jscarbor

Did I not try enough new places? Cmon people(especially Houston!), lets try new exciting places to eat.

Congratulations and kudos for preparing a wonderful dinner for your wife. The shortbread dishes you mentioned sound interesting: the parmesean shortbread with sauteed shrimp in beure blanc sauce and the idea you mentioned, rosemary almond shortbread and top with seared beef slices and a sauce. Are the shortbreads really like a sweet shortbread cookie, except savory? I'm picturing the texture of a sweet shortbread cookie and it is pretty crunchy. Do you have a base "savory" shortbread reicipe that you modify? ← They are savory little shortbreads and they have a nice crunch. I may have left mine in a minute to long. Basically they are butter, parmesean, a little flour, some red pepper chopped very fine, toasted almonds and rosemary. The "dough" needs help coming together. The beurre blanc needed a little kick to it, maybe lemon? One way I really would like to try these(besides with beef) is with some seared fois gras. I think the crunch of the shotbread and the silk of the fois gras would be great! I would add a sweetish type accompaniement to it.

Haha. Models in st Helena? Is it pure bakery? Any lunch choices? Will be in St Helena saturday. Was thinking Jeanty but one of the dining companions has been several times and wanted something new(he had not tried).

I guess the wine menu is a little, not confusing but I guess different in its presentation? I would like to do the tasting, we'll see. Many times the whole table needs to participate and I doubt we will get a consensus.

Hitting Pilar Sat night. I went with that over Bistro don Giovanni? I just think Pilar seemed more....well, more california?

Went with the parmesean shortbread with sauteed shrimp in beure blanc sauce. It was good but needed something else to brighten it up a bit. Also ended up going with a very simple black sesame seared tuna with a ginger soy sauce concoction. It was very tasty and very easy.

Dining at Martini house one night. Any favorites under $100? http://www.martinihouse.com/menus/wine_list.pdf

Could you throw a little twist and poach the salmon in a cocunut carrot ginger sauce?

$53 did seem high but I can't find it anywhere? With the kids running around while dining on our anniversary we had sauteed shrimp with a beurre blanc sauce atop parmesean shortbreads. The wine went well with these, it especially cut the butter. Also cooked a black sesame seared tuna with a ginger soy sauce and avacado concoction. Very good but not the best match for the wine.

I was lucky, atleast I think I was lucky, to find Central Market in Houston carrying 2 bottles of this the other day so I pounced on them. They were $53 each which was surprisingly only $4 less than what I paid at a restaurant recently! Yikes! Anyway, its my anniversary and I wanted to cook something that really worked with the Champagne? Any suggestions? I was thinking shrimp in a thai curry sauce? Maybe some fresh cut/fried potatoes with parmesean? Any thoughts from the crowd? It can be first course or a main?

I have a really Great bottle of Henri Billot Grand cru brut rose. So I might start leaning towards building towards that? Thai food can go well with champagne? Maybe shrimp in a thai red curry sauce?

My wife and I will be "celebrating" our 6th year anni this weekend at home with our 2 kids (3 and 1). I'm thinking kind of french influenced since I have some really cool french music from the "Sparrow" Edith Piaf. Anyway, I had an appetizer in mind that was seafood but I think my wife would prefer seafood entree???So I think I am going to do a rosemary almond shortbread and top with seared beef slices and topped with a hollandaise or perhaps a red wine beurre blanc???? For the main course I am stumped? I could do a nice salmon dish? I don't know? My wifes not real adventerous but maybe some monkfish? In fact I would really like to do a monkfish in a sea urchin sauce but have no idea where to start on that? Any ideas? Not to messy cooking eaither, don't really want to clean all night after I cook.

Chimayo is good as is wahso (asian fusion).

Do you know of any that serve a good langua taco? Gotta try the sweetbread taco though. ← I don't think they have lingua? ← I was early for a lunch appointment at Triple A on Airline so I could not keep myself from hitting Tacombaro and eating the Sweetbreads! Really good taco.

Its a little north of Longpoint. My dad had the sour rye soup to start and really liked it. kielbalsa next time I go.

Polonia Restaurant on Blaylock was good polish food. The huge pork shank and the peirogis were very good. I want to go back and try again soon.

The Crab dish was good but might be skipped next time in order to try something new. I would also add that the Cockels while also good will be skipped to try different dishes. The seared tuna was very good but I found the chile sambal to be an odd choise in this restaurant? I liked it and would look to order 2 of these next time. The sweet tuna offset by the spicy tangy sambal was excellent. The grits were the best I have ever had, my guess is they used real cream and that can make a huge difference. The extra order of bon bons was a mistake since 2 of the people at the table decided not to eat them, that meant the other guy and myself had 3! One is enough probably 2 is stretching it and 3 is just not a good thing. The lone big plate of veal cheaks and sweetbreads was great (how could it not be?), in fact I might a couple more big plate options a look next time? Service: The service was nearly flawless. Maybe it was because we had 5:30 reservations on a wednesday in order to catch a play at Stages but it was great nonetheless. The waiter had all dishes that would require 4 pieces to come that way, for instance the bon bon's come 3 to an order, he gave us 4. After I left I wish I would have tipped a bit more in fact? I left cash for tip though?

Yes

My wife, myself and a couple friends went to Catalan a couple weeks ago and had a great time. I called a day before to make reservations and ask if a bottle of triacca valtilina superior could be decanted. A friend on egullet had suggested this wine and said to see if it could be decanted a couple hours before we arrived. We arrived at the restaurant for our early reservation and found the de canted bottle to be at the table. We started looking at the menu and decided to go ahead and order a few things from the "small plates" menu. I also ordered the Henri Billot Grand Brut Rose at that time. The sparkler needed to be chilled, I wish I would have ordered it a little earlier but... Anyway, we ordered the fois gras bon bon's, crispy pork belly, it escapes me now what else was ordered at that time. The bon bon's were just a decadent, over indulgent ball of joy! The bon bon's come out intack, perfectly fried. If you choose to not pop the whole thing in your mouth, then you are looking at a glob of fois gras juice on your plate. You can only imagine how rich these are. The pork belly, which dissapointed my tablemates last time they dined here were masterful this time. Crispy outside with a cane syrup glaze and a touch of heat to finish. Next round was crab piqullo gratin, seared tuna with sambal, more bon bons (not a good idea), cockels, cheese and bacon grits, seared tuna with sambal chile and one dish from the "large plates", veal cheeks with sweetbreads.... Lets talk about the wine now. What a great list this is! The markups are much less than standard restaurants but all 3 that we ordered were not to be found at Specs so I will have to try a couple other avenues for these because they were all outstanding at worse and superlative at best. The Italian we drank is a little foggy to me, it was big and although I was able to save a little of it for the veal cheeks it might have been to big for other dishes we had. Still it was great and only $41! The Henri Billot brut rose was fantastic! Best sparkler I have ever had, strawberry, bubble gum are just a few notes from what I remember. Everyone at table raved over this! I want to say that was $50? Lastly, I was hoping for the Sea Smoke Pinot but they were out and the sommelier suggested the Foxen Pinot which grows many of the grapes for Sea Smoke as I was told? The bottle was opened and the scent just when it hit the glass was noticeable from 2 feet away. This truly was amazing, kind of an old leather piece of luggage scent? The flavors danced with vanilla, black cherry even some strawberry and the seductive aftertaste just gave you a big smile. ohhhhh....that wine is my happy place. $57 is getting up there but for a normal restaurant I'm guessing its an $80 bottle? Kids getting up will try and finish later

I wonder if the $38 for the Billiot on the printable list was for a half-bottle. At any rate, glad you liked it. Billiot is an excellent grower-producer of Champagne. And it looks like we have another convert to Valtellina wines (which are, as you mention, a hell of a deal -- particularly compared to other Italian wines made from the nebbiolo grape, Barolo and Barbaresco). ← The Valtellina drinks better than most of the $60 bottles of Barola I've had recently.

Catalan tonight. It was superb but a report will have to wait. It will also require its own thread.

Billiot Rose was excellent but was priced higher than whats on the printable wine list. I also ordered a Foxen Pinot that was slammin good. The Triacca Valtellina Superiore was very good and a hell of a deal. Thanks for the advice, i'll try and be a little more detailed later.

We've narrowed down the list to Tony Mandola's for catering, Riojas Tapas, Backstreet Cafe, and River Oaks Grill for dinner. I think I've looked at nearly every restaurant in Houston ~ you're really spoiled when it comes to the variety and diversity of food. I just wish that I could find beignets like Cafe DuMond. For the ones we don't choose, I think that we'll have lunch/dinner because the menus look scrumdelicious! Thanks for the suggestions. Can I ask why Rive Oaks Grill? ←

After reading Robb Walsh's blog awhile back on the Venenzuelan Truck stand I finally decided to go. The truck is located in a car repair shop parking lot at the corner of Westheimer and Fondren. I tried the Patacon which is a sandwich of sorts. Instead of bread plantains are smashed and fried then lettuce, avacado, crema, tomato and ropa veja beef are added. Great sandwich! I had a decent empenada but didn't find the kind made of "Pan" corn meal that I have come to know as Venenzuel type of empenada? There was another sandwich that I saw a picture of that was more traditional that I want to try next called Pepitan? I'll let you know.

Do you know of any that serve a good langua taco? Gotta try the sweetbread taco though. ← I don't think they have lingua?