Food in Houston

"The delightful sensation of satisfying hunger gave the biped such pleasure that after several million more years or generations it was moved to express it in a cry."
--Maguelonne Toussaint-Samat, History of Food

"Cookies!" -- The Cookie Monster

Why this blog? I love food. I love cooking food, watching food, smelling food, eating food.

I am also very fortunate to live in a wonderful city for food. Houston does not have quite the same variety of food as in New York. Houston has no restaurant quite as good as Charlie Trotter's or the French Laundry. But Houstonians eat out more often, per capita, than citizens of any other American city. Why? For one thing, we are fat. The fattest city in the country. To stay that way, we need food. Second, Houston has a great variety of food stores and restaurants. It has possibly the best Tex-Mex and Vietnamese food of any American city. Third, eating well in Houston is easy and inexpensive. No Houston restaurant requires reservations more than a week in advance, and few require reservations more than one day ahead of time. Entrees are rarely over $30, and a glorious meal can be had for under $3. For the quality of food, the prices are outstanding.

This is my space to talk about restaurants, dishes, stores, and trends.

I should confess some specific biases. Spice is good. Diversity is good. Authenticity is good. Innovative dishes are good. Goat curry is good. Most indiginous cuisine from cold climates is bad. A waiter who hawks expensive bottled water is very bad. And a restaurant that plays the Gypsy Kings throughout my meal is very, very bad.