Category: Houston restaurants (Page 2 of 2)

UB Preserv: A Fine Cocktail, and How About Those Collard Greens and Short Rib Fajitas?

When I found out I would be moving to Houston, back in 2013, I reached out to John T. Edge for some recommendations. I had seen a piece of his in Departures about the city’s food scene, and he told me to go to Underbelly and Himalaya (among other restaurants). About both of those places, I found out that John T. was resoundingly right. Himalaya soon became an addiction, and it still occupies a place in the top 5 on the Brockhaus Best Houston Restaurant List. As for Chris Shepherd’s Underbelly, one of my favorite things to do after work (I was the managing editor at the Houston Press at the time) was to take a seat at the bar, order a glass of wine, and get a dish of the Korean braised goat dumplings. Excellent food, friendly staff, beautiful restaurant, and I liked the wine list and its overseer.

Fast forward to last night, when Angela and I met some friends at UB Preserv, Shepherd’s new baby, a restaurant designed to, as the menu states, “preserve what we started at Underbelly.” Situated in the building that previously housed Poscol, UB Preserv, to judge by our dishes, is off to a great start. I arrived early, and took a seat at the bar. (Constance, a friend from Austin, told me a few weeks ago that Becca, to whom Constance had introduced me one evening at Drink.Well., the cocktail bar and gastropub at which Becca worked, was now living in Houston and behind the bar at UB Preserv, an added reason to make my inaugural visit to the restaurant.) I greeted her, and we talked a bit about Constance and Alison, then I asked her to make me her favorite drink on the menu. Good choice, that, because she served me the Billy Gibson, a nice mixture of dry gin and vermouth, fennel, and pickled onion. It’s what every Friday evening needs for a great beginning.

Dry gin and vermouth, pickled onion, and fennel: The Billy Gibson is a worthy cocktail.

Fatema and Wisam arrived around 7:30, so we sat at our table and waited for Angela, who was coming from downtown. Drinks were ordered, Angela arrived, and we got to the pleasure of ordering food. We started with the Crispy Rice Salad and the Pork Dumplings, the former a bowl of, yes, rice crisped perfectly, toothsome and possessing a comforting texture, plus a mix of herbs, tomatoes, cucumbers, and a vinaigrette made with serrano peppers. The dumplings were warm and moist, the pork was slightly tangy and rich, and the addition of fried shallots, soy, chilies, and black vinegar produced a miniature flavor bomb.

Like pork? Get these dumplings.

Wisam and Fatema ordered the Crawfish and Noodles, and Angela wanted the Vietnamese Short Rib Fajitas, at $65 a dish definitely meant to be shared, though we were sharing everything. It occupies a space on the menu with Smoked Bone-In Lamb Shoulder ($70), Texas Heritage Crispy Chicken ($68), and Whole Roasted Snapper ($54). The rib meat, from 44 Farms, is a thing of beauty, and its fat content will wow you. Such flavor alone would satisfy, but when you wrap the meat in a leaf of the lettuce it’s served with and then add some mint and cilantro, the next level is achieved. The flavors and textures mingle, and all is right with the world. The crawfish dish was, to my palate, less successful; the crustaceans were delicate and buttery, but I think I was wanting a touch more acid. The noodles are crispy, however, and this dish will please many.

The bonus of  the evening? A bowl of collard greens that rank up there for me as some of the best I’ve had. The greens had been sliced razor-thin, and the broth was full of umami; we ate the greens with chopsticks and I drank the broth from the bowl when they were gone. Order these collards.

A pork broth and collard greens of righteous deliciousness.

The wine list is diverse and friendly; Teutonic Wine Company’s 2017 Pinot Noir Rosé will cost you $42, and a bottle of 2014 Müller-Catoir Scheurebe can be yours for $43. We went with a red blend from Tenuta di Trinoro, the 2015 Le Cupole ($54).

The 2015 Tenuta di Trinoro ‘Le Cupole’

The evening progressed, the place emptied out — when we left there were two guests sitting at a table with their food— and the experience had been much more than good. UB Preserv will, I predict, attract lots of diners, and carry on well what Shepherd and his team began at Underbelly.

Lardo Takes Me to Florence, Manti to Istanbul: That’s a Great Week in Houston Dining

You’re walking around Florence, taking in as much as you can, running your hands across the stones of buildings, wondering about the people who lived and loved and died in them a thousand years before you were born. You imagine all the wild boar roaming in the hills above the city, think about feasts of yore at which cinghiale starred, you wind down a narrow passage near the river and find yourself outside the restaurant with the rabbit dish you love. At your table, you order a quartino of Nebbiolo and accept a small plate of lardo, a gift from the owner. Outside, the sun begins to set. Inside, the evening begins, deliciously.

Lardo. If you’ve never experienced the pleasure that is lardo melting on your tongue, get a table at Houston restaurant Charivari (no, it’s not the only place in the city that serves lardo, but it’s certainly home to some fine examples of it) and ask for it. The chef, Johann Schuster, will be happy to oblige. Here’s a look at a platter of the food that I sampled recently at the midtown establishment — and I find myself wanting more as I write this.

Lardo, two ways, and tongue head cheese.

Read about Schuster’s lardo here, and don’t delay if you want some, because this is not mass-produced salumi. (I write about a great dish at Nancy’s Hustle as well in the piece. The manti served at the new — and popular — restaurant in Houston’s EaDo area, took me back to Istanbul, as the lardo transported me to Florence. Not bad for a week in Texas.)

Finally, I give you sausage, two made with skill by Schuster, which I tasted on the lardo evening. There’s a rich, decadent blood sausage, and a garlic sausage that is as good as any I’ve ever had. You’ll love them.

Blood sausage and a hearty garlic sausage, as served at Charivari

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