Houston Entree

Three Best Bites: Margaritas, Pizzas and Salads

It’s time to make your mouth water and discover what new dishes around town are worth every bite.

Margarita Sampler at TQLA
While the new TQLA has gotten surprisingly great feedback on its food offerings, little has been said about the drinks. Not surprisingly, the restaurant offers plenty of tequila options for the connoisseurs among you—or for neophytes like me, try the margarita sampler: three smaller-sized portions in the flavors of your choice. With eight varieties to choose from, you’re sure to find a winner… maybe you’ll like our favorites—Hibiscus and Mango.

Ask Mr. Wino: What's in a Title?

How does one become a sommelier?

Like getting to Carnegie Hall, it takes practice, lots of practice. But the nice part is that wine tasting is far more pleasant than doing scales over and over. Trust me, I know. 

In purely technical terms, becoming a sommelier is achieved through study and tasting and then passing examinations given by the Court of Master Sommeliers. These exams test your knowledge of a myriad of topics such as: wine regions, vinification techniques, grape varietals, cocktail creation, service technique and also blind tasting, which is your ability to taste and identify a wine unknown to you at the begining of the test.

They have four levels of exams: Introductory, Certified, Advanced and Master. Once you have passed the Certified level, you may call yourself a sommelier. The testing gets increasingly difficult as the levels go up. There are only 180 Master Sommeliers in the world. Your chances of getting into Harvard are greater than passing the Master exam.
 
That, of course, is the way things are generally done today. However, I know many sommeliers who have never taken any exams and yet their knowledge, service style and tasting ability would rank them as some of the finest sommeliers in the nation. In the end it is your dedication to your craft that seperates you from the pack, just like any other industry. The great thing about this business is you can be buzzed at 10AM and claim to working. Not that I have ever seen anyone actually do that. 

Photo: star5112

Hot Diggity Dogs

Just in time for the hot dog holiday also known as July 4th, Syd Kearney of 29-95 gives a proper run down of where to find the best gourmet hot dogs in the city.

Making the list: Sammy's Wild Game Grill, which opens appropriately in July; The Barbed Rose, where we can definitely vouch for the Wagyu hot dog made with house made everything; The Burger Guys; Canopy; Good Dog Hot Dogs; Max's Wine Dive (the first in town to offer a gourmet "haute" dog) and the laid back outdoor venue, Moon Tower Inn. 

A Pop-up Dinner That Pops

Sunday evening a small group of avid diners gathered at Spotlight Karaoke in Midtown for the debut of Harold Wong’s foray into the latest craze in nontraditional dining; the pop-up dinner.

Wong has been busy as the executive chef at Azuma Sushi in downtown Houston and decided to stretch his creative wings by launching the first of several dinners outside of the restaurant under the name The Munchies Den.

The dinner was not announced via the usual social media circuit, Twitter and Facebook and so the group of mostly Azuma regulars got treated to an eight course meal that featured some interesting dishes. 

Breakin' The Law: Restaurant Edition

Taqueria Taconmadre, a local taco chain, is out over a quarter of a million dollars after coming under fire from the Department of Labor's Wage and Hour division. All three locations violated the Fair Labor Standards Act by refusing to pay overtime wages or minimum wage to its employees.

The company has agreed to pay $275,706 in back wages to former and current employees to remedy their past illegal practices, but who's to say it won't happen again? What we do know is one taco chain we won't be visiting anytime soon. /via Eating Our Words

Photo: The.Comedian

Blue Moon of a Meal at Barbed Rose

Once in a blue moon, a meal will hit me hard - like taking an unexpected foul ball to the head while sitting on the sidelines of an Astros game. It's surprising, it's memorable and it has me seeing stars long after.

Last week, I dragged my feet (and dining companion Michael Fulmer) to Alvin after promising the publicist for Barbed Rose Steakhouse and Seafood Co., that we'd make the trek.

That particular day, Barbed Rose had many things going against it, bless its heart: 1) the distance, complete with a tragic bus accident holding up traffic 2) the steakhouse concept and 3) the fact that this meal involved sitting down with someone whose job was to convince me that everything about the place was a perfect "10." I don't mind a publicist rightfully doing their job, but I always feel conflicted when writing up a meal that has been comped. However, after tasting the first bite, concerns 1 - 3 easily melted away faster than a snowflake in Houston.

Three Best Bites: Coffee, Pasta and Dessert Balls

Three bites (or the occasional sip) that have left an impression.

Flat white at Tuscany Coffee

I drink drip coffee by trade—most coffee drinks are too sugary or too rich for me—but last week the @greenwaybarista introduced me to a coffee drink I’d never heard of… the flat white. This is essentially a cappuccino-sized latte: a shot of espresso topped with creamy steamed milk. Sure, it’s nothing groundbreaking, but for me provides a happy middle; I can get my coffee fix with the rich flavor of whole milk, but without the sheer volume of it. And since this one was from Tuscany Coffee, you know the beans’re outrageously good. 

Name That Meatball

Fresh off their big meatball coup in the first annual, "Meatball Invitational" hosted by My Table Magazine, Trattoria Il Mulino is launching a competition of another sort.

Instead of using your mouth (although tasting them before hand is recommended), it's time to use your brain to help Il Mulino come up with a name for those now-famous meatballs. The contest winner is treated to dinner for two at the new restaurant inside the Westin Houston Memorial City hotel.

Made with beef, pork, veal, ricotta, parmesan and pecorino romano and topped with a tomato-basil sauce, these carefully crafted meatballs are worth an entry, if only to win a few plates full of the contest subject themselves.

Here's how to enter: by emailing meatballs@ilmulino.com, visiting their Facebook page or connecting on Twitter. The simplest way: head to the restaurant and enter in person.

Party Time at Whole Foods Montrose

Whole Foods in Montrose has been creating quite a buzz lately. As soon as it opens, it may be creating even more buzz from the in-store beer and wine bar, complete with growlers.

Lauren Marmaduke at Eating Our Words wonders if dancing in the aisles at the new Whole Foods will be as prevalent as it is in "Disco" Kroger. It won't be long before that question will undoubtedly be answered by the dance-loving-beer-and-wine-drinking-hot-pants-wearing residents of the Montrose.

Photo: bookgrl

Have You Voted Yet?

The Houston Entrée Awards went live last Monday and the voting will continue on into the summer. If you haven't voted yet, now's the time to do it. There are over 40 categories where you can rank your favorite establishments in order of preference.

Share your culinary IQ and help us honor the best restaurants and establishments in the city. By the way, if you feel the need to chat about the ballot, the awards or the nominees via Twitter - we'd surely appreciate it if you could use the hashtag #HEAwards. Thanks in advance and happy voting.

Photo: kevinthoule