Roadfood_ Revised Edition - Jane Stern [236]
Canutillo, TX
LD | $
Lourdes Pearson’s Little Diner, also known as the Canutillo Tortilla Factory, is far off I-10 in an obscure residential neighborhood north of El Paso, and yet her crisp-skinned gorditas (stuffed cornmeal pockets) are worth getting lost to find. The normal filling is ground meat, but the great one is chili con carne. Tender shreds of beef become an ideal medium for the brilliant red chili that surrounds them with a walloping flavor of concentrated sunshine. You can also get the chili con carne in a bowl—one of the few classic “bowls of red” still to be found in all of Texas. Its flavor is huge, and you wouldn’t think of adding beans or rice to this perfect duet. Of course, you do want to tear off pieces from Lourdes’s wheaty flour tortillas to mop the last of the red chili from the bottom of the bowl.
We love everything about this friendly diner, where you step up to the counter and place your order before sitting down. The tortilla chips that start each meal have a rich, earthy character and are not at all salty—all the better to taste the essence-of-red-chile salsa served with them. Flautas are crunchy little fried tortilla tubes (like flutes, which is what the name means) packed with moist shreds of chicken or succulent pot roast. The last time we visited the green chili was even hotter than the red (this varies with the harvest); the Little Diner adds potatoes and onions to the basic meat-and-chile formula.
The broad Tex-Mex menu includes burritos, enchiladas, tapatias, and tacos. Tamales—red chile pork, green chile cheese, green chile chicken, and green chile chicken with cheese—are generally made once a week, but Lourdes told us that in December, they are a menu item every day.
Lock Drugs
1003 Main St.
512–321–2422
Bastrop, TX
$
Texas food fans know Route 183 as an essential detour off I-10 between San Antonio and Houston into the town of Lockhart, which is to Lone Star barbecue what Milwaukee is to Dairy State butter burgers: source of the best. Of Lockhart’s world-class smoke pits, which include Kreuz Market, Smitty’s, and Black’s, only Black’s offers meaningful dessert (hot cobbler), so we recommend travelers save their sweet tooth for a half-hour’s drive northeast to Bastrop, where you will find Lock Drugs.
In this 1905-vintage drugstore that still displays its remedies in exquisite carved wood fixtures, the marble counter up front is strictly for soda fountain fare; there are no sandwiches or hot food. The menu warns that “malts and shakes cannot be made with ice cream that has nuts, as it will break our machine,” but that’s fine with us, because we’re ordering a magnificent black-and-white soda (topped with crunchy fresh chopped peanuts) and an item we’ve seen nowhere else, a frosted Coke. The latter is built just like a milkshake with an ice cream of your choice (smooth ice cream, please!) and flavored syrup, but it is blended with Coca-Cola instead of milk. The result isn’t as thick as a regular shake, but it is rich and effervescent and candyland sweet—essence of soda fountain.
Louie Mueller Barbecue
206 W. 2nd St.
512–352–6206
Taylor, TX
LD | $$
Louie Mueller’s has a modern dining room that does not have the smoky patina of the old, brick-walled restaurant, but no matter where you eat in this august barbecue, the flavor is historic. Here is a restaurant where beef brisket (as well as sausage, ribs, and mutton) is cooked and served the way Texas pitmasters have been doing it for decades. Step up to the counter behind which you have a view of the old smoke pits. Order your meat by the pound or plate. Carry it yourself to a table.
Louie Mueller’s brisket is a thing of beauty. It is sliced relatively thick, salt-and-pepper crusted, each individual slice halved by the ribbon of fat that runs through a brisket, separating the leaner, denser meat below from the more luscious stuff on top. It is served with a cup of sauce reminiscent of au jus, and there is some hotter sauce set out on the table, but forget sauce, forget side dishes. Other than great hot