Two drinks off of Anvil’s list:
#7: the Aviation – gin, lemon, maraschino, creme de violette
#86: the Singapore Sling – gin, cherry heering, lime, pineapple, cointreau, benedictine, grenadine, angostura bitters
31 Monday Aug 2009
Posted Uncategorized
inTwo drinks off of Anvil’s list:
#7: the Aviation – gin, lemon, maraschino, creme de violette
#86: the Singapore Sling – gin, cherry heering, lime, pineapple, cointreau, benedictine, grenadine, angostura bitters
28 Friday Aug 2009
Posted Uncategorized
inWell… honestly, not much.
But additive powers of ranch dressing plus fried chicken? Now we’re talking.
Last night, we went to BBQ Inn to partake of some more of their delicious fried chicken. Why do I feel like I was just there? Oh wait… maybe because I just was. What I didn’t write about, though, was my leftover fried chicken adventures. See, I had lots of leftover fried chicken – the portions at BBQ Inn are huge, and we had two orders to save from. We all know fried chicken is delicious the next day. Serendipity, struck, though, in the form of a visit from my friend Joni (@jabuck1979). Joni has been working on her own delicious line of hand blended spices, and she brought me a huge bag stuffed to the brim with jars of beautiful spices. I dove in, gleefully.
The first one I tried was her beautiful ranch dressing/dip multitasker. This beautiful spice blend is a vibrant, speckled green. And as I quickly learned… it’s delicious on cold leftover fried chicken. In fact, I now save fried chicken exactly for this purpose. It’s also wonderful on tomatoes, with chips, and probably raw veggies, if I liked raw veggies.
mmmm…. ranch dip!
The next spice jar I opened up was her Texas Chili. Did I make chili expressly for the purpose of making frito pie? Possibly. Did I eat four frito pies in the next week? I plead the fifth (sixth, seventh and eighth…). Mmmm… cheese covered chili. All I know is every time I reheated that chili, my hands automatically went for the frito bag. So delicious, and it only got better with time.
add meat, add beer = yum
Lloyd & Buck’s other offerings include creamy chipotle dressing, grill seasoning, Italian dressing, taco seasoning, enchilada filling and sauce, meatball seasoning and hot chocolate. I used the Italian dressing mix dry to make a kick-butt pasta salad with cucumbers and tomatoes one evening. Next week I’ll be test driving her enchilada filling and sauce with some cheese and chorizo enchiladas.
Check her out at http://www.lloydandbuck.com or, if you like, leave me a comment or tweet (@treelight) and I’ll be happy to let you try any of these mixes yourself! Provided, of course, that I haven’t used them all up already…
26 Wednesday Aug 2009
Posted out on the town
inAnvil Bar & Refuge, has released a list of 100 classic cocktails they believe everyone should try. The fun part? Once you begin working your way down the List, you get a stamp card on which you can track which cocktails you’ve gotten through. Although I’ve just begun, I’m pleased to have found quite a few new and wonderful drinks. Now, hopefully I’ll remember them all through the end.
Anvil’s 100 classic cocktails you must try, or “the List”
25 Tuesday Aug 2009
Posted out on the town
inThe hottest foodie craze to hit our little Houston foodie community is probably the Pho Binh trailer at I-45 south and Beltway 8. Though it’s a good 30-40 minute drive from our house, we’ve made the trip down there for breakfast pho at least three times now. Ok, you say, that’s nothing compared to the pho-natics who go every week, natch every day. But may I remind you that I live with a (my mom calls him in a hushed voice, “very American”) stalwart who I have a difficult time dragging even to Houston chinatown? And that’s at a reasonable hour for dinner. For pho, I’m talking about a 40 minute drive for a foreign soup when we’re both hungover and cranky at 9 AM on a weekend. When we’d both rather be sleeping in. This stuff is good.
image courtesy of gary wise
My mom used to get pho all the time when I was growing up and I never understood the appeal. Perhaps it was nostalgia, or maturing tastebuds, but as I got older I developed more of a taste for it. Pho is a Vietnamese noodle soup based on a richly simmered broth, to which various meats and condiments are added. Meats can include rare beef, brisket, fatty and lean flank, chicken, meatballs, tripe, tendon, and so forth. The diner usually adds veggies to the hot broth to taste, which are softened and cooked in the broth. These include mint, cilantro, basil, peppers, bean sprouts, and lime. Of course, you can’t forget the siracha and oyster sauce that are also used to flavor the broth.
image courtesy of gary wise
Pho Binh does things a little differently, and until I went back to my usual pho places I didn’t fully appreciate the difference. For starters, the broth is more flavorful, less salty. Don’t get me wrong – there’s still a healthy dose of salt in the broth, but there’s also a developed flavor that comes from long simmering. The noodles have been pre-rinsed so they don’t clump, something which I never appreciated until I had unclumpy noodles. Now I can’t go back – all other noodles seem gummy and gross by comparison! Finally, the quality of the meat here is stellar. I can’t get enough of the meaty, toothsome brisket. The only flaw might be that the rare beef cooks too quickly in the hot broth, but I’ve seen people solve that by ordering the beef on the side and adding it to the broth when it’s slightly cooled. These too meats are so good I’ve yet to try the other offerings on the menu but I’ve heard nothing but praise for the rest. What it all adds up to is a hangover cure even the most American of us will drive a long way for…
Below is a little video of Pho Binh I, done by Jay Francis (@JaypFrancis). It’s a cash only, high turnover operation, as you can tell by the hustle and bustle in the kitchen. And yes, it is located in a trailer. Result? Pure awesomeness.
24 Monday Aug 2009
Posted Uncategorized
inThis isn’t the usual thing I post in my blog, but it won’t fit on twitter and I really wanted to share it. Baron von Awesome (@cptincredible) suggested I blog it and I don’t really have any other upcoming topics so here goes…
[disclaimer: this joke is not meant as a dis to either elephants nor pastry chefs.]
———————–
It seems there was an elephant who decided to get a part time job at a bakery* to save up to buy a toilet. When he showed up to the interview, the manager asked the elephant what qualifications he had to work a part time job. As the elephant passionately laid out his extensive retail and patisserie experience, the manager interrupted him curtly exclaiming, “Wait — if you buy a toilet, and flush your business — what will the poor dung beetles eat?”
The elephant straightened his tie and tossed this beauty of a zinger orally into the ether: “They shall eat your finest croissants,” the elephant intoned, “And doubtless they shan’t taste the diff.”
*you should know that this particular bakery is known for the unusually poor quality of its croissants
22 Saturday Aug 2009
Posted out on the town
inPastry chef Plinio Sandalio has been called a mad scientist by Gourmet magazine for his forays into so-called molecular gastronomy. All I know is that his pure, unadulterated pleasure in making joyful food results in desserts that will make you laugh out loud. Here are photos of the last dessert tasting I had the pleasure of partaking under his care:
amuse-bouche: french fries and frosty
Plinio says: “why dip a french fry in a frosty? it sounded really absurd until the day I accidentally tried it.” He’s captured the perfect french fry here with his awesome crispy potato cone.
savory
“corndog”
I think everyone is skeptical of this dessert when they hear of it for the first time. Corncake, yellow mustard ice cream and sweet hot dog ketchup? What, not even fancy mustard?
Luckily, pretty much everyone is won over. Hell, I don’t even like mustard and this dessert left me in fits of uncontrollable giggles.
funnel cake, spam ice cream
Plinio’s funnel cake is a delicately layered tangle of funnel fritters, light and airy compared to standard carnival fare. The best part of this dessert was the lovely fresh pineapple and maple syrup compote. I wanted to lick the plate.
chocolate & cherry float
Just like it sounds. Oh, but with pepper on top. This wasn’t savory, exactly, just sort of thrown in before the cheese course.
cheese
taleggio pop tarts, apricot jam
The cheese in the center of these pop tarts was wonderfully pungent and melty, and oozed everywhere in a delightful manner when we cut into them. I want this for breakfast.
sweet
tres leches
I requested the tres leches, having heard Plinio was legendary for it, and was not disappointed. Tender, moist cake and dollops of bruleed fluff danced with playful white chocolate balls filled with milk. The milk chocolate balls exploded in your mouth. The mint was a perfect touch, as well.
milk chocolate ball from tres leches
I probably took this photo as a delay tactic, honestly, as I was getting really full by now. But these were freaking awesome.
roasted peaches, buttermilk ice cream
The flavors in this dessert were incredible, alive, fruity, rich, like a bright painting. The peaches were roasted in riesling and the ice cream tasted like straight up butter.
bittersweet chocolate “torchon,” liquid cherries
Can you tell the light is going down a little? This dessert never fails to come at the worst time. It’s one of the biggest, and it comes at the end when you’re almost full. I think it’s a test of stamina to see if you can eat half of it. The torchon is filled with liquid cherry, which spills out when you split it in half. It’s beautiful, delicious… and very rich.
mignardises
almond cakes, alfajores, shortbread, hazelnut tart
I looked up mignardises and wikipedia says they are bite sized desserts that follow a meal at high end restaurants. Oy I guess at this point I feel that I’ve certainly had a meal. These are absolutely irresistable, though. Plinio makes the most delightful shortbread, and the hazelnut tart is so delicious. And they’re so tiny!
20 Thursday Aug 2009
Posted out on the town
inIt’s hard to go to a restaurant that’s been hyped up repeatedly as the best of anything, let alone fried chicken.
Fried chicken, that glorious, heavenly, lip smacking king of all things deliciously breaded and fried. The holy grail of juicy, crunchy, and seasoned without being salty. A crust you want to peel off and eat without gobs of fat lurking beneath. Succulent meat that doesn’t get left behind due to dryness and lack of flavor. In a recent fried chicken throwdown, our local celebrity chefs used every trick in the book to get the perfect combination of crispy and juicy: panko crumbs, injection, sous vide, brining, captain crunch, and so forth.
Their creations were innovative and delicious. But sometimes, you just want a simple fried chicken. And that is what BBQ Inn delivers.
The chicken comes out heaped on a platter so high it’s hard to believe you’re supposed to eat it all. It’s hot and quietly sizzles, straight from the fryer. Within moments of getting it, our table had settled into a contented silence punctuated only by lip smacking and slightly muted groans of pleasure. The outside was perfectly crispy and seasoned, the flesh (even white meat pieces) juicy and tender.
Though the fries are mediocre, the chicken is well worth the 20 minute wait of the fry. Next time I’ll substitute a side. I’ve heard their other fried things (chicken fried steak? fried shrimp?) are also excellent but I couldn’t imagine going and not having the chicken. I’m getting hungry just thinking about it…
19 Wednesday Aug 2009
Posted out on the town
inMy expat Dallas friend, Joni (@jabuck1979, website here), paid me a long awaited visit last weekend. I miss having her in Houston so much, and took the opportunity to take her to all my favorite haunts (as well as discover a few new ones). One of the things she lamented was a complete lack of coffee shops near her house, even a Starbucks, so of course I had to take her to the coffee places near my neighborhood in the Heights. And since David Buehrer (@greenwaybarista, blog here) isn’t open on weekends, we went to Catalina Coffee on Washington.
Joni got a mocha and I got a latte. The cozy, dark cafe was the perfect setting in which to sit and slowly savor our beautiful, smooth and soothing beverages. As we sat and caught up I wished we could meet and chat every weekend, but if only once in a while, over these delicious coffees was the best way.
18 Tuesday Aug 2009
Posted out on the town
inIt’s a good day when you can have an early cocktail at Anvil Bar & Refuge.
18 Tuesday Aug 2009
Posted out on the town
inI must really love this place. It’s my third blog post on it. But as you’ll see from my last one, I utterly failed to get a photo of their scrumptious shrimp po-boy last time.
Lankford’s shrimp po-boy is only served as a lunch special on Fridays and Saturdays (if they have it at all). I would dare to call it the best shrimp po-boy in town except for the hue and cry I know that will cause, and for the fact that I certainly do not purport to be a po-boy connoisseur by any means. Therefore I will content myself with a listing of its merits:
First, the roll. It is fine. It could be a Sysco roll for all I know.
The shrimp. They are amazing. Plump, juicy, crunchy, large, deliciously fried and generously portioned.
The sauce. It is dressed with both a tangy, creamy, slightly spicy mayo on the bun and a vinagrette drizzled over the whole mess.
The toppings. Chopped onions, tomatoes, and lettuce.
Really, it’s the shrimp and the sauce that make the whole thing. They’re fantastic.
I am hunting a photo of the shrimp & oyster po-boy from Beaver’s as well. That sandwich is easily twice the size of this, huge hunks of golden fried crustaceans balanced on half a delicious buttered roll. My only beef with the Beaver’s po-boy is that it is literally impossible to eat. But well worth the attempt!