Tiny Boxwood

Went to grab breakfast with mom.  Later than my usual time that I would go to there, and sure enough it was super crowded.

Orange Julia - there's orange juice, honey, ice, and all mixed up together.

We both had the Mother's breakfast.  We just loved the biscuit, it is as though the biscuit already came buttered but it hasn't been cracked open before.  How amazing is that?!  The raspberry jam they had is definitely made in house, super pulpy but in a good way, so between the already buttered biscuit and the jam, it's like English having breakfast.  My mom ate all the biscuit and hardly touched her main breakfast.  I had about a quarter of the biscuit because I was dying to try their sausage.  The sausage was delicious, fresh and hot.  The taste have some smoky-ness to it. I swear it made it super delicious.  The eggs aren't bad either, but seriously the sausage was super awesome.

For Tiny Boxwood main location, it's the most open best kept little secret in town.  People know it's there, but it's hidden as well.  Unless you go there, you really have a hard time finding it.  Not to mention finding parking.  Their small lot might be discouraging but don't be despair, they have an extra lot right down a small way.  Park there, or if you're lucky, you can find a street parking.  Keep in mind that street is tiny, only one side parking.

The service is top notch as always.  For breakfast, it's not full service.  So, order and pay at the counter, and they will give you a number and bring you your food.  Enjoy the side patio, they bring fans out for hot day, and it's a lovely shade with leaves area.

Tiny Boxwood

West Alabama at Saint Street

Houston, TX 

713-622-4224

http://www.tinyboxwoods.com/tiny-boxwoods/      

Ruggles Green

Grab a quick lunch at Ruggles Green.

Ever since the closest Ruggles Green closed up near us, it has been tough to get some decent, yummy gluten free pasta or pizza.  I got my favorite Quinoa Pasta with Turkey Meatball.  They did put enough cheese to my liking.  I love the place is open and enough light to com in.  More importantly, enough room for families to be there to roam around.  Just love the environment.

Ruggles Green

15903 City Walk

Sugarland, TX 77479

281-565-1175

http://rugglesgreen.com/

A Two Year Old's Birthday Party

Hosted a 2 year old birthday several weeks ago, since time was limited, didn't get all fancy-ed up. But you know what they say, you aim for the sky, you many land among the stars... or something to that effect.

We had it at Fish Gallery, who knew that a fish store host birthday parties.  Price is reasonable, and came with it, is the party room already decorated.  We get a tour of the shop, fed koi fish, touch different kinds of creatures from starfish to baby lobsters to hermit crab.  

I had thought about giving everyone a beta as a loot gift, but also know that my friends will hate me.  So as an activity, we had paint station with 'sea' background painted on it, and gave ideas about fish handprint or if their kids are old enough can make their own painting.

This is our dessert table.  I had SuzyQ Print Shop to create the chalk board with the stats on it.  All the little bee and frogs gift bags are from Target, and cupcakes here are from Crave.

The loot had crayons, mini books, flashcards or bubbles, antibiotic wipe, and kleenex.  A little bit for everyone.

These are cupcakes from Sprinkles.  Here's the thing about ordering mini gluten free cupcakes.  At Crave, they can do chocolate with either chocolate or vanilla icing, but they cannot do letters or special design on top.  Sprinkles can only do red velvet but they can do whatever designs you want.  So, keep that in mind.

What did we feed the folks that came?

Ham and Cheese with train or airplane shapes, because that's our favorites right now.

PB and J for the Seashell and cars. 

These turned out the best... 

For Gluten Free version, we did Udi and Slodough, and turns out for projects like these, Slodough is the best.  

Also not shown, jello, figured it matches the sea theme, but no one touches it... so that was a fail.  For all the crust and leftovers, you apparently should not take them to feed ducks, but you should ask and see if there are anybody's kids or pets love it.  And give that away.

Chili's lunch

Went to meet some friends for a quick lunch.

I got the flatbread.  It's actually alot of food for 2 thing of pizza.  The sauce is awesome turns out they have garlic aioli mixed into it.  It might as well be the next creamy jalapeno.  There's no meat in there because it's Magherita Pizza.  There's no veggies, unless you count cilantro as veggies.  There's just cheese, pesto and tomato.  It's pretty darn good, just can't finish it all.  Of course, having chips and queso before hand, didn't help.  But so dang good!

This Chili's is inside the Galleria mall in Houston.  So, best parking, closest that is, is to go to Orange Parking lot, whose entrance is at West Alabama, and you have to turn down so you go to the basement.  I would not fuss with the parking at the front of the mall facing Westheimer.  They are trying to add another structure and the rest are blocked for valet, so the free parking for normal guests are super limited.  

The other thing, you can see how long the wait time for each of the Chili's location on their site.  Of course, you can order on their site for pick up at any location too.

Chili's

5015 Westheimer Rd

Ste 1310

Houston, TX 77056

713-622-7924

http://www.chilis.com/

Koagie Hots

So, in name of research, me and couple co-workers went to Tasty Tuesday.  It's pretty awesome, the office park coordinated over 10 food trucks between hot dogs, tacos, to dessert trucks.

 Been meaning to try Hoagie Hots, so excited to give them a try.

I got the Koagie Dog, it's one of their more popular items on the menu besides the kimchi fries, which they were out that day.

So, what's inside: hot dog, of course.  There's ribeye, spicy mayo, slaw, and fried egg on top.  This is a carnivore heaven.  You basically get all proteins in the few bites here.

The tip about going to Tasty Tuesday is to go early.  Since we didn't have the advantage of everyone who works in those buildings, we had to find parking, which is not easy to get the free parking, since they block the entrances.  There's some parking in the garage, but you do need to pay to park in the garage.  That said, the property management set up a few tables out by the fountain and got their maintenance crew to put extra trash can and constantly making sure it's comfortable for everyone.  So, good job.

My experience with the Koagie Hots, unfortunately wasn't that great.  The wait was super long, and it was weird because some other trucks doesn't look like they have a long wait but the wait for food was long.  This happened at couple other trucks too.  But the food is good, so it's mini redeemed, but I would recommend going early, for the sake of parking and shorter wait time, hopefully.  Will try again for the less busy experience, make sure you follow them on twitter to keep track of them.

Koagie Hots

http://www.koagiehots.com/

Mala Sichuan

We took an out of town guest who requested Mapo Tofu, which is spicy tofu dish.

For us, we got baby bak choy, stir fried.  We needed some non-spicy veggies to balance out the spicy-good-ness.

We had the onion stir fry beef, super delicious, and best suitable for the non-spicy lovers.  You can taste the heat of the wok, which in Chinese is where the flavor comes from.  And then after you had a few and happily chewing, realized everyone's favorite dish at the table is the same thing... so you are all fighting for the onions too.

Wonton dumplings.  It's obvious that they made them in house, no frozen here.  Every bite you take is fresh.  Can't complaint, yummy to the max.

Our out of town guest thought we were crazy for going to lunch early.  Soon he realized we were actually already late for Chinatown hours.  By 11a, while  you might be early for lunch, there were not a parking spot to be had.  We were lucky I saw someone pulling out and I swooped in.  But in this heat, we may have to go to the next lot or further to park.  Or go somewhere else altogether.  And even though when we first sat down there were 3 other tables besides us.  By the time we left there were a line waiting by the cashier's counter and by the door.  So, who's crazy now, eh?

Mala Sichaun Bistro

9348 Bellaire Blvd

Houston, TX 77036

713-995-1889
https://www.facebook.com/pages/Mala-Sichuan-Bistro/186616358058028

Le Peep

Went to grab a quick breakfast at Le Peep.  I haven't been there for a long time.

Got the waffle with apple, cinnamon sprinkled on top of the whipped cream that nicely melts on top.  And there's sauce to go with it.  Super yum!

It's been a while since I've had cooked apple.  It was super yummy.  Our server also very on top of things, so that was on top of the yummy food, it was a super nice experience.  Go early, because whichever Le Peep you go to, gets filled up quick and busy is the word.

Le Peep

6128 Village Pkwy

Houston, TX

713-523-7337

http://lepeephouston.com/