The three are Garrido’s, Olivia, and Uchi (”Austin Raises the Bar on Good Food,” WSJ 10/17/09, byline Katy McLaughlin).

The comments in the article regarding the individual establishments have their interest, of course (for instance, there’s one to the effect that there are those who’ll never taste the chips and accompanying salsas at Garrido’s because we’re not accustomed to being charged for them. That’s why I haven’t tried them, even though I love the carnitas at Garrido’s.)

It’s some of the declarations about Austin dining in general, though, that I find especially interesting, and quite perceptive. Tyson Cole seems to have been very generous with his time and to have spoken with the reporter at some length. I hope that this reporter does explore Tex-Mex food ingreater depth, as she seems to have some appreciation for it. The Fearless Critic Austin is presented as a milestone in the Austin food world. She describes Austin as a town that has long offered food for the budget-minded and also unimaginative high-dollar menus for lobbyists and legislators. “With so much good, cheap food . . . it’s been a long path towards convincing the public that $28 entrees have a place on the scene.” I’m happy with the countless $15-and-under outstanding ones out there, but the occasional splurge does have its place.

The second edition of The Fearless Critic Austin Restaurant Guide is now on all the best local bookshelves, and no Austin home library should be without it, if only to provide endless material for argument. The original edition has been in constant use, especially when guests are to be entertained.

This compilation of reviews has gone from 390 to 480, and the cast of contributors is different. The scoring system leads to some odd results. These can be seen most often when comparing the scores of two or more restaurants side by side. This edition is inclusive of all price ranges. I’ve read the first edition from cover to cover and will in time read the entire new version. It’s tantalizing and like a dictionary or encyclopedia: a quick look into it on some specific matter leads in all sorts of directions, and it’s very difficult to put down.

Two aspects that I love are the lively prose descriptions and also the slicing and dicing of data up front, sorting dining establishments into various categories: price, locale, type of food (including vegetarian), hours of service, family-friendliness, Wi-Fi availability, and many more. The Fearless Critic Web site promises, and has so far delivered, new reviews, and it welcomes comments.

We’ve given away several copies of The Fearless Critic Austin Restaurant Guide: Feisty Local Food Writers Rate and Review 390 Places to Eat, always gratefully received and excellent conversation pieces. After acquiring a personal copy at full price, we found some slightly discounted at a Half Price Books. Cheaper copies yet have been sighted at Albertsons, and I even convinced a person to buy one right on the spot at the Pleasant Valley market.

Another book to seek on the supermarket shelves is Dishes from the Wild Horse Desert: Norteno Cooking of South Texas, by Melissa Guerra, who will be right here in Austin on October 29 at the Texas Book Festival. She’s scheduled to give a cooking demonstration and to sign books. I found my copy, again at a good discount, at an H-E-B. Dishes from the Wild Horse Desert, in addition to recipes for making so many favorite dishes at home (including marranitos), contains much background information. Among my favorite sections of this book are a discussion of lard as an ingredient and an excellent description, with names in Spanish, of the sections into which cabrito is cut .

Look for these and other surprising hard-cover books in the magazines section. And let us know about your favorite cabrito here in town. I’m still missing my favorite, served at Jalisco, now gone.

It’s easy to become a habitual diner at the same old places (not that there’s anything wrong with that!) and, since there’s only so much time and only so much money, it’s also easy to overlook the unknown wonderful and go down those well troddden paths yet again. Just this week, and purely by chance, we found our way to Cafe Josie for the very first time and learned what joys we’d been missing. When we have out-of-town visitors who don’t already have favorites to which they insist upon returning, we offer them the Chron’s restaurant guide, the recent Austin Zagat, and the compendium of Mexican restaurants to help them select a dining adventure. They may now consult The Fearless Critic Austin Restaurant Guide: Feisty Local Food Writers Rate and Review 390 Places to Eat. One of the reviewers is harsher than the others in applying the numerical grading system. All descriptive narratives sampled so far conform very closely to personal experience, which builds trust in evaluations of the unfamiliar. The various categorical lists are inventive, extensive, and particularly helpful in locating dining places for everyone along the scale from vegan to those who’ll eat “fast vegetables.” It’s new, so I haven’t read it from cover to cover, but I will. This book is very current. I strongly recommend it. Enough sales will encourage the publisher to keep this valuable resource updated.