neverfull

FYI, the houston chowhounds had a bbq smackdown this past weekend. in which we blind tasted and judged 6 local bbq joints. they included: pierson & co, luling city market, goode co., burn's, swinging door in richmond, and kozy kitchen which just reopened. pierson won first place for brisket and second place for ribs. burns (in the tx monthly top 50) won second for brisket and 3rd for ribs. goode came in close to last in both categories. we attempted to get 'cue from virgie's but they were closed that day. thelma was too mean to deal with. write-ups can be found on my blog and the houstonist.

okay, i'm totally intrigued with nyonya now. i'll have to stop by there when i visit my aunt out in sugar land.

Thanks for the heads up about this place. I'm moving to Houston in a couple of weeks and one of my very favorite restaurants on the planet is the Banana Leaf, a Malaysian place out in the SF south bay area. So I'm pleased to know that along with all the other fine eateries in Houston, Malay cuisine is also available. ← Malaysian restaurants in Houston. If you're going to be moving to Houston you'll find b4 helpful. With regard to my part of town I find only about 60-70% of restaurants are listed but it is probably the most complete listing. Reviews are populist in nature for the most part but there are some very good posters, including some eGulleteers, and also some obvious ringers. It's useful for the maps if nothing else since you can search by part of town and zip code as well as cuisine. I look forward to your contributions to the discussions here on the eG Texas board, pahdnuh. ← KL (kuala lumpur) Malaysian restaurant on bellaire blvd. in chinatown is very good. their roti canai is to die for!

the place you speak of is kim tai. i heard their pho is good too. but, i'm going to stop by for lunch this week to try the duck soup you recommend.

i think i went into a ranch market in san gabriel valley just north of LA a couple weekends ago. it is a chinese supermarket, no? i didn't go into the supermarket proper, but it is just as big. the food court stalls there was seemed more chinese with some vietnamese. yes, h-mart sells other asian products besides just korean.

I was just having a little fun with you. Partly, anyway. ← i welcome it anytime

Q tour sounds fun, can i come?

lol, i'm not sure what my concept is. of course i know there are delis in kroger's, randall's, CM, WF, and spec's. i guess i'm just trying to find the gems that many others don't know about. i would say that good ethnic cuisine is what i'm after. i would like to get over to burt's on lyons. thanks for reminding me.

anonymouseater actually now has 3 entries on feast. the last post consisted of photos from a big group dinner a bunch of houston chowhounds participated in. see more photos and reviews of our 9+ course tasting menu that richard prepared for us here. james and wife were out of town. i'm sorry neither of the chefs came by your table. from word of mouth and other blog postings, i thought they usually try to stop by each table. richard is very personable and funny.

i had the gazpacho at catalan last night. it was very good. you should definitely go by paulie's. everything i've ever had there was good and the westheimer location is only a block away from be-wiched, so i'm assuming it is convenient for lunch. the online menu only lists a soup of the day, so you might have to call and find out what days they serve it. http://pauliesrestaurant.com/menus.html#soups

i have to say that round 2 of asia market was not as impressive. it was funny going back only 4 hours later and the employees were happy to see me again. we ordered the som tum. i had previously read that the som tum was better at vieng thai in the fearless critic houston restaurant guide. i've only had it thai style at VT; the funky laotian style with purple crunchy crabs was even offputting to robb walsh. i had hoped to try the laotian style here w/shrimp paste, but when i asked the thai woman behind the counter which was better she said "thai" w/o even a second thought. well, the fearless critic was right. VT's som tum blew AM's away although i did like the halved cherry tomatoes in this version. i have a feeling that i would have preferred the laotian style here. my dining buddy ordered the tom yum soup w/tofu. i'm not a big fan of this kind of soup, it is a little too tart for my taste, but i did enjoy a small bowl. he loves the stuff and i've shared an order with him at VT too. he is the better judge on this subject and based on his decision, again VT's triumphed over AM's. my only critique was that the tofu was overcooked in the soup. i generally enjoy tofu in all its forms (dried, fresh, pressed into bean curd, fried) but i did not enjoy this one. next up, pad thai. this is a dish that i generally order at americanized thai places and i enjoy it for the raw bean sprouts. i have never ordered it the many times i've been to VT, but the fearless critic said this version was the best in town. it was served with crushed peanuts, bean sprouts, a lime squeeze, and roasted chili flakes on the side. i forgot to take the photo before we mixed it all up. my expectations may have been too high after the pad mee kao noodle dish earlier, but this was the most disappointing dish yet. it was dull and bland compared to all the thai spice goodness from earlier. what a beautiful photo though, huh? my friend took all these photos. i can't take credit for any of them. lastly, i wanted to order a curry. the counter lady told me to get the panang. we ordered it with chicken. it was my second chance with the thai eggplant. again, they were too hard to eat. i found myself longing for the penang with green beans at VT. the curry itself was good however, but not that memorable. i know i didn't impress my dinner guest on this visit. i promised him we would come back again and experience the heavenly pad kee mao or try something really authentic like the Koa Nam Tod (fried rice w/ nam sausage) that a friend of mine who spoke thai recommended when we ran into her earlier that day. there's also an intriguing fried quail listed under their specialties that deserves a try.

she's MAKING kim chee? free samples? i need to go back on a weekend. you are right. balut is not native to the philippines (it originated in china), but the city of pateros in the philippines has the most well known balut-makers.

yes, closeups are obviously not working on my camera phone. it's really hard to tell how good the photo is until i download it to my computer. i usually take 3-5 photos of each dish, upload them to my computer, then pick the best shots to publish. the menu shot looked totally blurry on the screen of my phone, i was amazed that it came out so clear when i saw it blown up. i can't wait to see the photos from dinner at AM. i think my friend's camera phone is much better than mine. i'm waiting for him to send them to me. i also have a correction. the green sauce at gerardo's is not a tomatillo. my dining companion just corrected me. it was made out of green chiles, perhaps serranos.

have you taken a look at the list of restaurants for this year? 1 more month to go before the list of restaurants and their corresponding menus are finalized. not too impressed so far. could i even spend $35 on a 3 course meal on a normal night at some of these places if i tried? dharma cafe, open city, hungry's???? i know it's for charity and all, but COME ON... the first day of restaurant week in NYC was like christmas day for me (only better b/c it came around twice a year). most of the top restaurants participated even if it were for weekday lunches only. how do you think a girl making $60K and paying $1200 in rent every month could afford to eat at craft, cafe boulud, eleven madison park, fleur de sel, gramercy tavern, and le cirque twice a year?

My wonderful Super H-mart experience prompted a luncheon food excursion to 2 other ethnic grocery stores with much lauded food. yes, i had 2 lunches today! they don't call me neverfull for nothin! My first stop was Asia Market on W. Cavalcade between Airline and N. Main in the Heights. i first read about this place in the Fearless Critic Houston Restaurant Guide. But after seeing the photos that anonymouseater posted on his blog this week and rereading his previous review, i suddenly felt the need to get out there ASAP. (i actually attempted to go last night, but they close at 7 pm) The website (i was surprised to find one) lists 10 menu items, however the menu i found in-store boasts 6 salads, 4 soups, 5 noodle dishes, 5 rice dishes, 5 curries, 2 vegetable dishes, and 10 specialty items. the menu also says 'let us know if you would like to try something that's not on the menu.' there were a couple thai women behind the register where you place your order and pay for groceries and a congenial african-american gentleman who took our order. he seemed very helpful and knowledgeable about the menu. we ordered the tom kha soup w/shrimp, pad kee mao noodles w/chicken (thai spicy), and the kang keaw wan w/ pork (green curry). when we tried to order the green curry thai spicy, he looked at us like we were crazy and said it was already really spicy. we took his advice and ordered it "normal" or farang-style ('farang' means the same thing in thai as 'gringo' does in spanish). it took about 15-20 mins before our food started coming out which gave us ample time to explore the grocery store. there were lots of homemade desserts on a table near the dining area and some interesting savory snacks as well. since we knew we had 2 stops for lunch, we had to show some restraint and pass on them. the dining area was larger than i expected and was on the front side of the store. there were 8 small tables with 2 chairs at each. another long table contained styrofoam plates, eating utensils, and various condiments such as sriracha, pickled chilis, and chili sauces. the kitchen is almost completely open and there was a cute older couple that seemed to be chef and sous chef. ventilation was good b/c there was no noticeable greasy stirfry smell about the place. the first dish that came out was the pad kee mao. it was delightfully spicy but we still added some srichacha. i could have taken a little more heat, i think the kitchen was being easy on us. this dish was amazing and had a wonderful fresh basil flavor. i also love anything with egg in it. i was literally dancing in my chair. [this is what the dish would look like with beer goggles on. my camera phone sucks] next up was the tom kha w/shrimp that arrived right before we were done with the pad kee mao. i have a photo of the soup innards below too. the baby shrimp, although plentiful, was obviously the cheap frozen stuff. my dining companion even remarked that he preferred a couple big shrimp to a bunch of little ones. i'll get the chicken next time, but the flavor of the soup was wonderful. it had a lot of coconut milk in it and the flavors just exploded in my mouth. i still can't decide if i like vieng thai's version better. VT's is more savory and delicate. AM's is loud and vibrant. we closed the delicious meal with the green curry w/pork. again the flavor profiles were amazing. the green tomatillo-esque objects are thai eggplant which comes in all their curry dishes. i've just recently fallen in love with eggplant in the past couple years, used to hate it as a kid, and after seeing anonymouseater's photos of it, it was my number one reason for coming out. the eggplant itself disappointed. it didn't taste like much and the outside of the vegetable was so hard that it was sometimes difficult to chew and swallow. the curry itself was glorious. we substituted sticky rice for white rice. our second stop was gerardo's drive-in. i have to admit i was a tad full leaving asia market. the food was so good that i overate, but my lunch companion was game to follow through with our plan. gerardo's was a short drive away on patton on the other side of 45 near irvington. we didn't get there until about 3 pm. their condiments bar was put up but they seemed happy to serve us. the barbacoa looked like it had been sitting out for awhile, but a huge tray of carnitas still boned gave me more hope. here is the menu: (i can't believe the photo came out so clear.) mmm, carnitas... carnitas and chicharrones... then we spied some huge hunks of chicharrones on another tray (why didn't i get a photo?). they looked like thick, huge slabs of deep fried bacon. the older man behind the counter told us to try some when he saw our eyes pop out at the sight of them. he instructed us to heat them up in the microwave in the dining area. we split the lunch plate w/ 2 meats and the obligatory rice and beans. we chose barbacoa and carnitas based on robb walsh's review of the place last year. the older man behind the counter was happy to give us both corn and flour tortillas. we also asked for some fresh onion and cilantro and they gave us a boatload of it. (again, sorry for the poor quality of the photos. the barbacoa looks like collard greens. LOL.) they gave us 3 salsas. the green tomatillo one was fantastic! all the food was about room temperature except for the warm tortillas. in hindsight, we probably should have nuked everything in the provided microwave. the carnitas did have a good crispy texture which was what i was looking for even if they were cold. my friend and i both decided we would come back again during prime lunch hours. btw, barbacoa is only served on friday, saturday, and sunday and i hear the place is crazy on weekends. my friend who introduced me to vieng thai called me shortly after i left gerardo's. i was so excited to tell him about asia market and met him for coffee at catalina. we hung out there for awhile and then went back to asia market for dinner. my phone was dead at this point so he took photos on his phone. i think they will be exponentially better than mine and i'm just waiting for him to download them and send them to me. i will update this post with asia market round 2 later.... i hope others will share some grocery store/convenience store dining experiences in this post. i would love to know about more! other than super h-mart and komart (which i'm totally over), i can think of one other that deserves to be mentioned. the chinese deli in the dynasty supermarket in chinatown on bellaire @ corporate. best roasted duck in houston! maybe i can get over there soon and bring back some photos.

.... and cafe red onion. they say it's seasonal, so call first. http://www.caferedonion.com/menu/newdinnermenu.pdf

treebeard's has it too. some locations only have it on certain days, so check out the website locations/menus: http://www.treebeards.com/location/fs1_locatn.html

catalan has it. here's the menu: http://www.catalanfoodandwine.com/dinner.pdf

thanks for the suggestion. although i think i would be lucky just to find the 14 or 15 day old balut in my part of the world, the 5 day old ones seem a lot less intimidating.

i have 2 opportunities to try something new to share: ONE. for anyone interested in dinner @ Feast this sunday night, i have 1 spot left for a group dinner with other houston foodies. the chef will be preparing an 8 course tasting menu for us. the cost is $40 not including tax or tip. here is feast's website: http://feasthouston.googlepages.com/home here is alison cooke's review of feast from last week: http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/dining/cook/5792967.html TWO. i'm in the process of organizing a flavor tripping party where i will procure some miracle fruit and we will have a tasting of various foods and beverages to see how our taste buds are affected by the 'miracle' berries. read yesterday's article on miracle fruit in the NYT: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/28/dining/28flavor.html? to attend either event (or events in the future), please go to the following website and RSVP to the appropriate message: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/houstonCH/join (the yahoo group was originally set up to organize real-life meet ups on chowhound since we can't private message or email on that site, but membership is open to all houston foodies, especially the hardcore eG foodies!)

there was no fishcake in the bibimbap. it came sliced and cold as one of the side dishes. and no, i've never tried balut because i can't find it anywhere!

Er.. you may have difficulty with asian cuisines in general, then. Actually with great food in general, thinking about it! ← I'm going to go out on a limb and say Jay was being slightly tongue and cheek. ← yeah, i think jay is pretty okay with all cuisines in general, including the good ones

umm, sounds delish. thanks for the tip, i'll definitely check it out. i did try and buy some balut, but they didn't have any. does anyone know where you can buy it in houston?

the abalone is sold in the grocery store's seafood dept. but wow, that would be amazing if they served it in the food court!

aww, no photos bruce? you're killing me, so did they use a vertical roaster trompo?