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1 week ago | 
sacurrent.com | Ron Bechtol
The Michelin Guide’s Bib Gourmand award recognizes “restaurants that offer a high-quality three-course meal for a reasonable price.” In the first Texas guide, which debuted in late 2024, San Antonio garnered four of them: Cullum’s Attaboy, the Jerk Shack, Ladino and Southerleigh Fine Food & Brewery.
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3 weeks ago | 
sacurrent.com | Ron Bechtol
By Ron Bechtol on Sat, Jun 7, 2025 at 8:20 am
Some scholars suggest dim sum, a variety of Chinese small dishes usually enjoyed for brunch, originated in tea houses lining the ancient Silk Road starting more than a thousand years ago. Others argue the tradition as we know it evolved in the latter part of the 19th century in and around the Chinese port city of Guangzhou.
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1 month ago | 
sacurrent.com | Ron Bechtol
Here’s a phrase to test your Latin prowess: In vino veritas. If you guessed “in wine there is truth,” you’d be halfway there. The original, Roman meaning is said to be more like “after a few glasses of wine, the truth will out.” But the saying has held sway since the days of the ancient Greeks. A look back might be in order in an era when wine — future tariffs notwithstanding — is presently in good supply, but truth might be harder to come by.
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1 month ago | 
sacurrent.com | Ron Bechtol
The form of Japanese dining known as omakase is an act of trust. In its purest form, diners put themselves in the hands of the chef to determine not only the content but also the flow of a dinner. The trajectory of an evening may change spontaneously midstream depending on the chef’s interaction with guests. Outside of Japan, purity in omakase dining may be hard to come by, but that’s not necessarily a bad thing.
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Mar 15, 2025 | 
sacurrent.com | Ron Bechtol
When the prestigious Michelin dining guide issued its first Texas edition last fall, its sole San Antonio star went to Mixtli, Southtown’s purveyor of “progressive Mexican culinaria.” Mixtli — a Nahuatl word meaning “cloud” — focuses on regional Mexican cuisines with one eye on culinary and cultural history and another on the future. No surprise that the current menu, Mexico 1848, was already fully booked for March at this writing. My advice: get on the mailing list.
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Feb 23, 2025 | 
sacurrent.com | Ron Bechtol
With its emphasis on foods that suggest longevity and prosperity, Chinese New Year makes a good excuse to revisit a cuisine that often gets shunted aside in favor of the latest culinary trend. Of course, not everyone buys into the notion that noodles lead to a long life, but the arrival of the lunar new year, the celebration of which ran from Jan. 29 through Feb. 12, made for a great excuse to visit Noodles & Dumplings, an El Paso-based chain that made its San Antonio debut last spring.
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Feb 7, 2025 | 
sacurrent.com | Ron Bechtol
By Ron Bechtol on Fri, Feb 7, 2025 at 10:03 pm
The kitchen at Hotel Emma’s Supper has long been dependable but rarely exciting. Understandably, last October’s announcement that the two-Michelin Key-rated. hotel had hired Geronimo Lopez, formerly of nearby fusion hotspot Botika, to helm its food operations sparked hope change might be in the works.
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Jan 25, 2025 | 
sacurrent.com | Ron Bechtol
The notion of “modern Mexican” cuisine might strike terror in the hearts of those who fear the profaning of their traditional enchiladas and guisados with tony touches such as airy foams and artfully tweezered microgreen garnishes. To be sure, foam makes a menu appearance at Bokobá, the newly opened restaurant and bar that took over the former Chela’s location on North St. Mary’s Street and jettisoned pretty much everything but the layout. But fear not.
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Oct 19, 2024 | 
sacurrent.com | Ron Bechtol
The vaunted Michelin Restaurant Guide began life as a marketing ploy to sell tires through culinary tourism, but it’s since taken on a life of its own. So coveted are the tome’s star ratings that chefs have reportedly committed suicide at the mere suspicion of losing one. After first appearing in New York in 2005, the French-originated guide is now coming to Texas — though not without cost to the five major cities to be investigated.
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Oct 5, 2024 | 
sacurrent.com | Ron Bechtol
In the dark days BPE — that’s Before Pearl Era — many of San Antonio’s most rewarding restaurants were Thai. And yet I have been guilty for a few years now of abandoning the subtle yet scintillating cuisine for the likes of artisan pizza and South Indian stews. It wasn’t until a few weeks ago, when somebody asked me what my favorite Thai restaurant was, that it hit me: I didn’t have one. Not only that, I couldn’t remember the last time I had ordered Panang curry or green papaya salad.
