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Thursday, April 5

ON THE SIDE: Tia's Tex-Mex

Dale Rice
Austin American-Statesman
Thursday, April 5, 2001

Chain restaurants have succeeded in a number of food areas, particularly Italian, but I haven't encountered many that can turn out passable Tex-Mex fare.

Maybe that's because some have pabulumized their menus for American consumers who aren't prepared for the spiciness of many border dishes.

One chain that hasn't strayed too far from its roots in Lubbock, where it was launched more than 20 years ago, is Tia's Tex-Mex.

It may be a national chain -- with locations in Arkansas, Alabama, Florida, Maryland, Oklahoma, Virginia and Texas, where it has 10 sites in the Dallas-Fort Worth area -- but it hasn't abandoned the basics of the border.

Tia's emphasizes fresh food, making tortillas, sauces, pico de gallo, guacamole and other standards from scratch each day. And it doesn't shy away from jalapeños, cilantro and other ingredients that lend some real heat to its dishes.

The botanas platter ($8.79) held a variety of appetizers, including chicken fajita nachos, beef nachos, chicken fajita quesadillas, chicken flautas, a taco cup of chile con queso, a mound of guacamole and a pile of pico de gallo made with ripe red tomatoes, onions, jalapeños and cilantro.

The jalapeño stuffed shrimp ($12.99), grilled over mesquite wood, featured eight shrimp that had been stuffed with strips of fresh jalapeño and wrapped with bacon. It was served on a bed of Spanish rice with a side of sauteed vegetables.

The chile rellenos ($8.29), stuffed and hand-battered to order, included two peppers filled with seasoned ground beef and topped with two mild sauces: the green and the sour cream. They came with refried beans and Spanish rice.

We wrapped up with a non-border dish, the fried ice cream ($3.99). Coated with "secret ingredients" that gave it a crisp outer shell, the vanilla ice cream was drizzled with Hershey's syrup and honey and surrounded by whipped cream.

So maybe Tia's isn't absolutely true to the Tex-Mex tradition, but it was close enough that we enjoyed all the components of the meal. Forks up. Cheap/moderate. 701 S. Capital of Texas Highway. 732-0500.

--Dale Rice

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