Subject: Foods

• Double-Stuffed at Sabine River Cafe

  July 30, 2009

• $13 at Bowl

  Photos by Katharine Shilcutt Solo salad with spinach, beets, walnuts, feta, jicama, bell peppers and more​Where: Bowl, 607 Richmond, 832-582-7218 What $13 gets you: A fresh, healthy salad or sandwich that makes you never want to bring your lunch again. The cheerful, inviting interior of this unfortunately out-of-the-way lunch spot is like the office canteen you always dreamed of. Close enough to downtown and the Museum District yet far removed with its relaxing, sunny atmosphere, Bowl

  July 30, 2009

• Food Fight: Battle Milkshake

  Photos by Katharine Shilcutt The defending champion...the Beck's Prime chocolate milkshake​When putting out the request earlier this week for the best milkshake in town, we were confronted with a curious question from commenter Dr. Ricky: "Forgive me, but what constitutes a milkshake? Versus say a smoothie? Do we count licuados or sinh in this?" An interesting question, for sure, as the term "milkshake" generally denotes a dessert-type beverage made primarily with ice cream. But resear

  July 30, 2009

• RDG Bar Annie's Shrimp Meat Balls

  In the wake of Café Annie's closing, Robert Del Grande has taken up the chef's hat again. Just a bit further down Post Oak, the RDG Grill Room, Bar Annie and the BLVD Lounge are now all serving a variety of small plates and entrees at different price points. But even in a new place, Chef Del Grande is using an old trick to please diners: meat on a stick. Of course, this recipe calls for shrimp instead of hot dogs. The recipe, after the jump.

  August 6, 2009

• Protest Erupts as Alpha Bakery Suspends "Buy 5, Get 1 Free" Policy

  Photos by Robb Walsh​I was shocked to discover that the price of the banh mi thit at Alpha Bakery in the Hong Kong City Mall had gone up, but my reaction was downright civil compared to the guy in line behind me. Sandwiches were only $1.85 a couple of years ago, with the usual Vietnamese sandwich shop policy of "Buy 5, Get 1 Free." Now the sandwiches are $2.50 each. When an Asian guy in a Longhorns cap ordered five sandwiches and they told him there was no more sixth sandwich free anymore

  August 7, 2009

• No Reservations: San Francisco

  Photo by Preston CovillaudOutside Pirate Cat Radio in San Francisco​Feeling even more antagonistic than usual, Anthony Bourdain toured San Francisco in this week's episode of No Reservations. He brought the full power of his disdain to the city's organic, local and vegan food by not sampling a bite of it. Finding the city to be a place of contradictions, of both lentils with seitan and martinis with steak, Tony stuck to the martinis. Bourdain first visits a place whose existence depends

  August 11, 2009

• Top 10 Ice Cream Experiences in Houston

  This week, Robb Walsh explores the vast world of Houston's ice cream parlors in the feature story, "The Scoop." In the course of writing his article, he ate more ice cream than Napoleon Bonaparte did at the Ziggy Pig in Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure (but didn't get a pin afterwards). He imparts the wisdom gleaned during his research below, as he shares his top ten ice cream experiences in Houston. Photos by Paul S. Howell​10. CreamWorx 8817 Hwy. 6, Missouri City 281-778-2732 CreamWorx

  August 12, 2009

• The Scoop

  August 13, 2009

• Keep on Trucking

  August 13, 2009

• Gyro Sandwich at Al's Quick Stop

  Photo by J.C. Reid​Al's Quick Stop is a nondescript convenience store on a nondescript stretch of Waugh Drive in a nondescript area of Montrose. There's not even a sign -- Hurricane Ike blew that away last September and it has yet to be replaced. When I describe it to people, I always say "It's that place next to Rudz," referring to Rudyards Pub which is next door. What Al's Quick Stop does have is a well-known (at least to hard core Houston food lovers) deli counter featuring both Mexi

  August 13, 2009

• A Messy Roadhouse Burger in Cypress

  Photo by Robb Walsh​In this week's Café review, we eat burgers at Rockwell Tavern, a roadhouse on Telge Road in Cypress. The dense, moist and slightly sweet custom-baked rolls are the first thing you notice about these burgers. Then the never-been-frozen freshly ground beef grabs your attention. The meat is very juicy, and the patty wants to fall apart. The "Instant Vintage" bacon cheeseburger, one of 13 burgers on the menu, is a stand-out. It comes with Swiss, jack and cheddar cheese a

  August 19, 2009

• King Bubba

  August 20, 2009

• Seabrook Seafood Stores Are Back

  Photos by Robb Walsh​Beeline snapper was $4 a pound and American red snapper was $6 a pound at the dockside seafood markets in Seabrook a few days ago. Big gulf shrimp were $3.95 a pound -- cheaper if you bought five pounds or more. The dock for Gulf shrimp boats in Seabrook is still functioning, despite the debris from hurricane Ike that litters the area.

  August 20, 2009

• Café Cubano's Cuban Sandwich

  Photos by Robb Walsh​At Café Cubano, 9411 Richmond, the pre-made Cuban sandwiches are kept in the refrigerator. When you order one, the counter person heats it in the microwave and then puts it on the sandwich press. I drank a cortadito (sweet espresso) while I waited. Café Cubano's Cuban sandwich sells for $5; a cortadito is $1. I was a little skeptical of the cooking method, but the results were impressive. The cheese was melted through, the crust of the roll had a nice texture, the

  August 21, 2009

• Heirloom Melons: Swan Lake

  Photos by Robb Walsh​Swan Lake is an heirloom melon with a sensational honey-like flavor and a custardy texture. It's my new favorite melon. I had never even heard of heirloom melons until last weekend when I ran into this guy selling them at the Bayou City Farmer's market on Richmond. Garth Travis grows several kinds of heirloom melons. He had three varieties left when I stopped by his booth at the farmer's market. I bought one of each. The most alluring-looking was one called a Jenny L

  August 24, 2009

• The British Isles: Texas Haggis

  Photo by Robb Walsh​In photos, canned haggis looks alarmingly like dog food. It is traditionally eaten as part of a full Scottish breakfast or as an entrée on a bed of mashed rutabagas and potatoes, which go by the cutesy names of "neeps and tatties" in Scotland. I bought a can of Caledonian Haggis at the Rice Village store called the British Isles the other day. I'll file a full report on the flavor as soon as I get hooked up with some neeps and tatties. I had stopped by British Isles

  August 24, 2009

• Frozen Custard on a Hot Day

  Photos by Robb Walsh​The thermometer in the car said 100 degrees on Saturday afternoon when we stopped for ice cream at Ritter's Frozen Custard on North Fry Road in Katy. Ritter's serves scoops of frozen custard in a variety of flavors. We sampled the rich vanilla and chocolate-flecked strawberry romance flavors. Frozen custard is never hard-frozen like conventional ice cream. That makes for a pleasantly soft texture, but it also means that the ice cream melts faster. Ritter's is a fran

  August 25, 2009

• Battleground Fried Shrimp

  August 27, 2009

• More Junk from Whole Foods

  Photo by Robb Walsh​"We sell a bunch of junk," Whole Foods founder John Mackey told the Wall Street Journal when he announced the new focus on health foods that's supposed to be taking place at Whole Foods this fall. Mackey hopes to stop the decline in the sales of beans, nuts and whole grains, which is down from 15 percent of Whole Foods total sales to something like 1 percent. Mackey wouldn't promise that Whole Foods will stop selling junk like candy, cookies and other unhealthy foods, h

  August 31, 2009

• Feasting at Arco Seafood Restaurant

  Photos by Nikki MetzgarPeking duck with white buns, shredded green onions and plum sauce​With his drink- and food-induced gout, King Henry VIII was a master of feasting. Sure, we overeat in the 21st century, but do we feast? Feasting involves multiple courses, a big table, and some grandiosity. The so-called "Big" Mac achieves none of this. Luckily, at Arco Seafood Restaurant at 9896 Bellaire in Chinatown, you too can eat lobster as Henry VIII did - as only one small portion of your meal.

  September 3, 2009

• Food Fight: Battle Cupcake

  Photos by Katharine ShilcuttSo cute you want to pinch them. Or eat them.​Cupcakes are by their very definition almost too twee to engage in a battle of any kind. But no foodstuff is allowed to stand idly by in culinary wars, and cupcakes have been pressed into service this week in spite of their soft cakey bodies and mushy frosting heads. And as it turns out, there wasn't much of a battle this week at all. Cupcakes have experienced a renaissance of sorts lately, cropping up at adult birthday

  September 4, 2009

• Barker Cypress Poor Boy

  September 10, 2009

• Cooking Up a Storm: Shrimp and Corn Chowder

  ​ When I fell in love with the shrimp soup at Mama's Cajun Cuisine, I knew just where to go to get a recipe. Cooking up a Storm: Recipes Lost and Found from The Times-Picayune of New Orleans is one of the most well-thumbed cookbooks on my bookshelf. This instant classic, written by Times-Picayune food editor Judy Walker and veteran cookbook author Marcelle Bienvenu, was nominated for a James Beard cookbook award last year. The book got started after Katrina when Judy Walker found hersel

  September 10, 2009

• Grass-fed Beef: Healthier Hamburgers

  Photos by Robb Walsh​Grass-fed sirloin hamburger steak is downright delicious. No doubt grass-fed beef raised without antibiotics and hormones is better for you too. Grass-fed sirloins lack the marbling that makes for tender steaks. But grind it up, and you get all the bold herbaceous flavor without the tenderness and texture problems. My hamburger steak was a little dry -- after all, the meat is something like 95 percent lean. But if you ground up this grass-fed beef at home, and added a

  September 15, 2009

• Chocolat du Monde in Rice Village

  Photo by J.C. Reid​When it comes to chocolate, there's the good stuff, and then there's the really good stuff. Once you get past mass-market chocolate like Hershey's, the next step up is Godiva and Ghirardelli, which are both certainly good-quality and widely available in Houston. But the really good chocolate traditionally comes from Europe. Parisian chocolatiers such as La Maison du Chocolat and Chocolat Michel Cluizel, and Belgian makers such as Neuhaus and Leonidas, are just a few of

  September 15, 2009

• Juan Mon's International Sandwiches

  Photos by J.C. Reid​Juan Montero is an international man of sandwiches. Adorning the walls of his newly opened sandwich shop are pictures of him eating sandwiches in just about every world city -- Rome, Berlin, Barcelona, Buenos Aires and many others. And as it turns out, these gastronomic travels are the inspiration for Juan Mon's International Sandwiches (1901 Taft St.). There's a lot to like about Juan Mon's. The whole enterprise is stamped with Montero's exuberant personality. The din

  September 17, 2009

• Remarkable Rendang

  September 24, 2009

• Lingering Over the Linguine

  October 1, 2009

• 90-Year-Old Cupcakes

  ​Hostess Cupcakes celebrates its 90th anniversary this year. But you wouldn't recognize the original chocolate cupcake that came out in 1919 -- the signature seven squiggles and cream filling weren't added until 1950. Americans currently consume more than 600 million Hostess CupCakes every year, making it the world's largest-selling cupcake and the baking company's No. 1 product. The Hostess Twinkie® comes in second.

  October 5, 2009

• Overripe Mango Wrestling

  Photos by Robb Walsh​Giant mangos are $11 for a box of six at the Airline Farmer's Marketing Association. But you can pick up a box of overripe mangos for a mere five bucks. I took two boxes of the nasty-looking fruit home last weekend and showed my assistants how to cut them up. The 12 mangos yielded almost five quarts of very soft flesh, which my assistants and I combined with habañero chiles, raisins, ginger, garlic and cider vinegar in a huge batch of old-fashioned English-style man

  October 6, 2009

• From Rice to Potatoes: How to Switch Gears and Become a Cooking Contest Winner

  Photo courtesy of the U.S. Potato BoardCheesy Southwestern Potato Crisps​Okay, so William "Trey" Smith went to Rice University, where he graduated in 2006 with a degree in economics. Following a not-unexpected career path, he enrolled in law school at the University of Oklahoma. Along the way, however, he found he liked his avocation better than his planned life's work. The son and grandson of accomplished cooks (his grandmother Vita Espinosa introduced him to Santa Fe flavors) and a coo

  October 7, 2009

• First Look: Eddie V's Prime Seafood

  Photos courtesy of Eddie V'sChilean sea bass​The first thing you notice at Eddie V's Prime Seafood, the newest mini-chain addition to Town & Country's enormous CityCentre development, are the white waistcoats on the servers. Yup, it's that kind of place. It's traditional, even retro, in layout and style, with a few key modern touches--especially on the menu--that keep things 21st century. The lounge is total throwback, complete with cocktail menu, live lounge music and so much relaxed mas

  October 14, 2009

• Checking in at Stanton's City Bites

  Photo by J.C. Reid​Seems like every year about this time there's a flurry of blog posts and buzz about an "undiscovered" burger joint called Stanton's City Bites (1420 Edwards St.). Of course, Stanton's has been around forever, but it seems to keep a relatively low profile in the ongoing Houston burger wars. Hardcore Houston burger fanatics swear by it, and it always seems to place well in the Best of Houston® awards (this year it won the Reader's Choice award for Best Burger). Stanton'

  October 15, 2009

• Pumpkin Pie Blizzard at Dairy Queen

  J.C. Reid​On a recent drive through central Texas in search of unknown barbecue finds, my friend and newbie food explorer Alison chimed in from the back seat as we drove through the small town of Smithville, Texas. "Hey, did you guys see that Dairy Queen sign back there? It said 'Pumpkin Pie Blizzard.'" What? We were on a quest for meat and brisket and sausage and ribs and other such manly fare. We had no time for an ice cream dessert, even if Blizzards are a Texas tradition. We zipped o

  October 20, 2009

• Burgers and Hash

  October 22, 2009

• Jif Most Creative Peanut Butter Sandwich Contest

  Last year's winner: Po' Boy Peanut Butter Chicken Cheesesteak ​America is in the midst of Jif Most Creative Peanut Butter Sandwich Contest, which draws to a close in less than a month on November 13. Competitions like these capture our country's great inventive spirit -- peanut butter was, after all, cooked up in the U.S. It's the kind of contest that imaginative minds like the Shameless Chef would excel at. Unfortunately, contestants must be between the ages of six and 12. Whether it's

  October 22, 2009

• D-Lite Your Soul

  ​Coffee Toffee with Dutch Chocolate was our first Tasti D-Lite (1707 Westheimer) experience, and by no means will it be our last. Nestled in the corner next to a Berryhill, this cozy franchise is a little difficult to find the first time. Don't expect a huge, punch-you-in-the-face flavor at this "skim-milk-based dairy treat" establishment. Instead, enjoy a light, revitalizing, slightly less-sweet ice cream cone packed with a walloping 75 calories. The calorie count is where this dessert

  October 23, 2009

• Crisper Drawer Cast-Offs: Stuffed Artichokes

  ​If you love artichokes, but want to cut down on the nutritional benefits, you can dip them in mayonnaise or melted butter. That's what I used to do -- until I encountered the artichokes at Mint Café, a hip little Lebanese restaurant that went out of business last summer. The artichokes there were covered with an olive oil, garlic, parsley and lemon juice dressing that made the vegetable taste spectacular. I reluctantly abandoned my beloved mayo and started using the olive oil garlic dre

  October 23, 2009

• How To Make The Perfect: Marinara Sauce

  Photos by Katharine Shilcutt​If you're looking for an authentic marinara sauce recipe, or one that only requires a few minutes of your time, you should probably stop reading right now. The following recipe is neither authentic nor is it a time-saver. It is, however, very simple to cook, uses ingredients that are (most likely) already in your pantry, nutritious and -- most importantly -- delicious. Over the course of an afternoon, it will fill your house with the rich scent of simmering tomatoe

  October 26, 2009

• Beef Cheeks at Gerardo's Drive-in

  ​A surprising number of people don't know what beef cheek is. Several times I've been in a fancy restaurant with "braised beef cheeks" on the menu and someone will ask, "Those are the cheeks from the rump of the cow, right?" Wrong. Beef cheek comes from the head of a cow, specifically the muscles around the jaw. All that cud chewing makes for an initially tough and sinewy cut of beef, but with the proper slow-cooking technique, it will turn fork-tender. The idea that meat can come from th

  October 27, 2009

• A Vegan Dinner at a Meatatarium

  Photos by Katharine ShilcuttAppetizers: sweet potato chips and truffled carrots, radishes and turnips​Vegans may take our cheese (and milk and meat and butter and even honey), but they may never take...our truffles. This seemed to be the rallying cry on Monday night at Beaver's Ice House as seven of Houston's most intrepid chefs embarked upon an ambitious 12-course meal (full menu here) made entirely of vegan ingredients. It can be difficult for even the most creative chef to suddenly be

  October 27, 2009

• BBQ Buffet

  October 29, 2009

• Mojarra Frita at Cocina de Colima

  J. C. Reid ​Colima is a small state in western Mexico, bordering on the Pacific Ocean. You don't hear a lot about cuisine from Colima, but apparently it's well-known in Mexico and best known for its seafood, mainly grilled and fried fish, and its ceviche. In a testament to the diversity of regional cuisines in Houston, we have a restaurant called Cocina de Colima (3356 Fountain View) that specializes in food from this Mexican state. I visited Cocina de Colima as part of a recent taco truc

  October 29, 2009

• In the Little Stalls Behind Caninos: Got Guayaba?

  ​The first guavas of the season are starting to appear in the stalls behind Canino's. Guayaba is the Spanish word for guava. The fruit is native to North America, and the word derives from the Arawak tribe of the Caribbean, who called a guava tree a "guayabo." The green-skinned, white-fleshed kind they are selling now at the produce stalls are called apple guavas. The more exotic red guavas and strawberry guavas are more highly prized. I bought a dollar's worth, which amounted to six guav

  October 30, 2009

• Star Snow Ice Part 2: Sweet Vanilla Ice

  ​Yesterday we talked about the soup at Star Snow Ice, the amazing restaurant tucked away in the corner of a plaza off Bellaire and Beltway 8; today we take on its sweet offerings. Snow ice, a common dessert in Asia, has gained in popularity here. It's served two different ways. One version comes with fresh fruit, shaved ice, condensed milk and, sometimes, salty plum syrup; the other is a savory dessert-snack hybrid consisting of various beans, egg puddings and other odd ingredients that mi

  November 3, 2009

• Ceviche at El Sinaloense

  ​On the southwest side of Baytown, sandwiched between the giant ExxonMobil Baytown Refinery and the City Hall, is a neighborhood I call "old Baytown." It's an area of older shops and houses, with what appears to be a largely Hispanic population. Market Street runs through the middle of it. I came here one Saturday morning to visit a Mexican seafood restaurant I had heard about called El Sinaloense (3002 Market St.). Patronized by local Mexican Americans as well as blue- and white-collar w

  November 3, 2009

• 3rd Annual Chocolate Festival of Texas & Texas Wines

  November 5, 2009

• Looking for a Bull Market

  November 5, 2009

• Chicken Soup in Less than 30 Minutes

  Photo by Jane Catherine Collins​This is not a Rachel Ray recipe, so just wipe that thought out of your mind. We can't stand Rachel Ray and have banned her show from our house. We do all like a fast meal, though. So here's our version of a 30-minute dish: chicken soup:

  November 5, 2009

• Fiending for Berripop

  ​Berripop is the current designer drug in a long line of addictive frozen yogurts. The consistency is smooth and creamy, with surprisingly few calories. The locations at Greenway and Uptown Park rotate flavors rather haphazardly, keeping customers on their toes and checking in regularly for the occasional surprise. Staples include blueberry, raspberry pomegranate, mango, peach, black cherry and acai berry. On rare occasions, there's green tea.

  November 5, 2009