Texas Dining

Most Texas dishes can trace their roots to harder times, when it was a necessity to use every cut of meat, even some that more gentrified diners might consider scrap. Fajita marinade was created to break down tough-as-hide skirt steak. Chicken fried steak, tenderized to the point where the meat had to be breaded and fried just to hold together, was a use for cheap steak cuts. And sausage was a way to use meat that the butcher just couldn't sell.

Another characteristic that Texas dishes have in common (along with enough cholesterol to harden any artery) is a reliance on beef. Cattle are king here, and beef makes an appearance on every menu and at every backyard cookout. Since the cowboy days, beef has taken Texas diners by the horns (or at least the silverware) and led them to a table set with everything from T-bone to ground beef.

Those early cowboy cooks knew that not all meat was steak; some of it was tough and even stringy. They used Western ingenuity to turn what could have been waste into dishes that award-winning restaurants are now proud to serve. Chicken fried steak is such a dish, using one of the toughest cuts of meat: the round steak. It's tenderized (the cook just beats the meat into submission) then dipped in an egg and milk batter, floured and fried to a golden crispiness.

The chicken fried steak is the equivalent of white bread in Texas cuisine. Folks feel comfortable with chicken fried steak. It's not spicy, so even those who can't handle the fiery heat of other local dishes love this one. Usually served drowned in a wave of white gravy, it's even a favorite with children who look for it in the form of nuggets or "steak fingers" on kids' menus across the state.

When you place your order, just ask for "a chicken fried." Expect to be served a huge platter overflowing with chicken fried steak plus a fat slab of Texas toast, and two vegetables, often French fries and fried okra.

Dessert depends where you're dining. If you're in the small towns of West or La Grange, don't forget to order some fruit or cheese kolaches (sort of like a Czech Danish.)

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