Houston Trip...Asian

Dallas, Tx definitely does not have the variety of Asian cusines like Houston does.  In comparison to Dallas, Houston definitely wins in flavor and diversity but Houston still has a long way to go if it wants to match up to the quality of Asian flavors San Francisco has to offer.

Here is our summary of our Asians food this time around Houston Tx. 

Our first night we arrived exhausted and really needed a late night comfort to put us to sleep.   Our choice was limited since it was around 12 am when we arrived.  We headed out to Hong Kong Food Street since it opens until 2 am.  This place offers a variety of common Hong Kong fast and comfort foods.  They offer noodles, stir frys, rice dishes, congee, soups, desserts, milk teas, and honey lemon drink. 

We had seafood rice soup and a brisket flat noodles to put us to sleep.  The congee was very comforting with an abundance of seafood...highlight was definitely the BIG sea scallops they added!  This was pretty affordable at around $6. 
The brisket was made well and of good quality but the flat noodles was not as good as I expected.  I am not sure if it is the quality of the flat noodle supplied here or if it was just not made well. 
Overall an acceptable meal at around 1 am in the morning.

Hong Kong Food Street
9750 Bellaire Blvd
Houston, TX 77036

Crawfish!  Well I forgot to take pictures of this one...*BOO* 
We had crawfish as a snack....4 lbs to be exact.  This one is located in a chinese market shopping center..in the food court, a very ethnic and good food court if you ask me.  You can find boba tea, fresh juices, vietnamese stalls, snails, balut eggs, and more.  We went to go try Crawfish and Beignets.  The Crawfish were pretty good size, service was fast, well seasoned, and they provide you with condiments like mayo, chili, and butter on the side.  At around $5.99lb, a much better deal than Boiling Crab in Dallas.  Flavor wise, Dallas's boiling crab still wins, but quality, size, and price, Crawfish and Beignets win.

 Crawfish and Beignets
11201 Bellaire Blvd
Ste A-05
Houston, TX 77072

Dim Sum time!

 

We tried Arco Seafood.  Not bad...some were still a hit and miss but overall very fresh, because they steamed or fried the dim sum when you placed the order on the sheets.  The fun roll with the fried dough on top was done really well, the skin was very soft and thin, much better than the ones offered in Dallas.  The shrimp dumplings were also pretty good, the filling was plump and filled with shrimp, the only flaw was that the skin was a tad too thick. 

The dim sum still has a long way to go before it can catch up to the standards in San Francisco in terms of variety, flavor, and quality.

 

Arco Seafood Restaurant

9896 Bellaire Blvd

Houston, TX 77036

(713) 774-2888

 

 

Shaved Ice!

Nu Cafe was one of the places we tried.  Very soft shaved ice, we chose mango flavor, but I did not taste much mango flavor.  The fresh fruits and pudding accompanied well with the soft ice and condense milk.  Worth a try if you have never tasted soft shaved ice, but this is not even close to the flavor you can get in Hong Kong, so we were a little disappointed. 

Nu Cafe
9889 Bellaire Blvd
Houston, TX 77036

(713) 771-7771

 

The second shaved ice place was Juice Box.

I personally liked this place more compared to Nu Cafe.  They do not skimp on ingredients, they put mountains of fruits of your choice on your pillow of soft shaved milky ice...and of course topped with ice cream and condense milk.  This was extremely refreshing!  The fresh fruit tea and fresh fruit juices were also delish and worth trying. 

 

Juice Box

9889 Bellaire Blvd

Houston, TX 77036

(713) 484-8085

 

Last but not least...we had to pick up souvenirs for our parents!

Kings Bakery has great baked goods!  Their eggs tarts were very authentic with a buttery flaky crust and a soft egg pudding center...awesome!  Their breads were soft like pillows and very inexpensive.  At around $1 you can get a BBQ pork bun, quite affordable.  We purchased the pinapple bun, pinapple custard bun, and a sweet coconut custard bun.

Kings Bakery
9889 Bellaire Blvd
Houston, TX 77036

(713) 367-6616

 

Overall a fantastic trip! There is still more to come.....to be continued...



Toulouse Café and Bar, a casual French bistro

What comes to mind when you think french food for dinner?  Dressing up, super expensive, fancy, and must make a reservation....well at Toulouse this is not the case. This cute little restaurant is causal, homey, and no reservation needed.  This restaurant is busy, you can hear people talking, laughing, and its a comfortable setting for friends to get together and enjoy come fantastic French cuisine.  This was our first time and what a treat!

We started our night with 2 cocktails...Rossini on the left and Hemingway Daiquiri on the right.  Oh both were so refreshing!  The Rossini had a touch of sweetness from the raspberry but still let the sparkling champagne shine through.  The Hemingway Daiquiri was slightly tart, clean, and prepped your  palate for the food.

We then went on to our starters, lobster bisque and charcuterie maison.
The lobster bisque was rich and velvety.  The lobster flavor came through and you get bites of lobster meat....scrumptious!
The charcuterie maison was pretty fantastic.  The best thing on the plate was the chicken liver mousse. OMG the texture was so creamy and lush, the flavor was a punch of the livery flavor but done extremely well.  They topped the mousse with a sweet jam...*drool*  The duck prosciutto and the lomo was also done well.

We also chose their goat cheese tart and sea diver scallops for our entree.
The goat cheese tart was exquisite.  The puff pastry was flaky and buttery, the creamy goat cheese flavor paired extremely well with the tart and sweet tomato confit, and the basil pesto gave the tart a fresh touch.
Our entree, the sea diver scallops was also delicious.  The tender caramelized scallops were topped with a sweet and savory bacon tomato jam, and underneath the delicate scallops was a bed of spinach with a rich sauce (resembles hollandaise).  The other part of the entree was a meyer lemon risotto which was also a surprise.  The risotto had a really good lemony scent and lemon peel accent to it, it was creamy yet very light at the same time.
Overall another amazing experience.   The food was awesome...didn't really find any flaws.  We would rate this restaurant a 9/10 for flavor, ambiance, and preparation.

Toulouse Café and Bar
3314 Knox St
Dallas, TX 75205

Alounak, Delicious Persian Food at an Affordable Price

We were skeptical going in.  We didn't believe you can possibly find affordable, abundant, and delicious Persian food here in Dallas, Tx.  We were wrong...YUMMY!

This is just a small restaurant with about 10 tables, 1 waitress, and 1 cook who does everything.  Do not let the 1 waitress and 1 cook fool you, we received decent service, and our food arrived quickly.

First came our complimentary beet soup.  The  color was a vibrant purple..very pleasing to the eye.  Flavor wise, it was sightly tart, strong dill flavor, and the texture was grainy because of the crushed beets.  I did not like it very much but my boyfriend liked it.  It was a nice gesture from the chef though.

 We ordered sides of hummus and mast-o-khiar.  Both were delicious, the yogurt dip was creamy and refreshing with bits of dill and cucumber.  The hummus was not over whelmed with garlic like the ones you usually get at Mediterranean restaurants.   Off to a wonderful start!

We ordered the lamb shank, koobideh, and shish kabob.  All were very scrumptious!

The lamb shank was braised to tenderness in a carrot, potato, and onion broth.  The lamb was tender but still kept a good bite to it.  Our favorite thing about it is that they kept the fat, bone, and tendons.  Yum..after tearing off the meat, DO NOT forget to dig the bone marrow...it is amazing!  Our lamb shank came with rice and a side salad.  For $10 bucks, it is a steal!

Our koobideh was also fantastic.  The meat was moist and flavorful.  $8 for a whole big plate of food...how can you pass this up?  The plating was colorful and the smell of the koobideh taunts you.

The best thing of the afternoon was the side of shish kabob.  For $6 you can get a side skewer of shish kabob....man this was awesome!  The meat was so tender and cooked to perfection.  The meat literally melts in you mouth....*drool*

What an affordable meal!  We received mountains of food at a wonderful price...how do they do it?  I have no idea.  The meats were of good quality and handled with care.  We would rate this place a hard 8/10 for it's value, flavor, and quality.

Alounak
7989 Belt Line Rd
Ste 146
Dallas, TX 75248

The Common Table, a casual brew and eatery

We came here on a Friday night for dinner to tune down and end the work week with some good drinks and FOOD!  This was our first time and it was quite pleasant.  The patio is a nice place to just chill and chat it up with good friends.  To be honest their drink selection is not as wide as Meddlesome Moth, but they still serve up some pretty excellent choices.  Tip:  check the menu ahead of time, they change their menu often.

We started out with some cocktails.  Their Moscow Mule was awesome!  The proportions for their mix was perfect, good quality ginger beer, hint of lime, and very smooth vodka.  This was delicious so we had 2.  Honestly if we didn't have to drive, we would've drank more.  The other cocktail was also tasty, but I forgot the name, but not tasty enough obviously if I can't remember it.

We ordered three appetizers to curb our hunger.  Fried calamari, crab cakes, and a peppered strawberry salad.

The fried calamari is just how you would imagine it, crispy and tender to the bite.  The batter was a tad too thick which overpowered the calamari.

The crab cake was one of the better ones we have had before.  They made it with an abundance of crab meat.  Quite tasty we would say.  We would have liked it to be a little bit creamier on the inside.

The peppered strawberry salad was pretty special.  Have you every had peppered strawberry?  We haven't!  The salad was lightly dressed with a tangy and light dressing.  The pepper did not cover the sweetness of the strawberries at all, in fact, it brought out more of the flavor and gave the salad a great contrast.  One complaint, the piece of goat cheese on top was difficult to separate.  If the goat cheese was spread out, and split up into bite size pieces, it would have incorporated into the salad a lot better.  (We did this part on our own)

For our entrees we ordered the house smoked quail and the prime time sandwich.

The house smoke quail did not wow us.  The quails preparation was a little bit lacking, there was no textural difference.  Although it didn't have crispy skin, the meat was juicy and tender.  The flavor was not very special just a normal smoky flavor.  The grits was cheesy and we loved the cranberry touch to it.

The prime time sandwich was amazing and the highlight of the night.  The bread was crusty, soft, and held up to the cheese and yummy meat.  Everything about the sandwich was perfect, it blended so well, and it made one delicious bite!

Overall the meal was average, we loved the atmosphere, and the Moscow Mule was fantastic.  We would rate this place 6.5 out of 10 for price, execution, and atmosphere.

The Common Table
2917 Fairmount St

Dallas, TX 75201

(214) 880-7414

Other great eats in Vegas

Our Vegas trip was truly a gift for food lovers of all kinds.  We devoured some of the most fabulous foods down our bellies and we want to share them all with you.  Firefly and Monta Ramen were two of our highest rated picks but we also had some pretty amazing delicacies in Vegas and to be honest, it would be hard to choose one or two, so we have compounded them all in one post for you all to enjoy.  Unfortunately, I am unable to to post some of the pictures I took from there, something went wrong with my phone and it will not allow me to extract my pictures. So here is the best of what we got.

1st pick...
Raku
We will have to say, Raku is a must try!  Everything we had that night was absolutely fantastic.  Raku is not on The Strip, it is actually right next to Monta Ramen, about 10 min away from The Strip in Chinatown.  Raku is well worth the trip and you will not be sorry.  Tip:  Make your reservations well ahead of time, this restaurant is very small but always packed.  We did not get reservation in until 11:30 pm that night, but waiting for this meal was worth every second!  I also saw they have a tasting menu but you need to reserve 1-2 days ahead of time.  I am still fantasizing about our meal while writing about this.  The best thing we had that night was definitely the yakitori beef tendons.  The tendon was grilled and had a very aromatic charred flavor on the outside, but the inside was soft and luscious, and we are still drooling over it.  The flavor was very memorable and we are sad that we cannot share all of the Raku photo moments, but we still have some pictures to share with you all.

Homemade Tofu is one of their specialties.  The tofu had a strong soy bean flavor, but of course if you are not a big tofu fan, I would not recommend this.  The flavor was nothing too amazing, but it is an expected flavor for tofu lovers.

Live Uni Udon was what we truly came for.  We were so ecstatic to find out we had snatched up the last order of the night!  Cheers to that!  This was a cold real Japanese udon, with an abundance of live uni and salmon roe garnished with scallions and seaweed.  This was refreshing and a delightful  beginning to our meal.

Poached Egg with Salmon Roe and Uni was creamy and fresh to the palate.  The sauce did not over power the flavor of the egg or the freshness of the uni or salmon roe.  The combination was perfect and heavenly to our mouths, we wanted to pick up the bowl and just drink it down.

Raku
5030 Spring Mountain Rd
Las Vegas, NV 89146

Bouchon 
A restaurant of one of our beloved celebrity chefs, Thomas Keller.  This place did not disappointed us.  No matter if you are going there for a seafood feast or just grabbing some macaroons on the go at Bouchon Bakery, the Bouchon brand has it all and does it well.

Our salmon mousse and foie gras paste was food porn 101.  The texture was delicate, velvety, and rich.  The foie gras and salmon flavor was intense and really came through.  You can tell these two things were made with love and care.

The seafood tower was absolutely stunning!  Everything on the tower was succulent and fresh.  This was the ocean brought to our table.  Simplicity is the key with seafood this fresh.

Bouchon
3355 Las Vegas Blvd S
Las Vegas, NV 89109

Wicked Spoon Buffet
We caught a deal on our first day in Vegas.  We were starving when we got off the plane so we decided to go for one buffet.  Normally the price ranges from $40 plus per person at Wicked Spoon for lunch, but because we went on a weekday lunch, the buffet was only $20 per person.  SCORE!  We had unlimited roasted bone marrow, grilled baby pig, pork belly buns, smoked salmon, unlimited gelato, and lots more!  The quality was above average for a buffet and the ingredients were excellent.  We also got free mimosas with our meal, bonus!

The dessert bar was beautiful.  The Thai Tea gelato is a must try!

Wicked Spoon Buffet

3708 Las Vegas Blvd S
Las Vegas, NV 89109

Mesa Grill
We came here just for their appetizer Tiger Prawn Tamale and tea sweeten with their famous cactus pear syrup.    The tamales was very soft and moist, the sauce was creamy with a little bit of spicy on the end note, and the shrimps were cooked to perfection.  A dish done well, but we noticed the size shrunk compared to the last time we had it here. The chili oil is a nice traditional Bobby Flay sauce and garnish.  Their sweet tea was all "smiles and rainbows".  This is a very refreshing and satisfying ice tea. But make sure to sweeten it with the agave syrup from the bar.

Mesa Grill
3570 Las Vegas Blvd S
Las Vegas, NV 89109

Sage
This is one of the premiere restaurants in the hotel that we were staying at, the Aria.  We did not plan on dining here but we were in such a hurry to catch our show and this was the closest and most convenient choice at the time with a menu we found interesting.  We sat at the bar.  I must give big kudos to the bar tender for being so attentive to our needs when he had the rest of bar to take care of.  He knew we were in a hurry, so he kept an eye on every dish for us, but still made it so we were not just bombarded with a handful of dishes at once.  This was a fantastic choice, everything we had was superb!

If you do not try anything else here at the restaurant, you must try the Wagyu Tartare.  This was awesome!  The most interesting touch was the savory chocolate crisp they garnished with.  The chef really allowed the Wagyu to shine.  Everything was a perfect compliment to the delicate Wagyu.  The tied the whole dish together bringing rich and creaminess.

Grilled Octopus with White Asparagus was tasty.  The octopus were soft and tender and the white asparagus was very juicy.  The ingredients were excellent.

The Fried Sweet Breads with Pork Belly was fantastic.  This was one of the best prepared sweet breads we have had.  This is a change from the normal grilled preparations in most restaurants.  This dish was also accompanied with wild Japanese mushrooms and kale which added earthiness and toned down the richness of the dish.

Sage
3732 Las Vegas Blvd S
Las Vegas, NV 89109


We certainly experienced a lot on this trip.  Hopefully we will get to go back in the near future to explore some more!

Firefly...an amazing tapas joint!

This is by far one of the best tapas place we have ever been to!  This place stomps all of the fancy and expensive tapas restaurants.  Firefly is bustling and fun!  Located about 4 minutes away from the Strip of Las Vegas, this is a gem.  When we arrived, this place was PACKED!  We were very impressed with the service, considering the amount of people they were serving, they were cranking out small dishes very very efficiently.  We noticed a small kitchen with only a few workers, but their efficiency was equivalent to about 10 cooks.  The atmosphere of the restaurant was noisy, dark, yet very inviting.  We were very happy with the prices, everything we ordered was $10 or less, but you are definitely getting loads of flavor and ingredients that is worth more than $10.

We started out with what we thought was the best dish of the night...Anchovy Toast!  The anchovies were delicious...very good quality.  Slightly salty and perfectly paired with creamy avocado, fresh parsley, chewy baguette, and drizzled with a mildly spicy olive oil.

Skewers of spicy chorizo, shrimp, and tender steak.  These skewers were delicious!  All the components were cooked well and nothing was overdone.  This is actually pretty difficult when you have things on a skewer that cooks at different rate.  Kudos to Firefly for doing it right!

Grilled octopus with potatoes were quite tasty.  The octopus was so tender and seasoned well but it didn't cover the sweetness that came from the octopus.

This was actually surprisingly good!  A chorizo fondue ..wow YUMMY!  This came out pipping hot...the flavor was spicy yet creamy and gooey at the same time.  This was pretty addictive.

The lamb chops were excellent!  Probably one of the best dish of the night and so affordable.  For $10, we got 2 thick cuts of lamb chops, it cost that much usually just to buy the ingredient if not more.  The lamb had a very good lamb flavor, cooked to medium rare, tender, and very juicy!  We wish we had room to eat another plate =)

This last dish was the lobster escargot.  So this dish is basically a new creation of garlic butter escargot, but instead of the meats being escargot, they made this with lobster nuggets.  This was just as you would imagine...buttery, tantalizing garlic flavor, and savory goodness of the lobster meat.  How can you possibly go wrong?

Overall this was a great FIND!  This is one of the places we would hands down come back for a 2nd, 3rd, or 4th meal.  Firefly has a big menu so you could probably order different dishes every time   This place had speedy and efficient service.  I would say it's not as comfortable to sit in just because this place is always packed and there is not very much elbow room.  The food is amazing and much better than any of the highly priced Tapas places we have eaten before.  We would rate this place a 9 for service, flavor, creative dishes, and affordability.

Firefly
3900 Paradise Rd

Las Vegas, NV 89109

(702) 369-3971

Monta Ramen, a petite store with big flavors

This was definitely a GREAT find!  If you like soup noodles, soups that takes hours to make, or melt in your mouth pork belly...then this is a must try.

This place is very small with minimum seating area and a limited menu.  Their main focus is their ramen and pork belly bowl, so if you do decide to make the trip out from the Strip of Las Vegas (about a 10 min taxi ride), then you have to try their Ramen and Pork Belly Bowl.  Tip:  Anticipate a wait due to the limited seating area.  Fortunately, we were in luck...no wait!  SCORE!!!  The prices here are very reasonable for the portion and the flavor you receive.  You are definitely getting your money worth.

We ordered the Tonkotsu Ramen and a small Pork Belly Bowl.

The Pork Belly Bowl was a small size, but it was plenty for us since we totally devoured ourselves with tons of fantastic food on our trip to Vegas.  The bowl was pretty when it arrived!  The bowl was decorated with pickled ginger to cut the fattiness of the pork belly and an abundant amount of scallions to give the bowl a fresh green flavor.  Below the green and the red, was a pile of juicy, tender, and fatty pork belly gleaming at you.

Then our star...Tonkotsu Ramen.  We added extra Chashu Pork, corn, butter, and EGG (this is a definite MUST add...super soft and melt in your mouth!) to our bowl of ramen.  I have to say, this was a delight to the eye.  The portion was a good size, about the equivalent of a large bowl of Pho.  The flavor of the soup was deep and meaty, the noodles had a good bite to it and every bite had the yummy soup flavoring (we saw them cook the noodles in the slow cooked broth), the pork was drool worthy, the crisp sweet corn added an additional tastiness to the bowl, and the black fungus and bamboos added earthiness.

Overall a delicious experience...simple yet still makes us think about it all the time.  Of course not as good as the ramen you can get in Japan, but definitely pretty good for USA.  We would rate this place a 7 for flavor, price, and quality of ingredients.

Monta Ramen
5030 Spring Mountain Rd
Ste 6
Las Vegas, NV 89146