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'Eater' Suggests New York Could Be ‘Barbecue Capital’ — And Texans Have A Few Thoughts

Louie Mueller Barbecue
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The owner of Hometown, the barbecue restaurant in Brooklyn mentioned in the Eater article, was inspired to start the restaurant after a visit to Louie Mueller Barbecue in Taylor, Texas.

Five stories that have North Texas talking: Texas’ barbecue cred is questioned; two Texas members of Congress take a bipartisan road trip; meet the Dallas-Fort Worth musicians playing SXSW; and more.

Every so often, Texas’ food credibility is threatened. A few months ago, an article in The Wall Street Journal said Arkansas was “laying claim” to queso, laughably referred to as “cheese dip” in that state. Then, a month later, Texas Senators Ted Cruz and John Cornyn had the audacity to host a taste test between queso and cheese dip with Arkansas Senators Tom Cotton and John Boozman. The cheese dip somehow prevailed, causing many Texans to enter the five stages of grief.

Tuesday, the state’s culinary prowess was questioned again — this time over an equally important Texas dish: barbecue. Eater, a dining and drinking publication, shared an article about a Texas-inspired barbecue restaurant in Brooklyn and warned: “Watch out, Texas. New York is on its way to being a barbecue capital.” For those who didn’t automatically smirk, scoff and do a spit take, many Texans responded that it was simply false — using GIFs to help convey the message. Foodies in Kansas and other southern states did, too. [KERA News]   

  • Betsy DeVos inspired a transgender man to run for a seat on Grand Prairie’s school board. Johnny Boucher, 29, an award-winning teacher, says his gender identity will likely steer the public’s conversation over his merits. Boucher says he’s not campaigning on being trans, but he’s also not hiding it. He’s vying for the Place 4, single-member-district seat formerly held by J.D. Stewart, according to The Dallas Morning News. Boucher credits the newly appointed U.S. secretary of education for his seeking office. "I thought, 'If [DeVos] can find herself at the top of this national leadership position without any experience in public schools or public school policy, then what can I do to make my voice be heard more clearly?’" [The Dallas Morning News]

 

  • Two Texas members of Congress embarked on a “bipartisan road trip” Tuesday to Washington D.C. U.S. Reps. Beto O’Rourke, a Democrat, and Will Hurd, a Republican, have to be in Washington by tonight for a meeting, but their flights were canceled due to the heavy snow in the Northeast, the El Paso Times reports. So, the two decided Tuesday to carpool the 1,600 miles across the country from San Antonio to D.C. They’ve been live streaming the drive via Periscope, taking questions and song requests from viewers. Here are 10 takeaways about the two Texans learned from their car talk. Spoiler: They have good taste in music. [El Paso Times]

 

  • An aquarium shop employee in San Antonio made a wheelchair for a disabled goldfish. And the photo of the little guy that Taylor Dean, also from San Antonio, posted on Twitter is going viral. “Dean said a customer of [her friend] Derek’s recently brought in their pet goldfish that was suffering from swim bladder disease, a disorder that prevents a goldfish from controlling its buoyancy in the water,” Buzzfeed News reports. The custom wheelchair is made from flexible plastic tubing to hold the fish, and the whole structure is kept afloat by a piece of Styrofoam. [Buzzfeed News]

  • More than a dozen musicians from genres across the board will represent North Texas at South by Southwest this week. KXT, KERA’s sister station, put together a list of those local artists so you can plan your festival schedule accordingly — or find their music online or in area record stores if you’re staying home. A few standouts: Castro, a sibling trio from Dallas (two-thirds of which are former “American Idol” contestants), Denton’s Brutal Juice, which has been rocking out since the early ‘90s, and The Drummies, an 11-year-old and 13-year-old pair of drummers from Dallas. See KXT’s full SXSW preview, which will be updated as more North Texas artists are announced. [KXT]