Blogs

He's at our new food blog, Eating...Our Words.

Robb will still be dropping in on regular ol' Houstoned from time to time, but we've decided to give him his own space to talk tacos, shrimp, wine or whatever else is on his mind.

But don't worry. He won't be lonely. We're also moving over our $13 series, our cookbook reviews and anything else that has to do with munchies.

Hop on over and have a taste. We'll still be here when you get back. -- Keith Plocek

This week in Café, we visit the legendary Mexican breakfast scene at Gerardo’s on Patton, where the some of the best carnitas and barbacoa in the city are sold on Friday, Saturday and Sunday mornings. When you go, remember that Gerardo’s also has hot fresh-made tamales for sale on the weekend.

The tamales are extra fat and meaty, and they sell for $7 a dozen and $3.50 a half dozen. Better go early, they sell out fast. They also sell cold tamales that you can heat up at home or stash in your freezer until Christmas. The cold ones are the same price.

Julia Walsh

Whether you bury your kimchee in the backyard to cure, or just ferment it in a bowl in the fridge, fall is the season to put up your pickled cabbage. Why not make a shopping spree out of the deal with a bibimbap lunch thrown in?

Down at the KoMart (as the Korean supermarket at 1049 Gessner, just north of the Katy Freeway, is known) Korean families congregate every Saturday to combine produce shopping with a tasty Korean lunch.

It’s the time of year when Texans start wondering where their holiday tamales are coming from. This week’s upcoming review of Doña Tere Restaurant brought back memories of tamales past. When I reviewed the original Doña Tere on Bellaire near Dairy Ashford (“Tamale Morning,” Houston Press, November 20, 2003) it was a tiny tamale outlet with a couple of counter seats and a few tables. I raved about the giant Mexican-style tamales (even though they were a dollar a piece) and complained that you had to bring your own coffee.

The press sample of 37-year-old single malt sure looked like a bottle of cologne. So what would happen if I slapped some of this stuff on my face after shaving, I wondered. I would probably be followed around all day by a bunch of middle-aged guys with bushy eyebrows and last names that started with “Mc," I figured. So instead, I opened the little bottle of Glenlivet’s 1969 Limited Edition Cellar Collection and put some in a snifter.

Since its bottled at full cask strength of 50.8 percent alcohol, as opposed to the 40 percent of most American whiskies, the master distiller at Glenlivet recommends you add a couple of drops of water before you swish and sniff. The aroma had a spicy orange note with an oaky background.

At Sushi Jin restaurant on Memorial, they get their hamachi via Air Japan from the Tokyo fish market. It sounds incredible, but as the market for seafood becomes increasingly globalized, Tokyo has become everybody’s Central Market for fish.

Each morning, tens of thousands of tons of seafood from every ocean on the planet converge for a few hours at the Tsukiji, as the Tokyo fish market is known, to be quickly auctioned to the highest bidder and whisked away by jet.

This week’s review of Brasserie Max and Julie prompted a wave of choucroute nostalgia. A story about looking for the best choucroute in Alsace is included in my book, Are You Really Going to Eat That? In it, I describe the choucroute at a Michelin two-star restaurant named Le Cerf in Marlenheim, about 20 miles north of Strasbourg. Chef Michel Husser calls his creation Choucroute à notre façon au cochon de lait de Kochersberg et foie gras fumé, which translates to “Choucroute 'our way' with suckling pig from Kochersberg and smoked foie gras.” Go check it out. Le Cerf is also a hotel if you need a nap after dinner. -- Robb Walsh

Every time I drive by the pig-mobile in front of Logan Farms Honey Hams at 10560 Westheimer, I swear I hear somebody squealing my name. So I finally broke down and took a look inside. Who knew that these spiral-cut ham franchises had classy dining rooms and steam tables loaded with ham steaks, sweet potatoes, collard greens, biscuits, pecan pie and the rest of the Southern cafeteria repertoire?

The list of ham sandwiches above the cash register was long and complicated. I went for the “Pig Po-Boy.” It’s a fully dressed bacon, lettuce, and tomato sandwich with country ham on a poor boy roll. The 6-inch version goes for $4.50, the 9-inch version sells for $5.50. Obviously, I went with the big pig. -- Robb Walsh

Latino fast food chicken is getting to be a crowded category around here. There’s Pollo Campero, Pollo Riko, Pollo Bravo, and now Pollo Feliz, The location at 9310 Westheimer looks like a slick fast food outlet and they have a pretty impressive cartoon character too. Evidently the chain originated in the Mexican state of Sinaloa with a secret marinade and a hardwood grilling method.

They grill the chicken whole, but serve it cut up. Eight pieces (a whole chicken) with corn on the cob (soggy) charro beans (excellent), a baked potato (too much cheese), tortillas (decent), salsa (muy picante), and rice pudding (gloppy) cost me $17. The white meat was a little dry, but the dark meat was very tasty. It’s a lot healthier than fried chicken and you don’t lose too much in the flavor department because of the strong woodsmoke flavor.

You can get smoky grilled chicken a little cheaper at the big blue taco truck on Gessner at Long Point, but the cartoon character there isn’t nearly as slick. -- Robb Walsh

Oyster season doesn’t open until November, and the half shell oysters don’t get really sweet until Christmas. But grilled oysters are good to eat all year long. Especially when they are made with oysters that were frozen on the half shell back in the middle of the winter when the oysters were plenty plump.

Fork over your $12.95 at Jimmy G’s Cajun Seafood Restaurant (307 Sam Houston Parkway, 281-931-7654) and watch the counter man line up your dozen on the gas grill and turn the fire up high. Jimmy G’s flame-grilled oysters are topped with parmesan cheese and basted with garlic butter. Okay, they stole the recipe from Drago’s in New Orleans, but those are some damn fine oysters. -- Robb Walsh

I had never heard of the Gulf fish called tripletail before Bryan Caswell started serving it at Reef. It turns out to be a really weird fish. It has fat squat body and looks something like a miniature grouper. And it likes to float on top of the water lying on one side looking like it’s dead. It sure tastes good though. – Robb Walsh

Antonio’s Flying Pizza is the subject of this week’s Café. The red-checkered tablecloth joint on Hillcroft reminds me of the pizzerias where I hung out when I was in high school in Connecticut. And no wonder – Antonio’s is owned and operated by a Sicilian-born pizza maker named Antonio Rosa who once ran a pizzeria called Progresso in the Korvette Shopping Center on the Connecticut Turnpike between Bridgeport and Fairfield. Sitting at Antonio’s Flying Pizza, eating the stuff we used to call Italian food, made me consider the similarities between Americanized Italian food and Tex-Mex. – Robb Walsh

This week in Café we contemplate the similarities between the food stalls in the Komart Korean grocery store on Gessner with the street vendors of Asia. Some Asian street vendors’ creations, like tapioca tea, which was first sold from a cart in Taipei, have gone on to become international sensations. The last Korean crossover is a toasted sandwich. After gaining popularity at street vendor stalls, bacon and egg toasts, pepperoni pizza toasts and other such sandwiches have become the foundation of a new fast food restaurant category in Korea. No doubt one of the Korean chains — Sukbong Toast, Isaac Toast or Toastoa —will soon open a franchise on Long Point. – Robb Walsh

This week, in the process of reviewing Red Basil Thai Fusion Restaurant, we discovered lots of other Thai restaurants that have recently opened in the same West Houston neighborhood.

Why are so many new Thai restaurants opening in Houston?

For Sunday brunch at Sandy's Produce Market (see this week's Café), they cook omelets in virgin coconut oil. This seems strange since the medical community has always told us coconut oil is unhealthy. The debate about coconut oil is ongoing, but most of what's being written lately focuses on its health benefits.

So who is right? Anybody in the Houston medical community care to weigh in on the subject? -- Robb Walsh