A Fork in the Road: Local Foods (Houston, TX)

 

I have been waiting a lonnnggg time to see Houston finally beef up with inexpensive and tasty lunch spots.  It used to just be places like Goode Company BBQ/Taqueria, Cafe Express, Nit Noi, but now you have a places like Relish and Local Foods, brought to you by Chef Dylan Murray of Benjy's.

Chef Murray uses the local farms and seasonal foods to create his menu and I love the concept of any of the sandwiches can be prepared as salads.  Unfortunately, I wish I had gone with my gut and ordered the crispy chicken sandwich because the turkey sandwich components were there, but somehow missed the mark.  The pretzel roll, amazing.  Freshly sliced turkey, present, but dry and the accoutrements did not help.

Since my brother's discovery, and obsession, began last year with banh mi's, that is what he ordered.  He mentioned what I was thinking, which was the $10.5 price tag of the sandwich which was the 'most expensive banh mi' he's ever ordered.  This is usually a sign it won't be as good as you want it to be.  It was good, not great.  The element that saved these sandwiches, and their price tags, were the sides.  My favorite was the kale with raisins, pinenuts and parmesan.  The savory parmesan paired nicely with the sweet raisins. The four bean side with edamame, kidney beans, green beans and garbanzos was hefty, but good.  Cabbage slaw with edamame, bean sprouts and lemongrass vinaigrette was a interesting take on slaw and texturally.   Less impressive were the beets, but I suppose I don't really love shredded beets, with pistachios or not.

Now, ironically, what I thought were the best foods, were the salads.

The Spicy Szechuan Tofu salad with broccoli, sprouts, black rice and a mint-kaffir vinaigrette was lighter than you would think, although it drowned in dressing.

Saved the best for last....arugula, shrimp, wheatberries, cranberries, Texas honey pecans, pecorino and lemon-thyme vinaigrette. YUM YUM YUM.  Light and easily one of the best shrimp salads I've had.

Who wouldn't want to go Local Foods when you can get fresh ingredients AND see this little guy?

Tofu House (CLOSED)

Every table at Tofu House on Korean Way is an oasis of food. Ironically enough, the only portion of the menu that included tofu was the soup.

I went with my friend Edna, an online food critic for nymag.com, and we ordered so much food, I thought I would pop. Typically, all Korean meals start with 2-12 banchan, or side dishes, that vary from over 100 types of kimchi, pickled cabbage/garlic/squid to steamed tofu. It was difficult not to fill up on sides especially when the kimchi at Tofu House is easily the tastiest I've ever had. In Korea, the meal is the kimchi and rice. Everything else is built around it.

Let me take you on our odyssey...........appetizers of homemade steamed dumplings and Kimichi Tofu Soup. Dumplings = average and we really messed up their staple dish of Tofu soup. The restaurant serves soup with a raw egg which you are apparently supposed to crack into the soup, although I couldn't really imagine since the tofu was mushy and bland. The thought of adding an egg, well, wasn't exactly the picture of perfection. However, whilst watching Bourdain this weekend touring New Jersey and hitting up a Korean joint, I learned the egg actually cooks the soup! WHA?!!?!?

We had to get Korean BBQ and in this case, Bul Go Gi, prime beef marinated with a special sauce. It was brought out on a sizzling skillet served with onions. Overall, the beef was tasty being brought on by the sauce, but could have been cut a touch thicker.

This brings us to the two dishes which were polar opposites for me. The Hwe Neng Myun or cold, spicy vermicelli with puffer fish and kimchi (photo-RT). When Edna ordered this dish, the waitress looked at us with crazy eyes, then proceeded to say, 'You don't want this.' Edna says, 'Oh yes, yes we do'. I had a pretty good idea of what we were in for, but would say this is a dish best best left for Korean culture only because most Americans would find it unpalatable. The noodles were slimy and sweet; the puffer fish (blowfish) was not that of sushi-grade, rather hard and crunchy. You are eating the spine, not the meat, of the fish. So, if the fact that they are highly toxic to humans doesn't dissuade you, eating the spine definitely should.

The Yook Swe Bi Bim Bob was our fav! I could come back and eat just this dish every week in the summer. (photo-LT) It is marinated raw strips of beef sitting atop vegetables and rice with sesame oil drizzle and egg yolk. The dish was mouthwatering - a perfect balance of seasoning between the chilies, sesame and scallion.

Tofu House 17 West 32nd Street NY, NY (212) 967-1900