We wish you a very happy blissful Thanksgiving!!!
Thursday, November 28, 2024
Wednesday, November 27, 2024
Uchiko
Went back to Uchiko for lunch.
Even though their set lunch is $45, given the amount of food you get, I feel like it's definitely worth it.
I got the Jasmin Honey tea again, it's truly very refreshing.
The first course, is sunomono - which is cucumber, radish, scallion, vinaigrette and there's little bits of crunch on there for texture.
To start, this is Yellowtail sashimi - it has slices of citrus at the bottom, topiko on top, and you wrap it all in one bite, it's pretty surprising to have all the flavors together.
Then, the my sushi omakase came out - It has (from L) Madai (Japanese Sea Bream), and Salmon Belly. The Roll in the middle is a salmon roll, and the sashimi is Big Eye Tuna.
One thing I didn't take a standalone photo was Vegetable Tempura - I mainly got that because of the chili ponzu sauce, that was very addictive. I literally cannot stop myself.
And here's my food, that was alot of food, but also glad I got what I got. Don't get me wrong, there are alot of items for ala carte, I just love lunch sets, which proof to be worth while.
Reservation is recommended but if you arrive early there are plenty of options, so no fret.
Uchiko
1801 Post Oak Blvd
Ste 110
Houston, TX 77056
713-522-4808
Tuesday, November 26, 2024
Jun
We have a friend came in from out of town...
...he's a huge fan of Top Chef, and recall Evelyn Garcia is here. So we decided to take him here.
To start, I got Tamarind Arnold Palmer - it has tamarind jarritos, lemon, and oolong tea. The taste is pretty mild, you can tell the Arnold Palmer part, but with a little bit of flavoring.
It was recommended to us to order 5-7 dishes to share, so here we go:
Starter Oysters with fermented mango chunks and she charred a little bit. Talk about an explosion of flavor in your mouth. We got that here.
We were about to order Prawns but our server recommended us to do Shrimp instead. And I was expecting shrimp-shrimps. Not in this kind of presentation. It has shrimp, avocado, Japanese carrot, taro which gives it the crunchy texture. The sauce has shrimp oil and aguachili and the texture on the sauce is lighter than it looks.
This is a vegetarian congee, it has mushroom, ginger, scallion, and hidden underneath all that, there's an egg to add texture. That was a nice surprise, because in Korean meals, they do that to alot of their dishes. If it's stone dish, when it's hot enough, it will cook the egg. But over soup, this is the same premise. That said, the mushrooms was gently fried to give it the crunch and when you mix it all up, it's delectable.
Here's the cauliflower, black garlic, yogurt and eggplants. I've never had yogurt and cauliflower together before. With the yogurt with eggplant and flavoring, you mix it together, it's like veggies you've never had before. All of us cleaned that plate in no time.
We ordered some cucumber salad for good measure.
For Entree, we got mussels, it has sour chorizo, curry leaf, fried plantain and bread for the curry. The plantain plus mussels the textures are so contrarian to each other, but it worked super well. My only complaint is that there wasn't more.
This is a very unique take on brisket. It has a peanut curry sauce, such an unusual combo with brisket, but it worked brilliantly. You see some mustard greens on top. Wow, it was just so good. I added the brisket to my congee and made it even more of a flavor party.
For dessert - this is a goat cheese cake with blackberry compote. Its texture is exactly like a cheesecake, but it's not as sweet and the goat's milk is not too strong or overpowering anything. It's pretty fun. It came with a scoop of vanilla bean ice cream, goes super well, not too heavy.
This is the Tapioca, which has coconut, passionfruit panna cotta, and sesame crumble on top. You mix it all up, and the passionfruit is subtle but makes coconut extra neutral. Then you have the crumble to give you that texture, so it's not just mushy.
Then there's the famous donut. There are orange peel shaved on top, and the server comes and pour in the star anise syrup. And they accompanied with a scoop of the day, which I forgot what it was, but I liked the donut by itself just fine.
To summarize, texture and flavors are really the name of this game. It's no wonder they were Semi Finalists for James Beard award. They are really truly something different that people has been looking for.
We came during the week, but let me tell you, the party doesn't get started until 8pm here. I was so worried about being stuck in traffic and the person at the host station was so nice and moved my reservation time. When I arrived, I realized why, they were no busy during the time I booked, it's near 8p when the joint started to jump. That actually was appreciated because our server was able to take her time to explain the dishes and make her recommendation.
There are plenty parking out front, so that's not a challenge at all. That is super rare in the Heights, so I really valued that. I still recommend making a reservation, just in case. But it worked out very well.
Jun
420 E. 20th Street
Houston, TX 77008
832-469-7664
Monday, November 25, 2024
Liberty Kitchen
I don't often lunch during a work day...
So when I do get to go, it's a special treat.
This time, we went back to Liberty Kitchen.
I got the Ahi Tuna Niçoise salad. This is actually alot of food on this plate. Not just the seared ahi tuna, there's olive, egg, avocado, beets, tomato, asparagus, potato on top of a bed of veggie. I won't lie, I didn't finish and didn't even pretend that I can. The vinaigrette was dijon, but not heavy handed at all, it's light a light little touch, which made this not too oily and brought out the flavor. Highly recommend.
Liberty Kitchen
4224 San Felipe
Houston, TX 77027
713-622-1010
Wednesday, November 20, 2024
Jeni's Ice Cream
Went to grab ice cream after dinner...
Ended up at Jeni's in City Center.
Despite being in the side building the space is small, so squished that you have to wait in line outside. But don't worry, they pack the flavors.
I got the Seasonal Pitachio and Coffee...
Couldn't get decent light for the shot, but I got half scoops of each flavor to make up the Standard size.
I will say that to taste ice cream under pressure of a line was a bit tense. The way they have one person for a group is very disorganized and time it takes to serve a bigger group vs small makes moving in a small shop very tight. You really feel like you don't get to taste more than 2 flavors and make a decision. So maybe the next time we go to a bigger shop, so we can move around easier.
Jeni's Ice Cream
801 Town & Country Blvd
Bldg A, Ste 130
Houston, TX 77024
281-409-3364
Tuesday, November 19, 2024
North Italia
This is my first time to North Italia in City Centre.
Didn't realized they took over the old wine bar location that used to be there.
Must have starter: Zucca Chips - don't know what they put in it, but sure is addictive.
Here's another crowd favorite, Truffle Bread. Seriously, this was so good, we almost forgot to order our entree.
For entree, I got Chicken Parm. I kinda wished I paid closer attention to the pasta. I didn't care for the white sauce, or rather the lack of sauce. A, I could've skip that and maybe get a side salad instead. Or B, get another kind of pasta. I don't have a problem with rigatoni, but when you have a lump of dry, it's no fun. And oh, by the way, when you heat it up day after, it's just shows oily instead of sauce. So heads up on that.
Like I said, this is my first time at this location. As usual reservation is always a good idea, make it ahead of time. We've seen people were waiting and it does get popular here.
Here are my tips for you:
Parking - the building has parking there, you can enter down at Town and Country, or the side street where the roundabout feeds. It is a garage, do pay attention to the reserve signs but the lights overhead helps spots opening easily.
Seating, I know the weather is nicer, but still choose to sit inside and here's why. People walking by is passing by your table. Not to mention those who smokes, so your dinner now has a tint of cigarette pasty smell. Not to mention, the traffic is right there. There were multiple cars trying to show off their contribution to global warming by revving up their engines to make it as loud as possible between buildings. So you cannot hear your friends. Not to mention bugs, I feel that City Centre has done a good job, but it's outside, they cannot control bugs flying by innocently, so it did bugged me a bit on that one.
Server, it's hard to wave them down. The tables are situated near by, but there's a corner that is outside of their eye-line, so it does take a few flag down to get their attention. Versus, had you been inside, even if it's not your assigned server, at least you grab someone's attention. So take heed.
North Italia
in City Centre
818 Town and Country
Suite 100
Houston, TX 77024
713-241-0600
Monday, November 18, 2024
Snooze
Went to Snooze for some breakfast.
But first! Coffee - nothing snazzy, just good old drip coffee.
I will say, the service was slow but the kitchen was fast, hooray for that!
I got the Corn Beef Hash - love me the chunks of corn beef. There's onions in the hash, so you're not just getting potato. And of course, eggs sunny side up to boot!
Instead of toast, they let us sub for pancake, so of course, I got me one. I will say, this is a tad dryer than I remembered in the past, but I'm here for the syrup, just needed the vehicle. Now to be fair, I did not finish this (also did not finish the hash), but together that is alot of food, so you have to pick and choose wisely.
Snooze on Montrose is notoriously busy. On top of them being short-staffed, the service left very little to be desired. I do understand it's not the server's own fault, but the management of the schedule or call for backup should have worked if managed properly. As I said, thank goodness the kitchen staff was fast, hallelujah!
Funny story: guys behind us must be meeting for the first time. Possibly a business connection. One guy's voice projects, and every other phrase was: you know what I'm sayin'. That phrase is such a filler, there's no content, subject, topic, or substance. When you overused it, it's just filling of dead air. He didn't even let his companion respond. We were just saying, we can definitely make a drinking game out of it. But then again, you may die from that. So kids, don't do that.
Snooze Montrose
3217 Montrose
Houston, TX 77006
713-574-6655
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