Food and drink roundup (11-20-2004 edition)
We're running a few days behind on the food and drink update, as life has intruded on the blogging lately -- that, and the Houston Press web redesign was so extensive that the link to Robb Walsh's column was broken for a while. It's just not a food and drink roundup without that guy.
Empanadas are a favorite in Houston, and this week Robb Walsh checks out Marine's Empanadas:
In the course of writing this review, a strange coincidence came to light. A restaurant called Original Marini's Empanada House (3522 South Mason Road) has recently opened in Katy's Cinco Ranch neighborhood. It is owned by none other than Sergio "Alex" Marini, the son of the old Westheimer Marini's founders, Leonilda and Marcello Marini, who also are helping out at the new spot. The new restaurant reportedly features the same monkey juice and Viva Zapata empanadas that were originally concocted at the Westheimer location in the 1970s.
No doubt there are lots of other menu similarities between Marine's Empanadas at Richmond and Hillcroft and the freshly resurrected Original Marini's Empanada House in Katy. That's because the two restaurants share a much-beloved common ancestor. And both are helping to keep the fond memories alive.
blogHOUSTON readers will, of course, recall that Alison Cook visited the Original Marini's in Katy a few weeks ago.
This week, Cook stays in Houston (!) to pay a visit to Monica Pope's T'afia:
The beauty of T'afia is that it presents you with food worth thinking about. Now I'm less reluctant to mix and match (b3r beef filet with a crystalline, seasoned sea salt? yum), then pick one of the enticing $5 side dishes that include Pope's famous vegetables, many of them organic.
Here's where her longtime passion for sustainable agriculture and local growers really shines: In farmer Lola Daniel's glorious shell beans, perhaps bathed in a sherried vinaigrette; in glossy baby spinach leaves that seem to be five minutes from the garden; in a milky gratin of potato and the haunting, underutilized gem known as celery root. These are the kinds of dishes that make me happy to be alive.
Most of all, though, I'm happy that chef Pope and her partner, Andrea Lazar, have finally created a world from scratch. Goodbye, landlords, pint-size kitchens, immutable buildings and decor. With T'afia's pristine brick rectangle gutted and a huge kitchen built on, the pair are free to indulge their taste for modern design and local artists.
So T'afia is all of a piece, from its enormous paper lanterns in the garden room to the alluring Ratafia Royale cocktails. Coriander and lemon verbena never tasted so good as they do melded with vodka, white wine and a dash of sugar, then fizzed with inexpensive champagne. This is inspired cooking in a flute goblet, an evocative way to begin -- or end -- a meal.
Foodies have always loved Pope, and from the sounds of it, this restaurant will be an even bigger hit with them than her Boulevard Bistro, my favorite brunch joint in its heyday.
Dai Huynh interviews Robert Gadsby, who is overseeing the opening of Houston's rendition of his Noé restaurant (at the Omni Hotel). He's spending big money and making big promises:
Noé-Houston is the springboard to produce the style of cuisine I really like to do -- the recipes where Robert Gadsby can strut.
Strut away.
Finally, Ken Hoffman ponders IHOP's obscene caramel combos. Breakfast, dessert, who really knows? General Mills started us in this direction with Cookie Crisp. It's only a matter of time before chocolate cake is just another breakfast food.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 11/20/04 11:52 PM | Print |
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