Houston Food Blog

​In college we knew this guy who was always trying and failing to organize a fundraiser around drinking.

He clearly never talked to Cathy Clark, who runs Live It Big, a charity dedicated to helping small nonprofits get off the ground. Many of Clark's "camps" educate attendees about spirits or beer, with the most recent focusing on whiskey.

Led by Ryan Rouse last Saturday at Branch Water Tavern, the event featured four cocktails, five whiskey samples and plenty of engaging information.

Though still recovering his voice from a jaunt to New Orleans, Rouse covered the basics of whiskey's history and production. It was all interesting stuff, but the accompanying packet he printed was 10 pages, single-spaced, so we won't rehash it all.

Most notable in our minds was that, arguably, the United States could be considered the birthplace of modern whiskey. Blasphemy? Well, the spirit was first aged in barrels while being shipped to the New World, and distillers believe the barrels make up 70 percent of a whiskey 's flavor. Sounds plausible.

Also, American charred oak barrels, after aging domestic whiskeys for four years, often are used to age rum and even some Scotch whiskeys, Rouse said.

But on to the tasting.

Photo by Longhorn Nation

​As the whole world knows by now, popular Midtown Vietnamese Restaurant Mai's caught fire yesterday. This Houston institution is so popular, the fire has even gained national coverage outside of the culinary community, which is quite an amazing feat.

So why do we mourn Mai's? Perhaps because it was the first Vietnamese restaurant in Houston? Mai's has introduced generations of people to pho, bun and Vietnamese coffee. People from all over the city, young and old, came to Mai's to try something new before the Elgin area boomed, and then, even after. Not to mention, Mai's was open late, an awesome alternative to IHOP or Denny's, and without the wait of House of Pies. Before Taco Cabana, we all went to Mai's. Beyond that, even though we have our new spots for certain dishes, we still keep a place in our culinary hearts for Mai's.

Our first experience ever with Vietnamese food was a bowl of hot pho that Mom brought home from Mai's at the recommendation of a coworker. The magic of the healing broth made the cold seem less severe, and we were instantly hooked. We essentially got to play with our food too, and for a little kid, that was a definite plus.

Before there was a Vietnamese restaurant in every subdivision, Mai's was the site of many first dates (we can't be with a guy without a sense of adventure). We stuck by Mai's even after they raised prices after the expansion, which turned Mai's from a "dive" to an expensive-ish Vietnamese restaurant.

Do you think you can tell a place just from its jukebox? We think you should be able to, since the hallmark of any decent bar (by our standards, at least) is the presence of a real jukebox -- not one of those sad, neon-accented, Internet-enabled doohickeys that hangs from a wall and plays mostly Days of the New.

​Think you know where we're drinking this week? Leave your best guess in the comments section below.

​Baja Seafood and Oyster Bar on Westheimer where Tommy's Steakhouse used to be is offering a grand opening special: all the oysters, shrimp and fish you can eat for $17. I think I could make a serious dent in the oyster supply at this place. The restaurant is owned by Bob Walsh and his family (no relation). Walsh used to have a seafood restaurant in Houston years ago, but he went off to Baja California to seek his fortune. There he got into crabs.

Ten years ago, when the crab supply petered out in the Chesapeake Bay, Maryland wholesalers started buying up all the big crabs in Texas and Louisiana for prices as high as $30 a dozen. As a result, the Gulf lump crab industry collapsed. The crab pickers couldn't get big crabs at a decent price. We couldn't afford our own crabs anymore. (We still can't.)

​Late last Tuesday we stopped off at 13 Celsius in Midtown for a glass of wine and a snack. We love the small array of food there -- mostly meat and cheese with a few panini. We settled on a glass of Tempranillo and a combination of Manchego, duck rillette and, of course, San Daniele prosciutto.
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You can't go to 13 Degrees without getting some sliced meat. The slicer there is like the Ferrari of slicers. We had to take a picture of it with the chunk of meat still on it. If it was dorky to take a picture of a slicer, oh well.

We were intrigued to find that on Tuesdays 13 Celsius hosts a "Cupcake Pairing Night."

​Pat yourselves on the back, your bitching and moaning has paid off. The ridiculous practive of serving half shell oysters standing upright shoved into a mound of shaved ice is being reevaluated by the Pappas gang. Christina H. Pappas, P.R. Manager of Pappas Restaurants, Inc. emailed me on Friday. She said that several people in her organization brought our blog post and your comments to her attention. (Read the text of her letter in the comments section of the post.)

Photos by Groovehouse

​This past Saturday, we spent the better part of the afternoon at the Chinese Community Center in Alief, celebrating the Lunar New Year with about 10,000 of our friends. While the Center's annual festival was filled with spectacles of all shapes and sizes -- from a massive, thundering lion dance to a Vietnamese man in his nineties making miniscule toys from clay for all the children -- the real draw was the food.

Food stalls made up about half of the booths at the festival. Long lines formed as people queued up to get fish balls on a stick, sweet milk tea with fat tapioca balls, cartons of fresh sushi, sauteed eel with sesame seeds, piping hot egg rolls, roasted corn on the cob, crab-filled wonton puffs and the two most ubiquitous festival foods: sausage on a stick and turkey legs.

Photos by Craig Hlavaty

​...and thanks for all the 2 a.m. pho.

The popular Vietnamese restaurant, which had been a staple of Midtown dining since 1978, has been mostly destroyed by a fire that started in the rear of the second floor of the building at 3403 Milam early this morning.

Although firefighters and at least six ladder trucks battled the blaze throughout the morning, the flames were difficult to control and by noon, the roof had collapsed. The Houston Fire Department created a 20-foot perimeter around the building, concerned that the walls would follow suit, but Mai's seems to have been spared that indignity for now.

Although the structural damage is immense, the good news is that no one was injured in the blaze. A busboy for the restaurant told our news blog, Hair Balls, that as soon as the fire started, everyone evacuated.

​If you're ever headed to Kingwood or to Bush airport, it might be worth a round-about drive to Pete's Burger Place for one solid, two-handed, very balanced hamburger.

At 24626 Loop 494 in Porter, just north of Kingwood and 11 miles northeast of Bush airport up U.S. 59, the place doesn't look like much. It's just a white shack by the road across from some train tracks with a few tables outside.

Inside, Pete's has clearly had some renovations and it's a spic-and-span place, but it was sunny so we sat outside.

The burger was of medium height and above-average width, a two-hander for sure. Strikingly, all toppings precisely matched the size of the bun and didn't shift around -- each bite had everything in it.

​We love deer hunting season - venison sausage, venison chili and venison jerky. Everything just tastes better with venison. Yes, we know there are people out there cursing our name for promoting the hunting of Bambi. But we can't help it. And in honor of our obsession, this week's Odd Pair features venison jerky. (Thank you, Pete's Fine Meats.)

This jerky is meaty and full of smoky flavor. It's not your over-processed gas station Slim Jim. You're not going to be chewing on it for hours. Just opening the package of Pete's jerky, we could smell the wood smoke - and as we munched away happily, we could taste it, too.