Vietnam

The Pho-ndamentals

A beginner's guide to Vietnamese cuisine.

Health Department Roundup: Lexington Grille, Pink's, 1308 Cantina and More

If you're into lunchtime trysts, the Lexington Grille is apparently a good place to schedule one. We're guessing things were not so romantic between the inspector and manager last week, when Lexington was hit with a dozen violations. But you never know -- maybe there is some potential for romance he ... More >>

CAMH Video Jam: Prince Varughese Thomas/Patrick Bresnan and Ivete Lucas

''WAR/PHOTOGRAPHY''

Happy Memorial Day: 10 Songs To Honor Our Veterans

Memorial Day, the last Monday of May is a federal holiday originated to commemorate our country's fallen soldiers. Yes, some view it as a work holiday and a good time to barbecue, but our veterans would have to disagree. To honor our vets, we put together a playlist this day in remembrance of those ... More >>

Presidents' Sons at War: 13 Service Records, from the Mediocre to the Ultimate Sacrifice

Being the parent of someone fighting in a war is no picnic, even if you're a president. In the modern era, several future or incumbent presidents had sons in the military in wartime. Some of those sons did much, some very little, one paid the ultimate price. Let's look, building up to that ultimat ... More >>

Happy Malaria Day! A Feverish Playlist

Tuesday night, as blooming flowers filled the Spring air with a heady fragrance, Rocks Off hung a wreath made of empty insect repellant cans on our door, and gently tucked our young daughter in with mosquito netting in order to ensure Santa Carrier wouldn't visit her with his magic bag of plague. ... More >>

Banh Cuon Like They Make it in Hanoi

When I think of classic Vietnamese dishes, they are usually quite simple. There are the noodle soups such as pho, there are the rice vermicelli dishes, such as bun thit nuong, and there are rice plates like com tam bi cha thit nuong. Another dish that I grew up eating and loving is banh cuon, what I ... More >>

The 11 Sexiest, Coolest-Looking Cold War Jets

The F-106: The delta wing in all its glory​Jet aircraft, particularly the fighters, represent a Freudian's play date. Long, slender, blisteringly fast, spewing bullets out the tip and, until recently, powered as much by testosterone as by kerosene (the main ingredient in jet fuel -- what a dis ... More >>

This Week in Deliciousness

The one in the tiara will not be putting up with your crap today, thanks. Probably not tomorrow, either.​Welcome back to the weekly roundup here at Eating Our Words, where we've constructed a gigantic, hollow Peep with our leftover Easter Peeps and we're trying to come up with a way to lure Ni ... More >>

Top 5: Worst Restaurant Parking Lots

​Houston's got them. You know them. Here are the worst. 5. Yia Yia Mary's Greek Kitchen Maybe it's for a lack of intelligence, but I'm always in a complete state of confusion when I pull into this parking lot. In a 20-yard radius, you can park at a bank, a restaurant, a garage, various bu ... More >>

“The Whole World Was Watching: Civil Rights Era Photographs from Edmund Carpenter and Adelaide de Menil”

The Wonton Soup at Vietnam

​With temps falling, I've had soup on the brain lately. I recently headed over to Vietnam Restaurant (605 W. 19th Street) for some wonton soup. You'd be hard-pressed to find better in the city. The beauty is in the simplistic approach the good people at Vietnam take to soup preparation.

Mt. St. Helens Vietnam Band: Better With Franco-Prussian War?

It's a well-known fact that most band names are essentially gobbledygook, but here at Rocks Off, we're trying hard to decode Houston's oddest monikers in order to find a little meaning. Alli Curtis​When Rocks Off was a small child we built a volcano as a History Fair project, and we promise i ... More >>

Phuong Anh: New Houstonian Tells Of Her Time As Near-Slave

Photos by Paula BeltránPhuong Anh told a harrowing tale of survival​The promise of a $300-per-month job was enough to convince Phuong Anh to sell her home in Vietnam and move to Jordan. Things didn't turn out like she expected. Earlier this week a tearful Anh told her story of resilience and s ... More >>

A Village Called Versailles

It takes a village - to kick big government in the ass

Vietnamese Banana Cake

​If Vietnam were to have a national fruit, it would probably be the banana. With so many different varieties available, there's a banana for practically every culinary need. The Vietnamese banana cake is similar to fruitcake in density and texture but is unlike fruitcake in that people love to ... More >>

G.I. Blues: A Soldiers' Playlist

​Today is the anniversary of one of the truly momentous occasions in popular music: On March 23, 1958, Elvis Presley reported for induction into the U.S. Army, thus opening up a thousand alternate timelines for musical historians to formulate "What if he hadn't?" scenarios. For the next few years, ... More >>

Pot au Pho

This funky trailer in South Houston is worth the drive for Vietnamese breakfast.

The Poppies Still Blow In Flanders Fields... A Veteran's Day Salute from Rocks Off and Lonesome Onry and Mean

U.S. Air Force Tech. Sgt. - and the author's daughter - Sara Blount, on duty in Afghanistan"In Flanders fields the poppies blow Between the crosses, row on row, That mark our place; and in the sky The larks, still bravely singing, fly Scarce heard amid the guns below. We are the dead. Short days ago ... More >>

Banh Mi Bo Kho: Soup or Sandwich?

​Banh mi means "bread" in Vietnamese and thit means "ham"; banh mi thit is a ham sandwich. So when I saw banh mi bo kho on the menu at Banh Cuon Hoa #2 on Beechnut, the subject of this week's cafe review, I figured bread beef stew = a Vietnamese roast beef sandwich. Ever since I first learne ... More >>

“Arts of Ancient Viet Nam: From River Plain to Open Sea”

2,000 years worth of Vietnamese culture is on display at MFAH

Sordid Lives

Web exclusive!

U.S. Military Deserters Once Again Flock to Canada to Avoid War

Looks like this time they picked the wrong country.

Musicians Don't Have W. to Kick Around Anymore... So Now What?

Now that Lil' Bush has shuffled off the Presidential coil - or will in a couple of hours, anyway - and heads off into some Dallas burg to write his memoirs and reflect on his two wild and strange terms as Commander in Chief, it seems that the writers of so many protest songs can call off their guns ... More >>

John McCain's Neglected Veterans

The candidate's fame is based on his POW status, but he has abandoned his fellow veterans time and time again

Stephen Hunter

The fifth Bob Lee Swagger novel shoves it all in there

Bring On The Protesters: Vietnam To Open Houston Consulate

Apolitical Theater in Stop-Loss

Iraq war movie does its best not to mention the war

Nothing Happening Here: Protest Music, Then and Now

In the Valley of Elah

Don't let Paul Haggis's heavy hand stop you from seeing his latest

Le Viet Restaurant & Bar

Sometimes Anglo-friendly Vietnamese food does taste better than the real thing

David Halberstam, R.I.P.

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.

Arms and Race

Manny Garcia fought both the Viet Cong and racial prejudice

Vietnam 1, Alief 0

HCC cuts classes after planting a flag in Saigon

Peace Signs

Third–generation activist Luchita Rodriguez and her friends find the missing rally bus — and a fresh, family-style fight against war in Iraq

Writes Love, Not War

Vietnam isn't Tim O'Brien's only subject

Best Place to Shoot Up

Survival Games of Texas

The Chef Who Almost Wasn't

Zumm Escudier has put the Angelika Cafe back on track, but her path has been long and winding

Agent of Doom

Former enemies unite against the continuing fallout from deadly defoliants of the Vietnam War

Calendar Editor Shoots Up

Shooting people is fun

The Things We Still Carry

Vietnamese food served with a side of fresh perspectives

Tackling the Taboo

Despite suicides and inner strife, Asian-Americans resist psychotherapy

History with Honor

Pilot POWs' survival goes far beyond the Vietnam War

Back to Wok

A pair of Asian pioneers return to blaze new (if familiar) paths

The Last Battle of Chau Minh Nguyen

An ex-commando claims the U.S. owes him for 19 lost years

Baby Boom

For parents seeking adoptive children, Vietnam may be the new frontier

Walking Dead Arrives D.O.A.

Casualties of War

Houston's Vietnamese now call Texas home, but they continue to be haunted by ghosts of the conflict that drove them here