Austin food scene

NNTP-Posting-Date: Fri, 07 May 1999 12:20:55 CDT
Xref: pale-rider.INS.CWRU.Edu austin.food:4657

Right on, James.  Nothing tickles me like these transplants blowing into town and slamming Austin for not having "ethnic food," by which they mean the ethnic food that was indiginous to St. Louis, Pennsylvania, NYC, NJ, CA, or wherever it was they came from.

Get a grip, people. Think locale. Tex/mex is the predominant ethnic flavor. That and southwest.  Why? Because we're near Mexico and *in* the southwest. The ingredients and climate favor them, the leading ethnic group around here is Hispanic (or is Latino the more popular word these days?).  If you don't like it, fly somewhere for a culinary weekend that celebrates the cuisine of your choice. We have an airport.

I'm just delighted that we can get things that are as good as they are:  czech and german food (in tiny quantities compared to the old population demographics), vietnamese food, japanese food.  Even Italian and French are at least represented...admittedly not as well as in areas that have bigger populations or longer ethnic traditions to support their development, but fair representations nevertheless.

If you don't like CM, you certainly wouldn't have liked the choices around here before it existed.  It hasn't been that long ago.

I love Austin and its food, but like any love, it
thrives because it accepts what there is instead of projecting unreasonable expectations on it. Go ahead and let yourself be seduced...you won't regret it.

For some culinary adventure, try one of the Jamaican restaurants (Shaggy's on South Congress, or better, the newer one out on Manor by East Side Cafe...name escapes me). There weren't any Jamaican restaurants here five years ago.  Or go to a little league ball game and grab a sausage wrap (never had one until I moved here).

Sorry if this sounds like a rant, but there are so many unfocused whiny posts in this group that run "why don't they have barbecued tripe fritters in this town...it was way cool back in East Dumbf**k where I come from."

JG

> Answer:
> When we get another million immigrantsfrom those places that are
> underrepresented in the Austin "food scene". Sorry to be a snot, but
> the local food is what it is. It's like asking when Austin is going to
> have groves of tall pines and bigger hills. Or when is Austin not
> going to have so many Texans messing the place up (sarcasm-- I am a
> Texan). By the way, after a lot of travelling, I'd say our produce is
> right on par with costs in other cities and other states. HEB and
> Fiesta are damn cheap most of the time.
>
> -- Capitol Macintosh, Austin's Mac User Group
> -- TCP Port 3000: online.capmac.org
> -- or by modem +1.512.288.0992 (4 lines)