hello blogonites.
so i guess its been about a month since my last update on the state of affairs in the htx. while i cant say its been a terribly eventful and exciting month, its certainly had its milestones... as follows...
[june 4]
we attended/participated in the houston aia's annual sandcastle competition in gtx... see pictures of some of the castles here...
[june 7]
the wifey and i had our annual anniversary [heh, i crack myself up...] and as usual i showered her with gifts, threatened to take her to wendy's, and then took her somewhere much fancier [well, at least a little, lol]. this year was a particularly difficult dinner to plan as i was trying to rival last year's dinner at the melting pot ...which is pretty much the all time greatest karen dinner imaginable... it was quite an experience. not only that, but having just moved back to the h-o-u, i really had no idea what my dining options were, and ended up spending hours on yelp, open table, and other such websites trying to find a good idea [and ended up with like 40... geez... ] eventually i settled on Philippe, a fairly new, fairly swanky, establishment in the greater galleria area owned and operated by a fairly famous chef [allegedly... id never heard of him, but then again, im not exactly a houstonian-socialite-extraordinaire...]. it ended up being a pretty great experience and a pretty great night overall. the food was fairly excellent overall and for my "foodie" readers ill take a short deviation from the flow of the blog to discuss our meal, those of you uninterested, feel free to skip ahead a little...
*****
for drink starters we had a few cocktails. i had my standard crown & coke while karen sampled one of the special cocktail concoctions from the menu, the sheriff - el jimador tequila, pink grapefruit + red chile flakes. mine was ethereal as ive been off soda for a good month and a half at this point and that one half glass was beyond amazing... karen absolutely loved hers as well. she pretty much loves anything with grapefruit [more on that later...] and really enjoyed this drink. i had a sip and can say that i agree, it was quite yummy - for a fruity girl drink with an awesome name. ;]
for food starters we chose the crab + avocado from the 'contained decadence' section of the menu. id read a number of reviews boasting this particular appetizer and was pleased that karen wanted to try it as well - sounding pretty delicious be the description - crab + avocado with lime, cilantro, olive oil emulsion. mmmm.... the contained description above alludes to the fact that this little dish is served in a mason jar and comes with toasted bread slices to spread. the crab was absolutely some of the best crab ive ever had. it was so tender and juicy and the complements of avocado, cilantro, and lime made for a southwestern savor that was over the top. my only complaints [and i hesitate to call them that] were that the emulsion made for a frothy substance on the top that was a little strange at first, and that it didn't really come with enough toast to compliment the entire jar. however the second point is moot, considering they served some quite satisfying bread complimentary to the meal, and were happy to refill as needed - it was warm and delightful.
on to the main course. karen decided on the texas caesar - with bbq-brushed skirt steak, cactus, & shaved grana padano. i chose the mascarpone risotto - with red wine-braised chicken, bacon, & mushrooms. and to celebrate the evening, we decide to buy a bottle of bubbly and chose the segura viudas, brut cava - which one of the managers later made a point of mentioning was one of his favorites. im by no means an expert on wine vintages or brands, but we enjoyed this one very much and were glad we ordered it. first off, the presentation was excellent.
karen's salad arrived on a large boat-shaped dish and was loaded with ample skirt steak. she was satisfied with her selection, but wished the bbq sauce wasnt quite so prominent - it pretty much covered up all the other flavors. but the steak was definitely tender and juicy and prepared exactly as she liked it and all of the greens were crisp and fresh.
my risotto was certainly no disappointment. in fact, id say it was in the top 3 dishes ive ever had! the risotto itself was creamy and soft, the sauce was amazing! in addition to that, the thick cut bacon was delicious and complemented the mushrooms - so flavorful! - and braised chicken perfectly. the chicken was well cooked and melted in my mouth. my dish certainly had all of its flavors represented and i couldn't really pick any one outshining the rest.
and finally, for desert. we just couldnt pass up the texas "millionaires" tart - chocolate-caramel-pecan tart, texas grapefruit salad, & jasmine cream. [remember the mention of grapefruit?] now if youre anything like karen and i, when you first read that combination of ingredients you probably took a double-take and pondered the idea of chocolate, carmel, grapefruit and jasmine and scratched your chin a little... and we certainly dont blame you! what an odd combination to image... but if you are in fact like us, then you couldnt resist indulging your curiosity either - and boy-howdy, we were rewarded. the flavors compliment each other in a way you just wouldnt imagine! i was stuffed from my early dishes so i only had a couple of small bites, but karen certainly enjoyed her dessert =] [sorry, forgot to photo that one!]
*****
overall, a pretty great dinner, i would definitely recommend it! on top of that the restaurant had a very well designed interior, with kind of an edgy industrial feel over a chic elegance. karen and i loved the wine-box-lid bars and the super tall backed booths. our only complaint was the use of acoustical ceiling tile over the stairway/lounge [eww!!] but then again... we're rather snobby about acoustical ceiling tile, haha, so that was an unavoidable criticism from us ;] other than that, it was a little on the noisy side, but we were able to enjoy our light conversation between mouthfuls just fine. the management and staff were extremely friendly and went well out of their way to make sure our night was special. i give the entire experience 4.5 out of 5 stars and will certainly keep it at the top of my list for any special occasion dinners in the future. [at $$$ its not exactly something karen and i can afford to enjoy on any given day, lol! although was completely reasonable for the meal and experience!]
by the end of the night we were stuffed silly and ended up relaxing on the couch with the mutt watching one of our favorite tv shows before turning in with satisfied tummies =]
[june 11]
some of you may remember the blurb i posted in my last blog about karens upcoming [at the time] art show. well on june 11 that show came to fruition - after lots and lots of hard work on karen's part [and only a moderate lots on mine, haha, ever the artist's assistant...]. as part of the ongoing art-walk events held in downtown galveston by the galveston art center karen hosted a special showing of work shes been working on recently in the original home of the galveston art center in its gutted and partially reconstructed state [see:hurricane ike...]. temporarily the gac has relocated to a new location to maintain the day to day while the original building is under reconstruction. however, the progress has stalled out for the moment as theyve run out of money and need approx. a million dollars to be donated to complete the renovations fully. the space is pretty interesting to be in at the moment, and the show was quite successful in my humble opinion - presenting both the opportunity for people to see karen's recent works and also a forum to expose the public to the current state of the facilities and discuss whats still needed to bring it back to life. karens work for this particular show was a fitting accent to the state of the building as we were required to construct temporary walls for occupancy and the theme of her show focused specifically on elements of fragmented architecture. im quite proud of her and this most recent endeavor and can attest to all of the very hard [extremely sweaty!] work that went into getting this show together.
she still has big dreams and goals for her art, so expect much more in the future - ill certainly post as things happen =]
well... theres much more i could say about the house at this point, but this post has gone on long enough, and i think ill save that particular topic for the near future - and hopefully have some updated pictures to show for your patience!
hope youre all having a fantastic week, hug your dads this weekend and have a happy dads day!
sayonara.
