If there’s truly a cuisine representative of America’s melting pot culture, it’s the Cajun and Creole cooking of Louisiana and the Texas Gulf Coast, which incorporates French, Spanish, Caribbean, African, Native American, Italian, and many other culinary influences.

Cousins Matt and Nic Patrizi of Patrizi’s Italian food trailer, and the newly opened Vic & Al’s on Manor Road, have deep roots in the region: Their great-grandfather Vic is said to have brought New Orleans–style barbecue shrimp to Texas from Mosca’s in the 1940s (well before Pascal’s Manale’s version, which receives most of the credit for the name).