Anthony Bourdain

Anthony Bourdain on Illegal Immigrant Labor in U.S. Kitchens

Five Worst Hangovers In The Movies

The holidays are upon us, and whether you're dealing with 8-hour layovers at O'Hare or sleeping on your aunt's rollout bed with the bar that lays right across your sacroiliac joint or "entertaining" your brother and his brood of monstrous offspring, chances are you're going to drink. A lot. To help ... More >>

Tornado Burgers, New Year's Play, Anthony Bourdain

The holidays are upon us, and whether you're dealing with 8-hour layovers at O'Hare or sleeping on your aunt's rollout bed with the bar that lays right across your sacroiliac joint or "entertaining" your brother and his brood of monstrous offspring, chances are you're going to drink. A lot. To help ... More >>

Anthony Bourdain, Illegal Immigrants and Sylvia's Enchilada Kitchen

The holidays are upon us, and whether you're dealing with 8-hour layovers at O'Hare or sleeping on your aunt's rollout bed with the bar that lays right across your sacroiliac joint or "entertaining" your brother and his brood of monstrous offspring, chances are you're going to drink. A lot. To help ... More >>

Sushi Jin

The freshest fish in Houston is delivered to this sushi joint in Memorial, courtesy of Air Japan

No Reservations

No Reservations is sweet and savory fare. Without the foam

Chefs Rule!

If you can't stand the sight of lopped-off digits and the smell of your own flesh burning, get out of the kitchen

The Fido Solution

The ultimate answer to too many strays, cash-strapped budgets, animal shelter abuses and starving people

Mussels In

Anthony Bordain insults and cajoles his newest kitchen recruit: you

Dancing Delicacies

Saffron's delicacy pie -- made with lamb livers, sweetbreads and mountain oysters -- is divine

This Week's Day-by-Day Picks

Saffron's delicacy pie -- made with lamb livers, sweetbreads and mountain oysters -- is divine

The Foie Gras Problem

Photo by J.C. ReidI love foie gras. Is that bad? Foie gras is the fattened liver of a goose or duck. The fattening is brought about through the technique of gavage, or force-feeding the animal, in this case with corn. The resulting food product is a true delicacy which has a rich, meaty/salty flavo ... More >>

Bourdain Is Back

No Reservations is back. The ever-loquacious Anthony Bourdain visited Chile, skipping from Santiago to wine country, the coast and Patagonia, sampling food, waxing poetic and keeping it real the entire time. Here is a recap of the delicious Chilean cuisine and Bourdain-isms from last night's episo ... More >>

This Week's No Reservations

In this week's episode of No Reservations, Anthony Bourdain traveled to Melbourne, Australia. Despite Crocodile Dundee stereotypes of Australia, Melbourne is actually a thriving cultural capital with ethnically diverse cuisines - "like San Francisco, but without the fog." Surprisingly, it was Bourda ... More >>

This Week In Deliciousness

Ray's Franks' Freddy Krueger will haunt your dreams. But in a good way. Welcome back to the weekly round-up here at Eating Our Words, where we have gravy on tap. To start off with, Mike Giglio out-spent Robb Walsh $13 to $7, because Mike is a fancy man of top-shelf tastes. He seemed impressed b ... More >>

This Week's No Reservations: Rust Belt

Photo by CaDeltaFotoBaltimore's skyline: Much nicer than one would anticipate​This week Anthony Bourdain headed to Baltimore, Buffalo and Detroit, or, as he called them, "fucked up cities I kinda love." The episode was light on snark and heavy on pathos and snowscapes of abandoned structures. ... More >>

This Week's No Reservations: Street Food

Photo by BOMBMANWhat we wouldn't give for this kind of street food in Houston...​This week's "Street Food" episode of No Reservations was kind of phoned in. The only new footage was of Anthony Bourdain wandering around New York City eating a hot dog and pondering aloud -- the other scenes were ... More >>

No Reservations: San Francisco

Photo by Preston CovillaudOutside Pirate Cat Radio in San Francisco​Feeling even more antagonistic than usual, Anthony Bourdain toured San Francisco in this week's episode of No Reservations. He brought the full power of his disdain to the city's organic, local and vegan food by not sampling a ... More >>

No Reservations: Thailand

When Anthony Bourdain and his crew visited Thailand in April, Bangkok was in political upheaval. This week's episode of No Reservations opened with flickering images of soldiers, protesters and smoke, with Bourdain admitting, "I don't know what to say about Thailand. I don't know how to make sense o ... More >>

No Reservations: Montana

Photo by gaby53mt​Usually Anthony Bourdain is a hedonist. He indulges in food, alcohol and not a few off-color sex jokes, no matter what city or what audience. But this week while visiting Montana, he exits out of the fast lane. Maybe it's the mountains, but in the first 20 minutes of the epis ... More >>

No Reservations: Outer Boroughs

Photo by duluoz_cats​Regretting having spent almost his entire life in Manhattan with nary a trip to the four outer boroughs, Anthony Bourdain took on the robust culinary scenes of the Bronx, Brooklyn, Queens and Staten Island in this week's episode of No Reservations. It seemed like a familia ... More >>

No Reservations: Sardinia

When I was growing up, my family went to Macaroni Grill for food from Europe's boot-shaped nation. It wasn't until a few years ago that I realized that maybe I'd never had Italian food. Watching the last episode of this season's No Reservations, in which Anthony Bourdain travels to Sardinia, I ... More >>

Texas Traveler: Heading West

Photos by Brittanie SheyEd. Note: This the first part of a series on heading west to Big Bend and back. Check back next week for our continuing adventures. The very first thing we have to decide is which way to go. We're meeting friends in Big Bend for a New Year's camping trip, but we have several ... More >>

Pop Rocks: How The Marriage Ref Almost Ruined My Marriage

​My wife and I have been married for almost 14 years. In that time, we've had to come to a certain...understanding about each others' tastes.We agree mostly on the big stuff, like politics (pinko), finances (slightly more free-spending than Ebenezer Scrooge), and child-rearing (sleep in a drawer a ... More >>

Red Curry Hot Pot from King Biscuit

​I was in the lower part of the Heights and popped in to King Biscuit (1606 White Oak Drive 713-861-2328) for a cocktail and a bite to eat. I ordered a gin and tonic and the red curry hot pot. The dish came out in the cheap red and white plastic bowls you get at Asian markets. The glass noodle ... More >>

Battle Celebrity Chefs

Guy Fieri.​The other night I was watching Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives, and every time it would go to commercial, I would scroll down to the Travel Channel and watch No Reservations. Then it hit me: Could there be two "celebrity chefs" any more famous and yet totally different than Guy Fieri an ... More >>

This Week in Deliciousness

Aw, come on, that's not... that's not something that should be done, there.​Welcome back to the weekly roundup here at Eating Our Words, where we're still trying to figure out a way to combine grits and dumplings. Don't tell us it can't be done; we've got a dream. How did we start the week ou ... More >>

What Would You Ask Anthony Bourdain?

​Right around this time next week, we'll be having the ultimate Chef Chat with none other than everyone's favorite culinary iconoclast: Anthony Bourdain. On September 20, Jones Hall and the Society for the Performing Arts is hosting Bourdain as he comes to Houston for a one-night-only speakin ... More >>

This Week in Deliciousness

Sexy Pancakes would be a terrific name for a funk band.​ Welcome back to the weekly roundup here at Eating Our Words, where man cook meat with fire. This includes cooking froggie with fire, which, while delicious, look disturbingly like a bunch of little naked half-people on the grill there. Y ... More >>

Anthony Bourdain: "There Has Never Been a Better Time to Eat in America"

Anthony Bourdain is a man who requires little introduction. The author of Kitchen Confidential -- the book published almost exactly 10 years ago, which catapulted him to fame -- and host of popular TV shows like A Cook's Tour and No Reservations, Bourdain is the prototypical bad-boy chef, Marco Pier ... More >>

A Pork Belly Slider at Odd Duck Trailer in Austin

Tam Vo​Austin is inundated with food trailers these days, and it's glorious. With so many to choose from, deciding on a trailer was a big decision. Luckily, with the help of my dear friend and mentor, Tony Bourdain, who doesn't yet know he's my good friend and mentor but has already visited Au ... More >>

This Week in Deliciousness

"So like, what-all do they serve here?"​Welcome back to the weekly roundup here at Eating Our Words, where we have no cream of the crop because crops aren't supposed to have cream on them. Gross. We started off the week by disarming some alarmism with our look into some foods which are sligh ... More >>

Anthony Bourdain

The bad boy of food likes life medium raw

Upcoming Events

The patron saint of food nerds come to Houston.​Do you have your tickets ready to see Anthony Bourdain this Monday night at Jones Hall? I certainly hope so, because the event is sold out. But don't fret; more celebrity chefs are on their way to Houston in coming months. Alton Brown, the origi ... More >>

Bourdain Takes the Bayou City

​A sold-out show at Jones Hall last night was enough to convince the Society for the Performing Arts that they should bring author and TV host Anthony Bourdain back for another speaking engagement -- this time with Eric Ripert, it seems -- but the question is: Will Houston come back to watch h ... More >>

The Night I Snuck Around Jones Hall and...Oh, Yeah...Talked to Anthony Bourdain

Katharine ShilcuttCan you spot our mustachioed interloper? ​Fellow chef Mike Nutt, the Chef de Cuisine at Laurenzo's Grill on Washington, invited me to tag along with him and the other chefs catering the book signing following Anthony Bourdain's sold-out talk at Jones Hall, called Up Close and ... More >>

This Week in Deliciousness

So THAT'S what they did with all the oil-coated octopi they fished out of the Gulf.​Welcome back to the weekly roundup here at Eating Our Words, where THE SPICE MUST FLOW. We started the week off by getting some terrible tapas in the Arcade Fire's least-favorite Houston suburb, the Woodlands. ... More >>

The Night I Snuck Around Jones Hall and...Oh, Yeah...Talked to Anthony Bourdain

So THAT'S what they did with all the oil-coated octopi they fished out of the Gulf.​Welcome back to the weekly roundup here at Eating Our Words, where THE SPICE MUST FLOW. We started the week off by getting some terrible tapas in the Arcade Fire's least-favorite Houston suburb, the Woodlands. ... More >>

Top 5 Food Network Chef-Inspired Halloween Costumes

You can be Mario Batali in just a few easy steps.​Halloween is upon us, yet again. And every year, Halloween costumes get either sluttier or blatantly, intentionally lamer. (Witness our sister blog, Art Attack, for more ideas on how to achieve the latter.) So what does a food-loving, non-slut ... More >>

Zilla Street Eats

​In the past, when occasional Eating Our Words blogger Jason Kerr wasn't dishing up fine French cuisine at Café Rabelais, he was hanging out with his BFF Anthony Bourdain at Jones Hall. Well, now he has a new way to keep himself occupied at night - running a food truck. The mobile cuisine g ... More >>

Eat a Condom, Fight AIDS

Photo courtesy of lifestyleasia.com​Look carefully at the photo above. That's not a used, partially-filled condom. (Thank God.) It's actually an entirely edible, fake condom on faux sand. And it's the brainchild of "Demon Chef" Alvin Leung of Bo Innovation, who created the presentation at Ide ... More >>

The Laurenzo Family's New Chispas del Tiempo

​El Real isn't the only Tex-Mex place with a distinguished pedigree that opened recently. The Laurenzo family, which currently operates Laurenzo's and the El Tiempo Cantinas (but is perhaps best known for its connection to Ninfa's on Navigation, founded and run for 23 years by late family matr ... More >>

Comment of the Day

​Katharine Shilcutt discovered an excellent Italian restaurant in Spring called Capri. While dining there, what did she have to drink with her tagliatelle al salmone? Boone's Farm. Commenter Eric Hanao wrote in with some words of support: So. Freaking. Awesome. A true foodie will eat and dri ... More >>

An Austin Adventure of Gastronomical Proportions at Barley Swine

Photo by John SuhBeer-battered zucchini, mussels, basil dressing​In order to continue riding the wave of culinary creativity, sometimes we have to think outside the box. Sometimes we have to look outside the city. What is going on in the restaurants up the interstate? What ingredients and t ... More >>

Odd Pair: Spaghetti and Meatballs and a High-Plains Greek Rosé

​Who can resist classic, homemade spaghetti and meatballs? Even the most snooty Italophiles among us, those who turn their noses up at blasphemous Italian-American cuisine citing the god of Authenticity, are easily corrupted when it comes to this dish, which evokes a cinematically rich swath o ... More >>

Sampler Plate: This Week in Food Blogs

City of Ate: Our sister paper in Dallas interviewed Anthony Bourdain in advance of his new show, 48 Hours, and as Bourdain is wont to do, he dispensed some straightforward talk about his "low opinion" of Dallas Morning News critic Leslie Brenner, why anonymity in a food critic isn't critically impor ... More >>

5 Food Celebrities We'd Rather See Naked Than Anthony Bourdain (and 5 We Wouldn't)

Stars and hearts over the naughty bits, so this is almost 100 percent safe for work. Almost.​In case you hadn't heard -- especially since the man himself Tweeted the pic -- a nude photo of Anthony Bourdain surfaced yesterday, taken 12 years prior while on vacation. To quote Bourdain on the pho ... More >>

How The Simpsons Makes Foodies Look Like Smug, Elitist Schmucks

There must be a kitchen sink that we can get to do a cameo too, guys...​I didn't want to watch the latest episode of The Simpsons, the one in which Marge inexplicably becomes a food blogger. Yes, the foodie backlash has officially begun. I haven't wanted to watch an episode of The Simpsons in ... More >>

Bartender Chat: Matt Bradshaw of El Gran Malo

​We stopped into El Gran Malo this week because nothing quite warms your chilled bones like a few shots of crushed black pepper, sea salt, cayenne and toasted Texas pecan-infused tequila. We sampled some of the bar's newest infusions, snacked on bacon-wrapped jalapenos that were so spicy my ea ... More >>