Last night, (Monday Jan 27, 2020), I watched the last part of an Antiques Roadshow and it was followed by an show I’d never seen before call NO PASSPORT REQUIRED hosted by a guy named Marcus Samulesson who goes around the country and features “immigrant food”. Last night’s, (and the episode linked to above), was on West African Food in Houston. Apparently, Houston has one of the largest Nigerian populations outside of Nigeria. I’ve frequented the neighborhoods in Alief which is considered epicenter of that culture, (it’s kind of west of “AsiaTown”), and been to a number of grocery stores that cater to the cuisine. I can’t say I bought much or experimented with the cuisine outside of a disastrous attempt to make beef suya which was documented HERE.
But the show was interesting and while some of the food looked “disagreeable”, I would nonetheless love to try some of the grilled meat and stews.
So that show was followed by THE HOUSTON COOKBOOK hosted by David Cordua and filmed in 2018. It’s obviously locally produced but was interesting as well and he visited Pho One, my favorite Viet pho and bhan mi shop, as well as a number of other places including a West African restaurant. The link above is for the sole episode but worth the watch.
And that was followed by a Samantha Brown show called PLACES TO LOVE that also featured Houston and included a visit to Phoenicia Market. That show was filmed just a couple of months before Harvey and they make reference to it in the prologue.
Anyway, I hadn’t intended on watching what turned out to be several hours of Houston-food-centered PBS, but ALL of those shows mentioned Houston being the most diverse city in the country and they ALL showed immigrants raving about the opportunities afforded them in this flyover town.
I love living and eating in Houston.
