Homesick Texan

I know my blog has been a bit food-heavy this week, but bear with me, this one's a goodie.  I discovered the fantastic blog Homesick Texan yesterday and have been on a mission ever since reading through all of the past posts and trying to soak up some of Lisa's enthusiasm for Texas cuisine.  I know I've been coming out here for a number of years on work trips and so I felt pretty comfortable with the immediate Clearlake area when I made the big move.  But I'd never had a chance to branch out into the greater Houston area and as I've stated here on the blog before, was therefore feeling a little intimidated by Houston's food scene.

Part of the problem was that I didn't really get it.  I'm hardly a culinary genius, but I consider myself a bit of a foodie and it seemed like everything, especially the tex mex places, were a bunch of chain restuarants.  After living in the cultural wasteland of central Florida, I was NOT going to be eating at anymore chain restaurants.  I didn't really get that these are TEXAS chain restaurants, and that they're based on the success of the local gem type of restaurants that I love to frequent, until I started reading Lisa's posts.  And I absolutely love the recommendations that she (and the people who comment on her posts) have provided in terms of Houston restaurants.  I find myself now armed with a ridiculously large list of restaurants that I must go try.  Not to mention some of the unique food markets like Canino Market (which I've actually been meaning to try for a while) and Hong Kong City Mall (apparently they have crazy big Cajun boiled crawfish, dim sum, a huge Asian food market, as well as shops that sell woks, chinese silk, etc...).

I also admit to "pinning" a handful of her recipes to pinterest for later use as well.  Given the huge cooking kick I've been on lately, trying some dishes with "local flavor" is definitely exciting!  Some of my favorites are her Dallas Style Brisket Tacos, Houston Style Carnitas (I've been looking for a good carnitas recipe), peach jalepeno jam, and chipotle sweet potato soup.  Yum!  Thanks Lisa for all of the inspiration!