Ask a New Yorker to name America’s great food cities, and you will hear the usual list. New York, obviously, then Los Angeles, Chicago, and maybe New Orleans. Houston rarely makes the cut, and that is exactly why food writers keep calling it the country’s best-kept culinary secret.
Here is the case. Houston is one of the most ethnically diverse cities in the United States (according to Culture Map), home to enormous Vietnamese, Mexican, Nigerian, Indian, and Central American communities, all cooking at full strength. Add legendary Texas barbecue and a Gulf Coast seafood supply, and you get a food city that can go toe to toe with anywhere, at a fraction of New York prices. The James Beard Foundation has taken notice in recent years, and so have the food magazines, but the crowds have not caught up yet, which means you can still walk into places that would require a month of planning in other cities.
If you are heading to Houston for business, a cruise out of Galveston, or a big event at NRG Stadium, here is how to eat as you mean it.
Viet Cajun Crawfish: Houston’s Signature Dish
If Houston has one dish that belongs to it alone, it is Viet Cajun crawfish. Born in the city’s massive Vietnamese community, it takes the Louisiana crawfish boil and drenches it in garlic butter, lemongrass, and chili, a fusion that exists because Houston is one of the few places where those two food cultures live side by side. The dish became a national obsession after food television discovered it, but it still tastes best in the neighborhood where it was invented…