Beck's Prime

For a quick bite, I always forget to go to Beck's Prime.

This is a Beckitas, which you normally get it with tortilla flour, but it was too much food as is, so I settled for fries instead.  And honestly, to eat it like this is almost like a salad, they give you enough lettuce and tomato and it's so much meat that you can easily eat that for a meal.  Gosh, that's alot of food....  Good thing I didn't dare to get a milkshake.  Haha.

Beck's Prime
2902 Kirby Dr.
Houston, TX
713-524-7085
http://becksprime.com/

Mamak

I've been meaning to try Mamak for a while, it's like Banana Leaf across the parking lot, you get a line trying to get in.

I was thrilled to have another Malaysian place to go to, Banana Leaf was so popular that I get discouraged with the long wait.  You really have to catch a non-peak time to go there.

When I saw Chendol on the menu, I was jumping for joy.  Except, it was premature.  Instead of the drink we all know and love, they did it Taiwanese style into a shaved iced dessert.  The green jelly and red beans are in there, deep in the middle... You can still taste the coconut, but it's no drink.  :(

We needed some green, so we got some Chinese Broccoli with Oyster Sauce

Though this is not exactly a Malay thing, we got the salty fish and diced chicken fried rice.

I would say, when you come here, bring patience and don't come when you're starved, the service is slow, the wait is long.  trying to get your server's attention is like trying to play Frogger, you have to dodge people and wave the right time so they'd see you.  I'm not exactly impressed, but it is another option to BL.

Mamak

9889 Bellaire Blvd
Ste D238 (faces inside of the shopping center)
Houston, TX 77036

(713) 776-2388

Pei Wei

So, yesterday we showed you what we ate at P.F.Chang's, and today, we're showing you the sister restaurant, Pei Wei.

The good thing is that since PF Chang offers Gluten Free menu, so does Pei Wei, and they allow more customization a little more than PF.

Since it's been cold, it's nice to get some hot tea.  They don't have the green or the jasmine tea, but they have Revolution tea box to select different flavors.

Sweet and Sour Chicken (gluten free), we asked them to do less rice and added more veggie, so here's what we have.  Lots more veggie, like I said, they allow more customization than PF.  So cool!

You can order by phone or online, and online allow some customization, so if you want more, you may want to call it in yourself.

Pei Wei

5110 Buffalo Speedway

Ste 100

Houston, TX 77005

713-661-0900

PF Chang's Lunch

It's no surprised that we go to P.F. Chang's alot.

As you remember that they use different plates to distinguish which dish is gluten free and which is not.  So if you go, make sure they give you the plates with the logo, and not the plain ones.  

This time we went during lunch and their lunch portion comes with a salad and of course the portion is smaller than dinner size.  I ordered the beef and broccoli and it comes with rice.  The sauce is not like the heavy soy sauce that I'm used to seeing in other Chinese restaurants.  The sauce is lighter and less heavy.  I just love sauce, simply that it goes with the rice so nicely, some days I don't even need the main entree... haha.  Just kidding.

Lunch portion is served Monday thru Saturday thru 4pm daily.  After that is Happy Hour and then it's dinner portion that kicks in.

P.F. Chang's

Highland Village Center
4094 Westheimer Rd.
Houston, TX 77027
(713) 627-7220

http://www.pfchangs.com/

Soma

A few days back, one of my foodie friends on FB posted a picture of a bowl of ramen, and I've been dreaming about it since.  I don't drive down to the Heights as often as I like anymore, but after that picture, I have to go back to Soma for it.  

When I go there, I'd like to sit at the sushi bar.  First of all, if you don't have company, sitting at the bar is a less awkward way to eat alone.  The other is that you get to interact w/ the sushi chefs.  You can the front row seats to see their handy work, which is kinda like a dinner and a show together.  The other good thing is that you never know who's going to sit next to you.  For me, that day, came a mother/daughter team that has never had much exposure to Japanese food before, and they were eyeing my food, and we had a good conversation about what is what, such as sashimi vs. nigiri, and what's ramen at Soma vs. ramen at the grocery store.

I started out with gyoza, which was pan fried and has pork and veggie inside.  The skin was nice and thin, and the sauce just match everything just fine.

Then I had the pork belly ramen.  Now, seriously, this is totally nothing like the $1 ramen noodles packs you get at the grocery store.  This is high quality egg noodles with miso soup.  It has slow cooked pork belly little veggie, shiitake mushroom and an egg.  To my surprise, the noodle was super flavorful, but the pork must've been cooked separately because there's hardly any taste that matches the noodle and the soup.  

I always had good experienced at Soma, the service was good and lunch was good.  So no complaint here.  The only thing was the pork...

Soma Sushi

4820 Washington Ave

Houston, TX 77007

713-826-2726

http://www.somasushi.com/

Liberty Kitchen

For a friend's birthday and also a visit, we all went to Liberty Kitchen for brunch.

I ordered the frites and their version of Tart Lemonade.  It was raw sugar, lemonade, and mint.  For some reason, mine tasted a bit fermented... but there's no alcohol in it, even for brunch.

I got the Brisket and Potato Hash.  The brisket tasted good, the hash can use more salt.  As you can see, between, the salad, eggs, brisket, and potato: the entire plate is way too much food for brunch.  I ended up taking about half of it home.  

We had a really great server for brunch and they're more than happy to go the extra mile to get you stuff, taste test something or ask the chef question on your behalf.  That I really appreciated.  They don't take reservations, so you need to be there early.  On weekends, they serve breakfast till 2:30p but they also start serving the lunch menu at 11am.  So we had waited till the lunch menu is served, and our server was very nice about it.

Liberty Kitchen

1050 Studewood

Houston, TX 77008

http://libertykitchenoysterbar.com/index.php

HK Cafe

Since Hong Kong was in such heavy influence from the Brits, one thing they for sure picked up is Afternoon tea.  Truly it's really a break with food than a full sit down high tea service.  We went to Hong Kong Cafe in Chinatown and did a HK style tea.

This is 'French Toast', a true HK style French Toast, they have peanut butter in the middle of the sandwich, and battered like you see here, and fried.  You get butter on top to melt it, and drizzle syrup all over for best taste.  I've seen people do condensed milk to achieve the same sweetness.  I'm thinking that might be a bit thick and rich.

Here, at Hong Kong Cafe, they give you a drink, which I got a iced lemon tea.  Very different than iced tea with slices of lemon.  They have syrup in the drink already to make it sweetened.  They also give you a fried chicken wing along with it.  By the time I finished the French Toast I couldn't eat more, but for less than $7 you get all that, it's a great deal!

Hong Kong Cafe

9108 Bellaire Boulevard  

Houston, TX 77479
(713) 772-9633