IS HOUSTON A MELTING POT, A SALAD BOWL, OR A BBQ KOLACHE? 
Chron food critic Alison Cook frames the new Killen’s barbecue brisket-filled kolache from Peña’s Donut Heaven & Grill in Pearland (pictured above at 11601 Shadow Creek Pkwy.) as a mere restaging onto a dinner plate — or in a to-go bag at least — of the larger metropolis’s cultural blend: “Mixing and matching has become our culinary birthright. In the nation that is Texas, Houston — with its port and its flourishing economy and its early influx of international immigrants — has been the leading edge of this trend.
Whereas 20 years ago, the advent of a huevos ranchero kolache at the Kolache Factory attracted a bit of delighted surprise, now the reaction to Peña’s idea of stuffing the TexÂCzech bun with Killen’s sanctified brisket is more along the lines of ‘What took you so long?‘
Indeed, just hours after the brisket kolache was announced to the world, kolache baker extraordinaire Victoria Rittinger was already riffing further on the idea.” [Houston Chronicle] Photo: Peña’s Donut Heaven & Grill
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This is a reason to wake up in the morning. Does uber deliver to 77005?
Sometimes you really have to love Texas. This is one of those times.
Houston is a : Melting Pot Salad Bowl BBQ Kolache !!
Quoting Alison Cook is like quoting a sack of potatoes. She is a total hack that promotes her buddies’ places (or is a selective ostrich with no idea about restaurants).
KF has had BBQ beef kolaches on their menu for….years?
I’m starting to respect Allison Cook as a reporter. She’s one of the few people at the Houston Chronicle who actually get out and report from all over our City. Most of them seem content to stay in their little Inner Loop cocoon.
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She’s absolutely right about Houston’s mix and match food scene. But it’s not just our food scene that’s mix and match. It’s in our art and architecture scene too. Where else can you be on a street of town homes meant to look like they’re in Brooklyn, turn a corner, feel like you’ve been teleported to Los Angeles, and then go to a public building that looks and feels Norweigan? This City is nothing if not eclectic.
More like a Raw Bar.
This is just weird. Kolaches are a breakfast food. Pretty sure I’d still put it in my face though.
“Brisket” and “breakfast” are almost the same word.
As a Czech descendant, it irks me that these are called “kolaches.” A “kolache” is a fruit pastry. Some years ago, someone got it confused with a pig-in-the-blanket (or a “klobase”) and it’s stuck ever since. When I visit my Czech grandma in Central Texas, and ask for a “kolache,” I get the fruit version.
i’m with Superdave. i think a lot of places that make ‘kolaches’ should be picketed all day by old Czech ladies. the word itself imples something sweet. if there’s meat in it, it’s not a kolac. but stuffing a klobasnik with BBQ is still something i’ll get behind.