Category Archives: H-town (Houston)

Healthy Eats

As I promised in my latest Facebook post, I was going to make poke at home. Poke (pronounced as po-kay)is a raw fish salad in Hawaiian cuisine. I remember having this  10plus years ago in Honolulu. I was not a big fan of raw fish then. I was also 20 pounds lighter and can don a swimsuit without fear, so safe to say, a lot of things  have changed since then. I love sashimi, so the thought of mixing it with great fruits and veggies plus a savory sauce makes it very enticing.

We went to North Shore Poke Company. This is a restaurant which started at Huntington Beach and they now have branches in Cerritos, Costa Mesa, and most recently, H-town!

An order of poke would first have a base of rice or veggies. You will then pick a choice of raw fish  (salmon or ahi tuna) or octopus. Extras would comprise of mango, avocado, masago, crab, crispy garlic, ginger ,sweet onion. This would all be topped by a savory sauce. There’s a variety of sauces to choose from, depending on the restaurant.

My bowl – brown rice, salmon,mango, masago, blue crab, sweet onion and Ponzu sauce
D’s bowl- brown rice, ahi tuna, pickled ginger, masago, Wasabi Shoyu Sauce

I knew I had to have more of this so I vowed to make some at home for dinner. And also for Beans who was still asleep when we left. We stopped by at Nippon Daido grocery to pick up some sashimi grade salmon and pink snapper. This is my version:

Base is wild rice and some lettuce. Fish is a mix of salmon and pink snapper. I added mangoes and avocado. For the sauce i mixed ponzu and sesame oil. Ah-mazing!

This has really been a wonderful day, food-wise and weather-wise. We ate this outdoors where we recently just cut the grass. I love the smell of freshly-cut grass. It smells so clean. For dessert, we had the cream puff pastry I picked up from the Japanese grocery store. Since the North Shore didn’t serve alcohol, we thought we’d just drink at home. It’s a weekend and it’s past 5 and the weather is awesome, it would be a crime not to…

 

 

Roux Pour

In life, the best laid plans are sometimes trumped by the magic of serendipity. This is one of those of moments. We were not planning on having a heavy brunch because we are still reeling from all the food from last night’s Fort Bend Care charity dinner.  But while hunting for gourmet spices in Home Goods (yes, they have quite a selection), we saw some Cajun spices. Just like that, D and I got a craving for same New Orleans cooking. As we were out in the parking lot, we saw  Roux Pour and I remembered my friend Cheryl saying that they just started serving brunch on Sundays.

As we were approaching the restaurant, a car pulled out so we instantly got a parking spot. For those unfamiliar with Sugar Land Town Center, it is an awesome place (it has my spiritual place, Sephora), but parking is such a b—ch, so off-putting. Finding a spot is like finding a four-leaf-clover!

A live band started playing as soon as we entered. I love dining with live music. And just when I thought all the start were aligning, I read the menu and saw “Bottomless Mimosa”. This is gonna be a great day!!!

Roux Pour specializes in New Orleans cuisine. On Sundays like today, they have Jazz brunch. The sound, the sight and the smell all spell party! So festive!

This is their array of entrees. In  the adjacent room is the soup/gumbo section, as well as the omelet, dessert and prime rib section.

D is really a dear when it comes to these things. He diligently shuttles back and forth to get me food because he knows I really hate getting up once I’m seated for a meal. He is also nice enough not to overstuff my plate. Notice how he has a firm grasp on plate real estate. He knows how to arrange the food so the flavors don’t overlap.

My first plate —crawfish mac n cheese, shrimp bisque, prime rib, jambalaya and half a dozen oysters
My second plate—more shrimp bisque, boiled shrimps and God-knows how many oysters. I am shameless at this point. The oysters were good!!! It paired well with my third glass of mimosa.
I really wasn’t sure if I had room for dessert. But the white chocolate cake and the cinnamon banana smelled really good. I had these two while D had cheesecake.

We decided to eat really slow and just enjoy the jazz band. Pretty soon, I was sneezing incessantly, signaling that I am already full. That was some brunch! I’m really happy that we tried this place. There are still many things on their menu that they didn’t serve for brunch that I wanted to try. I will definitely be back for that.