Blogs

Slate had an article yesterday on Houston's own Sysco, the nation's largest food wholesaler, responsible for meals at Yankee Stadium, the Four Seasons, Applebee's and Club Gitmo.

You can check out the article here, or read the HouStoned CliffsNotes version after the jump, courtesy of MS Word's AutoSummarize function. — Keith Plocek

I pulled into the parking lot of Mi Ranchito, a night club at 13502 Almeda, at around 8 pm on a Saturday night to sample the tacos at a brightly lit truck in the parking lot called Tacos Guanajuatenses (tacos by people from Guanajuato). The carne asado taco was made with thin slices of charcoal-grilled beef with plenty of char. They were slightly chewy but otherwise excellent. The marinated pork in the tacos al pastor was particularly tangy. There wasn't much else to choose from, but those two tacos were outstanding. An orange-flavored Jarritos was the perfect complement. While I was standing there, a well-lit patron stumbled out of the front door of Mi Ranchito and ordered a taco. There is a sign by the door that says "Mujeres! Mujeres! Mujeres!" I asked him what went on inside. He offered a particularly succinct summary of a taxi dance bar. "You go in there with $200 in your wallet and you meet all these 23- and 24-year-old girls, and then you come out broke," he said in Spanish. Luckily, he saved enough to buy a taco. — Robb Walsh

In this week's Chef Special, Sylvia Casares-Copeland, chef and owner of Sylvia's Enchilada Kitchen, answers a few burning questions, including:

What are you sick of?
"People who put down Tex-Mex! I grew up in Brownsville. And I am proud to be cooking the food that I grew up eating. When people tell me they love my restaurant because the food isn't Tex-Mex, they are trying to be nice, but they are putting me and my food and background down. Like Tex-Mex isn't real cooking!"

Find out what Sylvia's been drinking lately (hint: The Champs) and more in the next issue of the Houston Press.

Forgot to mention that Gilhooley's Raw Bar in San Leon absolutely positively will not admit children. -- Robb Walsh

We took advantage of the recent sunny weather to drive down to Gilhooley's in San Leon and sit outside on the patio beneath the salvaged marine artifacts which hang from the trees there. The patio bartender, a feisty young woman named Nicky, told us her life story and brought us Lone Star beers to go with our buttery, cheesy, pecan wood-grilled "Oysters Gilhooley." We stopped at a seafood store and bought a sack of oysters to shuck in the backyard on our way home. I highly recommended this oyster-centric excursion if you are looking for a way to waste a sunny winter afternoon. -- Robb Walsh

UPDATE: Sorry, but you've got to keep the kids at home.