Reflections on Food: San Antonio

I was reminded today by a conversation with my friend and colleague, Robbe Healey of Farr Healey Consulting that I haven't posted my review of our AFP Executive Committee meeting in San Antonio. So here are a few thoughts on, yes, more food.

Boudros on the Riverwalk was my destination two times, first for one of our AFP dinners and the second time for a very late lunch after I went to the Mariachi Mass at the Mission San Jose and before my flight back to Arizona. On the first night, we were in their private dining room. For my lunch, I sat alongside the Riverwalk, and watched the Mud King and Queen parade as I enjoyed the sunshine. Since I was a little more food focused for the lunch visit, I'll write about that.


To start, I enjoyed a beautiful prickly pear margarita. I don't normally like drinks like this--I'm usually either a bourbon drinker (Woodford Reserve--all Tim Burcham's fault) or pinot noir. But when in San Antonio... This drink was not too sweet and visually lovely.

After this, I went with the tableside prepared fresh guacamole. This is one of the things that Boudros is known for--in fact, one of Jim's food memories from his past travels was guacamole at Boudros. I texted him a photo, then ate the whole thing. I really should not have eaten THAT much guacamole, but this is excellent stuff--made with fresh avocado, roasted peppers, jalapeno, garlic, and fresh orange juice.


Up next, the sampler platter. In spite of the fact that I had just consumed WAY too much guacamole, I ate almost all of this too. Good thing this was lunch and dinner for me! The platter included half a lobster tail, coconut shrimp, a taco, grilled fish fillet, mini tostada, a southwestern egg roll and corn pudding. Sometimes sampler platters can end up being one really good thing and a bunch of mediocre ones. Not this time--my favorite was the lobster, but that's because my first food memory ever was eating lobster in Rockport, Massachusetts with my parents when I was two years old. But after the lobster, the taco was crunchy, not greasy, with lots of interesting flavors, and the fish was moist and well seasoned. I'm picky about egg rolls, so I didn't really care for that one, but otherwise, this was an exceptional plate.

I think I timed lunch well, since there was a convention moving in as we were ending our meetings, and lots of new conventioneers approaching Boudros for reservations. As I was leaving, the whole place was swamped with new guests because they had heard that Boudros was a "don't miss" restaurant. I think I'd have to agree.