Restaurant: Block 7 Wine Company

720 Shepherd Dr.
Houston, TX 77007

Some din din time with friends and family. I consider big poppa's cousins my cousins too. I don't think they feel the same. Haha. So here we are at Block 7 Wine Company. Houston has many wine places that serve really good food and Block 7 is one of them. Although, it's no where as good as Max's Wine Dive. When I first got there, I was told that the wait would be forty-five minutes. So big poppa and I decided to peruse the retail side of the restaurant and as we were checking out some of the bottles of wine, a worker asked if there was something he could help direct us to and I immediately jokingly replied with, 'how about a table for ten?'. Haw haw haw. And to my surprise, he walked over and offered to set up a table in their back room that was completely separate from the main dining room. After reassuring us that it was absolutely okay and that the servers don't mind cos they want more tips anyways, I happily agreed and our forty-five wait turned into a ten minute wait. Yayers! The food was awesome and the company was even better. Several people ordered some specials that they had so I don't remember exactly what they had. Several of us liked it enough to go and purchase some restaurant.com gc's cos we fo sho going back!

Food in order of appearance:
truffle popcorn - italian black truffle salt
edamame - himalayan pink salt
croque monsieur - country ham, raclette, béchamel, local brioche with b7 frites that comes with housemade aioli and housemade ketchup
fish of the day
another fish of the day?
marinated duck breast - a grilled Maple Leaf duck breast, cous cous salad with ham and Caribbean salsa
airline chicken - roasted and served with fettuccini in a light herb butter and sautéed seasonal vegetables
marinated duck breast - a grilled Maple Leaf duck breast, hash browns

Musik Mundi: Stars

I'm throwing this musik post out quickly cos I'm so tired I've got Andy Cohen's wonky eyes. Okay then. Gotta get back to playing ref between Stewie and the new cat that has joined our household, Mister Alfie. There's a lot of back arching and hissing going on at the moment and I've armed myself with a water gun.

*photo courtesy of amazon.com*


Stars
Album: The Five Ghosts (2010)
Song: Changes

Holiday: Thanksgiving 2010

I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving. Started off the long weekend with some happy hour with friends and then big poppa and I had to start prepping some of the dishes for the next day. Big poppa made mashed potatoes from scratch and I made this gourmet four cheese mac and cheese with white truffle oil. They both turned out pretty good but not super great even though everyone said it was really good. We both don't believe in measuring our ingredients and so it didn't turn out exactly the way we hoped. The mashers weren't as creamy and garlicky and my mac and cheese also wasn't as creamy and white truffly as I had hoped. I should have been more liberal with the white truffle oil but I didn't want it to be too over powering. The cheeses I chose were mozzarella (not fresh but from the bag), sharp white cheddar, gruyere and grana padano. I can understand now why restaurants charge so much for their gourmet mac's cos man, I spent a pretty penny on that mac and cheese. I also ran into the problem of not having enough milk cos I dumped all my cheeses into my batch without measuring it. I thought my arm was about to fall off from trying to continuously stir the cheese sauce that was super thick. Oh well. My next gourmet mac should be a lot better. I also marinated meats to make bun thit nuong, bun ga nuong, bun tom nuong and pork sliders. A lot of people complimented my thit nuong and pork sliders so I was very happy. I went ahead and picked up some boneless ham and turkey from Honey Baked Ham to make it more of a thanksgiving. I actually don't like the whole turkey and stuffing thing so I'll never bother trying to make it. I was only able to some pics of the masher and mac and cheese prep from the night before thanksgiving. I was just so exhausted after finishing up everything the next day that I took a shower and relaxed a bit while everyone else ate first. So much work and as usual, I over planned and made too much food. Per usual.

Trippin': Chicago - Crisp

2940 N Broadway
Chicago, IL 60657

OMGaud I want some fried chicken. NOW! Every time I look at the picture of the fried chicken that we had at Crisp in Chicago, I just start drooling and I'm tempted to book a plane ticket to Chicago STAT. Korean fried chicken is now the first thing some of us look for when traveling to another city. Chacco mentioned that she had looked this one up and after checking out the website and the menu, I knew that it was a must even though it was twenty minutes north of downtown Chicago. So worth it! I ordered the original and the Seoul Sassy fried chicken and that Seoul Sassy was fracking GOOD! It's a subtly sweet sauce prepared with ginger, soy, garlic and other select spices. After staring at the picture of the fried chicken for about five minutes, I showed the picture to big poppa and the first thing out of his mouth was I'm still pissed! Oops. I had totally forgotten that at the time, big poppa had this cold and a super sore throat so although he could taste how good it was, it hurt to eat anything solid and so he simply sat there and grumpily stared at us while we noshed away. I felt so bad! But I also was mad at myself for not being hungrier. We had a lot of chicken left over and no fridge. What a waste. Bah!

Musik Mundi: Robyn

Waaay back in 1997, Robyn came out with a radio hit called Show Me Love. I think she's had a pretty good career in Europe since then but hasn't really had any play in the states. UNTIL NOW. I LOVE her track, Dancing On My Own, from her newest album. It's got this really nice chill dance beat and makes me wanna go clubbing! This is the first song I listen to in the morning as I make my way to work. When I get to this song on my playlist, I usually repeat it three times before moving on. Yes I likey.

*photo courtesy of amazon.com*


Robyn
Album: Body Talk (2010)
Song: Dancing On My Own

Trippin': Chicago - Tall Ship Windy

After lunch we rushed to get to the Navy Pier so that we wouldn't miss our sail time. We ended up walking a million blocks to get there and made it in the nick of time. Our sailing adventure would take place on a huge sail boat called the Tall Ship Windy which looks almost like a pirate ship. The ship had workers dressed in normal attire, pirate attire and twenties gangster attire. I'm not sure what was going on with the whole gangster thing other than they were selling rum drinks and telling prohibition stories. I can really understand why people love to sail. The weather that day on Lake Michigan was nice and breezy and the gentle lull of the waters was completely relaxing. I just wished there weren't so many other tourists on board! I can't wait to get on a real sailboat one day and just lay out on the deck like a celebrity. But who am I kidding, other than vegging out in front of the telly, I'm not so good at relaxing.