My first impression of Houston was that the city was pretty boring. When the international airport is named after former president Bush, you begin to question the wisdom of the locals. The weather is very similar to Ho Chi Minh City, and biggest change in elevation in the city has to be the railroad crossings. This isn’t the biggest tourist hang out by any stretch of the imagination, but I ended up being surprised.
Houston is one of the fattest cities in the US. I was reminded of this fact whenever I talked to anyone. Whenever you ask someone the “what is there to do in Houston?” question, the first thing out of there mouth is that Houston is one of the fattest cities. I had a woman follow that comment with a very strong recommendation that I try the deep fried butter. I have to say that I was pretty curious. Not for myself, but just to witness someone eating deep fried butter sounded interesting.
The less heart attack inducing variety of cuisines in Houston were hit or miss. Tex-Mex was the idea I was shooting for. I love tacos. I really love tacos. I must have eaten 10 meals of tacos here in Texas. Nothing here is mediocre. The food was either terrible, or fantastic.
Just like most places, the more effort put into getting you in the door (i.e. Signage, decor, theme, etc) the less effort they put into the food. The best tacos I had this trip were from the worst looking taqueria in front of a strip mall (an actual strip mall, like stripped -empty!). There were two pawn shops across the street, and a check cashing business. The tacos were amazing. Corn tortillas, juicy pork, and cilantro. Happy me.
The biggest surprise: the Galleria Mall. It is an impressive sized mall if you are into that sort of thing. The strange thing was the diversity. It reminded me of the the Mall of the Emirates in Dubai. There is even an ice skating rink by the food court. I actually saw a woman in a Burqa. If women can go to the mall in George W.’s home state wearing burqas, that speaks volumes to the tolerance of America. I love it.
I am constantly surprised by the US. Anywhere you go, your stereotypes will most likely be proved wrong. If people traveled more, we would probably have a much smaller ideological divide between the extremes in this nation.
Lesson learned: People in Houston and People in San Francisco are not all that different.
Tags: Texas
The Gluten Free Travel Blog 
August 20, 2010 at 09:06 |
I was wondering if you happened upon any good options in the downtown area – oddly enough I’m going to Houston for the marathon in January and am in need of GF options. It seems though the more hunting I do on the subject (or healthy food in Houston), the more I find that deep fried butter is about all there is to find. Eek.