Texas Food Explorer, Volume 1
From boudin to stacked Enchiladas, we've got it all. In this installment we look at parisa, an Alsatian raw hamburger dip native to Medina County.
There’s a fun thread at my internet hidey hole of decades standing where a bunch of us are talking about the regional dishes of Texas. One such we’ve mentioned is the Italian / Lebanese po’ boys of Houston, focusing on Antone’s and its confusing modern-day incarnation.
While those have long been high atop my list of comfort foods, Texans from elsewhere showcased new spins on tried-and-true dishes and others I’d never heard of before.
Chief among those is parisa, a dip made of lemon- or lime-cured raw hamburger, cheese, onions and spices native to Hondo and Castroville, the Alsatian capital of Texas, just southwest of San Antonio. (Alsatians are western Europeans who aren’t sure if they are French or German and so split the difference.) I’ve stopped to eat in that lovely town three or four times but tonight was the first time I’d heard of parisa, but in its hometown, it is a Very Big Deal:
In Medina County, parisa is almost considered its own food group and an important part of social events. In fact, if you get married in the area and don’t serve it, locals may question if the marriage is even valid.
Every family has their own recipe, which they may or may not share. It’s usually enjoyed with a handful of saltines, Fritos, Julio’s, corn chips with a hint of lime—our favorite—or by the spoonful. Cook the leftovers, if there are any, with scrambled eggs in the morning.
Some food historians trace it back to the French steak tartare. Others say it comes from a German dish called mett — basically the same, but made with raw ground pork and lacking cheese and citrus. In the Dakotas, mett is sold as “tiger meat.” Anyway, yeah, you see the confusion of French and German among these Alsatians.
Here is an authentic parisa recipe, straight from Medina County:
Here is another recipe, along with listings for a few Medina County meat markets where you can buy it prepared.