Flavas Food truck

This is my first time meeting Taste My Flavivas.

They are a juice and toast truck.  They have avocado toast, quesadillas, and paninis.  Otherwise, it's mostly juice.

I got the watermelon-peach-rose juice.  I will say that I did not taste any peach, some rose.  It is all freshly squeeze.  Not like aqua fresca, but also not too fragrant especially on the rose part.  The watermelon was good, not too sweet and not too sour, which I expected the peach to contribute.  

As usual, please support small businesses if you can.

Taste My Flavias Food Truck

https://tastemyflavias.com

 

Macaron by Patisse

Stopped by Patisse to grab some Macs. 

Haven't had theirs in quite some time.  I forgot how good the quality is.  I got Cookies & Cream, Rose, Lavender, and Fig & Cheese.  The Cookies & Cream was great as always.  Rose I forgot that it does taste like a mouthful of petals despite the fact that I love that flavor.  The lavender, though also flower, taste was much more mild.  The Fig and Cheese was a surprise (again) for me.  I had forgotten how good that tasted with fig, and the cheese was very complementary to the fruit.  It was not too sweet or savory, worked out very nicely.

I forgot how soft they are when you bite into them.  Which is nice because a lot of the shops that sell defrosted ones crack almost immediately.  The trick to that is truly defrost for a bit and let it rest instead of trying to serve them immediately. 

Macaron by Patisse

2033 W. Gray

Houston, TX 77019

713-965-7359

https://www.macaronbypatisse.com

 

The Original Chop Shop

Few of us at the office decided to order out.

Never had Chop Shop before, so this is new to me.

I had originally going to get a salad, but instead got a wrap.  This is their Chicken and Prosciutto wrap.  They offer gluten free wrap for an up-charge. Sure, why not.  As the name said, it has chicken and prosciutto.  It also has fontina cheese, fig (my favorite), arugula, and dijon.  I will say the dijon doesn't over empowering the flavor.  I also very much like the fig and cheese combo, so can't go wrong there.  It's actually a pretty good combo.  Definitely will get it again next time.

You can order online, they offer pickup, curbside or delivery via UberEats.

The Original Chop Shop

5018D San Felipe

Houston, TX 77056

https://originalchopshop.com 

 

St. Arnold's at the Ballpark

Another fun thing to do at the baseball game is drinking!

But first, check out all the memorabilia and cool art around the place.  

Ok, back to the drinks.  There are quite a few drinks stations.  Saint Arnold's got a huge section right by the Crawford Box and it's convenient because if you come from the Crawford Street entrance the are right there.  

Now, beer prices has gone up and even more so at the ballpark, so expect to pay $16 for a pint.  I got their Lawnmower.  The beauty of getting them here, is that the brewery is not far and they bring in their kegs.  More importantly, they got the seasonal stuff here as well as their popular beers.  

If beer is not your jam, I saw wine and White Claws too.  They also sell some food at this station.

Look at the view.  Not too shabby, eh?

Tips on going thru the lines there.  If you see a bunch of people, mix parties guys and girls, tend to move ok.  If it's girls, definitely move fastest.  If it's a group of guys, I suggest you take another lane.  They have so much excitement being in the ballpark.  Talk about their favorite beer that they are not focusing on their order, which takes longer.  Stood behind 2 groups, one mix party, the other girls, and got there and my beer faster than my friend who stood behind one group of guys.  My tip to you!

Saint Arnold's at Minute Maid Park

https://www.mlb.com/astros/ballpark/information/concessions

 

Killen's at the Ballpark

Super excited, since I haven't been to a baseball game forever.

The other reason to be excited, is of course the amount of junk food inside this place.

Let me tell you, I was super excited to see that Killen's has a spot in the ballpark.  But also be warn, it's all the way on the opposite side from the Crawford Street entrance.

For $21, you too can get this mount of Brisket Nacho.

Check out that view, it's high - alright.  I'm talking about how they pile the food so high.  There's your base - nacho chips, then briskets, the sprinkle in the cheese and then a huge dob of sour cream, and in case you want more, there's some jalapeño pepper on the side.

Besides this, they do have meat plate, mean sandwiches but this is what I don't get to have outside of the park, so for $21, this was it!  I will say, the cheese is not the good o' valveeta mix that we know, it's decent quality cheese.  But let's face it, I was there for the meat.  It's top notch brisket from them of course, and I will say, between all those chips, that's sufficient. You get some chips and some protein, it's a good mix and a good dish.  After eating that, you don't feel crabby and sleepy.  The quality delivers and I appreciate that.

First of all, this is located on the 4th floor of the stadium.  You can either take escalators to as far as you can go, then some stairs to the 4th level.  OR!  Find the VIP elevator and take it to the 4th level.  Once you get there, you head towards the Michelob Suite, and the Killen's is in the corner.  Now, here's the trick.  I got there early to avoid downtown traffic, so the park literally just opened when I walked in.  So there's no lines.  It's been known that Killen's popularity draws people to walk up those stairs.  So go early!

Killens at Minute Maid

https://www.mlb.com/astros/ballpark/information/concessions

 

Flight Club

Been hearing about Flight Club and I'm super excited about going there.

It is a great bar with darts as their gimmick.  While the game is there, the alcohol is there, here's the food.  They have Happy Hour Monday - Friday from 4-6pm.

Here's the truffle fries - yum.  Can't stop having more.  

The Lobster Elote Dip has corn alright, but no lobster in there...

Not pictured: Black and White Hummus - that's pretty good.  Also not pictured, flatbread, it's good too.

Chicken Skewers, they are sitting on top of hummus and has mango bits on there.  Those are pretty good too.

All in all, if you make a reservation, you're allotted 90 mins for the game.  It's like bowling, you squeeze in as many games as you can in there.  Supposedly you can fit 12 people in the cove and it'll be 6 people per team and each person takes a turn.  The way I'm seeing it, a cove like that is a tad small to fit that many.  I think 6 is comfortable.  The alcohol list is good, and there's valet or free parking in the back of the building.  Pretty safe to walk around.

Flight Club

3515 W. Dallas St

Ste 100

Houston, TX 77019

713-914-0044

https://us.flightclubdarts.com/houston/

 

Aya Sushi - Omakase

Situated at the former Bernie's Burger Bus location, I was just excited to try a new sushi place.  We did omakase, so this will be picture heavy.

Forgot parking can be tight, so either go early or park next door at the cafe.

Definitely have a very good drinks menu to start.

Yoshi's Lychee-Hime - it's light and goes down easy.  It has dragonfruit and pear vodka, lemongrass, lime, lychee, ginger.  Definitely light and fluffy.

Amuse bouche to start is a Miso Soup reimagined - it has a light layer of 'skin' capsulated a bit of miso soup.  When you eat it, it burst with the soup.  I will say, the burst was unexpected but definitely a bit gimmicky on the soup delivery. 

This is Jellyfish marinated in vinegar with cucumber.  It's a tad on the salty side, but definitely good.

Oyster from British Columbia that has diced cucumber and watermelon with ponzu sauce. 

This is small and cute.

It is Chawanmushi - which is a savory steamed egg dish with white fish, chicken, Ginko nut and scallop. It's pretty good, can stand to add a bit more saltiness to the dish though.  

Another camera worthy dish.  When they open it up, the smoke comes out, it's kinda neat.

It's Tuna marinated in Thai tea leaves.  It definitely has a smokey taste to it. 

This is Yellowtail & Spice - it has these mini chili but it's not spicy.  It does add crunchiness to the sashimi.  I wouldn't mind getting more of this.

Here we have Korean Sea Bream and Flounder, both very mild in terms of flavor. 

Here we have Aji (horse mackerel) with pickle and small dab of wasabi.  Then we have Kanpachi (amberjack) with lemon zest.  Even though it's pretty strong, it's very nice flavor. 

Here comes the Tuna course.

Bottom is Maguro with a dab of wasabi and tamari, that was tasted fishy to me.  The middle one is Chu Toro (which is medium fatty tuna), this one was my favorite because it literally melts in your mouth.  Then we have Otoro (which is the belly), which I got a chewy piece, so the tendons might be still in there a bit.

Take a quick break to show you there are several wall murals in the restaurant.

This is tempura sushi-grade ebi (shrimp) with wasabi mayo and you squeeze the lemon juice from the wedge you get and then you dip it in the mayo.  It's pretty good and fresh on the shrimp.

This is Soy boiled Chilean Seabass - the sauce really did the trick here, and seabags delivered the flavors. 

This is California Uni - which is ok as far as uni goes. 

This is Spicy hot roe with cucumber handrail - it has tuna in it, but the first couple bites were more bitter and as you eat it, it get saltier.  I can skip that one.

Not pictured, because I was so busy cooking and eating was the A5 beef.  It came with ponzu and sesame sauce and they give you a hot rock to cook it in.  Our server told us 3 seconds but for sure that was not enough.  I would say the sauces are ok, but the meat really made the sauces taste comes out.  It's nice marbling and texture and melts in your mouth.  Would definitely get that on its own.

Then we have the foie gras sushi.  It is made with 6 years aged eel sauce.  I will tell you that I don't have appreciation of how sauces goes on, and how long it aged that effect how it taste.  It's foie gras, it's decently made, it has the sauce and a bit crunch on the edges. 

Typical to other omakase in town, they will ask if you would like to add before they close out.  I ordered the Bufun uni which served with caviar.  This comes from Hokkaido, definitely tasted better than the California one, more pure some how and that works for me but for $16, not sure yet.

Then for dessert, we have apple pie with miso ice cream and miso caramel.  I never had miso ice cream before, so that was a wonderful surprise.  The apple pie isn't bad either.  The server joked that they just grabbed them from McDonalds.  You can tell it's not, don't worry.  This surprised me that it tasted so good.

Overall, the place re-done was nice.  Yoshi san (chef) was there in the back sushi bar.  If your reservation is early enough, you can request to sit in front of him.  Otherwise they serve the tables just fine.  However, they do get packed, so reservations is highly recommended.

One weird thing stuck out.  As we were having our handrolls the server from the next table over was asking if we thought they shouldn't serve it. I'm like, aren't you supposed to ask if everything tasted great.  Not, you think that's bad too, huh? Maybe they shouldn't serve it.  It is an omakase, which I sure hope they think this is one of the better ones before decided to present to paying customers.  That was odd and stood out to me.  

That aside, it's not bad, but a lot of these dishes, especially the good ones; can be ordered a la carte.  So I chalked this up as experience, and next time I'll know better.

Aya Sushi

5407 Bellaire Blvd

Bellaire, TX 77401

713-485-4272

https://www.ayasushi.com