Photo by Katharine Shilcutt

This year leading up to our annual Best of Houston® issue, we're counting down our 100 favorite dishes in Houston. This list comprises our favorite dishes from the last year, dishes that are essential to Houston's cultural landscape and/or dishes that any visitor (or resident) should try at least once.

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This week's worth of dining deals from around town include a half-off Latin lunches, priced-to-sell pizzas and even a private restaurant rental at Branch Water Tavern.

Bloomspot

• Choose from three deals at Bistro Des Amis: $20 3-course lunch for two, $45 3-course dinner for two, or $99 for 4-course executive chef's tasting menu for two.

• Choose from four deals at Branch Water Tavern: $89 3-course dinner for two with complimentary bourbon flight; $89 4-course dinner for two; $155 7-course chef's tasting menu for two with complimentary bottle of champagne; $8,000 for a private restaurant rental ($15,000 value).

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Most food critics just want to be left alone. And eat ratatouille.

In this week's cafe review of Liberty Kitchen, I had a difficult time pegging the restaurant and what it's trying to be. Oyster bar with killer burgers and cocktails? Upscale dinner destination? Casual lunching spot with confusing prices? I ended up drawing my own conclusions -- which you can read in the review -- but I think that perhaps one of the reasons I was so rattled the entire time is that I was spotted from my first visit.

Liberty Kitchen has had issues with critics from the day that it opened and posted a sign barring Houston Chronicle food critic Alison Cook. The ban ostensibly arose out of owner Lance Fegen's disagreement with something Cook once wrote about his previous restaurant, Glass Wall (which is now owned by ex-partner Shepherd Ross), as well as her review of his other establishment, BRC Gastropub.

The sign and the "ban" were a rather juvenile reaction, to say the least, but Fegen seems to have an adolescent mind-set in other areas, too: Naming BRC after a "big red cock" and one of Liberty Kitchen's burgers the "Hawaiian MacCock" immediately spring to mind as other examples.

However, if Fegen was in Liberty Kitchen the last two times I was there, I didn't spot him. That didn't stop me from being recognized by his other staff members, though.

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Photos by Katharine Shilcutt

A breakfast croissant with ham and cheese

I'm just getting acquainted with Dolce Delights, the three-month-old patisserie next door to Sushi Raku in Midtown, but I'm already smitten after one croissant and a cup of coffee.

It's charming that way, with a light-filled dining room that encourages lingering in cozy, wool-covered chairs or a green velour sofa littered with magazines. The tree-lined front patio tempts you to forget you're in Houston were it not for the striking view of downtown across Elgin. And the fanciful pastries in its sleek case call to mind a more elegant version of the Wonka-esque Jean Philippe Patisseries that litter hotel lobbies in Las Vegas.

All said, it's a terrific contribution to the area in many capacities: as a spot to get caffeinated before a shopping spree at the four-story High Fashion Home across the street, a dessert destination after dining at Piola or Artisans, a post-gym break for a smoothie, or simply as a lunchtime sandwich shop. (Yes, it serves sandwiches, too.)

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Photo by Christina Uticone

The filling gets a little lost in translation.

I'm a big fan of Amy's Kitchen frozen meals. I like their focus on natural ingredients, that everything is vegetarian or vegan and that for the most part all of their offerings are portioned to within 400 calories (give or take 50).

Compared to most of the stuff I have found in the single-serve frozen-food aisle, Amy's meals taste phenomenal, so I was intrigued to see that the company had introduced a new "Light & Lean" line. Amy's lasagnas are among some of my favorites -- my father is appropriately horrified, I'm sure -- so I thought why not check out the Light & Lean version? Amy's Light & Lean meals promise less than 300 calories, five grams of fat and 590 mg of sodium each, and as always are made with natural, organic ingredients.

Rather than grab my usual favorite -- Amy's Roasted Eggplant Lasagna -- I decided to see if the Light & Lean Spinach Lasagna would deliver equally delicious flavor for 60 fewer calories and six fewer grams of fat.

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Patrise Shuttlesworth

Ronnie Killen
Killen's Steakhouse
2804 South Main St., Pearland
281-485-0844
www.killenssteakhouse.com

This is the first part of a three-part chef chat series. Look for parts two and three in this space Thursday and Friday.

Pearland, 20 miles south of Houston, is a place many call the land of pears but it actually has more history as the land of rice. Pearland used to be mostly rice paddies, but it is now the most demographically diverse city in the state. It also has more Mexican restaurants per capita than any other city. But Pearland has a hidden treasure -- Ronnie Killen and Killen's Steakhouse. Chef Ronnie Killen was raised there and continues to call it home. What people don't know about Ronnie, his restaurant and his pedigree would blow their Texas boots off.

Chef Killen is painfully shy in a group, but if you get him by himself, he will talk your ear off with the passion and enthusiasm of a young chef just starting out...except Ronnie has been at this for 30-plus years. The cooking bug bit him at age eight and has been under his skin ever since. I sat down with Ronnie the day after a wine pairing dinner he hosted and we talked about his life now and his future.

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Photo courtesy of Sylvia's Enchilada Kitchen

The North enchilada parrilla

Though some bemoan the increasingly popular practice of "National [Insert Food Here] Month," I couldn't be happier that the 31 days of May are devoted to celebrating the enchilada. I've always thought the enchilada was underappreciated compared to, say, fajitas or tacos. A Yankee acquaintance of mine once smirked, "Isn't an enchilada, like, a burrito without the good stuff?" (Sigh. Don't worry, folks, his ignorant self is far, far away in Massachusetts.)

But even among people who can correctly differentiate Mexican dishes, there's a tendency to dismiss the enchilada as "lower-brow" Tex-Mex food. Granted, the enchilada doesn't always appear in its most elevated form and thus is unsurprisingly associated with cheese-heavy, excessively greasy, mono-flavored cuisine. You know, the type of Tex-Mex that sometimes occurs during a night of heavy drinking and is definitely just what the doctored order the next morning.

For the past 14 years, Sylvia Casares has effectively dismantled these stereotypes by repeatedly presenting Houstonians with sophisticated and inventive variations of the enchilada. The latest addition to Casares's mighty brood is the black bean enchilada, a delicate roll-up of smoky flavors and robust textures, crowned with a sprinkling of creamy queso fresco.

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Photo by Michael Shum

A salad at the Great W'Kana, courtesy of our Flickr pool.

ROFL House: Been wondering how the sushi is at ultra-luxe L.A. import Katsuya by Starck? Matt took a first look at the West Ave restaurant and came away -- shall we say -- less than impressed with both the service and the food, saying: "I've had better spicy tuna with more spice and more flavor from H-E-B."

Homesick Texan: What's a girl to do when one of her favorite restaurants suddenly closes? If that girl is Lisa Fain, cookbook author and food blogger extraordinaire, she sets about immediately trying to replicate her favorite dish -- the enchiladas verdes at Amalia's -- before her last sensory memories of its flavors and smells are lost to time too.

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French Funyun Soup; the kinda thing only munchies can dream up.

Whilst living the life of a broke-ass college student for what felt (to me) like a gazillion years, my fiancé came up with the idea of Junk Drunk Food Gourmet. Think: your college pantry fancied up in a way only way too many games of survivor flip cup can fashion (the full idea involved an inebriated sketch comedy/cooking Web series called the Faux Sho', but I'll leave that to your imagination).

One night, Dave and his roommate looked in their fridge, only to find a half eaten jar of Prego, Tyson Chicken Nuggets and Polly-O String Cheese. In a magical moment both desperate and ingenious, Chicken Nugget Parms were born. They became a late-night favorite of the boys...and I may or may not have been convinced to bake them at 2 a.m. as recently as last weekend.

The nugget parms weren't the only brilliance to come out of that glorious apartment in Boston. Check out another original and some more Faux Sho'-inspired late night snacks.

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Photo by Katharine Shilcutt

This year leading up to our annual Best of Houston® issue, we're counting down our 100 favorite dishes in Houston. This list comprises our favorite dishes from the last year, dishes that are essential to Houston's cultural landscape and/or dishes that any visitor (or resident) should try at least once.

More >>