D’s IT team recently got certified for ISO 20071. Please don’t ask me what that means. I have absolutely no idea. All I know is that it is very prestigious, very few companies have achieved this, he stayed for work on more than one occasion, and when they got certified, he seemed very happy. Hence, a celebratory dinner was in order for those in cahoots with him on such an achievement.

In Texas, steak dinners are as celebratory as it could get. Eddie V’s is a well-established steakhouse. Good choice—food will almost always be as good as expected. It will just be a matter of deciding which are the best foods to order.

To be decisive in places like this is a challenge. Menus are extensive and almost everything sounds appealing. I read somewhere that the roads in life are paved with flat squirrels who couldn’t make a decision. The team didn’t make it this far by being flat squirrels so everyone came up with a variety of choices which all led to a very sumptuous and filling dinner.

The appetizers in this joint are top-notch.

These were excellent choices. We all shared these and if I had to choose, the oysters would be my winner.

Time for entrees. This is where the option paralysis begin to sink in. The ladies all opted for the special that night which was the red snapper.

In my preview blog post, we had dinner at Vallone’s (another awesome steakhouse), and I made the mistake of ordering fish. And while the dish deserved being on the specials, I was  regretful because the steaks were clearly the better choice. I was not making that mistake again so here’s what I had:

I was not able to finish this. I’m bringing the rest home. This will make an awesome  sandwich on Sunday—perfect when I’m watching football. I’m hoping that it makes up for the misery of watching a Brady-less Patriots play against the Cardinals…

D and Steve both had filet mignon. Like I said before, I will no longer make fun of D ordering the same exact thing every time we eat out. I am just pointing this out as-a-matter-of-factly. If you could see me now, I swear, I am not smirking.

And because there was Mac and Cheese on the menu, I naturally had to have one.

When Trevor said that the fried rice here is the best, I must admit, I took that lightly. I can say with certainty that when it comes to fried rice, I have pretty much tasted and made it all. But this crab fried rice blew me away. This is definitely better than mine. Clearly, it is time for me to up my crab fried rice game to another level.

After the Tomahawk Steak made its dramatic entrance, no other dish could come in to match the wow-factor, but this bananas foster came close.

Congratulations guys!!! It was great to meet y’all.

I’ve adapted a vegetarian diet for the past two weeks. Eating “clean” always makes me feel better. It is a type of diet that I know can’t sustain for long periods but I figured that for as long as majority of my meals are meat-free, I should be ok. As a result, I’ve had a fun adventure exploring the meat-free world—it’s not as painful as I though it would be!

This weekend, however, D and I decided to indulge our carnivorous cravings, so we have to make a difficult decision on which steakhouse to go to. I say “difficult” because we are in Houston, you can’t turn a corner without seeing some type of steak or barbecue place. It takes a lot of thought and discernment to know which place is worthy to fall off the vegetarian horse. So I turned to Zagat and Gayot, my trusted food critiquing bodies. I found Vallone’s , which is consistent among the top ten. The likes of Eddie V’s, Mortons, Capital Grille, Mccormick and Schmick’s have been around awhile and while all are wonderful, we wanted to try someplace new. So Vallone’s it is.

This was a lot bigger than I expected, but absolutely divine! Sometimes I wonder why I still am surprised with Texan servings…

I was still hesitant to get off the vegetarian horse, so I ordered fish. I actually had a mini-cheat last week with “adobo”. I discovered this Filipino restaurant that delivers. They had chicken adobo so ordered it with my halo-halo. I got so guilty after the first bite, I took it home for Beans, who promptly inhaled it.

This does not look very attractive but it really is good. The crust is unbelievable. I don’t usually eat the pie crust because it’s just added calories, but for this, I made an exception. The cinnamon rum ice cream is home-made; very rich in flavor.

So despite the misstep of ordering fish in a steakhouse (what was I thinking???), it was a wonderful dinner. Like I said, this restaurant is among the newer steakhouses in Houston. I am pretty sure it is going to be around for a while!