Making the lineup...

The rugrats are heading back to town!  The rugrats are heading back to town!

The excitement is palpable and I am starting to run around like a chicken with it's head cut off.  You see, I have to create a schedule.  Now it is certainly not hard to come up with things to do in the greater Houston area.  That is the easy part.  The hard part is to not to cram too many things in...

On top of all of that, my lovely young lady sent me a gift over the weekend that will be sure to be a hit when the rugrats arrive.  I received a milkshake maker and a book with recipes for making syrups and sundae toppings.  She really is the best...

In my mis-spent youth, I worked at a restaurant with an old fashioned soda/ice cream station so I got good at making milkshakes, ice cream floats, egg creams, sundaes, and the like.  The book has recipes for making homemade cola syrup, New Orleans Mead (root beer), and all of the fruit syrups.  I know that the young 'uns and I will have fun.

So... we have a trip to Galveston on tap (of course), and I still have not gotten out to the NASA Space center (Johnson Space Center for those of us "in the know"), and I just found out that there is a place that has trampolines all over the place.  And then, there are all of the restaurants...

Going to be a good visit.  Guess I should clean the place up a bit...

Group heaven

Last night, I was invited to a gathering of folks at a place called Simone's on Sunset for dinner and drinks.  I was invited by the wonderful proprietor of 14 Pews, Cressandra Thibodeaux.  She introduced me to a number of folks that were more than willing to educate me on the happenings/groups in the Houston area.

That is one of the best things about the Houston area... the friendliness.  I have frequented most of the major metropolitan cities in the US and the folks here in Houston have been some of the friendliest people to us "transplants" (ranking right up there with St. Louis in my mind).  The people I met last night were very enthusiastic about all of the happenings going on in Houston and were anxious to share.

It was also just wonderful to be sitting outside on an April evening.  I just keep telling myself "I'll never be cold again" with a big ole' smile on my face.  Having said that the drinks were a bit pricey ($5 a glass for the Happy Hour merlot) and $10 a piece for a smallish pizza that were really pedestrian in taste and had a rather chewy crust.  But aside from those nit-picky things, the evening was rather enjoyable.  The company you keep can make up for a whole lot... Salut!

Tapas in Rice

Asparagus spears and a fantastic Artichoke heart salad
 with a great vinaigrette.

I do loves me some Tapas...

Had a wonderful treat last night and visited Mi Luna (thank you, Groupon).  I have always been a fan of Tapas because of its nature.  It is a share-able notion.  You order a plate and a group of you share the food. That way... the offerings that you can sample expand according to the number of folks in attendance.  When I was in Spain (Bilbao), you could actually roam to other folks tables/bars and sample the offerings they had and vice versa (have fork, will travel).  It is actually a lot of fun.

The other lovely thing about the evening is that Mi Luna is situated in the Rice Village.  This neighborhood (adjacent to Rice University) is a real treat to wander around and contains a real plethora of shops and restaurants.  From a chocolate bar, used book shop, a couple of wonderful furniture shops and even a Sherwin Williams paint store thrown in for good measure.  After dinner, just walking around the residential area is wonderful with all of the Live Oak trees lining the streets.

Wonderful way to spend an evening...

A Hanoi sandwich..?

It is with a deeply held shame that I write this post...  I allowed my euro-centric mindset to keep me from allowing the possibility of something different.  I was so convinced that the Earl of Sandwich's concoction could ONLY be applied to American and European cuisine that when I saw the sign for b10 Vietnamese Cafe (on Westheimer) which advertised soups AND sandwiches, I admit to have been taken aback.  A Vietnamese sandwich?

Now, I will readily admit that I consider myself to be quite the sandwich connoisseur.   To my rather simplistic way, there are few things that can satisfy my appetite like a sandwich.  So I happily charged into the b10 Cafe to make a discovery.  What I found there was absolutely wonderful.  The b10 does have the more readily associated Vietnamese soups and rice spring rolls (I got a shrimp roll with a wonderful peanut sauce), but I was tickled to find that they offered beef, chicken and pork sandwiches.

I thoroughly enjoyed my beef sandwich.  The beef strips were prepared with what I always considered more traditional Vietnamese garnish and seasonings and it was delightful.  I will be going back.  I picked up the "to-go menu".

Walking photos...

Had a very pleasant weekend.  Well...actually, I had a very pleasant Sunday.  Saturday was spent cleaning the apartment.

But on Sunday I drove out to Spring, Texas (actually, they call it Old Town Spring) for something called a photo walk.  Now I have always been a sucker for kitsch and touristy places, and this place was a good example of what I like.  Everything from a shop that sells bathtub rubber duckies, to artisan shops, to very patriotic wares.

The shops were all very colorfully painted and inviting.  Next to the Loose Caboose (a railway car turned into a restaurant) there was a wonderful band playing 70s and 80s music.  A guitar and a bass player was all that was needed.  Sitting and listening for a couple of hours...  Life is good.

The Brits and the Woods...

Did a northern exploration this past weekend.  Discovered a place called The Woodlands (yes, the word 'The' is a part of the title of the burg).  It is a rather... um...pretty suburb north of Houston.  What I mean by my hesitancy is that it also seemed very sterile.  One of those places that has been built to be hip.  It was perfectly nice.  There is a man-made stream/creek/river that is lit wonderfully and the restaurants and bars are nicely placed for easy access.  I ended up eating at Bar Louie and had a nice burger (I think)... and I guess that is the issue I had with the area, everything was very pleasant but as my friend (who lives there) told me... "Welcome to Stepford".  That is the perfect way to describe the place.

The next evening I finally found a wonderful British Pub called the Baker Street Pub and Grill.  Enjoyed a shepherd's pie and a rather interesting peach cider.  The place was absolutely marvelously decorated and laid out.  But the most interesting thing about the whole evening was the employees.  One word - young.  It got to be funny how our waitress would just appear seemingly out of nowhere, interrupt the conversation and ask how we were doing.  It almost got to be a game with us trying to guess when she would appear again.

That is one of the best things about living in a large city.  Variety.  Nothing is predictable and that is quite frankly, the spice of life.  Viva le Difference...

All about the food...

I went to eat at a wonderful Italian restaurant last night.  The service at Mancuso's Italian Table was simply wonderful and the lobster ravioli was fabulous.  The house wine was close to the edge, but acceptable.  Now, this column is not going to be a restaurant review (although if the fantastic people at Mancuso's read this and want to give me a free meal...).  I want to use my experience last night as an example of the wide variety of offerings in my new city.  Now, bear with me...

In my six weeks here in Houston, I have dined at two Italian, one Vietnamese, two Greek, one cajun, one middle eastern, one Japanese, three Mexican/Tex-Mex and two Chinese restaurants.  Now here is the kicker...all but one of them were within walking distance to my apartment and the other one was with a ten minute drive.  This also does not count the national chains (McDonalds, Subway, Sonic, Bennigans, Chipolte, Pot Belly's, etc..) that I will reluctantly admit to visiting.  Being the person that I am... it is really great to be here.  I am so enamored with the diversity of offerings that this city has to present.

Now I have only scratched the surface in my food journey.  As I have said previously, this is a vibrant, exciting city of over two million people and growing (yes, growing).  Now, I may end up weighing over three hundred pounds by the time I am finished sampling and enjoying everything but that is a risk I am willing to take...

...I have GOT to try that Fondue restaurant.  I just love the thought of that.