Chef Pamela Graham’s marriage of Creole and soul food wins new fans daily, with both her homestyle cooking and her warm, welcoming demeanor. Her restaurant, Le’ Pam’s House of Creole, brings much-needed life to a part of north Houston that has few culinary bright spots. Her Creole-style gumbo is chock-full of fresh shrimp and crab. Fillets of breaded catfish are clean, thick and fresh, and the dirty rice is moist, compelling and meaty. Sundays are when the good china comes out and gets loaded down with falling-apart oxtail and stuffed Cornish game hens. There’s no better way to end the feast than with a helping of crusty bread pudding topped with brandy sauce.
This article appears in Work Hard, Play Hard.