Welcome back to the weekly round-up here at Eating Our Words, where we have gravy on tap. To start off with, Mike Giglio out-spent Robb Walsh $13 to $7, because Mike is a fancy man of top-shelf tastes. He seemed impressed by the food, ambience, and air conditioning at Fadi's Mediterranean Grill, but not as impressed as Robb was with his bowl of "Houston's best noodles" from Tan Tan.
Sarah Rufka took in the sad state of affairs that is a non-smoking House of Pies, where there aren't even any douchey scenesters to mock anymore. "What is House of Pies without a sense of irony?" she asks, and the answer seems to be "a low-rent Denny's with goopy pie." Sad. Luckily, Robb has some good news on some more obscure wines (here and here) made from grapes bearing names that sound like members of the French Resistance in a Howard Hawks movie. He also had a recipe for filet mignon drizzled with something called "maitre d' butter," which we'd frankly rather not know about.
Somewhat more useful was Nikki Metzgar's column about the top 5 foods you shouldn't eat on a date. I would humbly suggest veal for No. 6, because, for sheer heart-stopping terror, nothing beats finding out your date is a militant vegan by ordering the veal picatta and watching her face twist into demonic fury as she hisses "Are you fucking serious?" loud enough to attract any nearby exorcists and/or Ghostbusters. Dating hipsters has its own special little minefields, kids. Speaking of minefields, Nikki chronicled Anthony Bourdain's most recent jaunt to Australia, where he tried to cook entrees featuring the local flora and fauna only to find: It's all poisonous. Every last bit of it.
We should all thank Robb Walsh, because he gave us a list of Houston's top ten taco trucks. Let's get those GPS's up and running, folks. W. Healy let us know of a place we can all avoid together: the Washington Ave. Drinkery, which served a drink known as the "Wad Shooter," which looks disgusting, but not half as disgusting as its ingredients. Just because it's hot out is no reason to go around putting pineapple in everything, dammit.
On the other hand, we should all most certainly check out newcomer Ray's Franks, where Craig Hlavaty went to find horror-movie-themed entrees, punk rock on the jukebox, and deep-fried hot dogs wrapped in bacon. This is pretty much the restaurant I would have opened when I was 15, so I'll definitely be hitting it up. Here's an idea: Why not try some needlessly complicated coffee together with a needlessly complicated hot dog? Oh, don't give me that tired, old "Because I'd like to go further than 50 feet from my toilet at some point today" excuse.
Austin ran Mike out of town on a rail recently, and on his way back to Houston, he stopped by a place called Luvianos in a town called "Kyle," which we're pretty sure he's just making up. I'd say the same about Robb's Tex-Mex Philly cheese steak, except I actually had the Tex-Cajun Poutine he recommended a couple of months back. It was wonderful, so since then I don't care if Robb says he's found a delicious escargot ice cream shake -- I'll take him up on it.
Katharine Shilcutt hosted another Food Fight, this time featuring chicken fried steak from both Hickory Hollow and the Triple A Restaurant. The conclusion: Triple A makes some damn fine gravy, and offers top-notch roadside assistance. Sarah had a chat with Emily Grymes of Fleming's, and E. Ting handed in an R. Ticle covering his own chat with John Sheely of the Mockingbird Bistro Wine Bar. Not to spoil it for you if you haven't read the stories yet, but they all talk about food.
Finally, we must keep in mind that breakfast is the most important meal of the day, and Robb helps us do so by exploring Westheimer's Breakfast Row, which brings us to this week's discussion topic: What's the best way to start the day, breakfast-wise? Let us in on your odd little morning-time eccentricities, and we'll see you next week.
