Maudie's Milagro (Austin, TX) !!

Generally, Tex-Mex cuisine is about as interesting as fast food to me. But my aunt from France was in Austin for my sister's graduation (Congratulations Judy!!!), and we needed to go somewhere uniquely Austin. So Rekha led us to Maudie's Milagro. Since we had just eaten a large lunch at Rudy's a few hours earlier (yummy cream corn), I didn't think I would enjoy Maudies. I was wrong.

Maudie's is very good Tex-Mex. Tex-Mex, if you don't know, is uniquely American. As Robb Walsh explains:

"In the good old days, Texans went to "Mexican restaurants" and ate "Mexican food." Then in 1972, The Cuisines of Mexico, an influential cookbook by food authority Diana Kennedy, drew the line between authentic interior Mexican food and the "mixed plates" we ate at "so-called Mexican restaurants" in the United States. Kennedy and her friends in the food community began referring to Americanized Mexican food as "Tex-Mex," a term previously used to describe anything that was half-Texan and half-Mexican. Texas-Mexican restaurant owners considered it an insult."

This Maudie's is located in Davenport Village, off of 360, just south of the big beautiful bridge. It's on the second floor of the complex and has a very large balcony area. Decorated in a modern sophisticated Austin-Mexican manner, this restaurant features a very large outside dining area with fans for the summer and heatlamps for the winter. It has some good views West and should be pretty fantastic at dusk--we came too early to see the sun set.

We were seated by a pretty brunette hostess (who Manh really dug) at a corner table outside. We started with the Diablo Sol Food--esentially queso with peppers, ground beef and some other interestinf flavors. Fantastic. My aunt had a nicely balanced margarita encased in a glass not too large (where they usually skimp on the alcohol) and not too small (where you feel you're not getting your money's worth).

For dinner, I ordered the chile rellano, a poblano pepper stuffed with ground beef and drowning in the Mild Spanish Rojas, a tomato based mild sauce. The chile rellano came with refried beans and Mexican rice--of course. What was different was the taste. Maudie's creates great flavors without having to resort to a lot of fat or oil. The result? When I finished the chile rellano, there was not a pool of oil at the bottom of the plate.

If you haven't been here, I highly recommend the experience.