Recently, several new restaurants have cropped up that feature counter service - ordering at the counter, instead of having a server take your order. While this style of service has been a hallmark of fast food for years, it's now creeping into more upscale restaurants.
Is this a bad thing?
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Watch as Chef David Guerrero prepares his superb ceviche mixto.
One of my first great restaurant experiences was a trip to the legendary San Jacinto Inn. Located in the shadow of the Battleship Texas, it was an all-you-can-eat extravaganza. The building we visited was built in 1927, and sadly closed its doors in 1987.
This video fondly recalls the restaurant, the staff, and the food. I'll never forget those amazing biscuits.
If you have trouble identifying a specific pasta, our friends at CharmingItaly.com have a handy guide that will help identify it for you. (You can click on the image to zoom in)
What kind of pasta is on your plate? by Charming Italy
OK, I feel better. It's not just me.
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Hubbell & Hudson's Bleu Cheese Burger |
A new report released by food industry consultants Technomic revealed that Americans are eating more burgers, and better ones. Nearly half of the Americans surveyed now eat burgers at least once a week.
(I think that they're all in line at Hubcap Grill when I stop by.) That's up from 38% in 2009.
Another encouraging trend - consumers are willing to spend more for better burgers. Taste and convenience were ranked ahead of price when choosing which burger to enjoy. This bodes well for Houston's wide variety of better burger joints, from burger boutiques like Burger Guys to local success story / superlative burger chain Beck's Prime.
A fact that surprises some but doesn't surprise us: 99% of Americans surveyed say that they eat some kind of burger, even if only occasionally.
Source: Huffington Post.
Summer is in full swing, and for many of us that means it's time to get outside and cook some meat. There's nothing more American than standing outside by the fire, breathing in the aroma and anticipating a delicious meal.
We're fans of grilled meat, but we're even bigger fans of real BBQ. And yes, there is a difference, as any pitmaster will tell you. Grilling is done fast, with the meat directly over a high heat source. Bar-b-cuing is done slowly, with the fire away from the meat, and the meat spending quality time in a relatively low-heat, smoky atmosphere, slowly cooking and absorbing the flavor from the smoke.
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Meat like this comes from a BBQ smoker, not a grill |
(To us, grilling is like a good song, but real smoked BBQ is like a symphony. The great smokehouses of Texas become legendary, with people driving hundreds of miles and waiting in long lines to sample their delicacies.)
So you want to BBQ at home. The first step is to determine what you want to cook. We think the place to start is with beef brisket, and we're fond of the selection at HEB.
You also need the right equipment. You need a real smoker, not just a regular grill. A quick perusal of the local big-box retailers (Lowe's, Home Depot, and Walmart) turned up plenty of outdoor grills but not a single BBQ smoker. So we did what any smart food geek would do - we asked around, and everyone suggested that we search online.
We ran across a great source for BBQ equipment (and regular grills, too.) Called csgrills.com, they're a one-stop shop for grills, BBQ smokers, and accessories. Their prices are very competitive. And for novices, they've got some handy guides including this one telling how to choose the right smoker.
Browsing the website, I felt like a kid in a candy store. They have a vast selection of grills and smokers at a wide variety of price points. They offer free shipping, too.
And if you're looking for a great gift for your favorite Houston food blogger, these guys can help.
From all of us at H-Town Chow Down, we'd like to wish all of our readers a happy and safe Independence Day. A special thanks goes out to everyone in our armed forces, both at home and abroad, who have made tremendous sacrifices to keep our nation free and safe.
Have fun out there!
Conventional wisdom tells us that eating too much saturated fat is bad for cardiovascular health. Millions of people have given up the joys of eating delicious, flavorful food in favor of something that's considered to be more "heart healthy".
Researchers at the Children's Hospital Oakland Research Institute have concluded a meta analysis of twenty-one different studies. Ranging from five to 23 years, these studies followed over 340,000 subjects, and analyzed their dietary habits, incidence of cardiovascular disease, coronary heart disease, and stroke.
When we visited Jax Burgers shortly after they opened last summer, we enjoyed the restaurant and its signature burger, but felt that it just missed the mark. The hamburger patty was a bit bland and unseasoned. But we generally liked the place, and on a sunny late June afternoon we decided to visit again.
The restaurant was just as we remembered it - sparklingly clean and full of the aroma of grilled beef. The Jax logo was prominently displayed all over the restaurant, and two flat-screen TVs were displaying a couple of different sporting events.
It was time to check and see how the burger had fared after Jax settled in. We ordered at the counter, and our burger promptly arrived. We bit in, and had a surprise...
A very pleasant surprise.
We're happy to report that the previous problem we had with the burger has been addressed, and addressed well. The beef patty is still a half-pound of never frozen beef, but it's now sporting a lively seasoning of black pepper and just the right amount of salt. The bite of the pepper is front and center, and it plays a nice counterpoint to the rich flavor of the high fat content beef. There's a new swagger, and a bold, beefy flavor that is worthy of the lovingly hand-formed patty. The difference is like night and day.
The patty was griddled to a nice medium - hints of pink were still present in the center. The thickish slice of good quality American cheese was nicely melted, and the eggy bun also spent some quality time on the flat top, and the result was a gloriously oozy burger. Veggies were fresh, but not terribly crisp.
Interestingly, the burger arrived upside-down - something we can't recall ever seeing before.
We're glad to find that the staff at Jax have improved this burger, and we welcome Jax into the upper echelon of Houston burger joints.
Keep up the good work, guys!
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Water reclamation system at Whole Foods |
Peanut butter grinding. This is a station where you can grind and jar
your own peanut, almond, or cashew butter.
Bulk area includes barbecue rubs and seasonings,
including a tethering system that discourages "scooper-sharing" from
container-to-container, a big pet-peeve of mine.
Wine bar, conveniently located right by the
cheese counter, that opens at 8am, which, oh, BTW, offers 24 beer taps. I'm
thinkin', if you take advantage of this amenity, you may want to bring a designated
driver AND shopper.