100% Taquito

Located off US-59 between Buffalo Speedway and Edloe Street, this little slice of truly authentic Mexican street food is one of the best places for tacos in Houston that is not found on four wheels.  100% Taquito's origins though are not that far off.  It was originally started as a project form the University of Houston and began as a trailer in '96.  Eventually it got a store front but kept the look and feel of a taco stand.  The first thing you encounter when you enter 100% Taquito is that it is painted to look very much like Mexico City including a full sized Volkswagen beetle taxi cab very typical of the city.

The counter where you order your food has a facade made out to resemble food trucks.

!00% Taquito succeeds in providing a good place to eat..  The atmosphere there is always good with TV's showing music videos in Spanish or, as in the case this last time we went, having on Mexican soccer games.  It is never too loud or too crowed so that you can actually have conversations with someone if you choose to eat there.  There is also the option of taking stuff to go when you are on the run.

The menu of 100% Taquito is very simple.  You have your five main types of food (tacos, quesadillas, sopes, tostadas, and tortas).  Within each type of food you have about five or six variations depending on your filling.  Also available are salads, some sides, desserts and some items that just don't fall under any of these classifications, such as the chicken mole with rice or the molletes. 

Along with the food, 100% Taquito has a varied drink list.  They have a wide choice of Mexican bottled sodas as well as your typical beers.  They also provide juices and fruit slushies as well as some liquor based drinks such as sangria or margaritas.  The chela-rita (a frozen margarita with a bottle of beer upturned in it) is always popular.

For tonight's dinner I choose to order the baderitas and the tacos mixtos.  The banderitas are three chicken or beef flautas (tightly rolled tacos that have been fried) covered with red salsa, cream and queso fresco, and green salsa to form the Mexican flag.

The banderitas are excellent when you get them nice and hot.  You kind of have to eat them right away otherwise the salsa will make them a bit soggy.  While this does not affect the overall taste, it is a much better experience to eat the banderitas hot and crispy.  The three different sauces also provide your palate with some nice variation as you eat them.  The green salsa is tangy with some sour undertones. The cream and cheese provide a nice mellow and cooling contrast with the other two salsas, while the red has an earthy robust flavor.

The tacos come three small tacos to an order on corn or flour tortillas.The tacos mixtos are a basically a sampler of three different types of taco.  They include a chicken mole, asada (beef fajita), and tinga (spicy chipotle brisket).  All tacos come with freshly chopped cilantro and diced onions if you choose.

All of the meats are quite tasty.  They are cooked only after you have ordered them so you can taste the freshness.  The chicken mole is so good my wife has compared it to my mom's.  The fajita meat is nice a tender and juicy.  The brisket is moist and flavorful and not too spicy.  These tacos are best when you add some fresh salsa and lime juice from the salsa bar.

My wife ordered the chicken mole sopes and the esquites (corn in a cup with cream and cheese). The sopes are essentially a thick corn tortilla with black beans, the chicken mole and topped with cilantro, onions and queso fresco. Think of sopes as a cross between tacos and tostadas.  For me, nothing beats these with a little red salsa on top.

The esquites are a cup of roasted corn kettles mixed together with lots of cream, cheese and a spicy chile powder blend.. You can choose to have them with lime juice and a spicy chile powder blend.  Since my wife does not like spicy stuff that much she opted to not have any.

The mixture of corn, cream and cheese is just exquisite.  The flavor play very well with each other.  This serves as a perfect side for any of the other options form the menu.

My wife and I also shared a small order of chicharrones (pork rinds).  They were so fresh, they were still popping when they got to the table.  We added a squeeze of lime juice and I added some Valentina hot sauce and were ready to go.

As far as drinks go, my wife ordered a glass of the sangria.  The sangria is here is always very well made.  They know how to get the right balance between acidity and sweetness.  The wine is front and center but does not push back the natural fruit and juices.

I had two things to drink.  I had a mangonada, which is a natural mango slushy with plenty of the spicy chile powder blend.  If you have never tried it, there are many brands out there such as Tajin.  The beauty of it is that it plays so well with the natural sweet and tangy flavors of the mango.  The mangonada also comes with a Mexican spicy lolipop.

The last thing I had to drink was what they call a michelada.  A michelada is a drink prepared from a beer that has various things added to it such as lime juice, salt, hot sauce and Worcestershire sauce.  I will admit that this drink is not for the faint of heart and may not be up everyone's alley.  But I like it.  It is very refreshing and it gives a new twist to a frosty brew.

The thing that I most like about 100% Taquito, besides the authenticity, is that since the food is very inexpensive and comes in small enough sizes you can be bold and try different things very easily.  So if you are ever in the mood for authentic Mexican street food, come check this place out.

Hobbit Cafe

The Hobbit Cafe has been a Houston eatery since back in 1972.  I have been in Houston since 1998 and I had never been.  It took an old friend visiting from California to get me in the door.  I had heard about the place and was curious, but never enough to actually step foot in the door.  Located on Richmond between Kirby and Greenbriar, The Hobbit Cafe is tucked away in a little alcove of different establishments.  Having driven by on many occasions and having seen the sign I always thought the building facing the street was the establishment.  In actuality,  it is hidden towards the back.

The first thing I noticed when I arrived was the quaint feel and relaxed atmosphere of the place.  It looked like a place where you could be comfortable with yourself and whoever you were dining with.  Since I was eating with a rather large group we were seated outside.  There was ample room but we still had to separate the group into two.  To combat the oppressive Houston heat and humidity fans were placed throughout the patio.  Truth be told, they did not really do a whole lot to help and I consider myself lucky to have gone somewhat early in the day.  Two other things I noticed about the seating was that the chairs were all cheap plastic chairs and that the tables were covered with cheap plastic table clothes that felt a little sticky.  These two things did not really fit in with the rest of the aesthetic, but could be overlooked.

Smaug's Delight w/ Bacon and Fruit

Smaug's Delight w/ Sprouts and Black Beans

Having scooped out the online menu beforehand, I already had in mind what I wanted to order.  This was a good thing because The Hobbit Cafe has a vast menu with lots to choose from and plenty of tempting choices.  I decided to order the The Smaug's Delight, which is a smoked turkey sandwich served on toasted wheat bread with melted cheese and avocado.  You have your choice of the slim or classic version. I was hungry enough so I order the classic.  I was also prompted by the waiter if I wanted to add bacon or alfalfa sprouts.  Since everything is made better with bacon, I opted for the bacon. When asked what I wanted as my side, I asked for my options.  I was presented with the choices of chips, fries, shredded carrots, black beans, and fresh fruit.  I went with the fruit.  Others at the table also got the Smaug's Delight but with other options so it was almost like a different sandwich. 



Another member of our table ordered The Dwalin, which is a sandwich of curry chicken salad with grapes, almonds, lettuce, tomato, and mayo, with a side of shredded carrots.

 

My sandwich was good.  The turkey was moist and flavorful.  The cheese was hot and melty and the bacon was cooked crisp.  My only complaint is that the sandwich had too much avocado.   "How in the hell can there ever be too much avocado?", you ask.  Well, when about a third of the volume of your sandwich is made of avocado and it compromises the structural integrity and overwhelms the other ingredients is when you have too much. 

Mithril Mix

Athelas Kiwi Strawberry

Before arriving I had decided that I wanted to try one of their smoothies as well.  The way I had interpreted the menu I thought the sandwiches came without a side.  I figured I could have a smoothie instead.  I ordered the Mithril Mix which is simply a strawberry, banana, and pineapple smoothie.  My friend from out of town ordered the Athelas Kiwi Strawberry.  The smoothies were good, but nothing really spectacular.





Along with my smoothie I also ordered a mixed berry tea.  It was spot on for the hot summer day.  It had a great bright red color that made it look really appetizing.  Even without sweetener, it was very tasty.  I had a flavor not unsimilar to water with a hint of lemon it, only stronger.









The one thing I will say was beyond excellent was the gingerbread pancake.  My friend ordered just one pancake so he could taste it and let me have a bite.  It blew my mind.  It was moist and fluffy and it tasted like GINGER-BREAD.  What I mean by that is the pancake did not taste like gingerbread in the shape of a pancake.  It tasted like a pancake with some ginger accents.  It was great.

The Hobbit Cafe has some intriguing menu items that make me want to come back.  However, I feel I must warn you about a number of things.  While the prices on the menu are reasonable, I did feel that they failed to convey some of the charges that ended up on my bill.  For instance, I was expecting the sandwich to not include a side.  However when the waiter asked me what side I wanted, he did not tell me that they were extra, or there was a steep substitution fee.  This was also true of the bacon.  Now, while I kind of expected a surcharge on the bacon, I was not expecting it to be as much as it was.  I certainly would have declined if I had known via the menu or the waiter.

All in all this was a pleasant experience.  I would not say no to going back.  After all, they have been around for a long time for a reason.

Food At Work: Inside Round

As I have stated before, my primary role at work is to man the Italian food station.  However, every so often (mostly on Fridays) they ask me to work another station.  In this case I was asked to work at the carving station, otherwise know at the Butcher Block.  In this instance I was asked to prepare slow roasted inside round with a wild rice blend and fried mushrooms and topped off with a house made steak sauce.

Let me start by saying that an inside round is a very LARGE piece of meat.  So that way that I prepared meat was that I first cut each round into thirds.  This gave me more surface area to season the meat and also greatly cut down the cooking time.  I then rubbed copious amounts of Montreal steak seasoning on the meat.  I placed all three pieces of each inside round into a deep hotel pan with a wire rack on the bottom and covered them with foil.  The foil served to keep the meat from browning too much too fast. It also helped with the cooking process since it helped keep moisture trapped inside the pan.  This moisture then turns to steam which circulates around the meat and helps cook it faster.  I put the beef in a 275 degree oven  for about 3 1/2 hours.  When the meat was about 90% done I took the foil off to allow the meat to brown.

 I pulled the meat out when the temperature right in the middle was at about 120 degrees.  Even though I cut the original inside rounds down, each piece was quite big.  Pulling the meat out at 120 degrees meant that there would be some variety of doneness with each piece of meat.  The outer edges would be close to medium or medium well while the middle would remain closer to rare. 

The wild rice blend was really just a packaged blend we got from Sysco foods.  In order to make it more appetizing that just cooking it the steamer, I added butter to my rice when I cooked it.  This added some nice flavor and richness.  I also seasoned the rice and tossed with some fresh parsley after it came out of the steamer.

The fried mushrooms were straight forward  fried mushrooms.  I did not batter them myself.  In the kitchen you pick your battles on what you can make fresh and what you have to concede and use something pre-made.  The key to using pre-made items is to know how to use them to get the highest quality.  For instance, the mushrooms had to be fried at the last minute so that they would remain crispy on the outside.

And last is the steak sauce.  The steak sauce was quite easy to make. It complimented the beef quite well and helped give moisture to those who enjoy their meat more well done.

Don't Mistake the Steak Sauce

Let me first start by saying that for the most part I am not a fan of using steak sauce on an actual steak.  For me, the flavor of a good steak should stand on its own with little more seasoning than some salt and pepper.  That being said, I have come to realize and accept that steak sauce has its place and can serve as another condiment option.  So what does that mean exactly?  If I am not using steak sauce on steak, then what is it for?  Well, for starters it goes great on burgers.  It can be used as a substitute for either ketchup or BBQ sauce.  It goes well with chicken or pork.  The only real limitation is what you want to do it.  Get creative and crazy.  You never know what you might come up with or accidentally discover.

In today's culinary world steak sauce wide variation and diversity.  The most commonly known steak sauce is A.1. Steak Sauce.  But that is far from the only one.  It seems every grocer has at least half a dozen options on the shelves for everyone's particular taste ranging form the sweet and tart to the hot and smoky.  The origins of steak sauce come from Great Britain and something they called "brown sauce". 

Truth is you don't need any fancy labels to enjoy a great steak sauce.  You can make one yourself quite easily.  And the thing about making your own is that you can customize and adjust it to your liking.  I am including a recipe for a very basic steak sauce.  From here you can take it and make it your own.  If you like it spicier, add a little of your favorite hot sauce.  If you like it sweeter, try some brown sugar or molasses to your liking. 


2 cups ketchup
1 cup Worcestershire sauce
2 8 oz can tomato sauce
1/4 cup vinegar (apple cider or red wine work best)
2 tbsp Montreal Steak Seasoning
1 tsp garlic powder
1 tsp onion powder

Mix all the ingredients in a heavy sauce pan and let them simmer on low to medium-low heat for at least half an hour.  This will allow the flavors to meld and mingle.  

Sonoma Retail Wine Bar & Restaurant

Let me start of by making two points about my review of Sonoma Retail Wine Bar & Restaurant.  First, I went to Sonoma with my wife as a romantic dinner date as it was the first weekend she was home after being away for a couple of weeks.  Having said that, my second point is that I was unable to get any pictures due to the atmospheric aesthetic that was at this establishment.  Taking pictures of food and wine with a flash in a darkened room seemed kind of tacky.  Do not fret though, as I hope that my words will suffice to impart a sense of the fabulous time my wife and I had at Sonoma.

The very first thing that struck me about this place was the overall atmosphere.  It had a sense of panache that exuded class.  However it never felt pretentious or flashy, like it was being forced.  Part of that came from the types of patrons that were frequenting Sonoma.  While there was a fair share of sharply dressed groups, my wife and I included, you also had your share of more casually attired people there.  And the thing about it was that no one felt out of place or awkward.  At stated previously, the mood lighting was was set to give the place an air of intimacy.

The next thing I noticed was the service.  Don't get me wrong, the waitstaff was very friendly.  However, they did fall to waiting by committee, and as I have stated before, this never works ideally.  This may have been a by product of having a large party there at the same time, but non the less, it did affect our service somewhat.  Our primary waitress gave us our menu and explained that, should we need anything, we could call on any of the waitstaff.  While we pondered our options for the evening we noticed a little lag time in being attended.  Once we ordered our drinks, they were brought out to us promptly.  The food seemed to take a little longer than one would have liked, especially when waiting from our first to second course.  I ended up ordered a second glass of wine and it almost went unserved.  I will give the waitstaff credit for being knowledgeable about the menu; both the food and drinks.  In the end, even though somethings took a little longer that optimal, the waitstaff made up for it.

As far as what we consumed at Sonoma, my wife and I both had some wine.  The difficulty of that was the fact the Sonoma has quite an extensive wine list.  Luckily for us, the list was cut down significantly due to the fact that only a few wines were offered by the glass.  My wife and I were not so certain we would have been able to polish off an entire bottle by ourselves, especially if we wanted to drive home.  Instead, she opted for a wine flight and I had a glass.  The wine flight consists of 3 oz of four different wines.  She choose what is called the Well Traveled which includes Canta Perdices Tempranillo, Domaine de Fontenille Cotes du Luberon, Claudio Morelli ‘Le Terrazze’ Sangiovese, and La Florencia Malbec.  Being fan of the malbecs, I choose La Florencia as my wine.  My wife enjoyed every wine with the exception of the first (the tempranillo).  She is not a fan of wines that are overly dry and she felt that the first wine fell into that category.  While I would agree that the tempranillo was a bit dry and could have benefited from a little aeration, I did not think it was too dry.  The malbec I had was quite good on the other hand.  It had a nice balance between the sweetness and the tart as well as nice body.  It was so good, that I ended up ordering a second glass.

My wife and I also ordered food during our outing to Sonoma.  We ordered the Duck Confit Eggrolls as an appetizer and one of the hand rolled gourmet pizzas as our entree.  We also ended up ordering dessert.  The duck confit eggrolls were very tasty. You could tell they were made with fresh ingredients.  The mango mustard that accompanied them was also surprisingly good  I would have never expected mango and mustard to go well together, but they did.  The sweetness of the mango played a good foil to the spicy mustard.  My only gripe about the eggrolls is that they were a bit on the small side.  The only real reason I see this as a bad thing is the the duck confit tended to get lost in the eggroll with so much else going on in there.

The pizza my wife and I ordered was the Nappa pizza which included  olive oil drizzle, forest mushrooms, fresh herbs, goat cheese, parmesan, mozzarella, and white truffle oil.  You had me at goat cheese and truffle oil.  These are two of my favorite things, and by putting them together on a pizza, you are just pulling at my heartstrings.  The pizza was thin and crisp and as our waitress described it, "top heavy".  What she meant by that is that it was fully loaded with the toppings.  She was not wrong on that end.  The pizza had that perfect ration of toppings per pie to make it great.  

When it came time to order desserts, my wife opted for the bread pudding.  I asked what the dessert of the day was.  They waiter told me that it was rocky road bread pudding, but that they might have run out of it already.  I told the waiter that the rocky road bread pudding sounds delicious, but failing that, I wold have the four layer chocolate cake.  Unfortunately I ended up with the chocolate cake.  Now, I don't want to give anyone the impression that the cake was bad.  It was good.  It just wasn't spectacular or special.  My wife's bread pudding on the other hand was amazingly good.  Definitely some of the best bread pudding I have had in a long while.  If given the choice now, knowing what I know, I wold choose the bread pudding every time.

All in all my wife and I had a great time at Sonoma Retail Wine Bar & Restaurant.  In fact I look forward to going back and am even planning on taking some friends who would love this place.  At such a time I hope to bring back some pictures of the food and adding an expansion to this review.  I would wholeheartedly  recommend this establishment to others and encourage them to go.  

Thickening Agents

In the culinary world more often than not you have to add viscosity and body to something you are preparing, whether that be a soup, a sauce, or a stew.  Luckily for the cooks of the world there are a variety of methods for doing just that.  Each method has its own pros and cons as well as a preferred application.  The most traditional and most commonly used methods is through the gelatinization of starches. Some other methods include reduction and adding an already thickened substance.  When you thicken something your goals should be to avoid lumps, have a good clean taste that is not pasty or floury, have a good consistency and that it will not separate or break when being held.

One of the most classic methods, and generally one of the first taught is the use of roux.  At its most basic roux is simply equal parts flour and fat (by weight) that have been cooked together to make a paste.  Roux varies by color gradient ranging from white, blond, and brown roux.  You achieve a darker color roux by cooking the flour and fat longer.  The color of the roux plays a part in what you are using the roux for.  White roux is used for things that are either white in color or where no added color is wanted.  Dark roux is used in dark colored items, such as gumbo.  Another important note is that as you cook a starch you remove some of its ability to gelatinize in liquid, so you will need more dark roux than lighter roux to thicken the same amount of liquid.

The procedure for making a roux is the same no matter what the color.  First heat your fat in a heavy bottomed saucepan taking care not to burn it.  After the fat is nice and hot add your flour.  General purpose flour is ok to use, but pastry or cake flour work better for roux making due to the higher starch content.  Avoid high gluten flour.  Stir your flour and fat mixture until you reach your desired color.  White roux does not take very long while dark roux can take several minutes.  When you are cooking your roux it is important to watch over it and constantly stir it.  Roux, especially when making dark roux, can go from tasty thickening agent to burnt disgusting mess in an instant.  Burnt roux does not thicken anything and will make your food taste bad.  A little trick I have learned for making dark roux without constantly watching over it is to put your roux on a sheet pan (cookie sheet with four sides) and put it in a 200 degree oven until you reach your desired color.  A good roux will have a nice almost nutty smell and will be slightly stiff, nor runny.

When you have made your roux you can incorporate it into your food in two ways.  You can let your roux cool down and add it to hot liquid, or you can add cold liquid to your hot roux.  In either case it is important to stir vigorously with a whisk so that the liquid and roux are properly incorporated and you avoid lumps.  After your roux has been added you need to allow your liquid to heat up to a boil.  This will cook out any of the flour taste and allow the starch to gelatinize.

Another way to use flour and fat(butter) to thicken items is to make a beurre manié.   Beurre manie is equal parts flour and butter, by weight, that have been kneaded together.  The mixture is then whisked slowly into a simmering liquid to thicken.  Unlike roux, the mixture remains uncooked and it generally added at the end of the cooking process as a finishing technique or as a quick thickener.  The butter adds shine and flavor as it melts.

The next way to add thickness to liquids is to use cornstarch.  Cornstarch is much easier to use than roux because the only thing you need to do to use it is to mix it with water to create a slurry.  Once the cornstarch is completely incorporated with the water, just slowly stir it into hot liquid.  The liquid does not necessarily need to be boiling, but it does at the very least need to be simmering. Unlike roux, cornstarch will have a more immediate effect.  Cornstarch is used heavily in Asian cuisine.  It gives liquids a glossy sheen that may or may not be desired.  Cornstarch also has the benefit of having twice the thickening power of flour.  However, liquids thickened with cornstarch are less stable as it can lose its thickening effects over prolonged heating.  Also, products that have been thickened with cornstarch should not be reheated.

An alternative to cornstarch and flour as a thickener is arrowroot.  Arrowroot is derived from the roots of several tropical plants and is similar in texture and appearance to cornstarch.  In fact, you use it the very same way.  You mix it with cold water making a slurry than whisk that into a hot liquid.  Arrowroot has slightly more thickening power than  cornstarch, is not affected by acidic ingredients or freezing, thickens at a lower temperature than flour or cornstarch and it has a more neutral flavor.  Arrowroot however, does not work well with dairy products, producing a slimy texture when it does.  Arrowroot also has a tendency to break down when overheated and is quite a bit more expensive.

When not using starch to thicken liquids you have some options at your disposal.  The easiest is to  thicken something by reduction.  All this means is that you allow the liquid to cook down until it is reduced in volume.  This method is especially useful for making sauces or glazes.  Just keep in mind that when you are reducing something the flavor of your liquid is being concentrated into the remaining liquid.  Another way you can add viscosity to your liquids is by incorporating an already thickened liquid or item to it.  Many a time I have added tomato paste to a tomato based sauce or soup to give it the consistency I wanted.  It is also not uncommon to add thickness using demi-glace to a sauce.  Just keep in mind that your desired thickness will have to be based on what you want thickened and what you are adding to thicken it.  You can't turn an au jus into a gravy with nothing but a reduction or by adding only demi-glace to it.

One quick final note about thickening.  It is always important to try to achieve your desired thickness with whatever method you are using.  However, if you over thicken something the solution is just to add more liquid so you get it to where you want it.  You may end up with slightly more product that you had originally intended and you may have to adjust your seasoning, but that is better than serving a gravy when you just wanted a light sauce. 

Halibut ala Hatch

August has come along and that means serveral things.  The summer is slowly dwindling away but not before it gives us its hottest days.  School will starting up soon.  And the hatch chile season is upon us.

A hatch chile is a long, green chile that hails from Hatch, NM. It kind of resembles an Anaheim chile. Its season is extremely short, so a big deal is made when the chiles are available. This usually happens in the form of a festival, a chile festival. This is true about Central Market,where I used to work. Chiles are roasted and sold. Or not roasted and sold. Everything is Hatch. And I do mean everything. Hatch salsa, hatch dips, hatch crab cakes, even hatch sausages. On that note, I came up with a way to integrate the hatch chiles and some halibut. So this is what I came up with.

2 tbls butter or cooking oil
3-5 Hatch Chiles, roasted, seeded, deveined and chopped.
1 white onion diced
1 clove garlic minced
1/2-3/4 cup heavy cream
1 lbs halibut fillets Salt and Pepper

 To make the cream sauce, heat your fat in a saute pan. Add your onions and garlic and sweat (cook until aromatic and translucent) Add your chiles and saute until hot. Add cream and let it reduce down slightly. Season with salt and pepper After the sauce is made, place your fish on a sheet pan. Season fish with salt and pepper. Spoon sauce over the fish. Bake the fish in a 375 degree oven for fifteen min. or until the fillets are nice and flaky. Serve and enjoy.