Duck Confit Leg

I’m not sure why it’s taken me so long to review Catalan – it’s one my favourite restaurants in Houston and I’ve been there numerous times. I think it is because each time I go there I feel like there is so much to the restaurant for me to get to know. On my recent visit, our friend Ethel from Los Angeles was visiting us in Houston for New Years. We had been thinking about going out of town to Austin or San Antonio, but we figured we’d have a better time just staying in town in Houston – so the restaurant search was on. Booking a New Years dinner a week before is a challenge, so it’s also the time I am thankful for the Amex Platinum. Every year I try to convince myself to get rid of this high fee beast, but then I find some reason to hold me back. Well… Amex came through this year and got us the booking at Catalan.

Catalan is one of those restaurants that successfully reinvented itself from what it started off as. Originally it was a tapas/Spanish restaurant; this was when Houston was going through it’s tapas fad. This fad was destined not last very long in a city where people like their plates BIG. To help things transition, entered former Brennan’s Sous-Chef, Chris Sheppard. Like his buddy and former Brennan’s Chef, Randy Evans, Chris is very much into the local farmers markets and sourcing ingredients close to home. So expect to see many season and local ingredients in the dishes. Chris’ Brenna’s background is easily noticeable in Catalan’s menu.

Black Drum Gumbo

The new menu retained many small plates to allow diners to sample various flavours in tapas size along with some of Houston’s best wine selections. Big Texas and southern flavours now proliferate the large plates to please the local palates. Constant favourites on the menu are the shrimp with goat cheese grits, Berkshire pork chop, and roasted bone marrow. If you see “sweet potato gratin” in any form on the menu, be sure to get it. Sweet potatoes and cheese are flavours I would have never thought to combine at home, but this side is buttery sweet goodness at its best -  slightly sweet and salty. You would want to order it again as dessert.

The night we visited the duck that Ethel ordered was the best dish. It was a seared confit leg and thigh – perfectly briny and a little sweet. My wife had the “black drum gumbo with hush puppies”. It had a different name on the menu, but basically it was a gumbo. The roux was robust with taste of oregano and file,  browned and tasty, but just like any other dark roux it could and did become a little too much for a night’s meal. My dish was a seared red snapper fillet over a sweet corn chowder. The chowder was in the natural corn’ starches, and not creamy, which was made for a lighter, more corn tasting dish.

Snapper over Sweet Corn Chowder

The desserts are very focused on local nuts and fruits. With pecans’ being in season at this time the sweet potato creme brulee with pecan compote, Texas apple tarts, or Pecan tarts with espresso will not disappoint. Dessert here is on the expensive side, but all are original, made in house and most of all – delicious.

Bread Pudding

I cannot believe we missed our 9.00 am flight back to Houston on Christmas Eve. Still in the holiday mood, I figured our loss was someone else’s gain. The next 3 flights were oversold so we got confirmed on the 6.30 p.m. flight back to Houston. The past week in Orlando was great – 3 days in Disney world. We took a seat in the airport and thought about what we’d do with the rest of our day. After considering our food options in the airport and the fact it was Christmas Eve, we decided to rent a car and spend the better part of our day at either Downtown Disney or Universal Orlando. P.S. We had already returned our $45/day rental car to Alamo; 1 hour later they wanted $95 for the same car.I declined, then called the 1-800 number to National and got the same car for $60.

We had wanted to be back in Houston to do Nochebueno with some decadent food; we knew the food offerings at Downtown Disney would not be too exciting as well as being expensive, so we headed for Universal Orlando’s Citywalk which has some pretty good restaurants.

It took us less than 15 minutes to get to Universal Orlando, and a maybe 10 more minutes to get parked and walk to Citywalk. From a previous visit we had remembered eating good at NBA City and the Bob Marley Jamaican restaurant; so one of those would be just fine.  To our surprise when we entered Citywalk we saw a menu for Emeril’s at the Information Center. The menu looked great and we saw that they had a kid’s menu available – good news for us!

My wife opted for the set lunch, which a good deal at $18.50. It includes an appetizer, entree, and dessert. The gumbo appetizer was one of the better gumbos I’ve had in a restaurant. It was made using a rich dark seafood roux with ample amounts of andouille sausage inside and seafood stock. The short rib entree was tender, but lacking the pronounced beef flavour that is more common in Texas.

The chicken was nice – it was a french cut chicken with a crispy crust that held in the juicy meat below. The herbs were balanced, but in chicken was under salted. It could have been benefited from having been brined first. The dish comes with herbed mashed potatoes and Kurobuta bacon smothered green beans. I’ve been a fan of Kurobuta every since I had the world’s best pork chop at Brennan’s a few years back.  The use of pork seems to be pretty popular in many of the dishes at Emeril’s restaurant, so if you don’t eat pork you will have much fewer options. For dessert we shared her Almond Croissant Bread Pudding which was amazing. It wasn’t too sweet and the texture was velvety.

If you’ve been wanting to try a Emeril’s restaurant out, lunchtime in Orlando may be your best bet. You’re already on vacation.

6000 Universal Blvd. #702
Orlando, FL 32819
ph: 407 224 2424

We’ve been waiting for the opening of the Houston outpost of the California restaurant, Straits, for a while so we were exited to be going there. It’s located at the bottom of a hotel in front of a grassy courtyard, so good location and nice frontage.

The restaurant has a nice concept. It is part lounge, part bar, and then a modern dining room. All seating is modern and very classy. The kitchen is stainless steel, including the back splashes so it feels very clean. Most south east Asian restaurants in Houston are dives or smaller so Straits will immediately seem different. You would not know this is Singapore/Malaysian restaurant from the outside or inside decoration i.e. there’s not mask, teak wood, or kites hanging from the walls. Sitting in the dining already you can hear the DJ inspired music from the bar but the dining area continues to feel as a part of the larger space.

I don’t typically gripe about the next thing that I have to gripe about, so I will keep it short… Please loose the the dancers (or dancer outfits); it’s not necessary to make the place cool, it cheapens the experience and clashes with the “family style dining” – this is not Patpong.

We started with the lollipop chicken, which are frenched drummettes, fried, and covered in a dark caramelized soy based sauce. We liked the spice level, but thought the heavy sugar application of the sauce was a little bit too much. Once you started biting in, a rude taste of cayenne came at the same time. This dish looks beautiful, but I would not order it again.

For our mains, we ordered the rendang tamales and the Singapore chili crab. You can actually order this dish with lobster or crab. I was surprised that it was a fixed price. Usually crab or lobster is market priced. The crab was smaller than I expected but the taste was wonderful. Very well balanced spicy, with sweetness coming from the peppers, and a crab broth. I love thi dish, but at $38, arghhh.. I’ll have to think about it. The rendang tamales we actually a corn husk topped with cream maid polenta infused with keffir limes, then short rib rendang on top. I’ve been rendang for years, but never had it non-spicy. The short ribs are a good introduction for anyone new to rendang. They had all the taste of rendang without being spicy. At home I usually use boneless short rib to make rendang, so the taste was very familiar. I would have liked the dish better with some kind of sauce. Rendang does not always have a sauce, but this dry rendang on top of polenta really needs one to liaise it. A fried or grilled polenta would have been much better. Since the timing on the food is still coming together, a sauce will help to keep the dish tasty after it has cooled too much.

Rendang Tamales

The dessert has a few stand-outs, we opted for the coconut tres leches. It was nice, but needs more height and more coconut flavour – maybe roasted shredded coconut in the cake. I was surprised not to see iced kankang or a coconut pudding or jelly dessert. With all the keffir lime on the menu, maybe keffir lime pie or keffir lime ice cream. 

Our waitress was attentive and quick, but still learning the restaurant. Her friendliness more than made up for any mistakes. The waitstaff in general was helpful and professional. This restaurant is suffering from what most suffer from a week or 2 into opening… Kitchen timing, unfamiliarity with the menu, running out of ingredients, staff who has not yet tasted enough of the items on the menu. All of these can be worked out; we’ll be back in a month or 2 as we do expect improvements, but we will be recommending this place to friends. All in all, we had a great time and I think this one is a keeper – just drop the Patpong decor.

Straits

www.straitsrestaurants.com

800 West Sam Houston Pkwy N
Houston, TX 77024

Drat. The restaurant we were looking for in the guidebook was no longer in business. After making a 3rd turn around the corner we had to think quickly before our 3 year old would have had enough. We decided to head down Broadway, just south of the downtown where there is a diverse selection of restaurants. There the big yellow awning stood out to us – Banana Leaf. ” Banana Leaf ” is the most popular name for a Malaysian restaurant. Most are not affiliated with each other.

The Banana Leaf in Vancouver has 3 locations. We were at the 820 West Broadway location. The other locations serve mostly the same menu – with some variations, so if you are going there for a specialty, call first to inquire if it’s available that day. If you drive to the restaurant park around back; there are about 10 spaces. The restaurant is decorated in vibrant yellows and reds with cloth and paper accents on the wall and hanging from the ceiling. There are different souvenirs and posters from Malaysia as decoration. We started out with the usual roti canai, which is a flat Indian bread served with a small bowl of curry sauce for dipping. It was good. Still to date the best roti canai I’ve had has been at “Banana Leaf”  in Daly City (just south of San Francisco) California where it is prepared and stretched by hands when you order. The Daly City Banana Leaf is one of the few Malaysian restaurants in the States with Chicken Rendang.

Chicken Satay

The satay was done correctly – the first bite is crispy, then tender and juicy underneath. They were was seasoned well with turmeric, coriander, lemon grass. We decided to go with the lunch specials; each is served with rice and vegetables in a slightly sweet coconut curry. We chose beef rendang and curry chicken. We asked for each to be very spicy since we knew that a 10* spice level in Vancouver is about a 5*-6* back home. Neither came out spicy, however the rendang was still enjoyable.

Next time I will try the chili prawns or a crab dish, since fresh seafood is one of Vancouver’s greatest strengths. Note that if you are visiting during lunch time, it’s best to narrow your choices down to a few before calling your server over.

Beef Rendnag

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Located in Yaletown in Vancouver, BC, the cool modern interior is fronted by a large awning covered patio where you can dine al fresco – which is usually fine in Vancouver’s great weather. Opt for the outdoor seating if you are visiting from out of town. The restaurant features yakitoris of various types. They have kobe beef meatball, wild salmon, ginger glazed chicken, Louisiana fried oyster, tempura mushroom, scallops, short ribs , 7 spice rare ahi  tuna, and rosemary lamb. Each is served with accompaniment of Asian slaw marinated in a sesame and ginger vinaigrette atop a crispy papadum. We ordered two yakitoris in the bar area and received double the slaw. This was fantastic since the slaw is light and plenty enough to serve as a salad when dining.

Once we were seated we were given fresh in house maid cinnamon sugar donuts – more like donettes since they were very small. This was a great alternative to bread and butter. But be careful, they are delicious and crispy, so I could imagine myself grabbing a handful and  throwing them into my mouth. My wife was not quite ready to order so she asked me to order first. I  ordered 5 different yakitoris. Individually they are priced from 1.85 to 3.50 CAD; you can get a selection of 10 for 24.00 which is shareable.  The waiter responded with thank you and left. He had seemed a little rushed earlier so I figured he was going grab something and would be right back. While the waiter was gone my wife and I discussed that possibly he thought the order was large enough for the 2 of us – thus the reason he rushed off without taking her order.  When the food arrived I was a little shocked. I did not think it would feed even me. I asked the waiter to come back over. I told him that my rife would like to order now. She decided on a Caesar salad – which I recommend anyone passing on; it was nothing special with big cut of romaine and a pretty generic Caesar dressing.

Various Yakitoris

There’s a lack of starches on the menu so we placed an order for the home fries. You may just consider going starchless and then after your meal crossing the street to the bakery to grab a slice of bread. The short rib yakitori  was tender and beefy as slow cooked short ribs should be. I also enjoyed the 7 spice rare ahi tuna and panko crusted oyster. Pass on the Kobe beef meatball; the marinara and herbs in the meatball mask any thoughts you would have that the beef was Kobe – the tenderness could have just as well come from the plenitude of breadcrumbs. The oyster is fried in a panko breading and lightly seasoned with Cajun spices. Its like a small hush-puppy with an oyster inside. After finishing the yakitori and  salad we ordered another oyster and chicken; the chicken varies in quality depending on whether you are given a wider or longer piece. The longer pieces are grilled better and have less fat.

Your best bet is to go to Glowbal at night and order yakitoris along with a drink. After our meal, my wife and I looked around and noticed that most tables were eating brunch – eggs, bacon, and home fries. We left wondering if we should have done the same. – M.G.

Yakitori Menu - at the Time We Visited

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I had noticed the Beard Papa’s in San Francisco on a recent trip, but with a hungry 3 year old at 7pm it’s no time to stop for cream puffs. So when when were  in Vancouver a few weeks ago I thought the store sign looked familiar. Since our daughter was sleep in the car and my wife was getting coffee I asked her to grab me a cream puff. I figured, it’s worth a try -  at least once. So she grabbed a few and we headed over to Stanley Park to sit in the car next to water. It was sunny and in the mid 60’s – so gotta love it.

The bread was light and airy, but substantial. It didn’t collapse after I bit into it. The cream puffs are made daily with no preservatives, which was great to hear. Sure, if you can make pate a choux you won’t be impressed, but for most of us, you will appreciate this home made tasting puff pastry without going through all the work. Each cream puff is filled with a custard and whipped cream filling.

We tried both the vanilla bean and chocolate filled puffs. We both agreed the vanilla was the better of the 2. If you’re in the mood you can purchase their cream puffs by the dozens for a party or tea. And they all come in a handy yellow carrying case. I’d just wish their bag was not so bright yellow so that everyone wouldn’t know what I’m carrying – delicious cream puffs!

Beard Papas
http://beardpapascanada.com/

Okonomi - Not the best of Pics

I’ve just eaten the best hotdog ever – at Japadog in Vancouver, B.C. I ordered a Terimayo (all beef hotdog with teriyaki sauce, nori seaweed, Japanese mayonnaise, and fried onions and a Okonomi (kurobuta pork sausage, fried cabbage, bonito flakes and a special sauce, which is similar to tonkatsu sauce but lighter and with less vinegar. The Okonomi was my favourite, but both were delicious. All these are tastes are very common in Japan but I had never thought to combine them atop a hotdog. From looking at the other hot dog stands surrounding the Burrad shopping areas it is easier to see that Japa Dog is king; they have 3 locations in Vancouver – all on the west side of town.

There are 2 lines at the Japadog stand. I figured I get into the longer one to place my order. To my surprise, the longer line is to pickup and shorter one is to order, however the wait was well worth it. These hotdogs are a little on the pricery side, but compared to everything else in Vancouver, where a small bottle of water can be $2.00, I say the price is fare.

You should not have a problem finding the Japa Dog cart; it will be the one with a long line of Japanese students hanging out around it. I am already planning to try to recreate these delicious hot dogs at home. Wish me luck finding a kurobuta pork sausage..hmmm.

Japa Dog

http://www.japadog.com/en/

Chicken Salad Sandwich Toasted

Familiar way of eating a lunch – from a brown bag, just like in elementary school. This and fresh baked sandwich breads are the allure of my favorite sandwich shop in Houston.  Ordering is simple. You pick up a clipboard which has a menu and pencil attached for your convenience. The menu is literally a brown bag on which you custom build your sandwich; your choice of fresh baked breads, Boars Head meats and cheeses, vegetables and spreads. To complete the meal there are a good selection of chips, fruits, coleslaw, and red potato salad. This counter service restaurant uses a little higher quality ingredients than most sandwich shops – such as red onions, deli pickles and cheeses, and green lettuce rather than iceberg. Their chicken salad  and tuna salad sandwiches are big on high quality, lower salt meats; and not big on mayonnaise. i.e. The over abundance of mayo and saltiness are sure signs of pre-packed salad.

There is a good selection of drinks available such as ice tea, lemonade, and premium sodas. The breads are big a part of the taste; they are made from long rising sweet sourdoughs with chewy, brioche like texture to them. This gives them a nice bite and artisan feel that you can savour without having to rip your teeth into or gnaw on. All breads are all locally sourced.

The restaurant has a little bit of an artsy, funky chic look to it with aluminum buckets and chairs for a sort of Austin feel. There is also free wi-fi at many of the locations for your studying pleasure. I am hoping that this becomes standard at all locations. While waiting for sandwich check your e-mail on one of the free computers or read one of the magazines. Note that the menu brown bag can be printed on website and filled in ahead of time. So if you have a co-worker who has to work through lunch you can get him/her exactly what they want.

The Brown Bag Deli

http://thebrownbagdeli.net/

Rice balls with Adzuki Beans

In Kyoto’s Gion district, near Shimbashi street on the there is a red bridge which is a well known spot for catching a glimpse of a passing Maiko and for seeing photographers taking pictures of both Maikos, models, and those trying to look like models. Directly across from the bridge you will find one of Kyoto’s most famous tea houses – Gion Kamori.
 

Gion-Komori

61 Motoyoshi-cho, Gion Shimbashi
Higashiyama-ku; (075) 561-0504

Use the north-side of red bridge as your reference, then look for a sign-on a stand in front of a machiya style building. Note that there is no sign out front and non-Japanese readers could walk up and down the street a few times before finding the tea house. However once inside you will find that Gion Kamori is welcoming to foreigners. Here you will find traditional Japanese sweets like sweet rice balls and yatsuhashi along side of new ones like green tea ice cream or parfaits. The tea house also serves traditional Japanese teas like sencha, macha, and oolong. When visiting opt for table near the inside garden. The seating is traditional Japanese style ( low table and sitting on the floor on a tatami mat); try to get a table close to the to small garden outside; it is very relaxing. Kyoto can be very cold in the winter and very humid and hot in the summer. A cold macha iced tea with a cold dessert helps the day go better. In winter opt for a hot tea. I use the term dessert loosely since in Japan you can expect to always receive a small sweet when ordering tea. On a diet? – no problem, you’ve already noticed that you are walking more here than in Tokyo. Note that if you are obviously not Japanese, the waitress may offer you something safe.. this is being done out of politeness. however, if you want more than ice creamor sweet rice balls, just ask for a menu. Say “menu please” or in Japanese “menu o kudasai”.

Entrance to Gion-Komori

Of the 3 teas I mentioned, macha is the least known in the States. Macha is a finely powdered green tea. It is whisked by hand using a chasen (tea whisk) with hot water. In Kyoto I learned that there are many grades of macha. The better quality ones are sweet and creamy. I spent some time visiting with Horaido-san at this tea shop in Kyoto’s Termimachi district. Here is a good link to learn more abut Japanese green tea Horaido Tea Shop. There are many books on how to make macha, but I enjoyed getting the first hand details from Horaido-san himself. When entering his store in Terimachi you get a sense for what the area looked like 100 years ago. Many of the the surrounding stores were built recently, but if you close your eyes you can picture this team shop’s being there long before there was electricity. In fact it was built in 1803. I learned that there are over a dozen varieties of macha available. The cheaper ones are more bitter and have an astringent quality. I had the pleasure of trying some “Miyako-no-shiro” which is one of the highest grades of macha. It was smelled fantastic, and hot a top cream that made me feel like I was eating whip cream.

Macha Green Tea

Mike meets Horaido-san in Terimachi

The perfect snack for you macha or sencha is yatsuhashi. It’s a rice flour snack often flavoured with cinnamon. Fresh Yatsuhashi does not last long so most visitors to Japan or a Japanese airport will be familiar with the cookie version. Both are made from a thin sheet of rice flour. The fresh kind is stuffed with sweet potato, yuba, or mung beans. The dry kind is more akin to a cookie and is often covered with different chocolate flavours like green tea, strawberry, or or milk chocolate. Since neither the fresh or cookie type is very sweet they will go well with a cup of hot tea.

Young Girls in front of Gion Kamori

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La Brocante is a small french restaurant located on Houston ’s west side in the Royal Oaks area. The inside has an early 20th century Frech look which is surprising since it is located in a small strip mall – which is very common in Houston . The restaurant is run by well known local chef Chef George Guy and his wife; she serves as both hostess and head server. The food is presented daily on a chalkboard, with a few off the board dishes.

We were there for lunch on a Friday afternoon. Surprisingly there was only 1 other table occupied, which seems a shame since I felt like all this good food was waiting for somebody to eat it. We started with the ritelle (a sort of duck confit hash) and pate canard, which was done ia a force-meat style. I am not sure where they source their baguettes, but I would like to know; they are delicious. The ritelle was tender with nice hints of juniper berries, but think I’d pass on the pate, which was bland in taste. I ordered the duck confit, which is served with thinly sliced potatoes, rather than the traditional cassoulet. The potatoes are almost like potato chips, very crispy but tender and al dente inside. The duck confit had a thin layer of cracker meal breading on it which could have been left off. I like my duck confit with crispy skin. You know the kind that is salty, crispy, and melts in your mouth.

My companions had a duck confit and goat cheese salad and the salmon grantinee. The duck confit and goat cheese salad is a salad with an herbed vinegrette and a phyllo dough purse containing duck confit meat and soft goat cheese. The goat cheese is creamy and slightly sweet, which helps to balance the cured saltiness of the duck. Presentation and taste wise, this is a better entree to replace the duck confit.

The salmon gratinee was the star of the day. It is served cooked with potatoes, swiss cheese, and freshly house smoked salmon chunks. It is creamy but not too much so. Hints of cumin provided a delicious earthy taste which prevented the dish from taking off into the French supercream sky.

The restaurant will not thrill non-French food eaters, but could very well keep a good croud of those over 30.

La Brocante

2825 S Kirkwood Rd
Houston, TX 77082

(281) 556-0606