#10: Neomonde Bakery
3817 Beryl Rd.
Raleigh, NC
http://www.neomonde.com/cafe
Everyone has preconceived notions about certain places, and I have mine about North Carolina. I took a business trip to Raleigh in May, and this city joins Chapel-Hill and Durham to form a trio of cities referred to as the Triangle. I always try to look for the best in the local cuisine and it turns out the Triangle is a goldmine, including this outstanding place: a Middle Eastern bakery called Neomonde.
If you’ve been to Phoenicia in Houston, this place will seem very similar. This storefront is half-deli, half grocery, with a smell of fresh bread filling the air. The grocery sells Mediterranean spices, olives, seeds, and dried fruits. For those who are scared of jumping off the deep end, don’t fret as the deli allows you to sample the hummus, baba ghanouj, lad neh, etc at the counter.
My companion and I immediately attacked a small sampler trio. Unfortuntely I forgot to snap a picture of the tabouli, grape leaves, and Kalamata Olives that came with the platter. The highlight of this dish is the hummus, and I really enjoyed the robust, creamy texture. The tzatziki and labneh were on the soupy side and I was disappointed that they weren’t too thick.
We shared a whole falafel sandwich and a beef kabob. The falafel was packed full of fresh vegetables and the tahini dressing in the falafel had a nice subtle smokey flavor. Pictured is half of the sandwich.
All of the meats are grilled to order. Very juicy kabob with tender, thick cuts of meat.
#9: La Palapa Veracruzana (note: closed)
118 W. Jefferson Blvd.
Dallas TX 75208
http://www.lapalapaveracruzana.com
Photo credit to Kevin Hwang (flickr)
This place will be missed. I’m ashamed to admit I never went to Litos, so I definitely feel blessed I had the chance to dine at one of the two best restaurants on Jefferson multiple times before they closed. It’s a pleasure to find a place that hardly advertises, leaving the food perfectly authentic, but at the same time this practice limited traffic towards the restaurant.
They were the first restaurant I ever posted about on this blog.
http://www.madewithair.com/?p=13
There’s word they may be back, I sure can’t wait to take a bite out of their delicious red snapper again.
#8: Feast
219 Westheimer Rd
Houston, TX 77006
http://feasthouston.googlepages.com/
Photo credit to Ganda Krisananuwatara (gandaphoto.com)
I’ve now been here many times and they keep going to extreme lengths to put out one amazing plate after another. Meals here are an enjoyable experience regardless of how adventurous your palate is.
Here’s the entry from the first time I tried them:
http://www.madewithair.com/?p=11
The recent Feast newsletter makes a bold decry: the restaurant will stop using any meat or meat product from factory farm, intensively raised animals. Houston is lucky to have a place like this and I always try to visit whenever I’m in town.
#7: Salumi
309 3rd Ave S
Seattle, WA 98104-2620
http://www.salumicuredmeats.com/
There were countless suggestions for Armandino Batali’s sandwich deli when I looked for recommendations on where to go while I visited my girlfriend. The cured meats and gorgeous sunny weather made were a wonderful way to kick off a fun weekend in Seattle.
#6: 12 Course Dinner – The Tasting Room at Lola (note: closed)
2917 Fairmount
Dallas, TX 75201
http://www.lola4dinner.com/
After I had some travelling under my belt, it also came with more experience doing fine dining, so I finally understood part of what makes Lola special. The pricetag that came with this prix-fixe dinner is a value that is unheard of, especially for such unforgettable dishes made by David Uygur. I still think about the blood sausage in the squid, that stuff was divine.
The full dinner is here.
#5: Delicioso Cafe
202 Cll Ing Manuel Domenech
San Juan 00918, Puerto Rico
The address for this place is eyeballed since it is a hole in the wall across the street from where I was working during my trip to Puerto Rico in March. It was suggested as authentic, local food and surprisingly, my coworkers felt pretty brave trying them for lunch purely because I could pass as one of the locals. Understanding Spanish is one thing but I’m not the best speaker you know.
Anyway, during my trip here, I found out that Puerto Rican and Filipino cuisine have many similarities. This is a lunch platter, cost like $5.50 or something like that, and it comes with rice, picadillo, chicken chicharrones and a side of sweet plantains. PR style picadillo includes ground beef, tomato sauce, oil, spices, thyme, oregano, bay leaves, recaito and egg whites. The flavor profile between the two is similar, except Filipino style doesn’t have recaito, has a little bit more garlic, and potatoes instead of egg whites. The point? This was spectacular because it reminded me of the way my grandmother in Manila cooks picadillo.
Everyone knows I have a huge sweet tooth. I quickly got addicted to this place’s fried plantains and always had a serving of the cafe’s at all times throughout this trip.
I went to this place several times throughout that week for their various lunch specials, and I enjoyed how eating at Delicioso Cafe felt so homey. Now I’m sorely regretting that I didn’t get to try any roasted pig while in PR so maybe I should go back and check, for science. And craving mallorcas at La Bombonera…
#4: A special dinner – V’s
2575 S. Dairy Ashford Rd.
Houston, TX 77077
http://www.vsthai.com
I can go on and on about how V’s is my favorite restaurant in Houston. She always goes above and beyond when it comes to the food and the service.
There’s a background story for this particular meal: One of my buddies took a trip to New York. He decided to steal a certain Thai restaurant’s menu. He took it to Houston and gave it to V to see if she’d be willing to cook some of these dishes for us considering the only way you’re gonna them in Texas is a homecooked meal. Maybe she could even revamp her existing menu.
All we had to do was ask, and she was more than happy to honor the request, asserting that she can make anything on that menu. Now we just have to convince her that there are people who want these kinds of authentic dishes so she can keep them around! The soft-shelled crab is one dish executed extremely well at Sripraphai, and here is V’s take on it:
The lightly fried, meaty soft shelled crab is to be enjoyed with a side of green curry that includes pumpkin, pineapple, and long beans. There’s hardly any grease on the crab, and made for a sublime pairing
with the complex green curry that blends several flavors: sour from the pineapple, sweet coconut milk and the spice of the pumpkin. Good thing she made 5+ orders of the stuff. I browsed through Sripraphai’s menu
and having fried soft shelled crab with papaya as a salad sounds spectacular as well.
I ranked this so highly since “ecstactic” isn’t a strong enough word to describe how I feel about the potential to be unleashed if V decides to make some upgrades to the menu. Here’s a few other dishes I’m hoping she whips up: Broiled Catfish salad, Fried Boneless Pickled Spare Ribs, Roast Pork Chili Basil, Chu-Chee Shrimp, and Southern Style curry. I’ll keep y’all posted.
#3: Snow’s BBQ
516 Main Street
Lexington, TX 78947
http://www.snowsbbq.com/
I concur with Texas Monthly’s assessment, they do deserve #1 especially for the bliss induced by consuming their BBQ. Outstanding brisket, ribs, and sausage; all of it is top notch.
Be sure to get there early because they will run out of brisket if you’re slow, and they are only open between 8 to 10 on saturday mornings! The full post on my trip is here.
#2: D Magazine SideDish Dinner – Samar
2100 Ross Avenue
Dallas, TX 75201-2739
http://www.samarrestaurant.com/
I attended this dinner as a birthday present to myself and I’m sure as hell glad I did it.
There are other posts which commemorate this thrill ride traversing Spanish, Mediterranean, and Indian cuisine, brought to us by Stephan Pyles and Vijay Sadhu. Following are my personal highlights.
My favorites from the Spanish segment were the tres vasos and the mussels.
Tres vasos has three small glasses, each filled with different flavors: left to right: Ruby Red Grapefruit with Feta Foam and Lemongrass Ginger-Gelee, Foie Gras Brulee with Figs and Crispy Serrano Ham, and Spiced Shrimp with Pumpkin Flan and Orange.
After hitting a layer of creamy feta, the sweetness of the grapefruit kicks in, and the bottom has a scant, faint bit of lemongrass. The middle glass is the highlight because of it’s depth and complexity. The rich and savory pate is intensified by the tart figs, and then the serrano adds crispy texture along with a hint of salt. The contrast between the sweet pumpkin profile with the tartness of the orange dominated the shrimp on the last glass.
These mussels give me new ideas to consider for my last meal. Seemed pretty basic, a server pours a creamy sauce over a mound of mussels in the center of the bowl. At first it seemed like nothing more than a simple cream that is reminiscent of lobster bisque, but then a jalapeno kick made this dish a little more complex and became a favorite amongst my group. I strongly suggest ordering this at Samar.
The outstanding dish of the Mediterranean segment was the Endive-Orange Salad with Fennel, Pecan Labne, and Sumac. We had labne, hummus, and baba ghanouj at the very beginning of the meal, but the pecan made it much more creamier, something like a cream cheese with pecan flavors and texturing. The endive heightened the impressions of bitterness and the creamy texture. Then came the extremely thinly sliced orange, yet somehow it was candied, so that the tart orange is encased by a very intense sweet flavor.
The Tiger Prawn “Bombay Style” with Crispy Okra Salad and Spiced Pear Chutney got high marks out of the Indian segment. The chutney provides a tiny kick to the lightly charred prawns, while the okra brings in crisp and some sweetness. I thought this dish was muted for this dinner, and I have a good feeling that raising the spice level could make this even better.
Out of the desserts, the trio of ice creams was my favorite. Labne Pudding with Apricot Glaze and Candied Marcona Almonds, Candied Ginger Stuffed Semolina Croquetas with Natilla Pistachio, Rose and Gum Mastic Ice Cream Cone. The ice cream clearly had a high butterfat content and the flavors stood out on all of them.
#1: first date with the girlfriend – Potager Cafe
315 South Mesquite Street
Arlington, TX 76010-1121
http://www.potagercafe.com/
This was such a simple dinner relative to some of the items on this list, but it was special since Cynthia Chippendale made it feel like a home cooked meal, just for my girlfriend and I. She will do that for anyone else who comes out to her slice of Arlington. All of the ingredients are locally sourced to the best of their ability. Here’s the twist, which some may find absurd: you eat as much as you like, and pay whatever you feel your meal was worth. This is just the first of many visits and I hope to see them continue their mission of sharing wholesome food.
To start, we had a spring herb soup. The pleasant soup was light, with a fresh, earthy aroma, and a delightfully creamy texture.
The main plate had a juicy piece of Dominion Farms chicken and the slight sear and crisp texture on the potatoes was wonderful. This is also how I discovered that potatoes can make my girlfriend very, very happy.
Wrapped it up with a slice of their slightly sweet, creamy chocolate melted cake. This delightful dessert was all about balance, no overpowering icing, while it slowly melts in your mouth.
Everything felt so wholesome, warm, and welcoming, which came together as an unforgettable experience. It’s all about enjoying the good food, simple as that.
According to the website, they’ve made some changes to the staff, so I can’t wait to make the trek out to Potager time and time again next year. Keep up the good work!
There are also few honorable mentions:
Modern Pastry (Boston, MA): Forget the long line at Mike’s, the cannoli here is far better, and hardly anyone knows about it
Sunburst Grill (Denver, CO): It’s a little mindboggling that Denver has super authentic Filipino food.
Four Winds Steakhouse (Wills Point, TX): delicious steak, even better setting
5-8 Club (Minneapolis, MN): Jucy Lucy is a heavenly experience
Enoteca Vespaio (Austin, TX): fun place to kick back and enjoy some cannoli in Austin
The Turtle (Brownwood, TX): an unexpected gem in a very small town, the owner also makes outstanding gelatos
Good stuff!!
yum!sucks that 2 of those restaurants have closed =/