jscarbor

If they want to highlight cooked food then sushi in the name is a very bad idea IMO. Gadsby is a pretty creative chef so having a limiting name will really limit what people think of and order at restaurant. The place is a couple blocks from my office so I will give it a shot soon.

Its been years since visiting the Sacred Heart thursday spaghetti lunch but my dad and I decided to give it a shot yesterday with good results. You can get a plateof spaghetti for $4.75 and add an italian sausage link for less than a buck and a meatballs at $.50 each.Personally I like the link, its excellent. You can also get a baked chicken that looks fried which is good or the pork chop. You dine in a little mess hall with a couple hundred people. Its a great houston tradition.

I ate there awhile ago and must have hit them on a bad day. I appluad them for doing the hand cut fries but they weren't fried correctly IMO. And the spicey burger was decent but the regular burger was not good at all. choc shake was one of the worst I have eveer had. Robb Walsh and Allisson Cook both love the place though? I could name 20 places I would rather have a burger.

There has to be tons of joints in Richmond with barbacoa. I am almost certain Bob's Taco Station has them on weekends. Not the best but its good enough. Drive through Richmond/Rosenberg on 90a and I bet there is 20 places that serve it? Taco D Soliz on Dulles Ave might serve it on weekends? Guadalahara on Washington, not sw side of town, serves barbacoa everyday and its pretty good. Not the best but worth mentioning because they always have it.

← Wow. I guess I'll have to give them another shot. Maybe they were having an off-day when I was there. Hope your holidays were well. ← I meant they could be an icon because of the great building IF they served good food.

Is it just me or does it seem the non pizza entrees have gotten better and better since opening?

Lucky has been there forever, really cool building. This place could be an icon if a little TLC was given and great food served.

I have recently been stopping by Guadalahara Bakery for tacos due to the proximity to my office and the fact there aren't long lines like at Taquaria Laredo. I had always thought this place was closed until I read that the Ultimate(chron) breakfast taco was to be had here. I haven't made it for breakfast but the lunch tacos are very good. You walkup to a steam table counter and a lady eventually comes out and asks ,"How many", meaning how many tacos are you having. You reply and she disappears only to return with fresh flour tortillas in hand. There are usually 5 choices at the table including, barbacoa, pork in red sauce, chicharrone, picadillo, desebrada one time, chicken mole and usually one egg dish still hanging around at lunch. If I had to choose a favorite it would have to go to the pork in red chile, but I also like the barbacoa...I like them all really. Its a simple place that is destined to succomb to higher taxes. It usually looks closed from the outside. Its on Washington near Waugh.

Last night at about 11p I put 8 legs in the oven and let them confit while sleeping. The forst hour was spent drinking scotch and checking temperature, I settled on about 195 degrees "F". Before doing all this I made the salt mixture from French Laundry book except I forgot to put peppercorn in? The day was pretty hectic and I had salted these the day before so I think the salt cure stayed on too long, about 16 hours. I tried my best to rinse them well before putting them into the duck fat. Anyway, about 6 am I woke up and checked the legs only to decide to let them stay awhile longer. I tried to catch a little more sleep but my 2 year old had different plans. So around 7 I took the legs out and started deboning 4 of them for some cassoulet that I will be making Christmas day in order to serve on wednesday. The meat had a little firmness, yet still came off the bone nicely. Although they were a tad too salty I really enjoyed the intermittant morsels while picking(isn't it great to be the chef?). So I strained the fat through a relatively fine strainer but have a watery substance at the bottom of the jars. Do I need to remove the watery substance?

I was one who came by Beavers mostly to meet Robert and try some really nice cocktails. Robert did not dissapoint, he is very knowledgeable about his spirits and mixes some flawless drinks including really cool whisky drink with a whisp of cinnamon, a gin(first on in 20 years) drink and a real pisco sour with egg white. Food wise I was only able to sample the ribs which were good. I think the place will be a great addition for the innerloop crouwd but will withold much more until I can sample more. Also, I was able to meet Morgan Weber while there and look forward to trying out somenew things with him and talk a little more about houstons overall dining scene.

I ended up making a basic butter pastry and used a few different fillings. My favorite was a roasted chicken, mex chorizo and potato emp. The other was made with some leftover beer braised brisket and then a simple ham and cheese for the kids. I froze a few of them and they heated well. I want to try and make some samosas next.

No sarcasm in my post just curiosity.

So how do you study with those guys in Lockhart and surrounding towns? Is it as a paid consultant and they let you help at the pit? Or do you covertly get a job and work for a little while and gain knowledge?

Im open to it. Does not bother me at all on the drink side. On the other hand servers at BBQ really can't add(except on the bill) to my experience much but I can look past that for great que. It almost has to have servers though so it should not be awkward. Beavers looks to be more than great que, it seems to be something that can be a unique and a very nice asset to the cities dining scene. I hope to hit it next week.

I went at lunch which is about the only time I will be able to go darn it. At first I was a little wiered out by the name but it seems as though this place is going to try and take BBQ to new hieghts? I really hope its a order at counter place but something tells me its not? Robert, I see the cocktail is going to be pretty important? It seems like an odd marriage between bbw and cocktail? Obviously you are into it, can you give us your thoughts on why the cocktail will be an asset to Beavers? I am very interested to hear your thoughts. Plus when I do come in I will seek you out for a good drink, I'm pretty much anything but gin really.

Maybe they will open tomorrow because I went today and it wasn't.

Had dinner at Queen Lola's after driving in from Houston on Friday. It seems as if the eastside has gentrified up to about Genes po boys but the gentrification stops there with Queen Lolas down the street a little from Gene's. Not a lot of activity in the area really, it was pretty quite for the most part. Walking into Lola's is certainly an experience, I certaintly would not take many of my non foodie friends, I did however take my wife who is not as enthusiastic as I am when it comes to food but she does trust me. Luckily I trusted Kent Wang, whom I have never met but have noticed his enthusiasm for food on this board for a little oer a year now. We walk in and notice Lolas daughter writing on a chalk board and NO other customers in the place at 7pm on a friday. Lola everntually arrived from the back to greet us and I have to tell you the look on my wifes face was priceless! Lola came in wearing a white tank top, black bra, pulled back yellow hair, and rings coming out of her mouth, ear and nose. Thats not bad but the dirt and grime on her tank was not a pretty site. I had to look at my poor wife and smile. I told her it would be fine, you have to trust Kent. After asking for permission I opened a beer and Lola described a few menu items to us. She also had said she was thankfully out of gumbo which was a little disapointing to me. My wife decided on the catfish with red beans and mac and cheese and I went with the chicken wings with mustard green and corn. I chatted Lola up a bit so she decided to put in one of the documentaries on the dvd for us to watch while she was in the back cooking. After the documentary my wife was sold, she liked what ole Lola was about. She cam out and talked about her struggle a little. To be honest I think its a little bit of a show in order to get bigger tips but the show is good and I really do believe what she has to say. The food finally arrived steaming hot. To say that the food is highly seasoned is an understatement. Its not overly spicey just a lot of seasoning. The catfish was fried perfectly. The crust was a mixture of flour and a lot of spices, moist tender catfish filet was underneath the nearly perfect crust. A real winner. The red beans and rice could have used a little less seasoning but they were good. Mac and cheese was a nice balance since it was good ole fashiloned relatively bland dish. Next was my steaming hot pile of full wings. The dusted on coating was fried to perfection and the chicken was moist and tender. This might well have been the second best fried chicken I have ever had outside of my mother in laws cast iron skillet fried chicken. I would have preferred to have the chicken on a second plate because all the juices of the corn and mustard greens were running onto the chicken. It really didn't matter that much because the crust still stayed in tact despit getting a vegatable soaking. the greens were great and the corn just fine. I also need to mention the almost dessert like corn bread. What a moist tasty treat it was. After dinner we thanked Lola for a great evening. We ended up tipping $25 on top of our $15 bill. My guess is it would not be waisted, it would help feed the homeless sunday afterrnoon where its all good. Lolas is not a restaurant, its an experience.

For BBQ IMO its really only Williams, Thelmas or Burns. ← OOOOOH i forgot Burns BBQ. It's a little off the beaten track, but it is AWESOME! I got burned once at Thelmas and haven't been back. I should probably drop by that place again... ← Thelmas is a little different. You have to go either brisket or the fried catfish. Neither of those has ever been bad for me.

I have not been in forever but Nicks Place just off Westheimer had great pizza and calzones(fried or baked). Its a good enough sports bar but the food really was good. Cafe Pita is in the Westchase area and is REALLY good. They serve Bosnian food. The breads are great. Service is really good to. Its just a little local type place. There is a Buffalo Wild Wings in that area, it works for sport. Marinis Empenadason Westheimer in the Carrilion Shopping center is good for empenadas. Churrascos is a great s american place. Its fairly pricey but the food is good(I have not been in a few years). Caspian is a great persian restaurant. For BBQ IMO its really only Williams, Thelmas or Burns.

Would these freeze well? Im just thinking about the potatoes? I would assume they would.

I don't know if this was just a bad day but I was at Farmers Mrkt today and Tacambaro was not there! Lets hope it is a vacation thing. Jarro's on Gessner has some great tacos as well. No Sweetbread ones though. Himalaya is great, I had it twice in 4 days recently. My waistline already shows it. ← I had someTacambaro friday so its still open!

I know this is probably stretch for most people to go to but a new Thai restaurant just opened in Greatwood a couple months ago. It occupies a spot that many other restaurants have, each as egually avg/bad as the next execpt.... I have had a few dishes here and feel that this might be the best Thai in the Sugar Land area. I know thats not saying much but it is saying something. So far I have had the chicken Laarb, another laarb like dish made with pork, penang curry and volcano chicken(fried chicken and peppers in a tamarind glaze. I struck up a conversation with the girl up fron and told her that I really think she is doing a great job. I told her I thought the food was better than it probably needed to be considering the clientele but she said why serve junk when serving good doesn't take much more effort. We talked little about what she does and it got to the fact that she shops for fish almost daily from a friend who has a fish place. If she runs out then the dish is not served. she told me I had to get fish next time which I will. Its calle Bangkock Cheg. The chefis the girls dad.

There seems to be so many different stuffed pastries from carribean patties to venenzuelan empenadas to runzas in Nebraska. Almost all cousines have a version. What are some of your favorites? I really am thinking meat stuffed pies but all are welcome. I am thinking about making a batch or two and really looking for some that freeze really well. Is it best to cook almost all the way then cool then freeze?

On the heels of the Press review of Gerrardos Market I had to stop by for some grub at this nort side market/taqueria. It was a friday so not all the special dishes were available. We tried about a pound of carnitas and a half pound of sweetbreads. The carnitas were good, not a bunch or crispiness but they were tender. The side salsas added a great bit to the carnitas, one was a bright red jelepneo HOT sauce and the other was a green semi tart sauce. I added both. The sweetbreads weren't as good as Tacambaro but proved to be tasty enough. All this and some quac and cokes was like $15. As I was leaving one of the guys that runs the place came out to the parking lot and gave me a sample(about a 1/4 pound) of the borrego, a steamed mixture of lamb and goat. It was awesome. I had inquired about the borrego earlier but it isn't "ready" until saturday. I had told the guy it would be hard to get by on sat for it so I guess he felt bad I hooked me up? I assume it was for saturday and not the previous weekends borrego but it was great nonetheless. I will certainly make a trip on weekend for the borrego again. If I were in town I wouldn't have a problem with stopping by for the other stuff but the borrego, that is why you go. Gerrardo's is on Patton near Fulton.

I'll give the buratta a shot. I like butter so the "buttery" is good IMO.