Above: The huitlacoche (corn smut tamales) at Fonda San Miguel are UNBELIEVABLY good. Pair that with 1998 Tondonia Rosado by López de Heredia (at a more than reasonable price) and you’ll see why I love living in Austin, Texas.
Tracie P and I love eating at the bar. We love talking to bartenders and sharing wines with our neighbors.
Lately, our guilty pleasure has been the bar at one of our favorite restaurants in the world: Fonda San Miguel in Austin. Especially because they’ve recently added López de Heredia to their wine list (at more-than reasonable prices, one of the weird anomalies of living in Texas where most wine is more expensive than elsewhere but certain otherwise-unknown-to-Texans wines are sold for less).
Believe me when I tell you that the huitlacoche corn smut tamales alone would be worth the trip to Austin.
Above: To our palate, López de Heredia wines are among the greatest food-friendly wines on the planet. They’re not for everyone (with their highly oxidative style and to-some off-putting nose). To us, they are near perfection in a glass. Paired above with the excellent tortilla soup at Fonda.
Thanks again, bartender James (below) and wine director Brad for keeping those wines in stock! WE LOVE IT!
In other news…
I had a really crummy day yesterday but my Facebook friends and family got me through it with a flood of thoughtful messages. I can’t say how much I appreciate it. THANKS SO MUCH TO EVERYONE FOR YOUR SUPPORT. IT MEANS THE WORLD TO ME.
Jason, you know what’s playing on my jukebox today as I type away? Yep, you got it: DOUG SAHM.
I really cannot begin to explain how addicted I’ve become to the music of Doug Sahm. At first listen, the music may seem a little rough around the edges but once you scratch through its surface, you’ll find some real Texas soul and groove (“where the Cosmic Cowgirls play”).
My band The Grapes will be performing his ode to Austin, “Groover’s Paradise,” next Wednesday in La Jolla.
Do Bianchi 
J, I’ve been so fortunate to have parents who didnt seem to realize the difference in music genres. It exposed me to everything. But If you couldnt tell, Texas music and songwriters is a huge part of my daily life. I grew up believing everyone owned a Freddy Fender Greatest hits. And that nothing compares to “The rains came” ( rain rain rain), Freddy’s version of the Doug Sahm classic. And I’ll tell ya, the more you scratch at it, the prettier the picture. Doug was a beautiful songwriter. And its not everyday that you will see a child prodigy from Texas stand on a stage with Hank Sr, be influenced by the british invasion, while perfecting Tex-Mex, with soulful aligator stomp and groove, all along peppering his songs with the days of Ashbury. He was indeed for everyone.
And Boy, you should see all the covers! The best being the 01′ release of ” Songs of Sahm” by the Bottlerockets. Definitely worth the 9.99 download. And theres Uncle tupelo’s ” give me back the keys to my heart”….
Oh well, we’ll chat about it one day over a glass..
that pairing was perfect. but really, there’s nothing at fonda san miguel that doesn’t go with LdH. definitely my favorite place to eat.
GREAT title 2B!
A few years ago, I used to travel to Austin from the Bay Area for my hi-tech work (Austin has a nice concentration of hi-tech), and Fonda San Miguel was the best Mexican restaurant I’d ever been in. It was either that or one of the killer bbq joints (like Salt Lick and a slew of others). Wish I ordered Lopez de Heredia then – the combo with the tortilla soup and tamales sounds awesome! I think the oxidative style should really work well there.