That looks terrific!!
Tried Thai Lily in the same center as Mexico’s Deli, really good. I asked for level 4 heat in the green curry and got a stare in return, so I went with the 3 and it was just right. Look at that thick peanut sauce on the spring rolls!
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I love it.
Looks like a good find. Never heard of this one before.
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I’ve been there a couple of times but it’s been a while. I really don’t remember what I had, but I remember I thought it was good.
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I got the craving for some more noodles. I settled on Samurai Noodles, on I-10 @ Durham (faces the frontage road), a Seattle import. I think there are 3 locations in Seattle and this is the only location outside of Seattle. I was drawn by the very informative website and by some more information on the Ramen in Common FB group.
This was the Miso Tonkotsu ramen bowl, not listed on the website menu. It comes with the corn, green onions and sprouts plus a slice of pork belly. There are many add-ons available but I just went with this. The tonkotsu (pork bone) broth was excellent when hot; this bowl seemed to cool off quite a bit faster than the soup I had at Kuen last week. You’re supposed to slurp the noodles while they’re still hot and I was slurping like crazy but couldn’t make it!
I passed on the Spicy version of this because of the ‘hellfire paste’ which is included but the young, very friendly waiter/cashier urged me to try it next time. He said it’s only about a 6 on a scale of 10 and the chili flakes on the table are hotter - I had passed on the paste thinking I could just use them but they weren’t very hot to me, either.
The ‘pork belly’ wasn’t as impressive as the slice of roast pork in the bowl at Kuen. The roasted green tea was excellent.
Condiments on the table included soy sauce, pickled ginger (beni shoga, the thin, red strips), togarashi, crushed sesame (I think that’s what it was) plus salt and black and white ground pepper.
They make their own noodles in house but they’re not hand-pulled; the red machine in the window puts them out and apparently they may not be made every day, but you can see the process if you’re there at the right time.
The place was not busy at 1:15 pm, much to my surprise as the parking lot was jammed. I’ll be back to try more.
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I’ve kinda been on a ramen kick, and this one is close. And I’m from Seattle, so I must go! Thanks.
Myself. Fresh noodles/ramen are frickin’ addictive! And verrrrrrry filling.
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I’ve been having stomach issues this week so haven’t been out at all. Managed to keep everything down the last couple of days so thought I chance going out. Found myself back at Kuen since it’s very close, comparatively speaking.
Shredded potatoes - cold appetizer - I’ve seen these on menus before but never ordered them. This will be my new favorite way to eat potatoes! A little bit of oil, a little bit of vinegar (rice wine?), maybe a little bit of sugar? I thought they were probably blanched but recipes I’ve looked up on line indicate they’re quickly stir-fried. I won’t be able to do this well at home since my stove won’t get hot enough to stir fry these properly.
Recipes online show this as a Sichuan dish with chile peppers and maybe Sichuan peppercorns. These were just bell peppers and no peppercorns.
Miso Pork and Shrimp Wonton Noodle soup - you have a choice of ramen noodles or shaved noodles - I went for the ramen. My bowl was not as spectacularly appealing as the menu portrayal, which had whole baby bok choy and the wontons on the top! The whole bok choy would have been difficult to deal with, though. Wontons were very thin skinned and over-cooked, i thought. I missed the noodle pulling exhibition this time because I was absorbed in the potatoes. This was not as impressive a dish as the one I had before; I suspect I won’t order any dish with wontons here again.
I used some of the ground white pepper, soy sauce and chile oil. The latter was a great addition.
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I love baby bok choy. Glad you are feeling better.
Wow this thread is making me hungry! Some PR style pork from nj. How’s the pig down in h town? I always get sent to SA for work and need to get to Houston soon. I never realized you guys had such a diverse mix of food.
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Hey Johnny, come on down!
Houston has never had a big PR community but it has grown some in recent years. A few years ago I was looking for PR restaurants and found at one time we had as many as five but only a couple were still open. I also found a fantastic food truck way out on the west side that became a real party scene on weekends and spent some time chatting with the owner and customers.
The oldest, still in operation place is Tex-Chick Puertorrican Restaurant, in the Montrose, near downtown. It would have been an ideal place for you back in the day. The story, as I can recall, was that there was an older Puerto Rican couple who wanted to bring their cuisine to Houston so they took over this neighborhood hamburger stand that dated back probably at least to the 40s. Unsure how their food was going to go over they kept the burger menu, which included fries, onions rings and chicken fried steak! So for many years, Tex-Chick was perhaps the only place in the world where you could get a CFS with cream gravy and a side of mofongo. The older couple retired some years ago and I think their nephew runs the place now but I saw a review on Yelp that mentioned the grandma doing some of the cooking. That’s good news, she was a fantastic cook.
Tex-Chick was said to be a daily haunt of Carlos Beltran when he was with the Astros back in '04.
Here’s the Yelp listing - note they close early. Montrose is the heart of Houston’s gay community and it’s right across the street from the city’s biggest leather bar and leather shop.
Another one you would want to visit is Punta Cana, a Dominican/Puerto Rican place on the far NW side. This has been on my radar for over a year. It get’s great reviews, the pictures look awesome. It’s more of an upscale place, for sure.
Yelp is showing at least one other and a couple of food trucks. I’ve been to Senor Juan, once. It’s never open when I drive by (on the way to a Trader Joe’s.)
The food truck I wrote up on my blog several years ago disappeared rather quickly. I may have given them some unwanted publicity 
.
ETA: Besides Puerto Rican, we have a lot more Cuban and Filipino restaurants, both of which feature pork dishes in their cuisine, of course. And as far as Mexican, places offering carnitas abound and there are quite a few offering Cochinita Pibil, the Yucatecan barbecued pig specialty said to be the oldest recipe for bbq in the New World.
And pulled pork has been appearing more and more on Texas bbq menus; there’s a new place just opened in the last couple of weeks where the pitmaster’s specialty is said to be whole pig.
Good lord…that’s quite a response Bruce. Thanks for all the info! I need to get down there and experience h town and all its offerings. I think a week would be easily cutting me short.
I know you guys are known for brisket and use a lot of oak woods. Do they do the same smoke style for hog? I love smoking different meats and it is always cool to see what regions do differently. Cheers 
And another question, what’s the verdict on clod vs brisket in h town?
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Lunch today was in the comfort zone, Patrenella’s.
It’s been a wild, crazy few months of ups and downs and today I really wanted the comfort of Andrea Pintus’s tortellini with ham and mushrooms and peas, actually I have been talking about it for weeks. Alas, Andrea passed away some years ago after finally opening the restaurant he always wanted (and which we frequented during the short time it was open) in a tragic ice related winter accident at his home…
But we went where we met him, where he hosted my husband’s really really low key bachelor party the week before our wedding. But what is better than good food and wine and Andrea cooking for you??
As it turns out, I was seated in a space looking right at a framed photo of Andrea. He’s the person on the right in the chef’s jacket. They spelled his name wrong.
I do miss Andrea and his food, but also his enthusiasm for the profession and his love of his home on the Island of Sardinia.
And I miss his tortellini, this was adequate, but not Andrea’s.
His family was his lifeline, I’m still sad it was broken so early.
What did you have for lunch? I hope it wasn’t sadness and dashed dreams. Next post: New beginnings!
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Given my current obsession with noodles I thought it all together fitting and proper to check out this new place for in-house made fresh pasta on the 59/69 frontage road near Buffalo Speedway - Fresco Cafe Italiano.
To wit: Spaghetti Carbonara. Believe it or don’t but I’ve never had this dish before. I don’t go for Italian very much and back when I did I doubt guanciale was available in Houston. I presume that’s what the meat is - I’m pretty sure it’s not pancetta and certain it’s not bacon. There’s very little in the way of description on the menu.
This was very good but very rich (duh!) - I probably wouldn’t order it again - just too rich more my tastes, I like to eat lighter.
It’s a small store front, counter service, BYOB. I’m interested in the Fredda, pizza served cold with arugula and parma prosciutto, and the wide fettucine with Texas raised lamb sauce, so I do think I’ll revisit.
I also had a small house salad. I see on the online menu today gazpacho. I didn’t notice that on the in-house menu or I would have ordered that for sure.
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That looks like an awesome place. I greatly look forward to getting over there.
Thanks!
Hi johnny - I od’d on Texas BBQ about 10 years ago and I just don’t go out for it very often. Haven’t been to Central Texas or Austin in about that long, too. The bbq scene has been exploding here in Houston in the past couple of years but I’ve been to less than half the new places that are opened. Or, in other words, my knowledge is a little dated! But I’ll try to answer your questions.
Re: Clod - I don’t know of anybody serving it here. I encountered it only once in CTx and didn’t care for it. I believe I remember reading it was being offered as an alternative to brisket because brisket prices were high. Hah! Hold on to your wallet; brisket was cheap back then compared to now.
Beef ribs are a common offering now; they were very rare back then. Prime beef is being used for brisket which means when you order fatty brisket you’re getting some very fatty meat. Heritage breeds of pork are all the rage, now, too.
Other things showing up on menus around here include pork belly, pulled pork (very rare here even 5 years ago), and tacos. Specialty offerings include bologna, prime rib and meat loaf. Boudin, smoked and spicy, is also common at bbq joints here in SE Texas and has been for years.
Post oak has been the preferred wood in CTx forever, I think. Whether the newer places up there have stuck with tradition or are using other woods, I don’t know.
As you get down into the SE part of the state you encounter the use of pecan, sometimes by itself, sometimes in addition to oak. The oak used here I think is most commonly live oak because post oak doesn’t grow here. One place, Corkscrew, up in Spring, which made the Top 10 list of Texas Monthly’s latest statewide bbq rankings, uses red oak, which I believe they have to truck in.
I think I’ve read of other woods being used but I’ve looked at a number of websites and can’t find any mentioned. I probably read that in reviews or on one of the many blogs that are run by bbq fanatics. I did find Pinkerton’s, in the Heights area of Houston (near north side) uses oak and mesquite.
Mesquite and hickory are used statewide but very seldom at highly regarded places. There are 100s of bbq joints across the state where ‘barbecue’ means tender meats buried in sauce with very little evidence of smoke or bark.
Hope this helps.
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This is the dish (carbonara) I order when I’m feeling like letting all the dogs out. I think my favorite is at Coppa Osteria on Morningside (I sure miss the one on Washington). Liberty Kitchen and Oysterette on San Felipe does a mean one also, and I love their cool, clean, comfortable space.
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All that talk on the Pappy’s topic about Hickory Hollow’s hot tots and CFS and this seemed inevitable.
I’ve only had the Q, so I ordered the chicken fried chicken. I was disappointed that they had no cream gravy on the premises, the chicken gravy is the universal gravy here. It’s not bad, it’s really good, but it’s not cream gravy if you get me.
The CFC was hot and the spicy balls of mashers mixed with jalapenso and cheese were divine, dipped in the chicken gravy meant for such purpose. Most of it is in a go box in the fridge now.
You have a choice of two sides, and one of those can be the salad bar. Guess which type of salad dressing is the most popular? This trough always cracks me up, but it’s housemade and delicious.
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Mesquite and hickory are used statewide but very seldom at highly regarded places.
Goode Company uses mesquite and has many fans but everything tastes the same to me due to the overwhelming mesquite flavor.
I have to wonder if the people that like this place know anything about BBQ.
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I’m thinking CFS this weekend from Hickory Hollow. I’m not a big gravy guy as I usually just dip a hunk or three in it.
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