Happy Monday, reader, and welcome back from the weekend. Here’s what we’ve got for you today:

• Celebrating the Ford Mustang: In our final article of Mustang Month, Basem Wasef, who also counts himself a former Mustang owner, shares what it is that connects every version of the vehicle to each other.
• The next big beer grain: Brooklyn Brewery’s Garrett Oliver is leading a multi-brewery effort to incorporate an ancient African grain into new types of beer.
• The top foods in Vietnam: We explore the best regional dishes and local eats in Vietnam.

What Makes a Mustang a Mustang?

For the last four weeks, we’ve been celebrating the Ford Mustang, which was introduced 60 years ago this month. Benjamin Hunting wrote about the 1980s model that almost morphed the American icon into a Mazda. Geoff Nudelman took stock of whether or not Ford’s biggest gamble with the Mustang name actually paid off. And John Scott Lewinski, who has owned four different Mustangs over the years — two from the ‘70s, one from the ‘90s and one from the 2010s — took a tire-squealing trip down memory lane.

In our final installment of Mustang Month, Basem Wasef, who also counts himself a former Mustang owner (a particularly lucky one, as you’ll see), tries to answer the question of the past six decades: The original ‘60s ‘Stang is worlds apart from the current seventh-generation model, so what is it that connects each Mustang to each other?

In Friday's poll, we asked you if you'd pay extra to have fancy ice in your drink at a cocktail bar. Here's what you said:

• A large percentage of you — 73.7%, at that — said there was no way you'd pay more for an extravagant cube in your cocktail.
• As for the rest of you (26.3%), you'll take a clear crystal ice ball any day — even if it comes with an added cost. 

The Next Big Grain in Beer? It’s Called Fonio.

One of the best grains for making beer has secretly been with us for a long time. It’s called fonio, an ancient African grain that’s now part of a large craft brewing initiative to highlight its versatility and sustainability. That initiative is “Brewing for Impact,” and it’s a major part of a celebration of Garrett Oliver’s 30th anniversary as the James Beard award-winning brewmaster of Brooklyn Brewery, a New York institution that’s helped foster the craft beer movement and promote social change within the beer industry.

So, why fonio? According to Oliver, it pretty much has every property you could want in a grain, from sustainability to nutrition to the ability to grow in less-than-ideal environments. “Modern machinery was never applied to fonio because it was ripped away by colonial powers who did not want people to have it and be self-sufficient,” Oliver says. “The modern age never came to fonio, which is good and bad. It never needed fertilizer, irrigation or pesticides. It’s adapted to the edge of the desert. Now, harvesting it by machine, it can be the major crop it should and could be.”

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The Top 10 Foods to Eat in Vietnam and Where to Find Them

In the minds, and stomachs, of many Americans, Vietnamese cuisine often gets reduced to a single dish: pho. Yet, the country’s culinary repertoire is as tantalizing as it is diverse. Even that seemingly simple bowl of pho is not a one-size-fits-all commodity, of course. To suggest so would be akin to saying that there were no regional differences to be found among Mexican tacos, for instance.

When traveling to Vietnam, signature dishes serve as culinary landmarks. Plotting out an itinerary therefore isn’t only about seeing this monument in that city, but eating its staple cuisine and most popular and notable dishes. That’s how the real exploration is done.

Because food is culture, and sharing and slurping over a bowl of noodles — whether bún chả in Hanoi, bún bò Huế in Huế, cao lầu in Hội An or pho anywhere and everywhere in between — is how a real appreciation for a particular locale and its people is gained. Sampling from one city and village to the next across Vietnam is the best way to get a glimpse, and a taste, for yourself.

Grocery Store Fried Chicken Deserves Some Respect

Over the last 10 years, shoppers’ fascination with the supermarket hot bar has evolved into a thriving, pulsing relationship with benefits. From egg rolls, noodles and pitted olives to the fried, buffalo and barbecue chicken strips, the supermarket hot bar capitalizes on the beautiful synergy of choice and convenience. It’s where the entrees that typically have no business being together can rub elbows under the unassuming sneeze guard of a (sometimes literal) melting pot in the middle of the produce aisle.

Maybe as a child, you were taught to avoid the hot bar — too unsanitary, too barbaric, an all-inclusive luxury resort for bacteria to do kinky stuff with other bacteria. When you’re older, the hot bar and all that resides within it evolves into a new role: an easy meal for exhausted people. Thus we say: Don't fear your local supermarket chicken. We talked to the experts, and we think you should eat all the cutlets, strips, drumsticks and whole rotisserie birds off the hot bar that you can. Don't know where to start? We ranked them.

Treat Your Pup to a Staycation at These Pet-Friendly Houston Hotels

For many pet-owners, a vacation without their fur baby is hardly a vacation at all. In Houston, out of town visitors and locals partaking in a weekend staycation can rest assured that there are plenty of worthy accommodations to consider when they have their loving pet in tow. Many hotels have raised the bar when it comes to pet stays by offering exclusive perks like gourmet menus, luxury bedding and custom treats galore, and these hotels go the extra mile for your four-legged family members. From posh high-rise hotels in the heart of the city to sprawling resorts tucked quietly on the outskirts of town, you and your pet will be living large on holiday at these 10 pet-friendly Houston hotels.