Side Dish of Texas! (Fort Worth: eat, places, hot)

[atxcio]

Oh, and by sheer volume, I suspect the most common Texas side dishes are:

Refried Beans
Spanish Rice

[momof2dfw]

You forgot fresh out of the garden green onions. Not that I like them but my parents and in-laws ALWAYS had them and still do to this day. They will eat the fresh garden sliced tomato and a green onion w/ any and all meals when in season.

[TexasHorseLady]

I'd toss them in a crockpot with water seasoned with salt and pepper, and I'd add some pork jowls for some good flavor. Good eating in my book.

Don't forget to throw in a pickled jalapeno (with a whisper of the pickling juice).

I was torn between mashed potatoes (with chicken fried steak on the side) or pinto beans (to go with the BBQ). In the interests of an occasional consistency, I had to go with the beans.

[destin04]

It really depends on the main dish. If it's Chicken Fried Steak....then it's mashed taters...if it's bbq then it's tater salad, beans or cole slaw. Anyway you look at it....I'm ready to go eat!

[TexasGirl@Heart]

Originally Posted by TexasReb

Wellll, ol' buddy...I am being very liberal in exactly how "veggie" is defined. In fact, I was TRYING to figure out if "cold sliced salted home-grown tamaters" wouldn't count! *grins*

In that case, I pick fried green tomatos!

[love roses]

momof2 brought up green onions and I had about forgotten that that was another one we had with almost everything.

[Watchful]

Originally Posted by atxcio

Oh, and by sheer volume, I suspect the most common Texas side dishes are:

Refried Beans
Spanish Rice

For real - refried beans is numero uno - no doubt.

Ask 100 Texans whether they have eaten more refried beans or blackeyed peas in the last six months. 94 out of 100 will say refried beans.

(Of course one day a year, blackeyed peas win.)

[blueskies49]

But I only (well, occasionally at home) eat refried beans when I go out to eat. At home, it's oriented toward the typical Texan/Southern sides that TR listed. I chose pinto beans but several of those listed would come in a close second! I just bought some damn good okra from East Texas this weekend. Made some mighty fine fried okra Saturday night!

[TexasReb]

Originally Posted by Watchful

For real - refried beans is numero uno - no doubt.

Ask 100 Texans whether they have eaten more refried beans or blackeyed peas in the last six months. 94 out of 100 will say refried beans.

(Of course one day a year, blackeyed peas win.)

You've definitely made some great observations on the whole topic, but I gotta disagree with you here. One reason is, like Miss BlueSkies alludes to, a distinction needs to be made between what we might get/order when going out to eat, as opposed to what is traditionally Texan in the home kitchen and reflected in public places by virtue of history/tradition/culture and over many years and generations. Not necessarily neo-popular today.

[TexasHorseLady]

I have blackeyed peas, religiously, every January 1. I might have them once again during the year, but no more than that, oddly enough. I just learned growing up in East Texas that black-eyed peas were for New Year's Day, we never had them any other time, and I never got in the habit.

Now, I never ate refried beans until I was 20, but I grew up a picky eater and never had BBQ or Mexican food until then, either. Or Chinese food, or many other absolutely delightful things that I'm now hooked on.

So, I definitely fall in the category of having eaten a LOT more refried beans than black-eyed peas. More pinto beans, for that matter - those I DID eat growing up, lots of them.