Good Eatin'

Always looking to improve upon the experience of the gentle users of TP, I am unveiling a new category of posts here. Many people who don't live in Houston find it shocking when I tell them just how much I like this city. I love Texas, and I really, really like Houston; I can't think of anywhere in Texas I'd rather live, and since it's hard to think of places I'd rather live than Texas, I guess that means it's hard to think of places I'd rather live than Houston.

The best feature of Houston, IMO, is the dining. The food in Houston is freaking unbelievable. I say this as someone who has lived in Chicago and Miami, and spent considerable time in both New York and Boston. The food in Houston is at least as good as any of them, except probably NYC, though it's a damn sight less expensive than the letter.

Ms. TP and I enjoy going out to eat (me more than her); I think eating is one of the great joys of life, and "good eatin'"--well, there isn't a whole lot vastly better, IMO.

I have a mental roster of attainable goals in my life--nothing like changing the world, but objectives that are actually within reason. One of them is to be able to eat well, as much as I want. Not 5-star restaurants every night, necessarily, but, e.g., doing my shopping at Central Market rather than Fiesta, par example. Eating well, whether at home, or out, is a goal in my life. To that end, I consider myself something of an amateur foodie (perhaps with the stress on the amateur aspect), and I am trying to learn more. We have an outstanding restaurant critic here in Houston, Robb Walsh of the Houston Press, who also happens to be one of the nation's foremost experts on Texas barbecue.

To that end, I present to the loyal users of TP's Caterwauling 'Bout Cuisine (i.e., restaurant reviews). If you would like to read the first installment, click below, and bear with me, as I am hardly a professional food critic. HARDLY.

Ouisie's Table

This weekend, Ms. TP and I had the extreme pleasure of dining at Ouisie's Table, which was nothing short of fabulous. The restaurant is located just off San Felipe and Willowick, and is set back from the street, which gives it a lovely kind of ensconced feel. The structure itself looks much like an inn from the outside, and creates a homey sense before you enter.

We were seated immediately, and the restaurant was relatively empty at 7 pm on a Saturday night, though it got significantly more crowded as we dined. The decor of the restaurant is lovely. The walls are adorned with rugs to enhance the 'hearth' effect, lovely track lighting off of high ceilings pools onto the floor below. Disclaimer: TP does not like the cave effect preferred by many in their residences or choice of eating establishments. Ouisie's is well-lighted, which please TP.

There is a porch dining section on the east side of the restaurant, set off from the main dining area by French doors. The porch itself is set off from a lovely patio, also by French doors. For those cave-dwellers among TP users, the porch is more dimly lit but remains air-conditioned.

The bar is well-placed but not protruding, festooned with interesting mobiles and a TV for those sports fans who might have wanted to check the odd NCAA Tournament score while enjoying a night out, as well . . .

Unfortunately, though I adore red wine, and one of my life goals is to become knowledgeable about wine, at this point, I am unqualified to pontificate on the quality and selection of a wine list. But I did enjoy the Cabernet that was on the list of specials.

The food itself was outstanding. Ms. TP and I enjoyed the smoked salmon appetizer, served elegantly if simply with capers, red onions and scallions, Irish wheat bread, and cream cheese. TP generally avoids cheese, but this cream cheese was excellent--light and frothy (but not whipped). It had obviously not been sitting around for any length of time. The salmon was quite good; not too salty, and not at all chewy, which is a pet peeve of TP's.

We also shared a grapefruit and avocado salad in a lemon vinaigrette, which was truly excellent. Fresh grapefuits and avocado . . . what a marvelous combination. The tanginess of the grapefruit was set off with the bitterness of the endive in the salad, and punctuated delightfully with the melt-in-your-mouth texture of tender slices of fresh avocado.

The bread served was atypical: a mini-buttermilk muffin, a mini-jalapeno corn muffin, and a small wedge of thick, crusted sourdough, all of which were excellent. The small sizes prevent you from filling up on bread, which is both a curse and a blessing.

For the main course, I selected a redfish special, which was served with a layer of mashed potatoes actually covering the filet, like a quilt. On top of the mashed potatoes came a selection of mixed vegetables, and was garnished with zucchini slices. The fish was prepared by baking it in parchment paper, which is a cooking method Ma TP has perfected, and let me tell you, it is nothing short of heavenly. By baking the filet in parchment, the juices are sealed in. So good. The dish came out still wrapped in the parchment, and the excellent waitress proceeded to cut the parchment off at the table.

Redfish is good fish, for those of you who don't know much about it. I believe it is quite similar to red snapper, so much so that restaurants will often serve redfish and advertise it on the menu as red snapper.

Ms. TP enjoyed the Chilean Sea Bass, or, more properly, the patagonian toothfish. CSB is being overfished, which is why Whole Foods doesn't sell it, but it is, quite simply, the finest fish out there, IMO. Ma TP purchases it in large quantities, fresh caught from a fishmonger right off Watson's Island near Miami Beach. Yum! With sweet potato mixed with nutmeg and cloves, mouth-watering, truly.

Ms. TP's CSB came served over a delicious seafood risotto, grilled, and served with asparagus, a favorite green of both of ours.

Simple, elegant, totemo oishii!

Being unable to pass up dessert at such a fine establishment, we shared the Black Magic Espresso Chocolate Cake. TP is of the opinion that every good restaurant must, if it wishes to earn its stripes, have a dish on the menu for chocolate lovers. See, I think chocolate is the perfect dessert. Anything added to it just adulterates it and dilues the perfection of the dessert. A simple, delicious chocolate cake is heaven--a brownie dessert, like the outstanding version served at Sullivan's will also do. A chocolate creme brulee, a mousse (though TP is not a huge fan of mousse) is also acceptable.

TP gets irritated when a nice restaurant fails to have a delicious chocolate dessert on the menu.

TP also likes extremely rich, sugary chocolate. Yes yes, it is inferior quality to he more authentic, bittersweet or semisweet chocolate, I am well aware, but I don't care. TP has pretty much never taken a bite of anything chocolate and said, 'This is too rich.'

That said, the cake at Ouisie's was not too sweet at all, which made it palatable to Ms. TP. The espresso taste really come through, and even though well-iced (TP LIKES icing), the cake was remarkably light and fluffy in texture.

The dessert liquor available had an excellent selection of ports, Scotches, and cognacs (which, believe it or not, TP does know a little bit about).

The entire meal took an hour, tops, which is nice b/c we don't generally like sitting around. The service was excellent, and I had a chance to chat with the manager, whom I liked very much.

The restaurant was expensive, but hey, it's fine dining. It was well worth it, IMO. Ms. TP did feel somewhat uncomfortable being the only minority client in the entire establishment, but (1) it's River Oaks; and (2) that's obviously not the restaurant's fault. All in all, a wonderful meal, and a fine, unique restaurant. Highly recommended.

TP Rate:

FIVE ROLLS

Comments

[sugarmama]

My sister lives in Dallas and shops at Central Market; I am a deep color of green. All you bastards (shaking fist)!!!!!

[Milton]

Sug,

Central Market is the bomb diggy, no doubt about it.

Here's something to turn you a deeper shade of green: I currently live literally 3 blocks from CM.

[Kevin Whited]

I'm glad you've added this category! It's going to be a great addition to Houston bloggery.

You're right about Walsh. He's getting to be about the only reason to read that rag, now that they don't really let Connelly do much of the media criticism stuff he used to do. I may be in the minority, but I also like Allison Cook (in the Comical now, formerly of the Press).

I'll second that notion about Houston! Much of my family in rural OK just looked at me like I was crazy when I was up that way recently and extolling the virtues of this great city. Oh well! We ARE world-class, and we don't even need a train that people/cars/wheelchairs run into to claim that! :)

[Simone]

makes me want to visit the place..

[Milton]

Kevin,

Thanks for the kind words. It was fun writing this, though much more difficult than I had imagined it would be. I'll try to stick with it.

I love Robb Walsh; he really is the only reason to read the Press these days. Allison Cook is pretty good, too, you are right.

My mom doesn't get it, but my brother is close to landing a job in Houston. I do hope he gets down here.

[Heidi]

Really glad you've added this section! I love to read about food -- particularly in the form of anonymous restaurant reviews. (Personally, I think food reviewing has gotten off track, with the reviewers publishing their photos and real names in their columns, and then dining under their real names so that the restaurant knows who they are and treats them differently (better) than other customers. That destroys the whole point of a restaurant review! So, it's always great to see people not affiliated with a newspaper or magazine do the reviews. Much more honest and accurate that way.)

I love Chilean Sea Bass! It really is the best fish. The first time I had it, it was served pan-seared, over a bed of white beans, surrounded by a tomato-saffron broth, and garnished with scallops and mussels. Absolutely delish!

Papillote dishes are also great. Very moist, very good.

Mmmmm...Now I'm hungry...

[Owen Courrèges]

I agree: this is a great new feature... I expect more of these posts in the future!

[Adrianne Truett]

Ouisie's is on my family's top list of restaurants; my grandparents like quality at any price, and they often choose Ouisie's over other pricier restaurants (especially since Maxim's effectively closed). Their soups are incredible. Ouisie's also nice, and, if you ask, you can get food special-made to fit whatever your dietary requirements or desires may be.