The longest day of the year happened this past week with the summer solstice – we are officially in the dog days of summer. What does that mean? Hot. Hot. Hot. This weeks quick bites goes with that theme with spicy Thai food, firing up the grills and a heated debate on local Mexican cuisine. First, a quick shout out to The Rivard Report for putting together a site with great news and events in the Alamo City – be sure to check it out if you haven’t had the chance. On to the quick bites!
- Thai House (on Rittiman near I-35) is a hole in the wall Thai restaurant that always seems to be packed. The lunch specials are $7 and include rice, eggroll and soup of the day. I tend to order Phad Thai (you won’t get rice with this dish) as my default dish at any Thai restaurant, and theirs knocks it out of the park. As far as spice, the “Thai Hot” will leave your mouth with a tingling feeling, but nothing that an ice cold Thai Tea can’t cure.
- A comment that I posted on a Chow board about Mexican food over two years ago has started a lot of conversation the past couple of days. One person claims that there is nothing worth eating in San Antonio, while another points about that each city’s scene has different flavors and you should “love the one you’re with.” Check out the post and let your voice be heard!
- Local Firefighters are firing up the grills in an effort to raise money for the Texas Burn Survivor Society and provide information on fire prevention and grilling safety. The event is located at Q On The Riverwalk in the Hyatt Regency Hotel (mad props to the Hyatt for continuing to support many of the nonprofit foundations in our city!). The event kicks off at 2:00PM with an Iron Chef style competition happening at 4:00PM followed by celebrity judges awarding the best barbeque of the day.
- For the link of the week, you have to read this post on growing up and the foods from our past by Sarah Hepola called When The Queso Dripped Like Honey. An insightful look at the forbidden foods when we were children (mine was always Coca Cola; only on rare instances could we have sodas in the house), the way our tastes change as we grow up, how food can remind you of home and on ultimately on making a choice to leave bad habits behind. While I will never give up queso (in particular my mom’s famous queso), I loved reading this post.
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