Pacific Ocean

Locavores, Meet Invasivores: Cooking and Eating Invasive Lionfish at Haven

Invasive species are nothing new. Neither is eating them, as anyone who's eaten Cambodian water spinach -- much of it grown here in Houston -- will tell you. But bringing in water spinach from Cambodia and growing it for profit (despite its status over here as a noxious weed) is entirely different ... More >>

App of the Week: NOAA Hi-Def Radar's Tracks Rain, Hurricanes and More

App: NOAA Hi-Def Radar Platform: iPhone Website: Apple Store Cost: $1.99 Anyone who knows me or reads my posts on this blog (thanks, mom!) knows I am a bit of a weather nerd and by that I mean I am a serious weather nerd. I've ranked and reviewed numerous weather apps and have an entire folder on m ... More >>

Welcome to the Jungle: Houston Returns to Rainforest-Like Weather the Next Two Weeks

Hot, wet and steamy could either be the title of a porn movie, the description of a bunch of fat old guys in the steam room at the Y or the description of our weather this July. It could be all three. But, for the kids, let's stay focused on the weather, shall we? If you liked Sunday's weather with ... More >>

Heat? Check. Rain? Check. Hurricanes? Maybe Not. Summer in Houston, 2012

If you don't like Houston, probably at the top of your list of reasons why is the summer. For those not accustomed to the -- let's call it "sticky" -- weather the Bayou City offers from July through September each year, it can be a brutal three or four months. Of course, for people like me who have ... More >>

Today's Cover Story on the Texas Wine Industry

See our slideshow of Texas wines and wineries. The cover story for this week's issue of the paper, coming out online this afternoon, is an article on the Texas wine industry by my colleague Katharine Shilcutt and me. In the piece, we take a hard look at the challenges that Texas winemakers face. ... More >>

100 Favorite Dishes 2012: No. 79, Aporreado at Los Corrales

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 >>

Hurricane Season 2012: The Predictions -- A Quiet Year in the Tropics?

With so few storms impacting the U.S. last season and with one of the worst droughts in recorded history gripping our region, it would be tempting to think that last year was a down year in hurricane production. In fact, it was quite the opposite. In 2011, the Atlantic produced 19 named storms incl ... More >>

The "Battle of LA," 70 Years Ago Today: 5 Irrefutable Arguments Why It Was Actually a UFO Attack

Seventy years ago today, the Battle of Los Angeles occurred, a vicious fight that resulted in three civilian deaths. Haven't heard of it? We're not surprised. The U.S. government said what happened was nighttime antiaircraft crews protecting Los Angeles got nervous -- it was just two months after ... More >>

Morning Machaca

This tiny East End restaurant — attached to a dried-beef factory — serves tasty, old-school Tex-Mex classics.

Will Houston Get Its First Real Cold Front This Weekend?

Courtesy of Accuweather.comThose 80-degree days are in our not-too-distant future.​Last week, I brought up the fact that our weather should be moderating as the days grow shorter and cool fronts begin pushing southward. Well, looks like we might not have to wait as long for our first blast of ... More >>

Wine of the Week: $15 Is the New $10

​"What's your favorite wine for under $10?" If I had a nickel for every time someone asked me that question, I'd probably have about $15. When it comes to wine pricing, you'll often hear wine trade folks talk about "price points," in other words, a "maximum" price that allows us to categorize ... More >>

The Heat, My God, the Heat: When Will Summer Finally End?

Raining down fire and brimstone instead of water.​Elaine Benes used to date David Puddy on the show Seinfeld. He claimed to be a Christian -- sporting a fish symbol on his car, tuning his radio to Christian stations and the like -- but encouraged his girlfriend to do sinful things on his behal ... More >>

Bold Prediction: Nate Won't Hit Houston and Neither Will Any Other Hurricanes This Season

One of the reliable forecast models showing Nate hitting Mexico, leaving us high and dry.​I'm not much of a betting man, but if I were, I would take odds that the Texas coast, and Houston specifically, will see no hurricane landfalls in 2011. We have a pretty substantial tropical storm in Nate ... More >>

Last Night: Arctic Monkeys At House Of Blues

Photos by Marc Brubaker​Arctic Monkeys, Young Buffalo House of Blues August 3, 2011 See the Arctic Monkeys' chav-y chic in our slideshow. Five years since their first stateside splash in February 2006 with their debut Whatever People Say I Am, That's What I'm Not, we've watched the Arctic Mo ... More >>

Space Station To Crash Into Ocean: 5 Other Notable Falls From Orbit

Skylab: Roomy but fallible​News came out yesterday that Russia and her space-station partners plan to crash the thing into the ocean when its life span ends in 2020. It's too expensive to dismantle, and would be too huge and dangerous a piece of space junk to leave up there in orbit. Man-mad ... More >>

Hurricane Predictions: Feds Say to Hunker Down

Rita, when it was coming for us.​The time to predict hurricane season has arrived, and -- as with Texans season previews -- what's predicted doesn't always tend to be what happens. So get your grain of salt ready. (On the other hand, severe weather has been the norm elsewhere in the U.S. rece ... More >>

Tighten Up

Caps Piano Bar has had regulars dancing for 25 years.

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 >>

Shock the Junkie

Is ibogaine really an addict cure-all?

Secret of the Sea: Lolliguncula Brevis

​The sparkling enope squid, which is found in the Western Pacific Ocean, is a seasonal delicacy that is found in sushi bars between the months of March and May. They're also known as "firefly squid" (hotaru ika in Japanese) because each tentacle contains a photophore that flashes a luminescent ... More >>

"Paper Or Plastic": You Won't Be Hearing That In Brownsville Anymore

​Brownsville is never going to be confused with Portland, San Franciscio or some other bucolic tree-hugging liberal city, but it's home to just as many crunchy ecological activists as any yurt-living commune, apparently.Yesterday its version of the city council voted to ban merchants from usin ... More >>

Mojarra Frita at Cocina de Colima

J. C. Reid ​Colima is a small state in western Mexico, bordering on the Pacific Ocean. You don't hear a lot about cuisine from Colima, but apparently it's well-known in Mexico and best known for its seafood, mainly grilled and fried fish, and its ceviche. In a testament to the diversity of reg ... More >>

Car Trouble

Readers respond to "Wild Ride"

Wild Rides

Between serious safety and environmental concerns, the Toyota Prius isn't the angel that everyone thinks it is.

The USS Houston -- A Sub That Lives Up To Our Name

Dark Water

A reporter, a photographer and canoeist Tom Helm paddle from the Galleria to Galveston Bay by canoe and kayak, finding beauty, danger and urban debris in equal measure

Pig in the City

A foodie saint is tainted by fast food's evil empire

Movin' On Up

Incubus graduates from the garage to the seaside mansion

Dick Dale

Tarantino's Ennio Morricone

Transferring assets

Two teens are shuttled back and forth across the country as their mother and father (belatedly) fight over who gets to keep them

The Road Less Traveled

Mother and daughter explore new emotional terrain in the familiar highway saga Tumbleweeds

Clever Criminals

The Borrowers take from anyone they can in order to find themselves