MarkinHouston

Thanks, Jay. I had some free time and went searching for the location. That is the exact address, about one block north of Dallas on the west side. The chocolate is indeed "squisito". It reminded me of a gelato version of the once-famous "Tre Scalini" from Neal's Ice Cream shop on Kirby in the early '80's. I got a double scooper--the cherry is even better, if possible. The owner told me he gets the cherries out of Washington state, and they are purty darn close to the amarene you'll fine in Italia. My brother had a double of chocolate and amaretto-- another thumbs up! Their telephone number is 713/594-9864. In this weather, I'm glad that I live 35 miles away, or I'd be hanging out there all of the time! Please support this new (two weeks today) shrine to gelato!

Jay, I can't find an address at switchboard.com. Would you please give us a cross street for reference? Thanks.

unfortunately my Mom's fav restaurant is Johnny Rocket !!??!! But I will remember your picks--I think my sister and I got takeout from that Thai restaurant--is it very pretty? I remember banquettes with bronze silk-like vinyl padding that i thought was pretty snazzy. And the food WAS good. Zoe ← That is the one, Zoe! I am partial to their curries, but I have never had a clinker yet in any category. If you have an opportunity, their lunch menu offers with each entree their salad bar with two soups, spring rolls and fresh summer rolls as well as four or five choices among vegetarian sushis. Quite a bargain!

I agree with Kevin and Blanche--given the torrid weather and your post-dinner plans, the salads and basil seafood from Ploy's would be a welcome choice.

The absolutly best food for the money up here is a Mexican restaurant named "Rancheros" which is on FM 2978 between Woodlands Parkway and FM 1488. (Turn north at intersection of Woodlands Pkwy and #2978; two miles north on the left.) Ploy's Thai restaurant is at the intersection of Research Forest and Six Pines. It is very close to the Pavillion and is the best Asian restaurant within 30 miles of here. Decent steaks can be found up here but they are expensive. After literally dozens of visits to Rancheros and Ploy's, I would guarantee you will be pleased (unless you order pad thai--my wife thinks their version is great, but I must have heat--superb curries!) Zoe, by the way, tell your mom to try whichever of these two that you skip this time. She will thank you big time!

That's a great tip. Jason; thanks. I have not made pancetta previously due to our humid climate, but I am ready to try this as something different from the maple smoked bacon.

Update on the duck fat-- I went to Central Market and purchased two tubs of frozen duck fat ( no brand name such as Grimaud Frams) across from the fresh chicken and grouped with the "exotics" such as pheasant, buffalo, etc. The price is $6.99/pound, so for $20 I got roughly 6 cups of fat versus the D'artagnan brand at $6.99 for just over 1 cup. If I gather any from rendering my own ducks it will probably go for rillettes or sauteeing potatoes--too much work to have it for confit.

In the past I have purchased rendered duck fat, frozen, from Central Market for a decent price. Since that time, they have started selling 7-oz containers in their salad bar area for $6.99 each. Eight duck legs for confit requires about four of those tubs. Isn't there a less-pricey alternative in the Metro Houston area? Thanks.

Harry, the recipe doesn't indicate the amoount of shrimp/crawfish, and as you stated, it doesn't make much as written. Does the original provide a clue?

Glenn, if you have access to Paula Wolfert's The Cooking of Southwest France, her recipe for Deuck Confit with Green Peas and Ham is tops on my list at the moment. And if ther are fresh (or frozen & shelled) fava beans in your neighborhood, the Fresh Fava Bean Ragout was mentioned here by Ms. Wolfert as a new favorite with duck confit. Good luck!

Abra, I got my frozen favas at Whole Foods, thanks to FoodMan's suggestion upthread, and the fava bean ragu is the recipe I intend to use first. Before I got them I made the duck leg confit with peas, carrots, and prosciutto from the book. The last lunch I had which could compare with it was at Camdeborde's Le Comptoir in Paris. Every recipe I have tried from this book has been exceptional!

"Although the sausages were crumbly, they were very juicy." I would also be interested to see your recipe. My experience with venison is that due to the almost total lack of fat in the venison, there must be ample backfat to keep it from the crumbly texture. As a comparison, the venison terrine wiht dried cherries from the book was, in a word, ethereal, no doubt due to the 50:50 ratio of venison round steak and backfat. If you have enough fat, and based upon the "juicy" description I think you did, then I would suspect that you may have stopped mixing before completely emulsified. I think I have some more venison in the freezer, so perhaps I should do a test batch with your recipe and see if the answer is in the emulsifying.

I have gotten belly from Hong Kong before, but the problem is they always have them cut up into 2lb square pieces and the butcher in all honesty is NOT very helpful and when I asked him to leave a whole slab of belly whole for me he said I need to stop by and if they have not cut the pork yet, I might be able to get a whole piece . So, my new source with very heplful butcher and awsome pork for a much less cost than anywhere else is the HEB on Beechnut and Beltway-8. The place is huge and prices are very reasonable and their produce is awsome (can you tell I was impressed by my first visit?). They cater to the local Asian population so they sell all the excellent pork parts that Hong Kong does and they are very very helpful. Here is their number, 281-564-5201 ask to talk to Joakim, Edward or Joe at the meat/butcher counter. To get a full uncut slab of belly you need to call early around 7 AM before they divide up the pork. PM me if you need any more details. Good luck. ← Thanks for the information , Elie. I live in The Woodlands, and we have the hybrid HEB-Central Market up here, but I think they cater to the prime filet crowd I do get into Houston two or three times a week, so as soon as I finish off the 4 two-pound bacon slabs I just finished smoking, I'll head that way! "get there around 7 a.m." let's see, if I leave about 5:45 I can make it! Thanks for the phone number--it seems that a call the day before is in order.

"I found a much better source for my pork belly today and at 1.90/lb for awsome looking belly, it is heaven sent." Elie, where did you find the pork belly? I have been using Hong Kong Market for pork belly (and duck legs), and I think their price is $2.50 /lb for the belly and $3.50 for the duck legs. Thanks in advance. Mark

There is quite a range of specialities depending on which part of the state you find yourself. Brisket and ribs, chicken fried steak, all sorts of Tex-Mex enchiladas, tacos, and fajitas are all good starting points. Down here near the coast, shrimp, crawfish, Gulf oysters, blue crabs, and red snapper are favorites among seafood. Doves, quail, venison sausages and venison chili are staples for the gun crowd. Sides include all sorts of rice-based dishes, yellow squash casserole, guacamole, chili con queso, the entire gamut of cajun-based cuisine, particularly now that we have half of New Orleans over here, fried okra, corn bread, grits, and smothered greens make the list. Pecan desserts and fresh peach pies are among my favorites as well. For purposes of a buffet, you might want to concentrate on a particular area (Tex-Mex or seafood or wild game or barbecue and their appropriate companion dishes would be quite effective. Good luck.

The local market occasionally makes what they call "Arkansas bacon" from halved and cured pork shoulder--have you ever ran across this term before? Thanks.

Bruce Aidells recommends using the skin of the chicken thighs along with the mmeat for added juiciness. But he doesn't add pork fat. I made the chicken sausages with sun-drid tomatoes and basil with the recommended volume of fat plus some of the skin. No problems with crunbliness, but the pork fat is indispensible!

Horton, thanks for the unpleasant news It seems that we could be in trouble if the 3-day concept won't work for T-F-S versus the Friday through Sunday parameters. If your parents' place is already reserved, we must become focused rather quickly on securing reservations.

Thanks for all of the suggestions; I am currently sifting through the options. I noticed that the last weekend in August is associated with a bank holiday, and in a few b&b listing, they noted 3-night minimum stay/higher tariff. We would be staying 3 nights but it will be Thursday, Friday, and Saturday nights. Does that coincide with the bank holiday? (Horton, if the bank holiday is indeed the weekend of Aug 26th, I think that is when we want to be in the Cotswolds area, so you might ring up your mum. Thanks)

Thanks for all of this information; it makes our planning more fun to "connect all of the recommendations" and cross-reference with maps, viamichelin, etc. Bapi mentioned some hotels in Lower Slaughter which are " a bit pricey- but very popular with visitors from abroad." We are the type of travelers who would rather immerse ourselves among the locals, so to that end we're more likely to seek out a small bed and brekfast such as suggested by Horton above. I have a question regarding logistics. We will finish our London structured tour on a Friday evening, and our current plans are to go to Bath/Cotswolds area. The Buckingham Palace tour has become inserted into the mix and seems that Saturday morning will be a candidate for some of my travel time. I don't the details in fromt of me, but which would make more sense to those who know such things: take a train fom Victoria Station, for example, to either Bath or Oxford and get a car there, or should we try to hire our car while in London?

They have a nice website, and it appears that Bath is an easy drive. Hmmm, Loxley, didn't Robin Hood become Sir Robin of Loxley after he saved King Richard from the clutches of the nasty Prince John? errol Flynn would know! "I have been a number of times, but always did the rustic walkers' pub type of thing rather than the fine food bit. Both would be wonderful." Corinna, I think our visit to the Lake District is more for out of the way scenery rather than seeking fine food. That said, I appreciate good food, so if we happened upon some excellent English cheese, fresh, cold-water fish, or tasty lamb, I wouldn't disparage it for want of bangers and mash. The sausage and charcuterie threads in the Cooking forum hvae me thinking about sausage--can you tell me what is, or isn't, edible as far as English sausage? Thanks.

Greetings, all! I usually lurk over at the cooking forum, but since we are taking our first trip to England in late August, I hope to gain some insight from the experts here to maximize our time. We will be on a 7-day London tour with three nights before and three nights afterward free to explore elsewhere. My current thoughts are that after arriving at Gatwick early morning, we would rent a car and gad about the Lake District for the pretour days. Afterwards we would spend those three days in the Bath/Cotswolds/Warwick Castle region before returing to the States. So my questions include---Is the Lake District worth 3 days of our time or should we stop off near York for a day or so (I heard that Bath and York are similar so I don't want to overdose on half-timbered buildings.) Where would be a good base to see the Warwick Cathedral to Bath area--are they close enough to visit without changing B&Bs? I live in Texas so driving hundreds of miles is second nature to us, but I know one can't tell from a plain map how quickly travel moves especially on narrow country roads. I am certain to have more questions but do not want to overwhelm anyone from responding to all or part of my inquiry. Thanks. Mark

There might be an entirely different marketing ploy in the future. Mr. Kroenke is married to one of the Walton girls (yes, the Wal-mart clan!) I would say that there is pretty significant brand management in the group!

This year I followed Fifi's recipe which involves rinsing the corned beef well, covering with crab boil and then baking at 225º F. for 7 hours. I substituted a jar of mixed pickling spices, added crushed red pepper and more allspice and cloves. The results were great. It was accompanied by "The World's Best Braised Green Cabbage" from Molly Steven's All About Braising. Excellent recipe!