VisitSanAntonio.com

Accessiblity navigation:

Skip to primary navigation
Skip to secondary navigation
Skip to content

Site search:

Services navigation:

Primary navigation:

Breadcrumb navigation:

Home>Visitors>Plan>Featured Stories>Enjoy Your Own Taste of San Antonio

Primary navigation:

Secondary navigation:

Plan

Local Food Treasures

Perfect Tamales

Tamales are a major food tradition in San Antonio. Present on dinner plates at Mexican restaurants year ‘round, they’re obligatory on special occasions. Whether served on their own or used when stuffing a holiday turkey or goose, discriminating chefs and discerning grandmothers alike agree on the importance of this cornhusk-wrapped treat – the savory ones stuffed with mixtures of pork, chicken or pinto beans, and the sweet versions sporting raisins, coconut or pecans. While you’re in San Antonio there are dozens of places to enjoy them. And after you return home, Delicious Tamales is among those that will ship some back to you. Be the first (and likely only) on your block to get some!

Exotic Foods

Ship-to-you products can say San Antonio in other ways as well, so says Pat Mozersky, author of the “Chef Secrets” column in the San Antonio Express-News. She suggests getting your own taste of the Texas Hill Country through exotics items like a bone-in leg of wild boar or boneless loin of South Texas antelope for a holiday meal that goes beyond that ol’ ham stuck with cloves. Broken Arrow Ranch, a pioneer in managed wild game, can also supply such delicacies as elk and venison, along with recipes for their preparation. Mozersky also mentions the Coturnix quail ranched in nearby Bandera as another great example of unique local flavor. Available in whole, semi-boneless and other forms, these are great marinated and grilled or even deep-fried. The legs, thigh bone removed, are perfect finger foods for a get-together in any season.

Local Produce

French-trained chef Scott Cohen has worked extensively with South Texas farmers and ranchers and is quite fond of such products as Ruby Red grapefruit, great during the winter months. He suggests using them as a way to put a new spin on your favorite ceviche recipe. Cohen also champions apples from Love Creek Orchards, saying breakfasts can especially benefit from a jolt of apple jalapeño jelly on your French toast or beignets. And speaking of jalapeños, a quintessential San Antonio culinary component if there ever was one, a candied and pickled version is produced by Chef Michael Flores, who offers cooking classes aboard barges on the San Antonio River. For a taste of San Antonio at your next celebration, he suggests using his Bandito Bullets over cream cheese or adding toasted pumpkin seeds for salads with San Antonio flair.

Cooking Classes

Tastes of San Antonio also can be garnered firsthand at any of the city’s many cooking schools and classes. Professionals (and passionate amateurs) can touch up their skills at the new branch of The Culinary Institute of America. In addition to classic French training, it has a Latin American focus. At a less intense level, Central Market offers classes to all comers on a year ‘round basis, and features both local and visiting chefs. (Director Mary Martini suggests topping holiday sweet potatoes with pralines, a pecan-based candy that goes back to the days when San Antonio was the world’s pecan capital.)

Fifteen students is the minimum number to make a class in comida casera (homestyle Mexican cooking), usually held the first Tuesday of each month at the atmospheric La Hacienda de los Barrios with cookbook author and restaurateur Diana Barrios Treviño. A Little Bit of Texas Cooking School, based at scenic Rio Cibolo Ranch just east of town, offers periodic classes in Southwestern, Texan, Mexican and herbal cuisine on the banks of a cypress-shaded creek.

Chef Brian West presents monthly classes at his Latin-themed Café Paladar, where you might learn how to make Snake Bite Rubbed Beef Tenderloin with Ranchero Demi topped with Mezcal Bearnaise. Rockhill Cooking Academy caters to kids and young adults with classes such as Mother-Daughter Christmas Breads, and the Young Chef’s Academy presents classes such as Southwest Fusion and The History of Modern Cuisine at two locations.

S.A.V.E.

Footer navigation:

Copyright (c) 2011 by City of San Antonio. Any party wishing to reproduce content displayed on this website must obtain the express written permission of the San Antonio Convention and Visitors Bureau. Phone: (800) 447-3372