Hui Lau Shan

Went back to Hui Lai Shan after dinner with friends.

Truly in the Chinatown location, you really have to time it because after meal, people ten do go get dessert and the lines can be long.  But if you just miss it by a few minutes, it's much more of a comfortable experience.

I got my favorite, mango sago.  Sago are tapioca topped with mango.

All the mango are super fresh.  The sago is in mango puree, wish it was more of the old style with coconut milk base sago topped with mango, gosh I miss that.

Anyway, they now have a location in Heights MKT and inside the Galleria food court.  So don't worry about the crowd.

Hui Lau Shan

9889 Bellaire Blvd

C317

Houston, 77036

713-234-719

https://huilaushan.us/

 

Street to Kitchen

For this month's girls dinner, we went to Street to Kitchen.

It's Thai based cuisine.

I got the mocktail of lime and tonic with mint.  Like a non-sweet virgin mojito.

Not a very good pic because the place is dim, but this is pork and shiitake dumplings.  Like a shumai.

This is the garlic chive pancake - which to the group surprise, was super delicious. 

We got the Pad See Ew with veggie, which to our delight was super delicious and the air of the wok really came thru. 

Then we got the Masaman Curry which was nice and coconutty with braised lamb and it falls off the bone.   The curry over rice is delicious, definitely get it if you see it offered. 

For dessert we got Sticky Mango Rice, which is pretty tradition for Thai cuisine.  Rice is nice and warm and topped with fresh Mango and cream, is to die for. 

Couple note on this, so Google and Apple map has Street to Kitchen on a former location, which the new one is just couple miles down, be sure to check before you head out there, since the locations are separated by train tracks it might take longer than expected.  Second, at the current location, it has many shops/restaurants in that space, so be wise on the street parking, check the signs and be sure to be courteous to the neighbors who have to put up with this nightly.

The place is small and dim, so don't expect you'll get lucky when you walk up without a reservation.  Just make one online in the afternoon you are thinking about going.  Better to do that than not having a seat.

Street to Kitchen

3401 Harrisburg Blvd

Ste G

Houston, TX 77003

281-501-3435

https://www.streettokitchen.com/

 

Dooki Tteokbokki

Been driving by it and was curious as to how it works inside. 

First, we didn't know that it's AYCE/buffet, so that made it interesting when we got in there.

 I try not to have a paralysis with too many choices.  There's lots of instructions about which utensil, scoop, cup is for what.  

Luckily, they have cheat sheet to tell you the 'recipe' for the soup base.  Which you sit down and they have the broth in the bowl ready to be heated up, and you add these sauces to it.

So let's talk fixin's: they have tteok galore in all shapes, sizes, and base (i.e. wheat or other base.) 

Then you get Veggies

There's fruits and noodles.

You get fish cakes and assorted add-ons.

Here's cooked fish cake skewers.

You can add ready to eat toppings too.

While you wait for your stuff to cook, you're welcome to have some of the cooked stuff as well.

  Sweet potato, tteoki with sausage, kimchi, and kimbap. 

Or fried chicken, fried sweet potato, or fries.

There were also fried dumplings too. 

Just in case you need more carbs, there's a ramen station.  You just select your package, grab a bowl and add the hot water.  You can definitely make enough to feed the table.

They also have an ice cream station with a few flavors for dessert.  For $27 per person, for dinner is really reasonable.  I will say, they give you 90 mins for the meal, and everyone is super attentive.  Definitely feel pretty good about coming back to here.

Dooki

9750 Bellaire Blvd

Ste 100

Houston, TX 77036

832-831-8263

 

Burmalicious Lunch Popup by Chef Suu Shin

When I saw that there was a Burmese lunch popup I was very interested.  Let's face it, in Houston, there's a decent population of Burmese in town, yet there's not a Burmese restaurant.  Not to mention it's hosted by Master Chef, Ledgens Runner Up Chef Suu, I have to try it out of curiosity.

The menu is a la carte, and does a good job to curate what is good and cross section feature of the culture. 

First up, which we all loved, was the Duck Puff.   It's duck pate' with caramelized onion, as filling and puffy pastry on top, accompanied by Mango Sriracha.  I'm not going to lie, the sauce really made the pastry and filling come together.  Is the duck filling good by itself, yes, but the sauce definitely elevated it.  If they sell it in store, I'll buy 10.

Then this is the Lemongrass Fish Noodles dish, the base is a catfish broth, in it is vermicelli, fish and shrimp cake, and pea fritter.  I've never had pea fritters before, but it's crunchy and give it more texture that you don't usually get in vermicelli dishes.  Definitely unique, do worthy of a note that this is a spicy dish.  

This is their Tea Leaf Salad.  To be honest, I didn't know what to expect since I don't have any experience in Burmese food, but this is very interesting.  There's a line of cherry tomato, a line of cabbage topped with fermented Tea leaves, I kinda hope we could've tried what it brewed.  Then it has a line of nuts, garlic chips, and sesame.  So by the time you mix it all up, it's nice and crunchy every bite.  The tomato gave it the juice, and the tea leaves gave it the savory.  Pretty interesting in terms of the texture side.

Sorry didn't turn this photo around... but this is Rice and Curry.  This is butter rice, also my first time trying it.  It's actually crushed rice, with braised beef, which is fall-off-the-bone nice, with chopped veggie and shrimp paste.  Maybe by this point we were pretty food, of course our eyes were bigger than our stomach, but flavor-wise, I was surprised that little braised jus made the whole dish.  Not too spicy, but definitely been marinated for a bit.  You get peas in the rice, and veggies for the texture.  I'd be happy to have this again.

For dessert, they have coconut pudding.

It's mango puree, with passionfruit flavor folded in, with some berries and young coconut slices.  To experience this you really need to mix the puree with the pudding to get the passionfruit flavor.  It's almost too faint.  The texture and combo is right.  

Overall, I was surprised how good the combinations were.  Then again, I really shouldn't be, since I've had  Thai, Vietnamese and Indian food before, but the flavor is just different enough to be unique.  It was definitely a neat experience.  Hope they do more popups in the near future.

To follow Chef Suu Shin:

https://www.instagram.com/burmalicious_by_suu/

 

Lady M

I was at the mall already and was kinda thristy, decided to stop by.

I got the Butterfly Pea Lemonade, it's pretty, it's lemonade, sold!

Got some slices for home, but to my surprise, they were also selling individual cakes.

I had the chocolate matcha mille crepe, I just love how it's moist but not overly sweetened.  It does have some chocolatey goodness and some matcha flavor to balance out the flavors.  Again, not super sweet but you can taste the cream.

To my surprise, they were selling Mont Blanc.  Now I have to say, there are alot of opportunities for Mont Blanc here in Houston, yet - to date, I only know of maybe 2 bakeries that does Mont Blanc in house.  I am able to get them import at Asian Grocery store, but for them to make them fresh, that's not common.  Lady M in the mall does not have a bakery on sight, so whatever they get were frozen at one point.  

That said, the cake itself was not up to snub.  In theory, a Mont Blanc (French style) has meringue, whipped cream and chestnut strings.  The Japanese style has a cake at the bottom, ream, and chestnut strings.  Lady M's uses psuedo-French style, but minus the meringue.  It was whipped cream bottom, then chestnut strings on top.  The balance was off, the chestnut was sweet chestnut, naturally sweetened, but the whipped cream also has sweets.  So though the flavor was light, combine both into one bite, you really go a mouthful of sugar.  Also, the cut down on the chestnut was hard, stiff like it's been sitting there for some days.  Not sure if customers doesn't know what Mont Blanc is and therefore not one of the hotter selling items, or it came that way.  Either way, it's not the freshest I've gotten there.  So I was a tad disappointed.

Lady M

in the Galleria Mall

5085 Westheimer Rd

Houston, TX 77056

https://www.ladym.com/

 

The Coffee House on West End

Went to book club at Coffee House at West End

Have always wanted to check out the view, but by the time I got to the roof, even though it was hot, there were lots of people around.  So I have to go back again and try another time.

Some cute cherubs on the side of the building. 

The whole place is actually pretty cool.  I can totally picture it be a club or a bar.  The space has a little taste of steampunk mix with 20s bar, the exposed concrete and the chairs and tables are great for the space.  I really like the details they have for light fixtures to door knobs.

I got the West End Latte, which is a regular latte with 2 shots instead of 4 which is a different drink.  House syrup, which they don't tell you what it is, but I can say it has a hint of vanilla and something else, not super sugary and milk or milk alternative.

I got a big o' ham and cheese croissant, which looked alot like the Love Croissant.  But I enjoyed it alot.  

This space is pretty cool, and while there are parking space behind and side of the building, it is often packed.  Check the side streets and be respectful of the neighbors, but parking on the street works. 

Coffee House at West End

802 Shepherd Dr

Houston, TX 77007

281-762-1850

https://www.thecoffeehousehtx.com/

 

Banana Leaf

Went to grab some Malaysian food in Chinatown.

Key about going to Chinatown for dinner on the weekend is that you go right before peak hour.  My friends at first was just thinking I was being quirky, which I am.  But after our food arrived, they realized I was not joking.  And yes, one never jokes about meal time. 

One of my favorite thing to get is the Roti.  I also forget how big those Roti pancakes are.  Foolishly, I let the server talked me into getting 2 orders of it for our parties.  When in fact, each of us really can only take in 1/2 of one with the food we ordered.  But the sauce was nice, so no complaint there.

We ordered the Salt & Peppered Squid - nice and fresh, nicely done. 

One of my favorite fried rice, it's salty fish with diced chicken fried rice.  Grew up eating this, it's part of the comfort food repertoire. 

Of course, you cannot have Malaysian food and not order the Hainan Chicken.  They did half a chicken for our order and accompanied by the rice.  Which is one of my favorite, the rice is cooked in chicken stalk to give it a flavor.  My only thing is that I didn't have enough ginger for the chicken.   I love the ginger scallion mix for the chicken. 

My tip as usual, go a few minutes before meal time.  Almost all the restaurants in the area are good enough to be filled nightly, so plan accordingly.  Parking will always be a challenge, take advantage of the garage or carpool.

Banana Leaf

9889 Bellaire Blvd

Ste 311

Houston, TX 77036

713-771-8118

 

Malibu Barbie Cafe

When something kitchy is happening in town, I have to go check it out.

Here lands the Malibu Barbie Cafe.

The cafe is in the corner of the former Railway Heights food hall.

Decor totally themed for the Malibu Barbie.  I think my 9 year old self just started to jump around inside.

They have several places for you to take pics.  And they really thought about how it all fit in the frame. 

There's decor in every corner and no inch uncovered.

Even bar has decor to keep things fun.

Here you can see how Barbie enjoys the sun.

Well use of the stairs as a part of the theme. 

Don't forget the beach aspect of the cafe!  This always reminds me of the movie, how Ken just Beach. *giggles*

Enjoy some jam at the giant boombox.

Hip wallpaper there, Barbie always gets the coolest stuff.

Here's the menu: there are quite a bit of cocktails, beer and wine.  If you were to bring kiddos, don't worry, they have non-alcoholic drinks too. 

Food though not much to choose from, they do have gluten free, vegetarian, and vegan options.  I will say, the artichoke dip looked good, kinda regret not getting it.

I got lemonade, it was a tad too sweet, and for $7 this serving is small. 

This is the Cali-Flower Bowl, which has curried spied cauliflower, arugula, quinoa, avocado, and Tahini sauce.  From what I understand, the cauliflower was spiced nicely. 

I really wanted pancakes, so I got the Pacific Paradis Pancakes, it's basically buttermilk pancake with honey butter.  But they added pink dye in there, so the pancake came out cooked pink.  And there's whipped cream with sprinkles, kinda funfetti-like and came with maple syrup.

I also got a side of the candied maple bacon, which is nice and sweet and butter.  That one was delish!

My compliant, they don't have any plates or utensils, but served us in this paper plates.  Seems that they weren't truly ready and being one of the first to go definitely doesn't help. 

More Barbie fun.  They do have a 'roller rink' area, for additional $1, and you can go back and forth.  It's not big but if you have kiddo that are small, they will have tons of fun. 

Definitely part of the theme there.... be sure to get tickets/reso ahead of time, they don't accommodate walk-ins well here.

Malibu Barbie Cafe 
at Junction HTX
8200 Washington Ave
Houston, TX 77008
Get tickets: 
https://bucketlisters.com/experience/malibu-barbie-cafe-houston
Check out their gram:

https://www.instagram.com/barbiecafeofficial/