112 Commerce St.
Tomball, TX 77375
The latest trend in food preparation aside from the whole using local and seasonal ingredients is this whole searching for food act called foraging. You have kitchen folk going into the woods, forests, beach, meadows, fields and wherever else possible looking for anything edible and creating a menu with the items collected that day. Most of these odds and ends are everyday plant and living creatures that are right in front of us and free for the taking but most people overlook them as inedible because it's just not something we are used to. And to be honest, I'm not quite sure if I'm ready for it to become normal for me. I'm quite content with my simple taste buds. I do however, sometimes have the urge to be a little more adventurous about the food that I eat. As a frequent reader of blogs related to the Houston food scene, I had read about Chef Randy Rucker departure from the Rainbow Lodge to take over his mum's place, Bootsie's Heritage Cafe, over in Tomball. Why so far?!? I noted the take over even though I figured I would never drive out so far for food. Especially since it wasn't asian food. Then one afternoon, Buda sends me a text about having dinner at Bootsie's and that his friend was the pastry chef there. Okay dokay. Since when do I ever turn down a dinner invitation? So we make the long drive. The restaurant was in this old converted colonial/ranch style home. Inside, there are only maybe ten tables or so that are always occupied. We opted for the tasting menu. Chef Randy calls his foraged menu the Third Coast menu. Our very own gulf being the third coast. I'm not sure if could say I was thrilled with the food I had. Everything was just really interesting. And it wasn't just me who felt that way, it was all of us. I was hoping that the pastry chef guy would help me with the descriptions of all of the food since I can't remember but he never e-mailed me back. The dood is off to bigger and better things. He was a James Beard nominee in some category that I also can't remember. The desserts were probably the best of everything we had but I dunno, I still prefer the regular type of desserts. red velvet this, ice-cream that.
Little chive biscuits that we kept eating to fill our stomachs.
Some type of bird and something else.
Uni and shaved green apple.
Semi live shrimp that we ate head on and everything. The sauce looks like nuoc mam but it wasn't. It was like a light sweet syrup. I wished it were nuoc mam cos then the shrimp might have tasted better. It was pretty gross.
A play on a garden salad. The yolk was like a carrot gelee and the granola is supposed to be the soil.
Fifty degree something cooked eggs in mason jars. I think I prefer eating my eggs with bread and not by itself. There was also a dusting of tuna powder which made it kinda fishy. Not good.
Fried fish. We tore this up. I don't remember what type of fish.
House cured meats that we also kinda tore up.
Pickled items. I ate some of it and told big poppa that the onions weren't pickled but they were. He ate one and was not happy. He and wonder woman aren't both don't like pickled stuff. I don't either but i love onions.
Pasta with oyster drillers. Oyster drillers used to be discarded as inedible but the trend is now to keep 'em and include them in their cooking. They had this weird salty taste to them.
I forgot what type of meat were in these sausages.
Beef. I did not eat this of course.
Now for the dessert! Since he was buda's friend, he brought out some extra stuff. They were really pretty to look at!
