Morgan_Weber

I was in New Orleans this last weekend and had phenomenol cocktails at the Swizzle Stick Bar and the Library Lounge. We had the classics and new creations. Can anyone help with a list of places in Houston to get consistently great cocktails?

Any sense of how the New Orleans cocktail talent compares to Houston (or any other city that you're familiar with)? ← Holy crap the cocktail scene in Houston SUCKS! After looking hard, I haven't found a reliable one yet. I told Chris at the Library Lounge, that I'd be broke if there was a bar like that in Houston. Other than that, San Francisco seems to have a plethora of good places to get quality cocktails. If you're interested I can give you a couple of favorites in the Bay Area.

Was in NOLA this last weekend with my wife for our anniversary. Had plans to go to the Old Absinthe House, Library Lounge, and the Swizzle Stick. Since we were on Bourbon we stopped at Absinthe first. I ordered three of the specials to which the guy behind the bar replied, we're out of them... So then I ordered a Sidecar and he said 'We're out of that too.' I asked, "Well, what can you make?" He responded, "I do mixed drinks." I assumed he was talking about rum and coke type drinks. I said, no thanks and we left. We found our way to the Library Lounge and the place was pretty quiet. We continued to have the best cocktail experience that we had ever had. Chris McMillian poured awesome drinks all night. The next night we went to the Swizzle Stick and had a similar experience with Lu Brow. Everything was absolutely great. I would kill for a place like either of those two, here in Houston.

Anyone know for sure when this joint is opening? It is right down the street from my office.

One cannot go wrong with the waiter's friend. This Spring, I purchased a corkscrew from the Napa Wine Merchant made by Gattorna. They are replicas of the models of corkscrews dating to the 1700's and 1800's. I love mine. Here's a link to see what they look like. They are a bit more stylish than the waiter's friend. http://www.luxe-collections.com/Gattoran_Cork_Screw.html

I mean, come on. Here is the Dallas Restaurant Week List: http://www.guidelive.com/feature/180/

Please tell me they are going to add to this list.... http://www.houstonrestaurantweek.com/#How%20It%20Works

Ok, so this one is long, but its an honest review about our meal at T'afia on Friday night. ****** Thoughts on T’afia, September 7, 2007 After much hype and anticipation, some friends and I finally had a chance to eat at T’afia. Our group of six was promptly seated and began perusing the drink menu. Since T’afia is known for its infused fortified wines, called Ratafia’s, most at our table ordered flights to sample the three varieties. The general consensus was they were delicious. Moving on, we placed our orders for the evening. Having heard so much about Monica Pope, I ordered her five-course tasting menu with Texas wine pairings. Others at our table ordered off of the a la carte menu—in all, I think we had a good idea by the evening’s end of Pope’s offerings. The first course of the tasting menu was a Texas bleu cheese with raw honeycomb and cracker. It was paired with a Texas Viognier. Before the course arrived, my wine was brought, and as the server explained to me what it was, I questioned serving an acidic white wine with bleu cheese, but went with it. The combination of bleu cheese and honeycomb was wonderfully stunning. My doubts were confirmed though with the wine pairing, which unfortunately set the evening’s pace for questionable wine pairings. The second course was red rice with calf’s liver and pecans. This extremely savory dish was very tasty as well, but was served with a very acidic rosé that was made from Grenache. In my humble opinion, a dish such as this needed a very rich and fruity red to stand up with the big flavors. The third course was a spicy sweet potato/coconut milk soup. The soup was nice. I liked the heat, which I suspected was supplied by chipotle powder. Here again, the problem was the wine served with the dish. It was a Texas pinot noir, which I had never had before because I was skeptical that Texas could produce a good one. I still don’t think we can… The wine was very spicy, which with a spicy soup seems folly. How about a Riesling or Gewürztraminer? The final course before dessert was a shrimp dish with homemade pasta and a cream sauce with what tasted like an aged Gouda. The dish was mostly good, but seemed fairly light for a fourth course, especially following the liver dish and the spicy soup. Served with this dish was a Becker Vineyards Claret, which is one of my favorite Texas wineries and wines. I think I know what she was going for, serving this wine with the shrimp dish, because theoretically the aged Gouda should have gone well with the claret. In the end though, the dish didn’t hold its own with the wine. Dessert was a strawberry cobbler with a Texas dessert wine. The cobbler was very tasty, but the wine was definitely not one of the better Texas dessert wines that I’ve had. It was less than memorable. Now, my thoughts on the overall experience. The ambience was cool and what I expected from seeing the outside of the building. I don’t feel like the food lived up to the hype that surrounds Monica Pope. From the way her name is touted on the restaurant’s phone message, the James Beard nomination, the list of recommendations on the signage outside of the restaurant, etc.—I expected much more. I feel that our group of six had a very broad sampling of the menu and that I do not really need to go back to experience other dishes, in order to see how she cooks. Perhaps one of the most disappointing dishes of the evening was the chicken dish that one of our friends had. It was not much more than flattened chicken breast that had been breaded and fried…and it was overdone. Regarding wine, I am all about trying new wines with different or non-classical pairings with food, but when something doesn’t work, don’t do it for the sake of being different. I want Texas wine to be wonderful so badly, but often times it is not. At Pope’s level of cooking, my question is, if it is not the best that it can be, why would the chef ever let it leave the kitchen? Regarding service, the dishes were not entirely explained when they came to the table, which is why some of my thoughts regarding each course seemed like guesses as to what the ingredients actually were (i.e. calf’s liver…I’m pretty sure it was calf’s liver, but not 100%. I know it was liver though). When I asked the server about the wine, the answer was consistently, “I’ll have to ask the kitchen”. I spent at least one of the courses without a fresh knife from the previous and one course I did not have a knife at all. This is a little thing, but it is one of the little things that separates a mediocre dining experience from an extraordinary one. Maybe the problem was that my expectations were too high, based on the reviews I have read or the things I have heard. I have not eaten at many of the restaurants on my “To-eat-at-before-I-die” list, but I was going into the meal with every expectation of having one of the best food experiences of my life—expecting something similar to experiences that I have had at Cyrus in Healdsburg, CA, Bouchon in Napa, Craft in Dallas, Topper’s on Nantucket, or Canlis in Seattle.

After thumbing through some old threads, I ran across the name of Raindrop Chocolates, regarding placse to get Gelato in Houston. After dinner last night, we decided to stop in and check it out. They have wonderful gelato. My wife got the blood orange/chocolate, and I got the lemon custard. The intensely nuanced flavors of each, plus the fact that we were having something made from blood oranges in September, led me to ask the owner where he got his citrus. He said he orders them from Sicily. Everything is fresh and wonderful. We will definitely make this place a regular after-dinner stop.

West is what these folks are talking about

How about this. A buddy of mine came up with it when he had some tarragon left over from dinner. He called it, 'The Licorice Whip'. 2 oz. bourbon (He used Evan Williams Single Barrel) 1 oz. Cointreau Juice of 1/2 lemon About 10 tarragon leaves, muddled in 1/2 tbs. superfine sugar Combine over ice in shaker. Shake and strain into a chilled martini glass.

What's really the scoop on this chick? I have reservations to eat at T'afia next week. I called yesterday to make them, and the machine at T'afia picks up with a recording saying, "Welcome to Monica Pope's T'afia. Monica Pope was recently nominated for Best Chef Southwest by the James Beard Foundation".......Blah blah blah. Can the food not just speak for itself? She plasters her name and awards on EVERYTHING! I have heard sooo many mixed reviews about this place that I'm not sure having her name so married to it is such a good idea at this point. I've also heard some things from other chefs around Houston regarding her "charming" personality. What is the consensus on her and T'afia and this new BBQ joint she's opening?

Who really cares?

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Just ate at Indika a couple of weeks ago. Great food. Some interesting combinations. I'm sure we'll go back, but I would definitely have to be in the mood for Indian food. Its wortha look-see.

I'm with Kent, I want to see some really great Kolache fillings. My grandmother was Czech and made wonderful kolaches, but they were made with the typical fillings. A couple of months ago, a buddy of mine and I experimented with three different fillings for Kolaches. We made a Valrhona chocolate & cream cheese, apricot rehydrated with Shiner Bock, and sour cherry rehydrated w/ sauvignon blanc w/ eppoisse cheese. Sometimes ideas sound better on paper than when you bite into them. The sour cherry/eppoisse was one of those ideas. We thought that since eppoisse goes so well with pinot noir, and since cherry is such a predominant flavor in pinot, that it made complete since to put them in a kolache... ...I don't think I'll ever smell eppoisse in the same way again. Take a relatively smelly cheese to begin with and then cook it inside a kolache...makes the kitchen smell wonderful for days! Maybe with some tweaking it could work, but I haven't been brave enough to try it again. I'd love to know some other people's ideas about kolache fillings--minus those canned fillings that most folks use.

Just a quick update on Marvin Zindler. He passed away July 29, 2007. In Houston, he is very much missed.

My wife absolutely loves Confetti Cakes

Wow...I'm so glad this show is over and I now have my Monday nights back. I couldn't stop watching. It was like a train wreck in slow motion...carnage everywhere. One wants to look away, but can't--before you know it, a little piece of you is gone...forever. I wish GR would respect himself more and cut this mess out...

...couldn't help but enjoy seeing footage of Ilan getting his ass handed to him by Pepin.

I've got an update on the Italian lemons. California Citrus Specialties called me yesterday afternoon and told me a bit about his business. He's a grower of trees for nursureys and a supplier of fruit. According to him, the Feminello St. Teresa variety of lemon that is apparently often used in and around the Amalfi Coast region is typically heralded as the best for making Limoncello. He said they are ripe during February-ish. Some of his fruit begins to ripen during the fall, but the good lemons are during the winter. The good news is that he has a contract with Whole Foods. As he explained, if there is a Whole Foods Market near you, they can and will special order them for anyone. If they give you grief about it, call California Citrus Specialties and he'll probably get it straightened out. If you order directly from him, shipping can be quite expensive to get the product quickly. If you go through Whole Foods, there is no shipping fee. Again, here is the link to the grower's website. He was extremely helpful and friendly. http://www.califcitrusspecialties.com/ilemons.html Cheers! -Morgan

I was in my car yesterday, listening to the Ron & Fez Show on XM, when they announced that Amy would be on for an interview. She did a good job. Of course, she couldn't get very real, because she can't "show the network in a bad light". But caller's asked some pretty good questions--and some tough questions regarding the JAG debaucle. I think she was as honest about the incident as FN would let her be...glossing over most of it in a wonderfullly 'coached' manner. More than likely Ron & Fez will be replaying it this weekend. I do wish Amy the best, even if Food Network doesn't get behind her 100%. I think she's a good cook and has some good chops. Once Paul went home, she was my pick. M PS. Amy did talk about her husband on the R&F show yesterday. I think they're doing fine. She said nothing that would make me assume otherwise.

You gotta love Ruhlman...and/or Bourdain... http://blog.ruhlman.com/ruhlmancom/2007/07/top-secret.html

Thanks for all of the good information! I have located a grower in California that sells five or six different varieties of Italian & Sicilian lemon varieties. http://www.califcitrusspecialties.com/ilemons.html They don't carry the specific lemon variety found in the Amalfi Coast region, but many of these are very sought after as well. Seeds, I believe are going to be the best resource for true Amalfi region lemon trees. That was a great idea. Thanks! M

I'm off to the Amalfi coast for a month....not sure about getting a twig On a serious note I do not know if they are grown anywhere else. They sure make great Lemoncello though. SB ← ...smuggling in horse fat isn't quite legal either, but it makes damn good fries I'm only kidding about the horse fat. I will check with Customs and see what I can find out.