El Meson

One of our favorite venue in the Rice Village is the El Meson. I think I only go there for the plantain, they make the best plantain around town. But when I sit down, I am reminded how much great food this place has to offier.

I often go between Carne Guisada or Carne Asada (pictured above), or there are times I mix and match with Tapas and make it up as a meal.

El Meson is really an institution for the Rice Village, that place has been at that location for a long time which is really a cornerstone for the entire place. The funky painting and the owner's family photo of their trip of Spain really brings a comfortable feeling. Nothing too fancy or stuffy, it's quirky just like everybody's family.

The Carne Asada was grilled meat with a side of rice and of course a side of plantain. The meat was grilled with garlic and you see little bits of it on the meat too. That brings out the flavor and kick. It also come with a side of beans and a side salad. Honestly, as big of an appetite as I do, that's just too much food because as these Spanish restaurants often offer, chips and salsa. Stuffed!

If you ever in the mood for stew type dish, try the Carne Guisada. It's a nice and warm your tummy (umm... maybe in the winter). But aside from that, their tapas are worth trying... sharing or not. I often get the Tortilla Espanola (it is a cold potato omelet), and the Pinchos with the lime. That's pork tenderloin w/ the lime and amazingly it's not over-empowering the taste buds.

El Meson
2425 University Blvd.
Houston, Texas 77005
Tel. (713) 522-9306
http://www.elmeson.com/

Cafe 101

Often times I bug David to go to Cafe 101 with me. I'm addicted to their fried cod fish for some reason. I think the atmosphere helps too. This is like Sushi Raku where you eat the atmosphere. Except, this place, aside from the modern decor, part of the atmosphere are cute young Asian girls in short skirts. Yep, that's part of their schtick. Not cutesy like Royal T in LA, but in a very Flying Saucer kinda way.


On to the menus... like most restaurants they give you 2 menus, one is for drinks and one is for food. You will find that the drink menu is much larger with more variety than the food menu. Although, nowadays they are catching on both. And these drinks are not the alcoholic variety, they're smoothie, fruit juice, and spins on those and yes, they do have bubble tea too.

The food menu has tons of stuff, from sushi to traditional Chinese dishes, to random things that people had forgotten but loved from their home t0wn, wherever that maybe. They have hotpot, soup, noodles, even omlette.

The one above is the beef and bak choy, it's very no frills type of dish, but the sauce is addictive. Each of the larger dish like that comes w/ a bowl of rice, an eggroll, a side of vegetable (range from kimchi to sauteed or seasoned veggies) and a small 'dessert' of some sort. Sometimes they give you mi-low, some times it's pudding, so that's varies.

Just their snacks are good enough to make it into a meal. And they catered to parties large and small just fine.

Cafe 101
9889 Bellaire Blvd #101
Houston, TX 77036
713-272-8828
http://www.cafe101houston.com/

Sushi Raku

Ok, back to normal food!

One of the restaurants that has been showing up on Groupon, LivingSocial, Grouby, MyDailyDeals is sushi raku. It's so easy to take advantage of their deals for good food places. I'd do it again and again.

The thing about Sushi Raku is that you felt like you're eating the decor. Of course, not phyiscally, but it's more like their reason to charge you more because of their decoration instead of their food.

What we found was funny is that every time we get there, inevitably, the hostess will ask if we have a reservation. We take one quick survey, there are plenty empty seats to be had. So, that made her statement with little to no power at all. Although, side bar here: if you are a member of Open Table, it is a good way to rack up some points.


I had the Dragon tea (above) and it's definitely much like a fruit punch but with alot of kick. It's definitely a grown up drink. The beauty of it is that they're consistent every time they make the drink, it's only after drink # 2 that you realize you're drunk. Haha.

I had the dragon roll, and it was pretty good. I think some of it was spicy, and that can be lessened, but I do encourage all date or non-date people to sit at the bar. Our service was excellent sitting right in front of the sushi chef, and they made sure we got what we need even waved down someone to help. So, for that I'll definitely go back.

Sushi Raku
3201 Louisiana Street
Houston, TX 77006
(713) 526-8885
www.sushi-raku.com/

Frank's Chop House

Apologies for the horrible photos, but I swear it does not reflect on the taste of the food themselves... Will work on that better next round.

So the hub wanted to go to Frank's for dinner. I've heard of it, driven by it, never thought of stopping, just didn't grab me like some other chophouses do.

That said, the food tells a whole different story. I had ordered a cheese souffle, it was a parmesan cheese souffle paired w/ arugula with a parmesan chip at the bottom of the souffle. The dressing was a thin vinegarette, so it paired up nicely and lightly.

For the entree, I ordered a 6oz filet and it came w/ mashed potatoes, mushroom, and horseradish cream. The filet was good, not the best filet I've ever had, instead of mashed potatoes I took the up charge and replaced it w/ au gratin (hence the picture above). The horseradish was too zingy, did nothing for me.
Here's my thing about this place, it's very much targeted for more matured audience. I think a bunch of teenager going to prom happen to find an opening for a fancy dinner and they were the youngest in the restaurants, but otherwise, I dare say that my husband and I were the youngest next to those kids.

I also didn't know that Frank the owner was there, and he was promoting his homegrown tomatoes. Apparently, that's quite a popular hit w/ the regulars, because almost everyone stopped by the table and purchase them pound after pound. I am surprised at this because right across the street is Rice Epicurean and catty corner is Central Market, so those tomatoes must be special.

The other fact I didn't know was that Frank the owner also owns Crapittos, Cucina Italian down the street on Midlane and Westheimer. I'm more incline to try that place as the setting is more catered to business crowds in the Galleria area, versus Frank was catering to older generations in the neighborhood.

Frank's Chophouse
3736 Westheimer
Houston, TX 77027
713-572-8600
http://www.frankschophouse.com/

My macarons

So, after all those classes, I was inspired to do a batch myself. As you know, in the past, I had various success, well, at least the ones I showed you anyway. So, in hope of not making too many failed ones, I divided up my egg whites into 2 batch and went to town.

My mom recently went to a lavender farm an hour or so outside of Houston. And she brought back culinary lavender for me. She thought I was supposed to crush them and blend it into the cookie shells. I thought it was a good decoration on top of the cookies.

Anyway, the cookies came out nicely. The color didn't get to the point I liked, I had put in a bunch of purple gel, but after baking it, not only was it burnt a tad, it looks like salmon color... too strange. Guess I needed more.

The other thing too is that I went away from the recipes from the 2 classes. I know, defeat the purpose of taking those classes, but it's not true. I learned the difference of using an all powdered sugar method and got new flavor recipes.

I used the Mad About Macaron recipe. The proportion between almond meal and powdered sugar is different and I think that worked out pretty well.
For the chocolate, I substituted 2/3rd of the almond meal w/ cocoa powder, and it taste and looks like it's supposed to. And as I learned from SLT, cocoa powder absorb some of the moisture, so while it does take a little longer to form a 'skin' on top, it does bake better than a plain almond meal based cookie.

Also, w/ the puree idea I got from WDCC, I went to the store hoping to find some pre-made puree. And instead, I was delighted to find Central Market has pre-made caramel and puree ready for purchase. You can find them at the pre-made cake section. I guess that's a nice garnish to have when you serve your cake.

So I mashed up chocolate w/ caramel (no salt), and I matched the lavender w/ Nutella, because I'm lazy to find another one. Although, I supposed I could've melted some white chocolate and put some raspberry puree w/ them. Next time!

Unfortunately, I think the next time would have to be Fall as Houston get more and more moisture and heat, which are enemies of macaronnage. I am going to play w/ the Italian style of making mac, we'll see how that goes. ;)

Macaron Class - SurLaTable

So, as the macaron week goes, here's my review for the class taken at Sur La Table.

First of all, disclaimer, I have had lessons from Sur La Table before, as a matter of fact the same teacher. And I like the teacher alot. She has alot of skills in French cooking/baking, and she has also worked w/ big name restaurants and internationally known hotel chains. So, needless to say, in terms of experience, she has plenty. And her skills are working skills that is definitely in use in the practical world instead of the theory/school world.

That said, I've had another macaron class from her and this store before. I find that tips were very helpful. Overall, I would say, I was never disappoint in this class. I know that the teacher not only has working knowledge, she herself had made these on a regular basis to know how to troubleshoot problems.

Luckily, not alot of problems to be had. Lesson still covered the basic principles of making this type of finicky cookies, and she made it looked effortless. Also helpful that every question I asked (usually are issued I've encountered and failed), she was able to offer good ways to either counter-act or troubleshoot. I love that!

The next question, naturally is of course, why would you take another class if you've already done it? It's the same teacher, same place, what is there to learn that you don't already found out from your failure attempts. Well, of course, I want the different recipes. I will say that I've worked so much to just make the shell perfect that I often forget the filling. Of course, I was too lazy too, that doesn't help. So, learning new recipes to keep things fresh. And the other reason is of course I can ask all the questions I want.

This class we made Banana Custard Cream mac, Hazelnut shell with praline buttercream, pistachio with chocolate ganache, and chocolate w/ salted caramel. Of course, after learning that I can buy the caramel premade at Central Market, I'm not very motivated to do it the long way. It's definitely a good to know, but chances of me making that at home is slim. It takes alot of skill on that one, and maybe I'll cheat for the time being.

The class is so well received that they often have to have a wait list to sign up, and for that reason, they are adding new classes and also bringing back their 2nd in the series. I highly recommend taking a class.

Sur La Table

www.surlatable.com

Macaron Class - Well Done Cooking

This week is going to be more or less Macaron week, so please don't kill me. Hee, hee... it's just an obessession, I swear we'll go back to normal food next week. So, as a Macaron week goes, I'll review couple of classes I've taken, and couple of attempts I've made as a compare and contrast type piece.

I have been begging Kat at Well Done cooking to do a macaron class for quite sometime. I think the catalyst of her finally doing a class is from their trip to Paris. They went to Pierre Herme's and got some awesome macarons, and I think from then on, they were sold!

While they thought a class like that no one would sign up for it, they had a full house. So, all of my nagging paid off. We ended up making 3 types of macs. We did the Raspberry, Chocolate, and passionfruit.

Here's the thing about a class like this: I've 'taught' my friends before (and I use that word loosely), and there's alot of prep work even before they arrive. Just having made these cookies several times, I know. You have to aged the eggwhites, the receipes we used in class were based on Pierre Herme's book, and they asked for 2/3 aged and 1/3 new egg whites. You have to sift all the powdered suger and almond meal. It's kinda deceiving to tell students how easy it is.

That said, having done this several times on my own, I do appreciate additional tips and tricks from a trained pastry chef than having to go thru the trials and tribulations. At one point, Kat, knowing that I've done this, even asked if I was learning anything.

I will say this, taking a class from a cooking school is always nice. Someone already done the prep work, and someone is cleaning up after you. But just to prove that all macarons are created equal, our team's 1st batch came out beautifully, 2nd batch totally flatten out, and 3rd batch came out fair.

What I learned that I didn't know:

You can use all powdered sugar as opposed to part powdered sugar and part granulated sugar. (In case you don't know, we use the granulated sugar to help whip the egg whites)

Sipat does make it turn out better, although I'm not entirely sold just yet. This is as opposed to using parchment paper. But if you do end up using parchment paper, I find that the Pampered Chef ones are pretty good. (Disclaimer: I am not a hostess/demostrator/sales person for them, it is really good for making macarons.)

You can buy puree instead of having to make it yourself.

How to make inverted sugar, so you don't have to buy corn syrup.

Of course, learning how to plate them is pretty cool too!
What I find they can improve on:

Asking only experienced bakers to sign up is helpful, but not sure how you can control that.

Having another teacher to help w/ this delicate cookie would be great. While not much about the mixing techniques were discussed, I think that's why our second batch fell flat because some of the ladies didn't understand that this is meringue, and if you squish them while you're mixing the batter w/ the egg white, you do take something out of that mix.

Have more troubleshooting tips would be cool. There were so many ways to screw up macarons that it's deceiving to lead the students to think that it's so easy to do at home. There are so many factors that can ruin a good batch.

I think just having more experience teaching this would help too... so have more classes. Ok, that one is for selfish reason, but still true.

Well Done Cooking
http://www.welldonecc.com/index.aspx