Author: rlreevesjr2@gmail.com Page 7 of 13

RL Reeves Jr Mexican Green Spaghetti Method

In the late 19th century, Texas hot guts sausage took the Lone Star state by storm. Ground up bull meat seasoned with hot red pepper, garlic and salt – then submitted to mesquite or post oak smoke suddenly became de rigueur on meat shop menus.

A hundred years later, brisket, a long-running warhorse in the Texas barbecue game, took on added verve when Bobby Mueller and his son John strapped a rocket to a steer’s ass and redefined what we thought of the old menu staple.

Yeah, we’d all been eating brisket since the FDR era but we’d never had it like this. Bobby and John are both deceased but before their passing Bobby told me that the barbecue he was serving would’ve been declared ‘over-cooked’ when he was on the come up.

Field Report: 2025 Scene Boosters Marching Club Second Line

By rlreevesjr2@gmail.com

On June 4, 2025

In Field Reports, Second Line Culture in New Orleans

2025 Scene Boosters Marching Club Second Line

The 2025 Scene Boosters Marching Club Second Line saw a few thousand people march through the historic Central City neighborhood of New Orleans 3rd Ward. This is what we saw:

A History Of Mayonnaise In The Southern Condiment Trade

By rlreevesjr2@gmail.com

On June 2, 2025

In Features

Dynasties have been built. Rebellions have been quelled. Romances kindled. Reputations grown. Kingdoms overthrown.

Fortunes have been made.

The world of southern mayonnaise is as intriguing as any Tennessee Williams drama ever writ. Seismic rifts have jarred entire states over this fine emulsion.

Marie-Antoine Carême, the father of mayonnaise, emerged from the kitchens of 19th century France as a lion of haute cuisine.

Reflecting back on his life spent cooking over primitive, hot stoves he would exclaim: “Charcoal kills us, but what does it matter? The shorter the life, the greater the glory!”

Spoken like a true lover of mayonnaise.

Green Spaghetti Party Saturday June 14th at Tamale House East in Austin Texas

By rlreevesjr2@gmail.com

On June 2, 2025

In Uncategorized

Mexican Green Spaghetti party at Tamale House East in Austin, Texas

2025 marks Tamale House restaurant’s 67th summer serving Tex Mex to friends and neighbors in Austin, Texas.

Saturday June 14th, 2025 at 7pm the East Austin mainstay rolls out their brand new menu item: Green Spaghetti aka Espagueti verde.

All of the regular menu items like Texas-sized tamales, “best in the the city” fish tacos, chile con queso and frozen margaritas will be on offer as well.

Look forward to seeing y’all.

Free tickets here

Rest In Peace: Terranova Brothers Superette

By rlreevesjr2@gmail.com

On May 31, 2025

In Rest In Peace

Terranova Brothers Superette

Terranova Brothers Superette marked their 100th anniversary today by closing their doors forever. The old butchery and small grocery store is no more. Their deli infamously authored the best muffaletta in the city and did so with verve by only making 10 on Saturday morning.

First come first serve.

We rolled by there bright and early to snag a pair but the butcher informed me that since it was their final day they decided to go out with a whimper instead of a bang and not make their signature sandwich one final time.

I wanted to roll him but instead wished him a happy retirement and quit the premises.

Rest In Peace: Original Brown Derby II

By rlreevesjr2@gmail.com

On May 25, 2025

In 500 Po Boys, Rest In Peace

The Original Brown Derby II. 755 N. Claiborne Ave, New Orleans, Louisiana

One of New Orleans best and cheapest po boy, hotplate joints is no more. We were rolling on a second line today and noticed a track hoe sitting astride what had formerly been a neighborhood lynchpin.

Rest in peace Brown Derby II.

500 Po Boys: Bobby’s Seafood In River Ridge

By rlreevesjr2@gmail.com

On May 24, 2025

In 500 Po Boys

“You’re not from around here are you?”

The smiling elderly lady greets us as she walks in the front door of Bobby’s Seafood. We’ve been fingered as outsiders but a parking lot beatdown does not feel imminent; she’s just being friendly to strangers.

Slow Difficult Recipes: Agata’s Lasagna

By rlreevesjr2@gmail.com

On May 18, 2025

In Recipes

Back when I lived in Alabama I became friends with a girl whose grandmother, Agata, was from Sicily. We’d ride out to the sleepy little town of Alabaster on Sunday afternoons where the granny would be busying herself in the kitchen-dealing out culinary trump cards of obscene deliciousness.

My all time favorite dish she made was an intensely garlicky red-sauced lasagna that boasts three pounds of cheeses.This recipe needs no meat. Meat would just get in the way of this profoundly Italian tasting casserole.

The Birth Of Iced Tea In The American South

By rlreevesjr2@gmail.com

On May 17, 2025

In Features

1911 advertisement for Luzianne coffee and tea

A cold glass of iced tea is the saving grace that carries southerners through the sweltering days of summers that seem to stretch on forever in the American South.

And it’s due to the efforts of an 18th century French botanist and a Louisiana entrepreneur who built a beverage empire in the first half of the 20th century that ice tea is the common language of southerners across the United States.

When Andre Michaux, at the behest of King Louis XVI, arrived on the shores of South Carolina in September of 1786 he was set to make a centuries-long impact on the drinking habits of Americans and southerners in particular.

The French plant expert was on a mission. He had been commissioned in his home country to visit the young United States to secure new strains of trees for development in the war-depleted forests of France.