Newcomers to the Lone Star State may feel overwhelmed at the native cuisine. Texas cooking is as broad an area as the Lone Star State itself. Some dishes are pure Texas and others have borrowed from Old Mexico, from old-fashioned down home Southern cooking, and from the state's Cajun neighbors.

Biscuits are a breakfast favorite and when you think of biscuits served Texas style, think big and think sourdough. Tall, golden brown sourdough biscuits are light and delicious whether smeared with butter, drizzled with honey or served with rich creamy sausage gravy. Add a few cups of strong Texas coffee for a true Texan's breakfast. If you have a sweet tooth, you might want to try a kolache, a Czech sweet roll that is a state favorite, handed down from early Czech and German settlers. Huevos ranchero - a Mexican style egg dish - is spicy and delicious. Another popular option for breakfast, found more often in Texas than in any other state, is a hamburger. Many restaurants serve them at any hour and sinking your teeth into a juicy burger can be a great start to the day. Steak - either beef steak or a good chicken fry - with eggs is another pure Texas breakfast option!

Chicken fried steak is the true dish of Texas. According to the Texas Restaurant Association, 90% of their member restaurants offer chicken fried steak on the menu and more than 800,000 are served up each day! Chicken fried steak comes in several forms but is most often a tenderized beef round steak dipped in egg and coated with flour, cracker crumbs, or bread crumbs and fried to a perfect crisp. Topped with cream gravy and served with mashed potatoes on the sides, there's little that satisifies like a good chicken fried steak.

Texas is known for barbecue and vies with other regions (Kansas City and Memphis are top contenders) for the best barbecue in the nation. Texas barbecue can include beef brisket, ribs, or chicken, smoked and seared with a spicy sauce until the meat melts in your mouth. A good "smoke ring" - a line of pink inside the meat is evidence of excellent barbecue. Barbecue is served as a meal or as a shredded meat sandwich. An onion blossom - an onion, peeled and cut into a flower like shape then coated and deep fried - often accompanies good barbecue - as does a bottle of one's favorite beer.

Chili is another Texas favorite but there are more than one form of the popular dish. Traditional Mexican chili is simmered beef chunks, spicy and seasoned, served separately from the beans. A modern update of the same dish serves meat chunks and beans together in a bowl while ground meat makes the base for good chili as well. Ground meats can be beef or venison but the trick lies in being well-seasoned, spicy, and delicious. Some prefer chili without tomatoes but others don't think it's true chili without them.

Chili - or a variant of it - fills enchiladas, tacos, burritos, and other Mexican imports. Flour tortillas are used for burritos, a hand held meal that often combines both meat and beans. Corn tortillas are used for enchiladas and the same corn tortillas are fried, then folded for tacos. A chaplupa is a flat taco and a quesdilla is cheese, meat, or both grilled between two tortillas. Countless other combinations are found and a delightful beef chili gravy is sometimes served over beef enchiladas and other entrees.

Chili is also used to top hot dogs, served on a bun as a "taco burger", over hamburgers, over eggs, mixed with macroni (chili mac), combined with Fritos (frito pie) over chips (Nachos) and over French Fries. Add cheese to give the chili even more scrumptious taste.

An entire Tex-Mex cuisine has grown out of a combination of traditional Mexican and modern dining. Chicken, beef, and pork are all combined with spices and seasonings to create dishes neither completely Mexican or Texan in origin.

Texas cooking that owes more to the South than to Mexico includes fried chicken, fried okra, fried corn (a delicous combination of fresh corn, butter, salt and pepper cooked in an iron skillet), meatloaf, chicken and dumplings, and pinto beans. Serve the pinto beans with biscuits for an old-fashioned Texas combination or paired with cornbread, another Texas favorite.

Cornbread pies with seasoned ground beef, cheese, and other ingredients sealed between two layers of cornbread are another perennial favorite.

Fishing is a favorite sport in Texas so fried catfish and fried bass are both favorites, served up with a side of fried potatoes and hush puppies. Fry the 'taters with a little bit of onion for a unique Texas taste.

The Texan appreciation for sausage may lie in the German settlers who brought "wurst" to the state. Whether it's smoked sausage, bratwurst, or whole hog sausage, most Texans savor the sweet taste of pork. Grilled, served on a sandwich, as a side, or as the centerpiece of a meal, sausage is popular. You'll even find boudin - a pork and rice Cajun sausage - in parts of Texas that border Louisiana.

Never forget that Texas is cattle country. Thick steaks grilled, pan fried, or broiled are popular, tender, and succulent. Pair the steak with a heap of fries or a huge baked potato swimming in butter for a cattleman's meal. If you're brave of heart, try calf fries - tender, delicious, fried calf testicles. The authentic cowboys ate them and still do along with many other Texans.

Spam - a canned meat that begin life as canned ham but became "Spam" during the 1930's when the product's base became pork shoulder instead of ham - is another popular taste treat. Spam sandwiches (with the meat sliced straight from the can), grilled spam, spam and eggs, or baked spam (remove from can, stud with cloves, and bake), are all tasty Texas treats.

Texas dishes often include large quantities of cheese, onions, corn, cornmeal, jalapeno peppers, green peppers, chili peppers, chicken, beef, and pork in any and all combinations. If it's meaty, spicy, and smothered in cheese or gravy, it's Texas good. Depending on the season, some favorite side dishes might include a mess of greens, home grown tomatoes, or a pea salad (fresh, frozen or canned peas mixed with mayonaise, eggs, cheese, and onion).

Rice and gravy is a dish that owes inspiration from Cajun and Creole neighbors. Imagine slow simmered, tender beef chunks in gravy over rice. Gumbo - a stew made with fish, shrimp, chicken, or sausage - is also popular along the coast as are oysters.

Desserts served Texas style include sopapillas, a Mexican creation sweetened with honey, pecan pie (to die for with vanilla ice cream), kolache sweet rolls, or made-from-scratch cakes.

Texas food is almost always good, never boring, and unlike any other region's cuisine in its' variety. Settle down and sample a little of the best Texas cooks have to offer!