Several years ago, a prominent food writer told me that he had heard, and believed, that Michelin was woefully understaffed when it was reviewing New York, with just one or two reviewers for the entire metro area. Something like this seems to be the case for Houston and surroundings, given the number of restaurants I believe are Michelin quality that are missing from its list, informed by the numerous Michelin-recommended places I have dined at in Europe and in other American cities over the years. I get the impression that the coverage of the Houston dining scene was rather very incomplete. Again.
 
The well-known affection for barbecue among these Michelin Texas guide reviewers – it is difficult to really eat much more that day after a barbecue meal for lunch before it sells out – might be a contributing factor for the relatively few number of places included in the guide for Houston. There are also three restaurants-within-restaurants – Bar Buena, Jantra, and Sushi Horiuchi – noted among the 48 recommendations. This appears to me to possibly be a product of budget and time constraints. And also indicative of a possible lack of other coverage.
 
I won’t argue for stars, but its Bib Gourmand designations for Houston seem somewhat like a crapshoot. Bib Gourmand is one of my guiding lights when I am traveling in Europe. Some not-cheap-at-all restaurants are designated for Houston while some of the most inexpensive recommended are not. It is not at all consistent.
 
Anyway, here are the biggest omissions in the Michelin guide for Houston to me off the top of my head, by cuisine:
 
Barbecue – Willow's Smokehouse – OK. This is brand new, but Angie’s Pizza that opened about the same time made it, deservedly so. Willow’s is great. And can be great fun. It is the type of place you would want to visit while traveling to Houston.
 
Chinese – Fung's Kitchen, Wanna Bao – These two are approachable, in different ways, and usually quite adept. Dim sum at Fung’s is still a treat and a value.
 
Creole – Eunice, Brennan's – If Josephine’s, which I like, made the list, these two certainly do, especially the more consistent Eunice.
 
Greek – Yiayia's – The Pappas family put renewed effort, and considerable experience now with fine-dining, into its latest effort, highlighting the fare dear to the family’s heart.
 
Indian – Pondicheri, Kiran's – The wonderfully proficient and interesting Pondicheri is a poster child for Bib Gourmand in my experience.
 
Italian – Amalfi, Bari, Da Marco, Poscol, Davanti, Giacomo's, Remi, Potente – It didn’t seem that the reviewer(s) visited many local Italian restaurants, especially ones with actual Italians involved. Or, ones with top chefs.
 
Japanese – Katami, Kata Robata, Kira, Toga, Uchi, Uchiko, Soto, MF Sushi – Manabu Horiuchi’s restaurant-within-a-restaurant concept is included but not Katami. My thought for that is because the reviewer(s) didn’t have the time nor the budget to visit it and Katami. I think that monetary constraints might have precluded a deep exploration of sushi here.
 
Mexican – Hugo's, Caracol, Xochi, Zaranda, Urbe, Cuchara – How none of Hugo Ortega’s restaurants did not garner a Michelin recommendation makes one doubt its entire operation. I’ve been to two Mexican inclusions, Casaema and Papalo Taqueria, each several times; I much prefer Urbe, the most casual of the Ortega and company places, to those two.
 
Middle Eastern – Aladdin – I’ve long thought that the straightforward, counter-service Lebanese spot with a gorgeous array of vegetarian dishes on its steam table is one of the best dining values in Houston, and one that never fails to satisfy.
 
New American, Eclectic – Camaraderie, Squable, Barbacana, State of Grace, Jun – Camaraderie and Squable are the two of the most head-scratching omissions. The former is probably the best restaurant in the Heights and Squable is one of my very favorite spots, both for food and drink. “Huh?!” is what quickly comes out my mouth when I see that Camaraderie and Squable are not in the Michelin guide.
 
Pakistani – Aga's, Himalaya – These two restaurants have received considerable local and national attention for good reasons and are such great values, I believe that the reviewer(s) didn’t make the time to visit.
 
Peruvian – Pacha Nikkei – An array of ceviches and brightly colored small plates can make for an excellent dinner.
 
Pizza – Tiny Champions – This pizza and pasta specialist that works for families and more, is another poster child for a Bib Gourmand designation in my opinion.
 
Seafood – Little's Oyster Bar, Navy Blue, Latuli, Goode Co. Seafood – Little’s is the star of the Pappas constellation and the others certainly warrant inclusion in any decent dining guide. And find it very odd how the much less ambitious, much less interesting Bludorn stablemate Perseid got a nod rather than Navy Blue.
 
Steak – Saldivia's – Beef prices have greatly risen, but this humble, family-run Uruguayan steakhouse turns out exceptional dishes like entraña, the tender and juicy grilled strip steak, sweetbreads and blood sausage, complemented with chimichurri sauce that are still outstanding values for the quality. Though this restaurant has long been overlooked, a dinner here is always one of my favorites every year.
 
Tex-Mex – Goode Co. Kitchen & Cantina – Candente’s was the only Tex-Mex recommended. I like it, but I don’t believe it is nearly as good as the Goode Co. Kitchen & Cantina locations, the area’s premier stop for Tex-Mex.

One of the artful stuffed pastas at Camaraderie

Just about everyone loves Italian food, in at least one of the many guises that it’s found throughout America. It might be spaghetti and meatballs, a fresh-tasting Caprese salad or something thickly covered in Alfredo sauce, a more currently fashionable Roman pasta preparation like cacio e pepe, pizzas, or creations expressing contemporary Italy as artful or innovative as any from a French kitchen. I’ve long been curious about what the dishes are that help to define Italian dining here. So, I recently went through the menus of what I hoped was a representative sample of Italian restaurants throughout the country to understand the most commonly found foods. These are the dishes that help draw customers out to an Italian restaurant. I cataloged items from over 50 current menus, which followed on nearly 200 from the previous few years. Here are the most commonly found items on Italian restaurant menus today in order of frequency, a few of which might come as a surprise.
 
20. Eggplant Parmesan –  This one that has been seen at restaurants for many decades: fried slices of eggplant combined with a tomato sauce, mozzarella, grated Parmigiano – or more cheaply with Parmesan – and then baked. Still often made in many Italian-American households, this is a dish found throughout much of southern Italy, melanzane alla Parmigiana. The only connection to Parma is the Parmigiano grated on top. Referred to simply as parmigiana in Sicily where it is a much-loved staple – and where I just spent nearly two weeks – the preparation found on most Italian restaurants in America is much more often from the Neapolitan tradition, which has long influenced Italian restaurants here. Not incidentally, its vegetable-heavy ingredients provide some heftier margins for restaurants.
 
19. Beef Carpaccio – Found at about a third of Italian restaurants, this features very thin slices of chilled raw meat of high quality – and free of unattractive connective tissue – that is lightly dressed in a mayonnaise-based sauce. Famously created at the famous Harry’s Bar in Venice by its owner Arrigo Cipriani in 1950 for a finicky regular aristocratic patron, the dish is named after the Venetian Renaissance painter Vittore Carpaccio whose work was being exhibited in the city at the time. The assertive color of the dish reminded Cipriani of the reds in Carpaccio’s canvases. Almost always served as an antipasto, a version of the original beef carpaccio is the one usually found at restaurants.
 
18. Burrata – This is a cheese originally from the region of Puglia in southeastern Italy with a soft texture consisting of a thin outer shell of mozzarella with an inside of additional fresh cheese and cream. The elaborate process to make it begins with cream being pasteurized and cooled. Mozzarella is made coagulating milk and stretching the curds. Then that mozzarella is wrapped and molded around the cream, which has also formed curds. Usually served in the ball-like form in which it is made, this mild-tasting, moist cheese is best when very fresh and eaten with just-cracked black pepper and a drizzle of high-quality olive oil. Unknown outside of its home area near the town of Adria north of Bari until the 1980s or so, it began to gain some traction in southern California with the opening of a cheese factory in the Los Angeles area in the early 1990s by native of Puglia.
 
17. Linguine with clams in a white sauce – Made with white wine and lemon juice, garlic in abundance, and usually red pepper flakes to accompany small- or medium-sized clams in the shell and not all tossed over long strands of commercially made dried pasta then dotted with bits of fresh parsley, this is a bright, fresh-tasting and fairly light meal that is a favorite Italian food for many. The dish originated in the Naples area as spaghetti alle vongole, spaghetti and clams in translation. Quickly cooked, with a noticeable air of freshness and spontaneity, the preparation is part of the broad Neapolitan cucina povera tradition that immigrated in large numbers to America in the last century. The Philadelphia area, with the strong Neapolitan heritage of its restaurateurs might have been its initial American toehold by the 1930s. Baltimore, New York, Boston and other places near the water, and clams, were also serving the dish around mid-century. It started to become popular in the 1950s as restaurateurs influenced by the Neapolitan tradition became more widespread. And by the 1970s, pasta with clams in a white sauce was the most commonly found item in Italian restaurants across America.
 
16. Prosciutto – This is prosciutto crudo, thinly sliced ham cured in the Italian tradition. This is commonly served as part of a mix of cured meats increasingly called affettati or tagliere on menus now. Or it might appear in older school rendition, paired with melon when in season. In the New York area, prosciutto often loses a syllable and goes by “proshoot.” Made from high-quality pork legs, which are covered in salt and left to rest, during which the salt draws out the blood and other moisture that makes it safe to eat raw. After this salting, the legs are washed, seasoned, and left to age at a controlled temperature from 14 months to three years. Made in much of northern Italy, the most well-known is Prosciutto di Parma and the slightly sweeter Prosciutto di San Daniele. Other top versions available to lesser degree in America are Prosciutto di Carpegna and Prosciutto di Modena. Though prosciutto made domestically have improved in the last couple of decades, the Italian products are still clearly superior, and so usually noted on the menu.
 
15. Lasagna – A stalwart in the Italian-American kitchen, lasagna, with its layers of boiled flat noodles usually encasing ricotta, mozzarella, and tomato sauce along with beef or sausage baked to a cheesy goodness has long found a place on Italian restaurant menus. Lasagna, as most restaurants serve it here, is inspired from the pre-Lenten Carnival version from the Naples area from the past century. Here, it grew taller, meaty, much heartier, and more American. Today, some restaurants proudly proclaim the number of layers of pasta in its versions. Chef Mark Ladner at the acclaimed Del Posto in New York even introduced an impossibly baroque 100-layer lasagne in 2009.
 
14. Meatballs as an appetizer – In recent years, meatballs have become a very popular order to start a meal for many. These often feature a combination of meats involving ground beef with pork and veal and are served with a tomato sauce. All-veal ones are also seen. Meatballs were part of the southern Italian tradition of the immigrants; it was a way to make poor quality meat much more palatable. Usually stretched with bread or bread crumbs, it was always served as a main course, after the pasta or soup. In America, since beef, and pork and veal were all plentiful and easily affordable, those meatballs eventually became quite larger and beefier, meatier than their Old World precursors, and served much more frequently.
 
13. Salmon – Salmon does not seem Italian. The fish is certainly not Italian. It is not native to the Italian coasts and rivers. But salmon is one of the most common sights on Italian restaurant menus in America, found on well over a third of them. Nearly every Italian restaurant here always had at a distinct American component. Restaurants source from America and serve American customers, after all. As about the most easily sourced fish with broad appeal, salmon has found a home at Italian restaurants in America for several decades, first gaining significant traction in the 1990s.
 
12. Insalata Caprese – Sporting the red, white and green of the Italian flag, this is a light dish made in purest form just with slices of hopefully at least decent quality mozzarella and ripe tomatoes, leaves of fresh basil, and olive oil. It was created at a hotel on the island of Capri near Naples, hence the name, maybe in the 1930s. Insalata caprese began to appear in the 1960s in America and became popular as a starter at many Italian restaurants in the 1980s, then a necessity at most affordable Italian-American restaurants after the turn of the millennium. It is now found at about 40 percent of Italian restaurants around the country. And it is popular in Italy today well beyond its place of origins.
 
11. Pork as an entrée – Other than prosciutto and the other cured items that might be served as an antipasto, pork does not typically come to mind for most when going out for Italian. There are far fewer pork dishes as a secondo, or main, in the Italian catalog than other proteins, after all. And one has not become a classic restaurant dish like veal marsala, chicken cacciatore, chicken parmesan, saltimbocca or steak pizzaiola. But pork as main dish has always been found at Italian restaurants in America. Pork chops were on the menu at Campi’s in Stockton, California in the 1890s, to cite a very early example.  Today, you will find dishes an array of pork-based entrées. For the restaurant, and customer, it is a meat that is cheaper than beef.
 
10. Chicken Parmesan – This is a favorite for home cooks, children, and Italian-American chain restaurants. And many more, to be fair. There was a piece a few years about Ken Auletta, the longtime New Yorker writer who has had an obsession in finding excellent chicken parmesan preparations, and part of a group of Italian-Americans who have been foraging the Italian-American eateries of the New York area for years in search of quality versions. For Auletta, a “test of a good Southern Italian restaurant is whether their chicken or veal parmigiana had a good sauce, the breading is crisp and has not been drowned in sauce, and the chicken or veal is not so thin it tastes like cardboard.” Chicken parmesan is an American creation that grew from the eggplant parmigiana preparation from southern Italy and Sicily, with the meatier chicken substituting for the less caloric eggplant at its core. It long ago passed veal parmesan in popularity, to my chagrin.
 
9. Risotto – A usually substantial dish of short-grain rice that has been slowly cooked in a broth to tenderness with a wide variety of ingredients including cheeses, meats, and seafood, this is usually made to order with a plump superfino variety of rice like carnaroli or arborio. It’s not a quick dish to prepare, and servings for two are often a minimum order. Risotto is originally from the northern regions of Italy along the Po River valley where rice is grown. It is a common starter in place of pasta in areas of Piedmont, Lombardy and the Veneto. A feature at ambitious restaurants in America today, risotto has actually been served at Italian restaurants here since there were Italian restaurants in America.
 
8. Gnocchi – While at a restaurant in Boston’s North End for lunch a year ago, I was texting a friend, an Italian-American from the area, while musing about what to do order. I wrote that I was considering the gnocchi. He quickly replied that I was a brave man. Both of us had encountered poorly made gnocchi too often at restaurants: leaden, dull, and tasting a lot like pencil erasers. I’ve long thought of gnocchi as one test for Italian restaurants. If those are made well, there is a good chance it has a quality kitchen. Thought to resemble “lumps,” hence the name, gnocchi are dumplings made primarily from either potatoes or semolina flour, cooked by boiling in water or broth, or sometimes baked.
 
7. Fried Calamari – This might be only seafood readily ordered in restaurants far from the coasts. Squid tentacles are cut into small rings, and at times with very small whole squids, lightly coated in flour then are quickly deep-fried until crispy and served hot with wedges of lemon and usually tomato sauce on the side. The dish has become an Italian-American menu fixture as a starter. Usually fairly clean-tasting, not fishy, it is widely enjoyed. And that it is fried might be the reason. Might be. It is another of the many popular dishes with roots in the Naples area along with the ravioli, much of the antipasti spread, the hefty tomato-sauced lasagna, linguine in a white clam sauce, chicken parmesan, spaghetti and meatballs, spumoni, eggplant parmesan, pizza, pasta with marinara sauce, insalata caprese, veal piccata, and more.
 
6. Potatoes as a side dish – Americans especially like potatoes. But potatoes also have a long tradition as a side dish in Italy. A potato contorno, side dish, at a trattoria in Italy is a common order with roasted or grilled meats, and can be delicious. Often it might be wedges of yellowy potatoes sauteed and served with plenty of quality olive oil, noticeable rosemary and big grains of salt. Here, you will find potato sides more so at restaurants with a more Italian than Italian-American focus. The Italian-American tradition, with typically very large portion sizes, has little need for side dishes. Olive Garden does offer a side of mashed potatoes, though. Maybe something good to know. Or not. This popularity is not new; potato dishes have long been served at Italian restaurants in America.
 
5. Fresh pasta – More popular than ever, freshly made pastas are a calling card for many Italian restaurants and a signifier that it has a serious kitchen. These might be thin strands or larger sheets that are filled and served as stuffed pastas like ravioli. Fresh pasta usually means pasta made with soft wheat flour and eggs. The sturdier hard or durum wheat will be part of the mix if the pasta is extruded into shapes at the restaurant like fresh rigatoni. This recent popularity is  the influence of the area of Emilia north of Rome – the inland part of the Emilia-Romagna region. This is the heartland of fresh pasta in Italy and a widely admired rich cuisine, and many prominent American chefs have trained in the region.
 
4. Antipasto plate – This might go by the name antipasto plate, tagliere, or affettati misti, a mixed plate in a variety of forms ordered at the start of the meal. It resides in the “Antipasto” section, if there is one, of course. These are from the Italian tradition of small pre-prepared items to provide some satiety before the heartier dishes that might be cooked to order. Antipasto means “before the meal.” It is what you eat before you eat. Antipasto selections have been around since there have been Italian restaurants here.
 
3. Caesar Salad – Crisp romaine lettuce dressed with a mixture of egg, Parmigiano, olive oil, garlic, salt, pepper, and lemon juice then served with croutons – and anchovies for those not faint of heart – the Caesar salad is everywhere and part of the Italian-American restaurant canon. It is very rare not to see a version on the menu at one, even if a relative of its creators has expressed surprise that the Caesar salad could be considered Italian-American much less Italian. Though one can occasionally come across the dish in Italy – those stops serving tourists or in overly creative versions at ambitious establishments – it is an American restaurant dish, North American, at least. The Caesar salad initially immigrated from Mexico.
 
2. Ravioli – Though stuffed pasta in America once meant just ravioli filled with ricotta and spinach served with a tomato or meat sauce, the range of names and fillings has broadened considerably over the years. Today, you will see not only ravioli, but agnolotti, tortelli, tortellini, cappelletti and others, filled and served in a number of ways. If the names aren’t used at all as they are in Italy, no matter.
 
1. Steak – Even as beef prices have soared about 25 percent in just the last year-and-a-half, you’ll see a menu item for a steak in almost nine of ten Italian restaurants across the country today. “Being American is to eat a lot of beef steak,” as Kurt Vonnegut once astutely observed. Steaks have been served at Italian restaurants in America almost certainly since soon after there were Italian restaurants in America. offering steaks were definitely not an attempt to replicate the restaurants in Italy. There were hardly any, if any, steakhouses in Italy in the American sense and scarcely any steak dishes. Outside of the Florentines and later other Tuscans, there has been no steak tradition in Italy. In fact, the bistecca in the famous bistecca alla Fiorentina comes from the English “beefsteak” because there was no suitable Italian name for the dish. But from the 19th century until today, steaks have always been the most frequently found item across Italian restaurants or right near the top.

It might come as a surprise that the most commonly found dish at Italian restaurants today is steak. Even as beef prices have soared about 25 percent in just the last year-and-a-half, you’ll see a menu item for a steak in almost nine of ten Italian restaurants across the country. “Being American is to eat a lot of beef steak,” as Kurt Vonnegut once astutely observed.
 
Steaks have been served at Italian restaurants in America almost certainly since soon after there were Italian restaurants in America. The opening day menu in 1886 at the future famed Fior d’Italia had a couple steaks among its limited number of offerings – the induvial-sized one for much cheaper than the squab casserole and frog’s legs. Another San Franciscan stalwart, Campi’s, had nearly a dozen steak dishes on its menu there in the 1890s. The steaks were the flagship American contribution to these restaurants opened by Italian immigrants. Customers desired steaks, even if many were new Americans or even temporary ones. Demand rather than supply drove this menu decision. From the 19th century until today, steaks have always been the most frequently found item across Italian restaurants or right near the top.
 
But offering steaks were definitely not an attempt to replicate the restaurants in Italy. There were hardly any, if any, steakhouses in Italy in the American sense and scarcely any steak dishes. Outside of the Florentines and later other Tuscans, there has been no steak tradition in Italy. In fact, the bistecca in the famous bistecca alla Fiorentina comes from the English “beefsteak” because there was no suitable Italian name for the dish.
 
Steaks have a permanent spot or spots on any Italian restaurant menus in America. Today, the Carbone location in Dallas has a ribeye Diane, a dry-aged ribeye and a porterhouse, all easily topping thee-digits price-wise. The equally assertive Italian-American, if far less price-assertive Peanut Park Trattoria on Taylor Street in Chicago has a filet mignon for only $62. Longstanding Charlie Gitto’s on the Hill in St. Louis offers a trio of steaks along with the requisite t-ravs to start. Though specializing in the glories of the greater Naples area, chef Giancarlo Ferrara has a couple of steaks on his menu in Houston. It is Texas, after all. In another corner of the country, with the regional focus on Piedmont, Spinasse in Seattle has a steak. Having been to Piedmont several times, I don’t believe that I have ever seen a steak on a menu. But in America, there must be steak when the restaurant is pricey and diners have a choice. We’ve never had it any other way.

The sirloin at Forbici Modern Italian in Tampa.

You usually will see a stuffed pasta at an Italian restaurant, most often under the familiar name ravioli. These are the second most commonly seen menu items. Though stuffed pasta in America once meant just ravioli filled with ricotta and spinach served with a tomato or meat sauce, the range of names and fillings has broadened considerably. Today, you will see not only ravioli, but agnolotti, tortelli, tortellini, cappelletti and others, filled and served in a number of ways. If the names aren’t used as they are in Italy, no matter.
 
A little history. (I’m working on a history of Italian restaurants, so I often think about it). Ravioli in its now familiar form was the other type of pasta, in addition to spaghetti, that made it on to most Italian menus in America before the Second World War. It was also the only freshly made pasta from southern Italy that was typically found on Italian menus in America for many years. This was the type of ravioli made by the immigrant forebearers in Campania, Calabria, and Sicily, if only for feast days. The ravioli was almost always the only pasta made on site then, if any were. Many restaurants relied on a good fresh pasta shop in their Italian neighborhood for these. In San Francisco, the handful of Ligurian-rooted stalwarts regularly served a few freshly made pastas other than ravioli, and their filled pastas might have sported different shapes and different names like agnolotti or tortellini.
 
Something what can seem odd today, ravioli became to be served with spaghetti throughout the county. The dish was half spaghetti, half ravioli. Diners did not have to choose at many, then most, Italian restaurants between the two pasta delights. This was common for decades, from at least the 1930s, if less so at the more highly regarded restaurants. By the 1970s, baked pastas became more common. Cannelloni and more frequently lasagna that was on a roll following the Second World War. These pastas might have also been made in the restaurants, if were the ravioli. With the emergence of ambitious and also regional Italian restaurants by the 1990s, more types of pasta shape were served. And even much more now.
 
Some information about the more popular names you might encounter:
 
Agnolotti – Small stuffed pasta from Piedmont similar to ravioli, which are often filled with braised, minced meats. There is also agnolotti del plin, a specialty of the Langhe area, where Barolo and Barbaresco is produced, in which the small meat-filled agnolotti are finished with a pinch. Plin is “pinch” in the local dialect. Some restaurants in America give this name to what would otherwise be called ravioli to sound fancier.
 
Cappellacci – Stuffed pasta from Ferrara in Emilia-Romagna where these are filled with winter squash, nutmeg, and sometimes mostarda, then boiled and served with butter and sage or a meat ragù. The name means “big hats.” In restaurants in America, in addition to those fillings, cappellacci might feature zucchini, ricotta and spinach, or seafood, typically a filling more delicate than what would be in ravioli.
 
Cappelletti – With a name in Italian meaning “little hats,” referencing what hats used to looked like in the city of Reggio Emilia several centuries ago, these are another form of attractive, stuffed pasta. Similar to the tortellini made nearby in Bologna and Modena and also served in broth there, these are a little larger and often filled with cheese and maybe a seasonal green. Here, cappelletti are usually filled with either meat or cheese and found both in broth and also with sauces on a plate.
 
Cresta di Gallo – Mostly seen as an elaborate-looking extruded dried pasta with ruffles and curves that takes its name from a resemblance to the cockscomb, or crest, of a rooster. Also found on restaurants as a freshly made pasta filled like ravioli and made into half-moon shapes with pinched edges that look also like a cockscomb, though in a different way.
 
Culurgiones – A type of ravioli from Sardinia made with hard and soft wheat flour, olive oil or lard and water and often shaped so that the front seam of the raviolo resembles a wheat sheaf. The fillings change throughout Sardinia and include potatoes and mint, and greens and cheeses, and these are usually sauced with a simple one of tomatoes with basil, or a meat sauce.
 
Pansôti – A type of ravioli from Liguria in northwestern Italy where it is made without egg and filled with ricotta and minced wild greens then shaped into squares, triangles, or half-moons. At restaurants in America, it is often just another, if fancier, name for ravioli.
 
Tortelli – Stuffed pasta similar to ravioli that is usually folded into half-moons, triangles, or rectangles that are popular in Italian regions of Tuscany, Emilia-Romagna, and Lombardy.
 
Tortelloni – Bigger-sized tortellini, which are served in a plate with a sauce rather than in broth.

An attractively rendered version of ravioli this summer

Crisp romaine lettuce dressed with a mixture of egg, Parmigiano, olive oil, garlic, salt, pepper, and lemon juice then served with croutons – and anchovies for those not faint of heart – the Caesar salad is everywhere and part of the Italian-American restaurant canon. It is very rare not to see a version on the menu at one, even if a relative of its creators has expressed surprise that the Caesar salad could be considered Italian-American much less Italian. Though one can occasionally come across the dish in Italy – those stops serving tourists or in overly creative versions at ambitious establishments – it is an American restaurant dish, North American, at least. The Caesar salad initially immigrated from Mexico.
 
Less than 20 miles from downtown San Diego, Prohibition made the enticements of Tijuana an even more popular destination for southern Californians and drew hospitality veterans Caesar Cardini and his brother, Alex, who were born near the shores of Lake Maggiore in Piedmont. Relocating from California, they opened restaurants and hotels there. The initial version of the Caesar salad was created in one of their restaurants in Tijuana in 1924. The actual origins, and even recipe, of the famous dish remain murky and contested, but it is from Tijuana, a point of pride there. Certainly a large part of its early appeal was that the salad was mixed in front of diners in a large wooden bowl. Its dramatic tableside preparation was also foundational feature of another favorite of American diners, fettuccine Alfredo.
 
Interestingly, the original version of the Caesar salad did not contain olive oil, anchovies, or lemon juice, and used whole romaine leaves. It was a much different salad than what goes by that moniker today, and different from other versions that claim to be the original recipe. Olive oil would have been the first choice for an Italian to use, but it was unobtainable in Tijuana in the 1920s, at least when the salad was first made. So, a fairly neutral oil like corn oil was used instead. The slight taste of anchovies was found in the versatile and shelf-stable bottles of Worcestershire sauce that was used in its place. Lemons were not terribly popular in Mexico; limes were. It was lime juice that was used in the first Caesar salads. In Mexico, the word for lime is limon. When the recipe was transcribed for Americans, they thought limon was lemon, and so the substitution was made. Caesar Cardini sold his restaurant in Tijuana in the mid-1930s and moved to San Diego where he had a short-lived restaurant and then started a food company bottling the namesake dressing.
 
The Caesar salad began to be found in restaurants San Diego and Los Angeles by the 1930s, including the celebrity haunts of Chasen’s and Romanoff’s; southern Californians having a reputation for enjoying salads more than elsewhere in America might have helped it gaining traction there. The salad did not make an appearance in Italian restaurants possibly until the 1950s and did not really become popular at these until the 1980s. Though the ingredients that have long been commonplace in this country for the Caesar salad – olive oil, anchovies and lemon, plus the romaine lettuce – were frequently used in Italian cooking here, it is most likely Americans’ affection for the salad as a starter, a flavorful salad, that has caused it to become a near fixture on Italian-American menus in this country, and found in all types of restaurants. The fact that the dish shares a name with one of the most famous Italians ever, Julius Caesar, makes the association even easier for diners and restaurateurs at Italian restaurants. A common theme with most Italian-American restaurants is the desire to promote a connection to Italy, however tenuous.
 
Though it might not be Italian at all, that it is served at Italian-themed restaurants is not necessarily a bad thing. Quite the contrary. The Caesar salad can certainly be a delicious dish when made well, almost no matter what the restaurant or almost what the recipe.

A Caesar salad featuring Colavita olive oil - Colavita

Freshly made pastas are a calling card for many Italian restaurants and a signifier that it has a serious kitchen. Fresh pastas, in forms of thin strands and larger sheets that are filled and served as stuffed pastas like ravioli, are the fifth most common item on Italian restaurants today. Fresh pasta usually means pasta made with soft wheat flour and eggs. The sturdier hard or durum wheat will be part of the mix if the pasta is extruded into shapes at the restaurant, e.g. fresh rigatoni.
 
Fresh pastas are more popular than ever. And a few chefs have gained almost cult-status for their restaurants’ fresh pastas like Missy Robbins in Brooklyn, Stefano Secchi in Manhattan, and Evan Funke, mostly in Los Angeles. But as odd as it may sound, freshly made pasta were actually not a key part of dining out for Italian food in America for many years.
 
Spaghetti once dominated the pasta offerings at Italian restaurants in America. The other type of pasta that made it on to most menus before and after the Second World War was ravioli with fillings like the popular ricotta and minced greens, or ground beef, served in a sauce, usually tomato. Ravioli was almost always the only pasta made on site then, if any were. Many restaurants relied on a good fresh pasta shop in their Italian neighborhood for these. In San Francisco, the handful of Ligurian-rooted stalwarts regularly served a few freshly made pastas other than ravioli, and their filled pastas might have sported different shapes and different names like agnolotti or tortellini.
 
It is the influence of the area of Emilia north of Rome – the inland part of the Emilia-Romagna region – that has accounted for much of the recent-years growth of fresh pasta at restaurants. This is the heartland of fresh pasta in Italy and a widely admired rich cuisine. Many prominent chefs have trained there including Robbins, Secchi, and Funke, and others like Michael White and Mario Batali before them.
 
That region is also home to bolognese sauce, another menu item that has become more frequent in the past decade or so, and the perfect partner to fresh pasta made with soft wheat flour. Though at many restaurants that is really a fancier name for a sauce with ground meat, not a true ragù alla bolognese. There is a difference.

Ravioli filled with taleggio and topped with a wild boar ragu, shaved black truffles and pistachios at Amalfi in Houston

One of the most frequently found foods at an Italian restaurant in America will probably come as a surprise, potatoes. Potatoes as a side dish. Americans especially like potatoes. But potatoes also have a long tradition as a side dish in Italy. A potato contorno, side dish, at a trattoria in Italy is a common order with roasted or grilled meats and can be a delicious complement. Often it might be wedges of yellowy potatoes sauteed and served with plenty of quality olive oil, noticeable rosemary and big grains of salt.
 
You will find potato sides mostly at restaurants with a more Italian than Italian-American focus. The Italian-American tradition, with typically very large portion sizes, has little need for side dishes. Olive Garden does offer a side of mashed potatoes, though. Maybe something good to know. Or not.
 
Potato dishes have long been served at Italian restaurants in America. Looking through menus from a century or more ago, and you will see items like mashed potatoes, Lyonnaise potatoes, and fried potatoes, maybe Americans favorite vegetable dish.
 
Today, Bari in Houston offers sides of potato gratin and roasted fingerling potatoes. Southern Italian-focused A16 in San Francisco serves those fingerling potatoes sauteed with rosemary and garlic oil. Expense-account destination Marea on Central Park in New York that once held two Michelin stars, and still recommended, has a menu that leads with caviar service and also an “Esperienza Di Caviale” plus a veal chop for $110, so it is not out of character that its side of potatoes with parmigiano and capers is $24. The splashy newish Italian-American seafooder Carbone Riviera in Las Vegas, has Patate Crocante, crunchy potatoes, and Dogana Potatoes, the Carbone’s popular take on the French potatoes Anna, a potato cake with crispy layers of thinly sliced potatoes. The Factory Kitchen from star chef Angelo Auriana in Los Angeles serves a side of “oven-roasted Yukon gold potatoes, spicy thyme-rosemary and a light Ligurian olive oil.” Different takes, certainly all tasty and nice complements to a meal.

A terrific potato side at Hotel Miralago in Molise a few years.

Number seven of the most frequently seen dishes on Italian restaurant menus in America might be only seafood readily ordered in restaurants far from the coasts, fried calamari. Squid tentacles cut into small rings, and at times very small whole squids, are lightly coated in flour then quickly deep-fried until crispy and served hot with wedges of lemon and usually tomato sauce on the side, the dish has become an Italian-American menu fixture as a starter. Usually fairly clean-tasting, not fishy, it is widely enjoyed. And that it is fried might be the reason. Might be.
 
It is one of the many popular dishes with roots in the Naples area along with the ravioli, much of the antipasti spread, the hefty tomato-sauced lasagna, linguine in a white clam sauce, chicken parmesan, spaghetti and meatballs, spumoni, eggplant parmesan, pizza, pasta with marinara sauce, insalata caprese, veal piccata, and more. Essentially unseen on menus until the 1950s when it was served here and there in coastal cities, fried calamari made considerably more appearances throughout the country during the 1980s. It is one of the dishes that people enjoy when dining out but rarely make at home. Cleaning then deep-frying squid are tasks most are very happy to leave to a restaurant.

An especially tasty order of calamari, but in Italy, at a restaurant in the seafood market in Catania

After scouring a representative sample of Italian restaurant menus across the country, the tenth most common item is one that has become a favorite for home cooks, children, and Italian-American chain restaurants, chicken parmesan. And many more, to be fair. There was a piece a few years about Ken Auletta, the longtime New Yorker writer who has had an obsession in finding excellent chicken parmesan preparations, and part of a group of guys who have been foraging the Italian-American eateries of the New York area for years in search of quality versions. For Auletta, a “test of a good Southern Italian restaurant is whether their chicken or veal parmigiana had a good sauce, the breading is crisp and has not been drowned in sauce, and the chicken or veal is not so thin it tastes like cardboard.”

Chicken parmesan is an American creation that grew from the eggplant parmigiana preparation from southern Italy and Sicily, with the meatier chicken substituting for the less caloric eggplant at its core. Veal parmesan came first, at least by the 1930s while chicken parmesan debuted on restaurant menus at least a couple of decades later. Veal parmesan is certainly a much better dish – though the version at the venerable Ralph’s near the Italian Market in Philadelphia last fall was disappointing – and my favorite dish as a kid. But chicken parmesan is ubiquitous throughout the country, the veal version much less so. Industrially produced, widely distributed, easily affordable, and easy to cook with, abnormally large, if typically fairly tasteless, chicken breasts provide the key reason for the popularity of chicken parmesan. The dish at restaurant is a chicken breast or two – rarely pounded very thin – breaded and pan-fried, sometimes baked, and topped with mozzarella and maybe some other Italian-inspired cheeses and melted in an oven, and served in a tomato sauce usually with a side of pasta, likely spaghetti, also in that tomato sauce. You know what it is. And even longtime New Yorkers and Italian-Americans like Ken Auletta might really like it if done well.

In case you are curious, among the fifteen most popular Italian-American chains, the average price of chicken parmesan just about $23.50. The chicken parm index.

Other than prosciutto and the other cured items that might be served as an antipasto, pork does not typically come to mind for most when going out for Italian. There are far fewer pork dishes as secondos, or mains, in the Italian catalog than other proteins, after all. One has not become a classic restaurant dish like veal marsala, chicken cacciatore, chicken parmesan, saltimbocca or steak pizzaiola. But pork as main dish has always been found at Italian restaurants in America. Pork chops were on the menu at Campi’s in Stockton, California in the 1890s, to cite a very early example.
 
Today, you will find dishes an array of pork-based entrées that include pork chops topped with a Marsala sauce at the original location of Carrabba’s in Houston. Don Angie in New York has grilled pork shoulder with gigante beans all' amatriciana, garnished with red dandelion. The well-regarded Lucia in Dallas has served Berkshire pork collar cooked in hay with trumpet mushrooms, fingerlings, and rapini. Milk-braised pork with herbs and pan-roasted semolina gnocco is offered at Spinasse in Seattle. There is a dry-aged pork chop with grilled long hot peppers at Florence Supper Club in Denver that references Philadelphia with its choice of the pepper accompaniment. Long-standing Peppone in Los Angeles has Pork Loan Scaloppine. Across the country, Osteria Santini on Staten Island has something it calls Pork Chop Sicilian, with the pork chop coated in oregano-flavored bread crumbs the sauteed and served with pepperoncini and marinara sauce. In another borough, there is the Neapolitan-influenced Pork Chops Pizzaiola at Bamonte’s in Brooklyn. These last two are unusual in offering more than one pork entrée. Most restaurants just have a single one.

Sauteed bone-in pork loin topped with arugula, grape tomatoes, and thin slices of radish in a light vinaigrette and Parmigiano at the original Carrabba's on Kirby in Houston

What is likely the best pizzeria in Houston is opening very soon in the Heights. I went to a soft-opening dinner the other day at the attractive Angie’s Pizza on 11th Street a few blocks east of Shepherd to sample some of the menu. It was fantastic throughout. Proprietor and pizzaiolo Angelo Emiliani won acclaim at pizza pop-ups and Café Louie that became Louie’s Italian American in the East End. Acclaim but not financial success, and those restaurants shuttered. Emiliani returned to work with Chris Bianco, the country’s most acclaimed pizza maker, as the culinary director the Pizzeria Bianco in Los Angeles, which carries a Bib Gourmand designation from Michelin. Emiliani knows pizza.
 
At the table, waiting for pasta and pastas, I ordered their seasonal Negroni, the White Negroni. With the pale-colored Bitter Bianco substituting for the Campari, a hint of cantaloupe melon juice and a bit of sweet Tokaji wine, served straight up, this was a much different take on the classic. Much less bitter, a touch sweet, and with a beguiling taste, it was delicious, drinking dangerously quickly.
 
The pasta, the agnolotti del plin, quickly arrived. This is the version of ravioli popular in the Langhe and Monferrato areas of Piedmont. Angie’s fills theirs with shreds of braised Texas wagyu and these sit in a good amount of jus of that beef and topped with freshly grated Parmigiano-Reggiano. The soft pasta pockets nicely held their shapes stuffed with the juicy, rich meat and had a really nice flavor. This was fresh pasta done very well. This agnolotti del plin was different than the many ones I have had in Piedmont in years past – it was not the deep yellow from the overload egg yolks in the pasta – but I really enjoyed it. Definitely worth an order, though there is a good chance that you’ll need some more food even with this $28 tag.
 
Following quickly on the heels of the pasta were the items of most anticipation, the pizzas. These certainly did not disappoint. Done in the neo-Neapolitan style that Chris Bianco popularized, these are made with the soft ‘00’ flour and quickly cooked in a traditional wood-burning oven. The large oven here, a Neapolitan style from Marra Forni, is impressive. Emiliani told me afterwards that the pizzas he is making – and he was tending the oven yesterday – are the same ones that Bianco’s places make, except he is offering a different and broader range of toppings. The crusts, the true test of a pizza, were spot-on, light but firm enough for the toppings and nicely cooked. Wonderful. A pizzeria cannot hide with the minimal Margherita, the pizza at the heart of Naples-style pizza. Angie’s was terrific, bolstered by the very tasty, charred crust, and atop with raw preserved tomatoes, a good amount of quality, fresh mozzarella and then the basil leaves scattered after cooking. Balanced like a margherita should be, letting the excellent tomato, mozzarella, basil and bread in proper measures to work their magic together. The busier Piccante pizza was at least as delectable. Topped with the tomatoes, mozzarella, pepperoni-like Spanish chorizo with some spice, some fennel and garlic, and also with honey. Honey works well with spice. It did here. The two pizzas disappeared in virtually no time.
 
As enjoyable as the savory foods were, maybe surprisingly so, I felt I had to try a dessert from Emiliani’s sister, Lucianna, who is an acclaimed pastry chef. The unusual Blueberry & Cream Tiramisu with jasmine tea, lychee cream, and almond cake substituting for ladyfingers was terrific. Rich, complex, not so sweet, it was one of the best desserts I have had in a while. The artisanal sundae featuring a coconut custard my friend ordered was just as enjoyable. Some people might want to visit Angie’s just for one of its handful of sweets.
 
Also, the short list of wines by the glass is well-chosen, ranging widely but all chosen with food in mind. On an Etna kick after a recent visit there, the Fessina Etna Rosso was a little surprising to see, and perfect with the pizzas. Wine is served unpretentiously in stocky glasses and maybe not overly generously. I didn’t look the full list, but it should have plenty of temptations based on what is by the glass. And the interior that seats just under a hundred is diner-like in a very nice and contemporary way, with a long bar and the massive post oak-stoked oven in a corner behind it. There is also a dark and alluring bar seating under twenty, up the stairs outside operating separately that is another attraction.
 
Angie’s is much more than a pizza joint. Not only will it be probably the best pizzeria in Houston, it will also one of the very best new restaurants to open here this year. Initially slated for opening yesterday, I was told it should be very soon.
 
Angie’s Pizza
1002 W 11th St. (a few blocks east of Shepherd), 77008
www.angiespizzapies.com

Insalata caprese, sporting the red, white and green of the Italian flag, is a light dish made in purest form just with slices of hopefully at least decent quality mozzarella and ripe tomatoes, leaves of fresh basil, and olive oil. It was created at a hotel on the island of Capri near Naples, hence the name, maybe in the 1930s. Insalata caprese began to appear in the 1960s in America and became popular as a starter at many Italian restaurants in the 1980s, then a necessity at most affordable Italian-American restaurants after the turn of the millennium. It is now found at about 40 percent of Italian restaurants around the country. And it is popular in Italy well beyond its origins. I just had a terrific version in a town on Mount Etna in Sicily made with perfectly ripe small locally sourced tomatoes and dotted with bits of fresh oregano.
 
The dish was initially made with cow’s milk mozzarella, fior di latte, which translates to "flower of milk." It has a lighter and more subtle taste than mozzarella di bufala, mozzarella made with buffalo milk that is more highly regarded, and more expensive. And there were cows just across the Sorrento Peninsula from Capri. Cow’s milk mozzarella is typical at American restaurants – if rarely the quality of that served in Italy. Sometimes bits of dried oregano and balsamic vinegar sometimes join the original quartet of ingredients. This is especially so when the mozzarella and tomatoes are of less than ideal stature.
 
Insalata caprese is one of the large number of dishes on Italian restaurants in America that have roots in the Naples area. These include ricotta-filled and tomato-sauce-topped ravioli, much of the antipasti spread, the hefty red-sauced lasagna, linguine in a white clam sauce, veal parmesan, fried calamari, spaghetti and meatballs, spumoni, eggplant parmesan, pizza, pasta with marinara sauce, veal piccata, and chicken parmesan, to name the most familiar.

The terrific insalata caprese a San Giorgio e il Drago in Randazzo on the north side of Mount Etna last month.

Salmon does not seem Italian. The fish is certainly not Italian. It is not native to the Italian coasts and rivers. But salmon is one of the most common sights on Italian restaurant menus in America, found on well over a third of them.
 
At Bari in Houston, chef Renato Di Pirro offers contemporary Italian sensibility with his attractive Faroe Salmon with a beet and blood orange marinade, on top of noodles aglio e olio, with spirulina beurre blanc. The grand Italian-American in several locations, Carbone, has Salmon Oreganata, giving salmon the old school clams oreganata treatment. The Chicago Italian-American-rooted Harry Caray’s moves well beyond the Windy City with Grilled Salmon with Coconut Rice, Mango and Red Pepper Relish. And if you can somehow overlook one of its “Amazing Alfredos,” Olive Garden has “Herb-Grilled Salmon: Filet grilled to perfection and topped with garlic herb butter. Served with parmesan garlic broccoli.”
 
Nearly every Italian restaurant here always had at a distinct American component. Restaurants source from America and serve American customers, after all. As about the most easily sourced fish with broad appeal, salmon has found a home at Italian restaurants in America for several decades. It first gained significant traction in the 1990s. Even in Italy, in fairness, salmon is actually found, at least in stores. Italy imports over 130,000 tons of salmon annually from Norway, nearly all of it seemingly destined for home kitchens. Though for the first time, during a trip to Sicily last month, I actually noticed salmon filets on a menu in Italy. It doesn’t seem en route to take holds on menus there as here. But as the world changes, who knows.

Pan Grilled Salmon Limone at Palazzo's in Houston

Meatballs have become a very popular order to start a meal for many. Meatballs in the antipasti or appetizer section are now number fourteen among the most frequently seen items at Italian restaurants. These often feature a combination of meats involving ground beef with pork and veal and are served with a tomato sauce. All-veal meatballs are also seen.
 
Meatballs were part of the southern Italian tradition of the immigrants; it was a way to make poor quality meat much more palatable. Usually stretched with bread or bread crumbs, it was always served as a main course, after the pasta or soup. In America, since beef, and pork and veal were all plentiful and easily affordable, those meatballs eventually became quite larger and beefier, meatier than their Old World precursors, and served much more frequently. The additional calories and protein were certainly welcome by those doing heavy labor, a majority of the male immigrants. Here, with a much quicker lifestyle and limited time for meals, plump meatballs and pasta were eventually served together. This dish, a certifiably American creation and possibly even a restaurant one, was to become one of the most popular throughout the country. In 1924, Cane’s Spaghetti Station No. 1 in Glendale, just north of Los Angeles, was offering “Spaghetti or Ravioli with Polpette” – meatballs in Italian – as a part of a three-course 60-cent lunch. If not especially cheap at the time, it was likely a good deal. The word polpette, pohl-PEH-teh, is used at times by restaurants today in an effort to claim some level of authenticity. And polpette sounds fancier than meatballs.
 
Though long paired with spaghetti at restaurants, meatballs as a starter is something fairly new, just becoming common in the past decade or so. It was actually a rare sight before then. But people today really like meatballs. And more than just American diners. Along a side street in the Sicilian coastal city of Catania last month, I saw a restaurant with the name Polpetteria, a restaurant that specializes in meatballs. Though beef-heavy meatballs reign in America, this spot offers a very wide range of polpette: beef, horse, chicken, donkey, eggplant, zucchini and ricotta, potato, swordfish, tuna, and more. These are for the main course, though.

The World Cup started here on Sunday, June 14. This post is a little tardy. Germany, Portugal, the Netherlands, Sweden, and Saudia Arabia are among the countries scheduled to play in Houston during the first round, and Brazil is likely for one of the knockout matches later. Though it was recently reported that bookings at hotels are down from what was expected and a million tickets remained unsold across all venues as of last week – because of FIFA’s attempt to gouge fans as much as possible – there should still be plenty of visitors to Houston from overseas. With steep ticket prices and the considerable cost and hassle of the travel, most of those who will make it can be expected to want to spend money on food and a surfeit of beer and other alcohol.
 
The country’s fourth-largest and most diverse city has large immigrant populations from across the world and many restaurants representing them. The city’s restaurants do a lot well, across a wide array of cuisines. You can get excellent steaks and hamburgers in Houston – and in every big city in America – but many visitors might want to try foods and cuisines that are most representative of the city. The ten most distinctive and emblematic foods found at Houston eateries are, alphabetically: banh mi – Vietnamese sandwiches; barbecue; breakfast tacos; campechana – a refreshing Mexican-style seafood cocktail; fajitas – grilled skirt steak and its near-brethren; Gulf Coast seafood; kolaches; Mexican food, regional and upscale; pho – the Vietnamese beef noodle soup; and Viet-Cajun crawfish.
 
Below is where to find those ten foods and more, if far from all to be recommended. The places suggested are generally closer to the cluster of hotels downtown and in the Galleria area. Chinatown in southwest Houston is tough to completely ignore for food lovers, though. The list below is also geared toward nicer spots, for the most part. The barbecue, banh mi, beer, breakfast taco, and crawfish spots, necessarily less so.


Banh Mi – The Vietnamese-originated sandwich on crusty French bread with a slather of house-made mayonnaise has been a Houston staple for many for well over three decades now. The signature Houston version of banh mi, at least for many non-Vietnamese locals, has been the one featuring slices of char-grilled pork, the banh mi thit noung. Some spots to sample this inexpensive treat are: Roostar (East End, Galleria Area, Spring Branch), Thien An (Midtown), Cali (Midtown), Les Ba’Get (Garden Oaks), Don Café (Chinatown), Nguyen Ngo (Chinatown), Khang (Chinatown), Parisian Bakery (Chinatown), Lee’s Sandwiches (Chinatown), and Baguettea (North Houston).

Barbecue – Texas barbecue is highlighted by slowly smoked beef brisket primarily, along with pork ribs and plump links of mostly pork sausage, also smoked. Expect at line at many of these: Truth (Washington Corridor), The Pit Room (Montrose, Spring Branch), Pinkerton’s (Heights, Upper Kirby District), Blood Bros. (Bellaire), J-Bar-M (EaDo), and Killen’s (Cypress, Pearland), which kicked off the local resurgence in barbecue here over a decade ago.
 
Beer – Excessive beer consumption and soccer go hand-in-hand. The two best local breweries have beer gardens. The setting at Saint Arnold (Near North Side) is attractive and comfortable, featuring a nice view of the downtown skyline, if appropriately marred with one of our elevated freeways. There is also one at Karbach (Spring Branch) further out and less sightly. Hopefully, the excellent, properly German-tasting Summer Pils from Saint Arnold will still be around come tourney time. And Karbach boasts a Wiehenstephan-trained brewer as a founder.

Breakfast – For the caloric American and Tex-Mex breakfast, there are some excellent, casual and fun choices that sport local flavor. The Breakfast Klub (Midtown), Goode Co. Taqueria (West University), Goode Co. Kitchen & Cantina (Heights, Memorial, River Oaks) and Cucharita (Montrose) are the most interesting. There is also Black Walnut Café (Rice Village, Memorial Park, etc.), The Buffalo Grille (West U, Briargrove) and Dandelion Café (Heights, Bellaire) for traditional American breakfasts and more done tastefully.

Breakfast Tacos – For a quick and even more casual breakfast that can be picked up, breakfast tacos can be a piquant and tasty morning start when time is a consideration. Breakfast tacos work very well both before beer and after a long night of beer. Tacos A Go Go (multiple), Tio Trompo (Washington Corridor), Urbe (Uptown Park), Laredo Taqueria (Washington Corridor, Near North Side), The Pit Room (Montrose, Spring Branch), and The Taco Stand (Montrose, Heights, Spring Branch), which has drive-thrus.

Brunch – If visitors desire a brunch day – plenty of alcohol before noon – the Hugo Ortega-Tracy Vaught restaurants do a great job with brunch and in different ways: Hugo’s (Montrose), Xochi (Downtown), Zaranda’s (Downtown), and Caracol (Galleria Area). On Sundays, the brunches at Hugo’s, Xochi, and Caracol are all-you-can-eat buffets. There is also the grand Creole brunch at Brennan’s (Midtown), a high-calorie and necessarily alcohol-laden morning feast  

Cocktails – For folks into cocktails or maybe at least before dinner, several of Bobby Heugel’s and alums’ spots can do the trick terrifically well, led by the trend-setting Anvil that is still going strong well into its second decade. Anvil (Montrose), Refuge (Montrose), Julep (Washington Corridor), Better Luck Tomorrow (Heights), Under the Volcano (Rice Village) for a cheaper option. Then for the Spanish gin and tonics, there is BCN (Montrose) and MAD (River Oaks District), and late afternoons at Squable (Heights) and The Marigold Club (Montrose).

Creole / Cajun – Creole as practiced in New Orleans hasn’t really found roots beyond Louisiana other than here, if with some local concessions that work well. Eunice (Greenway Plaza), Brennan’s (Midtown), Josephine's (Midtown), and also Ragin’ Cajun (Greenway Plaza, Spring Branch).
 
Fajitas – Grilled skirt steak stuffed into large flour tortillas, as fajitas are in its original form, might not be as popular as they once were, but these are a delicious, if now fairly pricey part, of Houston’s culinary history. El Tiempo (East End, Montrose, Upper Kirby District, etc.), Goode Co. Kitchen & Cantina (Memorial, River Oaks, Heights), Candente (Montrose), and Lupe Tortilla (multiple) are the best bets. For nostalgia sake, as it popularized fajitas nationally, you might also want to visit Ninfa’s (East End), though it is not what it once was.

Gulf Seafood – Seafood from the Gulf of Mexico can be something a little unique for visitors, with dishes like seafood gumbo, Gulf oysters, redfish on the half shell, grilled red snapper, stuffed flounder, and shrimp en brochette. A few spots are excellent with it. Goode Co. Seafood (West University, Memorial), Little's Oyster Bar (Montrose), Latuli (Memorial), Credence (Memorial), Eugene’s (Montrose), Segari’s (Washington Corridor) and Brennan’s (Midtown) for a taste of New Orleans tempered with some local flavors.
 
Indian – With a nod to visitors from Portugal that is playing two games here, the comely and cool Da Gama (Heights) features Indian food with an emphasis on dishes from the former Portuguese outposts in India. Musafeer (Galleria) is gorgeously decorated and boasts a Michelin star, while the very comfortable Pondicheri (Upper Kirby District) is a Houston favorite.

Italian – Italian doesn’t quickly come to mind with Houston, but there are a few places offering well-made truly Italian fare. Giancarlo Ferrara from Salerno has been doing it for over a decade at Amalfi (Briargrove) and Bari (River Oaks District), with Tuscan Renato Di Pirro heading the kitchen, serves food that more than matches the lively atmosphere. Da Marco (Montrose) and Poscol (Montrose), both from chef Marco Wiles, the former a formal white tablecloth venture, the latter offering small plates and more of a taste of northern Italy. Davanti (Greenway Plaza) offers a casual counter-service stop for authentic Italy cooking both from Rome and elsewhere. Maurizio Ferrarese continues to do great work at what is now Remi (Uptown Park) in the Hotel Granduca. Lynette Hawkins’s Giacomo’s (Upper Kirby District) is a local favorite and sports one of the most enticing and nicely-priced wine lists in the city.

Italian-American – Not the food of Italy, for the most part. The always bustling, fun original Carrabba’s (Upper Kirby, Briargrove) on Kirby and the one the family still owns on Woodway are well-run crowd-pleasers featuring robust flavors that have been popular for four decades.

Kolaches – This Czech breakfast pastry featuring a sweet yeast dough has been a Texas staple for well over a century, though most versions are rather lacking, to be honest. But Houston is home to the very best purveyor in the entire state, Kolache Shoppe (Greenway Plaza, Heights, Spring Branch), which even has a drive-thru at its Heights location.

Mexican, upscale and regional – Hugo Ortega is our answer to Chicago’s star Rick Bayless, except Ortega is from Mexico. He and Tracy Vaught’s now quartet of upscale Mexican restaurants are among the very best Mexican restaurants in the region. Hugo’s (Montrose), Xochi (Downtown) and Zaranda (Downtown) are across Discovery Green from each other, while Caracol (Galleria Area), Urbe (Uptown Park) are near another cluster of hotels near the Galleria. The tasting menu at Tatemó (Spring Branch) deservedly garnered it a Michelin star, while Maximo (West University), the beautiful Mayahuel (River Oaks) and Cuchara (Montrose) are also worth a trip. More humble and more regionally focused, among the scores, include: Tio Trompo (Washington Corridor), Polanquito (Washington Corridor), El Hidalguence (Spring Branch), and The Little Taco Shop (Upper Kirby District).
 
Pho – Steaming, long-cooked beef broth flavored with an array of aromatics and spices the stocked with rice noodles and served with an array of fresh herbs, this is a part of the city’s dining almost as much as Tex-Mex and barbecue. Almost. Thein An (Midtown) is the closest to downtown, and then there is Moon Rabbit (Heights) not far away. But most of the best located in Chinatown along Bellaire Boulevard in the city’s southwest. These include Hương Sen (Chinatown), Phở Sapa (Chinatown), Ði Ӑn Phơ (Chinatown), and a chicken soup specialist, Cơm Gà Thượng Hải (Chinatown).

Steak – The Great American Steakhouse template still holds across the country though it has evolved over the years, with the expensive Japanese cuts gaining menu space. A few to mention are: Pappas Bros. Steakhouse (Galleria Area, Downtown), which offers two of the top wine lists in the country, Georgia James (River Oaks), and for a more affordable, excellent steak, in the tradition of the pampas, is the family-run Uruguayan Saldivia’s (Westchase). It is the best value for steak in Houston.

Sushi – Manabu Horiuchi at Kata Robata and Katami is not only a terrific sushi chef and for Japanese cuisine in general, but he is one of the very best chefs in Houston regardless of cuisine. The folks from Austin with Uchi and Uchiko do a terrific job with a slightly Americanized interpretation. Katami (Montrose), Kata Robata (Upper Kirby), Uchi (Montrose), Uchiko (Galleria Area), Soto (Montrose), MF Sushi (Museum District), Hidden Omakase (Galleria Area) and Kira (Upper Kirby District) are some of the best in town.

Tex-Mex – The lines between Tex-Mex and Mexican continue to get blurrier, a distinction that will certainly be lost on most visitors from overseas, in any case. Goode Co. Kitchen & Cantina (Memorial, River Oaks, Heights) is the best around, but several others including the pricey and attractively set Flora (River Oaks) offers excellent dishes beyond Tex-Mex, Candente (Montrose), the comfortable Sylvia's Enchilada House (Briargrove, Energy Corridor), or one of the locations of El Tiempo (multiple) especially for fajitas.

Viet-Cajun (during crawfish season that will be certain to run through the World Cup matches) – A recently developed cuisine that has drawn considerable attention with its leading light an especially fun dining experience, and one that’s quite regional. This is the boiled crawfish tradition from neighboring Louisiana combined with garlicky butter sauces and Vietnamese spices and flavors. Crawfish & Noodles (Chinatown) is the progenitor and a very fun visit, and get the crabs, too, if still available. Other restaurants are: 88 Boiling Crawfish & Seafood (Chinatown), Crawfish & Beignets (Chinatown), South x Saigon (Chinatown), and LA Crawfish (multiple).

Wine – Houston has some nice wine bars, both in terms of selection and comfort, the best with a heavy Old World bent among the offerings, especially France and Italy, of course. One can be a fine way to began an evening or be the evening. 13 Celsius (Midtown), which is the best of breed, The Library (Spring Branch), Montrose Cheese & Wine (Montrose), VinSanto (West Houston), The Montrose Grocery (Montrose), Padre’s (Heights), Paul’s Wine Pix (Bellaire), and Roots (East End).

Other – A few other places to note mostly for their quality. These include the Spanish duo of BCN and MAD, the bistro-like Squable and Nancy’s Hustle, the comfortably ambitious and affordable Camaraderie, the upscale seafooder Navy Blue, and the family friendly Tiny Champions that also pours excellent cocktails. BCN (Montrose), MAD (River Oaks District), Nancy's Hustle (EaDo), Squable (Heights), Camaraderie (Heights), Navy Blue (Rice Village), and Tiny Champions (EaDo).

The mixed grilled featuring beef and chicken fajitas, jalapeño cheese smoked sausage, quail, jumbo Gulf shrimp, and pork carnitas at Goode Co. Kitchen & Cantina