Chile Peppers

Chef Chat, Part 3: Ruben Ortega of Hugo's and the Traditional Foods of Mexico

This week, we've been chatting with Ruben Ortega of Hugo's and Backstreet Cafe. This is the third and final part of a three-part Chef Chat series. If you missed our previous posts, you can read Part 1 here and Part 2 here. Ruben is the lesser known sibling of Hugo Ortega, and his official title at ... More >>

Getting Your Ital-Mex Fusion Fix at Bellissimo

Bellissimo is the Heights-area trattoria with a tinge of taqueria.

Eating Our Hearts Out

100 Favorite dishes in the Bayou City

Superbowl Recipe: Beer-Braised Pork Tostadas from Chef David Luna at Line & Lariat

The first time I tasted chef David Luna's beer-braised pork tostada at Line & Lariat, I thought it was some of the best bar food I'd found in Houston. The pork had been braised in local brewery Karbach's Rodeo Clown and paired perfectly with the pint of Sympathy for the Lager -- also from Karbach -- ... More >>

Keep Those Resolutions

20 terrific restaurants for eating healthy while staying social.

Texas Tailgating: Atomic Deer Turds

Note: This is a re-run of a post from 2008, in which former Houston Press food critic Robb Walsh shares a favorite tailgating recipe in honor of game day. Tailgaters love to stuff jalapeños with cheese (usually cream cheese) and wrap meat around them. To make "atomic buffalo turds," you stuff a ha ... More >>

Chef Chat, Part 3: Sylvia Casares of Sylvia's Enchilada Kitchen and the Reason People Call Her Houston's Enchilada Queen

Sylvia's Enchilada Kitchen 6401 Woodway Drive Tel: 713-334-7295 www.sylviasenchiladakitchen.com This is Part 3 of a three part Chef Chat series. You can read Part 1 here and Part 2 here. This week, we became acquainted with a woman who plunked down all her life savings into a restaurant at the ... More >>

Keep on Truckin': Breakfast Burritos Anonymous

I have a new-found love for breakfast -- in fact, I've discovered that it's truly the most important meal of the day. On a particularly busy morning I found myself in a hurry, with looming deadlines, and in desperate need of caffeine. I of course made my way to Inversion Coffee. I wasn't planning o ... More >>

Hatch Chile Menu Specials at Chuy's

While many local establishments' Hatch chile celebrations are winding down, Chuy's is just getting started. Their annual Hatch Chile Festival began August 20 and will continue through September 9, which means there's plenty of time to try their limited-time-only Hatch chile menu.

Bring on the Hatch Chiles: Central Market's 17th Annual Festival

The 17th annual Hatch Chile Festival is currently in full swing at Central Market, featuring specials throughout the store, Hatch chili classes at the Central Market Cooking school, Hatch chile prepared goods in the cold prepared-foods section and weekend lunch cookouts with live music and Hatch chi ... More >>

Tandoori Nite

This food truck, located next to a gas station, serves Indian cuisine under the stars.

100 Favorite Dishes 2012: No. 74, Pheasant Dog at Sammy's Wild Game Grill

This year leading up to our annual Best of Houston® issue, we're counting down our 100 favorite dishes in Houston. This list comprises our favorite dishes from the last year, dishes that are essential to Houston's cultural landscape and/or dishes that any visitor (or resident) should try at least o ... More >>

Brew Blog: Twisted Pine Ghost Face Killah

I know, I know. I just went on a rant about gimmicky beers, and here I go drinking a beer that seems like it was designed for YouTube reaction videos. I don't know if this makes it better or worse, but it was actually a case of mistaken identity. When I picked this one up, I wasn't really paying eno ... More >>

Mexican? Honduran? Chinese? Have It All at El Jalapeño

I am not wary of fast-fusion restaurants in general. To wit, there's a terrific Vietnamese-Honduran place in Gulfton called Hoagies & More. The place doesn't serve any hoagies at all, but does make some excellent pupusas and bubble teas. But it can go terribly wrong, as with the Chinese-Italian-Mex ... More >>

Fast Times: Whataburger Chicken Fajita Taco

I am starting to love Whataburger so much, I might even feel a y'all coming on... ... nope. Not yet. Regardless of whether a spontaneous y'all ever falls from my lips (or keyboard), I am certainly a confirmed Whataburger fan. The burgers are juicy, the chicken dishes are quite good, and the white- ... More >>

We Love Food

Our 100 favorite dishes in Houston.

The Astros May Be Changing Their Name? My 5 Suggestions

Yesterday afternoon, Astros owner Jim Crane built up more good will with the Houston community in about eight minutes than the team on the field has in the last six years when he announced that the 2012 season will feature cheaper beer ($5 beers!), cheaper tickets and permission to bring your own f ... More >>

Chiles and Chili: The Most Obvious Episode of Top Chef: Texas Yet

Above is is how I imagine the initial planning meetings for Top Chef: Texas went. I'm also imagining future episodes where the contestants will be forced to shoot their own horses and grill them over a fire of cactus paddles. Let's go, Top Chef: Texas! DO THIS SHIT RIGHT. Until then, we'll have to ... More >>

Hot Diggity

Sammy's Wild Game Grill — the other wild game hot dog place in town — brings on the heat.

Whataburger's Green Chile Double Cheeseburger

John Kiely​Houston has many of the best hamburgers in America, but my favorite fast-food burger comes from Blake's, a New Mexico chain whose Lotaburger with green chile and cheese is iconic. Blake's motto speaks for itself: "If you are what you eat, you are awesome." However, Blake's is a on ... More >>

Keep on Truckin': Good Dog Hot Dog

​ Each week I'll be visiting a different food truck and reviewing one of their items. Know of a particular food truck I should move to the top of my list? Let me know in the comments section. This week, I found myself in the Heights for a Good Dog Hot Dog, where a friend and I ordered and sam ... More >>

Tequila Talk with Stewart Skloss of Pura Vida Tequila - Part 2

The three Pura Vida labels and the limited edition Extra Anejo​Wednesday, we spoke with Stewart Skloss of Pura Vida Tequila and learned a little about how his brand got started and what makes Pura Vida stand out from the big names in tequila. Today, we talk food and "The Gibbons."

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 >>

Southwest on Washington

Anyway you spell TQLA, it's fabulous.

Garden Fresh: Green Hot Chile Peppers

​The hard part of moving to Houston from Albuquerque was getting cut off from an endless supply of Hatch green chiles, the best peppers in America, or so I thought. Like Chuy's, nearly every restaurant in New Mexico has a pepper item, and I once saw a tray of green chile brownies disappear in ... More >>

Five Intriguing Foods I'm Too Scared To Try

Cheesecake milkshake from Katz's. ​I try to be a fearless eater. But though I'm generally not intimidated by strange sauces and mysterious meats, there are some foods and drinks that I want to try (sort of) but won't, for a variety of (wussy) reasons. Here are five: 5. Prune Juice. I really l ... More >>

Shiftwork Bites: Mole

​In honor of the recent celebration of International Hot and Spicy Foods Day, I decided to heat things up for my most recent Shiftwork Bites adventure. I settled on molé. The blessing, and the curse, of molé lies in the fact that there are so damn many versions of it. Molé is one of those ... More >>

Scientists Create Jalapeños Specifically for Jalapeño Poppers

The NuMex Jalmundo: jalapeño peppers without the bite.​Sports bars, bowling alleys and the frozen food section at your local grocery store are ruling our lives more than you already know. How so? Because the increased demand for the cheddar- or cream cheese-stuffed jalapeños that these join ... More >>

Shiftwork Bites: Yankee Chili

​This just might prove to be my last Shiftwork Bites column. Not because I'm going to stop cooking at work, but because I might be forced to stop writing about food in Texas, or living in it, for that matter. You see, I'm kind of a Yankee. Let that one sink in. Okay. Are you guys (note the ab ... More >>

Odd Pair: Frozen Burritos & Chilean Rose

​Frozen burritos - the prefect food to eat when you're too lazy to drive to Taco Bell. Next time you're in that same predicament, make yourself feel better by opening a bottle of Calcu's 2009 Rose from Chile. It retails for about $12 a bottle, which is about 50 times the cost of that beef/ bea ... More >>

Shiftwork Bites: Matzoh Brei

​I'm interested in how similar seemingly disparate food cultures can be. Dishes get repeated over and over throughout history, and across what appear to be canyon-esque cultural divides. Sure, the manifestations differ slightly, but is an empanada really all that far removed from a samosa? Lor ... More >>

All That and a Bag of Chips: Top 5 Jalapeno Chips

​As everyone knows, we're about to enter the season of overindulgence; belts will be loosened, sugar stocks will go up, and gym attendance will go down. I'm personally not stricken with a sweet tooth; my favorite guilty pleasures are of the savory kind. Greasy fries and crispy onion rings rank ... More >>

Fill 'er Up

Chiles rellenos at the Cadillac Bar

The Ultimate Oyster Cracker?

​My brother Dave got me hooked on these hot and spicy saltines. He says they're the perfect oyster crackers. I haven't tried them with oysters yet, but I will soon. The home version of these has been around for a long time. You mix up a package of dry ranch dressing mix, some kind of dried ch ... More >>

Short Order Thai at Thai Lily Café

Thai Hot Hubris

Like your Thai food hot? Be careful what you wish for!

Land of Azúcar

Japaneiro’s Sushi Bistro & Latin Grill in Sugar Land certainly is living up to its name

Totemic Burger

Bask in the glow of this glorious sandwich

Food in the Nude

Artista

Hotter than Halal

Islamic fusion restaurants are all the rage because of their organic meat -- and whole chiles

Anatomy of a Promotion

Chile peppers, propane burners and poor public relations add up to a smoke screen at Chuy's

Lost in the Capsicum Sea

Cafe Red Onion

The French Connection

Part 5 in the six-part history of Tex-Mex

Booze in a Blender

Chuy's mango margaritas

Hot Plate

Hot Plate

Dish

Hot Plate

The Not-So-Grand Canyon

At Post Oak and Westheimer, Mark Miller meets Wally World

Sold American

With his eponymous new cafe, Mark Cox sheds his Tony's past