JWM - Volume 3, Issue 1 - (Page 67)

it, i dipped an onion kulcha fresh from the oven for a transcendental bite. tasting bliss i couldn’t eat my way around Houston without a mexican meal, and the choice was easy. Hugo’s is set in a 1925 building that formerly served as a plumbing supply store and now resembles a colonial hacienda. it isn’t so much about regional mexican cooking as an amalgamation of regional styles. Hugo ortega’s attention to detail is legendary. He not only grinds his own corn for tortillas and composes his sauces, but actually makes his own chocolate. that had a starring role—supported by too many ingredients to list—in sweet-and-savory duck mole that may rank as the single most satisfying dish of my visit. it had as little relation to typical tex-mex as a Springsteen concert does to singing in the shower. my last night in the city, i went to Underbelly for a meal that pulled together the culinary components of the new Houston. raised in oklahoma, chris Shepherd moved to the city in the mid-1990s. He’s a huge man with a propensity for bearhugs, and his enthusiasm for his what he’s doing—a pig-breeding program that takes house-cured charcuterie to another level; a dramatically diverse menu on which Vietnamese meatballs coexist with “Lamburger Helper,” followed by Korean braised goat—fills the room. Before Underbelly opened, Shepherd was one of several chefs featured in culinary tours of the city’s best ethnic restaurants. Hopping from taquerias to pho stands to barbeque joints, it struck him that Houston—the first city in North america with no ethnic majority, by the way—could lay claim to a dazzling array of unique tastes. “i started realizing everything my city had to offer,” he says. what had been a more amorphous farm-to-table plan coalesced around the idea of showing off the range of culinary influences in his adopted hometown. the result can be seen in a remarkable restaurant that should be the last—or first—stop for anyone making a food pilgrimage to this culinary hotspot. “i didn’t work in restaurants around the world or even around the country to learn how to cook,” Shepherd explains. “i did it here, and that’s what this restaurant is about. i want people to come to Underbelly and say, ‘this is Houston.’ it’s a place like nowhere else.” [ ResouRces Que Huong 8200 Wilcrest Suite 27 281/495-2814 oxHeart 1302 Nance 832/830-8592 oxhearthouston.com PHo BinH trailer 10928 Beamer Rd. 281/484-3963 phobinh.com Himalaya 6652 Southwest Freeway 713/532-2837 himalayarestauranthouston.com Hugo’s 1600 Westheimer Rd. 713/524-7744 hugosrestaurant.net underBelly 1100 Westheimer Rd. 713/528-9800 underbellyhouston.com STAY AT: JW Marriott Houston 5150 Westheimer Rd. 713/961-1500 J WM MAGAZINE 67 j w m a r r i o t t. c o m http://www.oxhearthouston.com http://www.phobinh.com http://www.himalayarestauranthouston.com http://www.hugosrestaurant.net http://www.underbellyhouston.com http://www.JWMARRIOTT.COM

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of JWM - Volume 3, Issue 1

JWM - Volume 3, Issue 1
Table of Contents
Contributors
JW Experts
Editor's Letter
Distinctive Products, People, Ideas & Style
A Quiet Place
Our Clutter, Ourselves
A Taste of Heaven
Art Everywhere
The Portal
Player's Paradise
Melting Pot
Take Me to the River
Breaking the Rules
JW Experience
My Passion

JWM - Volume 3, Issue 1