Richard Kilgore

Great course! I haven't been able to spend much time with this so far, but the fine thing that you two have done is to convey a great deal conceptually about salsas combined with concrete techniques and recipes. Terrific chart. Very cool. I'll be drawing on this for making salsas for a crowd in a couple of weeks. Thanks.

Thanks, Rachel -- the stuffed nopales sound very good. You don't eat the outter leaf, just the stuffing? Sharon -- Chef Heredia's dish does sound lovely. Thanks for describing it in such attractive detail.

Thanks for the report, Brian. You ate at two fine restaurants. But next trip we may have to escort you to the tex-mex/mex-tex/mex and barbecue so you don't get waylaid by chain barbecue and such again.

Thanks for your report, Dana. We have had enough discusion on this one restaurant that it deserves its own thread.

Thanks for the detailed review, Foodman. This place continues to sound wonderful. It's on my list.

Thanks lovebenton0 and dav-e-o. If anyone has links to any of the festival websites that would be great. What about the Center for Texan Cultures in San Antonio. Don't they have a big festival each year?

There are some ethnic festivals with a long tradition, such as the annual Greek festival in Dallas. There are, of course, newer festivals that have emerged in recent years. Some focus on food only, but most feature food as a prominent and important part of their culture. What are your favorites and where and when do they happen?

Thanks for the info on Eatzies. And welcome to eGullet, texesser. I hope you post here often.

Welcome to eGullet and the Texas Forum, AustinJohn. I'm going to be in Galveston in the next couple of months, so I'll look into it. Hope you'll post here often. The orientation thread at the top of this forum may help you find your way around eGullet -- it's a big place.

Ft Worth is where the West begins, and it's only one face of Texas. But for a little Texas atmosphere and history, I suggest staying at the Ft.Worth Stockyards Hotel and doing barbeque at Angelos, and there are several tex-mex and mex-tex suggestions on this thread. If you only have one day. That will leave lots of time for doing other interesting things in Ft.Worth, many of them also suggested up-thread. The alternative would be the Warrington Hotel downtown Ft. Worth, certainly a nice place, but the stockyards will be more interesting.

So, how was your trip and what did you eat? Let us know. We're a curious bunch.

JosephB -- Here's a link to a recent thread on DFW indigenous barbeque, tex-mex, and fine dining that should get you started. There's more detail in other threads, but this one may tell you what you want to know. If not, let us know on that thread or a new one.

I think it is clear from the responses here that some significant percentage of diners find the question impolite or manipulative. I typically tip generously -- at least 20% in most situations, but "the question" will usually reduce the tip and have some influence on whether or not I return. I wonder what waitpersons say, or restaurants instruct, if anything regarding this practice.

What a trip! Thanks for the great photos, folks.

IAmAFoodie -- thanks for the suggestion. I'll check it out. carioca -- welcome to eGullet. Can you tell us more about the foods you ate growing up and how you prepare them? Apologies to both of you for the very late response. All the threads I was subscribed to lost their subscriptions during a software upgrade last year.

I think it is in poor taste. I see it increasingly in this part of the country (and seldom is related to how busy a place is), and it always strikes me as presumtious and manipulative. They never ask that if the change amounts to less than 15 or 20%, only if it is more, in my experience.

Sam -- Was your Brikka the 2 cup or 4 cup model? Some people have said the end result is better in the larger pots, so I was wondering if anyone has experienced that between the two Brikka sizes?

I bought a package of dried Hibiscus flowers and made the tea with it, but was wondering if Hibiscus flowers (fresh or dried) have other uses in Mexican cooking?

I ate the last bowl of my first try of Huevos del Toro's "Work in Progress Chili". An excellent recipe with a lot of room for improvisation, as his recipe title would suggest. I used about a half pound more chuck than his recipe called for. He does not specify how much Mexican chocolate to use, so I started with most of a disk (Abuelita's) -- which was good, but slightly too much for my taste. I suggest starting with about 1/4 to 1/3 of a disk and tasting and adding and tasting until you get the flavor you want. (I think I would have ended up with about 2/3 to 3/4 of a disk if I had done it that way. I did add a drizzzle of balsamic and some cilantro at the end, as he suggests. Accompanied by Fifi's Grandmother's Cornbread (tweaked by Fifi) using stoneground corn meal and slathered at table with good sweet butter, which may be the best cornbread I have ever made or eaten...and I have a long history of making cornbread in cast iron skillets and eating cornbread made by some great Texas cooks, including Rosie of Schultz Beergarten fame in Austin. (I've always considered Rosie's to be the best on earth, and Fifi's is just a little different.) Followed by a little Blue Belle lime sherbert. Fifi -- Your grandmother's cornbread recipe deserves to be immortalized in Recipe Gullet.

That's great, tacomabaker, thanks and welcome to eGullet. Please enter your recipe in the RecipeGullet archive -- it's really quite easy. You have a proces and tips that many will appreciate. Including me.

Thanks for such an interesting discussion, everyone. Some of the distinctions you make are quite helpful, Mongo. My local Blockbusters has a section of Indian movies, so I'll explore a little based on some of the ideas here.

I have used a design similar to the Smoky Mountain, but sold under the Brinker Brand. Charcoal rather than gas, and it works great for long, slow cooking brisket and such. Small surface area for grilling, but can work ok for that, too.

Thanks for the ideas everyone. I've looked through Texas on the Plate, Foodie52, and it does look good. I'll have to give it another look. joiei -- I should have known.

The thread on food in Indian movies prompted a comment or two on Indian food in books, so let's do a thread on that, too. Both are of interest to me. Here I am asking for novels, memoirs, travel books and such that depict Indian foodways as an important part of the book, rather than cookbooks as such.

We have a great eGullet forum on India and Indian Cuisine, with an incredible amount of information on cookbooks, favorite dishes, and styles of cooking from various regions, and much more. Suvir Suran did a great job as forum host before opening Amma in Manhattan to great acclaim. Now Monica Behide is the new forum host, and she welcomes all of us from Texas to visit. So it would be helpful to know more about all the Indian markets in Texas, especially DFW-Denton, Houston-Galveston, Austin and San Antonio. What are the favorite Indian markets in your area? Any special products or ingredients they carry that you have had a hard time finding in other places? How's quality, and how's the service?