Les Givrals Try #2

On try #2 of Les Givrals on Washington, since my first visit wasn't too favorable. This time I return with a groupon and a friend happy to be used and treated before my groupon expires.

Last time, I got the vermicelli and a tofu spring roll and wasn't very happy with either.  They both were so tasteless, which is a mystery to me since most of it is just fresh ingredients.  Maybe it was the fish sauce. This time with much heeded advice I had the banh mi #1 (charbroiled pork). The bread was nice and crispy like it was fresh out of the oven or at least it tasted like it.  The amount of veggies and cilantro were good, overall very fresh ingredients.  I felt like my sandwich was a bit roomy, it could of used a few more pieces of pork.  The bread to the ingredients ratio was a little off, but overall it met my requirements.  Add the spicy chile sirracha stuff and it's perfect.  The banh mi was $3.  I think I wondered with this nice new building would the food cost more, but no...I think it's pretty much the same as the one in downtown.  Jay got the rice dish with charbroiled pork. He liked his dish and I liked my banh mi...success, this time!

My conclusion is it's a decent spot to go for vietnamese food if you're closer to the west end of the inner loop and away from downtown. Little tidbit, Rice Military used to be called West End back in the day. I think one day, we're going to look back and say, did you know Katy used to be considered west houston? It's not a secret, Houston is estimated to double in population by 2035. Real Estate is cheap now, trust me, carpe diem! I'm in real estate, so if you or anyone you know needs a real estate expert, call me, I'd love to help you find your perfect home or sell it and find you a new perfect home!

Soo
sookim@greenwoodking.com
832-545-0849

Bernie's Burger Bus (Sackett near Westheimer)

So Ryan tells me about this burger place, insists I must go, but he doesn't know the name or anything...it's all very mysterious, I'm intrigued.  We pull up...ok...different, ok...definitely has character...I already like it, but what is it?

What it is, is Lizzard's Pub with Bernie's Burger Bus parked on the side.  They are not affiliated.  The owner of Lizzard's Pub is kind enough to let BBB park, provide food, do their own thing and patrons can sit and buy a beer or drinks at Lizzard's Pub and sit and enjoy their patio.  Awesome casual atmosphere, great quiet tree lined street surrounded by bungalow homes occupied by commercial businesses.

The owner, Justin, who's burger bus is named after his grandfather Bernie, has been operating this bus here since October, but I wanna say he said he's been in the business for 15 years...don't quote me on that.

Justin is super friendly and you can tell he chats a lot with his customers, he's got his window lean down.  Ok so, here's the menu on the side of the bus, it's pretty simple, but also creative and fun.  All the menu items follow a school theme...the principal, substitute, bully, detention, the preschoolers, kindergartners, etc.  

I get a classic burger called the Principal (Traditional approach to the classic American burger with mustard, ketchup, pickle, thin sliced onions, shredded lettuce, and slow roasted garlic tomatoes $7).  I thought it was pretty good.  It had a different flavor to it, but I couldn't put my finger on...then I realized maybe it's like a slight worcestershire flavor.  Under "extracirricular activities", since they ran out of sweet potato fries, I get the handcut fries, which I thought were good too, nice and just the right amount of salt.

Ryan gets the Substitute (Burger topped with a bleu cheese, thick sliced crispy bacon, burgundy laced mushrooms and Bernie’s Tipsy caramelized onions $8 or $9 I forget).  He said his was good, said he really liked it.  

They make their own condiments, ketchup texture looked a little different, but they both tasted like good ol ketchup and mustard, just the way I like.  Nobody likes gourmet ketchup or natural ketchup that doesn't taste like ketchup, right?

Justin brings out this Truffle Laced Hand-Cut Fries w/ Parmesan and Green Onions.  I liked it, but since Ryan doesn't eat fries, I ate most of the handcut fries and was kind of french fried out by the time he brought out this free order of fries, which was awfully nice of him.  I did have a few bites though.  I liked the combination of the parmesan on the fries, that was different.  When they say something is truffle laced, I can never taste it...like truffle laced popcorn.  But, the person I'm with usually can, maybe I need more refinement or maybe they're just lying!  What is it supposed to taste like?  I have no idea.  Am I the only person that relates the word "truffle" to chocolate?   Or maybe it's like the Emperor and his invisible coat, like all these chefs are telling us these things are laced with truffles when in reality it's not and it's just for us to be like "ooh yes, I taste it, it's magnificient"...when really...no truffles.  Ok, anyways I digress, I wished I could have tried the sweet potato fries...more reason to come back!

Overall, I liked my whole experience.  I loved the charm and character of the whole idea.  This mobile school bus burger concept parked off a side street found, either by word of mouth or you accidentally fell upon it.  It's just stinkin cool.  This kind of business you hope that the food is good because the idea is so cool...and you sit down and eat and the food IS good.  I'm gonna be honest, it's not the best burger I've had, not that I expected it to be, but it was a dang good burger and tasty and satisfying, good fries.  But, the best thing about this place is that they make all their own ingredients FROM SCRATCH!!  That's just so unusual.  Organic grass-fed black angus beef (have you seen how these conglomerate companies raise and process beef? If not, trust me you'll appreciate grass-fed beef), condiments made FROM SCRATCH, that's just so strange...even the bun!  No perservatives or chemicals.  What is the world coming to...a fast food joint...located in a mobile school bus...that serves burgers and fries with all natural ingredients.  This whole concept is just so weird...I love loved it all!  It's got such an unpretentious, casual, fun, ogranic quality, the whole thing I just loved.  I'll be back for those extracirricular sweet potato fries!

Beck's Prime on a Beautiful Day!

Apparently, not everyone likes the veggie burger at Beck's Prime, like their own employees! Well, one in particular, knocking the veggie burger, he was...what does he know about good veggie foods, I told him his coworker doesn't look like he eats veggie burgers...haha!  Totally kidding.

I love it though, but Jay tried it and didn't like it so much either, said it had a Mediterranean flavor to it. Sweet potato fries are crispy and good!  Jay had the bacon cheeseburger, says it's really good...and speaking from past experience the hamburger is really good too, a big fat patty and mesquitey flavor...soooo good...mm mm...

Lamar students breaking away to enjoy this beautiful day.  I guess schools let kids eat off campus these days.

Sweet Part 2

Ok, so I went back for red velvet, raspberry and strawberry to take to my girlfriends who hadn't heard about Sweet.

So I decided to get some Macaroons because the few people I know have been raving about them. I got the vanilla. It looks like a teeny weeny burger.

It's just bigger than the size of a quarter.  I thought it was really tasty...so I went back...

and got another, this time the Lemon, which I liked better.  It's $1.50 for one and packaging is cute too!

I was hoping to split the cupcakes with my girlfriends, but we couldn't coordinate early enough so I went ahead and had my raspberry.  I thought it was really good.  Raspberries in the cake too.  Icing delicious, cake was really moist and tasty too.  Overall, very pleased with it.  I think the Strawberry cupcake's icing looks much better today than it did yesterday.  So far I'm very pleased with everything I've tried here, I definitely recommend Sweet.

Sweet at City Centre

In the center of City Centre near Yardhouse.  It's a little hard to find since it's not on the most exposed side.  But, just around the corner behind Red Mango and really not a bad space once you know where it is.

Sweet is not to be confused with Sweet Cupcakes that was featured on Cupcake Wars.  They do more than cupcakes, they have macaroons and rock candy, coffee, and more to come, says Sandy.

So far I like the decor, rustic meets posh, love the combination of brick and wood, very cute.

cute little benches, plenty of seating in and out the cupcakery.

Very nice presentation and lots of choices from Red Velvet, Green Tea with Raspberry icing, Vanilla Bean, Peanut Butter (great idea!), Strawberry, and more...too many to remember.  They were all very cute, presentation was great, I wanted to eat them all! 

An explosion of cuteness in a very tasteful way.

And for your furry family members, how thoughtful!

I wanted a Lemon, but they ran out.  At the recommendation of the owner Sandy, who was really nice, I got the strawberry.  It smelled awesome!  I thought it was really good.  There were strawberries in the cake, you can see it in this picture through the cup.  I thought the icing was good too.  I thought it was pretty comparable to my favorite, Celebrity Cupcake's strawberry.  I thought Celebrity Cupcake's icing tastes lighter.  The cake taste about the same.  The only thing I thought gave Celebrity a noticeable point over Sweet's was the presentation of the cupcake.  This cupcake doesn't look as neat, don't you think?  But, just to point out, the other cupcakes were really cute and prices are great at $3 a cupcake!

Just to prove a point on the location comment I made earlier, I was sitting on a bench with my girlfriend Rebecca and eating my cupcake and two girls walked up to me and asked me where I got the cupcake, I told them it was on the other side of Red Mango...case in point. I was very happy with my overall experience from the atmosphere, staff, owner, and product. 

Cowboys and Horses in Texas

Yes, in Texas, we actually do have cowboys and horses in our streets...well...only for a limited time, rodeo season has officially begun, yee haw!

Chain Gang Hit #1 - Bamboo House

I recently read an article in one of Houston's top foodie magazines that was titled the "Chain Gang".  The premise of the article was to have a chain of recommended dishes by the recommended dish's executive chef, starting with Hugo Ortego of Hugo's. 

Hugo recommended the Shanghai Mini Buns from Bamboo House, said he really liked and was really into them lately.  I had been here once long ago and can't remember what I thought.  Obviously, not too memorable.  I think I remember thinking it wasn't that great.  But, if it receives good reviews, I always try to remind myself to try a place 3 times before I give up.  Bamboo House is in the shopping center across from the AIG building on Waugh and Allen Parkway.

Bad photo, sorry.  Simple design and decent, it's in a shopping center, can't expect much.  Looking over the menu it looks like the genre would be "Asian Fusion".  They had Thai dishes, Chinese, Japanese, etc.  The lady that waited on us also worked behind the cashier and seated us too...probably the owner.  She was helpful and appreciative of our visit, her pictured here.  Wow really bad photo, I assure you she's not an amputee and is not a man.

The Shanghai Mini Buns are on the appetizer menu.  I think they were like $8 or $9, can't remember.  Inside is pork and it comes with this ginger dipping sauce, and that was tasty.  The only thing I didn't like about the dumplings were how processed the pork looked.  You know...that pinkish processed look.  Regardless, the whole combination was good, I liked.  They had a good flavor, warm, good texture, and perfect size to pop them in your mouth.

The veggie dumplings were decent.  My first bite, I didn't like, but upon second, I changed my mind and decided it was good because they were soft, warm, good portion of substance inside the dumplings and they tasted healthy and light.  We also got the Thai Wrap, which is really like PF Chang's Lettuce Wrap.  They didn't have that crunch like PF Chang's, but the flavors were all there, texture right, but no photo because it was the first thing that came out and well...you know how that goes.

The orange beef was really good.  I liked the texture and sauce was salty and tangy, yum yum.  I could have used more rice...so I just asked for more and they brought it out, but I'm not sure if they charged us for it.  I always like when the server thinks for you.  I forgot to ask for brown rice, quite frankly I didn't think to ask because I didn't know it was an option.  She asked and so obviously I chose brown rice, which makes me a very happy patron.

All in all, I was definitely pleased with my visit.  For sure I'll put Bamboo House on my local Asian Fusion restaurant list.  David, Jae and I shared these meals, 3 appetizers, and 1 main entree felt like just barely enough, but 3 hours later and I'm hungry again.  The total came out to $28, is that expensive?  While eating the mini buns, we discovered someone ate an extra mini bun.  So Jae, who got shorted a mini bun, got the last piece of Orange Beef, which was a fair trade.  Mini bun for veg dump, not a fair trade.

Ok, go by and try...bon appetit!