Velveeta Cheese

Health Department Roundup: Coreanos, Pondicheri, Ruggles Green and More

By today's standards, Pete Wells's November review of Guy Fieri's American Kitchen & Bar is ancient, up there with Hadrian's Wall and some other things you forgot after college. But there's apparently still mileage there, as evidenced by the parody menu a New York programmer created (with some help ... More >>

Top 10 Kitschy Pop-Related Gift Items to Give This Year

Thanksgiving is in ten days, and then we'll all be fully immersed in the holiday season. While shopping recently, I noticed that Taylor Swift now has her own greeting-card line featuring her photography and sweet words. If you were to receive one such card from a loved one, would you swell with fuz ... More >>

The Rest of the Best

Houston's top 10 sushi restaurants.

What's the Best Bread/Cheese Combination for a Grilled Cheese Sandwich?

If 4chan is the Wild West of the Internet, Reddit is the PG-13 version: a cleaned-up mining town grown rich on silver that mostly keeps the riff-raff out, Tombstone-style (or at least confined to subreddits such as r/gonewild and r/spacedicks). It's where the local residents gather to discuss import ... More >>

The Golden Noodle: A Mac N' Cheese Smackdown

I should have worn my stretchy pants. I should have known better. Yet, there I found myself, trying macaroni and cheese after macaroni and cheese with no end in sight, trying harder and harder after every bite to keep a poised, lady-like posture while simultaneously using every inkling of strength t ... More >>

Burger Guys Bad-Ass Brunch Is Back

5 things to know before you go

Rocks Off's Ultra-Hip Rodeo Concert Guide: Lady Antebellum

Date: March 1 Name: Lady Antebellum AKA: "Starland Country Band" Genre: Elevator twang

Tunnel Explorer: Pastabilities

I used to work with a guy who looked a bit like Franklin the Turtle. He was slightly narcoleptic. You always knew when "Franklin" was going to drift off, because he would bring his right hand up to his left shoulder and start massaging his collarbone. Within minutes, he'd be out. Franklin was a good ... More >>

Odd Pair: Pappasito's Queso and 96 Sassicaia (Yes, It's True)

​One of my new-found Texas cousins' traditions is weeknight family dinner with Pappasito's take-out. And so, the other evening, when I just happened to have a rather remarkable bottle in my wine bag (reserved for my beloved Cousin Marty, the clan's patriarch, who recently and thankfully emerge ... More >>

Odd Pair: Chicken Spaghetti and Zinfandel

​There is pleasure in life... and then there is guilty pleasure. You know the kind. The type of indulgence that you are embarrassed to admit to your friends and colleagues... certain forms of gratification best enjoyed -- ahem, how shall I put this? -- whilst alone. For me one such delight ... More >>

This Week in Deliciousness

That's the tidiest enchilada combo I've ever seen! When did the military start serving Tex-Mex?​Welcome back to the weekly roundup here at Eating Our Words, where our Tears For Fears-themed food truck Sowing the Seeds of Lunch isn't taking off nearly as well as we'd hoped. If we can't think up ... More >>

Class Up Your Super Bowl Party

Photo by Urban MixerMini lamb burgers are even better with curried green apples on top.​Now that the threat of Snowpocalypse 2011 has finally passed, grocery stores should be free[er] once again and you can start making your final preparations if you're hosting a Super Bowl party. However, if ... More >>

The Best Restaurants to Eat Chicken Fried Steak for Breakfast

Photo by J.C. ReidThe enormous CFS at Triple A.​Although I certainly enjoy a good piece of chicken fried steak for dinner -- preferably served with homemade macaroni and cheese and fried okra -- there's something to be said for beginning your day with a plate full of it whether you're bleary-e ... More >>

When To Go Gourmet

Photo by huggingthecoastMacaroni and cheese martini is taking the concept too far, to be fair.​The trend toward taking basic comfort foods and "gourmet-izing" them isn't new. In 2006, the New York Times was already lamenting the addition of "complex blends of pungent, unaged, rind-washed and c ... 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 >>

The Anachronistic Chef: Harvest Casserole

​ This is one in a series of posts in which I sample recipes from the days of yore (i.e., not the 1990s). The dishes featured were mainstays of 19th-, 18th- and even 17th-century tables, but for one reason or another (unusual taste, archaic ingredients), have fallen out of culinary fashion. F ... More >>

Recipe: Queso Fresco Cotija and Chorizo Dip

​Queso should arguably be the official food of Houston. No one makes it better than us, and we cannot ever seem to get enough. Although the creamy-smooth Velveeta variety is always a nostalgic favorite, switching up cheeses and throwing in some meat and vegetables is a great way to turn this a ... More >>

Five Questions to Answer Before You Decide Where to Eat (When You're Drunk)

​You've closed out your local pub, and you're a little bit lit up. Not so drunk that you're stumbling around talking to trees and vomiting on yourself, but drunk enough to be extremely impulsive. And the impulse hitting you right now: You need food. Slowly you remember that you haven't eaten s ... 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 >>

Odd Pair at Absolve: Wish You Were There

Photos by GroovehouseClick here for a full slideshow from Odd Pair.​Our latest Eating Our Words event -- Odd Pair at Absolve -- went so well yesterday that we wish we could host it every Sunday. Although the event was sold out, the concept of Odd Pair also translates well to a party at home, w ... 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 >>

The Shameless Chef: Triply Pastafied Cheesplosion

If you were to speculate that perhaps I enjoy me some starch, I would not disagree.​If there's anyone in the world who should not get up his own ass about what he cooks for lunch, it's me. And yet I'd been racking my brains for days, trying to think of something to cook for this column, going ... More >>

Eggs-cellent Tex-Mex Enchiladas

​The enchiladas in chile con carne (#46) at Spanish Village on Almeda come in a very meaty chili. I tried an order with two fried eggs on top. Thanks to Kingsley and the many other commenters on the recent post "Dan Jenkin's Favorite Cheese Enchiladas" for the recommendations. I asked readers ... More >>

The Bowling Alley Burger

​We seem to have an affinity for truck-stop fried chicken, convenience-store hot dogs and bowling alley burgers. On a recent late-night trip to Palace Lanes on Bellaire, we fancied a cheeseburger from the "snack bar." It's the same thing with airport bars - we're attracted to these places like ... More >>

Recipe: Mac and Cheese

​ This recipe for mac and cheese is gluttonous and everything our diet stands against. However, we're pretty sure we'd get thrown out of our family's holiday gatherings without it. This is a thick cheese-with-noodles-floating-in-it pudding, and it is ridiculously good. It's also really simple ... More >>

This Week In Deliciousness

Liven up your Halloween parties this year with some carne asada con silly string.​ Welcome back to the weekly roundup here at Eating Our Words, where we defiantly eat summer sausage in the winter and we don't care who knows it. We kicked off this week at a sort of cookout triathlon with a plot ... More >>

Crisper Drawer Cast-offs: Cauliflower Casserole

​I'm trying to get invited to John Seaborn Gray's house for shepherd's pie. I'm betting it tastes great. His Shameless Chef column reminded me of Andrew Schloss's cookbooks Almost From Scratch, Homemade in a Hurry and Cooking With Three Ingredients. Schloss's premise is that great chefs don't ... More >>

Jake's Philly Tex-Mex

Photo by Robb Walsh Cheez Whiz would be redundant on the fajita Philly at Jake's Philly Steaks on Chimney Rock -- the Philly-Tex-Mex sandwich comes with chile con queso. What's the difference between Cheez Whiz and chile con queso? I asked the owner, Robert Ginn. "Cheez Whiz comes in a jar, Vel ... More >>

New Burgers at Hubcap Grill

Photos by J.C. ReidRicky CraigIn a previous post about taco burgers, I mentioned I had struck up a conversation with Ricky Craig, owner of Hubcap Grill, and offered my services as a taste-tester for any new burgers he might be working on. This week I got the call. Craig invited me and several other ... More >>

Community Bar Food

Photos by J.C. ReidJust above the bar at newish Midtown watering hole called Community Bar is a chalkboard with various drink specials, as well as the words "Food served." I was intrigued yet doubtful. Bar food in Houston is definitely a hit-or-miss affair (mainly misses in the form of Velveeta nach ... More >>

Boudin Balls with a Gooey Surprise

Photo by J.C. ReidOn a recent trip to the Bolivar Peninsula with a carload of friends, I stopped in the small town of Winnie, Texas for a quick pit stop at the local Texaco gas station that had a hot food counter serving mostly pizzas and fried foods. These counters, combined with a few picnic tabl ... More >>

The Thing About Frito Pies

Photos by J.C. ReidHaute cuisine? For people who did not grow up in Texas, and for the occasional Texan who did not spend time in public school lunch rooms or patronize the concession stands at Friday night high school football games, a Frito pie is a dish containing three ingredients: Fritos corn ... More >>

Temples of Tex-Mex: A Diner's Guide to the State's Oldest Mexican Restaurants

We took a pilgrimage in search of old-fashioned tamales, chili con carne and cheese enchiladas

It’s 3:30 a.m., Do You Know Where Your Cock Sock Is?

SXSW: Stomping my feet to British Sea Power

WHY?, The Black and a nice surprise back at the hotel

Breakfast Enchiladas at Mi Sombrero

At this old-fashioned Tex-Mex joint on North Shepherd, the huevos are served all day on weekends

Special Sexy Edition

Dick size, muff diving and dry humping

Drinking My Own Tex-Mex Apologist Kool-Aid

Musical Food Groups

If singers were cheese, what kind of cheese would they be?

Ensemble Dining

Julia's Bistro is at the hottest stop on the Metro rail line

Best Restaurant for Toddlers

Call It What You Will

There's Something About Larry's

What makes the enchiladas so great in Texas's Twin Cities?

Take Me Out to the Ball Game Cafe

Ruggles at Enron Field hits for the cycle without ever leaving the dugout

Pushing the Envelope

Sushi via the U.S. mail? Velveeta boxes affixed with stamps? To Beth Jacobs, it's all art.

Room with a View

Unfortunately, Mallorca doesn't offer much else

Modest Mex

Bocados has the good sense not to get fancy

Press Picks

Hot Plate