Cambodia

Locavores, Meet Invasivores: Cooking and Eating Invasive Lionfish at Haven

Invasive species are nothing new. Neither is eating them, as anyone who's eaten Cambodian water spinach -- much of it grown here in Houston -- will tell you. But bringing in water spinach from Cambodia and growing it for profit (despite its status over here as a noxious weed) is entirely different ... More >>

HPD's New Uniforms: We Help Them With Some Ideas (You're Welcome)

The seasons change, we spirit away our summer digs for some fall threads, and the Houston police are also mulling a change of dress. It's time for a uniform change. But they're as tight-lipped on the matter as Gucci planning its spring wear. This reticence may be related to the fact that Sergeant St ... More >>

Cambodian Weed

The invasive plant water spinach is banned in some states — and essential to Asian cooking. In a small village outside Houston, relocated Cambodians are growing and selling it across state lines, up North, out West, hoping to get rich.

South Of Houston, A Cambodian Village And A People Who Have Rejected Modernity

On March 13, 2011, I took out my journal and wrote an entry that I still sometimes go back and read when life in the United States -- the buzzing of social media, the vitriol of partisanship -- becomes too much and I need to remember the life I once lived as a Peace Corps volunteer in provincial Cam ... More >>

Your Gonzo Guide to the Republican National Convention

From cash-hungry strippers to protesters dressed as vaginas.

Sweet and Simple: How to Make Baked Doughnuts

Although I haven't lived abroad in a very long time, I still enjoy reading about improvising American foods in foreign countries where certain Western supplies are limited. One of my favorite sources of recipes is The Home Away, a fantastic blog for folks living overseas "at home but away from home. ... More >>

Bahram Arabpour: Austin-area Realtor Busted Here With Almost Two Pounds of Opium.

More evidence that Houston has arrived as a world-class city: it is now apparently the kind of town where you can get your hands on large quantities of opium. Yes, if Harris County Court records are to believed, Houston is now a market for the same "celestial drug" that in 1822 Thomas De Quincey rh ... More >>

New Arrivals

Y'all, We Have All Been Doing "Punk" Wrong

When you think of punk rock, images of a bloodied Sid Vicious in a leather jacket may come to mind. Skinheads flipping off a camera. Henry Rollins and Black Flag destroying a crowd in a basement. Jello Biafra jumping into a surging pit of people after screaming about holidays in Cambodia. The Clash ... More >>

Fantasy Land

A green amusement park was supposed to bring prosperity to New Caney, but so far, only a few have profited. And it still exists only on paper.

Idiot Fish: The Night I Ate an Endangered Species

The idiot fish is endangered for a reason: It's delicious.​A couple of weeks back, I enjoyed a beautiful dinner at Kubo's next to a table of hilariously drunk Japanese people boisterously eating sashimi off a giant wooden boat that acted as a centerpiece/serving tray, while my dining companion ... More >>

Ingredient of the Week: Thai Basil

Photo by John SuhThai basil in our garden​A few weeks ago, we featured Genovese basil, a staple of Italian cuisine, as the Ingredient of the Week. This week, we're highlighting Thai basil, a key ingredient in not just Thai food but many other southeast Asian dishes. What is it? Native to so ... More >>

Saturday Night: Dengue Fever At Fitzgerald's

Photos by Jim Bricker​Dengue Fever Fitzgerald's May 7, 2011 Someone asked Aftermath Saturday afternoon to describe what kind of music Dengue Fever plays. "Well, it's like '60 psychedelic pop with Cambodian lyrics, and also some California surf guitar and Ethiopian jazz and and girl-group thro ... More >>

Dengue Fever: Nothing Lost In Translation

Lauren Dukoff​Cambodian pop-rock seems like an odd choice musical genre to try to earn a living, but Los Angeles-area sextet Dengue Fever is closing in on ten years. All signs are that the band is set for a much longer run: They've just released Cannibal Courtship, their fourth album and succ ... More >>

Enemies of the People

Ten Songs Worse Than A TSA Pat-Down

​Today is the biggest travel day in the United States, according to the airlines. That means many of you will be experiencing for the first time the intrusive X-rays or demeaning pat-downs handed out by TSA as part of their new "You Assholes Don't Have to Fly, You Know" business strategy. Kee ... More >>

S21: The Khmer Rouge Killing Machine

The tragic story of Cambodian genocide becomes a cautionary tale

Chevron Protests Result In Arrests Downtown

Photo by Liana Lopez Carted away in comfort​ At least four protesters were arrested this morning at a demonstration outside a Chevron shareholders' meeting downtown. The protesters moved past temporary police barricades and sat on the ground after they were refused entrance into the buildin ... More >>

Helen Garcia, Mom Of The Year: Sets Up Sham Marriage For Daughter, Feds Say

It was a real-life Green Card, except instead of Gerard Depardieu and Andie MacDowell finding sweet, sweet love we got a mother hiring out her kid for a fake marriage to a Cambodian immigrant.The U.S. Attorney's office in Houston announced this morning the indictments of six people for trying to co ... More >>

Brazil, Unplugged

Gilberto Gil trims down his sound for an all-acoustic show.

Spermy Night In Georgia: Sexed-Up Songs To Set The Mood For Blowfly

Let's get one thing perfectly clear: Blowfly is the original dirty rapper. Before anyone in 2 Live Crew was old enough to set foot into a peepshow stall or buy a pack of cigarettes, Clarence "Blowfly" Reid was spewing forth raucous raps like "Spermy Night In Georgia" and "What a Difference a Lay Mak ... More >>

Chatter: Say Hey

Spearhead leader Michael Franti's Middle Eastern trip inspires an unlikely Top 40 hit.

New Thai Joint Opens on Bangkokheimer

​Thai Bistro, the popular Houston Thai restaurant located at 3241 Southwest Freeway, recently opened a new location at 11660 Westheimer, the former location of Thyme Table Café. The Houston Chronicle's Alison Cook loved Thyme Table for reasons I never understood. I tried it and found it too b ... More >>

He Said She Said: Songs from the Year We Were Born That We Still Listen To

Yes, we are older than MTV. Shut up.​The thing that struck She Said most when researching this list of songs that came out the year we were born (May 1980) was just how much of this music we regularly listen to now. 1980 marked the end of disco, the middle of New Wave and punk, and a damn good tim ... More >>

For Teddy: Our Favorite Dead Kennedys Songs

​That's right, we went there. Longtime Massachussetts Senator Edward M. Kennedy, better known as Teddy, passed away late Tuesday night at age 77. News media sites have already gone to Defcon 2 - "A Famous Person Not Named Michael Jackson Has Died" - so Rocks Off thought we'd take a different appro ... More >>

The Whole Wide World: Dengue Fever's Sleepwalking Through The Mekong

Dengue Fever is the name of a potentially deadly tropical disease that is transmitted by mosquitoes. There have been several epidemics around the world, specially in third-world countries where sanitary conditions are less than desirable. It is also the name of a Los Angeles-based indie rock b ... More >>

WTF Island: Jackson Five, Kid Rock, Glenn Danzig, Rock Camp and Assteroids

Even as our economy continued to go up in flames like the Toyota Center, the carnival of WTF kept trolling along this week. It seemed that every day we saw something so asinine and foolish that we couldn't keep up. Jackson Family slavery museums, rock and roll fantasy camps, Kid Rock's new beer, "As ... More >>

Santa Round-Up Part Five: The Crying Game

This and every Christmas season the most important person is the baby Jesus, with a bearded, white-haired toy factory owner coming in a close second. Every year we flock to the malls to sit in our kids down on Santa's lap. Sometimes they run off screaming, while others take to the old guy just like ... More >>

Nixon in a Deep Frost

Langella and Sheen capture a summit of egos as Frost/Nixon goes from stage to screen

We Got Your Inspirational Sports Story Right Here

Mediterranean Tour with Chef Emily Swantner

Try the chef’s “tweaked” recipes

Get Smart Redux is a Rare Device

A TV remake for the big screen that works on its own terms

L.A.'s Dengue Fever Unites Cambodian Pop and American Rock

Both Sides Now

My Village at Sunset

Rice professors and a former U.S. ambassador try to explain why the king of Cambodia directed a B movie

To Do: Watch Ron Livingston and Thuy Nguyen in Holly

Art Capsule Reviews

A picture of our opinions on local exhibitions

Art Capsule Reviews

A picture of our opinions on local exhibitions

Blade Runners

Hotel Rwanda finds hope amid the horrors of tribal genocide

Digital Manual

The MFAH puts on a watershed exhibition of works by Ed Hill and Suzanne Bloom

Bigger and Battered

Where does Baytown Seafood get those enormous shrimp?

Letters

Green Diet, School Shame, Capital Con

Tackling the Taboo

Despite suicides and inner strife, Asian-Americans resist psychotherapy

Letters

Cambodian Queen

Yani Keo flies under the radar of most Houstonians. But if you're a refugee or an Asian-American leader, you know how important she is.

News of the Weird

News of the Weird

Power Trip

Oliver Stone takes a measured look at how Richard Nixon rose and why he fell

The Gangs Among Us

Asian crime is growing. Asian immigrants are its main target. And the HPD hasn't a clue what to do.

A Shudder of the Soul

Cronos makes something new from old-fashioned horror

It's Not Easy Being Gray

Spalding Gray brings his Anatomy and memories back to Houston