Beer in Thailand, Vodka in Poland, all on one Sunday in Houston

Just when you think you are getting too old for a Sunday Funday, one drops right into your lap! Yesterday we had the great fortune to head out on one of Houston's culinary tours. Saveur Magazine put the premise behind these tours in much better (and more simple) terms than I could. "The visitors bureau of Houston, Texas, has hit on a great idea for food tours: round up the most passionate chefs in the city, ask them where they love to eat on their days off, and build an itinerary around that. Then invite the public." I had the pleasure of helping to set the logistics behind these tours in motion a few years ago with my former colleague who now handles all of the logistics with his new company Experience Houston.  It was a pretty fantastic day. 

So we kicked things off in the US. I had Special K for breakfast around 8am and headed to the grocery store. Once upon a time I did two of these tours back to back. The media was in town and it was during Rodeo, so in the morning we did a media tour that ended at the Rodeo Cook Off where we picked up the next media group for the afternoon tour. Eight restaurants in about eight hours. Thankfully I was working so I didn't have time to completely stuff my face. I did learn from watching others, so I tried to mentally prepare for the food marathon before me. We had 4 planned stops between 11am and 4pm. I knew I could do it. 

The tour in question was a version of the Long Point Road tour with Chef Bryan Caswell of Reef (former "Next Iron Chef" contestant) and Chef Chris Shepherd of new media darling, Underbelly. I don't mean for "media darling" to take anything away from Underbelly. We had an amazing experience dining and drinking there with friends a few months back.  And also, their PR team is working overtime. Neither of these chefs are strangers of PR. Caswell's Reef is undeniably some of the best seafood in Houston and he has had multiple James Beard nominations. This pair was also well put together. Both fun loving and ready to get things going. The bus meets up with everyone at Central Market to load up. 

Caswell's H-Town Glamour Shot

You can tell he is a chef because he has a cleaver. And also, he is wearing a chef's coat.

 We crack open some Saint Arnold Beer and head to our first destination. Vieng Thai is located in a strip center near the start of Long Point Road. There is not a functioning website to link to, but foodies are into it, so you can google it and find plenty of info. Before moving back to Houston I knew nothing about Thai Food. Houston has the third largest Vietnamese community in the United States, so spring rolls and Banh Mi abound. I am still just getting to know the true and delicious Thai selections. Vieng Thai is not to be missed. I could have stayed there the entire four hours filling my face. The items we had were as follows: E-sarn Sausage, Som Tum (green papaya salad), Massamum curry (above and beyond amazing), Plaa Pad Ped (Spicy catfish with basil, fantastic), Pat Sar-tor (shrimp with chili paste), Yum Nheam (I was afraid of this one because it was basically raw sausage, but I tried it. Then I tried it again. Then again. Fab), and lastly, the Pad See Ewe (noodle with black bean sauce, egg and pork). Everything we had was fantastic. The beer went with it perfectly. Great spices, great flavors, a few beers in and we were off!

You can tell it's good because there is neon on the outside AND the inside.

We were running ahead of schedule, so we swung by Korean Grocery Store H-Mart. Or as I have come to think of it, Costco for Asians. One of my favorite things about Asian mega grocery stores is the food court. It is always amazing and noodly (new word) and deliciousness. H-Mart did not disappoint. We picked up some ripe cherries for a dollar and some change a pound. We headed for the sake section and got a couple bottles of cold sake to share with our tour friends. Then we headed back to the bus. 

KIMCHI for one and all at H-Mart!

The "second" stop was Korea Garden, further down Long Point and next to a Karaoke joint. You know it's good Asian food when there is Karaoke nearby. We had actually been here before with one of S's friends from grad school who is Korean. No one spoke English at that time. They pretty much still don't. We were brought to the back room where the gas grills on the table were already burning and before they brought water they asked who wanted a beer. Two please, and a few bottles of Soju. The table was already laid out with raw meat and seafood ready to be grilled and seafood pancakes. The barbeque was followed up by bibim Nengmyun (Chilled buckwheat noodles) and Samgye Tang (chicken ginseng soup). The food is amazing and Soju is like sweeter, less alcoholic vodka that makes for great sipping. Additionally you get the fun feeling of grilling your own meat on the grill that lives in the middle of your table. Lots of soju later, we head on. 

We were cooking all on our own, but I found this professional photo by
Julie Sopher from a previous tour and it gives you a better idea of the set up.

Samgye Tang

Hite & Soju. Soju. Soju.

Stop three was Kong Ju Rice Bakery where they apparently make the best Kimchi in town. Even if you haven't been here, if you have eaten Kimchi in Houston, it was likely from Kong Ju Rice Bakery. They put on a great demo of how they make Kimchi and they dressed it up big time for us. They also had fantastic rice treats and amazing rolls with pickled veggies. And I can't tell you about the dumplings. The dumplings. Holy dough and spice and fish cakes and wow. Here are some shots: 

Neon Blue Prada pumps in the kitchen. Just another day at Kong Ju Rice Bakery.

The dumplings with the spices with the fish cakes with the.... YUM.

Pickled veggie rolls. Fantastic.

WHO WANTS DUMPLINGS?!?!?! Then he kicked his leg and posed and I LOVED IT!

Rice Bakery treats.

One large Kimchi

Somehow we ended up in Poland... or actually a block or so off of Long Point on Blalock at Polonia. We walk in and the table is set and spread with a shot of vodka at each setting and platters full of perogies. Polish heaven. Then potato pancakes, polish sausage and sauerkraut and followed up with cheese blintz drizzled in chocolate. Guys.. Oh yeah, we had more vodka. And then they brought out beer steins as big as two Popeye forearms. Then all of the sudden, four bottles of vodka were empty. Don't be too impressed. There were at least 25 people. And some of them were from New Orleans, so they had hollow legs or something. Things were getting messy. We got back on the bus and in true party form we broke out the BOTTLED WATER!!!! Effin' party animals. 

Polish Sausage

Perogies

He had a business meeting to go to...

In the words of S's email to me this morning: "Sunday Funday equals Monday nofunday." It would have been more prophetic had we thought about that yesterday. So then I came back to the US and took care of life at home and sent out happy I LOVE HOUSTON blog vibes to the world and went to bed. 


For more on the Houston Culinary Tours click here. They sell out in minutes and space is limited so if you want to jump on the bus, be quick about it. 


Tomorrow - an easy meatloaf recipe and some ladybug food. Tonight: Newsroom & bed. 


Here's to Sunday Funday (in moderation).


- RT

Houston: A Love Letter

I love Houston. A lot. You meet a lot of people who live here that do. More often than not, people who visit Houston don't get it, and that's fine. Mainly they are here to go to NASA (not in Houston, btw) or see cowboys. I know this because I used to book trips for people coming in from out of town. The number one request was NASA and cowboys. One group wanted to be driven to the nearest oil well. As a tour. Fun people. 

Just some local flair from the Art Car Capital of the World. No big deal.

Living here gives you the chance to really enjoy all that Houston has to offer. Tons of green spaces, amazing events, fresh farmers markets because we are so close to farm land, fresh seafood because we are an hour from the gulf, and patio weather 9 months of the year. Really if you are a true Houstonian, you likely sit on a patio 11 months of the year. August is not joke. It's ok to sit that one out. Here's an actual Houstonian on the heat:  "A true Houstonian doesn't run indoors when the heat comes out to play. A true Houstonian doesn't just tough it out- a true Houston actually enjoys it, welcomes it, and hugs the warmth whilst sitting on the beautiful tree-filled backporch of a cafe. Small refuges are taken from the sun under canopy trees and umbrellas while grasping a cold beverage. He and his beverage adapt to the heat of the outdoors; he glistens with sweat as his cold beer develops the frequent appearance of condensation Houston diners are familiar with."  Sweating is sexy. Just ask my girl Britney. 

Slave 4 U might have been filmed in Houston in August. Maybe.

One of the very best things about Houston is Houstonians. People here are nice. Like, really nice. I went to the grocery store this morning and said "Good Morning" 40 times in the span of an hour. I feel like Scarlett O'hara when she and Rhett take Bonnie Blue out for a walk. You know the scene. And if you don't, they are basically saying "good day" to everyone they pass.  When I am having trouble with the baby or with my car, or with anything, people stop to help. People stop to help everyone. I am not saying there are not assholes in Houston, I'm just saying there are fewer here than most other places.

The arts community in Houston is out of this world. The museums are some of the best in the country. The Museo del Prado is bringing 100 masterworks from their world renowned collection to the United States... and only to Houston. That's pretty kick ass. And there's something to be said for that. If we didn't have such an amazing museum and art scene, they wouldn't have made that decision. 

Fancy art works coming your way!

 Another fun thing about Houston is actually cowboys. The tourists are right. Here is a quote from the fab book HIWI :  "I often feel a pang of annoyance at people who come to visit and inquire if we Texans still ride around on horses. Then I realize, we do. It's the fourth largest city in the Unites States, and I am never surprised to see someone riding a horse through downtown."

Howdy Y'all! Trail Riders make their way through downtown.

 I could go on and on and on and on and on. The point is I love this city. Is it a place that you take your family for a weekend vacation when you don't know anyone here? No. Go to San Antonio for your family fun and see you later. Houston, like most towns, is the most fun when you visit to see friends or for a specific reason like catching a live band or going on a restaurant splurge. Houston has an insane amount of amazing upscale food, and then you get into the ethnic food. Tex Mex and Latin American of course, but also Indian, Pakistani, Korean, Thai, Chinese, Polish, Russian, and on and on and on. Come for a week and you will eat your face off so much that you won't be able to leave. Because you will not have a face. I'll try and fix it for you though, because I'm nice like that. Of course I'm nice, I'm from Houston!

Daenerys Targaryen is the only one who will be eating fresh horse heart.
But if you really wanted some, we could find it in Houston and you too could create the Stallion who mounts the World.

 I'm on a Houston high because we had a great day today on one of the Houston Culinary Tours organized by the visitors bureau. (more on our tour experience tomorrow) How these tours came about is that the CVB's PR director went to the best chefs in Houston and wanted to get a deal together where groups toured their restaurants. These same chefs had no problem with their pr and getting people in, so they wanted to do tours of the places they go in their off time. The ethnic local places that inspire their dishes. So that is what they did. Chefs here are amazingly accessible to people. On one of the original tours, Monica Pope who was on Top Chef Masters brought 21 tour patrons she didn't know to her grandmother's house to show them how she was originally inspired to cook. It's just crazy the things you can do here and the amazing people making national headlines and not having egos about it. People are accessible here. Arts are accessible. Houston is for everyone. The roaches fly, the humidity makes you look younger, the traffic gives you time to enjoy music or morning edition, the mosquitoes bite (but that's your fault for not spraying yourself down), it's very flat,  but that just means you can see things coming. Houston loves you! We're nice like that. 

Please enjoy one last cowboy. 

-RT