This week, our favorite food blog posts addressed a new gourmet burger joint in Houston, a post-workout meal you can feel good about and a few sugary-sweet recipes.

After hitting up the new Soul Cycle in River Oaks, Anastasia of "It's Not Hou It's Me" rewarded herself with a filling, healthy meal on the patio at Local Foods, 2555 Kirby, which is just next door to the cycling studio.  She says she's practically obsessed with the eatery now, which offers many vegan options that she really enjoyed, and the cocktails were also a hit, including the Upper Kirby Sweet Tea, made with Deep Eddy sweet tea vodka and hibiscus liquor.

Lindy of the "Patty and David Said" blog visited Giacomo's Cibo e Vino, 3215 Westheimer, for a moms' night out get-together, and she and her pals enjoyed the tapas-style small plates, especially the lamb meatballs and shrimp with pepper sauce. Lindy liked the freshly made pasta, too, although it wasn't cooked quite to her liking. All in all, she had a great first visit, although we're a bit sad that she didn't mention the wine selection that the eatery is known for. 

Get in on the injectable desserts trend by making these injectable doughnut holes with help from Sugar & Cloth. Haven't seen injectable desserts? Basically, you put some kind of filling or glaze into a tiny pipette, put that into the dessert, and serve it as is so that those enjoying the desserts can have fun squirting the filling into the sweets themselves. These are the same concept, but with doughnut holes and chocolate or vanilla bourbon sauce for the injections. You can also throw some rainbow sprinkles on top for true Sugar & Cloth-style treats.

Understandably, the burger blogger of Eat More Burgers couldn't stay away from Hopdoddy Burger Bar's new Houston location, at 4444 Westheimer, for very long. He recommends the truffle fries, at least over the queso fries, and enjoyed his llano poblano, a poblano-loaded burger, immensely – even more than his Hopdoddy experience at the original Austin location. He was especially glad that Hopdoddy's burgers are at a reasonable price point for smaller gourmet burgers, especially when compared to those at other Houston establishments.


Gristle & Gossip attended Midtown BBQ's grand opening celebration at 2708 Bagby this week; she's from Arkansas, so she might have slightly different barbecue expectations than we have here in Texas, but she was still impressed with the smoked meats at the new barbecue joint. Even more impressive, however, was the thick barbecue sauce that she found neither too sweet nor overly vinegar-y. She doesn't recommend eating there if you don't eat meat, but it's soon to be a go-to barbecue establishment for those who do. Be sure to pick up some of the Shipley doughnut bread pudding while you're there!

Maybe you'd rather smoke your own 'cue than buy it – if so, we've got a tidbit for you, too. Daniel Vaughn of the Texas Monthly TMBBQ blog experimented with sugar rubs for baby back ribs this week and found that toasted sugar really does make a huge difference in the flavor of ribs, especially when compared to plain white sugar. Check out his toasted sugar post for how to toast sugar, make a rib rub from it and get the most out of your sweet ribs.

That's it for this week's food blog revue! Send us a link to your favorite food blog, via either comment or email, and we might include it in next week's round-up.