Central Texas

From Tacos to Tikka Masala

Houston's 10 best classic food trucks.

Here, Eat This: A Beginner's Guide to German Cuisine

Modern-day Texans may not see much German influence when they look around, but the indirect effects of decades of German settlement still linger in large pockets of the state. The first waves of German immigration began in the 1830s ahead of the European Revolutions of 1848 that sent floods of Fort ... More >>

Barbecue, Onions and Red Soda: Dispatches from the 2013 Foodways Texas Symposium

When I first heard about the theme of the 2013 Foodways Texas symposium, I was wary: two-and-a-half days of barbecue panels, meals and talks. Two-and-a-half days? Not that there isn't fertile ground to plow for topics, but the sheer amount of time devoted to discussions of smoked meat seemed excessi ... More >>

Upcoming Events: John Mueller Brings His Barbecue to Houston

Don't have the time or gas money to burn driving out to legendary barbecue spots like Smitty's, Kreuz, Franklin, Snow's or Louie Mueller, but have a hankering for classic Central Texas-style 'cue? You're in luck, then, because highly-regarded pitmaster John Mueller is headed to Houston for a one-day ... More >>

Central Texas Style Bar-B-Q to Reopen Today After Fire on Tuesday Night

One of our favorite haunts in Pearland battled a fire late Tuesday night, which left Central Texas Style Bar-B-Q closed all day yesterday as the owners cleaned up the damage. No one was injured in the blaze, but patrons were quick to take to Twitter to express their love for the restaurant, which ha ... More >>

The Rest of the Best: Houston's Top 10 Barbecue

For the next 20 weeks, we'll be rounding up the runners-up to our 2012 Best of Houston® winners. In many categories, picking each year's winner is no easy task. We'll be spotlighting 20 of those categories, in which the winner had hefty competition from other Houston bars and restaurants. Just yes ... More >>

Texas BBQ Predates the Civil War

The tradition of open-pit barbecues in Texas is older than you think.

''Sacred Spaces of Texas''

Q for a Cause

The 5 Best Disses of Religious Zealots in the Greatest Prayer-in-Schools Ruling Ever Written

Last week U.S. District Judge Fred Biery agreed to a settlement in a long-running case involving prayer in a Central Texas school district. His ruling got some ink, but perhaps not all it deserved, for it is a concise masterpiece of sanity that comes from one of the most turbulent, extremist arenas ... More >>

Odd Pair: Sushi and Wine (a Preview of Uchi's Wine List)

There's a lot riding on the launch of the new Uchi in Houston. Tyson Cole's Austin outposts -- Uchi and Uchiko -- stand apart as "destination" restaurants in Texas, venues that have attained national recognition in part because of Cole's success as a competitive chef on television and in part becau ... More >>

ACL: Adele & Mumford & Sons - Not Here, But Here

Photos by Marco TorresTrain a-Comin': The Secret Sisters​3:30 p.m. Still they file in. Watching the crowds trudge along Barton Springs Road, their eyes fixed on the pavement about five yards in front of them (not their phones), always reminds Rocks Off of a pilgrimage. And each festival has i ... More >>

Five Can't-Miss Acts At ACL Fest This Year

Craig HlavatyWe're running this picture of My Morning Jacket's Jim James now because this will be the last we see of him all weekend.​For weeks after we skipped last year's Austin City Limits Music Festival to man the controls in Houston, Rocks Off found ourselves thinking, "Man, I wish I woul ... More >>

Texas Wildfires, Via Facebook and Twitter

LinneainTX​Recently we wondered what 9/11 would have been like with today's social media. We're getting some slight taste of it with the wildfires raging through Central Texas and Magnolia. People are tweeting updates, pleas for help rescuing livestock and horses, putting up photos and setti ... More >>

Connie Smith: Classic Country Queen Returns With New Heartaches

Photos by Russ Harrington/Sugar Hill Records​People often get a bit confrontational with Lonesome Onry and Mean about "country music," like the last time we went to the bank in our father's little ranching town in Central Texas. As soon as we were introduced as a "music writer," one fellow - t ... More >>

Sampler Plate: This Week in Food Blogs

Each week, we put together a sampler plate of the most interesting links from both local and national food blogs. Know a blog we should be paying particular attention to? Leave the address in the comments section below. Sunset: Jonathan Gold, Pulitzer Prize-winner and food critic for our sister pap ... More >>

The Five Most Texan Types Of Music

​Happy San Jacinto Day, fellow Texans and people who wish they were; i.e. everyone else. If you don't know why today is special, shame on you. But since us Texans are a friendly sort, allow Rocks Off to fill you in. On April 21, 1836, Texian forces under Gen. Sam Houston (aka "Big Drunk") lau ... More >>

Top Eight Worst Musician Vanity Film Projects

​Rocks Off won't speak for everyone, but if we ever found ourselves a platinum-selling artist, we kinda doubt we'd press our luck by veering off into the world of acting. We mean, it hardly ever works from the opposite direction (right, Don Johnson?), so what good can possibly come from assumi ... More >>

106.9 FM Gets In The Zone, Misses The Point?

​Another Houston radio station has changed formats, or "flipped," although early reaction from some listeners is that the change is so slight it's hardly a change at all. Cox Communications has rechristened its property at 106.9 FM from "The Point" to "The Zone." It's not a sports station, al ... More >>

Rocky Horror Turns 35...Who Cares?

Don't worry, Bat Out Of Hell will be released soon.​Last Sunday wasn't just an unpleasant day for Houston Texans fans, it also marked a largely unheralded anniversary. Fans of The Rocky Horror Picture Show mark a big milestone today - they've been doing the "Time Warp" for 35 years. The cult ... More >>

Raul Malo: Real Country Music Lost In The Pop-Culture Forest

George Gutierrez​Former Mavericks lead singer Raul Malo brings a new band and a new album, Saints & Sinners, to House of Blues' Bronze Peacock Room next Saturday, Oct. 2. Self-produced in Malo's home studio, Sinners features guest appearances by Augie Meyers and Shawn Sahm of the Texas Tornado ... More >>

Houston Runners Take on The Beer Mile

Brittanie Shey​There's competitive eating, and then there's competitive eating, or in the case of the Beer Mile, competitive drinking. The concept is simple: chug a beer as fast as you can, then run a ¼ mile. Do that four times, and you've completed the beer mile. First person to cross the fi ... More >>

Judge Daniel Burkeen: Texans Of Every Species Can Crap In The Woods

At least put a one-holer out there​On March 9, the Texas Council of Environmental Quality received a complaint about David Cousins, a resident of Limestone County in rural Central Texas.Cousins, it was alleged, did not provide restroom facilities in the cabin on his wooded deer lease. Instead, he ... More >>

Headed to Round Top? Eat in Brenham.

BLT with avocado from Must Be Heaven.​This week and weekend is the annual Round Top Antiques Fair, a gigantormous event that draws tens of thousands of people from all over the country, all looking to score the very coolest in antique furniture, knick-knacks and jewelry. Thinking about head ... More >>

Barbecue - More Than Just Meat

​When we think of the rodeo, we think of barbecue. So in honor of the rodeo, we wanted to bring you our top five cities for barbecue in Texas. Sounds easy, right? Wrong. Sure, we have our personal favorites like Taylor and Lockhart. But, what we soon realized is that barbecue is very personal. ... More >>

Matt the Electrician

In the Pit

It's easier than ever to take pictures at concerts. Unless that's your job.

Mass Shooting At Fort Hood

Madness has come to Fort Hood in Central Texas.Various media outlets are reporting that gunmen have killed seven people and wounded up to 20 others, and the situation is still fluid.Schools are on lockdown.CNN and others are following events; head there for more info."At least one person is 'neutral ... More >>

Million-Dollar Mud

The 2009 Austin City Limits Music Festival became a quagmire everywhere but onstage.

My Widdle Dog Wote Himself An Op-Ed Cowwum!!

We took note this summer when the Waco Tribune was sold to someone with no journalistic experience, whose first move was to add "In God We Trust" to the front page.​Now Clifton Robinson is taking Central Texas journalism to a whole other level. His publisher's column was written this week by his d ... More >>

ACL Aftermath, Part 1: Spearhead's "Electric Mudslide" and the Whole "Dillo Dirt" Situation

Mark C. Austin​ Night fell on the Austin City Limits Music Festival at Zilker Park this past Sunday under a full moon and over a sea of mud. (It wasn't strictly mud, but more on that in a bit.) Many in the crowd, especially those in the proximity of the Dell stage, responded the only logical way p ... More >>

Free Tickets for Charlie Robison at House of Blues... Almost

Charlie Robison has been around. He was born right here in Houston, but grew up alongside equally (if much differently) gifted songwriting brother Bruce in the South Central Texas ranching town of Bandera. In the '80s and '90s, he spent time in two of Austin's best-known and longest-running cou ... More >>

Tonight: ...And You Will Know Us by the Trail of Dead at Walter's on Washington

...And You Will Know Us by the Trail of Dead is a new band. Sort of. The Austin prog-punks apprenticed on legendarily freaky Central Texas label Trance Syndicate (Pain Teens, Ed Hall, Crust) after founders Conrad Keely and Jason Reece to the Texas capital from Olympia, Wash., in 1994, ... More >>

The Best of ACL Fest

Ted Nugent Reloads, and Lots of Gun Songs

Smoke, Mirrors and Rainbows

Overcoming chronic Radiohead fatigue

Balkan Grill & Market

Try the hearty soups and stews at this fancy new Bosnian restaurant, or just hang out and drink Turkish-style coffee

Weary Boys

Barbecue Identity Theft

If it ain’t from Luling, why do they call it Luling City Market?

Shooting Bambi's Mom

A gourmet environmentalist shares his favorite venison recipes

Rites of Spring

Some early leaders in the ongoing Sweeps Games

The Family Formula

It's just another Tuesday night at Lopez Mexican Restaurant

When Jeffrey Met Thelma

A Vogue foodie takes on an East Texas mess o' meat

Grupo Fantasma

Thursday, December 27

A Holiday Wish

All he wants for Christmas is to pump iron

The Curbside Critique

(Houston Sculpture 2000)

Striking Out

Reid Ryan embarked on a new career as a team owner facing one big obstacle: voter approval of a new stadium. Then he called in a campaigner with the perfect pitch: a father named Nolan.

A Practical Angel

Dish

Roll Out the Barrel

Hackemack's is a barrel of fun