Viet-Cajun - I guess it’s everywhere now, and definitely should get a mention here!
Houston and the Gulf Coast have had a very large and established Vietnamese food scene for a long time. Vietnamese came here during the fall of Saigon in the 1970s, as the “boat people” in the 1980s, as political prisoners and Amerasians in the 1990s, and from California in the early 2000s for cost of living reasons.
With the devastation of Hurricane Katrina, 250,000 people from NOLA and other Gulf Coast towns temporarily moved to Houston and 40,000 chose us as their new permanent home. We had some Cajun and Creole restaurants and foods but it seriously ramped up almost overnight of course with the influx.
And thus Viet-Cajun was born! Anthony Bourdain did a Houston episode with a segment on this but it’s pay-to-view now, but here’s a good one from Eater:
And a second one that’s more about Viet-Cajun dishes at restaurants:
