Houston Food Blog

​Matamoros, the Mexican wonderland across the bridge from Brownsville, is home to many fabulous eateries, including this very popular torta shop. The Cubana a la Mexicana was the top of the line here. It included milanesa, roasted pork, ham, sausage, fried egg, slices of white and yellow cheese and a topping of crumbled Oaxacan cheese -- all for 38 pesos.

Photos by Katharine Shilcutt

​Sandy's Market on I-10 at Dairy Ashford was long our favorite grocery store in town, even though it meant a drive not only outside the Loop but outside the Beltway. An odd sort of hippie paradise in the endless monotony of the west Houston suburbs, the spacious and richly scented Sandy's always felt like an oasis. For a quick lunch (fresh housemade sandwiches) to a leisurely brunch (healthy buffet with live music), from grocery shopping (fresh, organic produce and meats) to homeopathic shopping (vitamins and bulk herbs, the vibrant smell of which always flooded the space), Sandy's had everything we wanted in one stop. They even sold beautiful antiques.

They even sell sauerkraut juice...

​
And then one day a few months ago, the terrible news came: Sandy's was closing. We wanted to weep and rend our clothes in despair. But the tragedy didn't last for long. Sandy's had simply been sold to a new owner: None other than Georgia Bost -- she of Georgia's Texas Grassfed Beef -- had purchased Sandy's and was rebranding the store Georgia's Farm To Market. Despair quickly turned to delight.

We stopped by the store this weekend for the first time since the change in ownership took place and were thrilled with what we found.

​Note: this article has been corrected from its original version.

The Garden Oaks Baptist Church Men's Venison BBQ dinner is coming up this Monday. The men of the church donate their deer meat, and Mikeska's Barbecue in Columbus does the cooking. The spread includes venison sausage, haunch meat and backstrap along with sides including potato salad, beans and cole slaw.

Fabio

​Ever since Kata Robata opened its doors on the corner of Richmond and Kirby, the praise has been constant. The heart and soul of the operation is Manabu Horiuchi -- or Hori-san, for short. We dropped in on him to take a look at his operations and talk fish.

**We brought a translator with us, as this interview was originally in Japanese.

Eating Our Words: How long has sushi been your career of choice?

Manabu Horiuchi: Since I was 18 years old, I have made sushi, beginning at Ginzo Sushiko Honten in Tokyo. It has been 14 years, and I am still loving my craft.

EOW: If you could decide on one fish dish that represents Hori-san, what would you decide?

MH: Nobody else makes scallop with foie gras besides me. This is my invention, and I want you to try it.

EOW: We have, it is outstanding. When did you move to America, and what was your first American food memory?

MH: I arrived to Texas 10 years ago, and my first food was Whataburger. It was a delicious hamburger, but what surprised me the most was the size. Oh my goodness, so big!

EOW: How has living in Texas affected your cooking and sushi menu?

MH: I learned how Texas loves barbecue and spicy with Cajun flavors. To me making American style is mixing together many different countries, and I keep this in mind when I create my dishes.

​Last December, Eating Our Words shined a spotlight on school lunches, taking to task both funding for and quality of food in schools. While the intent of the post was to serve as a wake-up call to students, parents and schools alike, HISD took offense, citing its new food prep facility as evidence of its efforts to avert school-lunch stereotypes. In addition, last week we were notified that this morning, HISD's new Superintendent Dr. Terry Grier would lead big-wigs from the USDA's Special Nutrition Programs on a tour of the state-of-the-art food prep center. As Michelle Obama launches her official campaign against childhood obesity, might HISD serve as a model district for the nation?

We decided to take a second look.

​Valentine's Day is really just another excuse to eat lots of chocolate and drink too much champagne. Everywhere you turn, it's chocolate-covered strawberries, red-and-pink sweets, and bubbly beverages. But whether you love the holiday or hate it, you will definitely want to try this odd pair for Valentine's Day.

A couple of months ago, we visited Texas Hills Vineyard in Johnson City, Texas. Its tasting menu featured a lot of the common suspects - Pinot Grigio, Merlot and Cabernet Sauvignon. But, what intrigued us was the award-winning Orange Moscato on the list of sweet wines. We've had plenty of Muscat dessert wines but never an orange Muscat wine.

Not surprisingly, the orange Muscat grape gives this sweet dessert wine a nice orange flavor. By itself, the Orange Moscato is overly sweet despite having less than 5 percent residual sugar. Our puckered faces must have given us away, because the lady behind the counter suggested we try the wine again with some dark chocolate pieces. Chocolate and orange are a common pairing in candy, so it seemed to make sense.

Photos by Margaret Downing

Chaos in the streets of New Orleans

​Okay, so Hair Balls was in New Orleans Sunday trying to get out (yes, we know, wrong way) after a business trip and found out the hard way that it would have been better to order a cab before the Mardi Gras/Saints parades started that day, rather than after. Cab couldn't get to the hotel.

The hotel manager ended up on a walkie-talkie device, trying to guide the cab driver through the back streets so he could make it to where we were in the French Quarter. It was like the last days of Saigon.

Then it took forever to get to the Louis Armstrong airport because guess what? People filled the streets, walking right in front of cars. And this was even before the big win.

​Who Dat can get real tiresome real fast. Prior to going to the airport, Hair Balls checked out where to get the best King Cake and found several likely possibilities. One of the entries that came up was the airport's website, where she found this warning penned by one Sean C. Hunter, director of Aviation:

​Hallelujah, all hail my first bowl of lettuce! I thinned out the garden and got enough baby greens for a couple of salads this weekend. But my wife is still laughing at me. Granted, one bowl of lettuce is not much to show for the hundred bucks I spent on dirt and fertilizer and such. I am not sure what I did wrong.

​We were riding our bike on one of those " it's so nice outside, we will make ourselves feel guilty if we don't do something outside today" kinda days. We rode through Bellaire, and after a couple of hours, our energy-spent legs needed a snack. We went straight to the nearest taco stand. There being no shortage of them in Bellaire; we hit Taqueria Chiles, a bright-yellow-and-red shack on Renwick.

A hot corn tortilla. A cool smear of sour cream. The beginnings of an excellent taco. Does this look familiar to you? Think you know where we're eating this week?

​Leave your best guess in the comments section below.