Kent Wang

I'd like to add that the Texas Monthly article has some great photos by LeAnn Mueller, granddaughter of Louie Mueller and daughter of current proprietor of Louie's, Bobby Mueller. She also has some terrific photos on the Louie Mueller website, which I might add is one of the finest restaurant websites I've ever seen.

This Saturday two friends and I got up at 6 am and drove out to Lexington to try Snow's BBQ. We arrived early around 7:30 but they were ready to serve us. I asked what the vertical smoker was for and the fellow I spoke to said brisket. That's very unorthodox. All the other meat, though, was in traditional pits, like these pork butts. The overall ambiance of the whole place is quite nice. Not as great as Louie Mueller's, about as good as Black's. The chicken was great. Not dry at all, tender and juicy, while still quite smoky. The best barbecue chicken I've had. They were out of pork ribs. The pork butt was pretty good, but definitely cooked at too high heat -- too chewy, more like roasted than smoked. Brisket was very dry. Nothing special about the rub, and I didn't feel it was especially smoky either. The sausage was also extremely dry. There was hardly any juice in it. My friend made the amateur mistake of slicing the sausage -- which you should never do because you loose all the juice this way -- but when she cut through it no juices flowed out whatsoever, the butcher paper remained quite dry. Free baked beans, rather overcooked and mushy though. Potato salad was quite good. They were out of coleslaw. Aside from the excellent chicken, this is the worst barbecue that I've had in recent memory. I've had better barbecue from places that use gas. I don't think I've ever had anything this bad from any of the top ten joints. Once I had some pretty dry brisket from Kreuz and once from John Mueller's (out of the over 30 times I've been there) but this may have been even worse than those rare occasions. My best guess is that they had some trouble with the fire that day -- maybe it got too hot and overcooked everything. Texas Monthly visited this place three times. If you add my visit, that's one miss out of four -- a pretty poor ratio. My last twenty or more visits to the top ten joints have all been consistently good to great. Maybe I just had bad luck, but I'm not planning on trying Snow's again unless a whole raft of people post good reviews. Overall, the trip was still quite nice. The chicken alone was worth the drive. We played a round of croquet at the Lexington park after eating, and the drive through the countryside is always pleasant. Maybe next week.

Assuming that Spec's has everything that you can possibly get in Texas, I'd say you don't have a lot of options. I actually rather like Old Overholt and it's way cheap, but I feel that all the other ones are not good values. I only stock WT 101 and OO at home.

http://www.wikihow.com/Get-Rid-of-Fruit-Flies

You know that Cointreau is now available in 1.75L, which I doubt the Brizard is.

Instead of an Islay, try a mezcal which is not nearly as smoky. I tried a 3:1 Monte Alban:St. Germain and thought it a much better drink than the scotch one.

Sorry Morgan, I haven't been reading very many of the Houston topics. I think Beaver's could deserve a mention. I haven't tried the other Houston picks so I can't say whether they're any better or worse. But if Lambert's in Austin is picked, then I don't see why Beaver's shouldn't. Then again, maybe Beaver's is too new? I'm currently planning to get up at 6 am on Saturday in order to get to Snow's in Lexington at 8 am when they open. Anyone else want to meet me there?

Yes, I saw the issue in newstands yesterday and was astonished at this. The articles are also available online. Considering the rest of their top five is nearly in line with my own, I will certainly be heading over to Lexington very soon. Maybe next Saturday. Their Top 50 also reveals some places I've never heard of like Mann's in Austin, and Burns and Vergie's in Houston. Missing is any mention of Cooper's in Mason, which is in my top 2. I was reminiscing the other day about John Mueller's in Austin. The cue was so great, just slightly below Louie Mueller's -- especially since Louie's makes beef ribs while John did not. But they had the best sides and sauce. I was in Louie's about a year ago where John saw me. He said he recognized me from all the times I went to his restaurant before it closed and I got a chance to shake his hand and visit for a bit. Ah, good memories...

Your rule as eGfoodblog Czarina has been a prosperous one.

Thanks so much! I'll try those out. But I noticed that both do not feature mezcal as the primary base spirit. Are there good recipes that do? Or is it like scotch and considered not as mixable for the same reasons?

You've tried a St. Germain, lime, tequila? Same proportions as a margarita?

Death & Co. has a bunch of great mezcal cocktails. To me, really one of the things that separate them from all the other bars. Does anyone have any recipes that they can post here? What mezcal do they use? I just picked up a bottle of Monte Alban and I'm liking it a lot, especially for the price. Any other good ones under $30 a bottle?

Wouldn't freezing kill the life cultures in the miso?

I'm not surprised watermelon is so popular in China. When I was growing up, our family of three (I was only five-six years old) ate one watermelon every five days or so. That seemed pretty normal for all the other families we knew. Nowadays, I eat one at the same rate -- all by myself. Here's a funny conversation I had with ulterior epicure on Flickr:

From what I have read, a burger made from freshly ground meat is much better. Why then are there no restaurants -- that I know of -- that grind their beef in house? Surely a grinder isn't very expensive. A charcoal or wood grilled burger also tastes much better than the flat griddle I've seen everywhere. Why aren't there joints that employ a grill? Sure these features drive up the price a bit, maybe $2 more per burger at the most, but I think there is a market for it. Everyone loves burgers. Nearly every city has multiple restaurants claiming to serve the best burger in town. Surely in at least the biggest cities, there exists a market for the super-premium burger?

In the Anthony Burgess book Earthly Powers the main character describes a type of drink in Malaysia similar to a nightcap called a "tigerfrightener" that one would drink before leaving the establishment to supposedly keep tigers away. I think that would be a great name for a strong tropical drink.

Am I the only optimist here? I can see this technology advancing to the point that it is superior to real meat. I don't care about how unnatural it is, just what it tastes like. To take an example from textiles, current technology has not made synthetic fiber completely superior to natural fibers but there are many applications where synthetic is actually better, e.g. stretch fabrics, techno-fabrics for wicking away sweat, nylon parachutes, etc.

Will you tell us how you ended up in Prague? What a beautiful city; it's also high on my to do list. Do you speak fluent Czech? Can you get by on just English?

Mick Vann of the Austin Chronicle reviews Chinatown's dim sum.

I could've sworn it was $9.99 when I bought a 4-pack from the flagship Whole Foods a few months ago. But, yeah, that's pricey. I can buy a 4-pack of Unibroue beer for that money. It's good, but $4-6 is more what I feel it is worth to me.

Things change slowly in the barbecue world. One thing is that John Mueller's in Austin closed a few years ago. And... have you been to Sam's? The best cue in the city now.

Victory Grill 1104 E. 11 St. 512-902-5057 Website Just a few blocks from my house (this is why living on the East Side is the best) is the Historic Victory Grill. You can read up on their website about its history as a "chitlin circuit" music venue. They still have live music there, usually on the weekends. The restaurant opened a few months ago as "Bayseas at the Victory Grill" or something like that. The regular menu is typical Southern fare, lots of fried seafood, etc. I haven't tried that yet but it looks fine. However, each day they have a few specials that are made by the cooks that used to do the Soul Food Wednesdays at Ben's Longbranch BBQ (Ben's is now closed). I can't recall which days serves what but I do know that I took these photos on a Tuesday, and Wednesday also looked promising. Chicken and dumplings. Quite different from the version they used to make at Ben's (see below) but equally tasty. Instead of balls of doughs, the dumplings are huge strands of thick, fluffy noodles. I assume these are hand-made as I've never seen such "noodles" in a store. Chicken and dumplings served at Ben's (RIP). Oxtail. A little overcooked this time (by the cook's own admission) but still very good. Essentially the same as the version at Ben's. I believe that's a gumbo up top. Mostly land meats I think, not bad. Prices are a buck or two lower than when they were at Ben's, but the portions on the main course also seem a little smaller. The restaurant stays open pretty late on the weekends when they have music in the back. I'm very glad that the former Soul Food Wednesdays cooks are back in business. Between the Victory Grill, Lola's and Galloway's (photos coming soon) I have the top three Southern cuisine restaurants all in walking distance from my house!

Also see: Report: Chinese New Year dinner, Saturday 9 Feb 2008 at Pao's. Yes, truly, a la carte (as opposed to from the carts -- funny how those two terms are so similar) is the way to eat if you're serious. But sometimes with newbs, it's nice to see the carts. Asia Cafe 7 Jan 2008 They now have the specials boards translated into English. Twice-cooked pork with garlic sprout. Same as the twice-cooked pork in the menu, just with garlic sprouts. Stir-fried Chinese eel with garlic. Delicious. Besides, who else has eel in town? Spicy fish. Deep-fried tilapia, I think. A tasty dish for the not so adventurous. There are a lot more dishes I want to try: Stir fried pork kidney Stir fried duck tongue Stir fried cumin beef Jelly fish with white squid Sweet & sour lotus root Salt & pepper egg plant Pickled long bean with ground pork Stir fried bitter melon

Taqueria Chapala 2101 E Cesar Chavez St Austin, TX 78702 (512) 320-0308 Taco Journalism review, though I found it a little under-informative. The Jalisco-style barbacoa (depicted at the top) (it's called that on the menu, they also have regular barbacoa) is a highly seasoned version that's interesting, though rather lean.

I just bought a bunch of striped bass roe for something like $7/lb from Chinatown. Any mentaiko recipes? How do you recommend tossing with pasta, poach in butter like johnnyd?