In honor of the holiday weekend, we thought we'd show you some of our more random food and bar explorations over the years. The only constant to this theme is "different." That and a lot of people read each of these.
The Best-Tasting Throat Lozenges for Cold and Flu Season
We've tested ten different varieties of throat lozenges and cough drops available at CVS to determine which taste the best and which are most likely to soothe your sore esophagus. Some of them are designed to alleviate minor tickles, while others are intended to suppress coughs and numb painful gullets. This ranking is based on both flavor and efficacy in mitigating our (not so sore) throats.
The Truth About Aphrodisiac Foods, or, Do Oysters Really Make You Horny?
It is said that Giacomo Girolamo Casanova, the notorious 18th-century lover, ate 50 oysters each morning for breakfast to increase his sexual stamina. Earlier, herbalist Nicholas Culpepper wrote that asparagus "stirs up lust in man and woman." And back before we even had a word for aphrodisiac, the Aztecs named avocados ahuacuatl, or "testicle tree." The belief in foods as sexual stimulants is not a modern myth.
The 5 Most Comforting Funeral Foods
My sweet aunt passed away last week, with the funeral held this past Monday at my childhood church. As at every proper Texas funeral, there was a spread of food laid out afterward that would rival any church potluck supper. The gorging that commences after a funeral is both cathartic and comforting: If you're shoving your face full of lemon bars and chicken salad sandwiches, you don't have to talk to anyone about what just happened.
What If Houston Bars Were Named for What They're Really Like?
Sometimes a bar's name alone doesn't give a clue as to what it's really like. What's its niche? Who are the patrons? Is it cheap, expensive, pretentious or fancy? Is it a dive?
What a bar starts out as isn't necessarily how it ends up, either. They evolve and acquire a personality shaped by patrons as much as by the employees. That got us thinking: What if Houston's bars were named for how they really are now?