Haute Grub and Hot Tubs at La Torretta Resort and Chez Roux

When Houston thinks of a November weekend getaway or a fine French meal, Conroe isn't the first place that comes to mind. Lakeside activities don't quite go hand-in-hand with 40 degree temperatures, but we also know that the weather is apt to change from hour to hour, the sun might come out, and it might very well be lakeside weather the next day if not sooner.

However there is one thing that will always be welcomed in any weather: A hot tub.

Last weekend, my friend Maria and I escaped for the night to La Torretta Lake Resort and Spa in Conroe, Texas. We dined at the resort’s own Chez Roux, a French restaurant founded by Chef Albert Roux, the man behind La Gavroche, which earned Britain’s very first Michelin rating, and three stars, at that. I was excited to try a meal fashioned by one of the world’s most renowned chefs, who happened to be in town tending the restaurant. Many people wonder why on earth he would choose Conroe as his first American venture, and the answer is as simple as it should be. His friend is the main investor of resort and that’s what friends are for, right?

I really hoped to meet Chef Roux, but even more so, I was hoping that he would serve his signature Soufflé Suissesse. And as invariably there would be plenty of wine flowing and we are responsible drinkers, we decided to stay overnight. After all, the website boasted of a hot tub and we had big plans for that hot tub as soon as dinner was a wrap.

Chez Roux’s exterior is unassuming, but inside it hosts an intimate dining room with cozy booths, linen clothed tables, and a glassed-in wine room filled floor to ceiling with bottles from around the world. A panoramic window overlooking the head chef Michael Gray’s kitchen allowed us to observe the various cooks working tenaciously at their stations on our prix-fixe dinners. Gray is the only Michelin rated chef in Texas and we were anxious to see and taste his fare. Suddenly Chef Roux walked out of the kitchen. Wearing his chef whites, he greeted each table, leaning a little on a cane for support. As he approached our table, I tried to think of something clever or adoring to say, but he spoke first.

“I suggest you try the soufflé. It’s a bowl of cholesterol.”

I laughed and joked that it would drink all of the wine, as rich foods tend to dampen the effects of alcohol. I was happy to have met him and I knew then that I would have my soufflé.

But first, champagne, a glass of Chef Roux’s own Blanc-de-Blanc, or blankity-blank bubbly as I find my inner punstress calling it, and along with it a beautiful amuse bouche of a fish terrine with a quail egg. I have to mention that the bread basket contained the freshest mini-baguette, a perfect junior version of a full sized loaf of French bread. I ate two. Or three. The soufflé was served next and to my amusement, it was ‘Texa-fied” with Texas Gold Cheddar and corn kernel cream. The original version is even simpler, and it’s basically a soufflé floating in a bowl of hot cream, topped with Gruyere before being given one final heating in the oven. I don’t count calories when I’m eating French food and you shouldn’t either.

The Coquille Saint-Jacques et Salade de Couscous followed the soufflé. The French call scallops ‘shellfish of Saint James’ because the apostle was to have rescued a knight covered in their shells. At Chez Roux, the scallops are perfectly seared and served over a ‘salad’ of diced carrots and zucchini tossed with pearl couscous with accents of chorizo. Garret, the sommelier, poured us a glass of Duet Viogner-Chardonnay from Burgundy, which was light and refreshing and cut through the saltiness of the chorizo.

Next up we were served a veal loin and my first sweetbreads, along with a glass of Belle Valle Pinot Noir, the best wine of the evening, only because it was a red, and I’m a red girl. While I don’t usually eat veal because it comes from poor baby cows, I did so to honor the chef. It was flavorful but tough for something so innocent. The sweetbreads, if you like them, were cooked to where there was a bit of resistance at first and then the follow through was as soft as the scallops. I will try anything once in the name of food and knowing that Chef Roux knows just how organ meats should be prepared to maximize their flavor and highlight their textures, I can say with near certainty that I won’t be trying them again if I can avoid it. I just don’t like sweetbreads.

As if to whisk away any unpleasant memory of the previous course, dessert arrived- five diminutive desserts to be exact. They ranged from brulee to gelato and each was as good and adorable as the last.

After our meal, we walked across the property to check into our room. The lobby of La Torreta is regal with white marble and minimalistic furnishings. The concierge wasn’t just professional, but friendly, and she found us a room with a balcony overlooking the lake and waterpark. Yes, the resort has a kid friendly waterpark complete with slides, their own pool, a lazy river, and a splash area. For us big kids, La Torretta saves the best. A huge swimming pool topped by what seemed to be a heated infinity pool and, drum roll please, a massive hot tub that we had all to ourselves until nearly 3 in the morning. We plucked whiskey from the mini-bar and sipped it while watching the fog roll in over the pool area and then back out again where the moon and stars were visible once again.

When we finally tumbled into bed, the mattress and pillows were so incredibly comfortable that I made a note to myself to find out exactly what kind they were so I could go out and buy them when it’s time for a new bed. After a long hard meal and a rigorous evening of drinking and hot-tubbing, it was the best sleep I’ve had in a long time. The great part is that it was all only an hour away and in the end it really felt like a true getaway.

600 La Torretta Boulevard
Montgomery, TX 77356-5309
(936) 448-4400

Cabbage Chemistry

After running across a website on bento box dishes and the use of natural food colorings to add

vibrance to otherwise colorless foods, I decided to try the following experiment on my children. The resulting colors are totally natural, believe it or not, and the flavor is so innocuous that you could even use the liquid in desserts.

Simply chop about a cup of red cabbage for every two cups of water and boil for about 10 minutes. Strain, reserving the water of course, and use it to cook rice, pasta, potatoes, the ideas are endless!

The chemistry part comes in with playing with acids and bases. Try adding lemon, lime, or vinegar to the water after you strain it and you'll get a brilliant pink result. I added small pinches of baking soda until I found the right shade of blue. Be careful when using the soda as it can impart a bitter taste if you use too much. Pinch by pinch...

Using the blue cabbage water to cook the rice, I then put it on a plate, shaped it with my hands and squeezed lime juice in spots over the rice mound, turning small sections to pink!

I made beef keema with peas, filled the cabbage leaves with the mixture and put it in the oven for about twenty minutes to soften the leaves.

Two men and a brisket- Yelapa

I am typically reluctant to jump on the popular restaurant band wagon so it took me a while to make it to Yelapa, which is definitely 'scene' cuisine. Yet, after driving by it several times I thought, damn, something smells really good and I need it in my face stat. So I said, why not give the place a shot. Just because white people are raving about it doesn't mean I should write it off.

The restaurant was supposedly on a wait when we arrived, but there were a few tables open in the bar area as well as on the patio. We sat inside first and ordered drinks, not knowing yet of the patio seating. I decided to try the michelada, but they never compare to my own, for I am a michelitist. My husband had a really great mojito and I wished I did too. I watched a large man in a white cabana shirt with a neatly trimmed goatee, also white, shift around a floor fan a few times and smile at us as he took a stool at the bar, where a large shot of tequila and what looked like a whiskey and coke awaited him, but he didn't strike me as a whiskey man. Later on when we moved outside, he was there, shifting fans around again and walking around the perimeter of the patio spraying something that caused the diners at the table next to us to cough. He nodded appreciatively and mumbled, "This will get those mosquitoes, for sure."

I had heard that Yelapa was known for their ceviches so we ordered two. There are several different styles, plus your choice of having it prepared 'Peruvian' style, which is 'flash marinated' in lime juice for 5 minutes or fully cooked in the juice 'Texas' style (code for white people.) I ribbed my husband for ordering it well done and he said he wanted to check the quality first, which is understandable considering BP's generous dose of oily marinade it had infused into the Gulf. The first ceviche brought out was the Campechana, which is a spicy tomato based version with crab, shrimp, and avocado, and the second was the more traditional Sevichey Tejano. Both were excellent in taste, quality and presentation. We knew we were in for a treat with our entrees.

I was going to get the maiz con pollo because it had fun little things like blue polenta and huitlacoche, better known as 'corn smut', but I really wanted beef, so I opted for the smoked brisket barbacoa tacos, and at the waiter's suggestion, I switched to sopes instead of tortillas. When the dish came out, there were three wee sopes topped with refried beans, pickled red onions, 'ghost pepper mayo', fresh cilantro, chilies, and that succulent slow smoked beef that had lured me in from Richmond Avenue. I had one bite and had to put it down for a minute. When the right flavor powers combine, an incredible thing happens in your mouth. Each bite is a full on meal. The heat and the tang and the char all on an innocent little corn flour pillow stunned my taste buds but when they gained consciousness they couldn't get enough.

In the other corner, my husband had the 'Whole Enchilada' with chicken instead of beef brisket, which is ridiculous, I think, but the damn thing was in overdrive with about a pound of cheese, red mole sauce and a side of sour cream, cilantro and fresh jalapenos. My fork gained ten pounds just from touching it.

It turns out, that the man on fan and fly patrol was Chuck Bulnes, one of the owners, and his partner chef LJ Wiley was the guy running in and out of the kitchen, greeting tables and hustling plates. I understand and respect the challenge faced in balancing a menu with items ranging from familiar for the feint at heart, like tacos and enchiladas, to dishes like the cantaloupe gazpacho and a ceviche featuring violet and octopus. Always the skeptic, I was impressed by the thing that matters most in a meal, which is how good it tastes. I look forward to getting to know Yelapa better as it reminds me of some of my favorite people: Adventurous and drunk.

2303 Richmond Avenue
Houston, TX 77098
(281) 501-0391

Malaysian Persuasion- Dinner at Banana Leaf

Spoiled rotten, that’s what we are. Despite our sublingual climate, living in Houston has its perks when it comes to the culinary department. Tired of Thai? How about Vietnamese? No? Chinese, Japanese, Korean? No? Let’s do Malaysian!

The Banana Leaf is located in a strip center on Bellaire Boulevard, just east of the Beltway. On entry, the interior almost looks too nice to offer anything authentic, with wall mounted digital frames flashing pictures of various dishes and fancy wooden chopsticks, but on the other side of the kitchen’s glass window, things are looking rather serious. Flames shoot up from a hula hoop sized wok and a loud hiss fills the small restaurant that sounds ominously delicious. The menu is huge and daunting. It’s advisable to study it online and extensively research the unknown dishes before attempting to order. Or you could ask the waiters for their suggestions and entrust they won’t let you down, which rarely happens. Being that Malaysian cuisine has been influenced by so many other cultures, the flavors of India, China, Indonesia and Thailand contribute to the Malay recipes.

The appetizer was a good foreshadowing of things to come. We quickly devoured the beautiful stack of taro coated fried shrimp with a lacy thin outer crust. Our entrees followed soon after and the two stars dishes were my shrimp curry, with big fat shrimp and a sauce similar to a Thai yellow curry, but with less heat and more shrimp paste funkiness, and the littlest son’s magnum opus of a dish, the Sarang Burong, which translates to ‘Bird’s Nest’. Similar to mashed potatoes, the cook had shaped a bowl from taro and flash fried it so that it held its form. It was filled with an assortment of shrimp and vegetables like baby corn, Shitake mushrooms and cashews and we all helped him kill the four pound presentation. Our eldest ordered the flat noodles with beef and scallions, which turned out to use a surprisingly good cut of meat unlike most other places of the Leaf’s caliber. The only disappointed diner at our table was the patriarch who had ordered the barbecued flounder, which turned out to be fried, a no no for his attempt at a healthy diet. But it was a great example of fish, moist and flaky from it’s banana leaf wrap and filleted table-side which is always cool to watch. The kids wanted to keep the bones but we declined.

The next time your stubborn palate wants for something new, check out this little Malay joint on the Westside. Bring skinny friends or small children so you can help yourself to a bit of everything on the table without much resistance.

Banana Leaf
9889 Bellaire Blvd.
Houston, TX 77036
713.771.8118

www.bananaleafhouston.com

Hardee's billboard advert in Beirut

IMG_7173, originally uploaded by Demandrea.

Barbar: The Godfather of fast food in Beirut, Lebanon

IMG_7085, originally uploaded by Demandrea.

In the main metropolitan area of Beirut, Barbars abound on nearly every other block. There are three main points of sale at each Barbar including a walk up sandwich and ready made hot meal stall, 'Juicy Barbar' which serves gelato, ice cream, and fresh juices, and the main Barbar, walk up or sit down, where you can order everything from shawarma and falafel to fried "broasted" chicken and beef pepperoni pizza. Barbar also boasts a fleet of delivery mopeds, ready to dispatch any of the vast menu's items to your home or hotel.

Fresh Za'atar salad with Olives, aunt's house, Beirut, Lebanon

IMG_6993, originally uploaded by Demandrea.