South America

Summer Entertaining: Movie Night & DIY Popcorn Bar

Summer entertaining doesn't have to be limited to the grill. Escape the heat with a movie marathon complete with a DIY Popcorn Bar. All you'll need is freshly popped corn, paper bags or popcorn buckets, and a few fun toppings. Use chalkboards or cardboard to make your own signs, and let guests top ... More >>

Here, Eat This: A Beginner's Guide to Argentine Cuisine

For this week's edition of Here, Eat This, we venture into South America, where hardy Houstonians possessed of a hearty appetite will find much to love in the pampas of Argentina. See also: - Here, Eat This: A Beginner's Guide to Nigerian Cuisine - Here, Eat This: A Beginner's Guide to Korean Cuisi ... More >>

Upcoming Events: Complimentary Cocktails and Empty Bowls

Quattro is continuing its popular pre-concert dinner series with special menus coming up for both the Rihanna performance on April 15 and the Carrie Underwood show on April 23 - both at the Toyota Center, which is only a couple of short blocks away. The award-winning Italian restaurant inside the F ... More >>

Oops: UTMB Misplaces a Vial of Deadly Virus

The University of Texas Medical Branch in Galveston is proud to be the home of many highly infectious, very deadly viruses and other potential weapons of biological mass destruction. And that's just in the break-room fridge!!! (Ha! Kidding.) Part of the job of keeping such things around the premis ... More >>

Brazil

The Global Burger: Argentina

I love a good burger. While I always enjoy the regular patty on a bun with cheese, lettuce, tomato and ketchup (as long as it's cooked at least medium rare), sometimes I like to put a twist or two on tradition. In this series of posts, I'm globalizing the burger by revamping it according to other co ... More >>

This Week in Deliciousness

Welcome back to the weekly roundup, where yours truly is currently racing against an incoming hellstorm-raingasm, and hoping to get this thing completed before the bottom falls out. Will I succeed? The only way to know is to read on. We started the week off right with sushi, sushi, sushi, sushi. Do ... More >>

Houston International Festival

Eat Like an Argentine at These 5 Houston Restaurants

The International Festival (iFest) is upon us once again. And this year, the multi-weekend festival has chosen Argentina as its spotlighted country. That means that much of the music, art and -- most importantly -- food that will be showcased will be Argentinean. And for meat-loving Texans, that's a ... More >>

Simple Sides: Delicious Herbed Quinoa

Up until about a month ago, I had never tried quinoa. I was like, "What the hell is it? How do you pronounce it? Is it a grain? Is it...like...pasta? What do you put on it? Why is there so much in my brother's pantry?" So many questions. The bro had recently come back from a little stint in Peru ... More >>

iFest 2012 Heavy On Latin Rock, Funk, South Americans

The Houston International Festival officially announced its 2012 lineup this morning. The music is heavy on Latin-flavored rock, reggae and funk, with Texas well-represented as always and an exceedingly rare Houston appearance by Seun Kuti, son of Afrobeat giant Fela, and his group Egypt 80. Among ... More >>

Moro No Brasil

Monthly Cebiche Specials at Latin Bites Cafe

Photos by Mai PhamCebiche Serrano: In honor of the highlands of Peru: Fish Cebiche with Huacatay Herb​Latin Bites Cafe is one of my favorite restaurants in the city, but I don't get there as often as I'd like, so last week, when Chef Roberto Castre posted on his Facebook page that he had creat ... More >>

6th Annual Latin Wave: New Films from Latin America

Aluminum Show

Odd Pair: Mangos and 2009 Alamos Torrontés

sahgal_rahul​The arrival of the warmer temperatures of March has put me in a springtime frame of mind. I suppose that's why I went a little overboard stocking up on tropical fruit last time I grocery-shopped. The mangoes proved to be particularly golden and juicy, especially for this time of ... More >>

“Red Bull Illume”

Ingredient of the Week: Quinoa

net_efekt ​What is it? Quinoa is often used in place of a grain, but it is actually a seed. The plant it comes from is called a goosefoot, and it is more closely related to beets and leafy greens than grains like wheat or barley. Quinoa is also unique in the fact that it contains more protei ... 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 >>

Wine of the Week: Intipalka Sauvignon Blanc 2009

​This is the only time I've ever tried a wine from Peru, a country not revered for its winemaking (at least here in America). It's refreshing to taste a little-known wine that is well representative of the Sauvignon Blanc varietal.

Chilean Miners: The Important News You Have Missed, Some Of Which Involves Lindsay Lohan

Also, Texas is suing for trademark infringement​Hey there, Chilean miners -- you are climbing from the depths into the world's heart (copyright pending). As you surface, you are busy signing book and movie deals, getting some off your wife, tasting real food and beer, hoping your colleagues keep u ... More >>

Ingredient of the Week: Mayacopa Beans

​What is it? So we've already covered heirloom tomatoes, right? Well, apparently there are such things as heirloom beans, and the Mayacopa variety is one of them. For one little legume, there are certainly many spellings and names - Mayacoba, Maya Copa, yellow beans, Mayocoba, Mayo Coba, C ... More >>

The Complete Metropolis

What was lost, has been found

Chile Mine Disaster: NASA Helps Out

NASA goes underground​NASA may be out of the moon business and seen a lot of other space-related dreams curtailed, but now it looks like they can direct their energies underground.The government of Chile has asked for NASA's help in dealing with the 33 miners trapped in a tight space a half-mile u ... More >>

Trying the Pitaya

​The dragonfruit, or pitaya, is known for its great health benefits, and it's touted on the side of juice bottles and energy drinks for its vitamin, fiber and mineral-rich context. Bolder distributors even state that the fruit has been used to treat everything from diabetes to asthma. Really.

Chile Pancho Hot Sauces

​On the way back from a recent trip to Mexico, I wandered into the duty-free area. In the sea of merchandise was a small island of nothing but hot sauces, sitting quietly behind a tower of buy one, get one free tequila. Normally, I choose the El Yucateco habanero hot sauces - both the red and ... More >>

Robb Walsh's 100 Favorite Houston Dishes #25 Special Enchiladas-A-La-Taylor at Spanish Village

​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 >>

The Blue Mug

See the show India has been raving about for years

Latin Wave: New Films from Latin America

Filmmakers from south of the border show off their latest works

Coffee Review: Has Bean's Farmer Direct Bolivia Machacamarca

​The UK coffee crowd has been gaining momentum for quite some time now, and we were lucky enough to get to sample this gem from Has Bean, a coffee-roasting and home-brewing supply company out of Stafford, UK.

Trio Elétrico

Black Alfajores at Rustika

​Take two cookies, stick them together with a thick dulce de leche filling, and you have an alfajor,a much beloved sweet in South America and Mexico. I got some black alfajores at Rustika bakery the other day and took them to a friend's house. They were suitably impressed. The caramel filling ... More >>

3rd Annual Houston Tango Festival

It's five days of dancing, dancing, dancing

Smaller Than Life: The Lure and Lore of Amazonian Shrunken Heads

Admit it, you want to look

Samurai Gaúchos

Sushi and churrasco isn't an odd combination at Pradaria.

Noquis of the 29th

photo by Robb Walsh Manena's Pastry Shop on Westheimer at Wilcrest is the subject of this week's Cafe review. Manena's is famous for their empanadas, but it's also a place where folks from South America gather on the 29th of each month (except February) to eat gnocchi, or noquis, as they are known ... More >>

Tropa de Elite/The Elite Squad

See the film Brazilian police officers tried to stop from being screened

CINEMATHEQUE: Latin American “Third Cinema”

Curator Margarita de la Vega-Hurtado pairs two agit-prop classics

Sonidos y Mas: NovaLima

Novalima Coba Coba (Cumbancha) www.novalima.net If you hear similarities between Novalima's modern Afro-Peruvian music and the rhythms brought from Cuba by Celia Cruz and Tito Puente in the '50s, you're on the right track: Peruvians have borrowed a lot from the Africans taken to South America as ... More >>

Kept and Dreamless, The Custodian

Two films look at life in Argentina

Jac Leirner

Gallery Sonja Roesch hosts a mixed-media Brazilian artist

35th Annual Jewish Book & Arts Fair

The Jewish Community Center presents two weeks of authors, filmmakers and artists

“International Discoveries”

FotoFest goes extra global

Gian Marco

Peruvian singer makes Houston stop

“Dimensions of Constructive Art in Brazil: The Adolpho Leirner Collection”

Artists from the land of order and progress trick the eye at MFAH

Ride This Wave

Havana Good Time

Anatomy of a Promotion

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