Eating in Houston, the South's 21st Century Creole city

Houston is a "21st century creole city" with food to match, says John T. Edge, author of the new book The Potlikker Papers: A Food History of the Modern South. The city's chefs have blended Southern, Vietnamese and Cajun elements to create a distinctive cuisine.

Edge points to places like Cali Sandwich & Fast food, which offers bahn mi and pho, and Houston's numerous Vietnamese-Cajun crawfish joints, which prepare the Louisiana standard with lemongrass, a cultural hybrid that Edge calls "the future of the South." He also loves Underbelly, where chef Chris Shepherd cooks food that reflects "the crazy-quilt dynamism of Houston," Edge said.        

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