Dishola: Reviews by the Dish

About PatSharpe

A native of Austin, I joined the staff of Texas Monthly, in 1974, when the magazine was turning a mere two years old. I edited the magazine's cultural and restaurant listings, and over the years, I also wrote a consumer column called "Touts." Eventually I focused exclusively on food, and my story "War Fare," an account of living for 48 hours on military-style MRE's (Meals Ready to Eat), was included in the anthology Best Food Writing 2002 (Marlowe & Company). Today, I write a regular restaurant column for Texas Monthly and am in demand to judge food contests (I decline those involving large quantities of chile peppers or hot sauce). In March 2005, I wrote a memoir of my thirty years as a restaurant critic entitled "Confessions of a Skinny Bitch." It won a James Beard Foundation award for magazine food writing. I stand five feet, seven inches tall and weighs 118 pounds fully fed and fully clothed. My fantasty tablemates? "George Clooney. Period."

Foodie Fetishes

• And to Drink: A lime Coke made with a real Mexican Coke, Mexican limes, and lots of ice. This is a drink for the dog days of summer. (For you youngsters, all Cokes used to be made with real cane sugar, not high-fructose corn syrup, the latter of which is an abomination unto the Lord. Some Coca-Cola bottling plants in Mexico still do it the old-fashioned way. A Mexican lime is the same as a Key lime.)
• Your Fantasy Tablemates: George Clooney. Period.
• Favorite Cuisine: I realized the other day that I eat Mexican food far more often than American. If I stopped buying tacos al pastor and huevos rancheros from the little taqueria up the street from my house, it would close in a week. But for both intellectual and hedonistic pleasure, nothing tops French cooking.
• Last Meal Request: Panna cotta from the late, lamented Speranza's, which was the first authentic Italian restaurant in Austin and is, in my opinion, still unequaled.

Food Writing