Houston Food Blog

Turkeys hate us, too.

​Yesterday, we offered up a selection of meatless options for Thanksgiving and those vegetarians in your life. Truth be told, we're perfectly happy not having turkey -- or any meat at all, for that matter -- at Thanksgiving. We've eaten plenty of delicious Thanksgiving spreads that featured a breathtaking salt-domed salmon or tangy black bean and goat cheese enchiladas as the main dish. And those Thanksgivings? They were memorable ones.

Some people, however, may look at a Thanksgiving spread that's noticeably absent one turkey and immediately feel crestfallen. For them -- like the father in A Christmas Story -- it's just not the holidays without a turkey on the table. But we disagree. For us, Thanksgiving is about spending time with your [crazy, drunken, dysfunctional] family, watching football on the sofa with a plate of leftovers, heading to the movies at night once the old folks have tucked in, meeting up with old friends who are home for the holiday in the neighborhood bar, and laughing at your aunts as they set their alarms for 2 a.m. in order to hit the best Black Friday sales first.

In other words, we can take or leave turkey at Thanksgiving.

And you should, too! Turkey is overrated. Truly. Unless you're a fantastic cook with years of experience (or unless you use a deep fryer), turkey is one of the most bland, dry and tasteless meats out there. Just about the only time we're even vaguely interested in turkey is when it's sliced in a deli and buried under mayonnaise and tomatoes on a sandwich. Turkey sucks.

Photos by Katharine Shilcutt

​After last week's Battle Grilled Cheese, we received a gentle prod from one of our readers and favorite local food mavens, Dr. Ricky: "I think there need to be more creative choices for the food battles. Down to grilled cheese sandwiches?"

It was with a heavy sigh and a heavy heart that we admitted to ourselves that Dr. Ricky was right. Food Fight has been taking a turn for the bland (if comforting) lately. We suddenly felt remiss and very disappointed in ourselves for neglecting the vast array of ethnic food that Houston has to offer. So much ethnic food, in fact, that making a Food Fight out of things like pad see ew, roti canai, kibbeh, xiao long bao or even just bouillabaise is relatively easy to do. So we took Dr. Ricky's first suggestion -- masala dosai -- and ran with it.

Dosai is a very typical South Indian dish that can be eaten for breakfast or dinner. Why is it so flexible? Because it's basically a giant pancake. Actually, crepe would be more accurate, as it's very thin and generally stuffed with all manner of delicious fillings. The dosai itself is made from rice and black lentils and -- as a result -- is high in protein and good carbohydrates but low in fat and cholesterol. (We mention this as, for some reason, both restaurants made sure to mention this in the dosai section on their menus.) Although you can shove whatever you want to inside a dosai, the most popular filling is masala, a mixture of potatoes and onions in a mild curry.

Sunday night we set out with Dr. Ricky and a few South Indian food connoisseurs to see who had the best dosai in Houston: Udipi or Madras Pavilion. How did the crepe crumble? The results are below...

Photo by Major Clanger

There will be no Tofurky on this year's table.

​Eating Our Words isn't a vegetarian (or -- perish the thought -- a vegan), but we have a lot of friends who are. And for those folks, Thanksgiving can be a nightmare of avoiding the main show (that dried out or deep-fried turkey) while navigating gloppy side dishes like green bean casserole, diabetic-coma-inducing syrupy sweet potatoes and dry, bland stuffing that is only partially palatable when drenched with a copious amount of gravy. Oh, what's that? Gravy is made with meat? Never mind, then. They'll just have to enjoy the pecan pie at the end.

Photos by Katharine Shilcutt

Appetizers: sweet potato chips and truffled carrots, radishes and turnips

​Vegans may take our cheese (and milk and meat and butter and even honey), but they may never take...our truffles.

This seemed to be the rallying cry on Monday night at Beaver's Ice House as seven of Houston's most intrepid chefs embarked upon an ambitious 12-course meal (full menu here) made entirely of vegan ingredients. It can be difficult for even the most creative chef to suddenly be deprived of any meat, dairy products or even eggs and honey. Yet these chefs managed to create stunning and -- most surprisingly -- delicious courses that took patrons on a nearly five-hour journey through the undiscovered joys of vegan dining.

A packed dining room

​"You guys are very brave to come to a known 'meatatarian' restaurant for a vegan dinner," executive chef Jonathan Jones announced laughingly to the crowd of 50 diners before the first course was served. But it turns out that we could have left our bravery at the door; there was nothing scary about the plates that arrived one after another on our tables.

No butter? Olive oil or any number of plant oils can take its place. No cheese? Jones simply created "cheese" out of turnips that tasted shockingly similar to a smoky ricotta for use in his eggplant "bolognese." No bacon? That didn't stop Randy Rucker (formerly of Rainbow Lodge) from curing pieces of oyster root in molasses and salt and placing the smoky hunks of salsify on top of a pile of perfectly cooked grits.

But the best dishes were those that didn't mimic meat at all, but instead celebrated and enhanced the vegetables or fruits themselves.

​This week I baked vegan cinnamon rolls. Before I started the project, I envisioned myself exhausted at 2 a.m. with my arms and forehead coated in flour, waiting for dough to rise for the second time before baking. I had never baked with yeast before and was anxious about an I Love Lucy-style dough-monster disaster. Lucky for me, the cinnamon rolls were in the oven by ten, and my apartment smelled like the Keebler elves' tree house. Baking with yeast turned out to be an awesome experience. I watched my first dough ball fluff up to twice its size before punching it to deflation like a prizefighter.

The rolls came out golden brown on the outside and tender and fluffy on the inside, with the mottling of cinnamon and brown sugar along the curves. The only thing I would change about my next batch is to make more filling for a stronger, gooier cinnamon roll.

Vegan mint chocolate chip cupcakes

​Having a few things to celebrate with a vegan friend, I decided to order a cake from Jodycakes. Even though Jody Stevens bakes regular cakes, she specializes in vegan, gluten-free and organic varieties -- not that you could tell from the flavor that anything is "missing."

My hand-delivered cake was dark chocolate-almond, with chocolate buttercream frosting. It really was beautiful, with buttons of frosting around the edges and shaved chocolate sprinkled on top. Better yet, it tasted delicious, with hands-down the best buttercream frosting I've ever eaten and a moist, flavorful cake. We were so pleased with it, we embarrassingly hogged the entire thing between the two of us.

Photos by Katharine Shilcutt

Solo salad with spinach, beets, walnuts, feta, jicama, bell peppers and more

​Where: Bowl, 607 Richmond, 832-582-7218

What $13 gets you: A fresh, healthy salad or sandwich that makes you never want to bring your lunch again. The cheerful, inviting interior of this unfortunately out-of-the-way lunch spot is like the office canteen you always dreamed of. Close enough to downtown and the Museum District yet far removed with its relaxing, sunny atmosphere, Bowl is ideal for a quick, delicious weekday lunch.

Inside, you'll see people bent intently over white pieces of paper. They're choosing their toppings for either a Solo (10 toppings) or Doppia (15 toppings) salad, which are $7 and $10 respectively. For an additional $3, you can add your choice of proteins such as pistachio chicken and grilled shrimp. Once you choose your toppings from the vast selection -- which includes your  choice of greens, cheese and dressing in addition to the many vegetable and fruit toppings available -- you hand your list over the counter and the salad-makers work their magic. Within a few minutes, you have a fresh salad with one of the signature house-made dressings on the side.

Photo by Nikki Metzgar

Eating ice cream from a pink spoon makes it taste better. And food on a platter is better than food on a plate.

The "Genie in a Platter" ($11.99) at Aladdin Mediterranean Cuisine is a vegetarian feast. The contents vary a little from visit to visit, but there are always roughly a dozen items. The outer ring of the platter is covered with salads -- tabouli, lentil and cucumber -- along with hummus and baba ghanoush. In the middle of the platter, there's a mountain of rice topped off with a crown of fried cauliflower and lemony potatoes. All of this comes with a basket of warm pita, fresh from the brick oven. It's a Texan maxim made Lebanese: More food means more enjoyment (at least in the first 20 minutes, before your stomach begins to hurt).