Restaurant: Peli Peli

Building J, Suite P
110 Vintage Park Blvd, Houston, TX 77070


Big poppa planned a little date for the two us the night before my last hurrah. He surprised me by taking me to this South African inspired restaurant way up somewhere on 249 called Peli Peli. Peli Peli means bird's-eye chili and is a spice that was discovered by the Portuguese in the plains of Southern Africa. When you enter into the main dining room, standing thirty feet tall is this illuminated structure built to resemble an acacia tree. The place feels upscale but it's not pretentious in any way. Good thing cos I strolled in wearing my usual attire of sweatpants and a t-shirt. Seksay!

For an appetizer, we ordered the chicken sosaties (dutch kebabs): skewered peli-peli chicken, mango, pineapple, apricots marinated in a sweet curry sauce and served with mango chutney. The chicken was very good and cooked perfectly. However, we weren't a fan of the mango chutney.

For my entree, I chose the peli-peli chicken: signature flame pepper rotisserie half chicken marinated in guava, grilled over applewood smoke and served with couscous extravaganza, mango coleslaw and hot sauce on the side. The chicken was delish! So tender. And the couscous was tasty enough for me to shovel the entirety into my mouth with one swift move.

Big poppa ordered the drakensberg ribs: baby back ribs marinated in peli-peli seasonings and clove roasted until tender, then grilled and dipped in a secret basting sauce, stacked to look like the drakensberg mountain range. Let'st just say big poppa tore up his ribs and all that remained was a plate of bones.

Trippin': Brooklyn - Peter Luger

178 Broadway
Brooklyn, NY 11211

For dinner one evening, we made reservations to go have some steak at Peter Luger's. For those of you who keep up with the Travel Channel or Food Network, you'll recall having seen a special on this place. Their specialty is the porterhouse steak. For those of you who keep up with my blog, you'll know that I do not eat beef. So basically, this was all for the folks who love it. Ahem big poppa. See?!? Who says I'm a selfish person. It was such a roller coaster ride trying to make reservations for this place. It wasn't them. It was us. We had people yo-yoing back and forth about whether or not they were gonna go or not. And then we had two last minute additions. Oy! But Rich, the GM on duty that evening was super accommodating, helping us get a table with hardly a wait and with a great sense of humor along with it. There were five people at our table who wanted their steak medium-rare. Our waiter suggested that we get it medium as their medium is a medium-rare at most other steak places. We believed him and figured he knew to bring out a steak for five cooked the right way. But of course we should have known better. The steaks were pretty much medium and big poppa could not get over it. Not only that, they tend to sear the outside of the steak by sticking the steak along with the plate into the oven to give it that char appearance. But by doing so, the outside becomes even more well done. Seriously, big poppa was flipping out majorly. Three people didn't feel like the steak was all that great while two of them really liked it. Because I didn't eat any of it, it wasn't until we got back from the trip that I realized that our waiter only brought out a steak for THREE. Seriously?!? No wonder big poppa was still so hungry. How odd. We only got charged for the steak for three but come on. As a waiter, he should have known better. Maybe we should have told him that we were Texans or something.

Musik Mundi: Lights

Sometime last year, Lights (real name Valerie Poxleitner) had some of her songs used in some Old Navy commercials. She's a Canadian singer-song writer known for synthpop style of music. I can't say I'm too crazy about her voice but I mos def wouldn't mind catching one of her live performances. I just realized who her voice reminds me of. Maria Nayler! Remember her? REMEMBER?!? Well. You get to listen to another full album cos I'm just too busy right now to narrow it down.

*photo courtesy of amazon.com*


Lights
Album: The Listening (2009)

Trippin': New York City - VYNL

102 8th Ave @ 15th St
New York, NY 10011

There's nothing like some good ole American brunch to start off the day. Or make you lazy and sluggish for the rest of the day. I chose this really cool restaurant that has vinyl's plastered all over the place and record fotos are used as the menu covers. The place is called VYNL. How appropriate right? We had ourselves some eggs benedict, crab cakes and some simple scrambled eggs and french toast. Very good indeedy!