Monthly Archives: May 2017

Food Cramming: Cru, Field and Tides, iPic and Tasting Room

The past weekend was one of nicest I’ve had in a while. I was able to do my  favorite “weekend job” of partaking (and reviewing) Houston’s vibrant foodie scene. I could do this all my life, but it can barely pay for the wine that I drink.  Day job to the rescue!!!

We wanted to jumpstart the weekend with wine-tasting. I had an invite at 13Celsius, but the driver/husband didn’t want to drive all the way to Downtown, so I had to cancel. We went to Beckrew Wine House instead. When we got there, they just opened. There was a big fan on the floor, an attempt to cool the room while the AC was cranking up. For my non-Houston readers, this is a big no-no. AC in Houston heat is  a necessity. You. Just. Can’t. And yeah, wine while sweating through your make-up? Not cool. I wanted to rush out but D wanted to stay and be polite, so we ordered a glass of wine each and some bruschetta then fled.

We decided to go to Cru WIne Bar instead.

Bubbles flight
Bubblies paired well with Lobster and Shrimp Dumplings
Prosciutto and Fig Pizza
Filet Mignon! Guess who ordered this? Paired well with Cote du Rhone

By Saturday, we were right on schedule. I was asked to write on an old-but-new foodie thing — chilaquiles. It is a traditional Mexican dish that has fried tortillas with green or red salsa poured over it. There is always some sort of meat on the side, usually pulled chicken. This has been popping up in social media, usually as a brunch entree. I chose to go to Field and Tides Restaurant up in the Heights. Nothing like the Heights to keep up with the young and the trendy foodies…

This is off-the-menu. For critiquing only. I had the sauce on the side because I didn’t want it drenching the egg. Instead of pulled chicken, it had pulled pork. Absolutely amazing!
D had Tomato and Crab stack. It’s actually fried green tomatoes, really good.
Fried Oysters and Brussel Sprouts. The brussels were a surprise delight. Crispy fried with really good chili honey glaze

We did our usual trek to Trader Joe’s to forage the foods we will never get in our neck of the woods. Why, oh, why, can’t they open close to Sienna???

We picked up Beans  so we can use our newly minted membership cards at iPic to watch Guardians of the Galaxy. Ipic is a movie theater with plush seating and gourmet foods.

The reclining seats were definitely great

Gourmet food? I wouldn’t go that far. All the fried things we ordered came in cold. D had a great filet mignon slider, though.

The drinks pretty much made up for all the food transgressions. Meet my Lookbetternaked margarita. D said  that his Bordeaux was pretty good too.

When we got home, we opened more than a week’s worth of all snail mail (because you know, we’re cool…not!) and found out we had a letter from our new HOA saying that our gate shows signs of rust and needs to be repainted. We had ten days to do it or face a fine. Tenth day is on Monday. WTF.

At the crack of dawn of Sunday, we went to Lowe’s to get all we needed to paint over the rust. There’s no way we can get someone to come in on a Sunday and do the job so we just have to MacGyver it. And MacGyver we did. We finished before 10am for less than $30. We felt that a reward was in order so we booked a table in Tasting Room.

Loved my Sauternes flight! I will not divulge how much it cost. let’s just say that it was like drinking a very good dry-aged steak…from Japan…!
Here’s my wild mushroom pizza
My only dessert for this week —caramel bread pudding.

It’s the start of the week now, the dreaded Monday. It’s pouring like crazy. Clinic is slow so I’m finding time to post this all and thank all those I needed to for all the yummy things I had this week. I should really strive harder to have more weekends like that. But for now, back to the day job….

 

 

 

Mother’s Days

Most women relish the idea of breakfast in bed during Mother’s Day. I don’t. The mere thought of what transpired in my kitchen to produce a mediocre waffle, coffee and orange juice makes me cringe. My favorite peeps — Beans and D— know me well enough that I would probably just wolf down the food as fast as I can so I can go clean up the crime scene in the kitchen that they left behind. So we just skip this warm and touching tradition and hop over to do the things I like best—eating and shopping.

This year, I totally forgot when Mother’s Day was. So i picked up a shift at work for this weekend in anticipation of my upcoming vacation for which I have accumulated a grand total of ZERO in terms of paid-time-off. Since I can’t do backsies once I’ve sign up to work, I had no choice but to celebrate it starting a week before while we were at Fredericksburg.

Began the day with my mimosa flight at the Herb Garden.
At Baron’s Creek with my favorite port
At Alexander’s Vineyard with another favorite, Sauterne

By noon, Beans was finally up and joined us. We were going to get some boots for me but the selection wasn’t very good, so we went home and I took a nap. Yes, napping is a way of celebration for me. I love napping. And I love it even more if no one disturbs me to tell me that the puppy peed out of the pee pad. So they left me alone.

After a restful nap, it was time to get some dinner. We drove over to Kerrville to dine in 1011 Bistro.

This is gorgeous restaurant sitting right next to Guadalupe River.
I just realized I haven’t done a review on this restaurant. Would have to do one next time. I have a better one coming up.

By Wednesday, I still don’t have any Mother’s Day present. It’s time to go to my mother ship—Houston Galleria. It was also a good time to check-out the Michelin star restaurant that my friend from Houston Chronicle was writing about—  Yauatcha.

Yauatcha earned one Michelin star last 2005 from their Hawaii restaurant. Technically, the one here in Houston is not starred. But since none of the restaurant here are, this is the closest to the real deal. As a foodie, it is a travesty that I have not eaten at a Michelin starred restaurant. That will soon change when I go to San Francisco next month.

I started out with Hakka—
Belvedere vodka, junmai sake, lychee, lime, coconut, passion fruit

There’s a whole bunch of dim sum. They are a lot tinier that what you would normally get. on the flip-side, portions are diet-friendly.

Sticky rice in lotus leaf
with chicken and egg yolk
Har gau–
prawn and bamboo shoot. Not kidding about the prawn. It’s a big-ass prawn
Scallop shui mai

In my experience, a true measure of a good Chinese restaurant is on how they cook duck.

Crispy Duck shredded tableside.
Home-made pancakes on the side! Yum.
D had the Seared Red Fish.
For dessert – Chocolate pebble
Alto el sol single plantation chocolate, brownie, caramelized white chocolate

My verdict—-ugh, so difficult to be honest. I’ve had better. This statement should be taken in a context that I am an Asian whose had an entire lifetime of eating the real deal. If this were a fusion restaurant, I would see it differently. But the dishes we ordered were hard-core Cantonese dishes, so I really have to say, I’ve had better.

Unlike most of the negative reviews I read about this place, I will not balk on price. I hate it when people do that. Their menu and their prices are online. If you find it pricey, don’t go then complain about it. Given their location, brand and decor, I think it’s priced appropriately. The service could use an improvement. I don’t get all the hype that this place generated and I don’t really see how the Michelin was garnered, but should I be shopping at the Galleria and feel like getting some dim sum , I would definitely be back.

Went to Galleria for my present. LV didn’t have my shoe size so it had to be ordered from New York. D, however, found his own present. As of press time, my shoes have not been delivered yet…