Photos by Mai Pham

Nigiri sushi by sushi chef Chris Kinjo, from an omakase dinner at MF Sushi

For me, eating sushi -- enjoying sushi -- used to be measured by the quality of the fish. As I've come to learn more about sushi, however, I now understand that you can't measure the quality of sushi on the fish alone. In fact, the critical component in all forms of sushi is seasoned rice -- whether it be nigiri sushi (hand pressed), chirashi sushi (sushi rice topped with sashimi), or sushi maki (rolls). Sushi rice should be body temperature and lightly seasoned with vinegar, enhancing the natural flavor of the fish.

In this week's cafe review of MF Sushi, I talk about sushi chef Chris Kinjo's mastery of the sushi rice, and how supremely fresh, precise cuts of fish, nikiri soy glaze, wasabi, and skilled preparation of sushi rice, combine to create a perfect piece of nigiri sushi.

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Photo by Kathy Z. Tang

All hail the mighty Maine lobster roll.

One of the first known recipes for lobster comes from Apicius, a Roman cookbook dating to around 400 A.D. that's organized quite like a modern cookbook into ten chapters. In "Thalassa," the chapter on the sea, Apicius provides recipes for dishes including boiled lobster with cumin sauce, lobster with wine and another boiled dish that called for pepper, rue, honey vinegar, broth and oil in addition to the lobster and cumin.

The lobster roll, however, is a thoroughly modern recipe. After all, the second most important ingredient outside of the lobster is a hot dog bun-style yeast roll -- and those rolls weren't created until 1912. The first lobster roll was born a decade later, according to the locals in Milford, Connecticut.

Milford is where Perry's first began serving the traditional lobster roll we known today. According to food writer John Mariani in his book Encyclopedia of American Food and Drink, "owner Harry Perry concocted it for a regular customer named Ted Hales sometime in the 1920s."

But although Connecticut may have originated the now-famous lobster roll, it's Maine that first comes to mind when many people think of the iconic sandwich.

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Photos by Katharine Shilcutt

Come with me / my love / to the sea / the sea of love.

If you've only driven by L'Olivier, you may have pegged the Montrose restaurant as a French restaurant and nothing more. Visions of bœuf bourguignon and pâté may dance in your head, and while you wouldn't be wrong...you wouldn't be entirely right either. The L'Olivier I've come to love is split in two: an elegant French brasserie and a small but serious raw bar.

The brasserie side of L'Olivier is given the lion's share of the attention in this week's cafe review, but I'd be remiss not to mention the briny pleasures showcased in an icy palace at the end of L'Olivier's bottle-laden bar.

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© Oceana / Jenn Hueting

All ten seafood samples purchased from Texas sushi restaurants, all located in Austin, were mislabeled, according to Oceana's study.

Think that tai sushi you're eating is red snapper? It's far more likely to be tilapia, says Oceana, a Washington, D.C.-based ocean conservancy organization. This isn't a new concern, of course. Former Houston Press food critic Robb Walsh wrote a scathing exposé of the issue back in 2001, "Fish Fraud," in which he documented the red snapper substitutions rampant in Texas. And yet the problem persists.

Last week, Oceana released a new study in which it found 33 percent of the fish samples it analyzed from across the United States were mislabeled. The most frequently swapped-out fish? Snapper and tuna, which had mislabeling rates of 87 percent and 59 percent respectively.

The two-year-long study analyzed 1,215 seafood samples from 674 retail outlets in 21 states, and found that Texas was one of the worst offenders. According to Oceana's data, nearly half the fish sold in retail outlets and restaurants in Texas is mislabeled. The only other areas of the country worse at telling escolar from white tuna were Southern California (52 percent of its samples were mislabeled) and Pennsylvania (56 percent).

These findings echo previous studies done by outlets ranging from Consumer Reports and the Chicago Sun-Times to the University of North Carolina, which found in 2004 that 77 percent of fish being sold as red snapper was actually another species entirely. Mislabeling seafood is illegal, although the Food and Drug Administration -- which is responsible for monitoring this area -- typically focuses its efforts on food safety, not food fraud.

"It is very difficult for consumers to purchase a real red snapper in Austin and Houston," the Oceana study reported. "None of the eight 'red snapper' samples tested were true red snapper; three were tilapia, two were breams and three were less expensive snapper species."

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Photos by Katharine Shilcutt

Blackened catfish enchiladas at Joyce's, where Gulf Coast, Cajun, Tex-Mex and Mexican cuisines all blend together seamlessly.

One of the best things about grand tasting events like the Rodeo's Best Bites competition or our own upcoming Menu of Menus is the opportunity to sample food from restaurants you may have never heard of, or restaurants you've always meant to try but never got around to. Joyce's Seafood and Steaks falls in the latter category.

During the final round of judging Best Bites this past Sunday night, I became obsessed with a cup of bread pudding that featured everything I love about the difficult-to-perfect dessert: slightly crunchy, caramelized pieces of soft, challah-like bread soaked in a creamy sauce that was almost like vanilla custard. I had to know where it came from. The answer was Joyce's, which won two awards for its dessert that night: the Tasty Traditions Award and second place in the Two-Stepping Bread/Cheese/Dessert category.

At one point long ago, I used to drive past Joyce's twice a day during my commute to and from the Galleria. I never thought much of the little seafood place tucked away in a 1960's-era strip center, and nothing about its rather charmless exterior ever encouraged me to stop over for dinner on my way home. I should have known better. A lifetime spent in Houston has taught me not to judge a book -- or a restaurant -- by its cover.

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Head to these Houston restaurants for meals that follow Lent guidelines.

Lenten season is upon us. Many people have decided to give up something that they love in their lives, and most of the time that something ends up being food or drink. I'm talking about beer, chocolate, candy, coffee and meat.

Devout Catholics also abstain from meat throughout the Lent season, so several Houston restaurants have decided to make those next 40 days a bit easier by offering menus that cater to those Lenten needs.

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Photo by Derek D

Think of the lionfish as the Wall Street investment bankers of fish: nattily attired, greedy jerks.

Invasive species are nothing new. Neither is eating them, as anyone who's eaten Cambodian water spinach -- much of it grown here in Houston -- will tell you. But bringing in water spinach from Cambodia and growing it for profit (despite its status over here as a noxious weed) is entirely different from eating species which have invaded on their own.

In Louisiana, it's oyster drills, where the invasive creatures that can destroy entire oyster beds are marketed and consumed as "Biganos snails" -- similar to escargot. In Texas and other parts of the Gulf, black tiger shrimp -- cannibals that eat smaller shrimp before destroying their homes -- are being considered as alternatives to regular Gulf shrimp. This would allow Gulf shrimp populations to rebuild while removing the harmful but delicious black tiger shrimp from the waters.

Chef Randy Evans at Haven has a similar solution for the lionfish, which has been equally destructive as the black tiger shrimp since 2011. Although the lionfish -- a species native to the Pacific Ocean -- was first spotted in the Gulf several years ago, its numbers have mushroomed since then. Scientists are worried about the long-term effect the lionfish will have on the Gulf, especially in light of what took place recently in the Caribbean.

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Photo by Paula Murphy

Blood clams are on the menu tonight at Cove.

In case this week's restaurant review wasn't enough to get you in to try Cove for the first time, maybe the subtle threat of danger will be more convincing.

The cockle you see above is called a blood clam. It's very rare for these to show up Houston, as importing the blood clams from Southeast Asia is prohibited due to health concerns. Yet Philippe Gaston has them tonight at Cove -- but only a limited supply.

Blood clams, long a Chinese delicacy, are often found on lists such as these: The World's 10 Deadliest Delicacies or 5 Deadly Dishes from Around the World.

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Photos by Troy Fields

Jean-Philippe Gaston plates his playful "Chicken of the Sea" dish. See more in our slideshow.

Whether it's a manifestation of chefs' ADD or a new dining trend to look for in the coming years, the restaurant-within-a-restaurant concept has hit Houston, which is now home to two such venues: Cove and The Pass.

The Pass, which is technically side-by-side with Provisions, leans more toward the "traditional" means in which these Inception-like restaurants work. Take the reservations-only Blanca behind Roberta's -- a casual pizzeria -- in Brooklyn, for example. Blanca seats only 12 guests per night and charges $180 for a tasting menu that Andrew Knowlton called "dinner theater at its finest" in Bon Appetit last year. The two spaces -- The Pass and Blanca -- even bear a passing resemblance to one another in their starkly modern spaces, although Blanca features more wood tones and leather while The Pass is all black, white and steel.

Similar concepts can be found at other restaurant-within-a-restaurant spaces throughout the United States: Maine chef David Turin opened David's Opus 10 late last year inside his eponymous Portland restaurant, David's, and serves his $55 prix fixe menu to only 18 people per night. And in the other Portland across the country, chef Trent Pierce opened Roe inside of his pre-existing restaurant, Fins, and began to experiment with everything a small space allows chefs to do.

"I wanted to create a miniature experience of what you would have if you went into Le Bernardin," Pierce told Michael Russell at The Oregonian.

Cove -- the subject of this week's cafe review -- is closer to Roe in concept than it is to places such as Blanca, but in a way that's uniquely Houstonian.

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Photos by Katharine Shilcutt

Tuna-on-tuna at Michiru Sushi, one of the chef's own creations.

Michiru Sushi is the other high-profile sushi restaurant which opened recently, not to be confused with Chris Kinjo's MF Sushi on Westheimer. I haven't been to MF Sushi yet, and I'm keen to dine there. Although reviews so far have been mixed, one thing has been noted across the board: MF Sushi is quite pricey.

So it was with great relief that I found myself indulging in high-quality fare for far less money at Michiru Sushi this past Sunday night, including a dish which I've been raving about like a madwoman for a few days now: tuna dumplings.

As soon as our server -- a warm, bubbly woman who knew the menu inside and out -- explained the concept of the tuna dumpling, I was sold. Spicy tuna belly, shrimp, "crunch," and avocado inside a huge dumpling made of...wait for it...more tuna. It looked like the beautiful bastard offspring of a crunch roll and a soup dumpling, and I was smitten. We were given spoons to tear the dumplings apart with, and I couldn't believe how easily the paper-thin tuna parted to reveal the contents inside.

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