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.

Just writing “AusTex” brings a nostalgic tear to the eye in memory of the old AusTex Lounge (now housing the Magnolia Cafe on South Congress). But that’s just a detour from the business at hand, which is to proclaim that anyone wanting a panoramic snapshot of Austin caught in time as embodied in its Mexican restaurants must buy this book.

This has Aus-Tex-Mex, general Tex-Mex, Mex-Mex, and every permutation. The cleverest thing is to undertake this project at all; the second-cleverest is the design of the little ideograms or icons marking each individual review. These include a wheeled taco and a hand sprouting botanical material from its thumb (you must see the book to know what these mean). Black-and-white photographs, unfortunately without labels, embellish the text handsomely and atmospherically. The interleaved essays are of varying quality. The copy-editing leaves something to be desired. The reviews are not always of the most informative; the reviews are highly idiosyncratic; the reviews sometimes tend more toward descriptions of the atmosphere than of the food. But the genius of this publication, and it is genius, lies in the inclusiveness.

So, sincere thanks go to the Dirty Lowdown Press and all those who contributed to “Mexican Food in Austin: The Guide.” Having seen this book on sale at locations all over town and having resisted buying it for months, I finally weakened at Mexic-Arte and bought a copy, which I read from cover to cover in one go, sparking discussion with every entry read aloud. Have one of these on hand to entertain your out-of-town visitors. Hope that it’s kept reprinted and updated.