51Fifteen

Went to 51Fifteen bar for lunch.  Gone are the days of associate lunch, but you can still get some decent food from the bar menu to console yourself.

We got Cajun Grilled Shrimp, which is sweet chili sauce and grilled shrimp.  Nice and sweet, not spicy at all.

Classic Slider, each of them are perfect size, the bread is nice and warm, and it is a cute mini cheeseburger, and delicious to boot.

Black Bean Empanadas.  I'm not typically an bean empanada person, but they mix it with cilantro cream, not just sour cream, and that makes a difference.  

Sitting at the bar area, you are practically front row to their in-house pianist, Michaelangelo.  He's ever so charming and love to entertain.  So prepare to enjoy some of that, and he also likes to work the room too, quite a character.  The service at the bar is just as good as being seated, so feel free to take it easy if dining room is a bit too stuffy, dependent on other diners in the room too.

51Fifteen

2nd floor of Saks Fifth Ave in Galleria

5175 Westheimer Rd

Houston, TX 77056

713-963-8067

http://51fifteen.com

Tiger Den

Came back to Tiger Den for dinner with friends.

Just to remind everyone, make sure you put your name down.  But, if your party is incomplete, they won't seat you.

Spicy Cucumber, I'm not a spicy food fan, but this is pretty interesting.  Crunchy with spice sauce and bonito flakes.  Something different.

Gyoza, their dumpling is super good, I can go for another dish.

Ika Geso aka Calamari - which kinda freaked my friend out.  It's bigger pieces than a normal calamari you'll see, but it's just as good.  I'd like to do this one again actually.

I got Tsukemen, it is dipping noddles, the noddles are somewhat cold, and you dip into the soup.  So needless to say, since the soup is full of orange, you can tell that it's spicy.  And being a whimp that I am, I have to carry tissue and wipe my tears.  It was fire burning hot.  Besides the egg and the scallions you see here, there are meat in the bottom, and you can mix it all up.  You then dip your noodles into the soup and grab whichever side.

For me, I would mix it all up, and then put the noodles in.  The trick however, for us whimps, is that you cannot leave it in there too long.  It'd be hard to fish them back out, and by the time you do, it'd be super spicy.  And I do mean, super spicy.  The meat was good, but my mouth was too on fire to tell any other taste other than spicy.  That said, I do know that this was not an original menu item.  It was always on the board type items, and finally made its way to the permanent menu.  It proofs to be a great noodle dish to be on there.

Tiger Den

9889 Bellaire Blvd

Ste D-230

Houston, TX 77036

832-804-7755

http://www.tigerdentx.com

Escalante

When you say Happy Hour, I always felt that Mexican Food cannot go wrong.

Luckily I got there early enough before the dinner crowd came in... Chips... yum!

Queso, double yum!  I asked for con carne, and they brought me all the fixin's on a separate plate.  Don't usually have that, but hey, cheese is cheese.  I'm not picky.

This is the Mint and Melon, pretty tasty, not too fruity and not too much alcohol either.  Goes down easy, get drunk fast.  Watch this one!

This is the Enchiladas Marisco, which has shrimp and crab meat inside the tortilla and they pour more cheese on top.  Came with pico, guac, rice, and beans.  Naturally, I soaked up all the cheese and rice.  The rest were just there, yes I even said that about guac.  Usually, I will take the guac happily, but just cannot bring myself to do it.  That said, it was a happy and satisfying meal, so no regret there.

I love Tex Mex, and going to places in Meyerland, you do have to think ahead, since the dinner crowd is earlier to accommodate families near by.  Go early, get a decent parking and enjoy the food.

Escalante

590 Meyerland Plaza

Houston, TX 77096

713-663-7080

http://www.escalantes.net

Oceannaire

Having a business lunch at Oceanaire.  

I love how my Arnold Palmer are separated by color, pretty.

Starter: house salad, nice dressing, little shoe string crispy fries, really adds to the salad.

This is my Smoked Salmon Club.  Tons of fries, tons of sandwich too.  It is 2 layers of salmon, 2 layers of cucumber and of course, 2 layers of bread.  I was only able to do about half and had to box the rest.

Of course, service here is always top notched.  From the moment you sat down, it really reminds you the old fancy seafood or steak places.  All the server has a white coat, very fancy.  Lunch time you can pretty much walk in and get seated.  For dinner, however, I highly suggest a reservation.

Oceanaire

5061 Westheimer Rd

Houston, TX 77056

832-487-8862

http://www.theoceanaire.com/Locations/Houston/Locations.aspx

Pepper Twins

It's have been a while since I've been to Pepper Twin (also known as Cooking Girls).

They took over the old Cafe Japon on Kirby.  As a matter of fact, the decoration is very simple, you can still see some semblance of the old Cafe Japon.

Mapo Tofu with Berkshire Pork, which I can't really tell the quality of pork because it was so damn spicy.  Then again, I asked for it, because the sauce is so damn good to go with rice.  Tofu is always warm, but the sauce is so good, I can just eat that alone with rice.

I thought I got the Diving Fish, but I think this is actually spicy fish soup.  And there are plenty of pepper to proof.  Needless to say, I was crying more than eating.  Unfortunately, I doggie bagged it, and it just basically marinated it some more.  So the fish got even spicier when I went to reheat it for my next meal... Wowza.

So, needless to say, I was crying when I was paying my bill, everything I ordered this time was so spicy.  Don't get me wrong, they do have non-spicy dishes but since I ordered the wrong fish, it was my own dang fault.  Now that I realize how close it is to me, I'm definitely going back to order other dishes to redeem this meal.

Pepper Twins

3915 Kirby Dr

Houston, TX 77098

346-444-6493

http://txpeppertwins.com/kirby-location

Red Circle Ice Cream

Dessert time!  Been meaning to try Red Circle since my friends been posting on Instagram.

Finally got a chance to see it for myself.

Wasn't quite in the mood for ice cream, so went for Churros instead.  This is a few rare places that just do Churros.  And after my trip to Cali, I get Churros wherever I can get them.  

Churros has different categories here, they are Cinnamon Sugar Churros, Glazed Churros (which is what I got), or Frozen Churros (which is Churros plus ice cream).  Since I just had dinner, Glazed Churros is what I got and this is Cookies n' Cream, which is chocolate glaze with Oreo cookie crumbs.  It came out nice and warm, and totally worth getting.

They are not wrong about this, Churros, Ice Cream = Happy.  Definitely will save some room for dessert next time and get a combo of ice cream and churros or ice cream with puff waffles (aka Hong Kong waffles).

Staff here are super friendly.  They know that they're new and happy to explain what they have to offer, let us taste different ice cream and explain how everything works there.  They even have a Churros Sampler, in case you can't make up your mind.  The seating area has lots of small tables to accommodate different size parties.  Frankly, since it's dessert, the turn around time is quick, if any at all.

Red Circle Ice Cream

6838 Ranchester Dr

Houston, TX 77036

832-767-5679

Hong Kong Food Street

Haven't been back to Hong Kong Food Street a while, decided to stop by for lunch.

Start with some Jasmine tea.

This is Snow Pea Leaf with garlic stir fry.  One of my favorite as a kid and the flavor goes with rice super well.  Yum.

This is another memory lane favorite: Preserved Vegetables with Fatty Pork.  So, they really mush all the veggies and it is layered at the bottom of the pork.  The veggies are mostly mustard greens and the preserved is really dried and fermented.  The pork is super fatty but the dark color is really from the various soy sauce(s) to create that color.  Traditionally, you steam the pork with the various soy sauce and seasoning mix, then you fry it skin down to get that effect.  I will say, you just put your chopstick into the meat and it fell apart.  To me, that's the best thing ever.

The entire meal is really a walk down of memory lane for me.  Or rather, a meal of comfort food.  Is it bad for me, probably, but for a few minutes to enjoy and remember my childhood, it's quite worth it.  Though, I know this place isn't serving any authentic Hong Kong food, but for being where I am, this is the closest that I can find and I enjoy every single minute of it.

Hong Kong Food Street

9750 Bellaire Blvd

#100

Houston, TX 77036

713-981-9888
http://www.hongkong-foodstreet.com