New Zealand

Meditations on Home Cheese-Making

My husband has never been one to shy away from making foodstuffs at home that can be easily (and cheaply) purchased elsewhere. In addition to regularly brewing beer, he has also tried his hand at making yogurt, bagels and kimchi. I admire his culinary ambition and certainly relish the fruits of hi ... More >>

First Look at Nobi Public House: Craft Beer and Vietnamese Fusion in Clear Lake

Tookie's and Stomp's aren't the only Clear Lake-area spots I visited recently. I finally made it out to Nobi Public House last weekend, after near-comically exaggerated exhortations of "How have you not been yet?!" from my beer-loving friends. How indeed? Nobi is smashing. If it were closer to my h ... More >>

Tamaryn

Cat Piss, Horse Sweat, Wet Dog, Barnyard (Unusual Wine Descriptors)

One of the pet peeves at our house is gooseberries. No, not the berries themselves. But the people who use the descriptor gooseberry when writing a tasting note. As one wine blogger put it, "New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc's classic description is smelling like cats' pee on a gooseberry bush. If you g ... More >>

Wine Classes in Houston This Fall, Foreign and Domestic

If there were two lessons to be drawn from the current wave of wine connoisseurship in our country, they would be the following: 1. Wine is the new golf. 2. Every wine tasting is a singles event in disguise. There are a couple of cool wine-tasting series coming up in Houston, one foreign, the othe ... More >>

WWF's Top 7 Classic "Foreign Heel" Theme Songs

The WWF may have been the most patriotic American institution during the '80s and '90s; it turned Hulk Hogan into one of the biggest symbols of patriotism in recent memory. But there's a fine line between patriotism and nationalism, which the WWF straddled for years. By using jingoist superstars ... More >>

USA-Italy Rugby: Yes, This Is A Kind Of a Big Deal

During the 2011 Rugby World Cup, the United States Eagles had a decent shot to make it to the first quarterfinals in club history. And the Eagles played well for a half against the Italians before poor tackling did them in during a 27-10 loss. On Saturday, June 23, the two will meet for the first t ... More >>

Taste Perversion: Artichokes and Wine

"Taste perversion" is what the scientists call it. The expression refers to the way that foods (or drugs) can affect taste after they have been consumed. In the wine world, artichokes are considered one of the greatest offenders. The issue is caused by a component called cynarin (after the Latin ... More >>

El Salvador vs. New Zealand: BBVA's First International Match Ends In A 2-2 draw

So what do you get when you cross FIFA's 49th-ranked team against its 130th? You get BBVA Compass Stadium's first international soccer match featuring El Salvador and New Zealand. And it didn't disappoint. The 2-2 draw had more goals than either of the Dynamo's first two games at BBVA. A relativel ... More >>

Friday Night: Mt. Eden At Rich's

Mt. Eden Rich's April 20, 2012 Friday, Mt. Eden, a music duo from New Zealand that is not Flight of the Concords, played a show at Rich's. And they were very good. At least, I suspect that they were, and that's the probably closest anyone can get to conclusively arguing an opinion one way or the ot ... More >>

The Naked and Famous

Odd Pair: What Wine Do You Pair With Salad?

Anyone who's ever traveled to Italy or France knows that the romance Europeans eat their salad after the main course. In the French and Italian view, fresh lettuces, bitter chicory (like radicchio veronese), delicate white endive, and vinegar-based dressings are intended to cleanse the palate afte ... More >>

The Tyranny of Choice: Top 5 Single-Dish Restaurants I Want to See in 2012

I was happy to read Katharine's Shilcutt's piece on the single-dish restaurant trend for several reasons. First, I generally love the idea of specialty shops and sometimes long for the days when grocery shopping meant going to the butcher, then the cheese-monger, then the bakery, etc., etc., rather ... More >>

He's Alive! Top 9 Musician Death Hoaxes of 2011

It seems like 2011 was the year of the celebrity death hoax which involved many musicians. We use that term loosely for the sake of this blog. Death is never a joking matter but you can't help but chuckle at the thousands of folk who got punked over fake death reports. Let's run through the most m ... More >>

Ben & Jerry Whip Out Their Schweddy Balls: Five Other Pervy Food Names

sheknows.com​Neat. Good times. Ben & Jerry have exposed their newest, limited-batch flavor "Schweddy Balls" based on the mock-NPR SNL sketch starring Alec Baldwin because "It's never too early to start celebrating the holiday season." (Wasn't it just Labor Day?) According to the company sit ... More >>

Wine of the Week: Cat Piss in Your Wine? No, That's Jalapeño

​Of all the "aromatic" white grapes in the world, there is probably none more distinctive than Sauvignon Blanc. In France, it can be steely and intensely fragrant, as in Sancerre where it often takes on a cat piss (more properly called "tom cat") note on the nose. In Bordeaux, Sauvignon Blan ... More >>

Apollo 13: The Theater Show

This is a trailer for Apollo 13: Mission Control, posted on NASA's Buzzroom blog today. The show is not a NASA production, it's an interactive theater piece that, as far as we can tell, is done in New Zealand and Australia. The show's website says: To transport you to Houston, Texas, the theatre ... More >>

Wine of the Week: Chasing Venus 2010 Malborough Appellation Sauvignon Blanc

​With the recent burst of spring-like weather earlier this week, it just felt wrong to open up another heavy red, so instead, I picked a tingly New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc from a selection of samples I've received lately. It was a nice change up from all the red wine I've been drinking latel ... More >>

Robb Walsh's 100 Favorite Houston Dishes #30 Elysian Fields Lamb and Mushy Peas at Tony's

​Over the course of the next few months, I'm counting down 100 of my favorite Houston dishes. I chose some because they are such quintessential Houston creations, others for their cultural or historical significance, and others because they are just so damn tasty. Share your own nominations in ... More >>

Mother’s Day Brunch at Tokyo One

Taste the goodness of Japan at this celebration for mom

Odd Pair: Venison Jerky and Pinot Noir

​We love deer hunting season - venison sausage, venison chili and venison jerky. Everything just tastes better with venison. Yes, we know there are people out there cursing our name for promoting the hunting of Bambi. But we can't help it. And in honor of our obsession, this week's Odd Pair fe ... More >>

Lohengrin

This is opera worth getting out early for

The Brunettes

Aftermath: Flight of the Conchords at Jones Hall

Photos by Craig HlavatyThe thing about musical comedians is that if the humor is there but the tuneage is not, you can pretty much cash your chips in and give up and steal some of Louis CK's jokes and start selling out basketball arenas. New Zealand's Flight of the Conchords almost has too much musi ... More >>

Flight of the Conchords

Artist of the Week: Caretta Bell

Each Wednesday, Rocks Off arbitrarily appoints one lucky local performer or group "Artist of the Week," bestowing upon them all the fame and grandeur such a lofty title implies. Know a band or artist that isn't awful? Email their particulars to introducingliston@gmail.com. Photos courtesy of ... More >>

Blue Willow Bookshop: Linda Olsson

Web exclusive!

Mail Call: Post-AC/DC Edition

AC/DC may be gone (sniff), although the ringing in several of Rocks Off's friends' ears (and his own) lingers on, but the mail goes on... Waylon Jennings & the .357s (Littlefield/Nashville, R.I.P.), Waylon Forever (by request): "'I'd been playing my dad the music I was inspired by at the tim ... More >>

Paul Winstanley & Nameless Sound

Drenched in Blog: It's Bjorkin' Time!

5 Wines That'll Blow Your Mind

Houston's Weather Has Always Been Mercurial, and Now We've Got Real Mercury to Deal With?

Black Sheep

Ewe better watch out (and other puns)

Trans Am

Sex Change

We Like Patrice Pike

We Like Patrice Pike

South By Fun Land

He's So Klute

Tom Withers drops his drum 'n' bass on Clark's

More than Music

Hollywood goes Texan at the South By Southwest Film Festival and Conference

In Place

Jane and Louise Wilson explore empty spaces in "Erewhon"

Best Expense-Account Restaurant

Image-Free Art

Julian Dashper gives us audio but no visuals in his recordings of the museum exhibit environment

30footFALL

The Doppler Effect (Opposite Day)

A Matter of Grape Concern

Ibiza makes for a pleasant escape

It's All in the Game

Speaking off the toque: Francis Walters

Maori Madness

A Houston sculptor replicates preserved tribal heads and offends New Zealand

Groove United

Hip-Hop Down Under

Battle Scars

Friends and Fantasy

Adolescent girls, murder, a kingdom of dreams: these are the ties that bind