Houston Food Blog

Photos by Jay Francis

It's so refreshing to find a place that isn't afraid to keep the heat in their Mongolian hot pot, spicy version. Here are two excellent places where you can test your tolerance.

I had Mongolian hot pot with a group of Houston Chowhounds at the wonderful Sichuan Cuisine (9114 Bellaire Boulevard). For a fixed price of around $15 a person, the table gets a big pot of broth with several cups of chiles, Sichuan peppers and other spices floating in it (refills are free). You pick and choose your ingredients from a checklist, which was a learning experience. There are some things that, if put in too soon, fall apart and make a complete mess of the soup. Other items are in the Bourdain realm -- chunks of dried blood, for example. Fortunately, we were able to keep some of our more adventurous eaters from adding the wackier stuff.

Photos by Jay Francis

Tortas with a slather of frijoles negros on telera bread

Mexico's Deli (2374 Dairy Ashford) still gets my vote for the best and most creative Mexican torta in Houston.

But recently, I tried the crema de chile poblano soup, and it was so good and so spicy, I'm already dreaming of getting to that side of town for another.

Cremas are soups thickened with either milk or cream. You take a vegetable, in this case the fresh chile poblano, sauté it in oil or butter with onion and garlic, puree it and thicken it into a rich soup with cream or milk and chicken stock.

Photos by Jay Francis

Las Delicias, a new wholesale/retail store on Airline Boulevard just up from Teotihuacan, is selling traditional Mexican candies. There's the variety made by cooking fresh fruits and vegetables (pumpkin, for example) in sugar syrup, and also ate, a fresh-fruit puree in bar form, hard candies, chocolate-covered peanut marzipan, and the famous goat's-milk dulce de leche known as cajeta.

The word "cajeta" is interesting -- it actually means "little box." Made in Celaya, cajeta originally was packaged in little souvenir boxes for travelers returning to Mexico City. Over time, when people wanted the candy, they would just ask for "cajeta," and the name became synonymous with the candy.

Photos by Jay Francis

Pinto beans have a very short season, which is why you hardly ever see them fresh. But fresh pinto beans, when boiled with a little cilantro, salt, butter and onion, are absolutely delicious. The center is creamy, with the consistency of a chocolate truffle. Dried pintos can be gritty.

Ray himself with fresh pintos

Ray's Produce will have fresh pinto beans this week and possibly next weekend. They are $4 a pound. Ray's is a wholesale/retail venue near the farmers' market at Gibbs and Airline, just across from the new Flores Spices and near El Bolillo Bakery. It stays open until 2 p.m. on Saturdays.

Another Ray's bargain: Instead of paying $1 a pound for navel oranges at the grocery store, which averages out to about a buck an orange, buy a box of 72 here for $18. They've been exceptionally sweet this year. Ray will sell you any quantity of vegetables, too.

If I could take Guy Fieri out for a taste of Houston I'd do the following in this order (all on the same day...we'd have to start early):

First stop: Crispy puffy tacos at Loma Linda and Los Tios.

Photos by Jay Francis

Puffy tacos at Loma Linda

Puffy tacos at Los Tios

Photos by Jay Francis

I discovered Payal at 5615 Savoy (just off of Harwin near Hillcroft) a few years ago when I went in search of some Indian stainless steel cookware. The Indians do spectacular things with stainless steel: dishes, cups, teapots, pressure cookers...you name it. And when I walked into Payal for the first time, my thoughts went back to the warehouse scene in the 1st Indiana Jones movie.

Photos by Jay Francis

Plain as far as looks go, but the ladies sure do seem to like him...

Photos by Jay Francis

Just before Christmas I came across this most amazing book and proceeded to learn more about rum and its relation to our history. Wayne Curtis is a spectacularly good writer. I was originally attracted to the book for its section on Don the Beachcomber and Trader Vic and the invention of the Mai Tai. It's still my favorite chapter.

Walk down the rum aisle and you'll see lots of choices, and lots of labels, but in the background at the corporate level, there are only a few major players. But thanks to Mr. Curtis, I've discovered two that deserve your attention.

Who would have thought that Guatemala would produce one of the finest rums in the world? Mr. Curtis participated in a 2003 International Rum Festival as a judge and the rum that the judges chose as their baseline to compare all other rums in the competition to was Zacapa.

Photos by Jay Francis

You better believe you deep-fry these suckers.

Well, I decided to take up Robb's challenge and come up with something for the football weekend. But I wanted to push the envelope a little with an over the top, artery clogging, bad for you something. And that something turned out to be corn dog tamales.

Robb Walsh wrote about Ekko's this week in the Press. A couple of days ago, someone asked me whether "gyros" was singular or plural and I thought I'd share this with you so that you can dazzle the Greek guy behind the counter the next time you're out and about.

Like many words that come from foreign sources, singular and plural forms of the word get confused when they are used here in the States. "Kolache" and "tamale" come to mind, as the singulars are actually kolach and tamal and the plurals are kolaches and tamales. There's confusion regading "gyros" being singular and/or plural.

The word gyros, meaning "a turn," comes from the fact that the meat is roasted on a vertical, rotating spit. Our words such as gyrate, gyroscope, etc. come from the same Greek root. In Greek, many nouns are given an "s" at the end. But if it is a formal name, you drop the "s" when addressing the person. For example, you would refer to Jesus as Jesus (from the Greekification of "Yeshua", Iesus) if you were writing about him but if you were addressing him you would call him "Jesu".

Sometimes I get a craving for a burger like the ones from my youth, from the pharmacy luncheonette on Park Place where Kelly's is now. They fried the hamburger patty a la parilla with the bun toasting right next to it. Then, one bun was dropped on top of the burger to soak up the meat goodness. I'm fond of saying that, with respect to burgers, it's all about the bread. Yeah, I miss that old style burger from my youth. Rosebud.

I love exploring this city and discovering new food-related things to talk about. Why, oh why then hadn't I discovered The Path of Tea, this treasure of a place, when it first opened three years ago? I'm going to dispense with the usual verbage and just list a few of the reasons why you should run, not walk, to check this place out.

1. Soothing music and a great ambience.

2. The best chocolate chip pistachio cranberry cookie in Houston.

I was at Spec's the other evening and ended up in the Port section.  I struck up a conversation with a guy who looked a little overwhelmed by all of the different choices and we ended up having a nice conversation about port.  Here's some basic information that I hope will help you with your own Port shopping this holiday season.

First off, Port is a fortified wine, meaning that the wine has been topped off with brandy.  Originally done to prevent "souring" of the wine that was being shipped from Portugal to England, brandy was added before the fermentation was complete and that left some sugar in the wine, resulting in a sweeter wine that became extremely popular in the U.K.

Secondly, only Port that has been produced in Portugal can be called "Port" with a capital P, similar to the strict naming conventions around Champagne or Roquefort cheese.  In the U.S., true Port is labelled Porto or Vinho do Porto.  If you run across a bottle of port with a small P, then you've found virtually the same thing, except with its origins in a country such as Australia or Argentina.

When you're in the mood to break away from the breakfast as usual, make your way over to the Classic Kitchen (9888 Bellaire #108) for something different.

The crispy cruller shows up on the menu as deep fried long bread. I noticed that most of the diners ordered this with a bowl of sweet soy milk for dipping.

When I was helping test recipes for The Tex-Mex Cookbook we tried to come up with a manageable recipe for two dozen tamales at a time. With Christmas just around the corner, here is a recipe for the masa you'll need.

For this recipe you will need 1 ½ tsp of salt, 4 cups Maseca, 1 tsp of baking powder, 3 ½ cups of warm chicken or pork broth (or water) and 1 cup of lard.

In 1926 a Louisiana native named Mayo Bessan bought the Caballo Blanco bar in Nuevo Laredo and changed its name to The Cadillac Bar because he wanted "a rich sounding name." He moved the location a few years later and re-opened on July 4th, 1929, with signs advertising his New Orleans heritage and the "Famous Ramos Gin Fizz."

Although there were Mexican dishes on the menu, they were in the minority. It was a place to go drink, socialize and dine on green turtle soup, frog legs, lobster, steaks and Italian food. There were seven other featured egg white drinks on that menu: Silver Fizz, Golden Fizz, Royal Fizz, Whiskey Flipp, Rum Flipp, Sherry Flipp and Sherry & Egg. There is no mention of the Margarita.

I guess if one waits long enough, everything ends up in the deep fryer. Fried ice cream, fried Twinkies, fried Oreos, you name it. I was in Mexico recently and came across a street vendor offering tamales dorados. Deep-fried tamales. I noticed that she had to use a protective cover when she put them in the hot oil, as the salsa would leak out and explode. They didn't look that great but they were delicious as the masa got really crispy. So this holiday season, if you're planning to deep-fry your turkey, don't forget to throw some tamales into the pot.

One of my favorite fun things to do on a Friday night is pop over to Nundini on Shepherd for one of the food store's wine nights. There are (mostly Italian) wines in all price ranges and you'll meet some fun people. I always pick up prosciutto and bleu cheese, as Nundini has some of the best prices in town.

The next wine tasting is December 5. See you there. -- Jay Francis

Anyone out there know where this photo was taken? Leave your best guess in the comments. -- Jay Francis

  The photo here is of a tortilla enmolada at Otilia's, one of several restaurants in town that make mole from scratch. The mole of Mexico is a rich gravy, made of combining chile puree (reconstituted dried chiles), fruits, toasted bread, nuts, herbs and, in some cases, chocolate. The gravy is simmered in lard until it develops a surface sheen. Chicken broth is added to thin the gravy a little bit before serving.

You're looking at a true guilty pleasure here. The chocolate iced is a specialty of the Shipley's at 3932 North Main. It's a donut that is sugar glazed and then dipped in chocolate. A lot of Shipley's skip the glaze -- "too sweet," they say -- but you can always get one at the North Main location. Kudos to my neighbor and long-time Heights resident, Russell Neel, for the tip.

On Saturday, the crew turns out boudin-stuffed kolaches. They do go fast so best to get there around 9 a.m. -- Jay Francis

Where there's smoke, there's firemen barbecuing up a mess of briskets, sausage and chicken. The Houston Firefest event was this past Saturday, October 25. Thanks to a friend of mine, I got to go hang out the night before as the different crews fired up their smokers to prepare for the Saturday competitions.

I got to chow down with the Red Knights Team, who got second place in the brisket competition the next day. Lucky me. Here are some photos of the event.

I try my best to seek out the places that slip under the radar, the mom ‘n pops, the holes in the wall. You’re more apt to see me tracking down zacahuil than pecan crusted mango infused mahi mahi. So I feel a little guilty when I write about a place that’s one of many in a chain. In the case of Maggiano’s on Post Oak Boulevard, well, there are 43 around the country with the original one located in the Windy City. But I do like this place for the food and also for aesthetic reasons.

Such as the weathered revolving door at the entrance, the tiled 40’s style bathroom, the dark brown wood interior, the checkered tablecloths and the vintage Italian American music through the speaker system. It’s a place that I feel very good in, a place where I can settle in at the bar with an espresso, a Cinzano and one of Lawrence Block’s series on hit-man John Keller. And the food is very good. Maggiano’s claims “from scratch” preparation on its Web site and, from the dishes that I’ve sampled, I think it’s the truth.

Here are some ideas if you're thinking about taking a break from America's favorite condiment, ketchup.

First up is....ketchup. But with a difference. I came across All Gold at Leibman's. It's from South Africa, uses cane sugar as the sweetener instead of high fructose corn syrup, doesn’t have any colorants or additives and has a hint of curry that I really like. Once you try this one, you'll have a hard time going back to Heinz.

I recently entertained an out-of-town food writer who had been contracted to write on Tex-Mex in San Antonio and Houston. Although he was very personable and fun to hang out with, I knew of his notoriety of writing really negative reviews about things that others held dear.

When we met up he had already sampled Irma’s spinach enchiladas, which he liked. I took him to a favorite place for enchiladas, and he wasn't impressed. Over the next day or so he hit 5 different places, none of which he liked, all of which I do.

The recent article on water in Houston prompted me to tell you about some choices you have if you're ready to kick the plastic-bottle habit and help reduce landfill.

I bought an entry level distiller at Sears as I don't really like the taste of Houston water. The distiller does an excellent job of removing the salts and minerals that I dislike. I use one-liter glass bottles with relocking tops to store the water. You could pay around $6 for these around town, but a better way is to stock up on the new eco-friendly 360 brand of vodka. It's currently a bargain at Spec's at $16. Go on a maritini binge and get a perfect water transport device when you're done with the good stuff inside.

Houston is hot, no denying that, and I love to take advantage of the temperature whenever possible. We use solar energy to dry our laundry (it’s called a clothesline). Alton Brown once told me how he tried using his mailbox to bake biscuits.

We used to have an older car that was always parked in our driveway. I found that it had the perfect environment for sun-drying tomatoes on the dashboard with a cake cooling rack and a towel underneath. (I didn’t have to worry about bugs as I would have if I had dried them outside.) The car also turned out to be an excellent environment for making yogurt.

Thanks to Christopher Huang for recommending Cheddar’s Casual Cafe (10601 Westpark 713-706-3663) for onion rings. The onions there are mild and sweet and wrapped inside of a crunchy, flour-based batter.

Those who know me know I hate high fructose syrup sweeteners and avoid products that contain them whenever possible. Lately I've been having a lot of fun trying different honeys from around the world.

There was the delicious Tej (Ethiopian honey wine) that I enjoyed at the Blue Nile, for example. Tej is sweet and fruity and you can get a heck of a buzz if you drink it too fast.

I only learned about the torta ahogada recently. It came up in a conversation about a special type of Guadalajaran bread called birote or bolillo salado that has a higher salt content and a thick crunchy crust. The sandwich gets its name because it’s dipped in a spicy sauce made with chile de arbol, vinegar, garlic and oregano.

I set out to find such a sandwich here in Houston. I tried taquerias with "Jalisco" or "Guadalajara" in their names. I cruised up Bellaire and Long Point. Even Airline.