Developed in Central America before the arrival of Europeans, tamales are said to have been a sort of Aztec sandwich — a portable, nutritious meal on which warriors could fortify themselves during periods away from home. The tamale consists of a meat or vegetable filling encased in a ground-corn dough and wrapped in either [...]
Say you’re cruising 71 from Austin to Bastrop and you see these signs. You’re hungry, yes, and you’re in a hurry. You know what you’ll get if you choose McDonald’s, and you know you’ll be back on the road in minutes. If you’re a locavore, though, you opt for Oaxacan Tamaleo. And you are not [...]
Developed only in the 1970’s, these tasty morsels have been available lately from local growers at farmers’ market stands (those above are from Animal Farm at the Wednesday market at the Triangle) and Boggy Creek Farm. When we have them around, we snack healthier. Sweet and crunchy and two-bite sized, we find them [...]
The next time you dine at Vespaio or its adjacent brother Enoteca, sneak around back before being seated to see what’s fresh. In a terraced set of beds sandwiched between parking lots in this very urban spot, the staff grows a wild array of produce: artichokes, basil, tomatoes, olives, and parsley, to name but a [...]
A new study published in Environmental Science & Technology, a journal of the American Chemical Society, reveals that how food is produced — not how far it’s traveled — is the most important factor in evaluating its impact on global warming. So while a steak grown in Texas produced a lot less carbon dioxide [...]
In today’s Austin American-Statesman, freelance writer Meredith Hight reports on Greenling Organics, an organic food delivery company founded in and serving Austin. While Greenling’s mission is foremost organic, it also strives for local, says Hight:
Greenling generally tries to use local farms and products as much as possible. “Anything we can get locally, we do,” [...]
At the urging of a vigilant reader, I conducted a tasting last night to compare newfound Texas olive oils to a couple of others. My ever-supportive husband and I tasted Central Market’s inexpensive Spanish version ($4.99/500mL), Monini’s pricier Italian one ($10.17/500mL) (which I picked up at my neighborhood H.E.B.), and the two from [...]
All this talk about olive oil has gotten me thinking, naturally, about sopping it up with hot, fresh bread. Thinking about bread, in turn, has led me to flour.
Flour, of course, is made by grinding wheat. And Texas just happens to be the country’s #3 producer of wheat, with an annual harvest of [...]
Lo! After lunch with a friend today, I popped into Central Market (Central location) to pick up some ingredients for dinner. Cruising from produce to cheese, I made the requisite stop at the olive-oil sampling display and could hardly believe my eyes — elusive Texas olive oil, right there at the grocery store! [...]
