(A Facebook memory from three years ago)
Yesterday was an exercise in, for me, what makes Houston great.
I took my son out for a few hours in Southwest Houston. We ate at that Teotihuacan with all the bars in the windows in Fondren Southwest, and then went to Sharpstown Mall, which has been reinvented as the indoor Mexican / Central American PlazaMericas. Along the way there, we saw some Mexican immigrants and Nigerians in traditional garb negotiating a fender-bender they'd had on Fondren.
PlazaAmericas was a trip. While John Henry bought himself some expensive new kicks in one of the very many sneaker stores there, I went up to the food court / kids area, where a Spanish-speaking clown was leading a young girls' dance contest to an ear-splitting merengue beat.
I dropped him off at his mom's and then raced out to west Houston, where Kelly and I had a dinner party date with the Iranian woman who sold us a rug about a year ago. We were treated to an incredible meal, much of it cooked by her non-English speaking but very lively and vivacious mom: beef kebab, a chicken stew served over long-grained rice, Shirazi salad, accompanied by dates, nuts, sweets, and home-made Persian-style rice pudding, scented (and colored yellow) with saffron.
Kelly and I were the only non-Iranians there, and we all ate, drank and watched the Olympics together -- with our supposed enemies. (Man, they dislike the current Iranian regime far more than any fire-breathing redneck could, believe me, and with very good reason.)
These are the things that make Houston great. Avail yourself of the chances you have of getting out of your comfort zones. Go to the "no-go" areas. Befriend people from other cultures.
Otherwise you might as well live in Austin.
Yeah, I met a vietnamese girl at work 20 years ago at work and she told me the authentic and best viet places. We are still friends. The interesting thing to me is she is so much more "Houston" than the natives. A Houstonian who's mother built a vacation home in Vietnam. I'd love to know Sharpstown better. The closest I've been is the Arena Theater to see George Clinton and the P-Funks along with Bootsy Collins.
Believe it or not, Nashville's sneaking up on multi-culturalism. Did you know we host the Mariachi Hall of Fame, in Plaza Mariachi of course