mmm BBQ ... wait did someone say tacos?

Here in Texas we have a thing about our BBQ (shocker I’m sure) but here in Austin we also happen have a thing about our Tex-Mex. So what an awesome job is it to spend your days searching out the best of either and then reminiscing about your finds to the world via your blog. I found two such blogs:

• Taco Journalism, written by a team of bloggers who are in constant pursuit of the best tacos in Austin
• Urbangrounds, written by one BBQ loving biker dude who touches on many topics but weekly (approximately) tells his tale of a search for the best BBQ in Texas

Taco Journalism is updated approximately once weekly with a new eatery featured and reviewed. The best and worst part of Taco Journalism, though, is the pictures. If you want to see what you’re reading about and imagine the experience before hand than these pictures are an accurate portrayal. On the other hand if you’ve just eaten, presumably some crap from another drive-thru, and you log on you’re likely to feel at least a little slighted. That being said, the articles are reasonably in depth if a little long for a blog. Comments are welcome, but rare. They have a cool Google map of all of the taco joints in Austin they have reviewed as well as a list of the restaurants below the map. Each title in the list shows the name and rating (in form of stars or estrellas) of the restaurant and is a link to that particular blog entry.

Simply stated, Urbangrounds is all out blogging at its best. The comparison might be a stretch as Urbangrounds blogs on all types of topics, many of which have nothing to do with food, but the coverage of Cooper’s Old Time BBQ in Llano is pretty good. The blog style of this post to that of the majority of the posts on Taco Journalism is similar. There is a conversational tone that lends itself to a good friend telling you about this great new food place they just discovered. Urbangrounds, though, not only welcomes comments – he gets comments. It is clear that his readers feel a sense of community on his blog that Taco Journalism hasn’t quite captured as of yet. Additionally, Urbangrounds has more pictures on his blog, which admittedly add little to the actual content of the blog, but are nice to look at it. Urbangrounds also has an extensive blog roll and history for perusing in your abundant spare time (wink, wink). The post does seem a little on the long side, especially in comparison to those over at Taco Journalism, but because of the pictures and the only once weekly factor I think it's a nice length.

All in all I’ve determined that what I’m looking for in a good blog is regular entries that are detailed but succinct, as well as some pictures and comments to expand the experience.