Selma – In the San Antonio suburb of Selma, pizza is being slung in the air as sultry as Sinatra singing a song. Surprisingly, old blue eyes only had three of his songs top the Billboard Hot 100 charts, which happens to be the same number of times that Mia Marco’s has topped the charts in the pizza world. “We’re the only people in the world that have three world championships,” said Derek Sanchez.

Sanchez has some Italian roots thanks to his mom, and that lineage looms large when it comes to his pizza pies. “Pizza was something I wanted to do at home,” said Derek. “It was really fun. And then my college buddy said, ‘Hey, dude, we need to open up a pizzeria. Let’s try a food truck.’”

That buddy was Joey Hernandez and together with Lee Hunzinger they created Mia Marcos. “My whole goal from day one was truly to make the best pizza in the world,” said Derek.

Derek’s day job as a physical therapist has made his part time gig as a pizza man something people are passionate about. “I hear it all the time, dude,” said Derek. “I’m working, ‘How’s your pizza place?’ ‘It’s good.’ ‘Y’all’s pizza is so good. It’s so awesome.’ We talk about pizza. I’m working on their shoulder or their back or neck or whatever, and we’re sitting there talking about pizza. It’s pretty fun.”

“It’s light years beyond a chain pizza,” said customer Beau. “It’s unlike anything else.”

“I think it’s one of the best pizza places in San Antonio,” said another customer named Christina.

Now when Mia Marcos got started in 2016, winning a world championship wasn’t what they were aiming for. “I had no idea the pizza world was like that,” said Derek. “It’s crazy.”

But Derek and his team decided to enter for the fun of it. “So, I jump in this thing and I get fifth,” said Derek. “I’m like, ‘Oh, wow. I think we have something good here.’ I came home and I told my wife, ‘I think I can win that thing.’ I dug in and then we went back and we won it. A world pizza championship.”

Wondering what winning a world pizza championship feels like? “Five seconds of fun,” said Derek. “And then let’s go back home and get back to work.”

Making their own dough and their own mozzarella are just some of the steps that they take at Mia Marcos to make their pizza stand out. They don’t cut corners, they cut slices, and those two ingredients were key to their success. “First one I won was just a regular cheese pizza,” said Derek. “Just cheese pizza. Everybody put a bunch of toppings on there. I really wanted our dough to shine, so I popped in a cheese pizza, and boom. We snagged one.”

“I never knew pizza could be taken so seriously,” said customer Deborah.

Dereck wanted me to dive into a trio of their pizza so the guys got to work. “Let’s do a classic margherita,” said Derek. “Joey’s creating something called the Cornicione, or the crust. He’s creating the outside of the pizza. Soon, he’ll pick it up. He’ll start to stretch it open, and he’s kind of going to let the dough do its own work, right? Going to use gravity, let the dough, it’s going to pull it apart and stretch the pizza out.”

Joey sauces up the pizza and puts some of the house made mozzarella on top and throws it in the oven. “It’s like a work of art already,” said Derek. “It’s not even baked, right?”

Lee uses the same sauce, brushes on some egg wash and scatters sesame seeds to the crust. “So right now he’s going to bake that pizza with no toppings,” said Derek. “It’s just a classic red pizza. We’re going to top it with cheese after it comes out of the oven.”

Dereck finished off the margherita with basil and garlic oil. Lee’s pizza gets burrata cheese. “He’s worked many years on his hand work and manicuring his hand work,” said Derek. “So he practices nightly on how to put burrata on pizza.”

Then comes some pepperoni jam, a unique topping that Lee invented. It, too, gets basil and parmesan cheese. “It’s amazing how that red disc turned into that, huh?” said Derek.

For the final pizza, they put together a unique half and half. “It’s roasted red peppers, cup and char pepperoni on a cheese pizza,” said Derek. “And we’re doing it in the style of a grandma style, so a squared fried pizza in that pan.”

There is without a doubt three Texas sized pies brought to the table, and the first one up is going to be the Margherita, a good pizza to go with at any pizza parlor because it’s usually the original form. And right away you can tell that crust is light and it looks delicious. “This is pizza you don’t get tired of,” said Deborah.

The tomato sauce brings in the sweetness, but then the basil brings in the nice flavor of the garden, and it is amazing how good that Margherita pizza is. You can hear how awesome the crust is as soon as you bite in. “Crispy and fluffy and just delicious,” said Christina. “I think it’s amazing.”

What’s amazing is right off the bat that crust crunches, but then once you get it in your mouth, it just softens right up. Next up is the bar pizza with that pepperoni jam on top. “It’s got a little bit of this sweet and savory combined, and so it’s just a nice little garnish touch to the pepperoni pie,” said Deborah. “Yes, it’s also very savory, very tasty, flavorful.”

That pepperoni jam definitely has the sweetness in it, but it also has the saltiness of that pepperoni with a little kick, and it is fantastic. The last pie up is grandma’s square pan pizza, complete with little pepperonis, hot honey and some red peppers. This one, just like the others, is an absolute hit, and really shows off the versatility of Mia Marco’s and their arsenal of pizzas. “We really want people to enjoy this thing, man,” said Derek. “We really want to change the world in Texas and pizza.”

For Derek, this pizza isn’t about awards or accolades. It’s about family and providing support for the ones you love. “So, the truth of it is, I love God a lot, dude,” said Derek. “So I truly think that the Lord put this pizza in my heart for this one right here (Derek’s daughter). Just because I’m a PT, I got to be in the clinic to work. But this can grow and develop, and I think it’ll provide money for her the rest of her life. So I think this is why, dude, this one right here, this little fart. Right? All right. Get out of here. Love you.”

“Love you too,” his daughter replied.

 

 

Longview – When it comes to finding fine food options the northeast corner of the Lone Star State, regional recipes like Italian food don’t come to mind, but The Tuscan Pig in Longview is changing all of that.

“The only handmade lasagna in East Texas, I guarantee you that,” said owner Rudolfo Stefano Chiappetta.

Rudolfo, known as Rudy, started this restaurant with his wife Miram back in 2013 after a career of catering around the country for a nationwide food service company. “Definitely an opportunity to improve the Italian food scene, so we decided to stay,” said Rudy.

Before diving into the big bold flavors at the Tuscan Pig, Rudy reminisced about his life as an Italian immigrant. “Born in Italy, provincia di Caserta,” said Rudy. “Caserta is in the Campania region, 50 miles above Naples, more inland. 1973, we immigrated to the United States and of all the exotic places in the world, we ended up in New Jersey. So, that lasted for about 23 years. My family repatriated back to Italy in the mid-80s. I decided to stay. Once you live in America, it’s hard to live anywhere else. This is the best country in the world, and this is where we wanted to be.”

The recipes here all stem from Rudy’s Italian roots. “I started learning how to cook when I was six years old,” said Rudy. “When we immigrated to the United States, we were in New Jersey. Mom’s making pasta, and learning, making the well with the flour and how many eggs and this and that, and to keep your kid busy before internet and tablets and cell phones, we only had four channels on television and you were the remote. So mom, to keep you busy, she’d say, ‘Help me cook, help me make pasta.’”

Rudy remembers these times growing up and cooking with his mother as fond family memories, rather than an intentional launchpad for his current profession. “Little things that stuck with you for the rest of your life,” said Rudy. “Never thinking that I was going to go into the restaurant business.”

Of course, this is Texas, and Rudy is a wise guy in good a way so he made sure his dishes had a Texas touch. “What we did is we took classic Italian dishes and Longview-ized them, Texas-ized them if you will, in size number one,” said Rudy. “The portion that we serve is three times the size of an Italian portion if you go to Italy. My family fell off their chairs when they saw the size of the dishes that we were putting out. Like, ‘Are you kidding me? How are you going to eat all that?’ But you have to give a value for the dollar, if you will.”

“Italian, but also Texan,” said Miriam Chiappetta.

Miriam wanted to put together two of their most popular dishes.  The lasagna of course and the gnocchi covered in pesto and Tuscan style pork. “Some pesto in the pan. Boiling water,” said Miriam. “Some cherry tomatoes with seasoning and olive oil.”

As everything sears up, the gnocchi boil like pasta. “So I’m waiting for them to start to float,” said Miriam.

Once finished, they go straight into the pesto, along with the tomatoes and the specialty Tuscan pork. “It’s been cooked for at least eight hours,” said Miriam. I made the ragu which is our number one sauce, and I cooked the pork meat in it.”

“That’s where we get our name,” said Rudy. “It’s shoulder meat, pork shoulder that’s cooked in tomato sauce for 10 hours. Okay. It’s not barbecue, it’s not brisket.”

It certainly isn’t barbeque or brisket, but this pork is something that any meat-loving Texan can surely get on board with. As everything comes together, there’s just a couple finishing touches that make this gnocchi dish complete. “A little bit of bacon. That’s the Texan part,” said Miriam. And the pork too. Some fresh crème, and it’s ready to eat.”

Now it’s time to move on to the lasagna, which features that same slow cooked Tuscan pork. The freshly made lasagna is put into a bowl with pasta sauce and cheese. “On the first layer is Tuscan pork, which is this one right here,” said Miriam. “Second layer is our of bolognese sauce, ground beef with carrots, celery, onion, garlic. And on the third layer is bechamel, which is flour, butter, milk, nutmeg. And we top it off with cheese and spices.”

With the dishes complete, it’s time to get out first taste of East Texas Italian. Starting with the gnocchi, it has a soft, pillowy texture that works great with that delicious pesto. The pulled pork has fantastic flavor and is very tender, making for an incredible dish all around.

“I think it’s a pretty well-balanced dish,” said one customer. “The pesto pairs well with gnocchi, cherry tomatoes with some crema just works really well altogether.”

On to the country lasagna. The same Tuscan pork is in this, but it looks like lasagna, and it smells like lasagna. The noodles are soft and delicious. The sauce is sensational. The Tuscan pork has a nice little saltiness to it, and it’s not overbearing. There’s not a whole lot of cheese you got to pull away from or anything like that. It is just right on.

“It’s just different,” said another customer. “It’s different than regular lasagna.”

Well, an unexpected find in East Texas, Italian food that’s actually really good. Coming to the Tuscan Pig is definitely well worth a stop on the Texas Bucket List. “I think if you wake up every day, you pray hard and you work hard, you’re going to meet somewhere in the middle,” said Rudy. “We feed 11 families; we have 11 employees. With the grace of God therefore, we go.”

 

Eagle Pass – Anytime we visit a border town on our travels across Texas, tacos and tortas are usually our first go to. But over at the Wagon Wheel, it’s all about Texas grub. “We’ve created a beautiful thing,” said owner Selena Buentello Price.

Selena is known around these parts as Selly. She grew up in Eagle Pass and her dad Hugo hitched his horses to the Wagon Wheel back in 1994. “Every weekend, we’d barbecue and he’d try something different, and he decided one day that we were going to go into the barbecue business,” said Selena.

Selly’s job in those days was being the pitmaster. “I never left his side,” said Selena “As much as I hated every morning getting that barbecue pit lit and smelling like wood every single day. And they’re like, ‘You’re the barbecue lady.’ And I was like ‘Yeah.’”

While it may have been a drag getting up before dawn to tend the pits every morning back in the day, Selena is now thankful for everything she learned from her dad in the early days of the restaurant. “I think it was worth it because you learned to not take anything for granted,” said Selena.

Today she runs the place with her son Paco and daughter Paula. “I would give a lot of the credit to the kids because Paola makes sure that she makes things happen for us,” said Selena. “Paco handles the meat and so forth, and I just make sure all the bills are getting paid.”

On the pits nowadays you’ll find Brian and DeShon doing some magical things. “Those boys in the pit, those two pitmasters that we have are dedicated to that pit,” said Selena. “They man that pit 10 hours a day, easy.”

Selly’s hard-working crew and family are attributed the work ethic her father instilled in all of them during his time on this great earth. “We don’t take anything for granted, and we know how to work, and we were raised that way, and so we know what it’s like to get that pit going in the morning, to set up our tables in the morning, to fill our barbecue sauce containers, to clean our floors, our restrooms,” said Selena. “It doesn’t take anything away from us. It’s not demeaning whatsoever. It’s very gratifying, and we take a lot of pride in everything we do. Whether it’s wiping windows down or doing sides or getting refills, it’s nice.”

“Our food is great. Our barbecue is great,” said Paco. “Our family is great. More than anything, I owe it to my employees. You know what I mean? The employees is what makes the Wagon the best.”

Paco grew up around this place and wanted to add something to the menu since the BBQ would always sell out, so he put another Texas food fixture on the menu, a chicken fried steak that happens to be Lone Star State sized. “When my grandpa used to cook for me and one thing that always stood out was whenever he would make the chicken fried steak backstraps or the chicken fried steak that he would cut out of the deer, and it just was amazing,” said Paco. “You know what I mean? I wanted to make something, keep the legacy alive, and kind of bring something that he would do.”

Selena knew that this impressive addition to the menu would make for a better dining experience for the Wagon Wheel customers. “We added that two-and-a-half pound chicken fried steak so we could accommodate more people and stay a little longer and give them more options,” said Selena.

“I have done the chicken fried steak, granted it took me three days to finish,” said Ronnie.

Paco takes the preposterously sized piece of tender top sirloin, puts some south Texas seasoning on it, and douses it with flour, egg wash, and breading. “You don’t want to add too much breading on it,” said Paco. “You know people, especially in Texas, when they’re nice and big, they try to say, ‘Oh, it’s too much breading. Too much breading.’ Man, they’ll eat you alive. You know what I mean? They want a nice chicken fried steak with a light breading, more meat.”

Then it gets fried up. “Here at the Wagon, we try to make quality over quantity. You know what I mean?” said Paco.

Once plated on a pizza platter, Paco puts on the gravy. “If we put it on a regular plate, it might break or bend,” said Paco. “Some people say it’s not enough gravy. Some people say it’s too much gravy. I don’t think it’s ever enough gravy.”

The chicken fried steak comes out fried to perfection, and the beautifully seasoned thin layer of breading perfectly complements the tender and flavorful steak. As if this wasn’t enough, Paco comes back with a tray of their barbeque. “Our barbecue’s smoked every day,” said Paco. “Our brisket takes anywhere from 10 to 12 hours every day. Cut in half, I mean, nice prime brisket.”

The brisket is tender, smokey and delicious, all the things you look for in classic Texas barbeque. “Flavor on it is great,” said customer Humberto Garza. “It’s very tender. It’s not tough. It’s really good food.”

Well if you’re looking for Texas home cooking down by the border and you happen to have an eagle eye on Eagle Pass, coming to the Wagon Wheel is well worth the stop on the Texas Bucket List. “Anybody that comes through Eagle Pass, make it by the Wagon Wheel,” said Humberto. “I mean, you can’t go wrong.”

Bryan – For folks who have never stepped foot in Aggieland, visions of burgers and big beers might fill your head.  But over in Bryan, there’s a superb sushi stop that might just be one of the most exquisite in the entire state. “We really basically wanted to bring the top tier sushi, right here,” said Tai Lee.

Chef Tai is of South Korean decent, but he’s been a part of Bryan/College Station since well, his college days. “I Came here in 1998 to attend Texas A&M University and loved Aggieland so much, I decided to stay,” said Tai.

During his time in school, Tai got a job making sushi at one of the only sushi bars in College Station at the time. There he met Soon Park, and that changed his life forever. “The gentleman who taught me how to make sushi, Master Chef Soon Park, has a very successful restaurant, sushi bar outside of Chicago,” said Tai. “Then he stayed as a friend and a mentor, since he first taught me how to make sushi, back in 2002.”

Over the years, Tai went on to open several successful restaurants in B/CS but never dabbled into a sushi endeavor, so he called up his old buddy Soon. “We wanted to present a sushi with a heightened level of a sense and a style and a flare that was not previously available here, in Bryan-College Station,” said Tai. “Everything has to have certain meaning. Why? It’ll have a certain name, why it would have certain flavor, different sauce, ingredients. So, we put a lot of thought into it. Something that Chef Soon has done it for 35 years.”

Logan Burke has worked with Chef Tai since 2018 and he was in charge of putting together 4 sushi rolls before Tai takes things to the next level. “We’re really getting a chance to provide the community with something maybe that they haven’t seen before,” said Burke. “I used to be that guy that says I ain’t eating sushi, it’s bait. But now, once I tried it, I’m like, this is fantastic.”

Logan started things of with Kanji’s number 1 seller, the Chef Soon’s Special Roll which starts with a high end nori covered in a particular type of rice. “We want to be true to the roots,” said Tai. “So, a lot of the preparation, ingredients are very authentic. We’re not using shortcuts by using American grown rice. We’re using Japanese rice, actual short grain rice. The Japanese guests who come here or people who lived in Japan identify those rice. ‘I can’t believe you actually use this rice.’ I say, ‘Absolutely.’” Spicy mayo, fresh yellow tail, avocado and jalapeno are added. Once rolled big eyed tuna is placed on top along with a truffle vinaigrette, black pepper and micro greens.

The Chef Tai’s Signature Spicy Tuna Roll starts off with what else but spicy tuna. “A lot of the American sushi bar uses Sriracha as their base for spicy tuna. I wanted to do something different,” said Tai. “So, I would say nothing against sriracha, but I want to try my own. This is something that I created 21 years ago, when I was still working at a former sushi bar. The sauce is inspired by Korean chili paste, but I wanted to make it into a sushi.”

Add in cucumber, avocado, roll it up and add some big eyed tuna, spicy mayo, and flame kiss it. “Now here comes the fun part,” said Tai. “Activate that mayo, get a little extra flavor going on. Bringing out the flavor in the mayo.” Chef Tai sauce, eel sauce, fried potatoes, microgreens, flying fish row and sesame seeds close it out.

The Summer Roll features house spicy mayo, spicy crab mix, avocado, and cucumber that’s rolled up with Nordic salmon and lemons then topped with spiced sunomono and pico de gallo. Finally, the Cowboy Steak Sushi Roll, which almost seems paradoxical. “I know Texas loves steak,” said Tai. “I said, ‘Okay, I understand we’re sushi bar, but you could make steak as a sushi topping.’ Sushi only means it’s sour in Japanese, referring to a seasoned rice, that’s the base and a foundation of making sushi rolls or nigiri sushi. So, I say, Sushi has nothing to do with the fish. You can have sushi with a steak, you can have sushi with a vegetable, you can have sushi with a pickle because it only refers to the seasoned rice.” All that’s left is to add asparagus, spicy mayo, roll it up and top it with more steak, eel sauce, torch it, throw on shredded green onions and seasame seed, and the Cowboy Steak Sushi Roll is complete.

Before I could sit down and enjoy these four rolls, Chef Tai had a special treat for me and if you want to experience this, all you need to know is one word. “One of the very popular dishes that we do here is actually called omakase,” said Tai. “So omakase in Japanese translation is trusting the chef. I’ll definitely make sure you get the best experience on any sushi that we can offer, that is based on seasonal and a market availability. If you were to tell me, ‘Hey, I cannot do salmon for X, Y, Z reasons,’ no problem. I’ll be happy to get you something different.” Chef Tai carefully selects several different fish for a 9 course nigiri and sashimi offering that is ever so delicately put together, and just like that a sushi feast fit for a king is ready to roll.

Starting with the sashimi and the nigiri, every piece was a knockout. From the lighter yellowfin nigiri to the bolder flavors of the squid and uni, every bite was decidedly fresh and flavorful. The rolls, to nobody’s surprise, were wonderful as well, packing in layers of sweet, spicy and umami flavors that were all addictive.

Well, with fine flavors from all over the world, Kanji Sushi in Bryan-College Station is a spot you definitely want to reel in on The Texas Bucket List.

Odessa – Over the years of checking things off the list on The Texas Bucket List, we could never find much to eat in Odessa but boy has that changed!  Between Curbside Bistro and Brantly Creek BBQ, this part of the Petroplex has come a long way, and now you can include El Taco Loco Birrieria on the list! “It’s good stuff, man,” said David Ibarra. “People love it, dude.”

David Ibarra and his sister Lupe started this taco truck after moving to the area with their whole family from California. “We heard about Odessa, Midland, how they had work out here, and then we literally just picked up and left and we came over here and just started fresh,” said David.

Working in the oil fields was David’s original plan but when he got to west Texas, he noticed something. “Well, there’s not that much food anywhere over here in West Texas that’s like Cali so I’m like, ‘We need to bring in more to Odessa and Midland,’” said David.

Birria became their specialty. “We’ve been cooking birria probably my whole life,” said David. “Originally, it was my mom’s recipe that she used to cook for us. And then my sister, well, she kind of modified it, got it down to a… Even my mom’s like, ‘A dash of this and a sprinkle of that,’ and it wasn’t refined. My sister refined it. And yeah, so it’s been in our family for years.”

Now birria tacos and burritos are nothing new, but at El Taco Loco they get crazy with it by putting birria in a preposterously sized portion of food they like to call the pizzadilla. “It’s like a really big quesadilla,” said David. “It’s three flour tortillas, it’s loaded with cheese in each layer, birria meat, cilantro, onion, and then it’s topped off with sour cream, salsa verde, and a little bit more cilantro and onion just to garnish it. And then you get your consommé, you dip it and we slice it up in a pizza. It’s just really good. People love it.”

Talking about El Taco Loco’s crazy creations is one thing, but now it’s time to step into the truck and see what makes their birria better than the rest. Idalia’s inside working the grill, and she got started on the tacos by dipping some corn tortillas in consume and getting them grilled up. “She’s doing the birria taco,” said David. “So this is our number one bestseller.”

While she grills up the classic birria tacos, Idalia gets started on the pizzadilla by giving some extra large flour tortillas the same consome treatment and tossing them on the grill. She lays the three tortillas required for a pizzadilla on the grill and loads them up with a pile of monterey cheese and a healthy heap of birria. “It’s a good amount, man. It feeds like four people, depending how hungry they are,” said David. “If they’re really hungry, two people maybe. I know people who come and get it just for themselves.”

The tortillas get loaded up with onions and cilantro, then stacked on top of each other into a pizza box before getting sliced like a pie. Once the pizzadilla is constructed, Idalia adds the finishing touches. “Then she tops it up with some more cilantro, more onion, garnish it,” said David. “And then you get your consommé, you dip it and we slice it up in a pizza.”

All the food comes out hot and fresh off the grill, and it’s hard to resist digging in right in the parking lot. Up first are the classic birria tacos, served with a cup of consome. The birria is beyond awesome, and the fresh onions and cilantro help this rich dish to really shine. “The flavor and just the kind of juices and just the mixture of everything makes it amazing,” said customer Eric Valdez. “It’s amazing. I mean, it’s something that I think Odessa’s needed for a really long time.”

Up next is the pizzadilla, which almost has a gravitational pull drawing customers to dig right in. It puts other Mexican-inspired pizzas to shame, and picking up a slice exposes just how loaded the thing is with birria and cheese. There’s so much beef and cheese that every bite is a perfect bite, and it suddenly becomes apparent why someone would want to try and tackle this beast solo.

Well, if you happen to be in the Petroplex looking for a pizzadilla, coming to El Taco Loco Birrieria is definitely well worth a stop on The Texas Bucket List. “Recently, I started thanking God a lot,” said David. “I’m like, ‘Man, He blessed me.’ So I’m like, ‘He blessed my family.’ We’re doing so good. My parents worked so hard their whole lives. We weren’t rich, we weren’t well-off so we’d have to work for everything we had. And to finally get to somewhere where we have something and it’s growing? It’s like I’m proud, you know?”