Since Texas is a ranching state, beef can be found everywhere. Steak is a contender for "most popular dish in Texas," and just about anything can be barbequed. Panhandle cuisine especially tends to capitalize on all those cattle herds and you can expect plenty a restaurant specializing in grilled, smoked, and savory meat and more meat.

Abilene is situated solidly in steak country and Abilene cuisine tends toward the thick and meaty, even beyond steak; roast, barbecue, ribs, and hamburgers. Amarillo is even more prominently a steak town. The famous Big Texan Steak Ranch is here and its 72-ounce steak. Barbecue also has a significant presence, meaty and beany as it is.

San Angelo offers up steak both in the massive portions Texas is famous for and in smaller portions that may be less intimidating. And if Fort Worth is not in the Panhandle, its cuisine is as unabashedly beefy . . . and sometimes not. You can find ostrich burgers in Cowtown alongside the steaks.

Of course, do keep in mind that all these cities serve other types of cuisine, too, of which Tex-Mex is prominent.