Sometimes you visit a place and experience just enough to know you want to come back. That's how I feel about San Antonio, famous for the Alamo, Tex Mex food and the riverwalk. Moments after arriving as I saw the flat barges on the river, I immediately thought of Mexico, and indeed, Mexico is just a few hours away by car.


But Mexico isn't the only influence, San Antonio has German heritage too since Germans settled in Texas Hill Country starting in the 1830's. That's why you find German style beer, which it turns out is awfully refreshing with spicy food or humid weather or both.

So it actually makes a lot of sense that John Besh would open up an outpost of his NOLA restaurant L�ke in San Antonio. The food is inspired by the Swiss, German and French food he learned to cook while living in Europe and the New Orleans style food he grew up eating, and of course a focus on what's local. At L�ke you can dig into Texas raised chicken or gulf shrimp "en cocotte" or jaegerschnitzel and somehow, it all makes sense.


The restaurant is located in the the Embassy Suites San Antonio Riverwalk hotel, which just recently opened. I hadn't stayed in an Embassy Suites hotel in a long time but I was pleasantly surprised. The rooms and lobby were spacious, and design elements mirrored the rambling natural feel of the riverwalk, which is right below the large picture windows on the ground floor. The location was great for poking around downtown and exploring by foot, taking in a bit of the fabulous Art Deco and Neo-Gothic revival architecture.


Just a few blocks from the hotel, I enjoyed the Museo Alameda, with its combination of art and cultural displays especially the Siqueiros, Tamayo and Rivera paintings and the historical recreation of a small local shop. Just outside the museum is the covered market, which feels very much like a tourist market in Mexico. I'm sorry I missed the actual farmers market!


It was too crowded with Fiesta revellers for me to get a table at Mi Tierra, a cafe, panaderia and a cultural landmark in San Antionio. But I did get a sneak peek...


...and also of the colors of Fiesta. I love this smiling face!




Another highlight for me was actually my breakfast at Taco Taco, another more recent dining institution and so typical of San Antonio where more often than not a blend of cultures and influences is what makes the city all the more interesting. Here a Greek woman makes her versions of Tex Mex food and the locals can't get enough. In fact they stand in line for her superb homemade flour and corn tortillas wrapped around chorizo, scrambled eggs and super creamy refried beans. Is the secret to her tender tortillas olive oil? Is it Greek honey drizzled on the I-can't-stop-eating-them sopapillas? Who knows. And really it doesn't matter. Taco Taco like the rest of San Antonio seems to embody fusion in all the right ways. It feels good and tastes even better.

My thanks to the Embassy Suites and the San Antonio CVB for hosting me on my first trip to San Antonio

With more tea companies popping up everyday, it can be a bit of a blur trying to distinguish one from another, but earlier this year I got a chance to try tea from Teatulia and noted the brightness and freshness of the product. Not long after I met Linda Appel Lipsius, a co-founder and CEO of the company and was even more impressed by the lofty goals of the company. The reason the tea tastes so fresh? With tea there are generally lots of middlemen, but with Teatulia because it's all estate grown, there are none so you can be assured of the quality. The company is equally committed to environmental sustainability and the economic well being of their workers, in particular to the women who are growing the tea and managing the estate.

Teatulia tea comes from a single estate in Northern Bangladesh, which was founded in 2000. They sell black, green, white and herbal teas, all produced and certified organic. Teatulia is a tea garden, but with the goal of being an enterprise that gives the people working it, primarily women, a living wage. It's also a place to experiment with new cooperatives, like the one that allows members to receive a milking cow and pay for it with milk and cow dung, instead of cash. All the tea ingredients are grown on the estate, as well as fresh produce including rice, mangoes and hibiscus for the workers to use and to sell.

A lovely video about the company and their tea estate:



When it comes to environmental issues, Teatulia really goes the extra mile. Their tea is available loose leaf and also in bags and they use compostable corn for the tea bags and compostable eucalyptus for the tea bag wrappers. The inks used are water based, and the labels made from recycled paper.

The Teatulia tea I am most excited about is a blend with tulsi, an antioxidant rich ayurvedic herb that has a rich cinnamon like flavor. It's good hot or cold and is sometimes compared to Indian chai. It's a nice variety to literally spice things up now and again. Their white tea is a top seller, and has a very fresh, clean finish. It's never musty or bland. Other varieties include their version of Earl Grey (which uses bergamot from the estate), a breakfast tea, their signature black tea, a version with neem, green tea, white tea, lemongrass and ginger herbal infusions. I recommend the medley, so you can try them all.

Bags of organic arugula at the store always tempt me. "Buy me!" they say, "Eat salad for a week, it'll be great!" Of course after three or four days the bag is half full and the contents start to look rather wilted and sad. Then comes regret. Why did I buy that bag in the first place? Recently I found the solution to the problem of wilting greens, a problem that I'm guessing may also be yours.


It turns out arugula is quite wonderful when lightly sauteed in olive oil. It's somewhat bitter and earthy but in a good way. It's even better if you mix it with some other greens. I use a bit of frozen spinach which is mild but silky and some fresh escarole which has a lovely spring flavor and juiciness when it's cooked. The mixture of flavors and textures creates a compelling dish that isn't just a terrific side dish, but begs to be layered in a grilled cheese sandwich. With or without ham or bacon, this is good stuff!

I buy arugula a lot. But you could just as easily use fresh but beginning-to-wilt spinach, swiss chard, kale, mustard greens, turnip tops or beet greens. Experiment! The amounts of greens are up to you and what you have on hand. I almost always have some individually quick frozen (IQF) spinach in the freezer but don't use it if you don't have it, this is all about cooking economically and making do with what you have. No garlic on hand? No problem! Want to use red chile flakes in addition to onion and garlic? Go for it! You have nothing to lose but some greens that are probably not ready for a starring role in a salad, Mr. De Mille. The basic technique is just to place the ingredients in the pan in order from most sturdy to most fragile. The sturdy stuff will take a little longer to cook than the fragile stuff, but we're talking only a few minutes.

Saut�ed Mixed GreensServes about 4 as a side dish

Ingredients

2 Tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
1/4 cup chopped onion
1 clove garlic minced
1 cup frozen spinach
8-10 leaves of escarole
1/2 bag of arugula, about 4 handfuls

Instructions

Heat a large skillet over medium high heat. Add the olive oil and when hot, add the onion. Cook for three minutes, stirring frequently with a wooden spoon, add the garlic and cook for just 30 seconds then add the spinach and the escarole. Cover and turn the heat down to low. Let it cook for a minute or two, just until the spinach barely defrosts. Remove the lid and stir, then add the arugula and stir. The arugula will wilt very quickly, in just a couple of minutes. Season with salt and you're done!

Enjoy!