berndog
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Total Posts:
674
- Joined: 4/8/2003
- Location: Rochester, NY
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RE: Good food in Houston, TX.
Sat, 01/22/05 3:01 PM
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OK, back home from Houston, and boy do I wish I was still in Texas. I enjoyed walking around in shirtsleeves every day. I came home to single digit temperatures and snow which hadn't stopped since I left. About 6" of fresh snow each day, and we're expected to get another 18" by tomorrow morning.
I tried to get to some of the recommended restaurants, but we were working and staying west of Houston towards Katy, pretty much centered on HWY 6. Most of the times, we ate at places nearby since we weren't getting to eat dinner until about 7:00 each evening. Here are some comments:
Monday - everyone was in the mood for steak, and Texas Land & Cattle was recommended. I guess it's a local chain, but the food was good. We went to one right on the Katy Freeway (I-10) and I ended up trying the smoked sirloin, served cut in slices just like beef brisquit. Had a heavy coating of coarsely ground pepper along one edge. The meat was medium rare, very pink, almost red in the center, extremely tender, and delicious. I have never seen this before, and hope that I do again; it was that good. Everyone elses steaks looked good and seemed to be fine quality based on their comments. The garlic mashed potatoes were good, but no better than what I have come to expect for that side based on many other places over the years.
Tuesday - we were in the mood for seafood and Landry's was suggested. Great choice. We hit one on the Katy Freeway and due to the heavy construction in the area, had the place almost to ourselves. I'm sure the lack of customers wasn't due to the food, as it was excellent. Can't report on an assortment of dishes as we all opted for one of the specials, blackened catfish fillets covered with crawfish etouffee. We started with oysters on the half-shell and a large order of fried calamari. Both were wonderful, and I got a few additional oysters as only two of us really enjoyed them. A squeeze of lemon and dash of the spicy cocktail sauce made those oysters taste so good, and they slurped down just fine. The main course was fantastic, and I shared some Creme Brulete for dessert. I don't think you could go wrong eating at any of the Landrys restuarants.
Wed. - Decided to try Pappadeaux, one of the places recommended here. Great New Orleans/cajun style food. Went to the one at I-10 just past the Sam Houston Tollway. Started with their seafood gumbo and it was excellent. Had a nice smoky/nutty flavor from the roiux, and lots of seafood including several oysters. Some of our party tried the crawfish bisque and enjoyed that; it certainly looked delicious. We wanted some fried alligator for an appetizer, but they had just sold out, so we had the fried crawfish instead. These were well made with a thin, crispy, very tasty coating, and the tails were still moist, not all dried out and hidden in a big clump of batter like I have had elsewhere.
I wanted everything on the menu, but I ended up choosing the seafood platter with fried shrimp, fried oysters, fried catfish fillets, stuffed shrimp, and stuffed crab. It was good, but the stuffed shrimp and crab tasted very similar and had too much breading in the stuffing for my taste, and not enough meat. Everyone elses dishes looked great, especially the blackened catfish opelousas fillet which had a topping of blackened oysters, shrimp, and crabmeat in a buttery sauce. The crawfish etouffett looked great, tons of crawfish tails on that plate. The dirty rice was good, with very finely ground blackened sausage mixed in.
Thursday - dinner found me by myself as some of our party had left, and others had arrangements to dine with family in the Houston area. I walked to a Chinese restaurant where I had lunch the first day I arrived. I forgot to get a takeout menu, but it was called King House Hunan Cuisin and it is in a very small strip mall on the right side of Highway 6 just south of I-10. I checked my receipt and the address is 410 S. HWY 6. The hot and sour soup was as good as I have had, with a very tasty thin broth, not one which is thick and almost jelled. Also, the pieces of pork, mushroom, tofu, etc. in the soup were cut into reasonable sizes, not huge chunks like many places serve.
My main course was called something like Four "Friend?" Mandarin, a mixture of beef, chicken, shrimp, and scallops in a spicy sauce with vegetables. Great way to end my Houston journey.
One other Chinese-Vietnamese restaurant deserves mention. Two of us had lunch here one day, and stopped again the next because the food was so good. It is Taydo Restaurant at 2529 HWY 6 South; (south of I-10 and close to Westheimer Rd.). Their lunch specials run around $5.25 - $6.25 and include soup and egg roll. For an extra $0.50, you can get a fresh spring roll instead of the fried egg roll. The food was extremely good, and the second day, I decided to try their Pho (noodle soup) as I wanted to compare it to the Pho served at a Vietnamese place here in Rochester. I had the Pho Tai, rice noodle soup with raw sliced beef, and it was excellent. In a way, I'm glad to say that it wasn't any better than the Pho served at the Saigon Palace here in Rochester (Rt 104, Ridge Road West at Dewey Ave.), as I now know that I am eating great Pho at home. Before, I had nothing to compare it to.
I look forward to visiting Houston again, and maybe trying some new places as well as revisiting some new favorites.
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