{"id":95415,"date":"2025-12-20T16:32:09","date_gmt":"2025-12-20T16:32:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/95415\/"},"modified":"2025-12-20T16:32:09","modified_gmt":"2025-12-20T16:32:09","slug":"discover-houston-asiatowns-unique-snacks-with-chris-shepherd","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/95415\/","title":{"rendered":"Discover Houston Asiatown\u2019s unique snacks with Chris Shepherd"},"content":{"rendered":"

In this episode \u201cEat Like a Local\u201d<\/a>, we\u2019re checking out some of the best snacks and street foods in Houston\u2019s Asiatown<\/a>. Host Chris Shepherd sets out on Bellaire Boulevard – a road he says makes him hungry for a snack every time \u2014 and for good reason. <\/p>\n

What makes Bellaire Boulevard special isn\u2019t just the food, it\u2019s the people. Shops here are often owned by families who are proud of their heritage and the recipes they\u2019ve carried across oceans. <\/p>\n

At Linda\u2019s Tropical Fruits<\/a>, Chris takes a stroll through the market to check out the range of fresh dragon fruit, rambutan, jackfruit, mangos, and perhaps the most polarizing fruit on the planet, durian. <\/p>\n

However, what Chris is really here for are the freshly prepared smoothies, juices and bowls. Everything here is prepared from fresh fruit – no cans or purchased juices. <\/p>\n

Linda’s Tropical Fruits has bowls that are flavorful, filling, and healthy. (Copyright 2025 by KPRC Click2Houston – All rights reserved.)<\/p>\n

Linda\u2019s acai bowls are built around real fruit sorbets, blended in-house (no water or artificial thickeners), and piled with granola, coconut milk chia pudding, sunflower seeds, cacao nibs and nuts – a full meal disguised as a dessert. <\/p>\n

Then, there was the durian. Linda\u2019s carries several varieties. Chris tries it fresh and in a smoothie. Its creamy texture and sweet, funky flavor make it far less intimidating than its smelly reputation suggests. These were all on Chris\u2019 list to try at Linda\u2019s, but the Shaking Fruit turns out to be his surprise favorite. It\u2019s a blend of mixed fruits tossed with tamarind sauce, assorted chilies and shrimp salt that makes it great for any snacking occasion.<\/p>\n

After getting his fill of fruit-based treats, Chris heads down Bellaire to One Dragon<\/a> for Shanghai shumai. A twist on the classic shrimp and pork shumai – this version includes sticky rice folded into the pork filling before being stuffed into a dumpling wrapper. <\/p>\n

Shanghai shumai is a great snack to grab and go from One Dragon on Bellaire. (Copyright 2025 by KPRC Click2Houston – All rights reserved.)<\/p>\n

Across the parking lot from One Dragon is Don\u2019s Cafe<\/a>. While he waits on his shumai order, Chris pops over to Don\u2019s for a classic grilled pork banh mi \u2014 slathered with a buttered toasted roll and stuffed with grilled pork, pickled carrots, cucumber, cilantro and jalape\u00f1o. It\u2019s perfect, portable and utterly Houston.<\/p>\n

At Bodard Bistro<\/a>, Chris shares one of his long-time favorites – Nem N\u01b0\u1edbng, a spring roll with a crunchy surprise. Inside the rice paper wrapper, there\u2019s pork or shrimp sausage rolled with lettuce, cucumber and a crispy fried dumpling wrapper. It\u2019s served with a spicy dipping sauce rather than the more common peanut sauce, and the combination is addictive. It\u2019s a must-try for anyone who loves spring rolls.<\/p>\n

Visit Bodard Bistro for their unique spin on spring rolls. (Copyright 2025 by KPRC Click2Houston – All rights reserved.)<\/p>\n

A must stop on Chris\u2019 snack map is Hong Kong City Mall<\/a>. With its family-run restaurants, tea shops and bakeries, this mall is one of the best places in the city for snacks! Chris tries traditional and fried bao from the lengthy list of options at T P Banh Bao. Then, he takes a stroll through the mall stopping to grab a \u201csnacky\u201d b\u00e1nh tr\u00e1ng tr\u1ed9n (salad) and b\u00e1nh tr\u00e1ng tr\u1ed9n (rice paper pizza) at Saigon Street Food. <\/p>\n

Hong Kong Market and Hong Kong City Mall are great spots to grab a bite or to get things to take home. (Copyright 2025 by KPRC Click2Houston – All rights reserved.)<\/p>\n

The adjoining Hong Kong Food Market<\/a> offers ready-to-go snacks: frozen broths, dried shrimp, tofu for hot pot and house-made meatballs. <\/p>\n

Watch the video to check out Chris\u2019 final stop at Star Snow Ice and Teriyaki<\/a>!<\/p>\n

\u201cEat Like a Local with Chris Shepherd\u201d<\/a> is your guide to the best food in Houston. Watch new episodes Saturdays at 10 a.m. on KPRC 2.<\/p>\n

Season 3 of \u201cEat Like a Local\u201d<\/p>\n

Copyright 2025 by KPRC Click2Houston – All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"In this episode \u201cEat Like a Local\u201d, we\u2019re checking out some of the best snacks and street foods…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":95416,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[9044,9043,49,56,58,57,354],"class_list":{"0":"post-95415","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-houston","8":"tag-chris-shepherd","9":"tag-eat-like-a-local","10":"tag-food","11":"tag-houston","12":"tag-houston-headlines","13":"tag-houston-news","14":"tag-restaurants"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/95415","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=95415"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/95415\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/95416"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=95415"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=95415"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=95415"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}