Vietnamese Food and Cooking

Katharine Shilcutt's 10 Favorite Dishes in Houston

In a recent Food & Wine article, restaurant editor Kate Krader called Houston "America's newest capital of great food" and listed 10 of her favorite dishes/drinks in our city to underscore her point. They included the Vietnamese Wagyu meatballs at Underbelly, the blackstrap rum daiquiri at Charity S ... More >>

Get Your Caffeine Fix Without the Heat

I've always hated the phrase "movers and shakers", but if applied literally, it's an accurate description of our city right now. With locals running around town implacably, outpacing frequent mentions from national publications (which have taken to calling us the new "it" city), it's easy to forget ... More >>

Chef Chat, Part 2: Jonathan Jones of Monarch at the Hotel Zaza, On the Ethnic Diversity in Houston's Dining Scene, Comfort Food and Surprises on His New Spring Menu

This is the second part of a three part Chef Chat series. You can read Part 1 here, and Part 3 in this same space Friday. Yesterday, we chatted with chef Jonathan Jones of Monarch at the Hotel Zaza about his role as a chef in a big hotel restaurant. Today we talk about some of his personal influenc ... More >>

Chef Chat, Part 2: Trong Nguyen of Crawfish and Noodles, On the Vietnamese Food In His Menu, The Flavor of His Crawfish

Surprise Package at LA Crawfish

American, Cajun, Vietnamese, Chinese and Thai all flow together in one jumble of LA Crawfish-brand cuisine.

The Zombie Banh Mi at Cafe TH Can't Be Killed

Now in its second year, the annual Zombie Banh Mi eating contest at Cafe TH drew seven competitors on Saturday, all attempting to finish the sandwich that no one could last year. The banh mi -- so named for its capsaicin-riddled Zombie hot sauce and its association with the Houston Zombie Walk, whic ... More >>

The Eating...Our Words 100: Minh Nguyen, Owner of Cafe TH and One of Houston's Best Front-of-House Personalities

People don't go to eat at Cafe TH just for the food. Sure, the food is enough of a draw in and of itself -- the intensely spiced vegan curry with layers of vegetable flavor, the ruddy banh mi bo kho that fills your belly with heat on a cold day -- but so is owner Minh Nguyen, who's the warmest, most ... More >>

Top 10 Restaurants in Midtown

Although Midtown may be more well-known for its bars and late-night clubs, there isn't a shortage of good food to be found -- even if the neighborhood is steadily losing many of the Vietnamese restaurants that once saturated the area. In keeping with Midtown's current incarnation as the drinking-ou ... More >>

Where the Chefs Eat: Amalia Pferd, Sean Carroll, John Peterson

Owning a food truck/mobile cart is hard work, but at the end of the day, you still gotta eat. For this week's Where the Chefs Eat series, we're checking in to see where some of Houston's on-the-go chef-proprietors get their grub on. Let's see where Amelia Pferd of Good Dog Hot Dogs, Sean Carroll o ... More >>

One Pho the Money at Pho Saigon

This past weekend I was sick as a dog. I had to leave work early on Friday to go home and curl into the fetal position, a pitiful display which was broken only by frequent bouts of hydration and moaning. Being sick is the worst, but with the powers of modern science and medicine on my side (Z-pack ... More >>

Ingredient of the Week: Vietnamese New Year Cake

Happy New Year! Or as the Vietnamese say, Chuc mung nam moi! It's the lucky year of the Dragon -- those born between today and February 9, 2013, are predicted to live fortunate, prosperous lives. And what better way to celebrate the new year than by eating banh chung or banh Tet, the traditional ... More >>

Only In Houston...

Hoagies & More: A family-run restaurant serving Salvadoran and Vietnamese food.​While finishing this week's cafe review off Thanh Phuong, the phrase "only in Houston..." kept wandering through my head. "Only in Houston," I thought, "would a chef like Chris Shepherd offer to stage at a tiny, f ... More >>

Breakfast: Vietnamese Steak & Eggs

Bit Tet Weekend Special ​A typical Vietnamese breakfast may look a lot like lunch. Savory dishes are preferred; a bowl of noodles, either pho or hu tieu, and chao, a traditional rice porridge, are pretty common breakfast fare. French baguettes are a favored breakfast item as well, especially a ... More >>

My First: Banh Mi at Les Givrals

​My bahn mi cherry has been popped. A few weeks ago, after a vigorous yoga class at YogaOne, my yoga partner and I were famished and she suggested heading around the corner to Les Givrals. I'd never had banh mi and was excited to try it, having read several articles in praise of the Vietnamese ... More >>

Vegan Curry at Cafe TH

​Cafe TH continues to evolve under the careful and creative eye of owner Minh Nguyen, the former University of Houston student who purchased the old Thiem Hung bakery from its previous owners several years ago. He added more standard Vietnamese items to the menu than just banh mi, and is now s ... More >>

My Favorite Meatball Banh Mi at Thim Hing

Mai Pham​Walking into Thim Hing Banh Mi (11107 Bellaire Boulevard at Boone), it's as if I've been transported to somewhere in Vietnam. The grayish-green linoleum has seen better days, the Formica- topped tables are chipped, the dark-brown diner chairs have that circa-1970s look, and if I worr ... More >>

Salty Lemonade at Huynh

​I was definitely in the mood for Vietnamese food when some coworkers and I walked into Huynh Restaurant on a chilly day last week. It was then that I realized, even though I had dined there many times before, that the place was named Best Vietnamese Restaurant in the 2010 Houston Press Best o ... More >>

Almost Christmas Eve Congee

Photo by Sebastian Mary​On a recent post about pho ga, the Vietnamese chicken soup, I made mention of a Chow.com graph that has predicted 2011 to be the year of congee (with regard to Asian comfort food dishes). Later on, reader Sunkneelion made the request: "Article on congee, please!" Sunkn ... More >>

Robb Walsh's 100 Favorite Houston Dishes: #9 Pho at Pho Binh on Beamer

​Over the course of the next few months, I'm counting down 100 of my favorite Houston dishes. I chose some because they are such quintessential Houston creations, others for their cultural or historical significance, and others because they are just so damn tasty. Share your own nominations in ... More >>

Robb Walsh's 100 Favorite Houston Dishes: #42 Banh Mi Xiu Mai at Don Cafe at 9300 Bellaire

​Over the course of the next few months, I'm counting down 100 of my favorite Houston dishes. I chose some because they are such quintessential Houston creations, others for their cultural or historical significance, and others because they are just so damn tasty. Share your own nominations in ... More >>

Food Fight: Battle Banh Bot Chien

​Let's face it: You don't want to listen to me ramble on about banh bot chien, do you? If you know what it is, you love it with the kind of passion and devotion usually reserved for the Virgin Mary or rare G.I. Joe figures still in their original packaging. If you don't know what it is, famili ... More >>

The Big 3: Shitake Mushrooms, Sriracha Hot Sauce and Monterey Jack Cheese

​Sriracha is having its food moment. It's everywhere, from Bon Appetit magazine to numerous chef's tables to Asian dives. And why not? It has a great flavor and allows you to really kick up the heat factor in a dish. Lately, we've been enjoying it with shitake mushrooms and Monterey Jack chees ... More >>

Waiter, Where's My Blood?

​I ordered bun bo hue at Huong Giang Hue restaurant the other day. Stirring around in the bowl, I couldn't find any congealed blood. When the waiter stopped by my table to see if everything was all right, I complained about the missing ingredient. Bun bo hue just isn't bun bo hue without blood ... More >>

Vegan's Orders

​We recently ordered a meal from Banh Mi Hoàng (3509 Elgin St.) containing no meat products. We normally would send anything without a bone back to the kitchen, but our vegan accomplice urged us to take the plunge and try a vegan-certified Asian lunch. We had a tofu banh mi that was really un ... More >>

Fast and Fresh: Pho 99

​Pho 99 (12002 Veterans Memorial) sits in one of the many unassuming shopping centers along Veterans Memorial. To be completely honest, we were a bit hesitant when we pulled up to the restaurant. Did we have a greasy, stomach ache-inducing lunch in store for us? We walked in to find a friendly ... More >>

My Tour Guide to Hanoi Cuisine

​In this week's Café review, Carl Han reveals his own formula for banh cuon dipping sauce -- a recipe that involves water beetle essence along with chile peppers and fish sauce. After demonstrating my dismal understanding of Vietnamese cuisine in my review and blog post about Banh Cuon Hoa 2, ... More >>

My First Bun Bo Hue

​It was almost closing time at Kim Chau, the aging and eccentric Vietnamese restaurant on Longpoint near Antoine. Kim Chau's dreary dining room, with its black-and-white checkerboard tile floor and tables covered with cobalt-blue vinyl tablecloths, glowed weirdly in the fluorescent light throu ... More >>

Yummy Water Beetle Essence

​ Thai mang da, known in Vietnamese as ca cuong, is available in the U.S. in the form of an artificial extract. It has a pleasant floral aroma with a slightly funky background scent. It is an essential flavor in North Vietnamese cuisine. Former residents of Hanoi put a drop of the stuff in the ... More >>

Enough About Mi

Is the authentic little Vietnamese noodle shop Banh Cuon Hoa #2 too adventurous for your tastes?

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 >>

Banh Cuon: Tay Ho 18

​The barbecued pork in the banh cuon thit nuong at Tay Ho 18 in Hong Kong City Mall isn't as charred and crispy as the barbecued pork in the banh cuon thit nuong at Thien Thanh on Bellaire, but it's still pretty tasty. At Tay Ho 18, you can watch through a glass wall while the woman who makes ... More >>

Vietnamese Steak and Eggs... Holy Cow!

​ Tan Ba Le Baguette on the corner of Beechnut and Boone is an excellent lunch destination. This Vietnamese diner specializes in street vendor dishes at an affordable price. Ordering here is simple: Walk up to the counter and ask for steak and eggs. The steak-and-eggs combo was traditionally ... More >>

Downtown Saigon Soup Stop

​When a reader asked me to recommend an excellent pho shop close to downtown where he could get a quick lunch, I sent him to the Pho Saigon location at 2808 Milam. And I told him to remember to put a napkin over his tie. The original Midtown location was opened by Houston's P.B. Tran in 1998. ... More >>

$13 at Pagoda

Photo by Robb WalshWhere: Pagoda Vietnamese Bistro & Bar, 4705 Inker St., 832-673-0400 What $13 gets you: A cup of pineapple seafood soup ($5) and a big bowl of vermicelli salad ($8) or a Vietnamese sandwich ($4) and a bowl of pho ($8). Pagoda is an authentic Vietnamese restaurant with a chic mode ... More >>

$13 at Nam Vietnamese Cuisine Restaurant on Fondren

Que Huong

Is this humble Asian diner on Wilcrest one of the best family-style Vietnamese joints in the country?

Le Viet Restaurant & Bar

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

Sanguine Soup and Sandwich

Bodard Bistro on Bellaire is packing them in with "not too greasy" Vietnamese food

Crispy Muc, Tender Bo

There's a thrilling new Vietnamese restaurant on Bellaire with a menu that reads like a mystery

The Missing Fish Mint

Nam caters to mainstream palates by keeping the flavors mild and the herbs innocuous

Chop Sticklers

Veterans of regular etiquette still can get forked over on ethnic foods

Eat Mi

Houston has some of the best Vietnamese noodle houses in the country

Best Pho

Best Vietnamese Restaurant

Best Mall Alternative

Kim Hung Mall

Best Dim Sum Restaurant

Kim Son

Jammin' Jellyfish

Cuttle up to some tasty fish at this heavenly Vietnamese hideaway

Desperately Seeking Sandwiches

With Givral's temporarily out of commission, Houstonians scramble to get their banh mi thit fix

Huynh-ing Combination

At Miss Saigon, restaurateur Doan Huynh gets everything right

Out of Vietnam

The lowly sandwich is elevated to new heights as bnh m" thit