Houston Food Blog

Photos by Tony Stamolis

This is just about the safest image from T&T&A that we can show you on the front page.

​There's food porn -- teasing photographs of donuts glistening with a fresh coat of glaze, artfully arranged plates looking like architectural plans, footage of cakes being frosted as the icing is skillfully stroked across each plump layer -- and then there's food porn. Real food porn. With extreme emphasis on the porn.

Although, to be fair, Tony Stamolis' upcoming book -- T&T&A, which will be available in March 2010 -- is more in the food erotica category. This isn't hard-core food porn by any means, nor is it vaguely disturbing soft-core food porn like this Aria Giovanni shoot (warning: that link is extremely NSFW). Instead, Stamolis explores the warm, amber worlds of sunlight-tinted erotica and corn tortilla-tinted tacos -- each world with its own rainbow of ingredients and flavors.

Thumbing through the book, we began to notice a pattern emerging among the dozens of photos of mostly-naked women and tacos splayed open on styrofoam plates. Whether by conscious effort or not, the women and the tacos seem to match -- the reddish-orange tiles behind one model echoing the fiery color of the annatto-hued cochinita pibil on the adjacent page, the tangle of lettuce and shredded cheese on opened tacos mirroring the focus of the slightly spread legs of a young woman -- and a strange sort of joy enveloped us as we watched the two worlds blur satisfyingly together.

Below are a few of our favorite shots from T&T&A, which Stamolis describes as a "mission to document the 'other' California -- not the airbrushed celebs of Beverly Hills or those slick Silicon Valley VCs, but a world that is lo-fi and lustier: a world of scorchingly sexy women and gut-wrenching Mexican street food." We approve.

Warning: The rest of this post is NSFW -- not safe for work (or wives, probably).

Back in February, we lauded one of our favorite food websites -- This Is Why You're Fat -- for bringing such monstrosities like the Corn Dog Pizza to our attention and for bringing the Deep Fried Mars Bar into the collective consciousness (we couldn't bear to be the only ones familiar with that abomination). And now, like so many other popular single-topic websites -- Stuff White People Like and Fuck You, Penguin are just two examples -- it's been turned into a book.

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​One can't possibly argue with the extraordinary usefulness of Fearless Critic, from its many lists, to its valuable compendium of area restaurants, to its handy ratings system. But one can definitely argue with its claim that its reviews, by "food nerds" and food bloggers, are somehow superior to those of tried and true restaurant critics' simply because the book doesn't accept advertising.

Anyone who's worked within a newspaper will tell you that -- despite its fondest wishes to the contrary -- an advertising/marketing department has little to no sway over the editorial side of the house. And that sway is exactly zero when it comes to restaurant reviews. To insinuate otherwise is insulting to career restaurant critics and -- more to the point -- is simply a marketing ploy utilized by the Fearless Critic's publishers.

Professional food critics -- anonymous or otherwise -- have spent their careers assembling a knowledge base earned over many meals and many articles, honing their craft and building an authoritative voice. And they are every bit as "independent" from influences like advertisers or marketing personnel as the Fearless Critic guide claims itself to be. This kind of dedication and devotion -- in any career field -- shouldn't be dismissed offhand because a publisher wants to sell more books.

Continue reading " Fearless Critic: Not The Only"...

Photo by Steve Rhodes

Michael Pollan, speaking in San Francisco

​Michael Pollan's latest piece in this past Sunday's New York Times Magazine has once again proven to do what Pollan's work does best: incite furious discussion among food lovers, food writers and food professionals. Best known for his books The Omnivore's Dilemma and In Defense of Food: An Eater's Manifesto, the journalism professor at the University of California at Berkeley has also become famous for his pithy but deep mantra, discussed and dissected in the latter book: "Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants."

Photo by illustriousbean

One of Pollan's best sellers

​Taking this dogma to the next logical level, his recent piece in the Times Magazine examines the ways in which modern society has removed itself from the actual cooking process and become increasingly reliant upon pre-fabricated and commercially designed packaged and processed foods. He waxes poetic about days spent underfoot in the kitchen, watching his mother recreate Julia Child's boeuf bourguignon while simultaneously gleaning much of his own cooking knowledge from the TV shows and cookbooks of the era, in stark contrast to the zero-attention-span, non-educational TV shows and instant-gratification cookbooks of today. Our society has become obsessed with food -- as entertainment. We seem to have lost a signficant connection with food as fuel for our bodies and meals as nourishment for our souls. And, as the title of the article states, "No one cooks...anymore."

At least one decisive statement strikes home for many a Houstonian: "The more time a nation devotes to food preparation at home, the lower the rate of obesity. In fact, the amount of time spent cooking predicts obesity rates more reliably than female particpation in the labor force or income." As the city with one of the highest numbers of restaurants per capita in the nation, as the city whose residents eat out more than any others', and as the city who has very publicly battled obesity for many years, could Houston epitomize Pollan's indictment of people who have lost touch with food?

The Spoetzl Brewery in Shiner celebrates its 100th birthday next year and while we'll have to wait until January for the anniversary beer to be released, a new book on the history of the brewery has already hit the bookstores--just in time for Christmas. The hefty coffee table book (beer table book?) is packed with archival photos, old Shiner beer advertising, and tales of Kosmos Spoetzl.

“My dad was obsessed with the strange coconut and peanut butter confection called a Zagnut--the chocolate bar without the chocolate. I inherited his fascination, and now I buy them whenever I can find them. I wanted to give Zagnut bars to trick or treaters this year, but the only store in Houston that sells the vintage candy bar is Candylicious on W. Alabama, and they are all sold out already.

Obscure candy bars are the subject of a wonderful book called Candyfreak by Steve Almond. I heard Almond speak at the Miami Book Fair some years ago. He said his favorite lost candy bars were the Marathon and the Caravelle, neither of which is produced anymore. While researching the book, Almond visited small candy makers all over the country in search of hidden gems. His sweetest discoveries include Goldenberg's Peanut Chews, Twin Bing, Valomilk and Five Star Bars. You can only find most of these on the Internet, though Candylicious will order anything you’re looking for.

Photo by Robb Walsh

The Kitchen Table, a cookbook by Brennan’s of Houston chef Randy Evans, has a lot of local recipes in it, including Texas peach and fig preserves. Whole Foods has Texas peaches and fresh figs on hand right now, and so do some of the farmers’ markets. But they won’t be around much longer. Labor Day is the traditional end of the Texas peach season. Figs are usually gone by mid-September. If you put up some preserves over Labor Day weekend, you can enjoy the flavor of Texas peaches and figs all year long.

My homemade version...

Ash-e Reshteh gets my vote for being the healthiest soup in the world. Chickpeas, navy beans, red kidney beans, green lentils, beets, spinach, parsley and dill make up the vegetables and greens in this soup, to which are added the Persian noodles called reshteh and a thick and salty liquid whey called kashk.

Noodles have a special significance during the Iranian New Year, symbolizing the unraveling of difficulties in the year to come.

Hungry? Literate?

Virginia Willis, author of Bon Appétit, Y'all, has - you guessed it - an interest in both French and Southern cooking, having grown up on Southern food and been trained as a French chef.

Her new book combines both types of recipes with photos, stories and cooking tips. The recipes include Coca-Cola-glazed baby back ribs and coq au vin. Hmm...sounds like a strange, but interesting, combination.

She'll be speaking and demonstrating recipes at 6:30 p.m. this Saturday, June 7. Central Market, 3815 Westheimer. For reservations, call 713-386-1700.

My favorite wine expert, Karen MacNeil, passed through Houston not long ago, and I was honored to join her for lunch. MacNeil’s 910-page paperback, The Wine Bible ($20 Workman, 2001), is the only reference book on wine that I keep on my desk. As the name suggests, it’s a comprehensive guide to famous wineries and wine styles, regions and varietals, with a healthy dose of trivia and humor thrown in.

MacNeil is especially knowledgeable on the subject of Texas wines, and she told me she had tried some very interesting ones lately. Texas has long been a wine region in search of signature varietals. Some Texas wine mavens think that Viognier and Sangiovese might be the grapes we’ve been looking for, and MacNeil admits to being impressed by the few she’s tasted.

This is the fourth edition of the book that the late Sharon Tyler Herbst began writing more than 19 years ago. It offers more than 6,700 common and uncommon cooking terms – not only in English, but in other languages (French, Spanish, Italian, Portugese, Chinese) which an English-speaking cook might encounter.

This isn’t a cookbook that tells you how to put a recipe together. But it will help you decipher any recipe’s more obscure directions from ingredients to cooking techniques.

“Under no circumstances will you be required to open a can of Cream of Mushroom soup.” - Pableaux Johnson

Pableaux Johnson clearly is having fun in this cookbook as a sample of some of his recipe titles --“Keg of Nails Beer Batter Bread,” “Goal-Line Mash-Up Guacamole” and “Laura’s old Mountain Jug London Broil” -- shows.

The New Orleans-based food writer for The New York Times, the New Orleans Times-Picayune, Texas Monthly (and occasionally the Houston Press) has assembled more than 80 recipes suitable for tailgating, directed at men with little cooking experience who want to bring something more complex than a six-pack to the pre-game warm-up party.

The back of the book blurb says that by “taking barbecue grilling to new heights” TV host Ted Reader has been dubbed “A King of the BBQ by GQ magazine.” Kind of weird to hear someone from Canada called that, especially if you’re reading him from Texas, but OK.

I cook a lot but am not what you’d call a gourmet chef. On the other hand, you shouldn’t have to be a master chef to figure out what’s going on in most cookbooks – unless they have the phrase “Advanced Chefs Only!” all over them.

The book looked really good – wonderful full color photographs, and many of the recipes sounded great (not grandpa’s hot dog salad though).

Robb Walsh sure is a charmer.

He recently had the Homesick Texan in his kitchen, where he cooked the biscuit-loving gal some rabbit stewed in red chile sauce and inspired her to offer up these words about his latest book, The Texas Cowboy Cookbook: A History in Recipes and Photos:

If you’ve read his Tex-Mex Cookbook or Legends of Texas Barbecue, you will already be familiar with Robb’s extensive research into his topic at hand. The Texas Cowboy Cookbook is no different. Divided into sections that either showcase a region or an ethnic group, he provides an illuminating story about those particular cowboys, what their lives were like and, of course, what they ate. He also discusses current chuck-wagon culture, cowgirls and the rise of the Texas cowboy myth.