Sugar Cafe

Sugar Cafe

The other night I ate at Sugar Cafe, conveniently located at Allen and Houston about a block and a half away from Sunshine Cinema. The movie we were seeing was sold out, so we got tickets to a later show and had a chance to eat a nice dinner as well.



Turkey and Brie Sandwich

This sandwich was pretty awesome, consisting of hot smoked turkey, melted brie, green apple and honey mustard on whole wheat bread. The apple slices were thin, and the brie was warm, and there was just a tiny bit of honey mustard. The turkey was delicious, and had those salty crunchy warm spots that canadian bacon gets when you leave it on the stove the perfect amount of time.

The fries were the best fries I've had in a very long time. They were definitely fried twice, like all good french fries, and were not too salty, and were very crunchy. Maggie agrees that they are really good.

Also, this whole plate was $8, which is cheap considering the neighborhood and the amount of brie on the sandwich.

Ariana's Birthday at Bijoux

Long time no blog. But as many of you know, I recently relocated to da NYC and I'm gonna get back in the bloggin game. My first blog back is about my last meal in Dallas. I moved to NY on a Tuesday, and the Monday before was Ariana's birthday, which happened to coincide with Restaurant Week. So her wonderful mother, Angela, took us to Bijoux, "A Refined Upscale Dallas Restaurant with a Contemporary French Menu."



Amuse Bouche

We started with this tasty little treat: A slice of cucumber topped with little bits of watermelon, a dollop of blue cheese and a little watercress. I think cucumber is pretty much the most foul vegetable and is nearly impossible to make it taste good, but this totally ruled. I guess because it mostly tasted like watermelon and blue cheese. And surprisingly, the delicate flavors of the cucumber and watermelon weren't masked by the strong blue cheese either.


Crispy Pork Belly

Dannng. I took one bite of this and started crying my eyes out! Honestly, not because it was so good, although it was. I was crying because I had a root canal that morning, and was very carefully trying to only chew on the left side of my mouth. Unfortunately I bit down really hard on the right side where the root canal was, and I haven't experienced that much (physical) pain in years. After regrouping in the bathroom for 5 minutes, I returned to the rest of my pork belly. It tasted like bacon, but with a completely soft, melt-in-your-mouth texture. I could eat this every day if money and cholesterol weren't issues.



Truffled Risotto

Hell YEAH! At long last, Jenny G ate some black truffles. 22 years in the making, right? This was extremely rich and decadent and I had a hard time eating all of it, tooth problems aside. But I suffered through it! Truffles taste like clean dirt and I can't believe that people pay thousands of dollars per pound for these things. I am so glad I finally got to try it, for real. Now I can really relate to real food critics, which brings me one step closer to my goal of one day being the restaurant critic for the NYT.


Cherry Sorbet

This was a little pre-dessert course. It was pretty tasty, but half melted when it arrived and extremely hard to get out of the bowl.





Chocolate Mousse with Passion Fruit Sauce

The Chocolate Mousse was encased in a hard chocolate shell, like a really fancy klondike bar. It was delicious, and the passion fruit sauce was the perfect tart balance to the rich chocolate. yummmmm. I should also add that my cell phone memory got full of pictures so that is why I have this crappy picture that Duane Reade totally cropped all funky so you can barely see the dessert that should be perfectly centered in the pic.


Pastries

This is the plate of pretty pastries the pastry chef sent out at the end. Some of them were pretty weird. Ariana, her mom and I all wanted to try each one so we bit these already bite sized treats into thirds. The one that was like a peach gummy bear was my favorite. Sorry about the cropping again. Totally not my fault.



Ariana's Birthday Picture

They put a candle on her plate! She got pana cotta. Angela got the pancetta and blue cheese dessert, which I unfortunately did not get a picture of. I am all about bacon/pancetta for dessert though. Look how pretty Ariana is!

Málága for V day

Stephen and I went out for tapas at Málága on Valentine's day. I'm disappointed my pictures didn't turn out very well. It was really dark and there were rose petals everywhere.


Almogrote de Alcachofas (Spinach & Artichoke spread)

Pretty standard but the artichokes were especially good. Also everything came on this tiered platter thing and it was really hard to stick your hand and fork in between the layers to scoop the spread out and onto a crustini.


Calamares Rebozados (Calamari)

I was watching food network over christmas break and one chef (Giada? Bobby?) said that calamari are incredibly smart, almost as smart as dolphins and that he or she feels bad sometimes for cooking them. It's so smooth and wonderful to eat though so whatever. The breading on these was kind of soggy though. The garlic aioli made up for it though. I'm done writing this paragraph but I want to end one more sentence with 'though' though.


Spanish Potatoes

Roasted red potatoes with lots of rosemary and paprika. This is the first thing we finished so that means they were delicious. But they were also really difficult to get out of the tapas tower.


Texas Quail Legs

These were our favorite. I I've read Frank Bruni describe these as little meat lollipops, and while I certainly understand what he means, I don't really care for the term. They were more like really fancy wings to me. I want more.

Stephen's comment is "I liked how everything came with a different sauce."

Everything

Anamia's "Denny Ray" Dinner

Ok so Anamia's is this mexican & tex-mex restaurant in Coppell. Everyone in Coppell goes there on Friday nights. The only people I know that like it are Landle and Annick. Oh and John. It isn't terrible, but this is Texas and amazing Mexican food is not hard to find But anyway. I went with Annick's family last Friday night and it was insanely busy. It took forever to get our food. And I got this Denny Ray thing, which means a chicken enchilada (left), a cheese enchilada (middle) and a cheese taco (right). It was your standard suburban restaurant quality food.


Pretzel crusted chicken

I guess I'm just obsessed with fried chicken this year. So this is what you need to make this:

1 egg, beaten
chicken breast
crushed pretzels
salt and pepper

salt and pepper the chicken. coat the chicken in the egg and then dip it in the crushed pretzels. Fry it in a pan with hot vegetable oil for 4-5 minutes on each side.

You would think the pretzels would make it exceptionally salty but it totally doesn't. Also it makes it a lot crunchier than regular fried chicken, which I like. Also I've been eating pepperocinis with my fried to chicken to make it taste even saltier. This is really easy to make, I recommend it.


Hoa Hoa Chicken in Garlic Sauce

After our radio meeting Wednesday, some of the other directors and I went to Hoa Hoa, an amazing Chinese restaurant in Dobie Mall. The last time I went to this restaurant was freshmen year when I was a vegetarian, so I decided I ought to get a meat dish this time to try something new. But after we got our food I regretted that big time because the tofu there is sooo good. Also, I think it's weird that when you order meat at Chinese restaurants you don't get any vegetables, but when you order tofu you get beautiful broccoli and carrots. Anyway the chicken was delicious and it came with a ton of mushrooms (are they technically a vegetable?) and I gave most of them to Lace, but I ate some too because I am trying to teach myself to like them.

Hoa Hoa is the best deal ever. You get soup, a spring roll and an entree for about six dollars and you'll definitely have enough food left over to take home for...leftovers.


Pepper

On Friday Lace and I got a pizza for lunch and I ate almost all of this pepper, only the seeds were left. And Lace dared me to eat it. So I did! And it actually tasted better than the rest of the pepper. I think this is because it had been soaking in water for so long that they lost some of their heat. Anyway it was awesome.

Chicken Fried Bacon

Chicken Fried Chicken

This is the first time I ever attempted to make chicken fried chicken and it turned out really well. I looked all over the internet for a good recipe to follow. Most recommend only using eggs and flour for the coating. My mom suggested not even using egg to make it the way her mom used to make it. That sounds pretty good but I decided to use crushed saltine crackers. It tasted the same as when you just use flour but with ten times as much salt, which I like. I would go so far as to say it is one of the best chicken fried chickens I've ever had. And I'm pretty pleased that I know how to make it myself now.


Landon's Bacon

Later that night I taught Landon how to make bacon. I didn't tell him this but in general I tend to undercook bacon. I am so afraid that I will overcook it that I stop too soon and it isn't very crispy. Landon's problem, on the other hand, is overcooking it. So together it ended up looking pretty perfect. Then he used it to make this sandwich


Mustard Bacon Sandwich

I've never seen someone put as much mustard on a sandwich as Landle put on this. Beneath the bacon the bread was smothered in it, and on the other side he spelled out "BLOG" in mustard, just for you, EYTO readers.

Poll: how much mustard do you like on your sandwich?

Booze

Here are a few notable alcholic beverages from my winter break so far.


Palais de Versailles

One evening the twins and I were browsing the mega liquor store (think Spec's in the suburbs of Dallas) and we couldn't agree on what to get. Mandy wanted wine, Meri wanted liquor, I wanted champagne. We spotted this in the champagne section and continued saying the name in our best french accents well into the vodka section. So we went back and got it. It was okay, it wasn't that memorable and I know nothing about alcohol so I don't really know what else to say. But isn't this picture awesome? Meri made fun of me for liking the way her sink looked full of dirty dishes. I just like it when you can see the food (or drink) in the environment/context in which it was consumed.



Goldschlager

That night we also got Goldschlager, or cinnamon schnapps. I had never had it before and I like it. We drank it with Dr. Pepper and I think the cinnamon really elevated the flavor of the Dr. Pepper, which makes me wonder if cinnamon is one of the 23 flavors in Dr. Pepper. The first picture shows the liquid chilling in the fridge (duh). The second shows it in a cup mixed with the Dr. Pepper, which I like because you can see the gold flecks in it.

Poll: Do you believe the rumor that the gold flecks in Goldschlager make microscopic cuts in your throat when you swallow it, causing your body to absorb the alcohol faster? Comment with your answer!!!!!!


Magnolia Shiner Bucket

So at the Magnolia you can buy one Shiner for $3.75 or 4 for $10. Besides the fact that you save like, $5 for doing this, you also get to carry your beer around in this awesome bucket. So obviously Landle and I did that last week when we were there. Shiner in a bottle is good beer, but Shiner in a bucket is a gift from God.

Home Slice with my Homies

Every new semester brings with it a new dinner club and fall 2007 is no different. This time the members are Maggie, Stephen and meeee. We kicked off our club by going to Home Slice on South Congress last Friday. We got there, and we were all lookin pretty fly, feelin pretty confident, and we told the waitress we wanted a table for three. She said, "the wait will be fifty minutes." And Maggie and I were like, "damn." Really though, we hesitated for half a second before saying okay, but she interpreted our "okay" by saying, "ughgh it is Friday night you know." The wait was fine, we just sat on the street drinking Fireman's Four. But for the record, the wait was not fifty minutes. It ended up being an hour and a half, which is a LONG time to wait for pizza, even on a Friday night.

Also, a funny story from the night: Our hostess complimented Maggie's dress and said she has the same dress in the same color. "American Apparel right?" and Maggie said, "oh no actually, I made this myself." And the hostess bought it.


Home Slice Pizza Pie

Since we had an hour and a half to decide what we wanted, and we already had beer, we were overly anxious to order as soon as our waiter showed up. We had half white pizza, half sausage, ricotta and roasted red pepper. Our waiter said "good job man!" I am pretty sure he was trying to say, "good choice," but he was kind of crazy, and clearly Maggie and I are not men. Stephen is a man. But he didn't do the ordering.


Home Slice- a closer shot

So this is what one piece of pizza looks like in case you didn't know. It really was delicious. I've been deeply disappointed by some of the pizza I've had in the past few months, especially in Austin. I was even starting to accept Austin's Pizza as the standard by which to judge all other pizzas by in Austin. But Home Slice really is where it's at, or at least it's right up there with Salvation Pizza. The ricotta got to be a little much after a while and I scraped it off. But the sausage was really good, and that's something I rarely say. As my mom always says, "there is no good reason for any human to eat pepperoni or sausage." And I have tried to apply that wisdom to my life. But sausage really does taste good. Roasted red peppers are always good but they were sparse.


Home Slice Bathroom Doors

Home Slice is decorated like many other pizza shops, and that is to say ...forgettable? I liked watching them bake the pizzas behind the bar, and there were a few funny quotes on the wall, but the rest of the place was so dark I didn't really know if there was anything going on with the rest of the place or not. The bathroom doors are another story. When I first saw them I thought maybe they were an entrance to a back kitchen and I needed to keep looking for the bathrooms. Upon further inspection I realized what the pizzas symbolized and I am really impressed that someone was able to come up with signs for bathrooms I'd never seen before, and that are actually clever.

Home Slice ***

Peggy Sue BBQ

Landle and I went to Peggy Sue BBQ in Highland Park about two weeks ago. We knew we wanted barbecue and I found this place online. For ambiance, it said "country decorations, television." Our other option listed "country decorations, outdoor seating" for its ambiance, so obviously we went for the tv.

Anyway. Peggy Sue BBQ, not Peggy Sue's. It's not her restaurant, or maybe it is, but the name says "this is my own unique style of BBQ." OK.




This is what the wall next to our table looked like. We had been staring at art all afternoon so this was a nice break.




This is what the wall opposite us looked like. Behind me there was a tv. Landon watched golf the whole time and commented when cool things happened that I missed. They did do a lot of incredibly slow motion replays that I did get to see though, and I'm sure Peggy Sue had something to do with that.


Dinner

So we had the rib combo, a pound of baby back and spare ribs with fried okra and mashed potatoes. We both liked the spare ribs better than the baby back. Honestly I don't even remember the baby backs. The meat on both kinds fell off the bone way too easily. I wanted to work for it. Still it was too messy to really enjoy. If you're going to have meat on the bone, I vote for wings. The okra and mashed potatoes were great though. The okra wasn't greasy (mostly) and the batter was home made, which automatically means it was good. The mashed potatoes were thick but a little lumpy, not a big deal.


We ate everything. Our incredibly unfriendly/lame waiter tried to take our okra before we were finished with it. Obviously we were just saving the best for last but we had to ask him to give it back. He was kind of reluctant about it and was like, "ohh okayyy..." whatever. We're not going back to Peggy Sue.

There are much better BBQ restaurants out there, probably even in Highland Park.

The Hill's Cafe, Round Two

I was insanely excited about returning to the site of my first chicken fried steak, The Hill's Cafe on South Congress, last night with Becky and her dad. We were really hungry after moving Becky into a new apartment all afternoon, so I suggested The Hill's because the last time John and I ate there I couldn't finish half of my amazing dinner.

We had fried pickles as an appetizer, which I forgot to take a picture of. They serve them as spears instead of chips, which I usually don't like because chips are more fun, and also there is there is a greater fried batter to pickle ratio with the chips. Becky is basically a fried pickle connoisseur, and she prefers chips for the same reasons. However, we both loved the fried pickle spears at the Hill's. I think the secret is in the batter. It doesn't come out too oily, and it is perfectly crispy. Also it is kind of lumpy which gives it that homemade look.



The Hill's Chicken Fried Steak

It took forever for us to get our chicken fried steaks out and when we did it was slightly disappointing. They were lukewarm, and the meat was tough. The flavor was still perfect though. Also, Becky's dad and I got the yellow gravy instead of white. We asked the waiter what the difference is and he said "nothing but the color." I'd never had yellow gravy before, and it's true, there is absolutely no difference.

For sides I had okra and fried macaroni and cheese. Okra is always good, but remember that amazing batter I told you about earlier with the fried pickles? Definitely not used on the okra. It tasted exactly like the okra they serve in the cafeteria in Jester, like it had come out of a freezer ten minutes before and then deep fried a minute too long. I still ate every piece, but I am disappointed that my search for truly amazing okra must go on.

I'd heard of fried macaroni and cheese before, but never seen it with my own eyes. It is definitely one of the more interesting things I've seen done with food lately, while at the same time looking and tasting like something that should be served at McDonald's. They come in little triangles of friedness, not quite bite size, but a finger food nonetheless. I think I would have liked it, but for some reason all of the pasta would end up in one corner of the triangle and all the cheese ended up in the other corners. It was incredibly imbalanced. If you chew it up really quickly it's pretty good, but it also sits incredibly heavy in the stomach and there is no way I could eat more than two pieces (it came with about ten).


Ice Cream Nachos

This is a brand new dessert at The Hill's, and it was our waiter's first time making it. Here's what it is: cinnamon chips (the texture of a pita chip with the flavor of a churro), vannila ice cream, chocolate and strawberry sauce, whipped cream, and cherries (to look like jalapenos). It was okay, but it wasn't mind blowing, which I think it should have been if you're going to eat dessert after such a huge meal. The ice cream melted really quickly, and it was too messy to try to dip the cinnamon chips into it after that. We ended up only eating about half of them.

Overall, it wasn't the best meal ever, but still there is something very comforting about eating at Hill's. Being there is a completely relaxing experience. I think it's a combination of everything being made out of wood, the booths being very encapsulating, and the service being incredibly friendly. Even if the chicken fried steak was lukewarm and tough, I will go back there again and again.

Watermelon

I don't really have time to be doing this but I said before if I don't update this week then I don't deserve to be the restaurant critic for the New York Times which is probably true so here it is.

Good in the summer.
pink flesh and juice drip drip drip
watermelon yes

Happy Birthday to Me

Strawberry Pie

This is my all time favorite dessert. My mom made it for me before I came back to Austin. It's a graham cracker crust, a layer of powdered sugar and cream cheese blended together, and then a layer of strawberry glaze mixed with strawberries. It is very sweet and mom and I are going to try to come up with something to add to the recipe to balance that. I am sure we will make this a few more times this summer so I will work on getting a better picture next time. Also, for the record, this has been my birthday cake for ... I don't know how many years now.


Kevin's Cookies

A really nice lady at work got me cookies from Kevin's! They are really good. I got chocolate chip, Heath bar (which I've reviewed in here twice) and white chocolate with macadamia nut. This batch is definitely the best I've had from Kevin's. It's never gotten stellar reviews from me. In general they are way too sweet but these were pretty good.

Happy Bday YESTERDAY landon

Choco Honeycomb

I got a chocolate covered honeycomb yesterday at Sprouts, this little weird grocery store in Flower Mound. I was expecting it to be oozy honeyness but it wasnt at all. It was very dry and crunchy. But it still kind of looked like a honeycomb. Maybe that's what happens if a honeycomb dries. I am going to have to ask Landon because he is the only person I know that has eaten a real honeycomb before.

TC Breakfast Tacos YAY

Taco Cabanananana

I went out with a bunch of the twins friends to celebrate one of their birthdays last night. It was kinda lame since it was a Sunday night there wasn't much to do. So we were walking into the bar next to gachet that isn't the beagle and they ID there? So I just handed the guy my driver's license that clearly states I'm not 21 but he let me in any way. That was pretty trill.

The point is afterwards we walked across the street to go to taco cabana and I finally had one of their breakfast tacos. It was pretty good. I took the strip of bacon off and just had the tortilla with eggs. It was amazing. But really greasy at the same time so I couldn't eat it all even though I wanted to. And Chips and Queso duh.

Some More of What? You're Killin Me Smalls

smores

Smores first won my heart in the movie The Sandlot for obvious reasons. Now I think they're making a comeback. Your coffee shop is majorly lacking if you don't have a tableside smore roasting kit. Not to mention the fact that camping is seeing a 20% rise in popularity compared to statistics from the same time last year, due to nostalgia for the smore.

Anyway Annick bought smore making stuff and we've been making them in the microwave which means we're probably going to all get cancer but Mark is building a fire pit in the backyard which will be cool and then we can roast marshmallows old skool.

Chipotle

I don't eat Chipotle that much when I'm at home for several reasons. For one thing, I usually eat three meals a day here instead of cramming them all into one like I do when I'm in Austin. For another, Chipotle is a personal thing that I like to eat by myself and there are usually at least nine people at dinner here. Finally, the Chipotle's in Dallas SUCK. They are truly awful. As soon as I finish this post I am going to e-mail Chipotle and complain.

Okay so, I ate Chipotle the other day in Dallas. Actually Becky and I were visiting Matthew and his mom and his new apartment in Irving and we decided that's what we should have for lunch. So we went on a wild goose chase through Irving (actually not really thanks mom my memory is impeccable) and found one. EWWW. It was like walking in to Chipotle's evil twin. It didn't even smell right. I didn't completely lose faith until I watched the girl making my burrito completely ruin it while trying to wrap it and squeezing all of its guts out and ripping the tortilla. I had to ask three times (and two different people) for a bowl to throw the disgusting mess she made into. I'm so mad. I'm going to email them right now. Never go to Chipotle on Beltline in Irving.

Grandma's

Grandma's Roast Beef

My grandma, god bless her, insisted on making a yank meal for us Texans during her two week stay at our house. The ultimate yank meal, in my grandma's opinion, is roast beef with mashed potatoes and noodles.

I have to stop right there and ask, have any of you heard of eating noodles on mashed potatoes? It seems really ridiculous and carb happy and bland. Well it doesn't seem that way, it is. So why would anyone ever want to eat this?

Roast beef is like 110% fat. I hate bad cuts of meat and that's pretty much whatever the cut roast beef is made of is. AKA Maggie got all of mine.

I still love my grandma though.

Baby Gross

Baby Greens Spinach Chicken Wrap

WARNING: Don't eat here. A vegetarian burrito from chipotle costs less than twenty cents more than this and is far superior in every way. This was bad. so bad. Becky and I got these and we were really excited about it because we always pass it on the drive to visit Matthew is south Austin and I've been wanting to try it since we went to to food show in january and FINALLY we were going to have it for real.

It was so bland. It was just a bunch of lettuce and some other ingredients (dry chicken for example) that leave your mouth begging for juice and flavor. In short, this wrap made my tongue want to weep but didn't let it because there was no liquid to weep. I don't know what I'm talking about anymore. But really, if you love yourself, don't eat here. The only good part was the cute boy working. But he totally rushed us through the drive-thru (that's all there is- no dine in option) and didn't give me any time to decide what kind of tortilla I wanted.

Tuna and Fro-Yo

Cipollina Three Salad Sampler

Gooze and I went back to the place where we shared our first restaurant meal many months ago tonight, Cipollina. Feeling adventurous and indecisive, I ordered the three salad sampler which came with yellowfin tuna salad, mediterranean orso salad and Cipollina slaw. This who know me well know that I usually try everything I get at the beginning and then eat what I like in ascending order, saving the best for last. That didn't happened tonight. I ate the slaw, which I have no objections to because it wasn't smothered in mayonnaise and really only consisted of cabbage, but it didn't blow my mind. Then I couldn't help myself: I ate the tuna, not saving the best for last. It was irresistable. If you could only have tuna salad prepared one way for the rest of your life, this is the way you would want it. And it's funny, I don't remember what was in it. It's fading in my memory like a dream.

Then I ate my Mediterranean orso salad. It was romaine, rice, olives, some cheese. It was good. Not tuna though.


TCBY

Then we had TCBY for dessert! White Chocolate Mousse was the perfect way to end the meal. I love that old familiar taste. I almost tried Fudge Brownie but when it came time to order I chose my favorite.

Lucky Seeds

These seeds weren't lucky at all!

Chipotle X 5

Burrito Paradise

As you can see, when I'm not studying I'm eating burritos. This is the most ideal way to live. Hopefully if I get my raise at work I will be able to afford to just sit in the Chipotle downtown and eat burritos constantly. My friend told me the other day that I'm going to get burned out on it soon. HAH. we'll see about that. Also, one of these times I ate there with my family, and that was awesome, so I took a picture of all of our burritos.