Welcome back to the weekly round-up here at Eating Our Words, where we're such food dorks, every time one of us gets sunburned the rest of us giggle about the Maillard reaction.
To start the week off, J.C. Reid handed out a lovely comprehensive guide to Roman pizza and its nearest Houston approximation, the pizza at Dolce Vita. It's a very informative article, and calls to mind the old saying "When in Rome, brag about it constantly."
Robb Walsh is still attracting concerned onlookers while rooting around in the little stalls behind Canino's, and this time came up with the appetizingly-named heirloom beans, because nothing sounds tastier than a name suggesting the food in question may have been handed down through the generations, like that big brass watch that doesn't work or that giant walnut armoire nobody wants because it smells like cat pee.
As part of her ongoing Late Night Scene series, Sarah Rufka went to Chez Beignet and freebased some powdered sugar. Push it to the limit! Robb managed to unearth possibly the worst dish presentation we've ever seen: evidently "mojarra" means "crudely hacking open a fish and serving the whole thing on a plate, eyeballs still intact, so that you can watch it watching you eat it like some of Francis Dolarhyde of the seafood set."
Robb continued his vigilant quest for cheap, unusual grapes with Carignan, and Margaret Downing reported on the successful venture that is Ra Sushi's City Centre location. W. Healy reported on Hugo's Malinche, a summery, fruit-intensive cocktail voted "Least Likely To Appear In the Next Sin City Movie".
Good news for fans of pastry: Robb's got everything you ever wanted to know about éclairs but were afraid to ask, and Nikki Metzgar continues to use Jack Bauer-style "interrogation" techniques to wring top-secret recipes out of popular Houston establishments. Screw the Geneva Convention, that cake looks amazing.
Katharine Shilcutt spent $13 at the refreshingly unpretentiously-named Bowl, which got her some Food, and also some Drink. E. Ting turned in another solid N. Terview with David Luna of Shade, which was named top new restaurant in Zagat's. Bowl can take a lesson from this: always name your restaurant after something everyone in your city is looking for. Seriously, this summer has been a real bastard so far. Luckily, Robb's got his five favorite beers to help cool us off, and if that's not enough, we can relax and go into a carbohydrate coma after partaking in some soul food.
The Kelis jokes were flying fast and furious at this week's Food Fight, which pitted the milkshakes of 59 Diner and Beck's Prime against one another. We never get tired of learning the lesson the Food Fight column imparts to us every week: no matter how good your champion is, someone will pop up in the comments and claim they'd had something better at some mysterious location off the coast of a little town nobody's ever heard of, located on an island that only rises out of the sea once every three thousand phases of the moon. We get it, you've been around.
Robb informed us of Indika's Indian borsch, which looks like cranberry sauce but is actually made out of beets and beans, which gives us a great idea for a killer practical joke this Thanksgiving. Sarah had an informative chat with 13 Celsius' Mike Sammons, wherein we find out that wine connoisseurs like to show off every now and again. Who would have thought? Margaret turned in a brief notice on Smashburger's upcoming Food Bank donations featuring our favorite line of the week, "They also smash chicken." Finally, Robb closed out the week with a fond look at everyone's favorite summertime treat, piping hot Cuban coffee. Join us next week, when we'll be examining hot cocoa and thick woolen blankets!
