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Sunday was a good day for food exploring. Gasoline was down to $3.45 a gallon and I decided to venture down 290 between 610 and Beltway 8. I passed the Crazy Cajun restaurant but didn’t stop (maybe some other time) and that got me to thinking about how comfortable these descendants of Acadia are with their stereotyping. Can you imagine the backlash if someone named a restaurant The Raging African-American, The Crazy Chinese Guy or the Raving Mexican? Yep, gotta love those Cajuns.

At any rate, I ended up at a little Mexican place called Perico’s Mexican Restaurant (2701 Mangum 713-688-3104). It’s often a good sign if you see a rack outside with copies of La Subasta (or am I stereotyping?). And there were a lot of Hispanic families dining inside. The walls were decorated with vintage kitchenware (and a remarkable pig) that helped give the restaurant a nice, lived-in feel.

I recently joked to some friends that, at the current lot valuations by the Harris County Appraisal District, not to mention that I like having a real front and back yard, I’m effectively paying $26 a square foot for grass. Which I guess is why many builders around town cut down the gorgeous old trees and drop down mega-mansions, which a friend of mine calls BFDs ( big f’ing Georgians). I can understand it, but I still hate that it has to happen. Call me a tree-hugger, I guess.

Mint Cafe on Sage is the subject of this week’s Cafe review. After eating the appetizer called ardishawki there, I immediately bought some artichokes and started experimenting with the Middle Eastern dish myself. It’s a cooked, trimmed artichoke dressed with lemon juice, olive oil, minced garlic and chopped cilantro--sort of an instant artichoke salad.

A classic. -- Robb Walsh

Ricky Craig has just opened Hubcap Grill (1111 Prairie, 713-223-5885), with a little financial backing from his dad. "I did this for my son," says Richard Craig of Craiganale's Italian Deli Café, which has long been a favorite spot downtown for homemade Italian food. "You know, I had to get him off my payroll some time."

In the August 14th Stirred and Shaken column, I referred to "thyme syrup" and "grapefruit dust" used in the Thyme After Lime cocktail at Reef. In case you were curious, here are the recipes and instructions for those two rather novel ingredients, straight from Reef's head barman, J.M. Erben.

Thyme syrup: Bring one cup of water and one cup of sugar to a boil. Remove it from heat and add four ounces of fresh thyme. Let cool and strain.

Grapefruit dust: Peel a grapefruit and remove all the pith from the fruit. Bring the peelings to a boil in water three times. On the fourth time, add one part sugar and three parts water. Strain, then place the peelings on a sheet pan and dry them until brittle in a 200 degree oven. Grind to make powder. – W. Healy

The onion rings at Cheeburger Cheeburger were fried fresh to order in pure peanut oil. (So were the hand cut fries.)

You can get a monster basket of rings that feeds four to five people for five bucks. You can also get a big “Basket of Both” which includes fries and rings for five dollars. Pictured here is the “half basket” of the combo--it set me back four dollars.

The rings were hot and crunchy with a tart (buttermilk?) batter flavor. They weren’t as impressive as the monster onion rings you get at Del Frisco or Flemings, or as iconic as Tookie’s rings, but they were pretty good for burger chain rings.

Speaking of onion rings, some of the best I have come across are served up by the Country Inn in Somerville. The place isn't afraid to spice 'em up with black pepper the way I like 'em. -- Jay Francis

Flaming chile atop a Tex-Mex sign on Federal Road. -- Robb Walsh

This impressive half-pound burger came from Cheeburger Cheeburger, a new “gourmet hamburger” chain location in the Vintage Park Shopping Center off Louetta. We ordered ours cooked medium (they don’t allow medium-rare) with American cheese, lettuce, tomato, mustard, mayo, pickles, onions and jalapeños. The completed sandwich was held together with an olive-adorned toothpick. The thick, rounded patty came out pink in the middle and wonderfully juicy.

We scanned the Houston Department of Health and Human Services reports for the week of July 28 and found these popular restaurants among the offenders.

The Breakfast Klub (3711 Travis) got its hand slapped during an August 7 visit, racking up seven violations. Employees were mishandling food; equipment and service areas were not regularly cleaned; equipment wasn’t kept tight; there was insufficient ventilation and no protection against outside insects. The restaurant was also charged with “Wall/ceiling not maintained in good repair.” (We’re not sure what that means, since the last time we visited the Breakfast Klub, all the walls seemed to be standing pretty much straight up and the ceiling wasn’t falling down.)

Brock Wagner, the founder of Saint Arnold Brewing Company, was looking over the blueprints of the brewery’s new downtown headquarters when I stopped by to visit last week.

Saint Arnold’s bought the former HISD food service headquarters at 2000 Lyons Avenue, just north of I-10. The renovation of the three-story brick building is expected to cost around six million dollars. Saint Arnold’s will celebrate its 15th anniversary and the grand opening of the building next year. The best part of the deal is that the new tour area and tasting room will be air-conditioned!

Sartin's Seafood, home of the state's most famous barbecued crabs.

Where: Mi Luna Tapas Restaurant & Bar, 2298 Texas Drive, Sugar Land, 281-277-8272

What $7 gets you: Some great tasting Spanish – not Tex/Mex -- food

Two of the three big TVs over the expansive bar are tuned to an Argentinean soccer demonstration. The other, in a nod to the prevailing Sugar Land culture, has an American football game going on. The surprise was how empty the place was -- it was the noon hour on a Saturday and there was only one other couple dining –so this was either going to be an undiscovered treasure, or a disaster.

Fortunately for us, it was the former.

Austin, Texas-based Whole Foods has pulled Coleman ground beef from all its stores and issued a recall in some states.

Turns out its Coleman "Natural" Beef was being processed by a company known for repeated recalls and USDA violations.

Which is pretty funny given the sanctimonious rhetoric about the superiority and highs standards of Whole Foods natural meats on their website:

Industry Leader

Whole Foods Market is proud of our role as a leader in the natural meat industry. By working with our knowledgeable and passionate meat and poultry providers as well as with forward thinking humane animal treatment experts, we have been able to champion innovative production systems that not only improve the quality and the safety of the meat we sell, but also support humane living conditions of the animals. We believe that working with producers toward positive improvements creates an environment in which real change can be achieved.