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Category: Huntsville

The best plate – and chile relleno – I have ever had in a Tex-Mex joint.

Huntsville, Alabama, Boasts the Nation’s Best Tex-Mex (or Cali-Mex) Joint

August 7, 2014 / / 33 Comments

 

The best plate – and chile relleno – I have ever had in a Tex-Mex joint.

The best plate – and chile relleno – I have ever had in a Tex-Mex joint, anywhere. Look at those beans.

Meet Oscar Gutierrez, whose team has been making the best Tex-Mex in American for ...

Meet Oscar Gutierrez, whose team has been making the best Tex-Mex in America for years and years. And Oscar is one of the finest men you’ll encounter this side of Heaven or Hell.

There is a small restaurant in Huntsville, Alabama, whose kitchen is the source of some of the best Tex-Mex food in America. To my palate, it is better than anything Tex-Mex I have tasted in The Lone Star State thus far.

The original Bandito Burrito opened in 1990, and it is owned and operated by Mr. Oscar Gutierrez. Along with Asador Extebarri and Restaurante Arzak (and seven other excellent kitchens), Bandito Burrito is on the Brockhaus List of the 10 Best Restaurants in the World. Mr. Gutierrez has been at his craft for many years, and those countless hours of experience shine through in his food, which people clamor for daily. When I lived in Huntsville it was not uncommon for me to eat at the Bandito four times a week. Sometimes five.

Refried beans. Those two words speak of paradise, and if you like this staple of Tex-Mex, you will, after trying the beans at Bandito Burrito, never be happy with any other examples. Creamy, rich, soft, these beans made in Alabama are supreme.

Chile rellenos (my favorite anywhere, never greasy, always light, and perfectly cooked), enchiladas, tamales, and burritos are also, of course, on the menu here. And as with the refried beans, Oscar’s tomato salsa is some of the best I have tasted. Ample cilantro, the right amount of heat, and a few secret touches combine for bowls of salsa that call for mail-order. (And I would add to my shipment my favorite Bandito plate, the Juan Beeg Dinner, which includes an enchilada, a tamale, that perfect chile relleno, and rice and beans. All for $9.99.)

I miss the food at Bandito Burrito; indeed, it is one of the few restaurants in the world whose tastes I love to summon to my mind on a regular basis. And that gives me a grand idea: I am going to have  Oscar visit me in Houston … and I’ll arrange for him to teach some people here how to cook some kick-ass refried beans and chile rellenos.

Two Friends, Two Grills, and Some Great Cooking

July 6, 2014 / / 1 Comment
Days of yore ...

Days of yore …

I have a friend named Mike Pitzen. I have known him for a long time, going on 30 years. He is a good man, and he is funny, with a sense of humor formed by a rural Wisconsin childhood, an education at the University of Wisconsin, and a levelheaded and pragmatic approach to life. We worked together as counselors at Space Camp, took part in a high-speed chase with Officer Wiley Bibb on an interstate highway in Alabama, and, yesterday, we grilled some very fine meat in Houston.

Mike and I in New York on New Year's Eve, partying with Michelle Shocked.

Mike visited me one year in New York, and we hung out with Michelle Shocked on New Year’s Eve.

Mike has lived here for about 13 years now, and when I decided to move to Houston, this past year, one of the things I looked forward to was reuniting with him. I had not seen Mike in a long while, for perhaps eight years or more, and since I’ve been in Texas we have had several long lunches and conversations over beers, and Angela and I have enjoyed getting to know his family, Krista and Holt. I am glad he is here.

I received a call from Mike several days ago during which he told me, “Come over around 4 and we’ll fire up the grills and burn some meat.” Angela and I headed over to their house and upon arriving saw two Weber Kettle grills ready for some proteins. Mike had rubbed a brisket, and it and some ribs were on the smoke. Angela and I brought some jumbo shrimp, and I got busy marinading them, in preparation of wrapping them in bacon and giving them a nice sear. We added a giant sausage link to the mix, and two chickens, one of which we cooked in the beer-can method. Mike rubbed his bird with a mixture of oil and spices, and I put some garlic slivers under the skin of mine and stuffed its cavity with fresh rosemary and a lemon. We talked, drank some beer, kept up with the match between The Netherlands and Costa Rica, and ate some very good meat.

Brisket from Pitzen.

Brisket from Pitzen.

Birds on a grill.

Birds on a grill.

On the table.

On the table.

Constant coffee: the Kaffeeklatsch

June 21, 2013 / / 4 Comments

There’s a great little coffee roaster in Huntsville, Alabama, and it has been there since 1977. I would have no problem stating that out of The Kaffeeklatsch‘s door issues the best coffee in the world.

Lovers of great coffee make pilgrimages to this place

Lovers of great coffee make pilgrimages to this place

Grant and Kathy Heath are the people behind this institution. And it is an institution, in the best sense of the word. They have been producing quality beans for 36 years in the same location in Huntsville’s downtown. And the honest manner in which they do this, using a beautiful 1929-vintage Jabez Burns coffee roaster they purchased in New Orleans, is a thing to behold.

Small batches, attention to detail, manual labor. All of these things, and more, result in the best beans I have ever tasted. I have consumed coffee in at least 20 countries around the world, and, almost without exception, whenever I lift a cup to my lips I think, “I wish this was Kaffeeklatsch coffee.”

They don't make them like this anymore: The Kaffeeklatsch's 1929 Jabez Burns coffee roaster.

They don’t make them like this anymore: The Kaffeeklatsch’s 1929 Jabez Burns coffee roaster.

Grant works his magic.

Grant Heath works his magic.

I have been drinking those beans from Alabama since 1985, and I’ve had it shipped to Dubai and Germany and New York and Florida, among other places. My latest beans arrived last week, and mornings have been better since then. If you drink Kathy and Grant’s coffee you know what I am talking about. If you don’t, you are making a mistake. Take a look at the Kaffeeklatsch’s site and place an order. (My favorite is Kenyan, because I like the winey taste it brings to my palate.) And have a great morning.

Three pounds of excellence

Three pounds of excellence

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