Parlez-vous français? Part Deux

I first visited Café Bretagne a few months ago, and it was quite frankly delicious.  So naturally, I had to make a return trip to this quiet little cafe.

Once again that dangerous French bread made an appearance at my table.  Last time I went with Salade Ouissant but decided to venture down a different road this go around, the Escalope de Poulet a la Normande.  This tender chicken breast is topped with a mushroom cream sauce and served up with a salad and fries.

The salad was the same rich flavored dressing that appeared on the Ouissant, and some delicious fresh veggies.

The fries were nothing to write home about, but still a good salty accent to the rich creaminess of the other items on the plate.

Unfortunately, the meal had to end, and once again that mean my will power was to be pushed to its very limit, and once again it would snap.

I suppose as on small consolation, I did try a different crepe this go around, opting for the honey crepe instead of the classic crepe I devoured last time.  This one was still devoured, but it was oh so delicious.

Now in closing, I must deliver some bad news bears upon you my loyal readers, Café Bretagne has closed its doors, now it may only be temporary but I could really use a crepe right about now... Damn diets.

KING OF THE CASTLE

So my mom's family is from St. Louis, a city rich in cultural cuisines especially in areas such as The Hill or Lafayette.  However, when we visit there, we rarely step foot in these cathedrals of dining, instead we often find ourselves wandering beneath the gleaming turrets of another institution not necessarily known for its epicurean delights.

That's right... White Castle.  The chain known for its belly bombers (as my grandpa calls them) and a crappy movie.

The low grade beef patties are artfully crafted into machined squares, grilled in a pile of onions and served up on miniature buns.

If that does not scream quality and delicious I do not know what does.  If burgers are not your thing there is always a fall back option of my favorite part of the chicken, the rings.

We come here for nostalgic reasons, but if you wander into one of these places just make sure you have some Tums at the ready for dessert.

Chillax

It is no secret that I have an ongoing love affair with Mexican breakfast cuisine.  In my previous post Lost In Translation, I hinted briefly at one of my favorites here in Houston known as Jarro Cafe.  I first became aware of this little gem from an article in Texas Monthly suggesting the 50 best Mexican restaurants in the state.  Jarro may be known for its tacos which you might find in the trailer out front...

 and crazy salsa tray but I have fallen in love with this brightly colored joint for other reasons.

This is the home of not only numerous homages to the Beatles and a good selection of classic rock, but an amazing breakfast known as Aja Baraja.  The Aja Baraja is a version of my favorite breakfast chilaquiles, fried tortillas soaked in salsa, on steroids.  The plate comes loaded with chilaquiles covered in Mexican cheese, two eggs, and a thin strip of fajita meat.

The flavor is intense to say the least, a green tomatillo salsa with some kick to it really just ties the entire dish together and has me coming back as often as I can.

Dozynki or How I Learned To Love The Polish

Festivals in my mind are a great way not only to experience the different cultures but also to get a wide sampling of food from said culture.  In that spirit, I attended the Polish Harvest Festival (Dozynki) and had a great time taking in the dancing and food, along with a beer or two.  The festival is held annually at Our Lady of Czestochowa on Blalock north of I-10 in Houston.

We were greeted by some welcoming people made from hay bales, although the ground was muddy and the weather was not exactly pleasant the festival atmosphere was still very present. 

The beer of choice for the day was Pilsner Urquell, it was cool and crisp, and perfect on a warm muggy day, if only they served it in glasses that were not designed for an 8 year old.

I certainly felt out of place in my shorts and a shirt, but it was very cool to see all of the various Polish dress and the dancing that was put on by the children.  I personally would like to have a dance off between the Polish kids and the Greek Festival kids, people with power let's see what we can do to make this happen soon.

Now on to the food, which is of course why I came here in the first place.  My love for perogies made this festival an instant attraction to me, and these certainly did not disappoint.

I went with the sampler plate to get the best variety I could, it contained bigos, Polish sausage, three types of perogies, and a cabbage roll.  Bigo, is also known as hunter stew, it is the brown pile on the plate, and contains cabbage and a variety of meats that provide unique textures and flavors with each bites.  The cabbage roll was rather bland compared to the other dishes, and the meat seemed under cooked at first look, but the sauce was rich and overall was good for a cabbage roll. The real stars of the dish were the perogies, one was meat, one was potatoes and cheese, and another was sauerkraut, all of them delicious.

All in all the Polish Harvest Festival was a blast, it was great trying some new foods that I otherwise would have never had the opportunity to try on my own.  Definitely reminded me that I need to make another trip to Polonia and get a big plate of perogies the next time I find myself near Blalock.

Not Your Typical Pizza

I have found my favorite pizza thus far in the city of Houston, and tonight I have decided share this with you.

Candelari's Pizzeria is located on Washington Avenue, just west of the roundabout located at Westcott, there are other locations around town if you check their website and do not really feel like driving.  I have been here a few times now, the beer is always a good selection, and the food is even better.

They carry two types of pizza at Candelari's, Euro-Style and Signature, the Euro is a thin pizza with some different toppings, and the signature pizza is more traditional with your standard toppings in heaping piles.

My personal favorite is the Euro, the thin pizza is amazing and the simple toppings work wonders. My personal favorite is the Quattro Formaggi pizza, a pesto pizza with smoked provolone,  gorgonzola, mozzarella, and grana padano.  Pesto is definitely my favorite pizza sauce, the smooth flavor of olive oil and basil works wonders on a pizza. The cheese create a bold blend that complement the pesto excellently, a bold kick in the mouth with each bite.

For a Signature pizza I recommend the Papa Albert's, their version of the supreme pizza, a pie loaded with Italian sausage, black olives, onions, pepperoni, bell peppers, mushrooms, and my new favorite pizza topping green olives.  The ingredients are fresh and full of flavor from the bold sausage flavors to the tangy zip of green olives, the pizza is a home run.

Candelari's claims that they are "Not Your Typical Pizzeria" and they live up to that oath, from their salads to their wide variety of pizzas, even the pasta dishes that I saw walking past me all looked delicious.  As I said earlier, Candelari's is my new favorite pizza in town and I will definitely find myself walking through these doors from time to time.

What A Twit

So some days there the logic behind Twitter is not always clear, sure it is a place for crazies like me to randomly vent to know one and annoy the few of those that actually follow you.  Once in a while though, there are great benefits of reaching out to people who are more famous than I am and quite frankly know a whole heck of a lot more.

I took advantage of this opportunity on my return trip from Corpus Christi in reaching out to Houston’s resident BBQ/Tex-Mex expert RobbWalsh.  On my trip south along Highway 59 I noticed numerous smokehouses and decided that rather than taking a stab in the dark I would reach out to Robb and get his input which of these joints my trip would be the most delicious at.

Robb pointed out Mustang Creek BBQ south of Hillje, Texas to me as the destination of my meal, and I had no desire to second guess the man.  The one problem I ran into was the location that Google Maps listed as Mustang Creek was actually a hay farm and as I began to hear the dueling banjos going off I flipped a u-turn and headed further on down the road.

To say Mustang Creek is hard to spot at 60 miles per hour might be an understatement; the restaurant is housed in an old Exxon gas station on an empty stretch of Highway.

Do not let the humble settings fool you though; the BBQ here was spot on.  I decided to follow Robb’s advice further with the Bohemian Special, a delicious sandwich piled high with brisket, smoked sausage, onions, pickles, and a smearing of sauce.  To call it amazing might be an injustice to this sandwich, the meats were perfect and the sauce was full of flavor but just in the right quantities so as not to overpower the other flavors between the pillowy soft bread.

Of course I had to get a side and the potato salad looked too good to resist and my eyes did not lead me astray.  It was creamy and full of mustard flavor that accented my meat rounding out the great meal.

I almost walked away after that but then by a chance of fate a cup of banana pudding passed by me and my weak will power gave in.  To say this might have been the best banana pudding I have had in my life (I have a personal fondness of Back Forty BBQ near my childhood home in California but I think that is more of a case of nostalgia), the creamy banana flavor and healthy dosages of mushy Nilla Wafers made this all worthwhile.

In closing, if you need any further empirical evidence that this place is worth the stop, it seems to be a favorite of state troopers patrolling along this stretch of the highway so if they are there and known by name it must be good, which probably also means you should avoid it if you have a warrant out for your arrest but hey such is life.

Judging A Book By Its Title

On a recent business trip down to Corpus Christi I left my meal choice up to a coworker that was much more familiar with the local fair, and that was definitely the choice to make.  We made our way down to The Executive Surf Club near the bay, upon hearing the name all I could think of was people dressed up in stuffy suits and over priced food, but this place was far from that.

As you can see, this place lacked anyone is stuffy attire and even included a gigantic fishing lure as a decoration.  The laid back dive bar would have fit perfectly on a beach somewhere rather than downtown Corpus which has no sand anywhere near it but hey beggars can’t be choosers.

For my choice in libations I decided to kick back with a XX Amber, and it arrived in a cold bottle that helped ease back a long day of driving and work. 

For food I decided to rock some seafood, I mean when you are within a stone’s throw of the Gulf it just seems right, and in this place I decided to trust the experts and get one of the house specials.  For that I settled on their version of fish and chips, panko breaded filets that were full of flavor and crunchification that was like a party in my mouth.  The real rock star of the dish was the tartar sauce, it was not your standard tartar sauce mind you, but a Creole tartar sauce that added a twist to the usual mayo and relish dip.

The twist in the meal was the side of battered fried, fries dipped in a batter and then fried up giving it an extra dose of healthiness.  I actually was not a big fan of them, the concept was interesting, but they just didn’t have enough flavor to make them anything special.  Good thing the fish was so awesome I was able to ignore the short comings of the fries.