FEAST

After reading this review in the New York Times, Tom, David and I decided to try out Feast for ourselves.  That adorable man on the right greeted us as we walked in the door.  So excited to meet a celebrity, I told him that I recognized him from the New York Times.  He laughed in an understated British way and then said he got that all the time.

Well, that adorable man, James Silk, ended up being our server for the evening as well.  It was such a treat! He talked us through the whole meal, from the wine selection to the ethereal dessert.  He was truly lovely and I developed a crush on him around the main course, but then we realized, as you may already have, that he is married to that woman in the center of the picture.

Every day at Feast they have a new menu.  It is printed on a plain white sheet of paper with the pig logo at the top of the page. The left side of the menu has items that are available every day; the right side lists the offerings that are specific to the day.  We had a good mix of both the "Feast Favorites" and the daily offering.  We basically ordered as much as we possibly could.

I started with lamb and juniper soup.  Juniper is a berry, James informed us, and this soup was fabulous.  The meat was ground but lean and the juniper added lightness and flavor.  David had ox heart with carrot and coriander salad.  The meat was vinegary and sour but tender, and the carrots were infused with thai flavors.  I hate to say that I had a favorite, but I fucking loved the snail fritters.  They came out looking like little chickpea patties, but tasted savory like sausage with a distinct snail flavor that I cannot compare to anything else.  Tom said they were "dense and chewy like a snail should be."  We also had some braised octopus, fennel and roasted sweet red pepper soup.  Surprisingly, this arrived with big chunks of potatoes.  I can't say anything else, because that's all my notes say.  

At this point in the evening, my note-taking became less than thorough, due to a combination of good conversation, exciting food, and generally being drunk.  I think it was about this time when I ordered the second bottle of wine.  James complemented me on the choice, which I thought was just good customer service at the time, but when I tasted it, I realized it was the perfect bottle of wine for this meal.  It was called Carzal de Roques, it is French and kinda old, and it tasted like marijuana.  It was really fantastic.

I had calf's liver for the main course. The bacon aroma smacked me in the face when James put it down in front of me, and it made me really excited.  However, it turns out, liver is liver and it has a real livery flavor that even weed-tasting wine can't fix.  Luckily, there were other delicious foods on the table.  My real favorite of the evening was the black pudding (quoting my notes "fucking awesome"), it had a charry flavor and was served with a fried egg on top.  There was also pork belly, which tasted a lot like pork but with a crispy, tough texture.  We also had the pork cheek with dandelion green salad.  Tom expressed some concern that we were ordering too much meat, and James assured him "it's a salad!"  This was truly a plate of meat with some greens tossed around in a vinegarette.  It was delicious, but a salad it was not.  These courses were all very tasty and even the dishes that were too gamey were accompanied by something nice, so I was happy with everything.

Then, dessert happened.  Tom made some really lascivious comments about the dessert.  We ordered two: the sticky toffee pudding and the ginger bread pudding.  Both were warm, but the toffee was more dense and caramel-like, the ginger bread was more like a crumbly cake.  We decided, and I told James, that the sticky toffee pudding was like really good sex, whereas the gingerbread was more like a person you really like to hang out with.  Then I blushed.

We kept that table for almost three hours and never did I feel even a bit uncomfortable.  It is a very warm place, run by genuine and thoughtful people.  Five stars, absolutely.

Hank's Ice Cream

My co-worker and friend introduced me to this small-batch ice creamery near Reliant Stadium.  

It is a small, family-owned business that has a lot of character.  There's about six small tables with plenty of extra chairs sprawled around an ice cream freezer, which displays over a dozen flavors, each label card scribbled in marker.  The walls are draped from top to bottom in pictures and posters signed by the celebrities themselves, including well wishes and endorsements.  You'll understand why after the first bite: the ice cream is as fresh as it gets.  I sampled several flavors before deciding on Sweet Potato Pie, and it tasted like the real thing (mostly because of the spices).  Other hits are oreo, butter pecan, banana pudding (with nilla wafers!), and some special versions of vanilla.  The ice cream is served in full size styrofoam cups with plastic spoons, so there's no skimping. 

Finding places like these makes me feel great about this city.

Berripop

Katie once asked me: "Have you ever been to Pinkberry?" and I responded "No, but there is something just like it in Austin."

This exchange has been the source of many a laugh since then, some at my expense, some at Katie's, but mostly at Austin's.  However, this is a story about Houston's version of Pinkberry: it's called Berripop.  

Located on Richmond near the movie theater that everyone loves to hate, this little fro-yo stop is unassuming in its strip-mall parking lot, but it is bold and bright inside.

The yogurt was cold, as was the A/C, but I didn't mind because the probiotics kept me warm.  Check out these toppings, ladies!

So the next time some snobby New Yorker wants to get up in yo' business about living in Houston, you can tell them to suck it: we have our own Pinkberry, our own Thanksgiving Day Parade AND a Kolache Factory.