I'm not saying smoked brisket isn't a Texas thing, but the central Texas area around Austin has cornered the market from a PR perspective.
Washington DC has a similar problem, where it's signature dish is really a restaurant, Ben's Chili Bowl, and their signature dish is Half Smoke. Maryland kind of owns us with their Blue Crab. Seems like after 200 years some of these states would have invested in a better marketing strategy.
I live next to Ben's Chili Bowl (one of them, anyway) and I never got what the big deal was. It's more of the fact that the place has been around forever, rather than the food being all that great/original. Chili and hotdogs, wow man, yeah, totally pushing the envelope there guys.
It's got to be of the Ted-mex/ barbecue variety. I don't think Vietnamese anything should even be close on the options.
When the food network a few years back had a bbq challenge, the competitors where North Carolina, Kansas City, Texas and Memphis. Two are states, two cities. Like it or not, most cities really can't claim to have a signature dish, per say. The exceptions are very few.
LA Crawfish's crawfish pho is quite good. Not sure where the fusion actually fused, but there are a ton of viet-cajun places in Louisiana also. But like Otto said, Houston is the place that brought fajitas from a borderland staple to the public's attention. So if you had to pick one dish, that should be it. Also, stop saying kolaches. Not even close to being related to Houston.
My only issue with fajitas and tex mex is that it's rather boring and we have stuff that's much better imo. Our growing restaurant scene which many have complimented hasn't really featured fajitas for years. It's been here a long time, but that's about it. Viet crawfish is a different story
Houston needs more local restaurants to have a signature dish. It's just full of chains, which can be found anywhere.
Not for Houston. No way. The last time I saw the Houston Press 100 list it had Oysters Gilhooley at #1. Don't even know if that place is still around, but I still cook that whenever I have good gulf oysters. Señor Clutch: should a slice of pepperoni pizza in NYC be downgraded because it's boring and dated? I say no.
Every time I see Texas on the news they are showing some state fair with fried oreos or fried twinkies. So I'll probably go with that as the signature food.
This is signature dish, not best or most creative. It's the one dish that Houston does better than any place else. I absolutely feel that is fajitas. It is a dish popularized by this city and still done here better than anywhere in the country. Deep dish Pizza, Philly cheesesteak, Cincinnati chili, etc are not creative, innovative, trendy, or the best food any of those cities have to offer. But is a traditional dish of that city, a comfort food that you can always go back to when you are home. A simple stable of the community that you can get at tons of places and there is a debate as to where the best version is served.
