The Television Food Network GP

In Defense of Rachael Ray

​It's funny how culture seems to creep in via osmosis. Take, for example, a dinner I made on the fly the other night. I found myself staring into a near-empty refrigerator at around 7:30 p.m. on a school night, trying to find something to make for dinner. A container of pre-made basil pesto c ... More >>

Reporting from the Southern Foodways Alliance Symposium: Chingo Bling Talks "Taco Circuit"

​A lot of rappers establish street cred by talking about hittin' licks and sellin' rocks. Chingo Bling raps about slangin' tamales and hot sauce -- which is what brought him to the Southern Foodways Alliance annual symposium last weekend. Known as the Masa Messiah, or the Taquero Vaquero, or ... More >>

Cooking Through Alton: Chipotle Smashed Sweet Potatoes

​We're trying recipes by Food Network icon Alton Brown that might work for Thanksgiving. If they're good, you'll have a complete guide for the big meal. If they're clunkers, we'll provide you with alternate recipes that are tried and true. Chipotle Smashed Sweet Potatoes The dish: This recip ... More >>

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. Robb Walsh: Walsh has been documenting a variety of very interesting, very time ... More >>

Cooking Through Alton: Best Ever Green Bean Casserole

​We're trying recipes by Food Network icon Alton Brown that might work for Thanksgiving. If they're good, you'll have a complete guide for the big meal. If they're clunkers, we'll provide you with alternate recipes that are tried and true. Best Ever Green Bean Casserole The dish: Using "Best ... More >>

Top 5 Food Network Chef-Inspired Halloween Costumes

You can be Mario Batali in just a few easy steps.​Halloween is upon us, yet again. And every year, Halloween costumes get either sluttier or blatantly, intentionally lamer. (Witness our sister blog, Art Attack, for more ideas on how to achieve the latter.) So what does a food-loving, non-slut ... More >>

Cooking Through Alton: Creamy Garlic Mashed Potatoes

​We're trying recipes by Food Network icon Alton Brown that might work for Thanksgiving. If they're good, you'll have a complete guide for the big meal. If they're clunkers, we'll provide you with alternate recipes that are tried and true. Creamy Garlic Mashed Potatoes The dish: Mashed potat ... More >>

Upcoming Events

Photo by Reggie BibbsThis winsome wench and many more are waiting to pour you a flagon of mead at Ren Fest.​As mentioned earlier this week, food festival season is upon us in Houston, with some of our favorite festivals kicking off this weekend. The 44th annual Greek Festival started yesterday ... More >>

Bryan Caswell: No Pity

​Last night, half of Houston tuned in to watch Chef Bryan Caswell of REEF and Little Big's represent the Bayou City on the Food Network's newest show: Next Iron Chef. I didn't watch it. I was catcalling people from the back of a banquet room at the Hilton during the otherwise classy My Table ... More >>

The Night I Snuck Around Jones Hall and...Oh, Yeah...Talked to Anthony Bourdain

Chef Kent Rathbun's Amazing Bell Pepper Trick

Pan Roasted Striped Bass with Texas Peach Barbeque Sauce and Blonde Beer Braised Cream Corn​ Eating Our Words had the opportunity to attend Central Market's "From Pint to Plate with Kent Rathbun" class on Monday, just one of many events surrounding Central Market's "Discover Brewtopia" celebra ... More >>

The Night I Snuck Around Jones Hall and...Oh, Yeah...Talked to Anthony Bourdain

Katharine ShilcuttCan you spot our mustachioed interloper? ​Fellow chef Mike Nutt, the Chef de Cuisine at Laurenzo's Grill on Washington, invited me to tag along with him and the other chefs catering the book signing following Anthony Bourdain's sold-out talk at Jones Hall, called Up Close and ... More >>

Openings & Closings

No more ceviche at the Midtown outpost of Lemon Tree.​A reader alerted us via Twitter to the fact that the Lemon Tree (207 West Gray) had closed its doors sometime in the past week. We went by to check it out and it is, indeed, closed. A call to Lemon Tree's original location on Whittington re ... More >>

Food Network's The Great Food Truck Race

​, Food Network, as we all know, has edged away from actual cooking shows and toward entertaining shows having something to do with food--Iron Chef America, Cupcake Wars, Chopped and, now, The Great Food Truck Race. GFTRwhich premiered Sunday night, seems promisingly unique in two ways: It bui ... More >>

Battle Celebrity Chef: Cat Cora v. Rachael Ray

​One is a bona fide chef, while the other is a self-described cook. One has made headlines because of her unique method of getting pregnant; the other appears on the pages of the supermarket rags because she is apparently about to get a divorce once a week. One is friends with that creepy "cha ... More >>

Cacique: Go Autentico!

​Cacique products are a line of deliciously authentic Hispanic foods, including cheeses, creams, and chorizo. After making quality products for over forty years, the brand recently partnered with Food Network celebrity chef Aaron Sanchez. Together they have launched a campaign to encourage peo ... More >>

Creole Creamery

​What's cooler than being cool? Ice cream...in New Orleans. Having appeared on Diners, Drive-ins and Dives and Kid in a Candy Store on the Food Network, media darling Creole Creamery had a lot to live up to. With chef Bryan Gilmore at the helm, Creole Creamery offers flavors ranging from th ... More >>

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. Culture Map: Former Eating Our Words blogger Sarah Rufca dishes up a tasty scoo ... More >>

Recipe Review, Part 1: Giada's Spicy Baked Macaroni

​Ever since Food Network became a cultural phenomenon, home cooks have had more access to celebrity chef recipes. But the recipes don't always translate to home cooks. In fact, if you search for recipes on foodtv.com, you'll notice many have comments regarding the recipes' inaccuracies and dis ... More >>

This Week in Deliciousness

This pig does not need a verbose spider to cover for it. This pig will RUIN YOU.​Welcome back to the weekly roundup here at Eating Our Words, where we could have sworn scrambled caviar was gonna be a great idea. They're just little eggs, right? Just goes to show, you never can tell. We starte ... More >>

Viet Tran, Young & Recessioned: You Can't Be Afraid To Be Goofy

​Today's installment of Young & Recessioned features Viet Tran, a 27-year-old University of Houston grad who has used reality TV, YouTube episodes and street corner stunts to find his dream job. I went into commercial real estate right after I graduated. I did that for about three years. I had ... More >>

Random Ingredient: Heirloom Tomatoes

​What is it? The "heirloom" in heirloom tomatoes refers to the fact that many of the seeds have been passed down through generations of families. Cultivated for any number of characteristics, heirloom tomatoes come in endless shapes, sizes and colors. Another distinct characteristic of these b ... More >>

Fine Living No More: The Cooking Channel To Debut May 31

​If you think that food-oriented television couldn't get any worse or lowbrow than Sandra Lee's infamous Kwanzaa cake or the frosted tips of Guy Fieri traveling the nation in search of burgers, burgers and more mediocre burgers, you're in for a shock: There is much worse programming on the men ... More >>

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. Houston Wok: Yes, there's a recipe for Korean stuffed peppers (which look like ... More >>

The Basics: Cookbooks

​We recently read an article in the Wall Street Journal on Alton Brown's top five favorite cookbooks. You remember Brown. He's the quirky chemistry geek on Good Eats and one of the commentators on Iron Chef. If you're one of the few non-Food Network junkies, you might recognize him from Welch' ... More >>

Bob's Taco Station Gets Its 15 Minutes

​Back in July 2009, we ran down the list of Houston restaurants chosen for the somewhat ignominious honor of appearing on the Food Network's show Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives, starring the most obnoxious head full of peroxide since Pamela Anderson did duty on Baywatch. Some of the entries on th ... More >>

Are You the Worst Cook in America? Prove It

​Above is a photo of a cake that I attempted to bake when I was 14 years old (also known as the age at which I was really old enough to know better). Because I was -- and admittedly still am -- impatient, I couldn't wait for the hot cake to cool before frosting it. The result was a pastry abom ... More >>

The T-Mac Question

Stacy McLady or true superstar?

Upcoming Events

​Tonight at Coffee Groundz, a grand coffee competition will be taking place unlike anything the city has ever seen. Baristas from Houston, from Texas and from several neighboring states will compete in the H-Town Latte Art Throwdown to create the most original and elaborate latte ar ... More >>

Lamb Shank at Niko Niko's

​The Food Network's hugely successful show Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives recently visited Niko Niko's Greek restaurant in Montrose. Amidst owner Dimitri Fetokakis's banter with hyper host Guy Fieri was this little nugget of information: Niko Niko's no longer slow-marinates its legendary lamb sha ... More >>

This Week in Deliciousness

Golden-brown is the proper tone for any loaf of sourdough / Hollywood starlet.​Welcome back to the weekly roundup here at Eating Our Words, where today we're bitterly sniffling at the fact that everyone else from the office is at the Austin City Limits festival. It's cool! There's lots of fun ... More >>

Indian quesadillas at Red Lion Pub

This Week In Deliciousness

Welcome back to Eating Our Words' weekly round-up, where the beer flows like honey, and vice versa (our still is broken, and our bees are drunk). Speaking of honey, Robb Walsh had an interesting look at cucuzza blossom honey, which is the honey from a Sicilian squash used primarily by the Cosa Nostr ... More >>

Diners, Drive-Ins and...Pubs?

Guy Fieri Once again, a national eye has turned to Houston, which the rest of the country tends to dismiss out of hand as not being a food town. Guy Fieri's popular Food Network show -- Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives -- has spent the last few weeks filming at various restaurants around town, lead ... More >>

Texas Traveler: Buffalo Gap

Photo by Robb WalshBuffalo Gap is a hamlet outside of Abilene whose main claim to fame is the Perini Ranch Steakhouse. The current issue of Food Network Magazine claims that the Perini Ranch Steakhouse makes the best burger in Texas. I love the Perini Ranch and count Tom Perini among my friends. But ... More >>

No Reservations, I Could Never Be Your Woman, In the Shadow of the Moon, The Independent

The Official Punk Rock Book of Lists

A new book compiles punk's greatest hits and biggest dicks

Get in the Zone: The Houston Hip-Hop Marketing Zone, That Is

Letters to the Editor

Letters

Best Italian Restaurant

Sex, Food and Rock and Roll

Power-geeks Lisa Loeb and Dweezil Zappa bring to town the things they love best

This Week's Day-by-Day Picks

Mac Attack

A cancer patient sues McDonald's, contending a peppered burrito caused his nosebleed

Southern Specialty

You can take TV chef Tanya Holland out of the South, but you can't take the South out of her

Chow Time

Could the Food Network finally be coming to Time-Warner's analog offerings?

Dish