Subject: Nuts and Edible Seeds

• And Just Where Was Tinker Bell In All This?

  February 15, 2007

• Bust a 'nut

  August 7, 2006

• Bust a 'nut

  August 7, 2006

• Miss Pop Rocks: Cats Are Awesome

  December 5, 2007

• $13 at Sabor! on Bellaire

  January 25, 2008

• Tasting Bluebell's New Flavors

  With this Groom's Cake, I thee wed?Three flavors, which one will come out on top? Our little Texan creamery sends out rotational flavors -- each made for three months before being replaced -- alongside the year-round lineup. Sometimes old seasonal flavors make a comeback; sometimes the flavors are completely new. So how does a Bluebell fan, i.e. a person with taste, keep from missing out while making sure not to ignore old faithfuls like Milk Chocolate? We tried three brand-new flavors. Moch

  June 1, 2009

• Okra Time with Texas Caruru

  September 4, 2008

• Mom's Christmas Fudge

  My mother is known for many things, but chief among them is her famous Christmas fudge.  Each year, lucky friends and family make out with a tin or two.  And until my grandfather passed away last year, she would always make an enormous gift basket for him each year at Christmas, filled with several different kinds of the sweet, creamy, toothsome confection. The fudge isn't coveted so much because the recipe is some great secret.  Instead, it's the sheer amount of effort and

  December 19, 2008

• 1,001 Arabian Dishes

  April 21, 1994

• No Peanut Butter At HISD Schools

  HISD is making a bold, courageous move against the scourge of possibly poisoned peanut butter.It's cleaning out all its vending machines of any trace of peanut-butter crackers, confiscating any such potentially deadly crackers from kids' lunches, and even taking away PB&Js from students who bought them from home.(No-doubt delicious entrees will be offered to kids who have their peanut-butter taken. Entrees will even be offered if a kid has peanut-butter crackers from home taken, which seems

  January 15, 2009

• Healthy But Flavorless Pecan Oil

  I shelled out almost $13 for this bottle of pecan oil at Whole Foods. It doesn't taste like pecans--the manufacturer says that's a good thing. They were doing a demonstration at the store using the pecan oil to fry fish. The fish tasted fine, but I wondered why no flavor was a benefit. They lady said the oil was healthy and you could sprinkle toasted pecans over the fish if you wanted pecan flavor. I asked the lady if this pecan oil went rancid quickly. She said yes and that the manufacturer rec

  January 26, 2009

• Marrakech Success

  June 6, 1996

• Fadi's Brick Oven Flatbread

  When you walk in the front door of the new Fadi's Mediterranean restaurant in West Houston, you are looking into the business end of a gorgeous Renato pizza oven. And Fadi's doesn't even make pizza. The new state-of-the-art Fadi's, which is located in the Shadowbriar Shopping Center on Westheimer just east of Dairy-Ashford, uses the wood-burning brick oven to turn out a constant supply of hot flatbread. Although "flatbread" is something of a misnomer in this case since the dough rounds balloon

  February 5, 2009

• Persian Paradise

  July 17, 1997

• Sold American

  September 4, 1997

• The Houston Food Bank's Peanut-Butter Problem

  Photo courtesy Houston Food BankIf you think tossing out all the potentially tainted peanut products in your pantry sucks, imagine having to pitch two tons of the stuff.That's what the Houston Food Bank has been up to for the past month. Thanks to the salmonella scare, the organization has been forced to get rid of 4,000 pounds of food so far. But spokeswoman Betsy Ballard tells Hair Balls the lost food, which amounts to only a small fraction of the 36 million pounds HFB sends out yearly, isn't

  February 19, 2009

• Tacos with Ambition

  November 27, 1997

• Hot Plate

  November 12, 1998

• Hot Plate

  January 7, 1999

• Best Street Festival

  September 21, 2000

• Nice Goobers

  The Raven Grill

  July 6, 2000

• Falafel Frenzy

  September 18, 2008

• Hate the Statement at "Transcendental Smoothie"

  But don't hate the art

  September 11, 2008

• Suspicious Minds

  commercial tie-ins

  August 9, 2007

• Sandy's Produce Market

  One healthy meal at Sandy's Produce Market will wipe away all of your high-cholesterol sins

  July 19, 2007

• Kasra Persian Grill

  This elegant ethnic restaurant is hard to find, and not to be missed

  May 10, 2007

• Sweet Spiciness

  Mezza Grill

  October 26, 2006

• Goo Goo for You

  House of Pies

  June 22, 2006

• Make Mine Moldy

  Dharma Cafe

  April 13, 2006

• Unexpected Treasure

  Yia Yia Mary's Greek Kitchen

  December 1, 2005

• Scrumptious Salad

  District 7 Grill

  June 30, 2005

• Precision Pecan Pie

  Roland's Swiss Pastry and Bistro

  June 2, 2005

• Thai High

  Do you want your dinner "bong-hit hot" or "acid-flashback hot"?

  March 17, 2005

• Steak and Peanut Butter

  Lemongrass Cafe: A hip Bellaire spot with a hit-or-miss menu

  October 14, 2004

• Ancient Eggplant

  Ephesus Grill may be a new restaurant, but its cuisine is from way back in the day

  December 18, 2003

• Teachings of the Pope

  Learning to love Boulevard Bistrot

  February 13, 2003

• A Slice of Chocolate, Please

  The Chocolate Bar

  November 28, 2002

• Walker, Texas Ranger

  Carl Walker, Brennan's of Houston

  November 8, 2001

• Pralines and Pushcarts

  A six-part history of Tex-Mex

  July 27, 2000

• Hot Plate

  Dreyer's new "Dreamery" lineup

  December 30, 1999

• That '70s Place

  Come on, get happy. Valentino's serves up some fine retro food.

  December 9, 1999

• Hot Plate

  October 22, 1998

• Hot Mess

  May 21, 2009

• Benjy's Chocolate Cake Recipe

  Photo by richhumofairThe huge, fudgy, pecan-studded glory that is Benjy's chocolate cake is a Houston tradition. And Benjy Levit, whose second restaurant opened this year on Washington Avenue, can actually say that his cake is "just like Mom's," because, well, it is his mom's. She actually does bake every chocolate cake served at both Benjy's - that's about eight cakes a day, he says.

  June 16, 2009

• The Scoop

  August 13, 2009

• Nutella® vs. Gianduia vs. Kroger Hazelnut Spread

  Photo by J.C. Reid​Nutella, for those who've never tasted it, is the "original creamy, chocolaty hazelnut spread." Popular in Europe (it's made in Italy), Nutella is mainly eaten at breakfast or for dessert by smearing it on bread or a croissant, or folding into a crepe. "Nutella" is a brand name, but like "Kleenex" or "Xerox," it has been "genericized" to refer to any spread made with hazelnuts and cocoa. Nutella inspires fierce passion in its diehard fans. Brand-name Nutella is indeed c

  August 18, 2009

• Native Pecan Report

  ​The native pecans are nice and meaty this year. I knew it was pecan season when I saw two women walking around my neighborhood collecting nuts in a Shipley's Donut bag. Then I saw a very clever individual shaking the branches of a native pecan tree by means of a long pipe with a hook taped on the end of it. He was working a grove of pecan trees growing in a vacant lot on Longpoint near the Whataburger curve.

  November 9, 2009

• Pecan Pie in a Jar

  ​Let's start by saying that Pecan Pie in a Jar is not meant to be eaten directly from the jar. One spoonful and I was sure this taste test was over before it began, but upon further review of the fine print, it turned out you actually need eggs to make it remotely edible. Was it better than my grandpa's pie made with pecans from the tree in his own backyard in Pasadena, or the Armadillo Palace pie that's so good it merits its own wooden carrying case? As if.

  November 13, 2009

• Crispy and Crispier

  November 19, 2009

• Christmas at Central Market

  ​We had the pleasure of sampling the holiday goods on offer at Central Market this week, both those scattered in festive packaging throughout the store and those behind counters. General Manager Phil Myers seemed most proud of the wares he ordered for the store during a culinary excursion to Italy last summer. Torrone, a nougat treat, might have been every third word out of his mouth. It's hard to blame him. Not only are Sorelle Nurzia's high-end candy bars making their first appearance i

  November 19, 2009