nosh nook #51 - monday, may 25, 2009

ew, y'all: bizarre foods show comes to texas (link)
05.24.09 - houston chronicle - by jeanne jakle

to me, texas has always been this strange, unfamiliar world, an enormous state with big skies, a penchant for secession & a reputation for barbecuing both tasty meats & their worst criminal offenders.  personally, other than a stopover at the dallas airport, i've only been to the state once & that consisted of no more than driving through the skinny part up at the top of the state near amarillo.  sure my brother lived in austin for a spell & i dated a girl whose family was from dallas, but i've never actually visited.  now i really have a reason to go there--bizarre foods.

as jeanne jakle reports, andrew zimmern, host of the travel channel's bizarre foods (a show where he samples old delicacies from around the world), traveled to texas & shot an entire episode there, highlighting texas' wacky cuisine.  the episode, which premieres this tuesday, took zimmern all over the state, where he came across such crazy dishes as rabbit sausage, alligator kabobs & something called "skunk pig."  mmm...skunk pig.

for zimmern, two of the big highlights were a trip to houston's johnson space center (where he tested out a range of freeze-dried astronaut food) & san antonio's liberty bar, where he found a new favorite snack--"goat cheese with chile morita & piloncillo sauce."  it makes sense that he'd fall in love with a goat cheese dish.  if i was him & had just had a texas experience that included eating both cow's head & wild dove wrapped in bacon, i'd probably go with the goat cheese too.