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For a lighter touch, try southwest Houston's Le Viet, which owner Tam Le opened nine months ago with a mission to make his mother's Vietnamese home cooking popular with non-Asian diners. The servers at Le Viet patiently show newcomers how to wrap rice-paper rolls around pungent shrimp paste, vermicelli and mounds of fragrant mint and cilantro, and advise which sauce goes with the fiery lemongrass tofu. "I'm young and willing to try new things," says Le, 25. "You can't serve American customers the same way as Vietnamese customers."
The staff at Miss Saigon would agree. With its bistro-style setting and fresh baguettes for banh mi (spicy grilled-pork sandwiches), the restaurant emphasizes the French influence on Vietnamese food and has won fans in the tony neighborhood near Rice University and Houston's medical center. Downtown, Mai's has a strong following for its noodle soups, chicken-coconut curry and fresh lemon soda. And it's open until 2:30 a.m. every day, a gift to restless road warriors in this early-to-bed city.
Every Asian restaurant has its own take on authentic. At Indika, in the upscale Memorial neighborhood, it means reinterpretation. The techniques are scrupulously traditional, but every dish includes some surprise: crabmeat in the flaky samosas, fresh spinach and mustard greens in the saag paneer, and litchi juice in the margaritas. Indika's self-taught chef-owner, Anita Jaisinghani, 41, worked most recently at Cafe Annie, one of Houston's best-known restaurants. She knows when to keep things simple (a meltingly tender lamb shank) and when to experiment (puff pastry crowned with palm sugar and almonds). "I wanted to Americanize the food slightly," she says, "but just to improve it."
While Indika focuses on North Indian cuisine, with flatbreads and meats, South Indian food, with a greater emphasis on rice and vegetarian dishes, gets star billing at two excellent restaurants between Greenway Plaza and Harwin's wholesale district. At Udupi, the mushroom curry is a standout. At Madras Pavilion, rice takes center stage: lemon rice, coconut rice, tamarind rice--each one laced with a different blend of spices, nuts and vegetables. Both make fine masala dosa, those paper-thin stuffed crepes, but Suprabhath, a casual takeout place in Hillcroft's Little India neighborhood, is even better.
The sudden rise in quality and variety of Asian restaurants in Houston might surprise some visitors, but at least one chef finds the city a logical fit. As Indika's Jaisinghani points out, "I don't think I could keep it this spicy in any other part of the country." The jury's still out on the chicken feet.