By our third day, I was beginning to become convinced that the Marfa food scene was a big performance piece.  Nine of the ten restaurants in town had yelp reviews of four or higher, but they were never open.  The first night we were there we drove past six, all of which were closed. The second day, we could only find two food carts that were open for lunch, and one was a horrible little thing that only served kale smoothies.  We were heading out of town, planning on peanut butter and jelly, when we drove past and saw that Food Shark, another food cart, and the highest ranked on yelp, was open.  Their regular menu has mostly vegetarian options, like the Marfalafel, but their specials usually are a meat dish.  Normally I would say this was a bad strategy, because if you’re always learning new dishes how will you practice enough to make them good?  I shouldn’t have worried. Today it was brisket sandwich and lamb kebab.

Man, those guys know how to cook meat. Admittedly, I have not eaten a lot of brisket on this trip, but that was second only to Smitty’s (coming soon!). It was so soft and tender I almost mistook it for pork.

The lamb would not have been. The way it was cooked seemed to almost highlight the best parts of the meat, rather than trying to gild a lily and adding something new. The flatbread it was served with was soft and fresh, and we were seriously considering asking to buy a tub of their hummus.  It was some of the only stuff we’ve encountered on this trip that wasn’t dry, gritty, or bland.

Marfa is really far from nowhere, so you probably won’t go there unless you’re into art or take my food recommendations really seriously. But if you do, don’t come early in the week. Art tours may be easier to book, but none of the restaurants will be open. And even then, beware of the performance art.

We have recently discovered that Velvet Taco is (gasp) a chain, albeit a small one.  This picture was taken in Fort Worth, Texas.  Apparently, it has locations in Texas and Chicago, nowhere else. This does not negate its deliciousness, but does make it ineligible for the title of best stand-alone tacos on this trip. That spot was swooped up a week later by Valentina’s Barbeque tacos. You can’t get more Tex Mex than that, and you can’t go better than Valentinas.  An unassuming shack in a convenience store parking lot is not the place most people think of when they think about Austin bbq. But unlike Franklin’s, the wait here is ten minutes, and you can get chips and queso to hold you over until then.

And how to even describe the tacos. The sausage taco was fabulous, and that’s from someone who isn’t even a big fan of sausage. This was the best sausage I’ve ever had. It was quite solid, almost hotdog-like, but better, because it was barbeque. Flavorful, without being too spicy. The taco had this, and guacamole. What could be better?

The other tacos, for one.  Pulled pork, and chicken, and brisket.  I’ve learned that Texas does actually have good pork, although most places don’t have good brisket. This is probably because beef is harder to cook, which may be the reason we had such great meals in Texas.

When my dad put up on Facebook that we had gotten bbq tacos in Austin, a friend of a friend, who was also from Eugene, immediately asked if we had gone to Valentina’s. When the times published their 36 Hours in Austin article, Valentina’s was on the list. The people from Nerdist, a popular youtube channel, even included it in one of their videos. So if you don’t trust my word, trust everyone else. Go to Valentina’s if you’re in Austin. It is definitely worth the drive.

Oh, and don’t miss Lick ice cream on your way back to town. It’s a lot like Red Wagon creamery here in Eugene in its specialization in local and odd flavors.  I had the lime and cilantro, which was fabulous. The perfect mix between bitter and sweet, with that little kick of parsley flavor that makes it so unique blending right it.  But don’t worry if you aren’t adventurous, they have normal flavors like chocolate too.

Pleasant’s Barbecue
Ocean Springs, MS
The best ribs I have ever had. The best ribs I have ever had. Soft and succulent. Delightfully smoky. We had to ask their secret. The owner, Micheal, revealed to us that they only cook their ribs for four hours, a fraction of what many restaurants claim. But for the second two hours, they shut off all the heat, and just let it circulate in the smoke. Be careful not to eat the bones. I mean that seriously. They were soft and smoky, and if they weren’t so dry I might have eaten them willingly.

The Joint
New Orleans, LA
Not one of my favorite places, I must say. Everything was fine, and the atmosphere was cozy, but I guess my standards have gone up over the course of this trip. It was good, so don’t protest if your friend suggests going there, but maybe suggest Bao and Noodle (next blog) instead.

Railhead Smokehouse
Fort Worth, TX
Entering Texas, we have left the land of pork in favor of beef. Part of me feels sorry for the poor people who don’t get real ribs, and try to substitute them with beef ribs, which in any circumstance are inferior. But, they do make damn good brisket.

I am a pessimist in all areas except for food. The human ability to make things taste good never ceases to amaze me, and never have I been more astonished than by Bao and Noodle.
We started off with an order of bao, dumplings, and scallion pancakes, and were immediately blown away. My only previous experience of bao was hearing it mentioned in a Firefly episode, and so, was very impressed. The only problem was that having my first experience be so good, is now I’m always going to be disappointed by other restaurants. The pork and cabbage dumplings were the night’s specialty, and they certainly were special. The best thing about them was the broth they came in, soft as milk, but rich with the flavor of country ham, and greens as delicate as rice paper floating like tea leaves on its surface. The scallion pancakes were cooked slightly unevenly, one edge darker than the other, and I think this was on purpose. It offered you a choice between crunchy or more chewy.

If the appetizers blew us away, the main course kicked the wind up to hurricane status. Starting on the left, we have Dan Dan noodles. Unlike many restaurants, they leave the dish without a lot of heat and provide you with a jar of Sichuan pepper hot sauce. Simply the smell wafting out of that jar was spectacular, but enough to make your nostrils burn. Being someone who can’t take a lot of heat, I appreciated the consideration. The chili sesame paste, which was actually more sauce-like in consistency, already slathered on the noodles was fantastic, nearly as good as the noodles themselves.

The noodles were one of the most impressive things at the appropriately named Bao & Noodle. Each of the four dishes we ordered had a different type of noodle, perfectly suited to the meat. The Cumin braised lamb was so tender that it literally fell apart in your mouth, so the more chewy Biang Biang noodles were the obvious match. Instead of being cut, the noodles were hand-ripped, which definitely showed in the texture around the edges.

Egg noodle with XO sauce, on the right, was distinctly shrimpy, and by that I mean it tasted like seafood. The flavor had penetrated the noodles, which were long and thin, so that I could taste the quality without even eating the crustaceans.

But the beef soup was the best. I promise you that I’m not biased because it’s the dish I ordered. It took the best qualities from everything else. Its rice noodles were similar to the bao shell, with the insides being soft at first bite when they were dry, but becoming chewier in your mouth. Like the lamb, the beef came apart with each bite, and used tougher noodles to compensate. It shared the soft greens with the dumplings, as well as the rich broth. This broth though was several levels of magnitude greater. If the soup had just been broth I would have been happy. I couldn’t help from finishing it, even though I knew that would leave less room for dessert.

Normally, ordering dessert at a Chinese restaurant is a bad idea. It’s always just cakes made out of bean paste or something equally awful. But here they had blueberry milk bread toast, mango pudding, and snowskin mooncake.

The toast had been fried, with the milk caramelizing on the sides so there was a nice sweet crispness to it. The warm blueberry sauce on top was divine.

Fruit puddings are nearly always too sweet. This broke that stereotype wide open. It simply tasted like mango, but better. It reminded me of the picture in the Southern Food and Drink Museum (coming soon to a blog near you) of centrifuged peas. After running the vegetable through a blender, they put it in a culinary centrifuge and spun it for hours until they were left with an intense pea paste. This was like how I guess that would taste; intense as hell.

And for the grand finale, snowskin mooncake. I’ve described other foods as divine already, this was like eating Heaven. The rice wrapper was rather mochi like, but even softer, like a cloud. The vanilla coconut custard filling was rather chunkier than custard usually is, but tasted of all things good in this world and the next.

Bao and Noodle was unpretentious, and unlike many Asian restaurants, focussed on being good rather than being creative. If you are in New Orleans, come here. Come here first thing, so you can taste for yourself how good it is. After that, I promise you won’t be able, or want, to stay away.

I know I’ve already made a beignets blog, but back then I didn’t know that there was so much variation in the treat.

Morning Call Coffee
Up north in the big city park, it’s a long walk just to get beignets. But the street car runs up to it, and if you’re already in the neighborhood you should definitely come here. These beignets are rounder, with a more crispy shell, and instead of coming pre-powdered sugared, they provide you a sugar shaker. This is nice if you happen to be wearing dark clothes and don’t want to look like you just walked through a snowstorm.

Cafe Beignet
Second only to Cafe Du Monde on every list of best places to get beignets in New Orleans, it certainly lived up to its reputation and name. The beignets were a good compromise between Morning Call and Famous in poofyness, about an inch and a half thick. Don’t be scared off by the small crowd, they’re very efficient and will have your beignets liberally sprinkled with sugar and ready for consumption within minutes.

New Orleans Famous Beignets and Coffee
As well as getting more of the normal beignets, I got a “Pig-nay,” which was like a pig in a blanket, but with a Cajun sausage and a beignet. The sausage to dough ratio was a bit off, as the sausage was really fat, but the sweet and savory went really well together.

Pig-nay

If you come to New Orleans, don’t miss out on beignets, and all their delicious variations.

Cafe Du Monde is the most well-known place to get beignets in New Orleans. But unwilling to wait in a line that stretched out the door and halfway down the block, I did not go there. Instead, an unassuming little cafe, New Orleans Famous Beignets and Coffee, the next street over was host to my first tasting of the treat.  They were described to me as “kind of like a donut, but square, and better,” so I was expecting something more like mandazi, which are Kenyan fried donuts.  Instead they were more like the lovechild of a biscuit and baklava.  The outside is a bit crisp and flaky, plus covered with enough powdered sugar that simply breathing releases storms of it, and the inside as soft as a cloud.
I can’t imagine that Cafe Du Monde’s beignets are better, because what could be better than that?  If you’re willing to wait, go right ahead, but frankly I don’t care enough.  New Orleans Famous Beignets and Coffee is fast and cheap (3 beignets for $3), and delicious. The one thing I don’t recommend is wearing dark clothing.