Please Allow Me to Introduce Myself

[csingley]

I'm a man of wealth and taste

Use all your well-learned politesse, or I'll lay your soul to waste

(woo woo) (woo woo)

 

<ahem>

 

From Houston TX, representing the 713 - so I came up with BBQ, Tex-Mex, and Vietnamese.  Deep love for Cajun cuisine, and join our neighbors in serious plunder of the bounty of the Gulf and the bayous.  As a young man I spent a lot of time in China and Taiwan, so I'm a fluent Mandarin speaker with blue eyes.  Hanging out with the Chinese got me seriously into eating and cooking... but marrying one of them sealed my fate.  My wife's idea of feminine liberation involves office work and refusal to cook, but she was raised by a Sichuanese father who's a formidable cook, whose duties I was naturally expected to assume after taking his "money-losing goods" off his hands.  This led to a semi-involuntary apprenticeship into the Chinese culinary arts, reinforced by allegedly constructive criticism from a native connoisseur, now joined in chorus by the voices of our two children whose palates are developing as spoiled as their mother's.  Anecdote: my 6yo went with his (white) grandfather to neighborhood spaghetti dive; when asked by his server how the food was, he politely replied that there was too much basil in the red sauce.  Boys - make better life decisions than I; don't follow my path to ruin!

 

So I cook plenty of real-deal Chinese food and a smattering of Japanese.  We're also big fans of Thai food (I took a couple weeks' cooking classes in Chiang Mai) and Korean food, which are in regular rotation.  Since I learned to cook out of books, Jacques Pepin and Julia Child are also formative influences... I went to the trouble of tracking down Pepin's "Cooking Techniques" on VHS and ripping it to MP4 - these shows are amazing and it's a crime they're not in distribution; I'd be very happy to share if anyone's got suggestions for an efficient way to do so in bulk.

 

My job is challenging for the attention-span deprived, so I drink large quantities of coffee and prepare it from the green beans - roast, grind, brew espresso.  This is fun, interesting, and culinarily rewarding, but probably not really a topic for eGullet I suppose... there are specialist forums available.

 

But enough about me.  Let's talk about you!

[blue_dolphin]

Welcome to eGullet, @csingley!  

There is indeed a Coffee and Tea forum here and a thread on home roasting.  I've learned a lot from reading those threads over the years but I agree that there are more active forums elsewhere for the hard-core coffee types.

Do explore the forums and feel free to jump in to share your experiences (sounds like you have a LOT!) and ask questions.  If you've been reading a bit, you already know there are many very experienced and seriously knowledgable eGulleters who are incredibly generous and sharing and there are bumblers like me who like to cook and eat for the fun of it.  I think the variety keeps things interesting.  

[csingley]

Thanks blue_dolphin!  I hadn't noticed the Coffee & Tea board.  Sifting through the forums, this is clearly a pretty awesome community.  I can't claim any special expertise, but I'm happy to join the conversation.

[Jaymes]

Welcome.

 

And now that you've outted yourself as a Houstonian knowledgeable about Chinese, Korean, Vietnamese, Thai food, hope you'll hie yourself over to the Texas Dining forum  https://forums.egullet.org/forum/28-texas-dining/ and share with us other Houstonians as to which restaurants are your faves. 

[csingley]

Well all right Cap'n!  Thanks for the signpost... although really most of this Asian food happens within our walls... I cook 3 meals a day 7 days a week for the proverbial family of four; we don't dine out that much.  But I do have some poorly-considered and forcefully-expressed opinions on the subject of Asian restaurants in Houston, of which I require little provocation to unburden myself.

[Jaymes]

47 minutes ago, csingley said:

Well all right Cap'n!  Thanks for the signpost... although really most of this Asian food happens within our walls... I cook 3 meals a day 7 days a week for the proverbial family of four; we don't dine out that much.  But I do have some poorly-considered and forcefully-expressed opinions on the subject of Asian restaurants in Houston, of which I require little provocation to unburden myself.

 

Understanding that you and I have just met, and I'm not yet on the "come over for dinner" list, although I'm thrilled to know about the possibility you'll be sharing your tips and hints for the Asian food happening within your walls, it would sure make me happy to glean a little bit of your wisdom as to places outside your walls where I could perhaps take advantage of your knowledge of Asian cuisine.  Favorite Thai in Houston?  How about some of those Korean BBQ joints?  Vietnamese?  Do you like Mai's?  Is there even such a thing as a really good Chinese buffet?  

 

 

Edited August 4, 2016 by Jaymes (log)

[csingley]

I posted on the TX Dining forum about Chinese food in Houston, of which I have the most knowledge.

 

5 minutes ago, Jaymes said:

Favorite Thai in Houston?  How about some of those Korean BBQ joints?  Vietnamese?  Do you like Mai's?  Is there even such a thing as a really good Chinese buffet?  

 

I'm still looking for good Thai.  Vieng Thai on Longpoint (behind Ikea) is more authentic than most, but really pretty mediocre.  Last time I was out the Beltway (Bellaire/Wilcrest area) I went by a place called Tony Thai on the way to get beignets... it looked somewhat promising.  I just think there are like zero Thai people in Houston, unfortunately.

 

Korean BBQ joints along Longpoint - I know many of them by sight; only problem is that their names all sound the same - Korea Garden; Seoul Garden; Seoul House... I can mention Bon Ga and Korea Garden, they're pretty good, and Arirang down on Bellaire is OK too.

 

For Vietnamese you're spoiled for choice, really, especially if you like noodles & banh mi - Les Givrals, Cafe Don, and a zillion holes in the wall have got you covered.  For sit-down places, Mai's is like a couple dollars more per dish than Van Loc around the corner for the same quality of food - I go there instead.  Better than both of these is the Jasmine restaurant at Bellaire/Highway 8, although the one time I ordered the marquee Beef 7 ways it was pretty terrible.  I've always had good meals ordering a la carte, though, and Jasmine has lunch specials even on weekends, so we often stop in and eat there while shopping at the adjacent H-Mart (taken over from the ill-fated Golden Supermarket of yesteryear).

 

There are absolutely are really good Chinese buffets, but they tend to be in 5-star hotels in Asian capital cities... not sure I've seen any in Houston; authentic Chinese food is quite different from American Chinese food, and it's all ordered a la carte or in set menus.  On a more down & dirty level, years ago we used to take the kids & head down the V-Star buffet near I-45 and the South Loop... although we quit going there once food price inflation kicked in too hard; I think the thin gross margins they run made them pass it straight through to the customer.  This is very different than the kind of Chinese buffet you're talking about though... but the place is a trip; it's like a Vegas casino with slowly-changing LED strip lighting and weird Asian electronic dance music playing pretty loud; the crowd is much more Southside/Port of Houston.  Plus I can't get enough all-you-can-eat catfish, steamed flounder, and fried chicken wings doused in Sriracha.

 

What else you got?

[csingley]

Oh yeah - Cafe Lemongrass in Bellaire is more upscale/cheffy/fusion/$$$, but the food is very good.

 

Near Greenway Plaza, Vietopia is surprisingly righteous - I mean, they sell food geared for white people (no tendon or tripe in the pho, for example), and it's marked up like 30% over what you get in yellow-people-cooking-for-yellow-people establishments, but the quality of the food is good, and (as seems to be typical for sit-down Vietnamese places) they serve a broad selection of pretty good Chinese food in the back pages of the menu (usually listed under "beef", "pork", "vegetables", etc.)

[csingley]

Also I would be remiss not to mention (among the metric shit-ton of good VN restaurants out by Bellaire/Wilcrest) the Crawfish & Noodles, which is a Viet/Cajun fusion restaurant... I mean, doesn't that just sound like a good idea??  United in Francophilia.  They do boiled crawfish/crabs etc. alongside fish sauce chicken wings, excellent noodles & fried rice, etc.  If you're willing to drive to eat, and you haven't been there, definitely go to Crawfish & Noodles.  We recently tried the similar Cajun Kitchen nearby, but the crawfish were clearly frozen & sadly tiny, so no good.  Probably impact of the season; might try them again.

[Jaymes]

What a grand addition you are to this board.  I'm giddy with excitement.  I'll be watching for you on the Texas forums.

 

Yep, I too like Bon Ga, and V-Star.  Also Pho Binh.  And agree with you about Thai, but I usually wind up at Thai Gourmet or Thai Siam in Sugar Land.

 

They'll shut down this "newcomer thread" pretty soon.  So I'll see you over in Texas.  Okay?

[csingley]

What, they won't let me write the Great American Novel on a "Hello New Members" forum thread???

 

OK TX Dining - do they do cooking there, or is it all fine restaurants?  I saw they had a charcuterie thread there - Chris Shepherd does great work, but like hell I'm paying Revival Market's prices.  I've got fatback and bellies from heritage pigs curing in the fridge right now, and (possessing a good meat grinder) I regularly grind/stuff/smoke my own andouille, weisswurst, dumpling stuffing, etc. etc.  Unless I convert a refrigerator to temp/humidity control, however, needless to say I won't be hanging up salami & prosciutti in Houston!  But that kind of scene is much more my speed.  We DIY pretty much all the way down; weekends you'll catch me butchering ducks, rendering fat, putting up config, making & freezing stock, all that.

[Shelby]

Glad you joined us!!!  Looking forward to seeing your cooking    Maybe some day you could do a food blog ...... (hint hint)....  

[Jaymes]

Just now, Shelby said:

Glad you joined us!!!  Looking forward to seeing your cooking    Maybe some day you could do a food blog ...... (hint hint)....  

 

I'll second this request.  

[csingley]

This might be strange for a forum of food enthusiasts, but I'd probably rather be dipped in dog doo and rolled in crackers than whip out a cell phone at mealtimes and say "Wait a minute everybody, let me just take a picture first... OK one more, the exposure was bad on that one... Son your hand was in front of the food, can you just stay out of the shot?!"  I barely even take pictures of my children.  Of course, TBH they are less interesting than sushi.

[Jaymes]

10 minutes ago, csingley said:

This might be strange for a forum of food enthusiasts, but I'd probably rather be dipped in dog doo and rolled in crackers than whip out a cell phone at mealtimes and say "Wait a minute everybody, let me just take a picture first... OK one more, the exposure was bad on that one... Son your hand was in front of the food, can you just stay out of the shot?!"  I barely even take pictures of my children.  Of course, TBH they are less interesting than sushi.

 

Don't let that stop you from doing a food blog.  Assign one of your kids as photographer.  Good for everybody.

 

Besides, the best (IMHO) food blogs here on eG are not about eating out.  They're about what folks are doing, cooking, eating in their own kitchens.  About the process, so nobody has to wait to eat. They're the absolute most interesting things.  Which is why Shelby suggested it to you after you mentioned what you like to do.  

 

You should check out a few of them and then get back with us.

Edited August 4, 2016 by Jaymes (log)

[csingley]

I'll check out the food blogs; there's some interesting looking stuff in there.  Thanks folks.

[Shelby]

1 hour ago, csingley said:

I'll check out the food blogs; there's some interesting looking stuff in there.  Thanks folks.

The two I've done were so fun....it was a documentation of stuff I was doing anyway.  The hardest part is remembering to take pictures    Links to my blogs are at the bottom of ...well, hell, what do you call it??? If you look down at this post you will see links.

[Tere]

3 hours ago, Jaymes said:

 

Don't let that stop you from doing a food blog.  Assign one of your kids as photographer.  Good for everybody.

 

Besides, the best (IMHO) food blogs here on eG are not about eating out.  They're about what folks are doing, cooking, eating in their own kitchens.  About the process, so nobody has to wait to eat. They're the absolute most interesting things.  Which is why Shelby suggested it to you after you mentioned what you like to do.  

 

You should check out a few of them and then get back with us.

 

 

seconded. You do you. I am thinking about doing one and I do 5 and 2. Don't let any of that stop you!

[kayb]

Belatedly, welcome. Guess you eased in while I was occupied elsewhere. Love to hear more about your curing meat...that's a plunge I'm thinking of taking this fall, once I get through canning and freezing and it cools off enough I can hang stuff in the storage building.