South Houston

Drenched in Blog: Listing 2007

Slideshow: High School Photo Contest

Drunk Drivers: Here's The Person Who's Giving You Hope

Santa Round-Up Part Four: Finding The Real Thing In A Dying Mall

This and every Christmas season the most important person is the baby Jesus, with a bearded, white-haired toy factory owner coming in a close second. Every year we flock to the malls to sit in our kids down on Santa's lap. Sometimes they run off screaming, while others take to the old guy just like ... More >>

Impeaching South Houston

South Houston Mayor Dennis Cordray has been run out of office... and his town isn't doing so hot either.

A Sense of Placement

Remember your mother telling you there's a place for everything, and everything should be in its place? Well, Houston feng shui master Zeng Geng Zeng says she was right.

East End Transit

Why have bus lines to Mexico bloomed all across the East End? Maybe because it's a family affair.

Under Siege

City Council took away South Houston Mayor Cipriano Romano's keys. They took away his secretary. They told the 27-year-old he can't use the fax or copy machine after hours. Now they're ready to impeach him.

Letters

City Council took away South Houston Mayor Cipriano Romano's keys. They took away his secretary. They told the 27-year-old he can't use the fax or copy machine after hours. Now they're ready to impeach him.

Letters

City Council took away South Houston Mayor Cipriano Romano's keys. They took away his secretary. They told the 27-year-old he can't use the fax or copy machine after hours. Now they're ready to impeach him.

Letters

City Council took away South Houston Mayor Cipriano Romano's keys. They took away his secretary. They told the 27-year-old he can't use the fax or copy machine after hours. Now they're ready to impeach him.

Letters

City Council took away South Houston Mayor Cipriano Romano's keys. They took away his secretary. They told the 27-year-old he can't use the fax or copy machine after hours. Now they're ready to impeach him.

Letters

City Council took away South Houston Mayor Cipriano Romano's keys. They took away his secretary. They told the 27-year-old he can't use the fax or copy machine after hours. Now they're ready to impeach him.

Up To Date on '98

City Council took away South Houston Mayor Cipriano Romano's keys. They took away his secretary. They told the 27-year-old he can't use the fax or copy machine after hours. Now they're ready to impeach him.

Illegal Immigrants in the Restaurant Industry

Mexican immigrant Hugo Ortega went from washing dishes to owning Houston's best Mexican restaurant — now he has a few things to say about immigration

Da Bombing

The postering of West Gray

Tale of Two Cities

Catholic priest John Chinh Tran re-created Vietnam's Thai Xuan Village in Houston with an iron hand. These days his control is slipping away.

Great Moves

Sometimes it's all in being in the right place at the right time

Life on the Sunny Side

A lucky few homeless people experience life ten miles out from the Pierce Elevated

Altar Egos

An Episcopalian gets bounced from her church for pressing the issue of female priests

Dead End

Downtown redevelopment and economic doldrums are taking Houston’s homeless into even harder times

Going off the Rails

A proposed line into the Bayport Industrial District has residents from Clear Lake to the East End vowing to stop the "toxic train" in its tracks

Paper Chase

Jason Flores just wants his freedom. The only problems: Cops and that other Jason Flores.

Clinic at Death's Door

With a local Democratic Party official at the helm, an AIDS agency nears collapse

New Wave Good-bye

Houston's The Shivers ready for Austin

The Private Life and Public Death of Frank Koury

Frank Koury wanted to keep his gay life at home and his legal life at Fulbright & Jaworski separated. But when he died, everything was revealed.

Here's The Latest On School Closings Due To The "Don't Call It Swine" Flu

Hamilton Middle School, which was closed Thursday and Friday over swine flu concerns, has reopened, HISD and city officials said.Hamilton had been closed because an individual "had exposure to a known case" of the flu, Health and Human Services spokeswoman Kathy Barton tells Hair Balls. "And subsequ ... More >>

Houston Breakfasts vs. Austin Breakfasts

Photo by Robb Walsh​This plate of huevos rancheros with bacon and homemade flour tortillas set me back $2.29 at Taqueria Jesus Maria in South Houston. You can breakfast equally well at dozens of other taquerias all over town -- Kiko's on Fulton and Pancho Villa's on Wilcrest both charge $2.99. ... More >>

Cherry Top Bakery's All-Day Burrito

Photos by Robb Walsh​In August of 2004, I asked a truck driver in the parking lot of Laredo Taqueria on Patton if he agreed that the spectacular breakfast tacos we just ate were the best in the city. "Second best," he said, "the best is Cherry Bakery." I had never heard of Cherry Bakery, and I ... More >>

Noodles You Need to Know About

Photos by Robb Walsh​I got a medium pho with steak and brisket at Pho Binh at 10815 Beechnut for lunch the other day. I was coming down with a cold and it worked at least as well as chicken soup. Pho Binh on Beechnut is located in a shopping center. It was the winner of Best Pho in the 2007 Ho ... More >>

Where You @?

​South Houston is home to one of the most culturally diverse neighborhoods in Houston, Sagemont. There is a dense population of Vietnamese in this area, and as a result, a fantastic selection of great Asian food. T@pioca is a little Vietnamese banh mi, yogurt, and bubble tea dive on Fuqua and ... More >>

Pho Binh on Beamer

​In this week's Café review, we visit the funky trailer in South Houston that everybody who loves pho raves about. ​The front room only has three tables, but it's a good place to sit because when no one is looking, you can sneak into the kitchen, which is right behind the cashier, and ... More >>

Sunday Afternoon at Mi Tienda

For more photos, check out our slideshow.​Whoever said you can't spend a pleasant afternoon in South Houston hasn't been to Mi Tienda (or to Pho Binh, but that's a different blog post altogether). The Hispanic-centric concept store from H-E-B opened on Spencer Highway in 2006 and has been pack ... More >>

Food Fight: Battle Éclair

Photos by Ruthie JohnsonThierry André Tellier Café's version on the left, French Riviera Bakery's on the right. ​Someone once said that an éclair is "a cake long in shape, but short in duration," and with him I have to agree. I have always loved this treat, with its pillowy pastry and smoot ... More >>

Anthony Bourdain: "There Has Never Been a Better Time to Eat in America"

Anthony Bourdain is a man who requires little introduction. The author of Kitchen Confidential -- the book published almost exactly 10 years ago, which catapulted him to fame -- and host of popular TV shows like A Cook's Tour and No Reservations, Bourdain is the prototypical bad-boy chef, Marco Pier ... More >>

Live Music in Pearland

Can suburb support a concert venue?

South Houston Eighth Graders Tell Us What Music Is Good

​Teaching is often cast as a thankless, glamour-free job. Nothing could be further from the truth. For the past five years, Rocks Off has taught at a Title 1 (read: poor) school in Hispanic-heavy South Houston. We've been thanked several times for several things. And we've been to several 4- ... More >>

Bistro Banh Mi

Cafe TH harkens back to East End Chinatown with a French vibe.

Play Frisbee, Have a Picnic, Catch Some Catfish

Catching catfish as a kid with our ranch hand, Billy Garrett.​The Texas Parks and Wildlife Department (TPWD) is about to give Houstonians another activity at their local parks: fishing. Now, plenty of folks already fish at parks around Houston. My personal favorite spot is at River Terrace Pa ... More >>

Your Shameful Musical Secrets Collected: #gotcha!

​For the past few days on Twitter, Rocks Off has been imploring our followers, our precious 3,250 friends (and counting), to tell us their shameful musical secrets by using the hashtag #shamefulafternoonsecrets or #shamefulmorningsecrets, the latter which could sound like a sordid booty call h ... More >>

Police Station Parking Lot, 11 a.m.: Man Caught Smoking Weed While Waiting For A Friend

Google mapsA good place to flare up​You're in the tiny parking lot outside the South Houston jail and police station, waiting for a friend who's visiting an inamte. It's 11 a.m., you're halfway through your 40-ounce, so naturally it hits you: Great place to light up a joint!! Amazingly, this ... More >>

Dust in the Wind

If you've even heard of South Houston's Depot Saloon, your nickname is probably "Friend."

C&D & Nostalgia

This South Houston burger joint with a small-town vibe serves tasty, old-school burgers.

The Taste of Nostalgia at C&D Burger Shoppe

Photos by Troy FieldsPrepping for a busy lunch at C&D.​Everything about C&D Burger Shoppe has that pleasant glow of a hazy, nostalgic time somewhere in between the late 1970s and early 1980s. Even the slideshow accompanying this week's cafe review of the little burger joint in South Houston lo ... More >>

Pasadena, Home to Some Sickos, Is Also a Nifty Place to Retire

Retire to this in Pasadena.​The economy blows, especially for old folks, who aren't as able to kick it with an umbrella drink at some beachside hang like in the old days. No worries, according to Tom Corley, author of The Top 100 Cheapest Places to Retire in the U.S. in 2012. Instead of sink ... More >>

Do You Know Who Killed Edlyn Villegas?

Photo by Crime StoppersEdlyn Villegas: Found dead by a bayou.​Police and Crime Stoppers are looking for the people behind the brutal murder of a 36-year-old woman whose nude and badly beaten body was found near a Pasadena bayou New Year's Day. Edlyn Villegas had gotten into a verbal altercati ... More >>

The 7 Deadly Queues: Restaurants Where You'll Always Have to Wait in Line

Photo by Ronald WoanThe longest line of them all...​I greeted last week's news of a second Banana Leaf with a bittersweet kind of joy. It's sad to lose the only good Chinese halal restaurant in Chinatown, but if the trade-off is getting another Banana Leaf location...then I guess it's almost a ... More >>

CFS and a Cigarette

City Cafe, an old-school diner in South Houston, still turns out a stellar breakfast.

Chicken Fried Steak and a Cigarette at City Cafe

Photos by Troy FieldsI love any place that encourages you to openly smoke and curse.​Glenn Livet and I both unwittingly covered two South Houston classics this week: He in a dive bar post about Bonnie's and me in a review of City Cafe. Both establishments are notable for several reasons: they ... More >>

This Week in Deliciousness

Photo by GroovehousePictured: Delicious, resource-wasting crapsack.​Welcome back to the weekly roundup here at Eating Our Words, where we're going to try to organize an anti-SOPA fundraiser. Here's how it would go: the menu consists of SOPA-pillas, delicious Mexican batter envelopes served wit ... More >>