Curious Notions

11410 Century Oaks Terrace Suite #104 Austin, TX 78758 (512) 339-9463 www.cruawinebar.com Yesterday, I met up Jamie and Lily, old coworkers and dear friends of mine at Cru Wine Bar for happy hour. They’ve both been but I have never. Happy hour ends at 6 which I think accounts for us having the whole place to ourselves with exception to one table next to us. I’m sure if they extend to 7pm they’ll have more patrons. Not that I’m complaining, it was really nice and dare I say romantic even, to have such a cozy and beautiful place to ourselves. The interior is just gorgeous. We all ordered wine. Jamie got the white wine and Lily and I both got a Shiraz. I loved my wine. Smooth and not too heavy. Through the years, I’m surprised to say I’ve actually aquired a taste for wine. The waitress is holding the bottle for me to snap a picture of. She got that fantastic bracelet as a birthday gift last Friday. Jamie and her white wine. The Food Now for the fun part. Our food tastings! Chicken and Shrimp Potstickers These potstickers were unlike any I’ve ever had. Pretty unique flavor and delicious. The crispy wontons were good to nibble on as well. The sauce tasted similar to oyster sauce. I’m not certain on whether it is or not though. Three Cheese Fondue with Truffled Oil I normally don’t eat veggies but if you give me this fondue recipe to dip in, you’ll find me happily munching on those snap peas and carrots. I was surprised on how taken I am with veggies if you just let me have cheese with them! Steamed Mussels These steamed mussels were SO good we ordered a second. It came with a little garlic bread that was good to dip in the sauce. Sauce tasted like a thin white wine sauce. I’d come back to Cru again and again just for these mussels. Tuna Tuna. Tasty. I admit, compared to the rest of our menu, I was least impressed by the tuna. A fresh tomato and mozzarella salad. I was quite pleased with this wine bar and know this is now on my personal list of great happy hours in Austin. If you can managed to come here early for their happy hour, I highly recommend it. Can’t wait to come back. Happy Girls. (Sans Lily, she’s camera shy.)

1602 Westheimer Road
Houston, TX 77006

(713) 524-7744
www.hugosrestaurant.net

Back in July, Kim and I had Hugo’s for the first time and fell in love. Sunday, we went back for brunch and fell deeper. My friend, Elizabeth saw my Hugo’s pictures on facebook and shared that not only is Hugo’s her favorite restaurant but also the tres leches cake which is served only at brunch is her favorite. This Thanksgiving weekend was my first time back in Houston since then and I had to make sure I experience their brunch and this tres leches cake. So who better to go with me than Kim?!

We each ordered the Sandia Mimosa. We love champagne in the morning. This mimosa has watermelon juice in it and aguave nectar. It was refreshing and a nice twist from the usual orange juice.

Here’s a view of my first plate from their marvelous buffet. Their buffet is nicely presented. No metal buffet tins over heat lamps here. No spit guard here! If you look to the right on my plate, that is squash pudding. It was so delicious I had to get more. Light, fluffy, sweet. I’m tempted to look up a recipe!

My second plate is pictured above. More squash pudding, a tamale, something good with fried egg on it, a cheesy spicy cauliflower, lamp chop, grilled oysters, right next to the grilled oysters is beef tongue! I never had beef tongue and was excited to try. It was super tender (a good thing). I never had my oysters grilled either. I’ve only had them fried and raw. Grilled is a nice option! It’s a nice alternative for those of you who can’t stand the slimy texture of raw oysters.

Kim commented on how adventurous I was to try beef tongue. She said they actually do look like tongues which is not aesthetically appetizing. I must agree but I talked her into eating a bit of my beef tongue and videoed her experience for your viewing pleasure.

Toasting to another good plate.

My third plate: fish enchiladas, slow roasted pork, brisket, and a stuffed pepper (stuffed with chicken). The pork was so good. Brisket falls apart in your mouth like it should. After our third plate, we gleefully agreed it was time for dessert!

My happy dessert plate. If you notice, the biggest piece of cake I got was the tres leches. Also pictured is a churro, some rice pudding, a chocolate cake, and a chocolate raspberry cake. The only thing I didn’t love was the raspberry chocolate cake and that is because I don’t like raspberry. I guess I got overexcited at the dessert table.

I washed everything down with Mexican hot chocolate. Mmmm. I’ve roped Kim into agreeing to brunching with me here every time I’m in Houston.

She agreed! Lookit the joy in her eyes.

Shrimp Scampi Memories

I remember the first time I’ve ever made Shrimp Scampi was for my 22nd birthday celebration that I had with Kym, Dave, and Nam. It’s a fond memory of mine. The four of us took our ingredients and went downstairs to this community kitchen, Kym’s dorm had. I don’t know where I put my copy of the recipe but I do remember we dredged our shrimp in flour and that there was white wine in the sauce. It was super delicious and I used that same recipe twice more. The last time over 3 years ago was for my family and I forgot to cook the wine through. Consequently, it tasted like ass and my brother got drunk. Heeeee.

Anyway, I lost that recipe and the most recent time I’ve made shrimp scampi was a super easy no flour no wine recipe, I found on foodnetwork.com via Barefoot Contessa and I made it maybe two years ago when Alan and I were still roommates. I recently made Alan and me shrimp tempura (I used a tempura mix) maybe last week and I remembered I still have half a pound leftover of shrimp in my freezer. The Barefoot Contessa recipe came to mind and was appealing because it’s super low maintenance, fast, and easy. I still had parsley from the Chicken Scarpariello I made 5 days prior so I had all the ingredients lying around and no trip to the supermarket was needed! This was dinner Sunday night for Brandi and me.

How do you keep parsley fresh?

I googled how to keep parsley fresh. I usually end up having to throw fresh parsley out because they wilt almost instantly in the fridge. Apparently, you store them similar to how you would flowers! You cut the bottoms off the stems, put them in a water vase, wrap the bunch with a paper towel to soak up extra moisture and then you loosely tie a plastic bag around the vase. I tried this technique 5 days before and the parsley was still fresh! Neat.

Barefoot Contessa’s Shrimp Scampi and Linguine

Onwards to the recipe and pictures :) So easy. I used wholegrain linguine and scaled back the recipe a little as I only had 1/2 a pound of shrimp vs. 3/4 pound.

This recipe serves 3.

Sauteing the shrimp

Tossing the linguine with the sauce and lemon zest

Voila, and serve!

Ingredients
Vegetable oil
Kosher salt
3/4 pound linguine
3 tablespoons unsalted butter
2 1/2 tablespoons good olive oil
1 1/2 tablespoons minced garlic (4 cloves)
1 pound large shrimp (about 16 shrimp), peeled and deveined
1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1/3 cup chopped fresh parsley leaves
1/2 lemon, zest grated
1/4 cup freshly squeezed lemon juice (2 lemons)
1/4 lemon, thinly sliced in half-rounds
1/8 teaspoon hot red pepper flakes

Directions
Drizzle some oil in a large pot of boiling salted water, add 1 tablespoon of salt and the linguine, and cook for 7 to 10 minutes, or according to the directions on the package.

Meanwhile, in another large (12-inch), heavy-bottomed pan, melt the butter and olive oil over medium-low heat. Add the garlic. Saute for 1 minute. Be careful, the garlic burns easily! Add the shrimp, 1 1/2 teaspoons of salt, and the pepper and saute until the shrimp have just turned pink, about 5 minutes, stirring often. Remove from the heat, add the parsley, lemon zest, lemon juice, lemon slices, and red pepper flakes. Toss to combine.

When the pasta is done, drain the cooked linguine and then put it back in the pot. Immediately add the shrimp and sauce, toss well, and serve.

Taken from my copy of 1,000 Places to See Before You Die: A Traveler’s Life List, an old Christmas gift from Selina:

Despite Boston’s recent culinary hype, and despite a new generation of chefs that dismisses the city’s old guard establishments as boring or bland, Bostonians cherish tradition and the tried-and-true, and that’s where Legal Sea Foods comes in.

There’s a bunch of Legal Sea Foods peppered all over Boston. It’s been a culinary cornerstone of Boston since the 1950s. Mary Ellen and her husband took me here as my last meal before I went back to Austin. (This however is not the last food entry from Boston so still stay tuned for more!)

We all started with a cup/bowl of chowder. I got the fish chowder. So damn comforting with the oyster crackers.

I LOVE raw oysters. And I was so happy to be there for Mary Ellen’s first experience. She wasn’t too impressed by them but it was still exciting to be there.

West Coast oysters….

And East Coast oysters!

Have you ever heard of Scrod? Apparently it’s a fish! Never had it so I ordered it.
Scrod is not only fun to say out loud but is also BUTTERY and FLAKY and GOOD. Especially breaded and baked with a juicy tomato. Oh god, so good. I about finished my entire plate.

Mary Ellen’s husband got his usual stuffed lobster which he was willing to share. Mmmmmm. A meal fit for a king. (It came with 2 sides which in his case were polenta and the perfect french fries.) The stuffing was a great complement to the lobster.

Mary Ellen and I were still stuffed from breakfast which we had a mere 3 hours before. So she ordered dinky looking crepes. Hee. Seriously, look it how dinky they were. She said they were good :)

Friday night, I had a date with miss Kim and we were initially going to do something crazy and try grasshoppers at the famed (and RIGHTLY so) Hugos. We ended up not going with the grasshoppers for appetizers when we got there but man was I surprised. I had no idea the best restaurant I’ve been to in Houston would be MEXICAN. First of all, I’ve never had Mexican done up like this. My experience with Mexican is pretty limited to quesadillas, fajitas, tacos, and enchiladas. Holy crap did Hugo’s open up my world to Mexican cuisine and rocked it.

Squash Blossums are apparently in season. It’s funny because I’ve only just heard of squash blossoms on the Food Network when they featured it on a show about Italy. Here there are, featured in a special menu for squash blossums.

We went with the squash blossoms crepes for appetizers. They had squash blossoms, huitlacoche (fungal delicacy that grows on ears of corn), mushrooms and cheese topped with poblano cream and gratineed. We liked. Yum. Never had huitlacoche or squash blossoms. Great first experience.

Kim ordered one of the specials that was featured Friday, soft crab and some kind of corn bread that tasted like a done up fancied up Rudy’s cream of corn. Funny, because we bought thought of Rudy’s cream of corn at the same time. The soft crab was delicious! She did good in ordering as always.

My entree: Mariscos al Aijillo.

Mine comes with rice. This makes me want to do some rice sculpting.

My entree was the Seafood plate.. or at least that’s how I translate “Mariscos al Ajillo.” Mariscos al Aijillo has shrimp, scallop, lobster, mussels, clams, oysters and octopus, sautéed in olive oil with roasted garlic, chile de arbol and lime. I’ve never had octopus. My thoughts on octopus: like squid, it’s okay the first 4 seconds of chewing, afterwards the texture really gets to me. The dish on the whole was AMAZING. There’s a little bit of sauce from the olive oil, chile and lime that served as a great broth to eat with the rice. The seafood in it was fresh and I’ve never had a scallop as big or as juicy as the scallops they had. Kim and I poked at it with our forks and oohed and aahed at its extra plump texture. The lobster tail was succulent. Seriously, this restaurant blew me away. It’s a bit pricey. Runs 40-70 dollars a person without alcohol but very much worth the money.

Our waiter suggested we have the churros because it is “very Mexican.” It’s filled with dulce de leche filling and served with chocolate icecream (always a winner) and their famed Mexican hot chocolate. I’ve never had Mexican hot chocolate, after having Hugo’s, I vow to seek out Mexican hot chocolate more often. It was a lovely treat. Don’t be too shy to dip your churro in the hot chocolate. It’s like a crisp cinnamony donut.

My lovely date. I like this picture. She’s pretty AND quirky.

Do you see how high the ceiling is? Loved the ambiance.

Next time I’m in Houston, we’re definitely going back and this time for brunch. If you ever find yourself in Houston, do yourself a big favor and make this restaurant a food priority.

This blog entry is the last of a series. Here are the previous entries:
- San Francisco Fire Engine Tour
- Day 2 in San Fran
- I stalked a stalker and videotaped him.
- First Day in San Fran

Last Tour

Our last full day in San Fran, we did the Fire Engine tour first and then hopped onto a ferry and visited Alcatraz. It was a delightful tour. There’s an audio tour that walked us through the cells, a couple of escape schemes including a pretty gruesome and violent one, a few other rooms/offices of Alcatraz.

San Fran looked pretty beautiful from Alcatraz.

A furnished cell in Alcatraz.

This is a tiny winidow in a hallway of Alacatraz.

You know when you go somewhere extra touristy, they take a photo for you and give you an opportunity to buy it? I always buy. (I still want a copy of the one I took with Nam, Dave, and Kym at the Empire State building in NYC. Must remember to pester them).

Last Supper

We had dinner our last night in San Fran at a restaurant called Pier Market. I misread the directions and took us to Pier 24 when it was really located at Pier 39 (Fisherman’s Wharf). Ooops. However, it wasn’t just me who goofed (I don’t care what Alan says). Alan didn’t know the name of the restaurant! We got dropped off at the wrong pier but thanks to his iphone, we retraced our internet search and found our way to the right pier after a bit of walking and another cab. Our feast was an embarrassment of riches. We ordered 3 appetizers, 2 entrees and 2 desserts.

We caught the sunset.

Salmon Bruschetta. Pretty good.

The restaurant was too dark and my flash too harsh. Trust me, it was delicious.

Mmm slimey and tastey.

So this is Cioppino. It was the star of the meal if you ask us. We killed it. Cioppino is rumored to have been orignated in San Fran and it’s a tomato based fish stew. Whatever you catch that day you throw it in a stew. It was divine. I can still conjur up the mental taste, making my mouth water.

This was Alan’s pick. We each picked an entree and shared both. I was pleasantly surprised how good the ribs were. BBQ ribs does not sound like something San Fran would master? The meat fell from the bone. Just how it should be.

We ordered both the apple crisp and the creme brulee. I’m not an apple dessert kind of girl so I stuck with the creme brulee and nibbled on the ice cream of the apple crisp. I love custards which means I love creme brulee! Mm. Take me back to Pier Market, please.

Airport Food

We checked out on the fourth day at 10:30am, eager to be home in Austin at 8pm. We ended up being delayed all day and didn’t get home til 2am. I read an entire book. Not an epic novel, just a beachy novel I might link later. Alan watched some basketball and played a lot of golf on his phone. We were cranky, but I was pleased that we didn’t kill each other. We had lunch in the airport at San Francisco (and dinner in Phoenix) and I was surprised. It was the best meal I’ve had at an airport. I don’t think I’ve ever had good meals in airports, just mediocre bar food. Photos of our airport meals below.

Airport food: Korean BBQ Sandwich. Alan’s order.

Shanghai Dumplings, my order. I posted this picture second because I wanted to point out that in the corner you can see a french fry I stole from Alan. It was too hot so I let it rest. Hee.

This blog entry is part of a series. Here are the other entries:

- San Francisco Fire Engine Tour
- I stalked a stalker and videotaped him.
- First Day in San Fran
- The Last of our San Fran Trip

Second day there, I picked up breakfast from a cafe called Honey Honey Cafe & Crepery about a 10 to 15 minute walk away my hotel (corner of Taylor and Post). I found this place poking around for breakfast places and the website and reviews won me over. Check it out, you’d be won over too! I ordered crab cake florentine which came with home fries and a strawberry and nutella crepe (my 2nd crepe of the trip) which came with either whipped cream or ice cream. Seeing as I had to walk, I went with the whipped cream and made sure to walk quickly. As I waited for my order, I had some water they had in fountains chilled with strawberries and oranges. I wished more restaurants did that. Pretty clever and refreshing. It was naturally flavored chilled water. I read in reviews sometimes they had chilled cucumbers in the water. I’m curious what that would taste like.

After breakfast, I walked around on my own waiting for Mr. Alan to wake up. Found Ghiradelhi Square.

And Sea lions…

For lunch, Alan joined me for sourdough bread bowls at Boudin Bakery. They do not serve boudin, by the way.Boudin was the baker’s family name. Alan was almost positive they’d have boudin. Inside, there’s a cafe, a museum and a restaurant in the bakery. They supply the bread to many restaurants in SF. Alan and I relaxed in the restaurant. I had the crab and corn chowder and Alan had the traditional clam chowder. So good. We quickly learned the reason why sourdough bread is so delicious in San Francisco is because the fog and the ocean air locks in flavour.

We had dinner in the Italian neighborhood, dubbed North Beach. Alan found Sotto Mare online and was so taken by their reviews and photos he was adamant we’d go even though we were missing out on some basketball games aaanndd it took it us a handful of wrong turns to finally find Sotto Mare. I was so sure he’d give up and just randomly pick one of many restaurants in the neighborhood. I’m so happy he was steadfast. As soon as we walked in, we were pretty enamoured. The owner (the bald man on the website) was loud, pushy, and possibly Italian. He gave us half glasses of wine on the house as we waited. Seating was very limited, reminded me of restaurants in NYC. Maybe 7 tables were available and there was a bar counter (where we sat.) He let 2 more parties wait with us and loudly shooed the third party away.

“We don’t have room for you. Lots of restaurants in North Beach, you won’t go hungry!!”

That made me feel lucky. Hee.

Sipping some wine while we anxiously wait.

I saw oyster shooters with soju on the menu and remembered a blog entry Cindy wrote once about her first experience. We ordered a couple. Pretty weak, hardly any soju. But I’m happy I can cross that off my mental to do list.

Had West Coast oysters for appetizers and ordered our Pasta with Smoked Salmon and Pasta with Chef’s choice of Seafood.

Mussels, Clams, Red Snapper, Shrimp, Squid

Mouth is watering! I still think about the pasta entrees. Mmmm. The red snapper in the second dish was perfect.

This blog entry is first of a series. Here are the other entries:

- Day 2 in San Fran
- I stalked a stalker and videotaped him.
- San Francisco Fire Engine Tour
- The Last of our San Fran Trip

Alan and I set the tone for our trip as we were being shuttled from airport parking to the terminals. When the shuttle driver asked us what airline we’re flying, I promptly answered, “Southwest.”

“No, we’re definitely not Southwest.”

So I checked my email from his phone and we WERE Southwest only, it was too late and shuttle driver already dropped us off. Not a big deal since it wasn’t that far of a walk but that really was the tone of our trip. Sometimes heading off to a restaurant we yelped only to realize we never got the NAME of the restaurant down and I grabbed the wrong address.

The first day we got in, Alan had to recover from an all-nighter he pulled so I did some exploring on my own for a couple of hours before meeting him up for dinner.

I found H&M. Always a mandatory stop for me when I’m in a city lucky enough to have H&M. On my walk back from H&M our hotel. I found a peculiar trio.

Have you seen an odder trio?

I managed to read a map (a feat for me, personally) and found the famed and oldest Chinatown.

I love Chinatowns.

I stopped by Sweetheart Cafe mainly to just get a green tea bubble tea but I also got some fried fish balls to snack on.

I met Alan in Fisherman’s Wharf for dinner. We split the best crab of our lives at the Crab House. Alan was reading the directory searching for great accolades. He was won over by “world famous crabs” located at C2 on the map. We wandered around and realized we never got the name of the restaurant so Alan walks to a restaurant and asked the doorman, “Do you know where the world famous crabs are?”

“We have crabs… Dungeness crabs?”

“Are they world famous?”

“No. What’s the name of the restaurant?”

“We don’t know. Are you C2?”

“We’re A2.”

“Oh. Well, thank you!”

“But you haven’t seen our menu!”

Haha. We finally found C2 aka Crab House. It was DELICIOUS. I don’t know if I can have crab again anytime soon. (Maybe I lie a little because I tried a new restaurant today in Austin and had the crab cakes). Seriously, never had such fleshy and tasty crab in my life before. Afterwards, we split a banana and nutella crepe (beats my local Flip Happy Crepes, sadly) and a dessert wine flight. Pictures follow!

At California Wines enjoying some wine dessert

The last one was so fragrant. We bought a bottle and sipped on it at the hotel room throughout the trip.

We went home and had some wine. Then went to our first of two trips to In N’ Out. We love In N’ Out. What a great midnight meal. Drooooool.

Located on Greystone and Mopac. I’ve driven by this quaint place quite often and always noticed it’s packed during peak hours and the patio is always packed as well. So today we finally tried it out. From the outside it looks pretty humble and then you go in and you see it actually has a lot of pride. Here’s a couple of snapshots from Chile’s insides.

Pretty.

The waiter was GREAT. I wish I could remember his name so if you’ll ever go you’ll know who will take great care of you. We confirm that there’s another location right across the street from Clementine and Hoovers (next to East Side Cafe and Vivo). How did I miss it? All the aforementioned places are some of my favorite places. I was JUST at Clementine and Hoovers this Saturday. Here’s our food.

The salsa was made out of tomatoes, jalapenos, onions, and garlic. They roasted it to give it a smokey flavor and look. It was good.

How yummy looking is that?

These tacos ended up being a testament to how nice our waiter was. He said if the pickled cabbage wasn’t to our liking he’d be happy to replace the entree with something else. We took him up on that offer.

My order. I liked it enough. Definitely unique. Shrimp enchiladas with a chipotle sauce and a cilantro sour cream. As for shrimp enchiladas go, I prefer Hula Hut’s Spinach and Shrimp Tubular Taco.

Overall, I liked (not love) the place. Definitely unique, a nice break from the mundane.

I’d try it out again.

Last weekend, I tried out three restaurants.

A sandwich shop that’s apparently a Southern chain. Firehouse Subs. I wanted to grab a quick bite before heading to Ikea with Jennifer and Deesh met me up here at the Braker location. He recommended the Engineer, a turkey sandwich with Swiss cheese and sauteed mushrooms. It was delicious. The mushrooms are a nice touch, the bread perfectly toasted. The place itself is kind of cute. They had Firemen uniforms hanging on coat racks and Dalmatian spotted tables. Each cup has a firemen bio on it. Nice break from Quizos, Subway, and ThunderClouds.

Kenobi
New sushi restaurant in the Arboretum. I had my group birthday dinner here last Saturday. With exception of Deesh and Brittany, it was a new place for everyone. What’s most striking about the restaurant is its decor. Very trendy, dark, grandiose, beautiful, reminds me of Vegas. The sushi tasted fresh and they had our table sectioned off so it felt intimate. Food was good. I do feel you’re paying a little bit more for the ambiance. Overall the experience was pleasant :) I’d try it out again.

Gumbos
On my actual birthday, I was treated to a really nice dinner at Gumbos. I’ve heard about this place for a couple of years now and never gotten around to trying it. Had the spicy calamari and the crabcakes for appetizers. I think it’s the best calamari I’ve ever had and I think it’s due namely to the seasoning. Then I had the Spinach, goat cheese, pecan salad and my date had the Caesar salad. He ordered a steak (the Robert) and I had Shrimp Victoria. Blackened shrimp on artichokes and cherry tomatoes. My mouth is watering typing this out. There’s a picture of his steak on the website.

The restaurant is located on the ground level of a historical brown building (can you tell I read the website? haha) and I fell in love with the host.Maybe 70 years old? He was struggling with one of those china markers that was pulled and unwound until a tiny little nub.

“How do they expect me to write with this thing?”

He kept us updated on his status when I went to the restroom and then when we left. He must have liked us too since he seated us on the second floor and we pretty much had the floor to ourselves despite many more tables on the more bustling first floor. I found the seating romantic. Overall, I definitely recommend Gumbos.

My last new thing of the week, I joined a writing club! They just had their second meeting last Sunday. Ink Spots meets the last Sunday of every month. So far I love the dynamic and the personalities. One girl wrote a 150 page fan fiction for the Twilight series. Another girl wrote journal entries that pondered everything from her lotion bottle being easily excitable and her love handles. So the rules are you can write about anything you want and there are optional prompts. This next month’s prompt is embarrassment.

My problem with writing is that I can’t make shit up. I can document the shit out something and flesh out a memory but it’s never fictional. Maybe I can strengthen my writing muscle with Ink Spots’ help.