Subject: Mexican Food and Cooking

• On salsa in Mexican restaurants

  June 4, 2009

• Go Fish Tacos

  July 8, 2008

• Slug On The Menu At Martin's BBQ

  September 3, 2008

• If You're Ever in Harriman at Dinner Time, Here's a Restaurant Worth Trying

  Heading eastward via I-40 over the holidays? Or back westward after them? Resigned to eating at Cracker Barrel or Wendy's along the way? If you're near the Harriman exit, take it and drive past the chains just a couple of miles for a pretty good Mexican meal. Two miles or so off the Harriman exit on Highway 27 is El Cantarito 2, a cute Mexican place in an old house. The place is heaving on weekend nights, and maybe it's because nothing else in Harriman is open (but the downtown is very cute)

  December 18, 2008

• Special Tortilla Contest Edition

  Corn or flour, you made the call

  July 24, 2008

• Food Fight

  From hot fish to pizza, Nashville favorites go head to head in culinary face-offs

  October 30, 2008

• The Gulch's newest hot spot is to Mexican as P.F. Chang's is to Chinese

  June 4, 2009

• Los Rosales Reopening Feb. 6

  Los Rosales, the creative and comparatively healthy Mexican restaurant in Antioch, is reopening on Friday Feb. 6. Owner Carlos Moncayo, who also owns Ibiza nightclub, closed the restaurant for two-and-a-half months to update technology, repair the facility and tweak the menu toward fine dining. Menu updates include: fajitas al tequila with meat marinated in tequila and lime served with whole wheat flour tortillas and fresh guacamole ($14); grilled chicken with chipotle and mango sauce with s

  February 2, 2009

• La Hacienda Taqueria: What Do You Recommend?

  Given that my family dines at La Hacienda Taqueria on Nolensville Road once a week on average, it's surprising how little of the sprawling menu I have sampled. I think it's because I become devoted to an item and can't deviate until I get a particularly strong recommendation from a fellow diner--or simply suffer meal envy when their plate arrives. Oddly enough, I can remember every person who has helped me discover a new favorite meal at my favorite Mexican landmark. For example, my then-fian

  March 9, 2009

• Swanky's Taco Shop tests a new Tex-Mex concept south of the border—the Williamson County border, that is

  November 20, 2008

• Around the World in 18 Plates

  October 9, 2008

• East Meets Southwest

  June 12, 2008

• Arches of Triumph

  March 13, 2008

• Southern Sol

  December 20, 2007

• New Mexican

  November 15, 2007

• Taking a Village

  Rosario’s captivates Edgehill Village diners with a fresh Mexican menu

  August 23, 2007

• Mex Sex

  How to hook up with your political enemy

  March 8, 2007

• The Roof Is En Fuego

  El Tejado burns bright with flavors of Oaxaca

  February 15, 2007

• Carne y Tres

  A family restaurant in every sense of the word, La Espuela serves up Mexican home cooking

  January 22, 2004

• Special Food Edición

  Mexicans pick up gabacho habits quickly—even with food and drink

  August 17, 2006

• Chicken Run

  Crowds flock to the dinner deal at Taqueria San Luis drive-through

  May 25, 2006

• Uno Fish, Dos Fish

  La Hacienda spinoff puts accent on authentic Mexican seafood

  April 13, 2006

• Cheap Eats

  30 (or so) places where you can get a great meal for not a lot of money

  September 8, 2005

• The New Scene

  Just a few short years ago, Nashville was no place to eat...

  September 5, 2002

• Poultry in Motion

  New Nolensville Road eatery serves up chicken, chicken and more chicken, but does it right

  October 28, 2004

• ¿Lo Mejor?

  Tucked away in a Nolensville Road strip center, La Terraza just might be the best Mexican restaurant in town

  June 20, 2002

• Deeper South

  April 25, 2002

• More Flavor, Less Heat

  April 4, 2002

• World Tour

  Vietnamese restaurant Pho Bac 54 is just the beginning of culinary delights in the Charlotte/White Bridge area

  December 6, 2001

• The Real Deal

  The latest authentic Mexican is being served out of a truck

  August 2, 2001

• Sol Food

  May 20, 1999

• Another Country

  June 25, 1998

• Egged On

  April 9, 1998

• Got My Goat

  February 12, 1998

• West Disposal

  June 19, 1997

• Dead Again

  October 31, 1996

• No Weigh, Jose

  September 5, 1996

• A Night in the Yuckytan

  April 25, 1996

• Over the Border

  September 14, 1995

• First Bite: The Local Taco

  Just in time for Cinco de Mayo, we scouted the margaritas at The Local Taco at yesterday's inaugural lunch. I'm not saying they were too strong or anything, I'm just saying that after one frosty blend of well-balanced sweet and citrus tones topped with a generous drizzle of Sauza, I forgot to take a photo of the restaurant, which was pretty much the reason I went there in the first place. So here's what it looked like: Cute, clean, festive, understated. Clean white, crisp blue, cheery yellow,

  May 5, 2009

• At 13, Hillsboro hangout Fido is still learning new tricks

  May 14, 2009

• Dear Las Americas: A Love Letter

  So, I've been doing a lot of soul searching. After a couple years of playing the field--and doing some serious waffling--I am finally ready to commit: You, Las Americas, are my favorite restaurant in Nashville. On Saturday night, still nursing the evening traces of a mild hangover, I splashed hot sauce on a taco as the dude with the electric-acoustic guitar sang way too loud and Spanish-language music videos flashed across the mounted TV screens and I knew: Our love is the real thing. Or maybe

  May 12, 2009

• There Was Something in the Air That Night, The Stars Were Bright--Cilantro!

  In yesterday's Snack Tray, I expressed amazement at a site devoted to nothing but belittling one of my favorite foods: the zippy, versatile yet inexpensive Coriandrum sativum, or cilantro. Scramble it in eggs with crushed corn chips and salsa, and behold--migas! Sautee it in butter with coconut and stuff it into chicken breasts, and the earthy aroma alone will make your company tingle with hunger. And yet here's IHateCilantro.com to attack this miracle herb with a fury better reserved for the

  May 13, 2009

• An Eye for Details at Tapatio 2

  Like the Tex-Mex Taco wagon on Charlotte, Tapatio 2, waaay out Nolensville Road, past Las Americas and almost to Big Church area, is a wagon that also has a building attached. We rolled up on it by happenstance. We hit the jackpot. There was an expertly made ceviche--more on that in a later post--and a quesadilla that far surpassed the usual slap-it-on-a-tortilla-and-nuke-it. It was a goat quesadilla, but the goat was grilled or roast goat, more savory and firmer than the usual stewed or pot-

  June 19, 2009

• First Bite: Taco Party

  Arrived at Springwater with a couple of fellow cyclists. Beer-pounding commenced on the cyclone-fenced back porch, among the smokers and drunks.  Later it became apparent that food must be consumed. For this, someone has filled a niche--when Hog Heaven next door closes at 7 p.m., Taco Party is there instead to serve you, right within the folds of Springwater, nestled into a tiny space in the back and cranking out tacos, quesadillas and more until the wee hours. As ipso facto drinking foo

  July 29, 2009

• The Mexican's Mexican Restaurant Book Contest

  Gustavo Arellano, who writes the "Ask a Mexican" column, is seeking your help: In 25 words or less, tell me your favorite local Mexican restaurant and what makes it so bueno. I'll soon be traveling 'round los Estados Unidos in my trusty burro to research my upcoming book on the history of Mexican food in the United States, and I need places to haunt and cacti to sleep under. One entry per person, one winner per paper, five winners total for areas that don't carry my column, and contest ends whe

  August 12, 2009

• El Manjar Closed

  El Manjar Mexican restaurant, known for unusual delicacies including grilled tongue and barbecued lamb soup, has closed. The phone has been disconnected at the Nolensville Road eatery, and an eviction notice dated Aug. 6 is posted on a window.

  August 17, 2009

• On a crowded corridor of Mexican cuisine, El Mirador offers a few outstanding details

  September 3, 2009

• From clean lines to Elvis shrines, Chipotle and Chuy’s come at Tex-Mex from very different directions

  December 10, 2009

• Chattanooga-based Mexican eatery Taco Mamacita adds some zest to Edgehill Village

  January 21, 2010