I'm sure Tex-Mex is better in the southern half of the state, primo, but for some of us, Austin is a fur piece. So, we'll have to get our T-M where we can.
Actually my Argentine sister-in-law (who incidentally earned her PhD at UT-Austin, so she appreciates good Tex-Mex) has found some good Tex-Mex places in France (where she's lived since the 1980s). So, they do exist outside of the Austin-San Antonio-Houston conurbation ...
If you remember the name of that one in Terrell, Cuz, let me know. It's where my Texas sister-in-law's brother lives (hmmm, is there a better way to describe one's sister-in-law's brother? like second brother-in-law?) and so I'll probably be back there at some point.
Man, the most miserable Tex-Mex I ever had was in France. I'd been in Nantes about three months and my local French field service guy (who'd been to Texas many times and should have known better) dragged me to a Tex-Mex place there. The French are peculiar about their beef, they really REALLY like to eat steak rare, or even less than rare, "bleu" they call it which basically means wave cigarette lighter near it for 3 seconds. So they also thought that skirt steak (fajita meat) should be served that way. It was truly horrifying I can tell you, and that was the BEST food they served.
But, I did have one funny moment there that night. There was a cute little French shot girl serving tequila shots from a bandolier and holsters she was wearing, and there was a large table with a bunch of young French college students attempting to do shots. But they were doing them like tequila slammers, where you put some sprite and some tequila into a shot glass, pound it on the table so it fizzes, and then slam it. But they weren't even doing that part right-- after they slammed the shot glass down, they would then sip it gingerly over the next couple minutes, like a freaking Chardonnay or something.
So the local French guy and our local French customers that I'm having dinner with call our waitress over and start speaking to her in French. Which is exactly what they'd been doing all evening, because as we were ordering, they'd translate my English to French for her, although as always I did my best to attempt at least a little French and show the locals that I'm doing my best to try and be a good citizen. But it seemed like she just couldn't understand my attempts, so my buddies translated, and that was all fine.
So anyway I'm not sure what they're talking about but a few minutes later the waitress and the shot girl come over and my local French buddy tells me they want me to do a tequila shot. They've explained to the waitress and the shot girl that I'm a Texan and that I know all about tequila. So the two girls are looking at me expectantly, and the entire table of young French students are also looking over at me too. The shot girl pulls a shot glass out of her bandolier, and pulls a tequila bottle and the sprite bottle out of the holsters, and is getting ready to prep a tequila slammer. But at that point I had to stop her. I asked my French buddy to have her bring me lime, and salt, and poor a shot of tequila with no sprite. She does that, and then I salt the back of my hand, lick the salt, shoot the tequila, and suck the lime. You know, all Spring Break tequila shot proper-like. The table of French students are king of wide eyed, the shot girl is smiling, and the waitress who I thought couldn't understand me all night long looks at me and, in perfect un-accented English, says, "That's the fastest I've ever seen anyone drink tequila." My local French buddy is just laughing because he knew exactly what was going to happen.
Anyway Cuz, my i s c & a aggie wife tells me the name of that delicious Tex-Mex place was Carmona's. But she also tells me that they changed locations, got too big, and it's not as good now. Which is too bad. I hate change.
