On Mondays we highlight Houstonians who shape our great city in “My Top 5.” This week, we’re very pleased to showcase Houston Chronicle food critic Alison Cook, who is revealing her Top 100 Restaurant List at a sold-out, first-time event called Houston Chronicle Culinary Stars on Wednesday, September 24, 2014. Her soft-bound “Top 100 Restaurants 2014” book will be available in the Chronicle on Thursday, September 25, 2014 in home delivery and single copy editions. Anonymity remains vital to a genuine food critic, hence Alison’s sneaky, cheeky photo.
My Top 5 Things to Do in Houston
by Alison Cook
- Walk along a bayou – My neighborhood bayou is Brays, but any bayou whose banks haven’t been concreted over will do. There’s always so much going on if you look: turtles basking, fish leaping, great blue herons fishing, egrets sailing, nutria splashing, cormorants craning their necks. It’s a window into what Houston was before everything got paved over.
- Drive the freeways at sunset – All the trees in my neighborhood block my views to the west, so I really love driving somewhere—anywhere, really—when the sun is going down. I think that’s the highest and best use of our freeways.
- Café au lait and croissants at Chez Beignets in Asiatown – The beignets are so puffy and immediate when they come out of the fryer, and I appreciate being able to add exactly the right amount of hot milk to my chicory coffee using the self-serve spigots. Plus it’s such a great slice of Houston life and the way so many cultures come together to make something greater. German owners, Vietnamese clientele. It’s my go-to dessert choice when I’ve been at one of the hundreds of Chinese, Vietnamese, Korean, Malaysian or crawfish-boil restaurants in the neighborhood.
- Friday night Tex-Mex – I don’t care where you go—everybody has a favorite Tex Mex restaurant that speaks to them—but there is something wonderfully ritualistic about ending the work week over margaritas and a plate of cheese enchiladas or fajitas. My sentimental favorite is Spanish Village on Almeda, but I’d be happy at Lupita’s in Sugar Land, Soto’s Cantina in Cypress, Sylvia’s Enchilada Kitchen on Woodway, the Original Ninfa’s on Navigation or El Tiempo on Montrose Boulevard.
- Sunday morning breakfast tacos – I don’t know why, but breakfast tacos taste particularly fine on a lazy Sunday morning. It’s key to find a reliable spot in your neighborhood. I live in the East End, so my go-tos are Villa Arcos, which has been there forever, doesn’t even have air conditioning, and does the most incredible chicharrone and egg tacos on the weekends; or Noemi’s on Park Place, where the eggs are scrambled gently and the barbacoa is especially lush.
About Alison Cook
Alison Cook has been the Houston Chronicle’s restaurant critic since 2002. In her long career as a food and restaurant writer, she has earned two James Beard Foundation Awards for newspaper restaurant criticism and was a finalist for that award each of the past three years. A recipient of the coveted M.F.K. Fisher Award for Distinguished Writing, Alison has been the food writer for Conde Nast House & Garden, served as the restaurant critic for Texas Monthly, and has contributed to Esquire, GQ, New York Times Magazine, Gourmet, Saveur, Food & Wine, Vogue, Travel & Leisure and Business Week.
