Gracias, Don Pedro's!

I recently received a tip from a fellow Salemite who is from my hometown of San Marcos, Texas. She said that Don Pedro's Mexican restaurant was the closest thing to Tex-Mex that she had found in the area.

My wife and I visited it for lunch on Sunday and I must say, she was right. We got the cheese enchilada plate and the chile relleno plate with chips and salsa. We felt a slight tingle of heat from the salsa...a good sign here in Salem, since most salsas that are served in other Mexican restaurants here resemble chunky tomato juice. It wasn't hot as hades like back at home, but tingly just the same.

The chile relleno's were good. Thank goodness! I was afraid it was going to be like every other chile relleno order I had braved here in Salem - essentially, slimey pepper omelates.

The gravy covering both the enchiladas and the chile rellenos was the right color, but not quite the same taste and texture as true Tex-Mex. Close enough though, so I ain't complainin'.

Chips were decent. A little thick but they had a nice addition of a chili powder dusting on top.

The biggest drawback is the atmosphere. A little redecoration and the addition of some good conhunto music (and unplugging the TV) would do wonders for this great place.

The Tex-Mex Cookbook: A History in Recipes and Photos

With all the sunshine that's been flooding the Willamette Valley over the last few weeks, it's got me dreaming about Texas which has got me dreaming about Tex-Mex food and music.

The Texas Tornados has been on my personal jukebox for days now. I just can't get enough of those guys' music. Nice guys to boot. I've met Augie, Doug and caught Flaco Jimenez playing down at Waterloo Records down in Austin years back for a CD release party.

Back to Tex-Mex food: I found a great Tex-Mex cookbook at Borders Bookstore on Lancaster the other night. It came out in 2006 (where was I?) and it is plum full of great photos, history and more importantly, good Tex-Mex recipes.

Written by Rob Walsh, "The Tex-Mex Cookbook: A History in Recipes and Photos" is super and highly recommend it to all my native Texan friends and Texan wannabe's here in Salem.

Say, when is someone going to put in a Tex-Mex restaurant here in Salem?

Of Refried Beans and Slimey Rellenos

The missus and I decided to dine at the local Mexican Restaurant, “Los Dos Amigos” here in Salem last night. The fridge was empty and I had a hankering for some Mexican food.

First let me explain what Salem Mexican food is not. It is not spicy. It does not even remotely resemble the Tex-Mex food I dined on with drooling lips back when I was living in the Motherland.

The hot sauce is more like spicy V-8 that trickles off your chip and on to your shirt as you try to put it in your mouth as quickly as possible.

The beloved Chile Relleno of my Texas memory is only that. A memory. What I get here in the great Pacific Northwest is a large squishy omelet with a pepper and very little cheese inside.

But you know what the truly sad thing is? It’s all starting to taste normal to me.

At least I am aware that it isn’t normal. At least I’ll be able to return to Texas to visit soon and cleanse my now Oregonian-like palate with a huge plate of greasy refried beans, rice and tamales and real hot sauce.

The memories come flooding back. Remember Herbert’s Taco Hut in San Marcos? The hot sauce was so hot that it burned a hole straight through my plate?

Heck, even Taco Cabana would be a sight for sore eyes right about now!

El Gigante Burrito

I was running late to work this morning and decided to go through the nearest Mexican fast food restaurant (of which there are dozens here in Salem) drive-thru window and order a breakfast taco.

Now in Texas, when you order a breakfast taco, you pay a buck or buck-fifty for a small tortilla with egg and potato, cheese and some kind of breakfast meat.

Oregon does not have breakfast tacos. They have what they call a "breakfast burrito" for right around three bucks. It is like three Texas sized burritos rolled into one and takes two hands to manage eating it.

I don't know. I know I'm supposed to like big things since I'm from Texas, but I've got to tell you, this thing is downright vulgar. I still ate it, even though it was massive.

Still, it's just not the same and is one more thing I miss about Texas.

Dear Governor Perry

Governor Rick Perry
Office of the Governor
P.O. Box 12428
Austin, Texas 78711-2428

4-15-08

Dear Governor Perry,

Thank you for your recent note.

Yes, it has been a long time (4 years to be exact) since my "assignment" as Texas Ambassador to the Pacific Northwest.

Our headquarters up here in the little outpost of Salem, Oregon (population 1 1/2 BBQ joints, 0 Tex-Mex restaurants) is nicely central to the Pacific Northwest area, even if it is a little light on the entertainment side of things. You know (better than anyone) how much a Texan likes his country music, BBQ and Tex-Mex food.

The only places I have been able to find here in Salem for BBQ is a place called "Busters" and another called, "Adam's Rib." They're no County Line BBQ, but about as close as one can probably get up here.

There isn't a single Tex-Mex restaurant in the area. The missus and I frequent a little Mexican food restaurant called Los Dos Amigos on the Yankee side of Salem and a place called La Hacienda in the south. Danged if we didn't order the "spicy" salsa the other night at Los Dos and didn't even work up the slightest sweat.

That seems to be the basic state of Mexican food - and food in general up here - bland as buttermilk. Puttin' your boot in the oven don't make it no danged biscuit and wrapping a tortilla around something and calling it "Mexican Food" ain't going make it so either.

Sorry...enough complaining. Have I mentioned the rain? You didn't mention to me when you "assigned" us here that it rains solid from November through April. I'm not talkin' gully washers either. Just the constant drip, drip, drip of what we would call a "sprinkle" in Texas and what they call "rain" here.

Please send up an ample supply of Gebhardt's chili powder. I haven't had a decent bowl of chili in a month of Sundays.

I look forward to seeing you on my next trip to the "holy land."

Your humble servant,
Randy Hill
Texas Ambassador to the Pacific Northwest
Salem, Oregon Outpost