Jenny Wang

Chef Chat, Part 2: Trong Nguyen of Crawfish and Noodles, On the Vietnamese Food In His Menu, The Flavor of His Crawfish

Openings and Closings: The Non-Montrose Edition

We had a few comments last week bemoaning the fact that the week's restaurant news was all out of Montrose. "Montrose - within a 10 minute drive for only 14% of the Greater Houston Metropolitan area, and yet it gets a least a third of the restaurant coverage in the Houston Press," wrote one commente ... More >>

Upcoming Events: Beer, [Crawfish] Boils and Burgers

It's shaping up to be a busy couple of weeks around here as "Spring" "comes" to Houston. God, shoot me now. I can't make it to August like this. Ahem. Tomorrow, get your hands dirty at the 2012 Crawfish Festival in the Heights. Admission is free and Dr. Gleem Car Wash -- you know, the one that hou ... More >>

Upcoming Events: Real Life Is for March

Leap Day William is coming to town next week! Valentino Vin Bar is celebrating the quadrennial Leap Day on February 29 with a $29 all-inclusive lunch. That $29 will get you three courses -- soup, pizza and dessert -- and even includes tax, tip and valet. Just remember to wear yellow and blue. (Not r ... More >>

Calling All Amateur Chefs! Compete in the Houston Beer Experiment on March 4

Photos courtesy Theo PeckNational Food Experiment​Do your friends rave about your cooking? Are you convinced you have an award-winning dish in your arsenal of recipes? Do people--other than your mom--constantly tell you to become a professional chef? Here is your chance to prove you've got wha ... More >>

Openings & Closings: January 2012

After 45 years in business along Washington Avenue, Guadalajara Bakery is closing its doors on February 29. Unlike previous closing scares for the longtime breakfast taco purveyor, this one is concrete: New owners purchased the building and gave the family 30 days notice to vacate. A bar is planned ... More >>

Chef Chat, Part 2: Mark Gabriel Medina of Kata Robata

Photo by Mai PhamChef Mark Gabriel Medina in the kitchen at Kata Robata​ Yesterday, Kata Robata's Chef de Cuisine, Mark Gabriel Medina, told us about growing up on fine dining in Southeast Asia, and serving President Bush Senior sushi at Houston Country Clubs. Today, we talk to him about his ... More >>

Texas Stars Shine Bright at Last Night's Rising Star Gala

Photos by GroovehouseChef Maurizio Ferrarese of Quattro plates his lamb ravioli.​"We didn't know what we were going to find in Houston," said Antoinette Bruno last night at the Four Seasons Hotel. Bruno, the CEO and editor-in-chief of Star Chefs admitted to being "really ignorant of the Housto ... More >>

Houston's Top 10 Crawfish Joints

Photo by Tony ChenYou must make the crawfish do a puppet dance for your amusement before eating it. Fact.​Yesterday, we showed you the proper way to eat crawfish. Today, armed with that knowledge, we're going to show you the best places to eat them in Houston. It may not officially be crawfis ... More >>

Spinning Sichuan

Grab your friends and order it up at at this revamped Chinatown favorite.

A Warm Welcome for Flora & Muse

​"I'm surprised at how many people have already been coming on a regular basis," Hayri Gurbuz told me with a huge smile on his face yesterday afternoon. Part owner of Flora & Muse (12860 Queensbury), the newest addition to CityCentre's growing ranks of high-end, high-concept restaurants, the T ... More >>

Meeting Spanish Village For the First Time

A bowl of queso is all you need some days.​I made the acquaintance of Spanish Village (4720 Almeda Rd.) for the first time last night. For a lifelong Houstonian, this might seem odd and perhaps a bit heretical, but the truth is that I'd never before set foot inside the old Tex-Mex joint just s ... More >>

A Comprehensive Guide to Houston's Food Blogs

Cartoon does not reflect reality (most of the time).​In a city as large as Houston and with as many culinary options as we're blessed with, it's no surprise that the food blogging community here is large and diverse. Say what you want about food bloggers: that we're arrogant, obtrusive know-i ... More >>

Upcoming Events

​If you've always wanted to attend a Houston Chowhounds throwdown but haven't been in the past, the upcoming Ceviche Throwdown is a can't-miss occasion and for one spectacular reason: The Chowhounds are trying to rasie $5,000 to help struggling Gulf fishermen in the wake of the Deepwater Horiz ... More >>

Top Five Twitter Food Fights

​As Craig Hlavaty briefly discusses in this week's feature on the Twitterverse, the food community has become one of the largest on Twitter. At first, it may seem unusual for members of a a non-tech-oriented community to have become such early adopters of the technology and to have built such ... More >>

Kaiseki: Technique Meets High Art at Kubo's

Photos by Katharine Shilcutt​"A sushi chef may train for 10 years. There is only one thing he needs to know: fish. But a kaiseki chef trains for at least 20 years," Kubo's newly installed executive chef, Kiyoka Ito, explained in brusque Japanese, as owner Yoichi Ueno (Yogi-san to his friends) ... More >>

Upcoming Events

​Here's your chance to not only taste some of the best bourbon cocktails and bourbon-infused dishes in the city, but to meet -- yes, face-to-face -- the recently departed Robb Walsh. The long-awaited Bourbon Throwdown is this Monday, April 12, at Branchwater Tavern starting at 5 p.m. The fifth ... More >>

Tripping the Light Fantastic at SXSW

Jenny Wang, the "Berry Fairy."​It's been far too long since we had a good, old-fashioned LSD miracle berry trip. The last flavor-tripping party was in September 2009 at then-new nightclub Ei8ht, and although Eating Our Words didn't attend, we heard it was still as big as every other miracle be ... More >>

DIY Soup for Dinner

Get some steaming soup broth and a big plate of meat or seafood and cook up your own dinner at Hot Pot City.

A Texas-Sized Food Fight at the Rodeo's Best Bites Competition

Photos by Katharine ShilcuttMasraff's got into the spirit of the rodeo with Lone Star attire.​With a nearly endless bounty of fine food and wine that stretched over an area larger than a football field, guests at last night's Best Bites Competition at the Houston Livestock Show & Rodeo were ha ... More >>

An Unlikely Winner at the Mushroom Throwdown

Photo by Katharine ShilcuttThrowdown judge Gracie Cavnar prepares to sample an entry.​The big guns were brought out last night for the fourth -- and largest to date -- throwdown organized by Jenny Wang and the Houston Chowhounds: the Mushroom Throwdown at Vic & Anthony's. From the judging pane ... More >>

Tune In and Turn On

​If you missed Robb Walsh's two-part apperance on The Michael Berry Show back in October, you have another chance to catch our newly un-anonymous food critic this weekend as he appears on Southbound Food on 1560 AM. The radio show -- which is anchored by Sports Animal hosts Lance Zierlein, Da ... More >>

Bivalve Throwdown: Oysters With a Side of Intrigue at Stella Sola

Photos by Katharine Shilcutt​In the heat of battle last night, the oysters -- and the chefs -- kept their cool. The fourth such event organized by Jenny Wang and the Houston Chowhounds, the Bivalve Throwdown at Stella Sola on Sunday afternoon saw 11 of the city's best chefs compete to create ... 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. I'm Never Full: Although she uses Twitter as her main communication tool these d ... More >>

Upcoming Events

Jenny Wang and a bag of miracle berries ​The Berry Fairy is back in town! After taking her popular Miracle Berry Parties on the road, Jenny Wang is back in Houston for another series of the popular "flavor tripping" events. The term "flavor tripping" refers to the manner in which your tasteb ... More >>

Comings and Goings

​Because so little went on by way of restaurant openings or closings and so much went on by way of personnel changes at some of Houston's most high-profile restaurants, we're shifting focus this week. First up is the news that Robert Gadsby, the executive chef and co-owner of upscale Heights ... More >>

One Night Only! Pork Belly Madness at Catalan!

Photo by stu spivak​Monday, Monday, Monday! The battle to beat all battles will be held tonight at Catalan featuring contenders from across the city as they compete to claim the prize of Houston's best pork belly. The third in a series of popular "throwdown" events organized by Jenny Wang ... More >>

The Battle Rages On: Fried Chicken Throwdown at Beaver's

Photos by Katharine ShilcuttRonnie Killen's skillet fried chickenSome had come for the spectacle of it all: 17 different fried chicken dishes, 9 enormous casseroles filled with various macaroni and cheeses, salads and side dishes and desserts enough to feed Alexander's own army. Some had come to obs ... More >>