Monica Pope

Where To Eat: Mother's Day 2013

One of the best ways to show your mother how much you love her on Mother's Day is to take her out to eat and treat her like the Queen she is. All throughout Houston, you will find an ample amount of opportunities to treat your mother to brunch, lunch and dinner. Here's where you can make Sunday, May ... More >>

Hot to Trot

Houston's 10 best spots for a first date.

The Eating...Our Words 100: Randy Evans, Chef at Haven and Farm-to-Table Godfather

Randy Evans has an exuberant personality that comes through in his cooking at Haven: passionate about local products and seasonal produce, expressive of its Texas roots. There's no mistaking where you are when you're eating at Haven: It's Houston all the way. Evans's cooking at Haven is also highly ... More >>

Here, Eat This

A beginner's guide to Indian cuisine.

Where the Chefs Eat: Greg Lowry, Matthew Lovelace, Dax McAnear

Inside the gorgeous dining room at Triniti, which is currently a James Beard Foundation finalist in the Outstanding Restaurant Design category, you can alway spy the chefs hard at work in the open kitchen creating food that is both delicious and beautifully plated. But it makes you wonder: If these ... More >>

The Transforming Power of Houston-Grown Citrus

The first thing I noticed upon returning to Houston after 14 years away? Flipping citrus is everywhere. In December when I arrived, a laden grapefruit tree was around every corner, satsumas fell and gathered beneath their bushes, bright lemons winked from boughs, and kumquats -- those pellets of p ... More >>

Where the Chefs Eat: Ryan Lachaine, Lyle Bent and Victoria Dearmond

With the proliferation of open kitchens in Houston, it's hard to ignore the chefs who are actually making the food. Nowhere is that more true than at Underbelly, where food enthusiasts can literally spend the evening watching all the action going on in the kitchen. At one point during the night, you ... More >>

Chef Randy Evans Hosting the Iron Fork Competition at 2013 Menu of Menus®

In 2012, Menu of Menus® celebrated its 10th anniversary with a move into a stunning new space -- Silver Street Station -- with plenty of room for the thousands of guests that showed up and with the inaugural Iron Fork competition. Last year saw master chef Monica Pope hosting the knock-out Iron Che ... More >>

New Year's Eve 2012 Guide

Got a Light?

Perhaps a little more reinvention is needed for Monica Pope's Sparrow Bar + Kitchen.

Dining Out on Turkey Day: Where to Eat This Thanksgiving

Let's face it, sometimes a "home-cooked" meal in a restaurant is better than anything we can whip up at home. Thanksgiving dinner is one of the most difficult, time-consuming and stressful meals to make if you don't normally cook meals at home. But, there's one thing to be thankful for this year, ... More >>

The Eating...Our Words 100: Sam Ray of Republic National

Eating...Our Words has embarked on a project to profile 100 Houston culinarians of all fields, practices, careers and backgrounds. This isn't a Best of Houston list, it's not a 100 Favorites list and it's not in any particular order. Instead, the Eating...Our Words 100 is a way to introduce our read ... More >>

Where the Chefs Eat: Seth Siegel-Gardner, Terrence Gallivan, Justin Yu

First, there was Just August Project. And then came Pilot Light Group. And then came Oxheart Restaurant. And soon we will have the The Pass and Provisions. For this week's Where the Chefs Eat installment, we found out where Seth Siegel-Gardner, Terrence Gallivan, and Justin Yu like to eat around ... More >>

Nevermind Chick-Fil-A: Check Out the Chick-On-Chick Action at Beaver's

National Same-Sex Kiss Day may be taking place today in Chick-Fil-A's across the country as gay rights supporters challenge Chick-Fil-A COO Dan Cathy's stance against gay marriage (to be clear, Cathy's views don't necessarily reflect the opinions of individual Chick-Fil-A restaurants, which are owne ... More >>

Monica Pope on the Transformation of t'afia, Hope for Houston and Being Pretty Darn Cool

The current photo on t'afia's Web site, which is being updated every day with new imagery which relates to Pope's plans. You've heard of burning your boats. But what about burning your apron? It's this striking visual that is currently greeting visitors to the Web site for t'afia, chef Monica Pope' ... More >>

Flaming Young

Ten food-related words you need to stop misspelling

The Texas Chefs Hall of Fame: 1981 and Now

Assistant music editor Craig Hlavaty recently purchased a 1981 edition of The Genuine Texas Handbook, a guide to all things Texan. It's an often-tongue-in-cheek look at the people, places, outfits, songs, foods and more that made someone Texan 31 years ago. Incidentally, the book and I are the same ... More >>

Carls' Jr. Testing New Ice Cream Burger

5 More Frosty Food Fakers

Lone Star Chefs: It's Not Always about Being Bigger, They're Just Better

Our Texas chefs not only come from Texas but from all over the world and bring their culinary homes with them -- fortunately for us. Lone Star Chefs by John DeMers and Julie Soefer highlights 13 outstanding and diverse Texas masters. This book is part biography, part cookbook and part restaurant gu ... More >>

Chef Chat, Part 2: Amanda McGraw of Brasserie 19 and Ibiza

Yesterday, we chatted with Amanda McGraw of Brasserie 19 and Ibiza about her times staging in Chicago, and what it was like opening a restaurant like Brasserie 19. Today, we continue our conversation. EOW: What is your official title? AM: I am the Chef de Cuisine for Brasserie 19 and Ibiza. E ... More >>

The Top 10 Cookbooks of 2011: Texas Edition

​This is neither a list of the all-time best cookbooks of the year, nor is it a list of the best Texan cookbooks of the year. It's a combination of both. Because odds are that if you're giving a cookbook as a gift this year, it's either going to be to a fellow Texan or because you're a Texan l ... More >>

Chef Chat, Part 2: Kiran Verma of Kiran's

Photo by Matthew DresdenKiran Verma in front of her restaurant.​In part one of our Chef Chat with chef/owner Kiran Verma of Kiran's, we discussed how she came to create Houston's first restaurant combining fine dining and Indian cuisine. Today, we talk about sourcing ingredients, making baby f ... More >>

Meet Houston's Most Underrated Chefs

Photo by Matthew DresdenWhich "underrated" chef made this beautiful tai ceviche?​Two weeks ago, Mai Pham's excellent post about the modern Franco-Japanese cuisine Chef Jason Hauck is cooking up at Soma Sushi shed some light on the fact that Soma serves much more than just sushi, despite its na ... More >>

The Houston Culinary Awards Get a Facelift

Photo courtesy of My TableThe steel awards themselves (no more glass!) weren't the only new things this year.​"You can't help but feel great when you're honored and respected by your peers and Houston diners," said Sean Beck today, after bringing home a stunning two awards at the annual My Tab ... More >>

The Garden at Laurenzo's

​Jeff Hilson is passionate about the soil, the water and even the air that food is grown in. And he's begun constructing a garden in the back of the Laurenzo's. Guests will eventually be able to eat vegetables from the garden at tables sitting right in the middle of it. This is just the begin ... More >>

Houston's Hottest Chefs: Lisa Carnley

Tam Vo​This past week, we've highlighted Houston's hottest female chefs, profiling Monica Pope, Jody Stevens, Meagan Silk and Jamie Zelko. But the moment of truth has come. The people of Houston have spoken. Lisa Carnley of Calliope's Po-Boys is Houston's hottest lady chef of all. When we as ... More >>

Houston's Hottest Chefs: Monica Pope

Tam Vo​Every day this week we'll be highlighting the female winners from our poll on Houston's Hottest Chefs. On Friday we'll reveal the hottest chef of all. EOW: How does it feel to one of the hottest chefs in Houston? Monica Pope: *humbly chuckles* It's nice to be one of the hottest chefs ... More >>

Local Spotlight: Maison Burdisso

Jackie Burdisso​WHAT: The best French macarons in town -- and proof that good taste is hereditary. In Houston, the word "macaroon" typically inspires visions of lightly sweet, chewy mounds of shredded coconut tenaciously held together by egg whites. But a "macaron" -- minus one O -- is a deli ... More >>

True to the 'Trose

Colorful eatery Canopy is becoming a neighborhood fixture.

It's Five O'clock Somewhere

We scout out happy hour in Houston.

This Week In Deliciousness

MEATSPLOSION!​ Welcome back to the weekly roundup here at Eating Our Words, where we've finally secured the patent on sourdough incense. This week started off with a bang, when Greenway Barista slammed the Luling City Market on Richmond, which is actually unaffiliated with the actual market in ... More >>

Follow Friday for Houston Food Hounds

Photo courtesy of @bakerella In the world of Twitter -- the love-it-or-hate-it microblogging service -- Fridays are known as "Follow Friday," a day devoted to suggesting new or interesting users for your friends to follow. Depending on who you follow, your Twitter stream will be inundated on Friday ... 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 >>

Veggie Heaven

Farmers' markets take over Houston.

Culinary Schadenfreude Comes to Houston

A victim of misfortune scha·den·freu·de [shahd-n-froi-duh]-nounsatisfaction or pleasure derived from the misfortune of others I'm going to get to the point of this post right now: My life as a food lover is better because the economy is in a recession. There I said it. And before you label me ... More >>

A Foray into Locally Grown, Grass-Fed Beef

The freight train that is the slow / local / sustainable / organic / community-supported food revolution continues to barrel ahead into the consciousness of Houston food lovers.A recent visit to several of Houston's farmer's markets found them bustling with vendors and customers alike with an outst ... More >>

Busy Beaver's

Ten Jinxed Houston Restaurant Locations

Keep Houston Weird: Dry Creek Café

It's a great place to hang out

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

This Week's Day-by-Day Picks

There's No Place Like Home

Especially when you're eating at Montrose Diner, where the food's subpar and the wait's long

Cooked Book

The real chefs' surprise is who made it -- or didn't -- into Culinary Capital

The 19th Oasis

In the restaurant-challenged Heights, Shade shimmers like an oasis

Private Playgrounds?

Plus: Taking a Bow, War Fever, Race and the GOP

Mixing It Up

Saba chef Dylan Murray returns home to add even more spice to Houston's restaurant scene

Dish

Monica Pope's hopes for her baby Bistro

Dish

Hogg Heaven?

Not quite. But downtown's new Palace Cafe does show promise.

Restaurant War, Part 2

Monica Pope makes like a revenuer