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You’ve heard me go on and on about the wonders of Houston’s Chinese and Vietnamese fare. You could drive nearly 4 miles along Bellaire Blvd, stretching from around Gessner Rd on the east side to Cook Rd on the west, turn into any of the numerous East and Southeast Asian plazas filled with supermarkets and eateries, pick a random restaurant, and fill your belly with something that will make you “ooh” and “ahh” and grin with delight.

The stretch of Bellaire Blvd east of Beltway 8 (Sam Houston Tollway) is formally Chinatown and to the west is formally Little Saigon, but the line is not black and white and you’ll find more of a gradient than a hard distinction. I buddied up with a good friend from college who was born and raised in Vietnam and knows her way around Houston’s Vietnamese food scene— here are my top picks for the top unique eats you shouldn’t miss when in Houston!

ECK Bakery

6918 Wilcrest Dr A, Houston, TX 77072

281-933-6808

You know I love my egg tarts. Countless bakeries in Manhattan offer their version of these (I’ve tried many a tart, but there are too many (not a bad problem to have). My benchmark comparison for any new egg tart has and will probably always be ECK Bakery in Houston…and…this one little stand in Macau. Needless to say, ECK’s egg tarts are a bit easier to come by and boy, do they do their craft well! Don’t be fooled when you walk in— the displays nearly always seem empty and make the bakery look like they must not be doing very well financially. But the real treat is kept behind those metal swinging doors in the back, because it probably just came out of the oven. Egg tart turnover here is high enough that these babies are made throughout the day (contrasted with other bakeries that only bake these in the early AM). Ask for some egg tarts (I recommend half a dozen) and you’ll be handed a styrofoam box with a hole punched though the side to vent steam. You don’t want any sogginess tampering with that perfect crunch of ECK’s signature croissant-like flakey crust. I don’t know how they do it– there must be so much butter in each one.

A similar quality crust can be found at Mongkok Station Bakery during a tour of Philadelphia’s Chinatown, but ECK in Houston just cannot be beat (so far).

Dong Ba

10815 Beechnut St #147, Houston, TX 77072

281-498-6520

Some of my absolute favorite food memories from our whirlwind Southeast Asia trip are from central Vietnam. I remember biking around Hue, looking for a little restaurant famed for banh beo. Banh beo translates literally to “water fern cake” and I just cannot love the dish more. They are little bite-sized dollops of rice and tapioca flour steamed to a slightly gelatinous perfection and topped with crunchy fried pork skin, dried little shrimps, and served with a spicy vinegar chili dipping sauce. It is absolute PERFECTION (when made well). Dong Ba brought me back to that grungy little family restaurant in Hue, where we sat on toddler-sized plastic chairs crouched over a metal table slurping these babies up one by one.

Parisian Bakery & Cafe

8200 Wilcrest Dr #15A, Houston, TX 77072

281-495-8150

Banh mi- the best foodie love child of the French influence on Vietnamese cuisine. A crunchy but airy baguette split open and gracefully stuffed with various cold cuts, pâté, cucumber, pickled radish/carrots, cilantro, and jalapeno. Yes, please! The bread makes the banh mi– nothing is sadder than a so-called “banh mi” made with a dense squishy soggy sub roll. You can trust a Vietnamese bakery café with a name like Parisian to have legit bread. (Parisian has done so well in Houston’s Chinatown that they have three locations: Parisian I, II, and III. Choose the one closest to you and get over there for a banh mi!) Their banh mis have all the right textures, the filling is generous, and it’s all fresh. I recommend the combo cold cut banh mi (they also have grilled chicken and pork options). Another good choice is the pâté chaud, a puff pastry meat pie akin to Australian hand pies.

Also! Parisian has xôi gà! This chicken sticky rice dish holds a near and dear spot in my memory bank as the last thing we ate before leaving Vietnam. Our time in Vietnam was coming to an end and we had a few thousand Vietnamese Duong left (the conversion rate at that time was 22,000 Duong to 1 USD) to spend. We had tried xôi gà a few days previously and knew that this dish had to be our last farewell meal. The emotional factor definitely plays a part in the fondness with which I think of xôi gà, but the taste and texture is worth it on its own.

The xôi gà at Parisian is not quite the same as those we devoured in Saigon crouched next to a little food cart, but they did the trick.

Duc Phuong Thach Che

11360 Bellaire Blvd #980, Houston, TX 77072

281-498-1838

Oh my goodness, writing this post is bringing back all the feels of my time in Vietnam. Flashbulb memory time: sitting on those classic aforementioned toddler-sized plastic stools slurping up delightfully complex, sweet, coconut-ey, icy concoctions of your choice of fruit, jellies, sweet beans, and tapioca. You’re surrounded by both friends and friendly strangers, chatting about the adventures of your day and quenching your thirst (it’s a 90 degree day and you just spent all of it outdoors) with this wondrous $1 USD treat.

Duc Phuong in Houston has a good chè game. So good that you better arrive before 2pm to avoid the disappointment of leaving empty-handed when they run out of ingredients. We came too late the first time and had to try again another day. And the struggles didn’t stop then. None of the employees spoke English and the unorganized line of customers was very confusing to navigate through. We couldn’t find a way to fight our way to the front of the line to make sure they actually took our order. After many failed attempts, we eventually asked a kind (bilingual) fellow customer to order for us. Try going here with someone who speaks Vietnamese, or be ready to elicit help from a stranger. Either way works but do try this place! It’s worth the trouble.

I’ll be adding to this list of must-try, authentically delicious snack spots in Houston’s Little Saigon as I eat my way through more of this wonderful area. Houston’s Chinatown on the other side of Beltway 8 deserves its own post, coming soon!