Breakfast at Los Dos Amigos

Los Dos Amigos

Once upon a time, there were two friends - my old law partner and me. We met once a week for breakfast to talk business at Los Dos Amigos on Washington.

It isn't the sort of place you expect for high-power breakfast meetings. The crowd is a mix of construction workers and Rice Military locals. There are only about 10 tables, each with vinyl tablecloths. Speakers play mariachi and conjunto music.

The crowd is an ethnic mix, and the staff is bilingual. Yet it is the sort of place where even the gringos in ties try to practice their Spanish, just for fun. The staff doesn't even bother to hand menus to half the customers. They know what they want.

Huevos Divorciados

My friend and I no longer work together. And when we do meet now, it is usually someplace upscale for lunch. So I hadn't thought of Los Dos in years.

But this morning I dropped in by myself, just for old times sake. I ordered an old favorite - huevos divorciados.

Two eggs are cooked over easy, but divided on two sides of the plate. One is topped with a green salsa. The other is topped with red. Sides include refried pinto beans, a few french fries, and corn tortillas.

This simple, cheap plate stands above many other Mexican breakfasts for a few reasons. One is the very spicy salsas. I have a high tolerance for heat. Yet after just a few bites, I found myself hiccupping - a sign of a very spicy sauce. These salsas are also notable for large chunks of fresh peppers and tomatoes.

The dish also stands out for the refried beans. The texture is runny, especially as the beans mix with the salsa and egg juices. But the flavor is mysterious, meaty, smoky. Only a handful of Houston restaurants serve refried beans that taste this good.

The best strategy is to save the corn tortillas for the end, to mop up the runny, messy goodness that is left on the plate.

This morning, my beautiful plate of food, plus coffee, cost only $2.90.

I also have tried Los Dos Amigos for lunch. Most dishes are decent, and a good value. Yet it is the breakfast that made this spot an old favorite.

White asparagus at Charivari

It's the season for white asparagus

Spring is the high season for white asparagus.

I much prefer white asparagus to green. It has a more delicate flavor -- less bitterness, less vegetation. And it is often softer in texture. Unlike green asparagus, the stalks are grown without light to prevent the plant from producing chlorophyll.

It is not that white asparagus is a great ingredient. It has a slippery, squishy texture. Its flavor is bland and unexciting, yet elegant and refined.

Which is much how I think of Charivari.

Charivari

Charivari serves authentic, old-school European cuisine. The chef/owner is Romanian, but spent years cooking in Germany before moving to the Texas.

Walking in this restaurant is like stepping back in time to Houston's idea of an elegant restaurant 30 years ago. The dining room is framed by dark red, elegant curtains. Tables have white tablecloths and flowers. This is what fine dining looked like before most high-end restaurants chose a more contemporary style.

Appropriately, the customers at are older. At noon, many white-haired genetlement wear suits with ties and a matching handkerchief in the pocket. It might have more customers if it were located in Tanglewood or Memorial, rather than Midtown.

The White Asparagus Menu

For some reason, I only remember to go to here in Spring, when it serves a special white asparagus menu. For this lunch, I started with a white asparagus soup. The soup was cream-based, with lovely tender chunks of white asparagus. It had very little salt -- a rarity in Houston. The testure of the soup was silky smooth. And it was topped with sprinkles of chives and baby parsley.

My initial reaction was that the soup tasted bland. But after a few bites, I changed that description to "subtle."

It was the sort of dish we do not find very often in Houston. At first, it did not grab my attention. Yet when I gave it my attention, I began to notice simple and elegant flavors that my jaded tasted buds rarely pick up.

A second dish was asparagus risotto. Chunks of white asparagus mixed in the rice made an interesting comparison with the green asparagus spears placed around the edges.

The dish had less flavor than you find in most risottos served in Houston restaurants. But the dish displayed elegant textures. Like the soup, I had to focus my attention to pick up the subtle flavors.

All the dishes I have tried at Charivari are like these. The quality of ingredients is exellent. The preparation reflects the labor of a precise and dedicated chef.

The dishes may not grab you at first, but like great music and literature, they reward sustained focus and attention.

Beast

It runs in the family

My nephew lives in Silicon Valley and writes a food blog. Or more precisely, he has a blog that is often about food. His latest post is about a meal at a nose-to-tail restaurant in Portland, Oregon.

After the meal, in the parking lot, his younger brother "proudly proclaimed that this was the best dining experience of his life, as if we needed some sort of confirmation."

Nose-to-tail in Portland

Curiously, the restaurant in Portland has a name similar to Houston's own nose-to-tail establishment.

Ours is called Feast. Portland's is called Beast.

Feast and Beast opened in the same year. Last weekend, I asked Meagan and James Silk if they were aware of any connection in the name. No, they said. They had not heard of Beast until after they had opened Feast.

Of course, the nose-to-tail movement is traced back to British Chef, Fergus Henderson, who wrote "The Whole Beast: Nose-to-Tail Eating."

But lest you think Beast and Feast are copycats, or part of a trendy fad, take a look at both restuarant's daily menus. (Feast is here; Beast is here). They are quite different in both ingredients and styles.

Beast's dishes use precious and trendy ingredients -- morels, foie gras, fennel. In contrast, Feast's dishes rescues the underapprediated ones -- prunes, greens, rutabaga.

Beast's dishes sound more Franco-centric. Feast leans more toward Brittain and Spain.

Nose-to-tail is more a philosophy -- like the "eat local" philosophy -- rather than a style of cooking. You can use all parts of the animal, or cook with all local ingredients, and yet still cook them in any number of different styles.

It is a mistake to dismiss either restaurant as a fad, or to assume nose-to-tail is the essence of their cuisine. It takes a lot more than a little philosophy to make a great restaurant.

Feast -- like Beast -- has a lot going for it, even without the nose-to-tail thing.

Yia Yia's Roadster Grill

The perks of using a former Taco Bell

It can only help to open your restaurant in a decaying structure that was once a Taco Bell. First-time customers will have terribly low expectations. And it's easy to exceed them.

I suspect Yia Yia's Roadster Grill, on Bissonnet near Bellaire, has a big following because it continues to excced the expectations engendered by such a lousy location.

For the same reason, I was once a long-time fan of The Last Concert Cafe. The funky, run-down location in the warehouse district surely looked like it was once a bordello. It didn't matter that the Mexican food was average, at best. You feel proud of yourself for finding even average food in such a dingy-looking joint.

Greek food that beats expectations

Yia Yia's Roadster Grill serves a variety of burgers, hot dogs, and Philly Cheese Steak. They also have a handful of Greek dishes -- gyros, souvlaki, Greek salads, and moussaka.

Let's be honest about our city. Houston's Greek food is not very good. There are some decent Greek restaurants with higher quality and more variety, such as Alexander the Great Greek and the overly-commercial-feeling Yia Yia Mary's. But the greek dishes I tried at Yia Yia Roadster are better than similar dishes at other Greek places, like Niko Niko's. And the burgers aren't bad either.

Moussaka

The moussaka is less greasy than some other places (Niko Niko's). The casserole's different layers -- eggplant, bread crumbs, ground meat, bechamel -- are remarkably distinct. The bechamel top is crisped in the oven. In short, it is a very nicely constructed moussaka.

Yet the construction of this dish doesn't quite make up for the fact that the flavor of moussaka is almost always a bit dull.

Recently an acquaintance from Europe explained a theory about immigrant food. When immigrants bring the food of their homeland with them, the food remains frozen at the time of the immigration. Yet in the home country, the local cuisine continues to progress. That may explain why American Italian food is almost all pasta and tomato sauce -- dishes that were popular at the time of mass immigrations from Italy, but have little to do with the best food currently served in Italy.

Although Moussaka looks and sounds exotic, its taste and texture seem a lot like a late 1950's American casserole. These days, Americans don't eat many 50's style casseroles. Which makes me wonder whether modern Greeks eat much moussaka. I keep forgetting that moussaka is not my favorite dish. Still, Yia Yia Roadster's version may be my favorite in town.

Surprising attention to ingredients

I liked the other dishes I tried. Anonymous Child's burger had a nice grill flavor. And her fries were crunchy.

A Greek salad highlighted the good ingredients used in this cheap restaurant. The lettuce was green, cucumbers were fresh and crisp, and feta was deliciously salty. Only the slightly mealy tomatoes were a disappointment -- but then again 95 % of tomatoes are. Compared to the last Greek salad I ate at Niko Niko's, the ingredients here were far superior.

It probably is not worth driving across town to try the Greek food in this popular, run-down Taco Bell building. But if you are near Bellaire, it is a good spot for some decent, cheap Greek food that exceeds expectations.

Easter, Pot Luck

If I have learned one thing from After Hours with Daniel Boulud, it's this: a great meal is one part great food and one part great company.

If you don't have Mojo TV, it is worth seeking out videos of After Hours. Boulud assembles a group of famous guests -- intellectuals, artists, actors -- for a meal in a famous restaurant. The show splits its time equally between the food and the guests' conversation.

Pot luck invitation

My After Hours moment was at lunch this Easter. My friend Linda invited me to a small pot luck lunch. Linda was hosting some special guests. Chicago jazzman Ken Vandermark was in town with the Dutch Ab Baars Trio.

I'm a huge fan of Vandermark. I have at least 25 of his CDs, including the prize of my CD collection -- a rare 12-disk live set in Poland. Saturday night was the first time Vandermark had ever played Houston.

I also heard a rumor that the local musician known as Jandek might show. Jandek is quite famous in underground circles. He has released over 40 albums since 1978. But until recently, his identity was so secret that no one had any idea who he was. There was even a movie speculating about who he might be.

I knew I had to go. And I knew I had to bring something appropriate for pot luck.

Something about pot luck

My memories of pot luck lunches come from lawns outside of Baptist churches in East Texas. Everyone brings a casserole. Almost all the food is overcooked, yet designed to please a crowd.

Pot luck is synonymous with surprise. You never know what kind of food is going to be served. Or how the combination will work together.
For these musicians from far away, I wanted to make something uniquely local. Linda asked me to bring something like potatoes. So I made two dishes.

The first was a recipe from the 1968 Junior League of Houston Cookbook. It was a casserole of thinly sliced potatoes, condensed milk, shredded cheddar and pickled pimientos and jalapenos. It was a cheesy dish in every sense of the word. It was quintessentially pot luck, and quintessentially Houston.

The second was a more modern dish - sauteed, shredded sweet potatoes tossed with tequila and lime. Unconsciously, I arranged the tequila-soaked limes in something of an Easter pattern.

Linda made a fantastic pot roast, greens, some fish dishes, and some very artistic cupcakes:

Pot luck isn't just food

I enjoyed talking with Ken, Ab, Jandek and all the other musicians.

But the best part of lunch was something interesting and spontaneous that happened as we finished eating. Sonia, a local musician, pulled out her double bass and started playing and singing. Ab joined on a Japanese flute.


Their impromptu improvisation was a surprise. It was an interaction of different creators coming together to make something -- something much greater as a whole than its individual parts.

Something that will never again be repeated in quite the same way -- just like a pot luck diner.

Houston's Top 10 Cheap Restaurants

These are the cheap restaurants that I enjoyed most over the last year.

By "cheap" I mean an average food price of under $20 per person. You can eat well at most of these places for under $10.

The list is considerably different from 2008's list. I spent more time exploring Asian restaurants, and it shows.

Top 10

1. Asia Market. I ate at Asia Market more than anywhere else on the list, and I am still working my way through the fascinating menu. Although this "restaurant" is no more than 5 tables in a Thai convenience store, it serves some of the most flavorful and unusual Thai and Laotian dishes in town.

2. Pico's. Although the Tex-Mex and grilled items are fine, the real standouts are the authentic Mexican dishes like mole (3 kinds!) and the sublime chiles en nogada. Don't forget to check the specials board before you walk in the front door. When available, osso buco and soft shell crabs are outstanding, but not so cheap.

3. La Jaliscience. Mexican food is different when you eat in places with few gringo customers. La Jaliscience plays Mexican TV and waitresses speak to me (so obviously a gringo) in Spanish. But the food stands out most. La Jaliscience serves a generous Mexican breakfast, fantastic soups, tacos with wierd meats, and the hottest green salsa I've had.

4. Mint Cafe. Mint Cafe reveals its charms slowly, over many visits. Standard Middle dishes - from gyros to baba ghanouge are high quality. The best dishes include the kids' kafta burger and two quintessential Egyptian dishes - foul (fava beans with lemon and olive oil) and molokhia (a soup with chicken and Egyptian greens served only on Friday).

5. Himalaya. Spicy Northern Indian and Pakistani food. Get recommendations from Chef Kaiser, one of our most colorful food personalities.

6. Mary'z. The best Lebanese food in Houston. Mary'z chich tawook may be my favorite marinated chicken dish.

7. Vieng Thai serves some of the strangest, and spicest food in Houston.

8. Sandong Noodle House. The noodles are good, but Sandong is most famous for pan fried dumplings.

9. Tan Tan. Bright neon, garish moving photos of water falls, fake palm trees with stuffed monkeys, and an encyclopedic menu of Chinese and Vietnamese food. Nothing else is quite like Tan Tan.

10. Mandola's Deli. You probably didn't expect to see a Mandola's restaurant on this list, but this one is different. Frank Mandola's grungy dive south of downtown only serves lunch, and it is a cheap, fabulous lunch - Italian and New Orleans style po-boys, a killer eggplant parmesan, and Italian immigrant pasta dishes.

Runners Up

11. Burns Barbecue. Despite appearances, Houston really isn't a barbecue town. Because of air quality regulations, barbecue in the city just isn't as good as in small Texas towns. Currently, my favorite is Burns in Acres Homes.

12. Thien An serves good bahn mi sandwiches and a killer bun bo hue. Thien An is a reminder that you can still get great, cheap Vietnamese food in Midtown.

13. Turquoise Grill. The setting in a former office snack bar on Kirby is hardly enticing, but Jim Dokuyuku and his family draw you in for a family meal. Several authentic Turkish dishes are only allowed to be cooked by Jim's mom. The grilled meats have a remarkable flavor, and the gyro meat is the best I've had in Houston. Empire Grill has better bread. Pasha is in a more attractive setting. But Turquoise is my all-around favorite Turkish restaurant.

14. Huynh. Reasonably-priced Vietnamese food is served in an attractive modern setting. Most Houston Vietnamese restaurants seem to work off the same standardized cookbook. But some of Huynh's dishes, like cha giao and pork spring rolls, are decidedly different -- and better.

15. Sichuan Cuisine. The strangest Chinese food I've had in Houston. Don't expect a standard American Chinese menu. Do expect pig snout, duck tongue, and mouth-numbing peppercorns.

16. New Filipiniana. Filipino food is less Asian and more creole than I expected. This place gets a huge Filipino crowd, and has a huge lunch buffet that lets you dive in to a unique blend of flavors.

Other runners up: Que Huong, Pho Danh II, Avenue Grill, Barbecue Inn, Teotihuacan, Ko-Mart food stalls, Alfreda's Cafeteria, Pepper Tree Veggie Cuisine, Udipi Cafe, La Sani, Triple A Restaurant, Cafe Mezza, Xiong Cafe, KL Malaysian, Mandarin Cafe, Cafe Byblos.

Feast in the New York Times

It's rare for Houston restuarants to get national attention. But for the past year, the national press has been in love with Reef.

And today, the New York Times has published a long article on Feast.

Theme of the article:

"What they’ve fashioned in a foreign land of big steaks and bold Tex-Mex is a restaurant that’s not just offbeat and challenging but also serious and enormously enjoyable. It’s one of the country’s outstanding newcomers."

Amen.

A day of food on Twitter

Twitter blues

I had been on Twitter 2 weeks and it wasn't making sense.

I'mneverfull signed me up -- before she told me she was going to do it. Then she came to my office to train me. She also gave me a list of foodies to follow on Twitter.

I tried hard to understand Twitter, but didn't. Messages are barely in English. They fly onto the screen without context. Plus Twitter doesn't give you enough space in a message to develop an idea with any depth.

I kept wondering, "Who are these people talking to?" "What are they saying?" "What are these abbreviations?"

Twitter was no fun.

Finally, a good day of Twittering

By noon today, I finished my work and thought I might Twitter just one more time - to see if anything useful might come of it.

11:50 cleverleysWolfgang Puck on Cleverley at Noon. CNN650 Radio News. Houston. Stream: http://www.CNN650.com

I like Cleverly. I like Puck. So I listened online. I learned about Puck's Dallas restaurant and why foie gras is cruel.

12:00 FoodPrincess Stopped @RainDrop Chocolate, watching them make truffles.

12:02 FoodPrincessRainDrop Chocolate closing on April 26.

1:15 tastybitz Best gelateria in Houston is closing. Frack.

I hadn't heard of Rain Drop Chocolate, but was sad to hear they are closing. So after Cleverly finished with Puck, I decided to drop by.

The chocolate truffles are remarkable. I tried the chipoltle chocolate flavor and saved the other two -- a malt and a dark chocolate -- for the family.

1:15 pinksnapper TWO UGLY BUT TASTY TWINS: whole monkfish & skate(ray) FYI mudbugs are como que rico y gordos! come see me at Airline Sfd.

Skate -- I love its crab-like flavor and sharklike texture. I had wanted to cook it. So I headed over to Airline Road, forgetting that Airline Seafood, despite its name, is on Richmond. More driving.

As it turns out, "pinksnapper" is Mark Musatto, the proprietor at Airline Seafood. Mark took me to the back to show me the ray and the big ugly monkfish -- a prehistoric fish that even has little feet. I didn't know that.

I bought some skate wings. And as I looked over Mark's list of fresh fish, I wondered why I had been buying seafood anywhere else.

2:15 WholeFoodsHOU Robb Walsh is now at our Kirby store. Come meet the man behind Houston Press food blog!!!

2:30 imneverfull http://twitpic.com/2ts9f - @robbwalsh is shucking oysters

4:00 imneverfull @robbwalsh's silly beard is left over from a jesus christ costume

I rushed over to Whole Foods, fought tooth and nail for a parking space, and ran in to see Robb.

There he was, standing behind some raw oysters, in his Jesus beard, thick glasses, and hat. Robb looked much sillier than Jesus.

Whenever I meet people I have idolized for years, I can't think of anything smart to say. I told him that I had a blog and that I'm a huge fan. He said he reads my blog.

Unlike me, Robb wasn't at a loss for words:

Then Robb Walsh, my favorite food writer in the U.S., shucked an oyster for me!

3:15 she_eats I'm in Baytown. And frightened. It's very dirty here.

3:20 she_eats This must be what the end of the world looks like.

I wasn't going to Baytown to confirm this. But I remembered how much I miss she_eats' hour-by-hour chronicles of her weekends on her blog. Perhaps I should try an hour-by-hour blog post, in her honor. Maybe tonight.

So I finally, I put down my twiterberry and cooked broiled skate wings with a red wine reduction on mashed potatoes.

In just 4 hours, I had tried some of the best chocolate in Houston, met Robb Walsh, examined a monkfish up close, watched a guy filet a skate in the backroom of a fish market, and chatted with friends in a strange new language.

None of this would have happened without Twitter.

Houston's Top 10 Restaurants 2009

A new top 10

At this moment, right now, Houston has the best set of upscale restaurants in recent memory, perhaps in our history.

A lot has changed since my 2008 top-10 list. So before the depression hits our market, it is time for my annual, utterly subjective list of top 10 favorite upscale Houston restaurants. A separate list of cheap restaurants will come soon.

Listed in order of preference, these are the 10 restaurants whose food (and wine) I enjoyed most over the past year.

1. Feast. This has been the year of Feast. Apart from Randy Rucker's laidback manor and Monica Pope's Quilted Toque, no Houston restaurants have changed my thinking about food and cooking so much. It is not just the unusual cuts of meat (veal tongue, cow testicles, pig's feet), or the unusual seafood (mother-in-law, sting rays). It is also the unusual combination of ingredients and flavors, mostly cooked in an oven. In the past year, I have visited Feast far more than any other restuarant. And I check out its ever-changing menu almost daily. A few dishes have been clunkers. But the successful dishes have blown me away.

2. Reef. In its first year, Reef's food was cutting edge. But the execution was uneven from the front desk to the floor to the kitchen - perhaps because of its unexpectedly huge crowds. This year, Reef hit its stride. The raw seafood dishes are more creative and flavorful than any sushi bar in town. And the cooked seafood is our city's finest. Plus, the wine list is laudably priced near retail. Bon Appetit called Reef the best seafood restaurant in America. I don't disagree.

3. Textile. Textile may be Houston's best all-around dining experience from the creative bar drinks to the multi-course tasting menus by Scott Tycer to the creative desserts by Plinio Sandalio. Unfortunately, it is so pricey and so difficult to get into Textile, that I have only been once. Still, it is my restaurant-of-choice for a splurge.

4. Rainbow Lodge. Rainbow Lodge is a fascinating work in progress. What happens when you combine an old-school game-and-seafood restaurant with Houston's most creative young chef? So far, the results have been outstanding - unusual preparations of gulf seafood, avant-garde charcuterie, and local produce. Even the long-standing game dishes benefit from Randy Rucker's improvements on the sauces. With a new garden under construction, I expect that Rucker and the Lodge may soon become Houston's representative local cuisine restaurant.

5. Indika. Indika's food is more creative and higher quality than any other Indian restaurant in America that I have tried. The kitchen focuses on local ingredients and exotic spices. Its creations are unlike any other restaurant in Houston.

6. Catalan. Catalan has my favorite wine list. Most wines are priced near retail, and the list is remarkable for its scope and creativity. And the kitchen, while sometimes uneven, is restlessly creative. Don't miss the funnest part of the menu, labeled "Chef's Playground."

7. Da Marco. For a long time Da Marco has topped various lists of Houston's restaurants - including mine in 2006. It serves some of the best food in Houston, and some of the best Italian food in the U.S. But I sometimes have a hard time enjoying the overly expensive wines (with high mark-up) and the stuffy atmosphere. Yet I forget all that when I try Da Marco's crudo dishes, among the best raw seafood in Houston.

8. Hugo's. An American city with such a high population of Mexican immigrants should have a world-class Mexican restaurant. And we do. Hugo's delights with authentic Mexican dishes, exotic flourishes (grasshoppers, huitlacoche, and squash blossoms), and Sean Beck's list of wines which go remarkably well with spicy foods. It is appropriate that Hugo's is owned and operated by one of our many immigrants, Chef Hugo Ortega.

9. Bedford. Bedford is a new, frustratingly gangly restaurant that seems to be several restaurants in one. The best restaurant is the chef's table when Chef Gadsby prepares a multi-course tasting menu. Many dishes on the a la carte menu are good too, like the mysterious clay pot soup and the hearty short ribs with pork belly stew. The wine list is sure to improve, but in the restaurant's first few months it is too heavily wieghted with overly-oaked, high-production California wines.

10. Voice. Many dishes at Voice are hits -- especially mushroom soup cappucino, baby beets, and halibut with truffle emulsion. Even if it touts local produce, the menu is perhaps our best representation of nationwide restaurant trends -- the sort of stuff they teach in chef school. And preparations are consistently flawless. Earlier in the year, Voice would have been higher on this list. But the menu does not seem to change frequently enough to sustain a high interest over repeated visits.

Runners up

11. Mockingbird Bistro. Mockingbird's kitchen continues to surprise me. Most dishes don't sound creative on the menu, but their execution is as inventive as it is flavorful. Mockingbird belongs in the top 10. But what restaurant could be removed to make a place?

12. Le Mistral. This is the first time Le Mistral did not make my top 10. My last meal there was a little less interesting than previous visits. But over the past five years, it has remained the best French food in Houston.

13. Ristaurante Cavour. Cavour is the best restaurant in Houston that no one goes to. The menu designed by Chef Denis of Le Mistral proves that he can do Italian just as well as French.

14. Ibiza. Ibiza has some of the best starters in Houston, and a wine list second in value and scope only to its sister restaurant Catalan. I prefer Catalan's creativity. But I never tire of some regular menu items at Ibiza such as Basque green pepper soup, morcilla sausage with goat cheese, and stuffed piquillo peppers.

15. Shade. Shade's three soup offerings change daily, and they often among my favorites in town. Although I eat at Shade at least once a month, the menu changes enough, and is innovative enough, to sustain my interest.

16. Max's Wine Dive. It is maddening that they serve such outstanding food in such a cramped, overcrowded bar. I rarely go to Max's for this reason. But when I do go, I am amazed at the quality of the bistro-like dishes.

Other Runners Up: Beaver's, Bistro Max & Julie, Backstreet Cafe, Benjy's, Dolce Vita Pizzeria Enoteca, Kubo's, Teppay, Gravitas, Cafe Annie, Mark's, T'afia, Tony's, Pesce, Arcodoro, Masraff's, Fung's Kitchen.

Places I haven't tried. These upscale restaurants might possibly make my list if I ever get around to trying them: Chez Roux, Au Petit Paris, Olivette, Vic & Anthony's, Polo's Signature, Danton's. I have started to go to every one of these restaurants, but then checked the daily menu at Feast.

Please comment -- I would love to hear your 10 favorites.

This is not Feed the Heights

Today's Preview section of the Chronicle directs readers to a new blog called Feed the Heights. But the Chron mistakenly listed the URL for this site.

This is not Feed the Heights. You can find it here.

It is an interesting new site. (It even has a manifesto!)

But since you are here, you also might like some of our posts about Heights-area restaurants:

Textile
Rainbow Lodge
Sweet Temptation
Bedford (by Epicurus) and Bedford (by anonymouseater)
Antidote Coffee
Vietnam Restaurant
Asia Market
Pink's Pizza
Chiloso's Taco House
Dragon Bowl
Shade
Triple A Restaurant and El Bolillo
Teotihuacan
Glass Wall (and Shade)

I don't even live near the Heights, but I am fascinated with its food scene. It was awful 5 years ago. But suddenly, it has some of the best restaurants in Houston.

So it is about time for a food blog that focuses just on the Heights. Good luck Feed the Heights.