SE Texas Seafood Trail Scouting Trip 4.11.09

I love eating seafood in southeast Texas.

View SE Texas Seafood Trail in a larger map

I grew up eating it. It's in my blood literally and figuratively. I've been away for awhile. Steaks and haute cuisine were the main culprits. But I'm back and on the march.

Most of the SE Texas seafood places I went too growing up are, amazingly, still around. I guess they're doing something right. Well, I'm going to find out.

This is the first in a series of scouting trips/food adventures/moseys in SE Texas. Mainly it will be about seafood, of the the Gulf Coast/Tex-Cajun/Cajun variety. But I'm sure I'll stumble upon a few various and sundry BBQ/Tex-Mex/CFS joints along the way. I'm sure you won't mind if I drop in for some brisket or an enchilada on occasion.

My benchmark cuisines will be 1) dark roux filé gumbo (seafood or chicken & sausage), and 2) fried catfish. Will also sample the likes of fried shrimp, fried oysters, fried alligator, hush puppies, etouffe, stuffed crab, dirty rice. Seasonally — raw oysters, crawfish, soft shell crab, and BBQ crab.

But I need your help. Tell me about some places to go for seafood in southeast Texas. It might be a place you went to when you were a kid, or a place you go to now. Give me a name and general location and I'll find it. And I'll report back.

My main geographical focus is I-10 to the north, Gulf Coast to the south, I-45 to the west and the Sabine River to the east.

So here's the first itinerary. Alright, let's roll...

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This itinerary is for Saturday 4.11.09. It is a subset of all the places I have pinned in the Google Map above. If you want to locate a place on this itinerary geographically, click on the "View SE Texas Seafood Trail in a larger map" and there will be place name listings to the left of the large map. Find the one that corresponds to the place on this itinerary and click. It will highlight on the map.

I'll start around 10am and try to finish before sunset. This is going to be a "mosey," i.e. I'm in no hurry and reserve the right to do whatever the hell I want. I will try to live tweet as much as possible for anyone interested. You can follow at http://twitter.com/houston_foodie.

Again, if you have ideas of places to go while I am traveling and tweeting, let me know through Twitter. I am happy to break off the itinerary if it sounds like a big payoff.

SE Texas Seafood Scouting Trip 4.11.09

• Old River Cafe - Winfree TX - Don't know much about this place. May be nothing at all. Then again might stumble on some great CFS. Worth a shot.

• Gas Station - On the Old and Lost Rivers - This is a shiny new gas station. Last time I drove by they put up and awning that said something with "crawfish" in it. "Crawfish Joes" or some such. Give it a look-see.

• Gator Junction BBQ - Wallisville? TX - Stopped by here a couple times in the past. BBQ is passable, but need to dig a little deeper. See if I can get the guy to show me his pit.

• Roadside Produce Market - Anahuac TX - Will probably drop by to see if they have anything interesting. Something tells me I'll be eating paper shell pecans next week!

• Convenience Store - Anahuac TX - Never stopped here, just a convenience store, but they imply they have some hot food. Country kitchen type deal.

• Anahuac, Texas - I have no idea what to expect here. But there has to be some restaurants. No chains here, would be surprised to find a McDonalds. So there's got to be something. Just going to drive around and ask people.

• Smith Point, Texas - Will drive out here for general interest and if time permits. Expect to find no food. Since this was ground zero for Ike, I honestly don't expect to find anything. If I can get to the Bay, from this vantage point I can look west and see San Leon (Gilhooley's) and to the southwest Bolivar (Stingaree).

• Stuckey's - Middle of Nowhere TX - Before there was Buc-ees there was Stuckeys. This roadside novelty shop and restaurant has been around at least 30+ years. Took quite a hit from Ike but is back to serving up the pecan logs.

• Boondocks Road aka Jap Road - Fannett TX - There's alot of SE Texas history, some painful history, on this unassuming stretch of blacktop in the middle of nowhere. I'll write more in a blog post, but I may take drive down there just for old times sake.

• Sartin's Seafood - Nederland TX - Only one thing to look for here: BBQ crabs. Checking for quality and to see if they have reinstituted the AYCE platter service.

• Sabine Pass, Texas - If you believe what everybody says, there's nothing left here after Ike. I'm going to try to make it down to check it out. I know the elder Sartin's still live here. Maybe I can find the original Sartin's location?

• Crystal Beach, Texas - Again, afraid of what I will find here, i.e. maybe nothing. Hope I can get across the bridge at the cut. If not, long drive home back through I-10.

• Stingaree Restaurant & Bar - Port Bolivar, TX - Just going to scout this place in preparation for a visit with friends in a week or so. Known for BBQ crabs, cold beer and beautiful sunsets.

• Gilhooley's Restaurant-Oyster - San Leon, TX - If I have time I'll swing by here for some roasted oysters.

That's about it. Ambitious itinerary but should be fun.

Max's Goes Molecular

Max's Wine Dive is definitely one of the most unique concepts in Houston dining.

Well known among both Houston foodies and the see-and-be-seen hipster set, Max's bills itself as "Haute Dogs and Shiraz, Kobe Burgers and Cabernet, Fried Chicken and Champagne." In other words, upscale comfort food with a knockout wine list.

Max's culinary chops have enjoyed a generally good reputation in Houston. However with the departure of founding chef Jonathan Jones a couple years ago, there was some of talk about Max's losing it's edge in the food department (scenester department is always going strong it seems).

In stepped new chef Michael Dei Maggi. Unapologetically tattooed, hyperkinetic, boisterous and seemingly destined for a slot on Top Chef someday, Chef Dei Maggi has shown a steady, creative hand in Max's kitchen. His spring tasting menu event was well-received by the elite foodie community (ha!).

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Not unexpectedly, Chef Dei Maggi is apparently not satisfied with pushing out the occasional new menu item. On Monday, March 30th, Chef Dei Maggi will create a one-off, 7-course wine tasting dinner described as a

"Brief examination of clinical insanity and the role it plays in groundbreaking culinary developments. This dinner will feature food like you never before experienced in Houston - using techniques and ingredients on the cutting edge of the molecular gastronomic movement."

That's right folks, molecular gastronomy comes to Houston.

In a recent post on the Food in Houston blog, the lack of a true molecular gastronomy restaurant in Houston was lamented. As if on cue, Chef Dei Maggi announced his molecular dinner. You have to give Chef Dei Maggi credit for ambition and audacity. If the execution lives up to the menu descriptions (60KB PDF), this should be interesting.

I'll be attending and taking plenty of pics and hopefully live-tweeting the dinner.

For adventurous foodies this is a must-attend dinner. It's pricey at $200pp, but it is comparable to the 7-course tasting menu with wine pairings at Textile. Plus you are supporting and encouraging a local Houston chef who is willing to take chances and push boundaries. Reservations can be made by calling 713.880.8737.

What's the big deal about food?

You get hungry. You go to the supermarket. You buy a steak and a potato. You grill the steak and bake the potato. You eat. You are satisfied. You go to sleep. The process starts again the next day.

So what's the big deal?

Unknown to many Houstonians and Americans in general, a furious debate is underway about what, when, where, and how we eat. Fought and lobbied in board rooms, state and federal legislatures, restaurants, farms, supermarkets, and even households, the impact of this debate will be felt for years to come. Literally billions of dollars and millions of lives are potentially at stake.

To make some sense of all this, I'd like to provide some examples about what is being debated, why these issues are being debated now, and how we as individual Houstonians can make a difference in food issues if we choose to do so.

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Debate? What Debate?
With all the recent commotion surrounding our nation's economic troubles you may have missed a few interesting developments on the food front in the last few months. Here's a quick rundown.

• President Obama's Address on Food Safety
  In his March 14th, 2009 Weekly Address, President Obama acknowledged that the system currently in place to ensure food safety is inadequate. He announced the creation of a Food Safety Working Group to study this issue and report back to him on how to streamline and make more effective the 12 disparate federal agancies that currently oversee food safety.

• Agriculture Secretary Supports Single Food Safety Agency.
  In February Tom Vilsack, the new agriculture secretary, stunned just about everyone in government as well as the food industry when he suggested that the best solution may be to create a single new agency to oversee food safety. That may seem like common sense, but you must realize that this goes against the raison d'etre of many entrenched government bureaucracies that were created by laws passed as far back as Teddy Roosevelt. Won't happen without a fight.

• Michelle Obama Announces White House Vegetable Garden.
  The First Lady put her gardening shovel where her mouth is and made good on a pledge to bring healthy, sustainable food to the White House in the form of a "Victory Garden" planted on the South Lawn of the White House. The New York Times was so smitten by this development that it created a "Room for Debate" article with opinions from presidential historians (including Douglas Brinkley of Rice University), a former White House chef, and other general foodie-type folks. The White House website published the garden's layout (340KB PDF).

• Alice Waters on 60 Minutes.
  Few events announce your arrival to the mainstream of America than a feature on the TV news magazine 60 Minutes. Recently Alice Waters, the most vocal and controversial of the sustainable/local/slow food movement proponents, achieved just such a distinction.

  
  Watch CBS Videos Online

• Attack of the Foodie Movies.
  2009 will see the release of at least two documentary movies that weigh in on the current debate about food: Food Inc., and Food Fight! I've watched Food Fight! and it's basically a history of the local food movement that started in Berkeley, California with Alice Waters and her restaurant Chez Panisse. Food Inc. promises to be a more hard-hitting investigation of industrial agriculture and industrial food production in general.

• Attack of the Televangelists.
  Apparently bored by the "been there, done that" wedge issues like abortion and homosexuality, at least one mega-preacher — Joel Osteen here in Houston — recently decided to preach against eating shellfish and other "unclean" food. Presumably this edict was for purposes of leading a healthy lifestyle, but one wonders if Mr. Osteen sensed a new wedge-in-the-making?

• Attack of the Socio-Political Commentators.
  Perhaps feeling left out of the party, socio-political commentator Mary Eberstadt wrote a politically-charged essay about the food debate entitled "Is Food the New Sex?" It caused quite a dust-up in the food/politics/religion blogospheres. Even some hack writer over at the Houston Press blogged about it.

Why is the debate about food happening now?
Most of the global crises that have come to a head in recent years — healthcare, energy, environment, etc. — are inextricably linked to food.

At the risk of oversimplifying one of the most complex issues of our time, I'd like to outline some of the reasons why food has recently become the subject of such impassioned debate.

Be warned: there's alot of bad news. But it's not all doom and gloom. The good news is that we as individual citizens have many opportunities in our daily lives to improve and influence how and what we eat.

• Healthcare crisis.
  The National Institutes of Health report that 10.7 percent of Americans over age 20 have diabetes (Type 2 diabetes — the type associated with diet — makes up 90-95 percent of cases). 23.7 percent of the population over 65 have diabetes. Average medical expenditures among people with diagnosed diabetes were 2.3 times higher than what expenditures would be in the absence of diabetes.

  Additionally, the NIH reports that a staggering 31.4 percent of Americans over 20 years of age are obese. From 1960 to 2004, the prevalence of obesity more than doubled among adults age 20 to 74 from 13.3 to 32.1 percent, with most of this rise occurring since 1980.

• Energy crisis.
  According to journalist and food activist Michael Pollan, in 1940 it took approximately 1 calorie of fossil-fuel energy to produce 2.3 calories of food energy. Today, it takes 10 calories of fossil-fuel energy to produce 1 calorie of energy in supermarket food.

• Environmental crisis.
  The amount of carbon dioxide released into the atmosphere during the production of food is substantial. Fertilizer, farm machinery, pesticides, packaging and transport all contribute to these emissions. Although the impact of these emissions on global warming is debatable, companies such as Pepsico have recently pledged to research and publicize the amount of CO2 emissions produced for each of its products.

• Economic crisis.
  As economic conditions worsen and paychecks shrink there is a demonstrable flight to less expensive food choices, especially among the working poor. In most cases these less expensive options are of dubious nutritional quality (fast food/junk food). The big supermarket chain's budget food products fly off the shelves. The McDonald's fast food chain reports record profits. Populations such as the working poor that are most effected by these dietary choices are also the ones most likely to lack health insurance.

• Food safety crisis.
  In the past few months more than 70 American food companies such as Trader Joe's, Whole Foods Market, and Kroger have been scrambling to remove a variety of peanut butter products contaminated with salmonella. The crisis continues to spiral out of control with over 500 people sickened (half of them children) and 8 deaths reported. Dr. Stephen F. Sundlof, director of the Food and Drug Administration's food center, admits "We don't have a good idea of how much of that product is still out there."

  More significantly, the issue of contaminated Chinese food imports is a growing concern. The US Food and Drug Administration has recently taken unprecedented steps to prevent possible outbreaks from tainted Chinese food products. The Obama administration has pledged to make food safety a priority in the coming years.

How Can I Make a Difference?
Food is unique in that every human being on the planet has a vital stake in how and what we eat. More than just about any other issue, food policy demands that we think globally and act locally. How and what we choose to eat in Houston can have a meaningful global impact.

• Learn how to cook.
  There is general agreement that cooking the occasional meal at home using fresh, whole ingredients is both healthy and economical.

• Volunteer for/Donate to Recipe for Success.
  The mission of this Houston organization is to combat childhood obesity by encouraging healthy eating habits through programs like Chefs in Schools in which local chefs conduct cooking classes in Houston elementary schools.

• Patronize restaurants that promote local food.
  No time to shop for and cook local, sustainable, nutritious food? Let the professionals do it for you. t'afia restaurant has literally made a name for itself in this area and many other establishments support the cause.

• Shop at farmers markets.
  Local markets like Houston Farmers Market, Bayou City Farmers Market and Midtown Farmers Market collectively provide a great selection of locally grown and environmentally friendly food. The provenance (and by extension safety) of your food is indisputable -- you are buying it from those who grew and harvested it.

• Plant a garden.
  The return of the Victory Garden is an effort to produce hyper-local, nutritious, and environmentally friendly food. When your food is growing in your backyard, there's no concern about CO2 emissions due to transport. President Obama is being lobbied to start his own garden (it worked by the way).

• Volunteer at a community garden.
  For those of us without the time, knowledge, or real estate to start our own garden, there are literally hundreds of community gardens throughout the city of Houston. Organizations like Urban Harvest and Target Hunger provide instruction and volunteer opportunities to produce safe, nutritious food that is made available to Houston families regardless of their economic situation.

• Attend Houston Restaurant Week.
  Some of Houston's best restaurants join forces to provide prix fixe menus with a portion of proceeds going to charities such as the Houston Food Bank which provide food to the economically disadvantaged.

Mayhaw! Yams! Honey!

Mayhaw, Yams, Honey!, originally uploaded by houstonfoodie.

I'm a sucker for roadside produce markets.

This one exists on I-10 between Beaumont and Houston at the Anahuac exit. I suppose it's been here off-and-on for the last 5-10 years. It is definitely the biggest it's ever been.

The produce is mostly mass-produced, with some local strawberries and honey. The quality of the produce is excellent. I imagine this market serves and important role in the community — there's probably not a real supermarket within a 100 miles of this location.

I picked up some Louisiana Beauregard Yams and some paper shell pecans. Both very good.

Stop by if you are headed east on I-10.

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Houston Farmers Market 2.24.09

Houston Farmers Market 2.24.09, originally uploaded by houstonfoodie.

Baby goats were big attraction at this week's Houston FM.
But I have to confess that is not the real purpose of this post.
Rather, I am testing the live blogging functionality of my iPhone.
So here goes. My first blog post ever sent directly from my iPhone.

NB: iPhone blogging works like a charm. Expect more in the future.

Best Food Writing: February 2009

National/International

Is Food the New Sex?
Mary Eberstadt — Policy Review
God I wish I had written this article. Anyone who even casually writes about food should aspire to this level of incisiveness. Even that august sage George F. Will was impressed. A must read.

Is Foie Gras Torture?
Sarah DiGregorio — The Village Voice
A reasonable and measured investigation of the production of foie gras. In the case it is certainly no worse, and possibly better, than most industrial meat and poultry production.

Rock Star, Meet Teetotaler
Sacha Z. Scoblic — The New York Times
Amazing the amount of high-quality "food" writing that comes out of The New York Times' Proof blog about alcohol and American life.

Houston Local

Depart From Me! I Never Knew You, Eaters of Bacon
Katharine Shilcutt — Eating...Our Words blog at Houstonpress.com
Why did Joel Osteen choose to preach about food? No, it's not about the Bible. Just read Is Food the New Sex? article above.

The Iceman Cometh and Eateth Hamburgers and Proclaimeth
Epicurus — Food In Houston blog
Nice post here about a food blogger getting back into the swing of things, including a multi-paragraph rant about portobello 'shrooms at a burger joint. Or were those creminis?

Sticking it to the French
Misha — tasty bits blog
Our friend Misha debunks the claim that French food is "all that" by proclaiming that the food at a humble Houston taco truck trumps the cuisine of a hauty French brasserie.

If you know of any sources of great food writing, post a comment and let me know. It can be national, international, or local. I'd really like to find individualistic food blogs that reflect the personality and experiences of the blog writer.

Link Feast: 2.20.09

The slow death of Slow Food UK - I've always found the Slow Food movement to be a bit eccentric — not elitist mind you, just quirky and disorganized. I much prefer the term "local food" which is too often associated with Slow Food, to its detriment in my opinion.

Cooking Without Shopping - I've always suspected that the typical American household is over-provisioned foodwise. This project will take what you have in your fridge/pantry right now and cook that over the next week without restocking.

Burger Bound, From Corner to Shack - Houston food critics' obsession with burgers has been well noted. Now it seems like the siren song of the great American dish has arrived in New York City — Frank Bruni gives his take on 2 of NYC's most revered burger joints. Stunningly, Mr. Bruni allows that this was his first visit to Corner Bistro.

Obama Sushi - Is there no end to all things Obama and food? You must admit that this sushi creation is remarkable.

Is Foie Gras Torture? - Once you get past the PETA propaganda and actually do some investigation, you may find that the production of foie gras is not all that bad.