Steaming your fish is a great way to cook with less stink. My mom makes a great traditional Cantonese dish that works well with any white fish - tilapia, flounder, etc. You basically just steam the fish with a fermented black bean / soy paste (just mash the beans in a cup with soy sauce with a muddler or a thick knife handle), salt, pepper, garlic, and julienned fresh ginger. When it's almost done, heat a tablespoon or so of vegetable oil in a saucepan, then remove the fish from the steamer. Place it on a plate, top with julienned green onions and cilantro, and drizzle the hot oil over the fish. This sears the herbs and fish a bit and gives it a bit more flavor. Fantastic.
I imagine that this hot oil technique could be used in ways other than just chinese cooking, it gives you more of a pan fried flavor with a lot less stink. A chili or basil infused oil sounds pretty good over a delicately seasoned steamed fish.
Love: raw tofu (medium to soft). I cut it in cubes and eat it cold out of the box. mmm :)
I was invited to a potluck party, so I made a pot of homemade chili, red velvet mini-cupcakes and the blue-cheese bacon dip featured on SE a couple days ago - all came out fantastic.
But, I was SO disappointed, cause I loooove seven layer dip, and I kept thinking "well, I won't waste my time/money making that, surely someone will bring a seven layer dip. it's practically super bowl religion." Well... no seven layer dip. :( Like most of the people here, I don't eat stuff like that very often, so I was really looking forward to a one-day indulgence. Bummer.
I like all of the above, plus a touch of fresh minced ginger.
I understand how it can be annoying to have extraneous cilantro and parsley everywhere if you are not a cilantro / parsley lover, but just a note in defense of these lovely herbs - I LOVE cilantro on just about everything. Salmon, chicken, noodles, guac, chinese, mexican, you name it - cilantro is AWESOME.
Oh and also, my mom used to make us cream cheese and black olive sandwiches on white bread for lunch quite often when we were kids
And bacon and avocado sandwiches too. Both of these are still quite yummy as an adult, although as you can imagine we got some pretty weird looks at these sandwiches as elementary school kids.
Sorry, but I have to disagree on Rudy's. It's a chain with locations in the San Antonio / Austin area - fun atmosphere (antique gas station decor, cute food presentation, etc) but the barbecue is boring - no real hickory smoke flavor in any of the meats, ribs are mediocre, etc.
I'm not saying I never go to Rudy's, cause God knows there's nothing better than a trip there after a long day of floating the river with a beer in hand, but surely there's got to be a better bbq joint in San Antonio than Rudy's.
If you want the best bbq hands down in the area, I'd almost say it's worth a drive to The Salt Lick (~an hour-ish?) in Driftwood TX, just outside of Austin. I think there would be very few people who would disagree that Salt Lick has the best bbq.
Actually, I'll correct myself- I just googled it and McDonald's divested their stake in Chipotle in October 2006. Chipotle for everyone again! (haha.)
The Hobbit Cafe is a good vegetarian option; they have some menu items that I would really call more cali-mex than tex-mex, but there's tacos, enchiladas, etc.
I'd also check out Ruggles Green, also on West Alabama - it's brand new and I haven't been, but the other Ruggles restaurants (Ruggles and Ruggles Cafe) are great. Ruggles Green is supposed to be their organic, green menu - has some meat, but probably also a lot of vegetarian options.
For regular non-vegetarian specific Tex Mex, I second Pappasito's; also El Tiempo and Ninfa's (on Navigation, not any other Ninfa's location). As hungryinhouston mentioned though, non-meat dishes at these places still may likely have lard or other animal products.
no offense to psychsarah, but I personally would not do Chipotle - it's about as chain-Mexican as you can get, they are owned by McDonalds and they're all over the U.S., including NYC and other places in the north.
It's Atkins Farms, not Atkin's Farms. The farms do not belong to one Atkin, they belong to the Atkins family. (In fact it should be Atkins' Farms, but if they've chosen to name it Atkins Farms then so be it, that's the name of the business.) But under no circumstances should it be Atkin's Farms.
In any case, the donuts look good.
I'd go with a good ol' Cantonese ma po tofu dish. I actually don't have a good recipe, but I'm sure you can find one by googling or they even have pre-made packet mixes on the Asian aisle at most groceries for the less cooking-inclined. It's a nice spicy bean-paste and soy-based sauce which soaks in nicely to the tofu, and non-vegetarian recipes usually incorporate ground pork as well, which makes it easier for tofu newbies.
oh - and also, Fage plus a packet of ranch dressing mix is a great veggie dip.
0% Fage, whole foods trail mix with plenty of almonds and a packet of splenda.
@ Chef Jo (and anyone else in the Houston area, for that matter), my local Fiesta carries Fage as well, cheaper than Whole Foods. I'm usually not a brand snob but even if it's cheaper, Oikos just isn't as good.
Oh well yeah, then for a $2 difference I'd buy Oikos and just make the occasional splurge for Fage. My Whole Foods carries Fage for $2.25, but I can find them at Fiesta for $1.80 (don't know how widespread Fiestas are - probably not very. It's a relatively large specialty Hispanic foods store in Houston.)
I worked my way through college as a server at a casual dining steakhouse chain. I saw some pretty outrageous stuff...here are two of the most notable.
1. A couple who brought their toddler's porta-potty in and set it down next to the table for him to use because "he wouldn't be able to make it all the way to the back where the restroom is." Needless to say we did not allow this.
2. I walked up to a table mid-way through their meal to check in. As I walked up, the mom held out a wad of damp napkins, which I took, figuring their 3-ish year old daughter had spilled her juice or something. Big mistake - the daughter had puked in the booth and they used to napkins to wipe it up and just handed them to me without any warning. Disgusting.
I have to disagree. I'm normally all for the cheaper / generic variety of things, but oikos for me does not make the cut. Not as thick or creamy, plus it has 110 calories vs. Fage's 80 cals for the same size cup.
Love it. dab of mayonnaise, salt, pepper, garlic, and I like to toss in some fresh cilantro leaves. yum.
we always dip our artichoke in mayonnaise (not much, just a little). I guess that's a little like the aioli, although admittedly it sounds a whole lot more gross. Sure is yummy though...and easy.
I was at a roadside stand in the Texas hill country this weekend and bought a cool-looking squash (the proprietor of the stand didn't speak much English and couldn't tell me what it was, but after some googling I figured out it was a gooseneck squash.) Are these cookable / flavorful, or mainly decorative? Does anyone have any recipe suggestions? Thanks!
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Yes, please sear. Otherwise it will just taste like boring boiled meat.