dangerpirate

Not to pile on, but I live nearby and go to Dolce Vita whenever I possibly can. The pizza really is the best in town, and there's lots of other great aspects of the place. Many of the a la carte vegetable dishes are exquisite. Wine list is pretty good. They have some fun fancy cocktails. I eat at the bar when it's really busy, or fi going with a group, plan on an off night. The place is so cozy, affordable, and delicious that I've gone on consecutive nights more than once. It's a welcome addition to Houston and I hope the prices never go up. Alison Cook's review was excellent.

I watched this last night and he visited 5 restaurants. The show bills itself as finding resaurants off the beaten path. I think they did a decent job. Here's the recap. * The show began with the hungry detective basically dismissing downtown. Understandable, if a bit unfair. * the first restaurant he visits was Bubba's Texas Burger Shack, accompanied by the editor of http://texasburgerguy.blogspot.com/ The detective got the Double Border Buffalo cheeseburger. What's the point of getting buffalo if youre going to smother it in mayo and cheese. * The next restaurant was Mai's. The owner and her daughter were on the show, instead of that guy is is ALWAYS working there. It was cool to see the kitchen, where they have 8 woks working. Big operation. The detective ate with a Vietnamese-American cop and had: Pho Gai and Bo nuong xa * Breakfast Klub for breakfast: chicken wings and waffles, obvs. * Tony Mandola's for lunch. Gumbo and a shrimp Po Boy. * Goode Company Barbecue for the last visit. He got the brisket & sausage plate with sides (looked like baked beans) & raved about the bread. raved about the brisket too and gave an interesting look at their kitchen.

Can anyone give me guidance? There's an article on Slate today that got me thinking. It's been years since I was obsessed wiht soup dumplings. Where do you go to get your fix?

Awesome, thanks!

(what city are you guys talking about???)

So I sincerely miss the great used cookware store CookIn in San Francisco, where one could find vintage glassware, beautfiul artisnal copper, and an abundance of used Le Creuset in excellent condition for half retail or less. Any such places in Houston??? Also, is there a knife sharpener people recommend? I'm unwilling to wait a full week, but find that I have less and less time to do it my self. Finally I want to compile a list of foodie/home cook resources Houston. What are the best butchers, grocers, bakers, fishmongers, and so on for the food enthusiast. I'm thinking about putting together a little Houston foodie portal website -- but if anyone knows of one already in exsistence, I would be delighted to be saved the trouble. Post links to this thread, please!

Don't get me wrong -- I think Airline is an excellent store, and the place to go for seafood from other parts of the country (got some very good, inexpensive mussels there the other day). But I guess what I'm looking for is the ability to let serendipity guide fish shopping somewhat. For example, in Seabrook they had these huge Kingfish for sale, as well as mackerel -- that's not something I'd ever expect to see at Airline. And the price differential is more than a couple dollars a pound. $5/# yellowfin is $11 cheaper than at Airline. Whole striper and snapper are $8/# or $6/# at Airline vs. $2.5 or $3 in Seabrook. That's pretty significant. Also huge shrimp are ridiculously cheap And in Seabrook you can get basically everything they have as a whole fish. As far as setting up a co-op, I would think that drivers would be compensated for gas, but time would be volunteer, and rotating. I haven't thought much about the details, but it would probably require at least 4 members to be economical and not an enormous pain in the neck.

Airline is too expensive for me. Their fish is pretty good, but it costs too much for a regular thing. Also they don't have a great selection, and rarely have whole fis. Does the Hong Kongmall grocer have any live fish?

After living in Houston for 7 months, I've become pretty dissatisfied with the seafood options in town. There don't appear to be any wholesalers. Grocery store fish is either of very poor quality (fiesta, Kroger), or fancy and pricey (whole foods, central market). The fish markets are pretty limited in selection and also tend to be fairly pricey. So, today I checked out the fish markets in Seabrook and was quite impressed. After about a 40 minute drive from inside the loop, I went to 5 different markets there. The selection was primarily fresh and local, and very inexpensive. I bought a 3lb whole striper for $9, and a pound of headless jumbo shrimp for $4. But there was so much that I wanted to buy that I couldn't justify today. Yellowfin tuna $5#, salmon filets $3.5#, whole snapper $2.5#, mackerel, pompano, oysters. It's the freshest, highest quality, least expensive fish I've seen and eaten since moving here. What I suggest is a co-op with a weekly or bi-weekly rotating trip to Seabrook buying shrimp, local catch, and staple fishes to divvy up. For me, this price and quality of fish is the only option for me, and I'd like to make seafood the major protein in my diet. Interest? Thoughts? Adivce on getting a co-op going?

How does one obtain an invitation to this opening night fest?