food styling.
So how can you get photos of food to look as good as these professionals? Lolo of VeganYumYum posted a really helpful list of tips this week on how to make your own food photography better.
A few of the highlights:
- Use nice, small dishes.
- NEVER use flash.
- Don’t get discouraged if you don’t have an expensive camera. Using the manual settings on even the crappiest point-and-shoot will allow you to take better photos.
- Unclutter the table or background and use natural light, preferably from a window off to the side of whatever you’re shooting.
- Take lots of photos.
- Learn F-stops (or apertures) so you can take a photo with a fuzzy background like the cool kids do.
- Learn the rule of thirds to help compose balanced shots.
Happy shooting!
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Still no Gulf oysters
A $300 million blow to be exact.
Of the 29 harvest areas in Louisiana, only four have reopened, but that doesn’t mean they are harvesting oysters. Carol Huntsberger, co-owner of Quality Seafood in Austin, says that some of the areas may need replanting first. This is the first in time history that all of the harvesting areas were closed for so long.
Quality Seafood hasn’t had Gulf oysters for sale since Gustav hit at the beginning of September.
And even though the harvest areas are starting to reopen, she says they won’t know if they’ll get any of them for at least a few days. None of the Texas harvesting areas have reopened.
Quality Seafood is selling pre-shucked West Coast oysters now instead.
“It’s not looking promising,” Huntsberger says. “The saddest part is these are some of the same oyster harvesters who were hit by Hurricane Katrina. I wonder if they are going to open their doors again.”
Ed note: To read more about the effects of Hurricane Ike on one oyster man, check out this post on Eating Our Words by the Houston Press’s Robb Walsh.
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Bistro fare and a broken collarbone at Starlite
The restaurant was showing off Hines’ new(ish) upscale bistro menu that is served on the lower dining level (the fine dining menu is reserved for upstairs, where the tables are still covered in white tablecloths) for both lunch and dinner.
So what exactly is upscale bistro? The menu, served from 11 a.m. to 11 p.m., includes a handful of well-made and flavorful sandwiches, pappardelle carbonara and a pork tenderloin. You could hear the entire room of food writers whispering about the lovely duck confit and warm frisee ($16) and the New York strip with fries ($17). Two grilled sandwiches — grilled cheese with brioche ($8) and croque madame with Gruyere, ham and and topped with an egg ($11) — were comfort food at its best, and there’s nothing that makes me happier than seeing a bed of well-seasoned lentils (with roasted salmon, $14) cleared even without the watchful, health-conscious eye of your mother in site.
As for appetizers, my table of food bloggers enjoyed every last light and fluffy potato gnocchi ($6), which rested happily on basil pesto. It was hard to tell if the Caesar salad ($7) had any dressing on it, but the caprese salad ($8) was well-dressed, even if the tomatoes weren’t as bright and flavorful as you’d hope.
A spoonful of rich chocolate mousse rounded out the delicious meal, solidifying Starlite as a not-your-average Warehouse restaurant.
Just make sure you order the gnocchi.
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Show your farmers’ market love
High winds from Hurricane Ike last weekend were enough to prompt the Sustainable Food Center to cancel last Saturday’s downtown farmers’ market. The Sunset Valley Market was open, but not nearly as many vendors or shoppers showed up.
Suzanne Santos, director of the SFC, says farmers lost more than $15,000 in sales because the market was canceled, which was the first time the market had done so since it started more than five years ago.
You can bet that tomorrow morning will be as crisp as this morning, which makes buying fresh produce and good from locals even sweeter.
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Reader Scott Schnelle: What’s in Your Fridge Friday?
Over the course of a month this summer, Austin360.com reader Scott Schnelle took photos of his and his roommate’s refrigerator every few days, which gives us a pretty cool glimpse into how quickly (or slowly in the case of some of those leftovers) move in and out of a fridge.
Schnelle, who tells me he may be moving to Austin soon, promises to make a batch of this heavenly coffee and dark chocolate ravioli he recently invented: Creamy, bright orange lines zig-zagging light, brown ravioli with dark black oozing out the side, sprinkled with chopped pecans with a crispy coat of egg white, vanilla extract, maple syrup, and muscovado sugar. A heavy whipping cream sauce with pumpkin and clove drizzled over the top. Topped with sweet coated pecans with bits of undissolved raw sugar.
What three things are always in your fridge? spinach, cottage cheese, eggs
What’s your favorite condiment? sriracha, I especially love to mix it with sour cream
What’s your dreamiest midnight snack? bowl of yogurt with a banana and a huge dollop of smuckers natural peanut butter
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Your A-List: Best Brunch
Trudy’s Texas Star, best known for Mexican martinis and Tex-Mex, has wooed Austinites with the best all around weekend breakfast, too, winning the A-List poll for Best Brunch with 29 percent.
Chilaquiles, migas, as well as pancakes, waffles, French toast, biscuits and gravy and omelettes greet diners on weekends from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. at the campus (409 W. 30th St.), south (901-C Little Texas Lane) and north (8820 Burnet Road) locations. Did I mention they serve mimosas, Bloody Marys and Greyhounds, too? The north location has a buffet-style brunch as well in case you want a little bit of everything.
Others receiving votes
- Z’ Tejas, 14 percent
- Galaxy Cafe, 12 percent
- Moonshine, 11 percent
- Chez Zee, 8 percent
- Hyde Park Bar & Grill, 7 percent
- The Omelettry, 7 percent
- Fonda San Miguel, 6 percent
- Taverna, 3 percent
- Manuel’s, 2 percent
Write-ins: 620 Cafe and Bakery, Elgin’s City Cafe, Cuatro’s, East Side Cafe, El Arroyo, El Chile, Enoteca, Four Seasons, Kerbey Lane Cafe, Lamberts, Mother’s, South Congress Cafe
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Seduction by casserole
Because the cool(er) weather in Austin has everybody jumping for joy in their wool socks and trying to remember where they stashed the tea bags last February, I thought a killer casserole dish might be a good way to honor the break from the Texas heat. (I made the mistake of baking last week, forgetting that it raised the temperature of my entire house by about 10 degrees.)
Seduction
1 pound cavatelli pasta
1/4 cup olive oil
2 cloves garlic (you might want to skip if you’re actually trying to seduce someone)
1 large white onion
1/2 cup milk (low fat or skim is fine, not that it really matters at this point)
1/2 pound sharp cheddar, cubed or shredded
1/2 pound white cheddar, cubed or shredded
1/2 pound Gruyere, cubed or shredded
1/2 pound fresh mozzarella, cubed
1/2 cup grated Parmesan
1 bag (10 oz) Cascadian Farm frozen organic sweet corn
2 plum tomatoes, thinly sliced
salt, pepper
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Parboil the pasta, drain and set aside.
In a large pot over medium heat, saute the garlic and onion in 2 to 3 tablespoons of the olive oil. When the onions begin to brown, reduce the heat to low, add the milk, and stir. Add both of the cheddars and the Gruyere while continuing to stir. When the cheeses begin to melt, add the pasta, stirring until the pasta is well coated. Add half of the Parmesan (1/4 cup) and stir. Add the corn while continuing to stir (it should go in frozen). Salt and pepper to taste. Add the mozzarella and stir.
When thoroughly mixed, transfer to a 2 3/4-quart buttered or greased casserole dish and bake, uncovered, for 35 to 40 minutes or until bubbly.
Remove from oven and cover with the sliced tomatoes and the rest of the Parmesan cheese. Bake for about 15 more minutes. Let stand 10 minutes before eating.
Who else has a seductive dish to share?
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Statesman newsroom: What’s in Your Fridge Friday?
Here at the Austin American-Statesman, we pride ourselves on good journalism. We’re so busy, in fact, reporting, writing, editing and designing that keeping our newsroom fridge clean and organized often falls to the end of our to-do lists. A few weeks back, a few of us (un)fortunate enough to sit within a waft’s reach of the refrigerator noticed an unpleasant odor that signaled it had been far too many weeks since the last clean-out.
I couldn’t help but sneak a picture before the offending leftovers were tossed out.
In addition to her sports designing duties and with the help of a handful of other dedicated volunteers, Lucritia Edgerton lovingly coordinates these purges, which is a thankless and downright disgusting task. (When I was pregnant and supposed to be avoiding unnecessary molds, she refused to let me fulfill my purging duties one month, the kind soul that she is.)
What three things are always in the fridge?
Yogurt, leftovers from Whole Foods, cases of Mountain Dew, and the freezer is always stocked with frozen dinners to last an entire winter.
What’s the most disgusting item you’ve thrown away?
Ugh, strawberries that had liquified. Seriously. I had to get a paper plate and squeegee them out rather than pick them up. I was a little impressed at the level of decomposition. And that’s totally why I have rubber gloves just for the fridge clean.
What’s the weirdest thing you’ve ever found in there?
There was a baby bottle full of milk in the top of the door, and I just left it there. In the fridge purge three months later, it was mysteriously still there… I’m wondering if one of our frazzled mothers didn’t have a container for her coffee creamer and just grabbed the nearest thing.
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Oyster Club dinner cancelled
Hurricane Ike has prompted organizers to cancel the first Oyster Club fundraiser event in Kyle. The event, which is a $100-a-plate fundraiser for the Rude Mechanicals performance group, will now take place from 5 p.m. to 8 p.m. on Sunday, Oct. 12, at The Plant at Kyle.
Marla Camp, publisher of Edible Austin, one of the event’s sponsors, said optimistically that the benefit of moving it is that the middle of October is the peak season for Texas Gulf oyster.
Plus, if you couldn’t make Saturday’s date, now you have a few weeks to sign up for the Oct. 12 party at the Plant.
Find more area cancellations and volunteer opportunities and submit your own.
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Hurricane prep, not panic
Houston Chronicle food writer Alison Cook offers her take on preparing for Hurricane Ike, but what should we be doing here in Central Texas?
I’ll make no claims to have experienced anything close to the conditions meteorologist Bob Rose described in his live chat today about a tropical storm in Central Texas. (Living as a child in Florida gave me a small sense of what to do when hurricane danger looms, but it was growing up in tornado alley that taught me how to deal with spending a flashlit night under a stairwell.)
What I’m figuring out is that just because winds won’t top 100 mph and there aren’t levees to be topped doesn’t mean we can completely relax. Widespread power outages are a real possibility, the greatest effect of which isn’t being unable to use your microwave. If 75 mph winds barrel through the area this weekend and knock down some key power lines, you don’t want to be stuck without some dry goods and extra water.
Even if you keep your refrigerator closed, you’ve got about four hours before you have to start worrying about food going bad. As for your freezer, you have up to two days as long as you don’t open it.
And if things get worse, you can imagine how crazy the stores will be come Friday afternoon (this is the part I remember from the turbulent summer of 2005).
I’m not one to peddle hysteria, so don’t go out and clean out your local grocery store of water and granola bars, but it never hurts to have extra canned goods, dried fruit, peanut butter, bread, chocolates, wine.
You know, the essentials.
While you are out buying extra supplies for your family (and pets!), pick up a few extra bottles of water, peanut butter, granola bars, canned meat with pop tops and baby diapers.
The Capital Area Food Bank of Texas is collecting supplies to help Gulf Coast evacuees in Austin (some are estimating that up to 25,000 will seek refuge here). You can drop off the supplies at the food bank at 8201 S. Congress Ave.
Also, if you know of any other volunteer opportunities or cancellations, we have a form you can fill out and a searchable database.
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Interactive guide to UT eats
We blazed through the University of Texas campus in recent weeks, and, with your help, found some of the best places to fuel this semester’s academic — and social — activities.
Which of your favorite near-campus eateries did we leave out?
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Relish San Francisco
The pull of San Francisco was too strong to resist.
Even though I’ve lived in California and have had many friends call San Francisco home, I hadn’t had the chance to visit until this past weekend. It was a two-day whirlwind, skipping most of the tourist spots, with the exception of a heavenly bike ride over the Golden Gate Bridge, and enjoying every breathtaking (literally, with all those hills) minute in the city, including some fantastic and very memorable eats.
Dense and diverse, San Francisco is one of the most quintessentially urban American cities. Its proximity to some of the most lush, verdant farmland in the country, however, means nearly constant access to fresh fruits and vegetables in the form of daily farmers’ markets in pockets of the city. On Saturday morning, we skipped the overpriced and touristy Ferry Plaza market for the closer, bustling Alemany market, where dozens of vendors were selling box after box of some of the freshest produce I’ve seen.
That you could still buy blueberries, strawberries, peaches this late in the year was surprising enough, but what really blew me away were the prices. A buck would buy you a head of celery, a pound of peaches, a pound of organic plums, 3 pounds of onions, a large bunch of herbs. A dozen eggs? $1.80. (The going rate for farm eggs in Austin is $4.) I still have a lot to learn about the economics of farmers’ markets, but these prices are easily half what you’d pay for similar produce at Austin markets, even at the height of a growing season. And mind you, this is in a city where you can’t buy a studio apartment for less than $400,000 and where a gallon of gas still costs more than $4.
With all that money we saved at the market, we ate gloriously at half a dozen places around the city: Asian-inspired potato salad and carrot soup at Arlequin, deep-dish pizza with cornmeal crust at Little Star Pizza, delicate, hand-painted chocolates at CocoaBella, gin, mint and elderberry martinis at Orbit Room, roll after delicious roll at Sushi Zone, and my favorite meal of the trip, Sunday night take out of tikkon masala, vindaloo, saag paner and samosas from a Nepalese restaurant called Metro Kathmandu.
We’re lucky enough to have access to both comparable cuisines and quality in Austin, without the wait (can you imagine waiting 30 minutes for a sandwich or an hour for sushi, plus the two hour wait to get in?) and inflated prices (well, I guess $8 martinis and $12 paninis aren’t unheard of in Central Texas these days).
Two days was just long enough to nibble on what the San Francisco food scene has to offer and was more than enough to make me want more.
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Bizarre Foods’ Andrew Zimmern: What’s in Your Fridge Friday
The new season of “Bizarre Foods” premieres at 9 p.m. on Tuesday, September 9th, and in this season, he heads 14 countries and tries nearly 300 new weird foods, many of which he helps hunt or cook, including bats, wasps, stingray and even a beating yellowfin tuna heart. It’s a tough job, but somebody’s got to do it. And Zimmern, who spent years as a chef and now works as a food writer, editor and expert, is happy to be the one slurping down unidentifiable animals parts.
Let’s just hope that when he’s home, he doesn’t have to live on sausage and Heinz ketchup alone.
What three items are always in your refrigerator? Killer mustards from Maille in Paris, Bull-Dog brand tonkatsu sauce, Crystal hot sauce from Louisiana, sheeps milk feta, cucumbers, watermelon, Diet Coke, Schweppes ginger ale, popcorn and last but not least, Ba Tempte pickles. I know that’s more than 3, but I’m on the road so much I am taking a mulligan or two on this hole.
What’s your favorite condiment? Not even close, Heinz ketchup. It’s the worlds most perfect food, and anyone who won’t cop to that is full of it.
What’s your go-to midnight snack after a long day in the kitchen/tv studio/airport? Cold Chinese food from the night before is ideal. Barring that option, my fallback is always pizza. What can I say, I’m old school.
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What’s worth buying organic?
I dabble in buying organic fruits and vegetables, and when my kid was first eating solid foods, I tried even harder to make sure what he was eating was as pesticide-free as possible. But as he got older, I stopped buying so much organic because, like those Luvs diaper commercials say, parents often live and learn, then start slacking on all the super-high standards they set for themselves.
But the problem of pesticide-laden foods is still in my mind, so I was delighted to come across this article that explains what foods are more susceptible to pesticide exposure.
These so-called “dirty dozen” fruits and veggies had the most pesticide residue in the study by the Environmental Working Group, a nonprofit research organization in Washington, D.C.
peaches apples (According to this report, 92 percent of the apples tested positive for pesticide residues. 72 percent of those had more than one type of bug-killer on their peel.) sweet bell peppers celery nectarines strawberries cherries lettuce grapes (imported) pears spinach potatoes
You don’t end up paying extra for organic fruits and veggies that are pretty clean, even in their non-organic versions.
The foods that are considered “consistently clean” are: onions avocados sweet corn (frozen) pineapples mangos sweet peas (frozen) asparagus kiwis bananas cabbage broccoli eggplants
Of course, you’re supposed to wash fruits and vegetables before eating, and peeling many of these foods can reduce the amount of pesticide exposure. If you’re shopping on a budget — and I’d love to know who isn’t these days — it’s good to know what’s worth the extra money and what’s probably OK to eat when grown conventionally.
One interesting fact I found while digging around on the EWG’s site is that fish, wild or farmed, can be labeled organic, even if mercury or PCBs are found. The problem is that the USDA hasn’t developed organic certification standards for seafood.
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Your Mama’s Kitchen
Your Mama’s Kitchen is a new column by outdoors writer Mike Leggett. He kicked off today with an article and video about making his mother’s chicken and spaghetti, which is a dish that reminds him of the nuanced details of growing up the son of a country preacher.
We all have dishes that transport us back through the decades, the kitchens, the styles, the generations. Mine are my mom’s Mexican casserole or my dad’s fish sticks with mac and cheese. Missourified Mexican and an easy weeknight standby are what got us by those busy, awkward years when my sister and I were in school and still at home for dinner most nights during the week.
Mike wants to tell the story of your family’s dish: where it started, why it brings up such strong emotions, how you’ve adapted it for your own family. If you have a dish and a story to tell, e-mail Mike or call him at 445-3995. He’d love to tell the story of your family’s most beloved dish.
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Gettin’ greasy at Cooper’s Old Time Pit Bar-B-Que in Llano
How do you improve on juicy barbecue meat served on soon-to-be-greasy paper? Let the carnivores have their pick from the pit. That’s the way they roll in Llano at Cooper’s Old Time Pit Bar-B-Que, a well-deserved perennial favorite on Texas barbecue lovers’ lists. Customers walk right up to the pit, and in true caveman style, point and grunt, indicating which ribs, sausage, brisket, pork chops or sirloin they want. (Well, grunting may be an exaggeration, but when you’re standing there in the holy presence of such fine meat, picking the right words to tell the lovely man with the tongs what you want isn’t always so easy.)
They also buck the “low and slow” theory of traditional barbecue. Rather than cook meat on low heat for a long period of time, Cooper’s rocks it cowboy style: Meat cooks close to the fire, then finishes on low heat. Also to the dismay of barbecue traditionalists, Cooper’s gives customers the option of a hefty dousing of peppery barbecue sauce after selecting the meat.
Another bonus: Free — and quite delicious — beans, available right there alongside the onions, condiments and sauce.
There will soon be a new Coopers in Central Texas: While we were stuffing ourselves with links and the juiciest brisket I think I’ve ever had, the Wooten family was putting the finishing touches on a Cooper’s in New Braunfels. It was supposed to open over Labor Day weekend, but I haven’t been able to confirm that it’s officially ready for the public.
As for the original Llano location, they are open from 10:30 a.m. to 8 p.m. Sunday through Thursday and until 9:00 p.m. on Friday and Saturday.
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