Not to beat a dead horse, but move to Houston.

Jerk Chicken = the Reggae Hut on Almeda.

Shawarmas are all over town. I had Droubi’s last week and do so about twice a month. Seriously, I can eat out twice a day for months and have a different nation’s cuisine every meal.

In addition to a massive and varied immigrant community, the thing with Houston is that people have money, but nothing to spend it on. The theater and late night scenes are so-so, which means people spend a boatload of cash eating out. Final Jeopardy question from a few years back was “This American city spends more per capita dining out than any other.” Answer: What is Houston?

The wife and I love to cook but when we do go out a very common conversation goes something like this:

“What do you feel like eating?”
“Anything but BBQ or Mexican.”
“But everything else is terrible.”
“I’d KILL for a decent jerk chicken.”
“Or shawarma”
“or moule frite”

In short, I’d trade it all away to be back in a city that could reliably provide me with decent Indian, Greek, Caribbean, French, Japanese, Middle Eastern, etc. Heck, I’d trade it all away just to have ONE decent loaf of bread.

PS - I love White Collar. Hee Hee, Mr. and Mrs. Suit.

Yes.

(SXSW gives me a headache.)

The same thing that happened to SXSW happened to The TED sessions, Burning Man, etc, etc.

Freshly made, soft and fluffy flour tortillas. Freshly made, thick and chewy corn ones. Great hot sauces of infinite varieties and heat.

And, NO, they are not burritos. They are not all rolled and folded and squared up. They are just folded and filled with yummy goodness. In fact, burritos generally piss off San Antonians, as the whole California Mex biz has too much sour cream and black olives to have anything to do with what we think of as real Tex Mex cooking.

Oh, and @jeffreyw, I recommend a Bradley Smoker…..an amazing tool that I got last year. Smoked a turkey for Thanksgiving and it was the best turkey we have ever had. Made smoked spareribs last weekend, out of this world. I have been curing and smoking bacon since then and it is amazing. Have a plan to smoke a lamb pastrami tomorrow, have made beef pastrami before and I expect the lamb to kick its ass.

Finally, @Fergus Wooster, I am sorry to say that La Calesa is no more….the building was torn down. They did have some fine food, though!

We just lost my absolute favorite late night hangout—Mai’s Vietnamese, which burned to the ground a few weeks back.

I’ve never been there except after drinking. I thought it was pretty decent. Generous portions.
Hadn’t been there in years before the fire.

There’s a guy who goes from bar to bar around here selling tamales late night. He smells horrid, but he must make a killing. I’ve seen him sell 25-30 at one bar more than once. At 5 bucks a pop. And I’ve seen him at dozens of bars around town.

Watch out for the green sauce he offers along with them. Wicked stuff the next morning.

You’re out of your fucking mind.

Always a possibility, but have you been to Feast?? It’s fucking incredible. Never knew black pudding could be so good.

That said, the some of the best Tex-Mex in Houston is actually Cuban-Mex-Tex at El Rey (Washington and Shepherd, Ella and 43rd, I-10 at Bunker Hill). All slow-cooked goodness.

Guero’s is more a place to be seen than eat, especially during SXSW. But yeah, it’s there. I don’t stand in line for guacamole, though.

@DougJ: Go to Taqueria Arandas #5 (“Al estilo Jalisco”) on South 1st street. It’s not fancy—it’s good. Get the Al Pastor. You’ll never leave. I was there today.

Breakfast burritos > breakfast tacos, but the burrito style in New Mexico is smothered and not heard of here. The hand-held charm of a good breakfast taco is a simple pleasure, but, really, it’s all about the salsa at each particular place, since it’s mostly just Breakfast Food in a Goddamn Tortilla.

And Vespaio is Teh shit, along with its next-door little sister Enoteca (same owners). Don’t come to Austin for the Italian food, but if you’re in Austin, eat there. It the bestest foods evaroneoneone.

(SXSW gives me a headache.)