Carinos Wine Pairing Dinner

My friend was telling me about Carinos monthly wine dinner. It was, it's specific to that location, and it was super yummy... They had a wine pairing to each course, and let me tell you, I'm not much for wine that's not Reisling or Moscato, the pairing was done very nicely.  

I *heart* the Chicken Pomodoro Salad, I could've easily finish that and wish that more places would do salad that way, I'll definitely eat all my greens then. Second course was Green Chile and Chicken Lasagna, you can barely taste the chile and can definitely taste how flavorful the chicken is, yes, even if it's inside the lasagna. Now, the rest were just so-so for me... they had a Burgundy Rosemary Sirlon with angel hair pasta. You can taste the butter, but the beef were a tad chewy-ier than I liked.  

The dessert was a Pomegranate Orange Tiramisu. So, when I hear it's Tiramisu, I naturally think it has something to do w/ chocolate and coffee. But nay, it's really bright and orange, and the only part that is 'tiramisu', it's really the cake part that's soaked. Now, the Sangria, however, was yummy! My problem is that by the time we got to that course, I'm as red as the red light district. I just really didn't want to drink anymore. I'm not even going to go into the fact that all the butter and wine totally added 3 lbs to me... but it's worth it.  

It's a monthly deal and the price is not bad, about $31 meal & tax. So, I wouldn't mind doing it again. It is a trek out for us because it's past the paper store I used to work at, so it's about 23/24 miles from home. But it was yummy!

Carinos

21875 Katy Freeway
Katy, TX 77450 

Phone: 281-398-5646

http://www.carinos.com/menu

The Grove

Patty says:

Last night after the Cirque show, a bunch of friends and I went to the Grove.  I've been dying to try it for a while now.  It sits on the edge of the Discovery Park and it's ran by one of the Delgrande's, so you know good food abound.  They have a nice list of drinks, and 4 kinds of Mojitos.  I tried the Bubble Gum, and while it doesn't taste like bubble gum at all, it is sweeter than the normal mojito, which really means is right for my sweet tooth.  

If you are ever the wine and cheese type, I must recommend the Grove Picnic Platter, which has meat and cheese of assortment on it.  They had salami, proscuito and another meat mixed w/ mashed potato, that was interesting but yummy.  There's some salad as well as pickle, and of course cheese.  I don't know my cheese, so I'm not going to embarrassed myself here.

By recommendation, we tried the skirt steak.  It was excellent and delicious... It was a very good, it has a smokey, woodsy taste.  The meat wasn't tough at all, it was nicely matched up w/ the tomatillo sauce.  It comes with chili cheese fries but let me tell you, there was neither chili nor cheese.  Actually, that's not true, there's some cheese, but not real chili.  It was shredded beef on top of the fries and it has melted cheese on top of it.  

By the time we had the steak I can't fit in my favorite part of dessert, so no info there.  But, I can only imagine that it can't be bad.  :)

The Grove

1611 Lamar 

Houston, TX 77010
Phone: (713)337-7321

http://www.thegrovehouston.com/index.html

Coco Crepes

Patty says:

Don't know what came over me, but I was all of a sudden thinking about crepes.  I *heart* crepes.  Mostly because it goes so well with Nutella.  Super yum!  So, I must recommend Midtown's Coco's.  For you crepe lovers, they have savory, breakfast, and of course dessert crepes.  They're reasonably priced especially when you're like me who wants to customize everything, that's the perfect way to do it.

For you non-crepe people, not to worry, you can still get paninis and soup and salad.  I've had their panini before, it's nice, but coffee is definitely better.  They have Coco-cinno, that's a good thing to try on a hot day.

CoCo's Crepes:

218A Gray Street

Houston, TX 77002

(713) 521-0700

St. Regis Tea

Patty says:

So, I was doing a belated Mother's Day thing for my mom.  She requested to go to St. Regis for their tea service.  That hotel previously was a Ritz-Carlton which was known for the tea service.

I would say the experience was as close to a true English Tea as you'll get in Houston.  They did the whole sandwiches, scones, desserts, and of course tea.  

First of all, you need to make reservation to attend.  At first I was thinking, how snooty... but once I arrived, I understand why.  There was about 6 or so tables that they can seat.  So, that leaves no room for walk-ins.  As I had mentioned at the  beginning, it's a belated Mother's Day thing, that was because I couldn't get us in until now.

So, when you arrive, you're greeted by the butler, Charles.  He seats you and explain to you how it works.  He brings you sandwiches with desserts and highly recommend that you get the scones before you get the desserts.  The reason being that you want the scone to be nice and warm.  Then, he explains the 3 types of tea they have, they got a St. Regis blend which was 3 different types of tea blended together, which is said to be refreshing for summertime.  Then, there's 2 other herbal tea, forgot one of them, the other was raspberry.  

They have the traditional cucumber sandwich but it's open-faced.  They also have the salmon sandwich.  They also have a provolone & cheese sandwich and a cheese sandwich.  My favorite of all, is the chicken salad one.  That is to die for, yum!

The scone is a huge warm gigantic scone with devon cream.  I'm used to having either Lemon Curd or clouded creme which has more taste than their devon, but supposedly they are flown in from England weekly.  Hmm...  I said hmmm because it didn't taste like more than hand whipped whip cream.  It doesn't have as much taste as the other creme I've had in other tea services.

The butler was right, the St. Regis blend goes w/ the scone very well.  Of course, they also have dessert.  But by the time I got to dessert, I can't squeeze much more in.  They had a small fruit tart, cream puff, and a lemon meringue tart.  Charles brought 4 serving for the 3 of us, which was fine by me... more to share.  Double yum!  The kindest thing Charles had done was that he knew we can't finish it all and boxed it all up.  Even if we ate some of it already, he replenished it for us to make sure we all get to enjoy it later. 

Overall, service was superb, mind you, it's Charles against 6 tables full of guests, he does have a helper but he's still the one that come and give you the schpiel,  about the food and tea.  Food is good in some spots, tea is fine.  But the service is absolutely divine which makes the experience so much more delightful.

Like I said, call ahead to make reservation and make sure you have 2 hours to spare, you wouldn't want to rush thru your tea service.

St. Regis Hotel, Houston

Tea Lounge

Service Wednesday - Saturday, 3-5p

Reservations Required (they're not kidding)

(713) 403-2631