Steve’s Gastronomic Homepage is hands-down the finest food blog in the El Paso area (OK, that’s not saying much since he pretty much owns the space, we just eat in it). But besides, it’s about a thousand times better than you know who posting you know what at the El Paso Times. Steve has posted his “Best Of” for El Paso dining in 2008.

It seems he’s in Oklahoma much of the time these days, but his local reviews still ring true for this year, in my opinion.

Chopes, check.
Tacos Santa Cecilia, check.
Los Jarrones, check.
Carnitas Queretaro, check.
L&J, check.
Little Diner, check.
Moon Star and Moon Day, check.
True Thai, check.
India Palace, check.
Hello Pizza, check.
Bella Sera, check.
State Line (ribs), check.
Cattleman’s, check.

I’d go a little different with a few places. I like Pho Tre Bien for pho; and I like Frisco’s better than Roscoe’s because of the better dining room (I’ve heard some rumors about how Frisco’s started, but don’t really care once I dig into a cheeseburger basket).

Sadly, as Steve thought, Edelweiss is closed. The dining room was horrible, but geez, the food was excellent; take it from a long-time Germany resident. I’d like to hire that cook to move into my house. Well, maybe not, because I’d rather hire whoever is running the spit at Tacos Santa Cecilia.

Now I gotta check out Cafe Mayapan.

You ought to check out Steve’s El Paso restaurant reviews; they are remarkably complete, with a rating system, lots of photos, and none of that high-falutin’ language about “triumphs” and so on that is used by you know who posting you know what at the El Paso Times. This 2008 roundup is better, for that matter, than the Times’ vote early, vote often, “Best of the Border” extravaganza, even though yours truly benefited from it (no, we didn’t vote for ourselves, mainly because since we can’t afford to hire the spit guy from Santa Cecilia, we certainly can’t afford to hire a Java guru who would allow us to out-vote and beat Jay Koester and Roy “Mr Multimedia” or better, “Blog-H8TR Blogger” Ortega. Or for that matter, don’cha know, that triumph of a you know who posting you know what about El Paso dining at the El Paso Times).

Well, at least, Steve’s 2008 review really is a triumph. The El Paso Times ought to hire him.

Because, you know, I can’t afford to.