Monthly Archives: September 2017

Artisans – Houston

You can make food pretty and delicious, but making it artistic and scrumptious is even better. Artisans in downtown Houston is the latter.

We stumbled upon this restaurant as I was making frantic reservations on a Saturday afternoon. Houston has an absolutely dynamic restaurant scene, but it is like that for a reason. In this part of the world, you cannot swing a dinner napkin without hitting foodie whose aim in life is to be the first to try any new budding restaurant in town (ouch!). It is a must to make a reservation early on to get a good table at a decent hour. For me, a good dinner experience is not just about food. It is the sum of food, service and the best ambience the restaurant has to offer. If it is a scenic, I need to be by the window overlooking the view; not the window that looks through the kitchen…

Anyhoo…thanks to Google’s snooping on my web searches, this restaurant popped up in OpenTable. It was voted best in wine selection, so D had to go. And since he is my designated driver, this became the obvious choice.

Totally love the decor and lighting, very welcoming.
D’s Lalande de Pomerol and my Artisan Daiquiri–tread lightly, packed with alcohol!
Amuse-Bouche — Seafood Beignets
Le Saumon Fumé et Caviar
House Smoked Salmon, Caviar
Shallots, Caperberries, Asparagus
Crispy Potatoes, Boiled Quail Egg
My entree — La Bouillabaisse Marseillaise
Saffron Tomato Fennel Broth, Gulf Prawn
Sea Scallop, Mussels, Catch of the Day
Garlic Rouille Croûtons
I personally love bouillabaisse. This is my go-to order whenever I’m in a French restaurant. That or Beef Bourguignon.

 

Guess whose entree — Le Filet de Bœuf au Poivre
Black Pepper Crusted Beef Tenderloin
Green Peppercorn Sauce
Fingerling Potatoes Rôties, Haricot Verts
Dessert!!! It’s the prettiest thing that I’ve eaten. It’s Honey sponge cake topped with creme brûlée

After the delicious dinner, we stumbled upon Spec’s downtown and I found my official celebratory I-survived-Harvey Sauterne. This is the highlight of my night.

 

We Beat Harvey

H-town (Houston), I, Me, and Myself

It started with the total eclipse, followed by first day of school, panic-buying at the grocery stores, tornadoes, a bitch of a hurricane, more tornadoes, then the flooding…and more flooding…and even more flooding. The last two weeks were action packed. Two weeks of my life I could certainly live without.

But life goes on. My family and I were fortunate enough to live through this historic catastrophe unscathed. And while i have never felt so relieved, my heart bleeds over my neighbors and friends who were not as fortunate.

Through it all, there was food. As the news broke that it was going to be a big catastrophe, I knew people would panic. So before leaving for work, I did my grocery shopping at 6 in the morning. My freezer was packed so I had to start cooking some stuffs to give them a longer life in case we lost power. I have ordered the most amazing oxtail from Wisconsin so I cooked that, along with some baby back ribs and steak (for sandwiches).

This is Filipino kare-kare. It’s oxtail with peanut sauce topped with vegetables. 

This is my trademark tornado dish. We were hiding out in the safe room for almost a day, sneaking out to eat and this is what we’ve been eating. I don’t think I’ll be eating this anymore. Not good for my PTSD.

The following days of tornado and hurricane were harrowing. I had to make comfort foods. Noodles are the Asian mac n cheese. There is something about hot noodles that make me feel like i’m home and safe.

Noodle dish 1 – Beef Udon. I use thinly sliced rib-eye, the one that’s used for pho.
Noodle Dish #2 – Pancit Bihon — stick noodle and vermicelli, with pork and chicken
Noodle Dish #3 – Garlic Noodles

Yes, these are not calorie-friendly. We each gained an easy ten pounds during these most trying times.

Finally, Harvey is gone. The rivers have crested and we did not flood. We had bad case of cabin fever so we went out to celebrate. Beans was out helping his friends clean up the neighborhood and requested take-out. We went to our local Jap restaurant (Akashi) then to B’s wine bar.

Had a celebratory margarita and ahi tuna tower.
Sashimi!!! Food without grease, finally.
We topped the evening with some wine at B’s
Not the best we’ve had, but it was just nice to be out.

Tomorrow, we bring the stuffs down to the first floor. It will be a long day. Like everyone else in the city, we will rebuild and bring everything close to what it was pre-hurricane.

We prevailed!

We will rise.