That Velveeta is a part of the American Regional Cuisine called Tex-Mex is anathema to many of my friends in the food world. I have long defended Velveeta as the best ingredient for queso and enchiladas, and those on the other side have argued that “authentic Mexican food” in Texas doesn’t include processed cheese. [...]
 
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Food TV would be a cool thing to do. Mess around in the kitchen–take a few videos. Eat good. What could be better? Meet food TV mega-producer Irene Wong. After Irene Wong produced half a dozen hits for the Food Network, she went independent and started her own production company, IW Productions. These days, she spends nine months a year on the road shooting 6 days a week for a grueling 12 hours a day. Irene and her crew came to El Real Tex-Mex on Saturday to shoot a segment for Unique Eats on the Cooking Channel. Irene and company got there at 4 AM! That’s one hour after we close on Friday night. Chef Bryan Caswell and I were asked to arrive at the leisurely hour of 6 AM. Irene’s gang had already lit the entire kitchen and were testing equipment when we got there. They had Caswell wired up with a microphone before he got a cup of coffee in his mouth. read more Irene Wong Shoots El Real » 
What a year it was at the hot sauce contest–the temperature was 111°F at 5 pm, just 1 degree short of Austin’s all time record high of 112! And still somewhere in the neighborhood of 10,000 people showed up.   Photo by Laurie Smith The Tex-Mex Cookbook challenged those food writers who have characterized Tex-Mex as bastardized Mexican food and made the case that Tex-Mex is actually an American Regional Cuisine. What a thrill for me to get involved in El Real Tex-Mex Cafe, a restaurant based on that premise and on my [...]  UNITED TASTES Rapping About Tamales and Deportation Photo by Axel Koester for The New York Times Chingo Bling enjoys a taco dinner before performing at the Key Club in West Hollywood. By JOHN T. EDGE Published: May 24, 2011 Chingo Bling talks tamales with John T. [...] 
Monday June 20 is the date of my next Tex-Mex Cooking Class. We’ll be making chalupas, nachos, crispy tacos and of course puffy tacos and puffy chips. We’ll also take a shot at some Taco Truck Tacos. Class size is limited to 12. The ticket price is $100 and includes dinner catered by [...]  Chicken Puffy Tacos at El Real Back in August of last year I posted an item about the Tex-Mex puffy taco. We were building the menu of El Real Tex-Mex Cafe at the time. In the process we sampled a great many puffy tacos in hopes of perfecting our own. It took a whole lot of trial and error, but when we opened we had our puffy taco ready. If you haven’t tried it yet, I invite you to check it out and tell me how it rates compared to the greats.
The puffy tacos at Sammy’s Mexican Restaurant in La Vernia are among the best I’ve had. They were a lot sturdier than most. As you are probably aware, the biggest problem with puffy tacos is the lack of structural integrity. read more The Making of a Puffy Taco »
At $2, I couldn’t resist this basket of red serranos I found in the stalls behind Canino’s on Airline. My usual recipe for pickling jalapeños calls for 15, but since the serranos were around half the size, I used 30 of them. The escabeche came out very hot with a little of that ripe red chile sweetness. Just the thing with an Easter ham and Easter egg salad sandwich. Recipe after the jump: read more Pickled Red Serrano Recipe » 
Anthony Bourdain made some snarky comments about the cheesiness of Tex-Mex while speaking in Houston last year. Strange that Bourdain is comfortable condemning our home food while he flies around the world preaching tolerance for all manner of foreign fare. (I’ve tried Laotian food too, Tony. Hard to swallow, huh?)  
We couldn’t figure out what to put on the bathroom doors instead of Men and Women. Hombres and Mujeres sounds a little formal. So we called our buddy Chingo Bling. He suggested Tejanos and Tejanitas. The place looks like a restaurant now. We are testing recipes, burning in equipment and training waiters. I’ll [...] |
  
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