The well-heeled investor
Christina Zhou’s style blog serves as outlet for her love of shoes, cooking and entertaining
Christina Zhou’s shoe closet would make even Carrie Bradshaw envious.
It’s a tiny nook, but it’s packed with designer shoes — from Jimmy Choo to Jessica Simpson. There’s even a sign on the wall with actress Sarah Jessica Parker’s autograph.
Ask how many pairs of shoes she owns, and Zhou laughs. “There are more upstairs, so I think 400 or 500 pairs,” she says bashfully.
Zhou’s love for heels in particular prompted her to create a style blog, QQ’s Blogs, in which she also showcases her love of cooking and entertaining.
“I grew up in China, and my mom always had a pot of soup on the stove when we got home, so I challenged myself to cook a meal five times a week,” said the mother of two, Eddie, 16, and Kevin, 14.
Zhou posts the meals she prepares and dishes about her culinary hits, including the rib-eye with stir-fry greens topped with steamed rice. There are some misses, like the time she nearly burned off her eyebrows and her wellmanicured nails while cooking fried pork, meatballs and bean curd. Still, her posts generate fans from Asia to Australia.
“I got so many messages of encouragement,” she says. “People may be intimidated about preparing certain dishes, but they see how I did and are empowered to try it.”
Though shoes, food and travel are among her many hobbies, Zhou is a passionate businesswoman who moved to Houston at age 21 with an economics degree. She went on to earn her master’s degree in management information systems from the University of Houston. She’s a commercial real-estate investor who owns shopping centers and a Quality Inn in north Houston.
“A lot of my tenants are immigrants, and I’ve seen them grow their businesses from one location to three,” she says. “It’s important for me to help encourages businesses like this. You feel like you are part of their lives.”
Zhou recently chaired the Asian Chamber of Commerce gala, which honored area entrepreneurs and philanthropists, including Simiao Cori Xiong of Mala Sichuan Bistro, Michael Chang and Mandy Kao, a former Houston Chronicle Best Dressed honoree.
At home, Zhou is surrounded by her favorite things. There’s a collection of miniature perfume bottles in the master bathroom and a wall of magnets from nearly every city, state or country in which she’s traveled. She also has two Chinese character books that belonged to her late father and had been passed down in his family. She estimates the books to be 500 years old.
Books, she says, have always been a part of her life. “If I don’t read a chapter of a book a day, I feel like I didn’t have a shower that day.”
Zhou says she is an avid learner and challenges herself to learn as much as she can about one food item a year. So far, she’s become an expert on olive oil, salt, wine, vinegar and cheese, she says.
For 2019, she exploring her sweet tooth and plans to study ice cream.
“There are so many flavors and methods of making ice cream. I have two teenagers, so all I have to do is taste, and they can eat the rest,” she says.