Alison Cook – Snapshots & My Thoughts by Ailee Petrovic

Food October 28, 2013

Houston’s Healthy Vegetarian Guide

Houston used to have a rap as being a steakhouse city – a place that vegetarians would avoid while en route to hippie, vegan-friendly Austin. Recently, with the food movement in our city, vegetarian options are becoming more and more prevalent. I’ve made a list of my favorite healthy vegetarian options at some of the best restaurants in Houston. You’ll notice there’s no pizza or pasta options, as I don’t eat either!

Adair Kitchen (Galleria) – Black Bean Quinoa Burger (Lunch), Kale Salad (Dinner)

Baba Yega (Montrose) – Portabella Burger

Backstreet Cafe (River Oaks) – Portabella Burger, Spectacular Veggie Platter

Barnaby’s (Various) – Garden Salad (Without Bacon) and Falafel Patty

Benjy’s (Rice Military and Rice Village) – Curried Quinoa

Cafe Brasil (Montrose) – Hummus and Falafel Plate, Goat Cheese Salad

California Pizza Kitchen (River Oaks) – Roasted Veggie Salad, Quinoa and Arugula Salad

Canopy (Montrose) – Baby Spinach Salad (Substitute Quinoa for Chicken)

Carrabas (The Original on Upper Kirby) – Ensalata Fiorucci

Coppa (Rice Military) – Burrata appetizer, Insalata Tricolore

Corner Table (River Oaks) – Earth Burger (without the bun), sub fries for side salad

The Counter Burger (Rice Military) – Build-Your-Own Vegan Veggie Burger

Harvest Organic Grille (Memorial) – Harvest Eggplant, Veggie Mixed Grill, Chard o Yay

Indika (Montrose) – Paneer and Eggplant Chaat, Vegetarian Tasting Dish

Kiran’s (Highland Village) – Organic Kale Salad, Baby Eggplant, Pindi Channa

Latin Bites (Memorial) – Quinoa Salad

Maryz (Richmond) – Hummus (Best in Houston), Falafel

Pondicheri (Upper Kirby) – Curried Popcorn, Barley Salad, Vishnu Thali

Radical Eats (Montrose) – Knocked Up Avocado Salad

Relish (River Oaks) – Beet Salad

Roost (Montrose) – Fried Cauliflower, Ma Po Tofu

Ruggles Green (CityCentre, Upper Kirby) – Texas Goat Cheese Salad

Uchi (Montrose) – Uchi Salad, Brussels Sprouts

Zoe’s Kitchen (Various) – Vegetarian Kabobs (Hummus Side)

images via Sprouted Kitchen

Food October 2, 2013

Houston Food + Drink Awards

Alison Cook just published her Top 100 Restaurants of 2013, and I was inspired to post my own “awards” of such. I came up with my own categories and picked winners (listed below). I’ve still got a few places that I’m dying to go to in the city, but these are my favorites to date. We are so blessed in this amazing foodie city (speaking of, read this article).

__________________________________________

Best Happy Hour: Anvil

Best Mimosas: Backstreet Cafe

Best Ladies-Who-Lunch: Tiny Boxwood

Best Girls Night: Canopy

Best Guys Night: Beavers

Best Lunch-to-Go: Relish (salad pictured above) and Zoe’s Kitchen

Best Dinner Atmosphere: Sparrow and Underbelly

Best Intimate (and Hipster) Vibe: Roost

Best Healthy Options: Harvest Grille

Best “Skinny” Cocktails: Cyclone Anaya’s

Best Sunday Brunch: Buffalo Grille and Rainbow Lodge

Best Farm-to-Market: Haven

Best Views: The Grove Rooftop and Brenner’s on the Bayou

Best Porch Area: Cedar Creek

Best BYOB: Jonathan’s The Rub and La Vista

Best Romantic Date Night: Mockingbird Bistro or Glass Wall

Best Asian: Uchi

Best Indian: Indika and Pondicheri

Best Italian: Coppa, Dolce Vita, and Giacomo’s

Best American: Benjy’s

Best Mexican: El Tiempo

Best Mediterranean: Island Grill

Best Middle Eastern: Maryz

Best French: Phillipe

Best Southern Cooking: Lucille’s

Best Bar Food: The Tasting Room

Best Bar(s): Anvil, Bar Boheme and Mongoose vs. Cobra

Best Coffee: Antidote and Catalina

Best Frozen Yogurt: Pinkberry

Best Vegetarian Options: Baba Yega and Field of Greens

Best Tofu Dish: Ruggles Green

Best Quinoa Dish: Latin Bites and Relish

Best Falafel: Brasil and Barnabys

Best Veggie Burger: Adair Kitchen

Best Brussels Sprouts: Benjy’s and Uchi

Notable missing from the list (and high on my list of places to go): Oxheart, Triniti, Revival Market, Radical Eats, RDG, Ouisie’s Table, Da Marco, Hugo’s, and Irma’s. Anyone up for dinner?

Bon appetit!

Food September 23, 2013

Weekend Food Adventures

I love trying new restaurants. I got to knock out three that I’ve been dying to try for ages this weekend – Mockingbird Bistro, Underbelly, and Latin Bites. My thoughts on each place are below!

I met two of my good friends, Paola and Guillermo, at Mockingbird Bistro on Thursday to celebrate their recent engagement. I ordered the Organic Beet Salad, which was great. As a beet lover, I will always order a beet dish if it’s on a menu. This one definitely did not fail to deliver. The spicy walnuts were the perfect touch to the dish. The service was amazing – our waiter brought a Congratulations dessert plate without any of us even mentioning the occasion! He must have been very attentive!

I’ve been to Underbelly for drinks before, but not for a meal. The menu is not super conducive to vegetarians, but the atmosphere makes up for the slim pickings. We ordered the eggplant appetizer (amazing), and then I got the Crispy Market Vegetables, which was a bowl of green beans (slightly strange, although they tasted great). The best parts about the evening were meeting Chris Shepherd (Executive Chef) and bragging on one of my good friends, Bryan, who did some of the art work on the wine menu (illustration and Bryan’s bio on page 10 here).

At Latin Bites on Saturday, I ordered the Quinoa Salad. It was heaven on earth. The ingredients include crispy quinoa, poached quinoa, carmelized cashews, mint, mozzarella, choclo, fava beans, avocados, tomatoes confit and passion fruit dressing. It came with baby iceberg lettuce wraps – one of my favorite dishes in Houston. See their dinner menu here. My only complaint about this amazing Memorial gem is the logo. As a typography nerd, it kills me.