[Surfside] Houston Press: Restaurant review of A Taste of Portugal

[Roman Zimmermann]

You know, I never would have thought that a reputation for trigger happy 
cops would be a recommendation in finding a place to live, but coming 
from South Africa, perhaps so.

http://www.houstonpress.com/issues/2003-02-27/cafe.html/1/index.html

Gem on Jones  
Get to A Taste of Portugal before Tony Vallone tells everybody about it 
BY ROBB WALSH 

A large party at the front of the restaurant is getting a lot of 
attention. A Taste of Portugal's chef jokes with them as he carries 
dishes out to their table. You just don't see that kind of personal 
touch in a Houston restaurant anymore. "What a find!" I muse, watching 
from a table in the back. I had heard that chef and owner Jorge Fife was 
a real character, and I was looking forward to meeting him.

[ ... ]

He had moved to South Africa and built a successful import business 
there, but eventually concluded that it was no longer a good place to 
raise children. Crime is out of control, and the police are willing to 
look the other way for embarrassingly small sums of money, says Fife. 
Murder, rape, you can get away with anything in South Africa, he says. 
So he and his wife decided to move the family to Texas. He got a visa 
because he opened his own business.

"Why Texas?" I wonder.

"Because Texas is tough on crime," says Fife. "In the guidebook we 
bought when we visited, it said, 'The police in Texas are 
trigger-happy.' I said to my wife, 'That's the place for us.' "

[ .... ]