Houston Blog

This is it -- the Big Night of Tailgating in Houston. Monday Night Football is in town and our top tailgating teams will be putting on a show. Even if you don't have tickets to the game, it's worth taking the train to the Reliant Parking Lot just to take a look at the tailgating action.

Here are some highlights from earlier in the season to get you in the mood for the main event tonight. -- Robb Walsh

Shrimp grits started out as a seasonal fisherman’s dish of shrimp cooked in bacon grease served over creamy grits in the Low Country where they were also known as “breakfast shrimp.” The simple seafood breakfast became an iconic Southern dish after Craig Claiborne wrote about it in the New York Times in 1985.

The shrimp grits that fired Clairborne’s imagination came from Crook’s Corner restaurant in North Carolina. The chef there, Bill Neal, started out with a French restaurant, but with Clairborne’s encouragement, created his own upscale Southern cooking style in the 1980s. Bill Neal went on to write some best-selling Southern cookbooks. Neal’s shrimp grits featured a spicy sauté of shrimp over cheese grits loaded up with bacon, mushrooms and scallions. The shrimp and cheese grits ($19) at Ouisie’s Table, Houston’s original upscale Southern restaurant, were inspired by Bill Neal’s recipe.

Having trouble getting started after the long and festive holiday weekend? I suggest you visit Tampico Mexican Restaurant on Airline and order the famous Mexican seafood cocktail and hangover cure called a “Vuelve a la Vida.” The name means “return to life.” The cocktail is also called “Levanta Muertos” or “back from the dead.”

The corpse-reviving concoction contains raw oysters, octopus, shrimp and crab in a sauce made of salsa, ketchup, onions, lime juice and cilantro, topped with a some avocado and served with saltines. And if that’s not enough to do the trick, get a couple of Coronas on the side. -- Robb Walsh

Alison Cook, my counterpoint at the Chronicle, describes people who like the iodine-like flavor of Gulf brown shrimp as “a perverse subset” of humanity. As the self-appointed spokesman for this perverse subset, I interviewed Jim Gossen, president and CEO of Louisiana Foods Global Seafood Source, one of the largest shrimp dealers in Houston.

Robb Walsh: Brown shrimp have more iodine flavor than white shrimp--so which is more popular in Texas?

Jim Gossen: Brown shrimp are more prominent in Texas and white shrimp are preferred in Louisiana and on the Eastern Seaboard. A large brown shrimp has a stronger iodine flavor than a small brown shrimp. Brown shrimp in the Gulf of Mexico feed on iodine-rich kelp, which gives it the rich iodine flavor. Wild shrimp feed on crustaceans and seaweed and swim freely which gives it a richer firmer taste than farm-raised shrimp. White shrimp is the dominant shrimp sold in the United States. I think that whichever shrimp people grew up eating is what they judge their taste for shrimp by.

RW: How much brown shrimp is sold in Texas?

I like the iodine flavor of Gulf brown shrimp, especially in gumbos and other highly seasoned dishes. Alison Cook, the restaurant critic at the Chronicle, hates the taste of iodine in seafood. And she is trashing the local shrimp.

In an October 7 post on her Cook’s Tour blog titled “Dateline Charleston S.C.: hardly a bad shrimp to be had” Cook wrote:

“I have to think that this is shrimp heaven. I wonder what makes the Carolina shrimp different from our Gulf varieties, which can disappoint as often as they please…”

Yo, Sharon! You wanted to know where to go for fresh fish, cheap shrimp and shucked oysters.

Thing to do is take a drive down to Kemah. But before you go over the bridge, turn off into Seabrook and find Waterfront Drive, where the shrimp boats dock. There are at least half a dozen fish markets there. The prices down there are great--but be careful! This isn't Central Market.

You have to look over the shrimp carefully to make sure there aren't giving you any that are turning black. And I heard the bags of live crawfish aren't very good--they contain a lot of crushed ones. -- Robb Walsh