Here’s a guest blog from Sonia Gilmore on The Spicy Pickle. Thanks Sonia for your contribution and I look forward to having you guest write again in the near future.

One workday afternoon last week, we played five Texas Medical Center co-workers in search of a luncheon spot and stumbled upon the Spicy Pickle restaurant located at 1333 Old Spanish Trail, Suite 100-A (corner of Kirby and OST).  Spicy Pickle is a franchise of “fast-casual” dining restaurants with plans to develop 7 Houston area locations. Spicy Pickle serves paninis, subs, pizzettis, soups, salads and other standard fare accompanied by the eponymous spicy pickle.  For those looking to save money under their “PickleNomics” section of the menu, they offer “Build Your Own” sub or panini, or the “Double Dilly-O.” We all decided to try this option where for $6.45 + tax, one can choose any two from the following: ½ sandwich, soup, salad, or chips, plus one gets a 22 oz. fountain drink. They do charge $1.00 extra for the forest and spinach salad (pictured here).

Spicy Pickle Mesquite Turkey



I ended up going with the Mesquite Turkey on Honey Wheat Ciabatta bread and Greek salad. The salad consisted of romaine lettuce, red onions, kalamata olives, green peppers, cucumbers, pepperoncini peppers and tomatoes served with a generous heaping of feta cheese and red wine vinaigrette to top it off.  The artisan bread was crusty and fresh, the kind that one imagines is birthed from a stone oven first thing in the morning.  The salad was crisp and had just the right amount of dressing although they offered to put it on the side for me. I was pleased with the flavor as well as the overall presentation.

Spicy Pickle claims their food has no MSGs, no preservatives, no additives or fillers, and no artificial flavors. By no small coincidence, most of my coworkers are from the South -  either from Texas or Alabama; the latter of which is known for its home cooking.  That notwithstanding, they all enjoyed the unique combination of ingredients in many of the dishes. My colleague Kristy who had the Sausalito Bandido Panini (Sausalito turkey, roasted red peppers, sundried tomatoes, pepperjack and chipotle mayonnaise)  accompanied by a small spinach salad said, “The panini was one of the best I’ve ever had – the combination of flavors made this sandwich anything but ordinary.”  Another colleague Nancy a.k.a. “The Cake Lady” lauded both the Bastille Panini (Portobello mushrooms, roasted red peppers, smoked mozzarella, red onions, tomatoes, alfalfa sprouts and sundried tomato mayo) and Corn Chowder soup for their generous portions, fresh ingredients, and flavor.  Our resident vegetarian, Kissou remarked of the Bastille Panini, “that they weren’t skimpy the veggies and they were cooked just right.” When veggies are all you eat, this comes as a great value. On a low note, TK said that the first time she took a chance on the Spicy Pickle, she ordered a rosemary sub, but ended up with a Panini.  This time was her second visit. She did appreciate the spiciness of the pickle though–as did we all.

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.

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

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/