jscarbor

I should add that my friends LOVE Pinot(so do I). What Pinots (Note the Flowers Pinot) look good on here in european versions(Burgundy?)? I really said Europeans becasue we never order europe wines since we are less familiar but certainly note anything else that catches your eye. I say that to my untrained eye this is one of the most fun wine lists I've seen.

Wow! Glad I decided to post here. We will pretty much be eating all the "small plates" on the dinner menu. For instance we will have the Fois Gras bon bons, the fresh anchovies, spicy garlic shrimp, spanish cheeses, pork belly with cane syrup glaze, seared tuna, sweetbreads, bacon and sage grits. Anything here pair exceptionally with some of you folks recomendations?

This list is really good and affordable for a restaurant. I like the Davis Family Syrah, I think they just added that and at $44 its nearly a steal? I also like that Etude Pinot but not looking to break the bank this dinner. Anybody see anything that jumps out on the european side? $30-45 range. http://catalanfoodandwine.com/wines.html

Tried Bistro Tolouse yesterday for lunch and found it to be a overall good dining experiece with relatively good value. Started off with some goat cheese fritters with a fig marmalaid. for lnch entree I had the creole seared tune with wasabi aioli and choice of soup, salad. I chose the onion soup and expected a tiny little bowl of it but got a nice size instead. The tuna was cooked rare and had a nice crust formed, I might do the crust a little different, looking ofr a little less sweet I guess, but the wasabi aioli cut the sweetness I guess? The onion soup was great. The lunch item was $12 and the fritters were $7.

I can think of 1 pie to not get at F S...the key lime is not very good at all. Pecan is good though. I guess I just see there pies as avg? And the people that waited in line all night to get a pie from them for thankdsgiving must be completely brain dead that they couldn't make a pie equal to the pies there? How hard is it to make a pie?

Where or who is doing the food? You never got back to us on that question? I usually get my cakes at Not Jus Donuts on Dowling. They are not fancy but they are really good especially the Red Velvet with the cream cheese frosting or the sock it to me cake. Its locally owned bakery kind of in the hood near downtown. They usually need 1-2 days a notice? 713.951.9211 La Victoria is a mexican bakery with really good cakes as well. 713.921.0861 Moellers on Bellaire Blvd in the Bellaire area. 713.667.0983

Thats great! Alternate uses for Turkey fryers is great. Which reminds me, I should do some crawfish soon!

I had that manchego a few weeks ago (houston store), it was awesome. I also had a young pecorino and it liked even more by my dinner mates.

Not very exciting but I did try Potbelly today for a quick sandwich. It was pretty tasty. I already forgot the name of the sandwich but it had a hot pepper spread, roast beef, ham, swiss and other accompaniments. The bread is a step above the other chains and they offer a really cool looking ice cream shake selection like the pineapple cocunut?

I hit a decent taco stand at Bealle and 20t in the shady acres area. A tractor guy told me about this place a few weeks ago so I decided to try it. Verdict: its a solid taco stand with very food barbacoa and good fajita and "al pastor" meats. I had the fajita as a quesadilla and the al pastor as a gordita. If I found myself in this area I would certainly eat again but my favorite taco stands would be 1. Taconazo for beef fajita 2. Tacombaro at the farmers market for tripas, astor, fajita and sweetbreads 3. Matamoros Meat Mrkt on Washington for carnitas

Wouldn't it be great if we all made an effort to try a restaurant we have never been to and report back here about it? It can be a taco truck, cafe or fancy schmancy. Lets also try and get someone that we know, who is interested in food to log on and start writing. The Texas forum has been rather boring lately.

The "season" sarts with thanksgiving in my family. There is always a getogether, sometimes reluctantly because, well, we don't know who to invite. There are divorced parents on both sides, one side is less likely to show if the other shows. Its a real hassle, one I can't imagine giving to my children. This year and I think 3 of the last 4 were at my house. I think one of the main reasons it ends up at my house more ofter than not is because of peoples utter fear of cooking a turkey. So I end up with the turkey and only the turkey so that I can concentrate on that very "difficult" task of cooking a large bird. Little does anyone know the turkey is so easy! I guess they are used to their mom's cooking the bird for 8 hours and to their surprise find out that they have a dry tasteless bird? Luckily all the sides the rest of family bring are GREAT! My mom makes a legendary oyster dressing along with a semi new to the holiday fruit cornbread dressing that is fabulous. Sister brought sweet potato soufle and a salad. Dad and his wife brought deviled eggs and cranberry sauce and father in law brought dutch apple, pumpkin and pecan pies. Lunch started off with an excerpt from George Washingtons Thanksgiving Proclamation. Everyone dug in after that. In order to keep the family around a little longer (if we feed them dessert they leave immediately afterwards) we adjourned outdoors to drink wine and watch the kids play. The weather was spectacular, maybe 70 degrees only a hint of clouds in the sky. After 30-45 minutes we finally ended the suffering and served the pie. What great pies! This year, because of a planned roadtrip with Mother in Law (didn't come to thanksgiving) to see some Cristmas lights, eat some killer catfish and to take a vintage steam engine train ride, we did not get to the tree the day after thanksgiving. Instead we arrived back home on saturday after the short roadie. So, even though we were a little car dreary from 10 hours on the road we decided that getting the tree "up" was a priority or was it? Well the excitement of getting the tree up was actually deflated by the realization that we were tired. So the tree would wait one more day.....

Have to bring this up again. Anyway, I can't tell you how much I love Christmas, especially now that I have children. My son Jett is 3.5 and gets it. He is really worried about Santa this year since he knows he's been naughty. Of course he's also been great! My daughter is 10 months so this is her first, it goes without saying, (I guess I just said it) she has no clue. That being said, traditions, family, friends and making this time special means so much to me now. When I started this thread a couple years ago I did it because my family did not have many traditions and my wifes did. I did not want to have to adopt her families traditions and have nothing that was "ours". So, I have "stolen" a few like the stocking getting filled and sneaking into kids bedroom and placing it on the door knob so that its the first thing the kids see in the morning or Santa gets some pate and cheese with wine instead of milk and cookies. We mix that in with some of my wifes traditions. All this might have inspired my born into family because they are doing a few things that are great as well. So, anybody that might be new to this thread, please share what you love and remember and still might do in regards to Christmas. Merry Christmas folks!

The cocktails tend to be relatively sweet but good nonetheless. I had some of my wifes watermelon margarita that was pretty tasty for a summer night.

Very nice, thank you. I want to add that your avatar has always drawn me to many of your posts. I certainly have enjoyed reading what you have to say and advice you give. I need to add that we will be there in mid february.

Its either 6 or 8.

Thanks for info. I see your name is "syrah girl" and I have to tell you about a great syrah I had with a braised short rib ravioli I made for dinner a couple weeks ago. It was Davis Family around $40 and it was amazing!

I think I might need to hit DV aqgain soon. Last time I went there was a fabulous braised lamb dish, it being fall and all they must have something like that again?

Hey, I hope not to be to annoying with my questions and seeking advise but...I am heading to Napa with a few friends for a few days of food and wine. My buddy is kind of spearheading this deal and he has a few favorite wineries that he goes to like Del Dotto and Reguschi. I wanted to have a "day" where I was the point man on where to go. I would really like to try and accomodate many of the people by picking different places for everyone; maybe a showroom type place mixed in with some cool chill joints where you really get to know the winemakers. Price is not a big concern, so throw anything out there. Also, my friend wants to stay in Napa area for wineries not sonoma for some reason? Additionally, we want great food. I have decided to skip French Laundry because I guess I really don't want to "deal" with reservations or subjecting the group to a $300-400 per person meal. I am certain we will hit la toque for 1 dinner maybe Pilar for another. Some suggestions or comments on another dinner and a few lunches would be great.

You know, you never know what kind of production requirements there are on something like this but I suggested some different more exciting places then what they went to. Still, I don't have a problem with any of the places they are all good really. I would have taken them to some places a Cop may go to while on the beat? Say the east side of town for breakfast at Los Corrales where they provide machacada to many of the restaurants in town. Then over to the Original Ninfas for decent enough legendary food then to Thelmas for dinner for que and catfish. Other places that are unique would be Dona Tere for tamales, gthe hong kong mall for vietnamese/cajun crawfish, tampico.... All in all the show was good representation of the city.

I'm watching the Houston show now and am a little disapointed you guys didn't get a hold of me I'll get over it. Anyway, Bubbas is good, Breakfast Klub so is Mais and Goode Co. Mandolas is solid gulf coast seafood, really one of my favorites in Houston My one gripe is all those places with the exception of B Klub are pretty much on the radar screen imo, not what I would call off the beaten path? All that being said, I think the show really made Houston look pretty good with the exception of the burger joint on the freeway(the look not the burger).

If you want to try something knew then how about a trip to Houston for some BBQ comparisons? Its different style que but there are some great one nonetheless. 1. Williams BBQ on Wheatley in Acres Homes area. Great ribs, good brisket and very good sides. 2. Thelmas on Live Oak for HUGE portions with very good briskett and smokin good fried catfish. 3. Goode Co. on Kirby for overall good que from brisket to sausage, turkey, and ribs, they do it all good. Also probably has the sides hall of fame and great pecan pies as well. 4. Burns on De Priest for good solid que. 5. There are a couple area bbq trailers like the one in Dickinson, the one in cleveland and the one in Washington on the Brazos near College Station.

I would think we would here this from local food writer before zagat?

Saandong Noodle House on Bellaire has superb dumpling soup. Beef Noodle Soup is also top notch.

I doubt they were braised in the oven since it is such a high temp. Maybe a stovetope braise assuming they dont have a traditional oven?