Whatever grew here, from the tenacious longhorn steer to the weedy African stalk known as okra, fought to live in a region of too little water and too much heat and dust. But what was, of necessity, survival food evolved into a folk art, became a superb, definitive, regional cuisine. For the record, Texas also invented the ice cream sundae, the Margarita, frozen steak fingers, corn chips, stadium nachos and the Marpeani, which is a regular martini except that the olive is replaced by a blackeyed pea. These, however, are back-burner dishes within the kitchen literature of Texas cuisine and of no immediate interest. They are the eternal, essential life-force of Texans, the fuels of our culture and society, because eating out here is a social and sociological occasion, as much gusto as gustatory.
Native foods dominate menus in Texas as in no other American region.
They are a true cuisine and probably are the last and most enduring of the regional American dishes that developed out of the land and environment. These three major food groups are not just gimmicky dishes trotted out to feed the tourists, like Hawaiian poi and Alabama grits. They are served daily in every town in Texas. We live and die by the chicken-fried steak. Barbecue is a product of the Texas prairies.