Misha Govshteyn

Rezdora is still going strong. Some of the best pasta anywhere.

I'm back. Sitting at a table in chef Shawn Gawle's exciting new restaurant, Camaraderie, on Sunday night, I finally felt it: the irresistible urge to write about Houston again. About this city's foodways, its f...

So good to see @alisoncook.bsky.social back in action.

Always an intrepid eater and one of best food writers in Houston.

There was a pre-influencer age when Houston had an abundance of food writers.

A pro going independent is great for the city.

alison-cooks-htown.ghost.io/im-back/

Yes. It does not look right when you arrive in the parking lot.

But you’re in the right place.

Where you should be right now: Silk Road on Westpark by Kirby.

Some of best dim sum I’ve had anywhere.

Cheung Fun is S-Tier level. XLB is terrific. Serious tea program.

The chef is from top dim sum houses in Hong Kong and Bangkok. It’s better any of the fine dim sum restaurants I’ve been to.

TikTok law passed by Congress requires full divestiture by China by January 19, 2025. SCOTUS upheld the law.

This licensing deal is just another way by Trump to accommodate China and satisfy Jeff Yass.

Jeff Yass stake in TikTok: $21B

Jeff Yass politic donations: $46M

Trump is dropping Beneficial Ownership Information (BOI) enforcement.

These rules unmask shell company owners engaged in tax evasion, fraud, money laundering and terrorism.

Only reason to do this is to enable grift.

ROBERT F. KENNEDY, JR.: Measles outbreak is call to action for all of us Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., tells readers what his agency is doing and what they can do to stop the measles outbreak that has claimed a child's life in Texas.

Good to see RFK Jr. publish a call for people to take the MMR vaccine.

Some hope his tenure will be better than expected.

www.foxnews.com/opinion/robe...

Never! Mexico, UK, France, and Belgium up next.

Unironically quoting Robert Reich is an intelligence test.

So sending a weekly email summary of ongoing FBI investigations to Elon is not a good idea?

I wonder how many emails went out before they realized this is a dumb idea.

Whoa. Bill Ackman may end up owning The Woodlands.

Howard Hughes Holdings $HHH owns 100% of The Woodlands Development Corporation.

Didn’t know that. Wonder if it leads to more businesses in midtown and downtown.

Houston Chronicle did a good roundup of tamales, but missed my favorite tamaleria in Houston:

Tamales Doña Tere on Beechnut.

The banana leaf wrapped oaxaquena is glorious.

www.houstonchronicle.com/projects/foo...

Parking minimums have been abolished?

Smithfield and Billingsgate: Meat and fish markets to close Smithfield and Billingsgate markets, which have traded in London for hundreds of years, face the axe.

Bad news for restaurants in London. The 850 year old Smithfield meat market and Billingsgate fish markets are shutting down.

Paris lost Les Halles and it’s a gaping hole.

I hope the St. John restaurant remains, but character of the neighborhood will certainly change.

www.bbc.com/news/article...

Looking at Michelin guide for Houston again, I can’t explain why so many obvious restaurants are missing.

But there is a clue in the Theodore Rex review: “cured carrots blanketed in a savory onion emulsion”

The dish Michelin is describing ran for 5 months… in 2021.

Is this when Michelin was here?

Entire study is fascinating and worth reading.

One finding: 5x engineers are in fact real and more common with remote employees.

Case to be made for paying 5x engineers 3x more, and getting rid of ghost engineers entirely.

softwareengineeringproductivity.stanford.edu

We’ve seen the anecdotes, but these research findings are insane.

* 14% of remote developers do no work.
* 9% of hybrid engineers are ghosting.
* 6% of in-office engineers are ghosts.

And I doubt this behavior is exclusive to software developers.

Most places in Houston under-season rice and it’s colder than it should be.

Rice at Kaiten was a bit cold, but seasoned well and broke apart just about right.

Fish was also slightly cold, but good quality. With locations in Tokyo and Osaka supply chain is likely better than average.

It’s good.

I just dropped $130 on choo-choo sushi and… I think I liked it.

Kaiten Sushi Ginza Onodera in Houston is priced low compared to the $450 Giza Onodera I visited in NYC.

Sushi comes down to 1) rice 2) fish and 3) supply chain. Exacting texture and temperature will cost much more.

1/

Not going to lie, this data was a little surprising. As many "complaints" shared by hiring managers on not great hires at startups were about ex-Googlers.

My theory is this is because if it's an "ex Big Tech hire:" it's most likely an ex Google hire - as data shows:

One of my friends has two jobs. Both companies are PE owned. Mid-level managers laid off years ago, so no one knows what “work” is being done.

Hasn’t checked in new code in 2 years. Mostly does bug fixes to undocumented code.

Whoa. Bose has acquired McIntosh, perhaps the most iconic American audiophile brand left standing.

www.cnbc.com/amp/2024/11/...

These people are going to make America healthy again by fixing our food supply.

Right after they wolf down some reheated McDonalds.

(via @mattbuford.bsky.social)

Candente is recommended.

But they really don’t understand Houston yet. We’ll see how their coverage evolves.

Should have stuck with Biden?

No one is suggesting the obvious.

I disagree on Michelin intentions here, but @jcreidtx.bsky.social is awesome and this is a good piece.

Team Robin Givens.

Mike Tyson on the best punch he’s ever landed.

What was the restaurant?

There are places like Sushi Jin, Teppay, Sushi Miyagi that maintain a traditional aesthetic, but the rice isn’t quite right.