Innholdsfortegnelse for November 2015 i Texas Highways Magazine

STEPPING INTO THE BRIGHTLY COLORED DISPLAY AREA OF the Melissa Guerra Latin Kitchen Market in San Antonio was like entering into the kitchen of a good friend, albeit one whose culinary expertise far exceeded that of my wife Laura and me. The giant tamale steamer pots and the hand-painted Talavera ceramic ware made us long to host our own colorful dinner party back home in McAllen, which was precisely why we’d planned this trip. We were hoping to learn to cook like Melissa Guerra, the store’s namesake and owner, who is also the author of our family’s all-time favorite cookbook, Dishes from the Wild Horse Desert. Our journey had really begun several months earlier, when we discovered Guerra’s book in the cooking section of our local library. Laura and I…

NOT LONG AGO, THE TINY TOWN OF HYE WAS merely a curiosity for travelers between Johnson City and Fredericksburg on US 290. But a handful of entrepreneurs and winemakers are reshaping this no-stoplight community into a Hill Country destination of its own. And the epicenter of the scene is the Hye Market Restaurant and Tasting Room, set in a historic post office building that’s been the heart of the community for generations. Jason Cook opened the Hye Market in 2012 after purchasing the package store inside the old Hye General Store and Post Office. Working with his friend Chris Brundrett—the Chris of the nearby William Chris Vineyards—Cook transformed the space into a “restaurant, wine stop, and growler house.” Their goal is to revitalize Hye and counter the town’s drive-by punch…

Asking readers for their favorite comfort foods seems a lot like asking someone to name a favorite grandchild— the answers frequently come in a flood of options, as they have since we put out the call early this year. It’s nearly impossible to name one place for a great piece of pie when you love several, right? In your travels across the bountiful culinary map that is the great state of Texas, you’ve made profound dining discoveries while also falling in love, again and again, with tried-and-true edible legends. When we asked you to tell us about your favorite barbecue, burgers, chicken-fried steak, kolaches, fish, mac and cheese, pie, and Tex-Mex, thousands of you rose to the occasion. You took to Facebook and our website to share your comfort food…

The most popular dish among cowboys driving cattle to market, the chicken-fried steak began as a simple pounded steak—usually a cheap cut that the chuck-wagon cook tenderized with a good walloping—that was cloaked in flour, salt, and pepper, and then fried in a skillet. If milk were available, the steak would be dipped in the liquid before battering and frying. Today’s version hasn’t changed too much in theory, though cooks sometimes use heavy cream instead of milk, add paprika or other spices to the seasoning mix, or serve the steak with chili or a fried egg instead of cream gravy. Some fancy restaurants make this Texas standard with rib-eye or another high-quality cut of beef. Readers nearly unanimously picked a near-West Texas café as serving their favorite version, but restaurants…

IN THE DAYS BEFORE REFRIGERATION AND air-conditioning, East Texans relished sugarcane syrup for sweet relief from their arduous lifestyle. They used the thick, homemade syrup to slather on flapjacks, glaze hams, and sweeten gingerbread. Farmers grew the cane—a 15-foot tall, bamboo-like grass—in quarter-acre patches along creek beds and river bottoms, and they gathered as neighbors to harvest and cook the cane into syrup. Though mass-produced syrup eventually displaced this pioneer custom, the East Texas town of Henderson celebrates traditional sugarcane syrup annually with the Heritage Syrup Festival. The 27th edition of the festival, taking place November 14, will feature demonstrations of traditional syrup making and other pioneer skills, such as broom making, wood carving, soap making, candle making, blacksmithing, and basket weaving. About 40 folk artists make and sell their…

GOT SOMETHING TO SAY? A wonderful piece about a place I know well and call home—South Texas and the beautiful resacas along our border. I have spent countless hours with friends along (and in) these oxbows. ANTONIO O. GARZA, U.S. ambassador to Mexico 2002-2009 OUR FAVORITE SOCIAL MEDIA OF THE MONTH... Here’s a magazine that gets the magic of the State Fair [October]. Thanks @TexasHighways and Michelle Burgess. Mitchell Glieber, @SpinnerMG The thing you’ll discover and love most about Texas is that you never know what you will find. Pamela McGhee Brown, Abilene Follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram Forty-year Fan In the early ’70s I was in an office in Houston to pick up a permit for a trucking company. There was Texas Highways, one of your first…

AFTER COOKING GUMBO for 30 years, I’ve developed some rituals when it comes to tailoring my recipe to the seasons. In the cold part of the year, I make oyster gumbo, because that’s when oysters are in season in Texas (typically November through April). In the hot weather, blue crabs are plentiful, and so I make summer gumbo with crabs. Of course, the main ingredient in any season is shrimp. I was living in Austin in the late 1980s when I first learned to cook gumbo from the recipe titled “Cajun Seafood Gumbo” in the 1984 masterpiece Paul Prudhomme’s Louisiana Kitchen. The recipe called for fresh, never-been-frozen, heads-on shrimp, and authentic Cajun andouille sausage, a coarseground sausage usually made with pork. Neither was available at the supermarket at the time.…

The DISTANCE to MOUNT VERNON Dallas 100 miles; 1.75 hours Houston 265 miles; 4.25 hours Austin 300 miles; 4.5 hours Big Spring 395 miles; 5.75 hours Brownsville 650 miles; 9.5 hours M.L. EDWARDS & CO. MERcantile on Mount Vernon’s downtown square could double as a museum. Wooden cabinets that once displayed hardware items line one wall of the 1900 building, and an original freight elevator, operated by a hand-pull rope, still reaches the second floor, which used to be a funeral home. “This was a place where you could buy things in ‘ones,’ not mass-produced packaging like today,” says proprietor Mike Edwards, who stocks gift s and collectibles in the two-story, redbrick structure that his grandfather built. In many ways, Mount Vernon, located about 100 miles northeast of Dallas, embodies this authentic old-fashioned charm. Around…

Few topics in the Texas food world get people more excited than barbecue. First and foremost, it has to be true Texas-style ’cue and not any of that nonsense from beyond the Lone Star State lines. Smoked low and slow in a pit over a wood fire (whether that’s hickory, mesquite, pecan, or oak is fodder for another whole round of lively dialogue), Texas barbecue is a breed of cuisine unto itself. Its history and various styles trace to German settlers in Central Texas, ranchers and vaqueros in South Texas, and to African-American pitmasters in East Texas. Flavoring the layers of discussion are the meats available, from beef brisket and ribs to jalapeño sausage, hot links, and pork ribs, shoulder, and chops. Although readers cast votes for a number of…

PRAIRIES AND LAKES >Dallas Pollock’s Blind Spots Abstract expressionist Jackson Pollock (1912-1956) achieved fame in the late 1940s with his distinctive “drip paintings.” At the Dallas Museum of Art, Jackson Pollock: Blind Spots explores what came next: Pollock’s “black paintings,” a series of black enamel and oil paintings on untreated canvas created from 1951 to 1953. In its only United States showing, the exhibit includes 31 black paintings; works on paper made with enamel, ink, and watercolor; and five sculptures. The works immerse audiences in “Pollock’s complete oeuvre and shed new light on the experimentation and ingenuity that has become synonymous with his practice,” the museum explains. November 20-March 20. www.dma.org. HILL COUNTRY >New Braunfels Lindheimer’s Texas Known as the “Father of Texas Botany,” Ferdinand J. Lindheimer (1801-1879) discovered a…

30º 35’ 17.33” N 103º 53’ 40.80” W The 75-mile Davis Mountains Scenic Loop showcases an outstanding, biologically diverse ecosystem and passes many of the area’s attractions, including Fort Davis National Historic Site, Davis Mountains State Park, Davis Mountains Preserve (open specific weekends), and the McDonald Observatory (program reservations required after January 1). The drive—Texas 118 to Texas 166 to Texas 17—takes about 1.5 hours, leaving plenty of time to visit several of the attractions. Watch for picnic areas and pull-outs along the way to stop and enjoy the scenery. For more information, visit www.fortdavis.com/attractions.html.…

RUNNING ERRANDS IN DALLAS, Mom and I realize we’re both thirsty and famished. Our busy day, with its lengthy to-do list, doesn’t allow for the leisurely lunch we typically enjoy. Neither of us, it bears noting, ever settles for junk food in place of an honest meal. And then a light bulb pops on in my head. “Mom, we’re going to Start,” I tell her, remembering a place friends have raved about. START is in Dallas, at 4814 Greenville Ave. (214/265-1411) and 4023 Lemmon Ave. (214/599-7873). See www.startrestaurant.net . “Start what?” she asks. “It’s healthy food. You’ll love it,” I tell her. “I’ve always loved healthy food. I taught you to love it, too,” she responds, looking at me with curiosity. “Am I missing something?” Rather than play a round of…

Texas comfort foods come in an amazing array of flavors. They also trigger a wide range of emotions. From the first bite of mom’s banana pudding with Nilla wafers at the family reunion to the welcome-home twang of cheese enchiladas in chili gravy after a trip out of state, Texas comfort food speaks to your soul. Thanksgiving is not Thanksgiving without your particular comfort-food favorites. We might agree about some of them, like the church lady’s homemade tamales. And we get into family feuds over others, like saltines spread with parisa (Texan steak tartare) and those green beans with the cream of mushroom soup and canned onions. To each his own, as the saying goes. And of course, there are those who dismiss the entire category of comfort food as…

Notice there is no category called “Dessert.” No category for cake, cookies, ice cream, or candy. Texans are very serious about one confection, and that’s pie. Give us a good pecan, peach, chocolate meringue, coconut cream, or buttermilk pie, and we’re a happy bunch. If there’s a great apricot fried pie in the mix, even better. Great pie, the kind made by hand well before dawn, is the stuff on which family traditions are built. Bakeries on town squares that make some 400 pies to order and have them ready to pick up the day before Thanksgiving—those are the places we patronize, no matter the season. We never tire of talking about pie, either: Readers’ Facebook discussions on this topic generated nearly 600 shares and 600 comments on the Texas…