Serious Eats - seriouseats.com

This is why I need the book! But I would be very pleased to eat rice, pickled vegetables, some teriyaki chicken, and some other vegetables. Would love more idea for the "other vegetables" part.

Yay, Top Chef recaps. I almost enjoy snarky recaps more than I enjoy the show.

I don't think anyone expected them to turn out Hong Kong quality har gow, but wow, I expected a lot more than most (not all) delivered. I do love Carla, but her dish (the summer rolls with lemongrass sauce) would have fit right in at Pei Wei, the downmarket chain of P.F. Chang's. Same with Tiffani's cabbage/sesame salad and Jamie's flat, sad scallop dumplings. I was kind of impressed that Casey attempted chicken feet (though clipping off each nail one by one was a bad move). I'm with the others who thought Jamie should have gone home. Oh well.

Tex-Mex: Every Houstonian has a favorite but the original Ninfa's on Navigation is mine. Stiff frozen margaritas, wonderful tortillas, and that green sauce. Fajitas all the way. Unless I'm in the mood for carnitas.

Vietnamese: Huynh near downtown for grilled pork banh uot, my quang, duck salad (!), Phoenix chicken, and the best service. Thien Thanh on Bellaire, across from Hong Kong City Mall, has great banh cuon. Pho Binh trailer for pho (though this is technically in Pearland). Pho Nga in midtown has good sugarcane shrimp. Alpha Bakery in HKCity Mall has good banh mi.

Chinese - Sichuan cuisine for delicious cold appetizers and chong qin chicken and dan dan noodles. Fung's Kitchen for dim sum. Xiong's cafe is no-frills but I love their dumplings and handmade noodles. Peking Cuisine for Peking Duck.

Fine dining - FEAST FEAST FEAST. The weekend lunch is a delicious bargain. I love this place so much. Very unique, and we are lucky to have it.

Mexican - Hugo's. Carefully made food, and very good. Duck mole negro is a favorite.

Beer: Gingerman in Rice Village.

Burgers: Bubba's under Westpark has good buffalo burgers and real Texas charm. Tiny Boxwood's has a fancy buffalo/blue cheese burger that is good too. Little Big's has fine sliders but the best french fries in town. I also like their pulled pork sliders with pickled jalapenos. Lankford Grocery burgers have gone way, way downhill, imo.

Making fried rice (I add minced ginger, dried chiles, scrambled egg, peas, chopped green onion, soy) + Sichuan fried green beans (fuchsia dunlop recipe but no pork) + steamed tofu with a shitake mushroom-scallion-soy topping.

We're going pescetarian for all of Lent, which means vegetarian unless I remember to defrost salmon or shrimp :p

This year, my husband and I are going pescatarian for all of Lent, instead of just on Fridays. In the past we've given up chocolate/caffeine/ice cream but this year I want to do something that feels like more of a sacrifice.

One comment about the recipe: my mom taught me to aggressively brown/burn 2 onions (cut in half through the equator) and several chunks of ginger directly on the stove range (gas or electric) and add that the stock. It adds a ton of flavor. My mom's recipe is very similar to Andrea Nguyen's, found on her excellent Vietnamese cooking blog:

http://vietworldkitchen.typepad.com/blog/2008/10/pho-beef-noodle-soup.html

@avaryne The same thing happened in my old office. We were all traumatized. The person who made velveeta fudge is a long running joke, to this day.

Also, the version I tasted was really off-putting. Salty and a little... greasy? No thanks...