The Balkans

The Eating...Our Words 100: Brane Poledica, Quattro and Vinoteca General Manager

What does he do? Brane Poledica is the general manager at Quattro and Vinoteca at the Four Seasons Hotel. A native of Bosnia, he moved to Houston in 1996 after fleeing the war in his home country. His duties include everything from increasing revenue, promotions, marketing, booking bands for the re ... More >>

Wild Moccasins Tapped to Open Of Montreal's Spring U.S. Tour

Houston's Wild Moccasins have been hand-picked by Of Montreal to be the main support act on their Athens-based friends' three-week spring U.S. theater tour, New West Records announced Thursday. The two indie-pop bands have developed a similar sound -- drawing on elements of psychedelic '60s pop and ... More >>

Gimme the Loot: NYCDIY

The sweet small pleasures of Gimme the Loot.

Jordan Rethmeier: That's One Helluva Big Catfish, Dude

Catfish for dinner!! For the next month and a half. That's what would have been on the menu at the Jordan Rethmeier home after he reeled in a massive ol' blue catfish at Lake Zebco this weekend, except he released the fish back to the (relative) deep. Lake Zebco, in Athens, is the Texas Parks & Wi ... More >>

Five Art Masterworks That Should Be Metal Album Covers

It's not often that you get the opportunity to combine masterpieces of painting and metal. It's not completely unfounded, considering Guns N' Roses copped from Raphael's School of Athens for the cover of their Use Your Illusion set. But it's rare, like mixing pro wrestling and classical literature. ... More >>

War/Photography

Images of battles won and lost paint us all with the brush of brutality at a searing, resonating MFAH exhibit.

A Quiet Moment With the Very Loud B L A C K I E

See also Craig Hlavaty's review of B L A C K I E's new album GEN. To go with the Houston Press Music Awards issue, this week's feature story is a profile of B L A C K I E (all caps, with spaces), a noise musician that's a little too rap to be classified as a noise musician and way noisy to be class ... More >>

Houston Music Showcase: A Semi-Talk With B L A C K I E

See also Craig Hlavaty's review of B L A C K I E's new album GEN. This week brings us the Houston Press Music Awards and the feature story is a profile of B L A C K I E (all caps, with spaces), a noise musician that's a little too rap to be classified as a noise musician and way noisy to be classi ... More >>

A Marshall Plan for Mexico?

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 >>

Mediterranean Film Festival

Timon of Athens

Project Runway All-Stars: The United Nations Challenge

This week on PRAS: Kara's departure has the designers chattering about who does and does not "deserve" to be an All-Star, and the design gang visits the United Nations where they are assigned a challenge based on and inspired by international flags. Anyone else want to see the challenge where the de ... More >>

Odd Pair: What Wine Do You Serve with Your Baked Potato?

Baked potatoes at our house are much more than a meal. They are a religion. We don't just do sour cream. We do sour cream-infused with freshly ground horseradish, a kiss of white wine, and kosher salt. We don't do "bacon bits." We do crumbled, crispy, center-cut bacon that's been fried the day bef ... More >>

All Shook Up

The Alabama Shakes ride their momentum right into Houston.

Imprinting the Divine: Byzantine and Russian Icons from The Menil Collection

Odd Pair: Wine and Soup

Photos by Jeremy Parzen.​Whether we're making Tuscan ribollita, Mexican tortilla soup, or French soupe à l'oignon, wine is always a key ingredient at our house (where there's always a spare cup of wine in the kitchen). And while the sugar is the main component of the wine that adds flavor to ... More >>

Tasting Notes: This Week in Wine Blogs

​Vintage Texas: Ask any wine lover or wine professional and they'll tell you the very same thing: The greatest thing about wine is how it brings folks together. And that's exactly what happened when former All-American football player and NFL veteran Alphonse Daotson called up Russ Kane, the ... More >>

Odd Pair: Spaghetti and Meatballs and a High-Plains Greek Rosé

​Who can resist classic, homemade spaghetti and meatballs? Even the most snooty Italophiles among us, those who turn their noses up at blasphemous Italian-American cuisine citing the god of Authenticity, are easily corrupted when it comes to this dish, which evokes a cinematically rich swath o ... More >>

Debt Ceiling: The 10 Worst Tweets From the Texas GOP Congressional Delegation

Tweets don't fail me now​As the GOP debates whether it wants the Tea Party to drive it (and the country) off a cliff by playing games with the debt ceiling, we looked to Twitter for the updates from our state's congresssional delegation. Oddly, the Republicans didn't tweet anything like "Yes, ... More >>

Ponderosa Gives House Of Blues A Mouthful

Photos by Jason Wolter​Rocks Off is usually ambivalent, at best, about restaurant shows. One of the few times we're not interested in live music at all is when we're eating, and we imagine we're hardly the only person who feels that way. Strolling violinists and mariachi groups especially get ... More >>

For Flag Day: The 10 Worst National Flags

We don't just hate certain American state flags here; we also hate the following ten foreign abominations of design, symmetry and good taste. It is less our opinion than it is scientific fact that these are, without a doubt, the ten worst national flags in the world. 10.St. Lucia Does this flag re ... More >>

Aluminum Show

Lost at the Chateau Marmont

From party girl to Oscar winner, Sofia Coppola's journey to Somewhere.

Royal Wedding: The Five Hottest Royal Brides In History

Hair Balls was positively ecstatic to learn that Prince William is getting hitched to longtime girlfriend Kate Middleton. Although the wedding isn't planned until 2011, we're already worrying over what to wear, and what to get the happy couple (we're pretty sure they'll register at Target). But in t ... More >>

Mia Kat Is Building A Scene, Not An Empire

​There are magical times and places when in music history, points both chronological and geographical where everything came together to birth first a scene, then a movement. We're talking about times like the early '80s when the Sunset Strip birthed hair metal, or when Seattle and Athens, Ga., ... More >>

This Week in Deliciousness

It would be easier to keep Godzilla out of your neighborhood.​ Welcome back to the weekly roundup here at Eating Our Words, where discussions on where to go for lunch routinely erupt into violence, the way our comments section almost did over our article on food vs. service. Some believe that, ... More >>

Random Ingredient: Octopus

​What is it? With the World Cup finally coming to a close, there's been a lot of chatter about a certain cephalopod named Paul that resides in Germany. With all due respect to the "octopus oracle," we present today's random ingredient. Octopi are actually in the mollusk family. They're eaten ... More >>

World Cup 2010: These Teams Will Make It Out Of The Group Stage. Guaranteed

Now THAT was a USA World Cup squad​The 2010 edition of the FIFA World Cup is finally here. Thirty-two teams made it to the big dance to see just who is the best in the world. Realistically though, only a handful of teams have a shot of winning the cup. It's all going to come down to matchups ... More >>

Apollo Travels the Globe

Go across the pond and back again with the chamber music ensemble

The Girl, the Grouch and the Goat

It's another comedy from the composer of Urinetown

15th Annual Festival of Greece

And you thought there was only one Greek festival in town

Le conseguenze dell’amore

Paolo Sorrentino's Italian comedy examines lives unlived

Sampler Plate: This Week In Food Blogs

Each week, we put together a sampler plate of the most interesting links from both local and national food blogs. Know a blog we should be paying particular attention to? Leave the address in the comments section below. Not Eating Out in New York: While this isn't a local blog, we've quickly fallen ... More >>

3rd Annual Turkic Cultures & Children's Festival

Spend the weekend celebrating Turkish traditions

Spotlight on Contemporary Greek Cinema

Six filmmakers are showcased as the best Greece has to offer

Superthief

Joshua Paul Calhoun likes to take things...BIG things

Traveling with Pomegranates: A Mother-Daughter Story with Sue Monk Kidd and Ann Kidd Taylor

Let the mother-daughter bonding begin

Magical Mystery Tour

Exotic fisherman's plate at Jonathan's The Rub

The Color Purple

Thank You, Oprah!

Mediterranean Tour with Chef Emily Swantner

Try the chef’s “tweaked” recipes

“Hidden Children in Occupied Greece”

Hiding in Plain Sight

Five Wines That'll Blow Your Mind

The Vintage Mirrors the Year

Café Pita +

Bosnian food is a delicious cross between Turkish and Slavic cuisine

Branzini with Bouzouki

Alexander the Great Greek Restaurant brings you the best of old and new Greek cuisine

Special Spears

Post Oak Grill

Niko Niko's

Ancient Cuisine

Embraceable Ewe

Skewers

Olive Pit

Whole Foods Market

Hot Plate