good eats

In no particular order:

Miss Vickie’s Creamy Buttermilk Ranch Chips. I love chips. I can easily eat a full sized bag of chips in one sitting. It’s disgustingly great. I really like the ever so popular kettle cooked chips and this is my new favorite flavor: Buttermilk Ranch. I was a bit wary about anything milk related being in a chip bag and I remember something about our minds not naturally associated blue colored things as edible (which was an explanation why it took so long for Hershey’s to add blue M&M’s — this could be completely false and maybe it was a dream but I think there might be some truth to it) but they are delicious! It’s weird because it looks a little like they’re going to taste like Sour Cream & Onion but they taste more like Cooler Ranch Doritos. But imagine it on a kettle cooked thick potato chip.

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The Boiling Crab. I love this place. The place is totally kitschy with all the wooden tables and booths and fishing knicknacks — complete with a boat’s steering wheel at the front counter. They cover your table with a large sheet of paper, take your drink orders (which comes in Styrofoam cups) and then dump a bunch of limes on your table. They also place these small plastic containers filled with salt and pepper for each person. Luckily I love Vietnamese food and I know that this is like what you dip Bo Luc Lac (Shaken Beef) in. We ordered 3 blue crabs for each of us — one crab of each seasoning flavor (Garlic Butter, Lemon Pepper, and Cajun). Unfortunately we didn’t try the Whole Shebang seasoning. We also ordered some corn on the cob which was obviously microwaved and heavily buttered but still good. It’s hard to ruin corn. Everything comes in plastic bags. It’s kind of a strange setup, but it works. The crabs were incredibly fresh and I loved the seasoning. The Cajun and Garlic Butter crabs were a lot better than Lemon Pepper crabs. I loved dipping the sweet crab meat into the salt, pepper, & lime dipping sauce.

The most delicious part of the meal was when the bill came out. The blue crabs are listed at $5.99/lb and we had no idea what that translated into as far as how many pounds a crab was. Our total bill for two sodas, 6 blue crabs, and 3 corn on the cobs was $32 before adding tip. Cheap! We’ll definitely be frequenting this place a lot during crab season.

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Brasserie Max & Julie. We went here last night to celebrate Carlos’s 30th birthday. I’m not really a fan of French food. I like their breads and pastries (especially savory pastries like quiche; wait, does that qualify as a pastry?) but I’m not a real fan of the food. I mean, I’m okay about it. I was really pleased with my meal here. The food was pretty good, I had the Rabbit Confit and the husband had the Duck with Honey and Lavender. I think his duck was better than my rabbit (I’ve had better rabbit) but I’m also really partial to duck so I don’t know if that’s a good assessment. The bone marrow appetizer was a bit disappointing because there wasn’t very much to spread on the toast. The profiteroles we had for dessert were pretty standard. It’s hard to mess up cream puffs, vanilla ice cream and warm chocolate syrup! The prices were really reasonable and overall it was a good meal. The service was top notch here and I think that made the whole dining experience a good one. The atmosphere of the place was really cozy and unpretentious which is sometimes hard to find when it comes to French food.

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Mark’s American Cuisine. We went here for our anniversary dinner. Easily one of my favorite meals in Houston. We started out with the smoked seafood platter. I love smoked anything so I was really happy with this appetizer. For our entrees, the husband had the veal and I think I had the tenderloin medallions. That’s the thing about New American cuisine. I always really enjoy it when I eat it (it might be my favorite kind of fancy food) but it’s never that memorable. I liked the interesting sides that came with the entree; there were several vegetables I didn’t recognize. They paired the flavors really well! I also liked their bread basket — especially this one type of onion bread that tasted a lot like Chinese Onion Bread (literally translates as Flower Roll). Dessert was really good — but I can’t remember it! Haha man. The service was excellent here. The husband let them know it was our anniversary and they brought out our desserts with a candle. The place is as cozy and romantic as advertised. We were on the farthest table from the door on the first floor so we had a great view of the place. I’ve always thought that churches were romantic.

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