Rotisserie

Last year I spent the 4th in Corpus Christi, it was a lovely gulf-side mini vacation and exploration, since I had never been. This year I did friend maintenance in Dallas. It was about time, it had been over a year since I left and many people had braved the heat and humidity to visit me in Houston.

In conversation with the friends I omitted the fact that I had to be in Dallas before the weekend for work anyway :)

Surprisingly everyone in Dallas is doing quite well. I say surprisingly since the signs of the bad economy are much more obvious in Dallas than in Houston. Big, very visible projects all over town are boarded up mid construction. Expensive townhomes are now mid-level rentals. Whole neighborhoods have for sale signs. Even Highland Park homes are staying on the market over a year; even at a decent price per square foot. I'm so happy I sold and left when I did!

While I still dislike Dallas from almost every perspective, I still have alot of respect for their restaurant scene; its still very innovative! This trip we discovered two new and notables.

Bolla
2927 Maple Avenue
Dallas, TX 75201



Bolla is the anchor restaurant in the massively renovated Stoneleigh Hotel. For those not knowing, the Stoneleigh is fantastic 1920's hotel in uptown. It's always been an island of character in a sea of post-modern dull that is uptown Dallas. Now its even better, the renovation gives the old hotel a modern feel without compromising its original character.


Stoneleigh Hotel Entrance

Bolla is "new Italian". There are a slew of new Italian in this area of town but Bolla seems to take extra steps in presentation and innovative ingredient combos to set themselves apart. Enter Kalamata Scones with Basil Garlic Butter.

Service is a bit overly attentive. However, this could be a singleton experience since over the 4th there was noone in the restaurant but us. And actually, there was noone in the hotel or even in Uptown Dallas.


Bolla Interior


Bolla Lighting

Screen Door
1722 Routh St # 132
Dallas, TX 75201-2503
(214) 720-9111



Anchoring the north end of the Dallas Arts District is a new mixed-use structure known as 1 Arts Plaza. This is home to Southland Corp on the lower floors and the insanely wealthy on the top floors. Units in this building go for a unbelievably ridiculous $770 a square foot. Yes, higher than Manhattan.


Lobby@ 1Arts

The retail entering the ground floor is quite nice, Screen Door being one of the culinary entries. Screen Door is eccentric Southern. I say eccentric because they take standard Southern recipes and do things to them that are odd and unexpected. Take for example the Shrimp and Grits. This is a stellar dish. Its what you might be expecting, except the grits are more the consistency of firm mashed potatoes, perhaps mixed with an innocous white cheese. It comes together well and presents as creamy, toothy and delicious. The accompanying sauce is based from the New Orleans holy trinity of onion-pepper-carrots but with a spicy kick that adds a much needed dimension to the creamy texture of the grits.

Carrot cake is another standard that has been renovated. The cake part is cut into large circles which are glazed in a ginger syrup; they form a cookie of sorts with a cinnamon laced cream cheese middle. The 2 squiggles of sauce were Raspberry-Currant and Double-Vanilla. Had I not been driving back home I would have ordered one of my own rather than stealing bites from my friend.

All in all it was a good visit. While I still dislike Dallas I was very happy to catch up with my Dallas friends.

Also, I dont care what people say Houston it is not as brutal in the summer as Dallas. We might be more humid but at least at the end of the day you dont feel like a well-done rotisserie chicken.

Beaver-licious

One of my co-workers has an unusual pet. A beaver. Yes, a beaver. A wood-chewing, dam-building, long-tailed, big-toothed beaver. In fact, the Beaver-girl is the only person in the state of Texas licensed to have a beaver as a pet. As you can imagine Beaver-girl cannot in any way, shape or form talk about her pet without a tidal-wave of Beaver jokes. She even sometimes goes on the offensive and tells her own Beaver jokes as a way to diffuse the obvious.

That said, when I discovered there was a restaurant in Houston named Beavers, well, it was a foregone conclusion that we would have an outing!

Beaver's is a BBQ joint. But its upscale BBQ; BBQ with style, not to mention BBQ with options for vegetarians. I liked Beaver's alot, particularly their Beaver Nut Burger, a meatless burger made out of brown rice and cashews, which quite frankly was more weighty and filling that some real meat burgers I've had.

The fried pickles were amazing. Oddly, these are not fried pickle chips, they are fried pickle spears. BIG fried pickle spears. I liked the spicy ranch like sauce that kept the pickles company.

We watched the two guys next two us gasp in amazement as their Shrimp and Oyster Poboys were delivered. I swear this Poboy was bigger than a watermelon and spilling over with huge fried shrimp. The Poboy was served on a plate, no, platter, that was crammed to capacity with the restaurant's signature smoky chips and coleslaw. Apparently moderation is not the theme in Beaver-land.

Beaver-girl was quite pleased with the experience. In fact, she had a brief conversation with the manager about her beaver and it seems like her beaver might be making a special public appearance sometime soon.

I'll be sure to post some pics of that, should there be a beaver sighting :)



Beaver-girl @ Beaver's via Blackberry

Beaver's
2310 Decatur St
Houston, TX 77007-7519
(713) 864-2328

Rabbinical

We have a rabbi in the family now. Cousin Avi, after years (10, I think) of studying and countless grueling tests is now official. We are very proud!



Cousin Rabbi @ closing ceremonies in Israel

I know, you can hardly tell us apart, he's like my Israeli twin!

Decade

For my sister's birthday this year I took her on her first trip to NYC. Like all trips to NYC, this one was great. However this one had a few bonuses.

The day sister left for NYC, her 7 year old daughter gave her a frog keychain, named Lucky Frog, as a bon-voyage good luck charm. Lucky Frog obviously has power. When we checked into our hotel room in Midtown we were expecting the ususal 250-sf room with no view and no counter space. What we discovered was a full living room with 2-stories of glass forming a 180 degree view over looking midtown Manhattan. Then we discovered the full kitchen. Then the 20x20 bedroom with floor to ceiling windows. It wasnt until later that we discovered the hallway with the other 2 bedrooms and bathrooms. They had given us the penthouse suite on the 41st floor. We were the 41st floor.



Sister checks out the penthouse terrace


View from the bedroom


Lucky Frog welcomes you to NYC!

We had a whirlwind tour: Avenue Q on Broadway, Central Park, The Met, Battery Park, Ground Zero, Uppper East Side, Chelsea, Times Square, Hells Kitchen, and many interesting and delicious organic vegetarian meals!

Winners for this trip were

Double Crown
316 Bowery @ Bleecker
NYC
212.254.0350

Holy crap! This newcomer to Nolita is fantastic. We loved the English ruled India theme, which manifested itself in a wonderful drink called a Kumquat, Red Chili and Elderflower Mash. A citrusy whallop with spicy undertones and almost no sugar! The food is comparably amazing. Randomly pick an entree since they will all satisfy but dont forget to have the Yellowfin Tuna app, easily the best use of tuna on the planet!

Guy & Gallard
120 East 34th @ Lexington
NYC
212.684.3898

Why am I getting so excited about a coffehouse? Easy, its not Starbucks and they have a salad bar with several kinds of marinated tofu. Then there's the fresh juice bar, the better-than-Starbucks coffee and options for breakfast that don't include the 1200-calorie blueberry muffin (aka, pie in a muffin tin)


Lucky Frog recommends Guy & Gallard

The Met
1000 5th Ave
NYC

We really wanted to see the Frank Lloyd Wright exhibit at the Gugg, but it had just opened so all of Manhattan was there. Instead we were thrilled to walk several blocks to the infinitely larger Metropolitan Museum of Art. I've been to this museum literally dozens of times but there is always something new. This time sister and I became quite fascinated with the Asian Art wing.




Right, you aren't supposed to take pictures inside The Met. But then I have a Lucky Frog and you don't :)


The last day I treated sister to a subway ride from Park & 33rd down to Battery Park. She loved the subway! I wanted her to see Battery Park; the view to the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island as well as a casual stroll around Ground Zero. Battery Park was particularly busy as it was a warm sunny day. We stumbled across this 9/11 memorial of sorts. I think it was once stationed around Wall St. but as you can see it was somewhat damaged in the attacks. I thought it was very cool to preserve it in its battered state in Battery Park.



On the cab ride back to La Guardia sister was asking just how she could fit her 150 pound puppy into a 500 SF apt. Well, NY'ers are known for making the seemingly impossible, possible.

It's why we love them.

SOMA

I continue to be impressed with the Houston restaurant scene. I was a little worried when I moved to Houston (a year ago today) simply because I remember a Houston of the early 1990's. A lot has changed. 1990 Houston did not eat sushi, or at least not the raw variety. Sushi houses in 2009 Houston are shoe-horned between every Starbucks and Chipotle and completely unecessary bank branch. There have been several that will not get a return visit but mostly they are good; SOMA in particular is very good.


Sushi @ SOMA via Blackberry

"Modern" sushi scares me a little. I always think that by modern they mean - fry it up, melt cheese on it or drown perfectly good sushi in gooey, sweet, over-the-top sauce. This is the Dallas version of modern sushi, which to me is analogous to putting ketchup on filet mignon while watching WWF reruns in your double-wide with your sister-wife. I'm happy to report "modern sushi" in Houston parlance just means modern presentation.

SOMA is a relatively new sushi entry in Rice Military, a neighborhood quickly earning a rep for being foodie heaven. SOMA is modern most senses but it doesnt feel the need to be compulsive about it. The litmus test of Hamachi and Unagi passed with flying colors. In fact, the sushi chef actually subbed our second Hamachi order for Toro; same price, we liked him for some reason. The rolls were creative and well-presented. I think our favorite this trip was the Rainbow Spider, which is the standard soft-shelled crab roll but with tuna, escolar, yellow tail and salmon wrapped on the outside.

SOMA has happy hour most days from 4-7p, during which many of their higher-priced rolls are half off. Hmm, half-priced Rainbow Spiders and a glass of Pear Sake2Me, I feel a 12-step program right around the corner.

SOMA
4820 Washington Ave
Houston, TX 77007

(713) 861-2726‎

Transfer

Its been a busy month what with the layoffs at the Cancer Shoppe. It was sad to see so many of my co-workers leave, but the severance package was extremely generous and most walked out on a little puffy cloud. I will probably put on 10 pounds with all of the going away parties. Such is life, lol.

I was not one of the 10% reduced. In fact, I was one of a handful of people transfered to new departments. I am now in the department that handles computational oncology.

And in case I didnt mention it, I'm now working on a PhD in Health Informatics.

Super cool!

Blakemore

Last month I joined the Museum of Fine Arts in Houston at a level that allows me to see the exhibits before they open to the public. I did it on purpose so I could actually see the art instead of the people trying to cram into the museum to see the art. I haven't figured out why with 30 different museums in Houston, the MFA is always packed to discomfort.

Yesterday I saw a photography exhibit by Houston's own Amy Blakemore. It was nice to walk through the gallery with only 4 other people.

Blakemore has an interesting style. The composition seems innocuous enough until you look at it for a long enough period of time. Then her photos become evocative and even downright disturbing. She has a knack for light, focus and bringing out elements of the casual street scene that are unexpected and thought-provoking.

Take for example the item below. If you're familiar with I-45 between Houston and Dallas, you have no doubt seen this monument of Sam Houston. Maybe you've even stopped and walked around the surrounding park. I really doubt you've seen it like this. Its 1950's sci-fi, you can almost hear Portishead's Mysterons on loop-back in your head.



Her exhibit opens today and runs through mid-September, definitely worth a visit.