by Mollie Chen

I've got the Lone Star State on my mind. Between my fellow DT blogger (and wannabe Texan) Julia Bainbridge's food-filled accounts of her Houston and Austin trips, and planning my own Dallas trip for the fall, I've been having serious barbecue cravings. It doesn't help that I just received a sneak peek at the forthcoming Ultimate Food Lover's Guide to Houston and an invite to the book's September media bonanza (16 chefs, two days, and surely too many margaritas). I'm looking forward to meeting all the Texas chefs, especially since the invite is packed with the kind of insider info that we can expect from the finished book.

I'm dying to know more about Woody's smoked pork jowls and the CheesyGirl "Buff" chevre  that Michael Dei Magi, of Max's Wine Dive, can't get enough of. I now know that Reef's Bryan Caswell always has Blue Bell ice cream in his freezer; that Ibiza's Charles Clark harbors dreams of being a jazz trumpet player; and that the best place to find The Grove's would-be archaeologist Ryan Pera will be at Lupa, where he's planning on inducing a "pork fat hangover." Ah, gotta love those crazy chefs.