Food & Wine Recognizes Four Restaurant Dishes in Houston as Best in Texas

The November issue of Food & Wine compiles the "20 Best Dishes in Texas" with the help of three Texans: hotelier Liz Lambert, chef Tim Love of Fort Worth's Lonesome Dove Western Bistro and Texas Monthly's Daniel Vaughn. The trio laud over an open-face beef cheek sandwich from John Tesar's Knife in Dallas and of course barbecue from Austin's Franklin's Barbecue and Louie Mueller, but Houston is shown much love with four mentions.

The Pass' brandade -a salt cod in cream, onion and herbs- makes the cut as a favorite of Love's. Mesquite-smoked roast pork from Underbelly and Da Marco's porterhouse for two, received high praise from Love as well. Vaughn extolled the "thick layer of pork belly" on the bone-in pork belly from Killen's Barbecue in Pearland:

Ronnie Killen owns a famous steak house in this suburb of Houston, and he decided he wanted to open a barbecue joint. Everything is flawless. The bone-in pork belly is Killen's way of adding flair to the menu while still keeping it traditional. It's a sparerib bone with a thick layer of pork belly on top that's not too fatty. I don't know anyone else who serves pork belly this way.

All the dishes selected are worthy of being listed, but in a state as big as Texas, is it really possible to pick 20 as standouts?

Let us know what you think about Food & Wine's list. Which restaurant's dish would you choose as best in the state? Leave your comments below.