Houston Food Blog

They run a great coffee shop, but the ambiance suffers a little from all the squished mushrooms and empty turtle shells lying around.

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Welcome back to the weekly round-up here at Eating Our Words, where we have a lovely bouquet and notes of walnut and oak in our boldly earthy flavor. Effervescent, but never insistent.

Robb Walsh started us off with some foreign mustard favorites. Sadly, French's did not make the list. They're French, right? No? Okay, we're totally lost. Luckily, Robb can help us find our way again with a reliable old standby, barbecue.

Some baristas got together at Coffee Groundz for some kind of throwdown, which we can only assume ended in an Anchorman-like melee-weapon rumble. It's all the caffeine. Makes 'em high-strung and murderous. Greenway Barista visited Star Snow Ice, which is either a Taiwanese restaurant or an upcoming animated Christmas special.

© David Nathan-Maister and Oxygenee Ltd.

​Although it's taking place next month, spots will fill up quickly for Absinthe: Revealed, so we're doing you a favor by telling you about it now. On December 5 at 7:30 p.m., Avant Garden will be hosting a "celebration of tastings and truths" about one of the world's most misunderstood spirits. The evening will feature a two-hour long presentation on the history of absinthe by renowned historian Ted Breaux and master distiller Jay Hendrickson, followed by a tasting of several absinthes along with hors d'oeuvres and music by Two Star Symphony. Tickets are $20 for the entire event or $15 for the tasting afterwards and an RSVP is required.

The Guy Expo already got started today for those lucky bastards who don't have to work on Fridays. But for the rest of us, it will be going on all weekend at the George R. Brown Convention Center. Tickets are only $8 and include such festivities as the Novemberfest Beer Garden and the Beer-A-Thon, where you can sample six beers for $5 and vote on your favorite. In addition to brews, there will -- of course -- be boobs. Hooters is sponsoring an Elvis Presley-themed chicken wing eating contest, and to encourage participants, anyone in an Elvis jumpsuit gets free admission to the Expo.

Photos by Katharine Shilcutt

​That special time of year is quickly approaching again, whether we're ready for it or not. That's right: It's almost tamale time!

Tamales at Christmas are a tradition not only in Houston, but in nearly every single area of the world that enjoys tamales. In places like Trinidad -- where tamales are called pastelles -- they're seen almost exclusively at Christmas, in fact. When Eating Our Words was young, the female members of our family would gather at an aunt's house after Thanksgiving and begin the annual tamale-making process to ensure we'd have enough for the entire family at Christmas.

Making tamales is a long and time-consuming, but keenly enjoyable process. There's nothing quite like being covered in lard and pork at the end of the day, hands and back aching, but with a fat batch of perfectly-prepared tamales fresh out of the steamer as a reward for your efforts. Our family made tamales the old-fashioned way: dried corn husks soaked in water, masa prepared from scratch, spoons instead of plastic masa spreaders. We weren't terribly efficient, but damn if the things didn't taste amazing.

And because even with new technologies like pre-mixed masa and pre-cooked pork, making tamales is still a time-consuming process that requires buying ingredients in bulk, it simply doesn't make sense to only make a few at once. And as a result, you'll find the best tamales in town for purchase in stores by the dozen -- not on a plate by themselves with rice and beans -- handmade by the ladies who run the store, incredibly fresh every day. For this week's Food Fight, we pitted two of the finest bulk tamale purveyors in town against each other. Read on for the results.

​Flounder season has just started, and I have had it twice already. It's a wonderfully flavorful fish that's almost always cooked whole because it is nearly impossible to get all the meat off the bones in a filet. I had some simple fried flounder last weekend at Captain Benny's served with a pile of dirty rice and some garlic bread. It was pretty tasty, though maybe a little overcooked. The oysters at the Captain's boat-shaped restaurant were a better bet.

​If restaurant openings are an economic indicator, the last month would seem to signify that things are picking back up -- at least in Houston. Things we've learned from this month's openings and closings include: don't put a "z" in your name if you're trying to be taken seriously as a wine bar; Town & Country's new CityCentre development is the place to be; restaurants will never be deterred from opening in the accursed location at 2303 Richmond; and yes, things are still reopening in Galveston after the devastation of Hurricane Ike.

Openings

• III Forks, 1201 Fannin (in the Houston Pavilions)
• Hearsay, 218 Travis
• Ruby Tequila's, 2616 Louisiana
• Straits, 800 W. Sam Houston Parkway
• Eddie V's, 12848 Queensbury (check out our Sarah Rufka's first look)
• The Chelsea Grill, 4621 Montrose
• Yelapa Playa Mexicana, 2303 Richmond
• Loving Hut, 2825 S. Kirkwood
• Georgia's Farm to Market, 12171 Katy Freeway (taking over from Sandy's Market)
• Azzarelli's, 17754 Katy Freeway
• Da Vinci Ristorante Italiano, 6455 S. Fry Road
• Bullrito's, 12719 FM 1960
• Grimaldi's, 20 Waterway Avenue, The Woodlands
• La Trattoria Tuscano, 4223 Research Forest
• The Egg & I, 557 W. Bay Area Boulevard, Webster
• Clary's Seafood, 8509 Teichman, Galveston (now reopened after Hurricane Ike)

​Acai berries, whole grain, probiotics and fiber are about to be usurped by flaxseed.

Once seen mostly in specialty health food stores and used as an additive to salads, breads and soups, flaxseed-infused products are making their way to the same store shelves that stock things like Cheez-Whiz and Captain Crunch.

Ever since Jamie Lee Curtis started putting the regular in bifidus regularis, America has had an obsession with healthy digestion. Flaxseed is attractive to health nuts because it contains omega-3 fatty acids, lignans which have antioxidant qualities and, of course, fiber. According to WebMD, there's evidence it can help reduce your risk of heart disease, cancer, stroke and diabetes.

All this is great, but after seeing a friend choke down the stuff during weeks of Prevention magazine's Flat Belly Diet, it became clear an investigation was merited.

​Machacada con huevo, the Northern Mexican dish of dried beef with scrambled eggs, makes a lovely Saturday morning breakfast. I ate a wonderful version last Saturday at of La Plaza restaurant on Bingle at Long Point. The interior of this place looks like an all-American diner.

I was confused when I first looked at the menu because, although La Plaza appears to be a Mexican restaurant, all the breakfasts were standard American fare like bacon and eggs and pancakes. When I asked the waitress about it, she looked at me like I was dolt, and turned the menu over. The Mexican breakfasts were on the other side.

​Since we were seeing Opera in the Heights's production of the French opera Manon, we decided to pay homage by writing about another amazing French feat going on here in Houston. Café Rabelais in the Village is dear to many a European's displaced heart - it's the focal point of casual French dining in our inner city. While everything here is really top-notch, and we do mean everything, there were a few points of special interest on our recent trip.

​Doh! I forgot to go to the Thursday spaghetti luncheon at Saint Basil the Great Greek Orthodox Church on Eldridge Parkway again. Every Thursday I wake up with the intention of going to the spaghetti luncheon, but then something happens or I just plain forget about it. I love the idea of a spaghetti fundraiser at a church named St. Basil. I never even knew there was a St. Basil. Turns out he was called St. Basil the Great to differentiate him from his father, Saint Basil the Elder. He was famous for a homily condemning usury, but there are no records of any food writing.

Photo by rpongsaj

​Okay, confession: It's been years since I went to a Taco Cabana without the aid of a much-needed designated driver. But the bell tolls for all of us, and tonight it's my turn to drunk-sit and someone else's turn to drag me there for tortillas and queso.

Walking into the Kirby and 59 location, I notice it's both brighter and smaller than I remembered. After talking a couple friends out of ordering margaritas (it's unfortunately just shy of 2 a.m.), combining a couple of tables in the corner, and alternately laughing with my friends and staring daggers at the food pick-up spot in hopes of making it ready faster, I start talking to the only other people in the dining room (there's a couple in club wear sitting on the patio): three guys who say they're in town for a cricket tournament. They're really friendly, and when the table response is, "So that's kind of like baseball, right?" they are great sports.