Category Archives: H-town (Houston)

North Italia

H-town (Houston)

Today (Sunday) is a free day for me because the Patriots are not playing. They will play tomorrow. For those who know about my football obsession, my weekends primarily revolve around Tom Brady’s schedule; secondarily with that of Drew Brees (played last Thursday). Thank God Aaron is hurt and Peyton has retired. Those are a lot of people and schedules to work with. So today, we go Christmas shopping. Or so we hoped.

Galleria was a mess, I just couldn’t deal. So we decided to salvage our shopping fail with what we do best—eating out. We came across this restaurant and I honestly thought we have eaten here. I can’t believe this has been here for a while and we’ve never tried.

The appetizers were very tempting so we ordered the top two that we liked.

ARANCINI 
crispy mushroom risotto
stuffed with scamorza cheese &
served with red sauce
ITALIAN
MEATBALLS 
marinara, pecorino,
grilled bread

The drinks list was not a slouch either. A lot of good choices.

D had a really good Barolo which is expected for any self-respecting Italian joint
I had a RED SANGRIA —
brandy, blood orange,
red wine, strawberry, lime
I had too much to eat last night so I settled for pizza. FUNGHI —
roasted mushroom, cipollini onion,
smoked mozzarella
And D, as an homage to our favorite, Peyton Manning, had CHICKEN PARMESAN 
crushed tomato, aged provolone, mozzarella,
parmesan rigatoni (it tastes so good!)

As always, desserts are my favorite (along with dessert drinks).

HAZELNUT TORTA —
nutella cream, hazelnut toff ee,
salted caramel gelato
We paired it with ITALIAN COFFEE —
espresso, caff è borghetti,
amaretto, vanilla whipped cream

That lunch went very well! I’m writing this blog as D is trying to navigate away from here. We wanted to stop by Trader Joe’s but we couldn’t find parking! This day is a wash. Thank God for the Italians and their extremely comforting food, this day didn’t totally suck.

North Italia, BLVD Place
1700 Post Oak Boulevard, Suite 190
Houston, Texas

Maison Pucha Bistro

H-town (Houston), Uncategorized

This week, like most weeks in December, has been a blur. Holiday season is fun but there’s just way too many things that need to be done. My only accomplishment is putting up the Christmas decors (yey!), but I have not wrapped presents yet because I have not bought any presents to wrap. Every time I go to the malls, I always end up buying things for myself so I started doing my Christmas shopping online. So far, none of the orders arrived yet, so technically, I still have nothing…

We always try to have a nice Saturday date to celebrate surviving the week. It’s a good excuse to unwind with wine and good food. We chose this French restaurant at the Heights because the chef,  Manuel Pucha, has been constantly impressive with his work at La Table (another favorite). Maison Pucha is huge from what you would expect at the Heights, and also a lot prettier.

I received a cheat sheet of its wine list from a friend who was here the other night so we were quick on deciding the drinks for tonight.

Paloma Picasso—
Fortaleza blanco, Parisian organic sparkling grapefruit soda, fresh lime, salt
Malbec 2008
Gougeres!!!

This is what they served in lieu as bread to start. In other restaurants, gougeres would be on the menu, hence, not free.

For starters we had the Ponzu crab
My entree, Lamb Navarian, is beautiful and delicious.It comes with a side of mashed potatoes.
D had his usual filet mignon
Dessert — Noir et Blanc Soufflé —
organic Ecuadorian chocolate, passion fruit crème anglaise, house made vanilla ice cream

This is an absolute gem. It takes 20 minutes to prep so order early. It is totally worth the wait.

Coffee in Bed —
cinnamon/coffee-infused bourbon, carpano antica, coffee & cacao bitters, condensed milk

This is the winner of the night. I cannot believe how bourbon and coffee can taste so good together.

I’m really glad we came here tonight. Everything was delicious! As we drove out, there was some event in the area and all the homes were lit up and there were food trucks everywhere. If we weren’t so full, we would have tried some of them.

I am looking forward in bringing my work peeps here for our monthly dinner club. This will be a hit!

Maison Pucha Bistro – 1001 Studewood St. — Houston, TX