The RobbWalsh.com “Texas Eats” website was down for more than a week due to technical difficulties. If you tried to find us while were out of commission, we apologize.

It seems our server got raided by interweb evil doers. We ended up with the  “WordPress Pharma Hack.” Every time we tried to send [...]]]> The RobbWalsh.com “Texas Eats” website was down for more than a week due to technical difficulties. If you tried to find us while were out of commission, we apologize.

It seems our server got raided by interweb evil doers. We ended up with the  “WordPress Pharma Hack.” Every time we tried to send a link of our site to Facebook, or anywhere else, we transmitted a message about where to buy drugs online.

Cleaning things up and moving to a new server was a little more complicated than it sounded. Our technical department (Pableaux “Bayou Dog” Johnson) had to redo all the photo links and otherwise tinker under the hood.

Thinking about people who spread Spam (not you Hormel) and hack websites makes me angry. Sometimes I daydream about what I would do if I ever got hold of one of these slimeballs. Hacking is a form of theft, right? So would a convicted hacker get his hands chopped off under Islamic law? I know a pitmaster in South Carolina named Tim Hyman who would be perfect for the job of punishing hackers–he is a sort of hacker himself.

Seafood chef Denis Wilson, the name behind Denis’ Seafood and the late Jimmy Wilson’s Seafood and Chop House, is back in business in a North Houston fast casual restaurant called Louisiana Homestyle Kitchen. Only this time, instead of seafood, he is specializing in free range chicken.

The menu is a veritable Bubba Gump litany [...]]]> Seafood chef Denis Wilson, the name behind Denis’ Seafood and the late Jimmy Wilson’s Seafood and Chop House, is back in business in a North Houston fast casual restaurant called Louisiana Homestyle Kitchen. Only this time, instead of seafood, he is specializing in free range chicken.

The menu is a veritable Bubba Gump litany (only with chicken instead of shrimp). Offerings include: Free range fried chicken, free range rotisserie chicken, free range chicken fricasee, free range chicken chef salad, free range chicken wedge salad, free range chicken homestyle salad, free range chicken gumbo, free range chicken tortilla soup, and a free range chicken strip poor boy.

The menu also includes fried shrimp, boiled shrimp, fried crawfish tails, red beans and rice, smothered pork chops, an awesome pot roast and a couple of poor boys.

The fried chicken that I sampled was sensational and so were the butterflied fried shrimp. Wilson’s tartar sauce alone is worth the trip. I poured the intense, chocolate-brown gravy that came with the pot roast over some rice. Wow. I can’t wait to try Wilson’s roast beef poor boy.

At this writing, the restaurant isn’t open yet. Wilson said he would be open just before Thanksgiving, so keep an eye out.

Louisiana Home Kitchen
16950 Ella Blvd.
281 580 8400

Chef Maurizio Ferrarese of Quattro Restaurant in the Houston Four Seasons hotel and I collaborated on a Texas cioppino last Friday. Maurizio invited me to join him in the kitchen as part of the Guest Chef series there. I know, I know, I am not really a chef. But I do work in [...]]]>
Chef Maurizio Ferrarese of Quattro Restaurant in the Houston Four Seasons hotel and I collaborated on a Texas cioppino last Friday. Maurizio invited me to join him in the kitchen as part of the Guest Chef series there. I know, I know, I am not really a chef. But I do work in a lot of kitchens–mainly developing Tex-Mex recipes.

My guest chef gig in an Italian restaurant started over a plate of spaghetti at the Sacred Heart Society spaghetti lunch, Maurizio and I were debating the provenance of the fish stew called cioppino. I thought it was invented by Italian-American fishermen in San Francisco. But chef Maurizio, who is Italian, insisted it originated in Liguria.

I also told Maurizio that I was working on a Texas version of cioppino for the Italian-Texan chapter of my upcoming book “Texas Eats” (Ten Speed Press, March 2012). Not that it’s any big innovation–a Gulf version of cioppino is already served at Tony Mandola’s on Waugh St. in Houston. My partner at El Real, Bryan Caswell, had a similiar Texas-Tuscan seafood stew on the menu at Stella Sola for awhile too. But for my Texas cioppino, I wanted to leave out non-Gulf ingredients like scallops. I also wanted to include lots of blue crab.

My recipe was inspired by the crab cioppino that was once served at the Gold Spike on Columbus Avenue in San Francisco. (The restaurant closed in 2005.)That dungeness crab soup was served family style in a huge bowl in the middle of the table. You cracked crab and dunked sourdough in the red gravy to your heart’s content. Maurizio wanted to tinker with my recipe and serve Texas cioppino at Quattro one night. And so we set it up.

Chef Maurizio

For the antipasti on our collaboration menu, we served sausage and peppers to honor the Sacred Heart Society for bringing us together over spaghetti. We tried to buy 10 pounds of Tony Leago’s fabulous Italian sausage, but Tony wouldn’t take our money. Tony’s sausage is served every week at the Thursday spaghetti lunch–go by and say hello. (Call him at 713 591 8532 if you want to order sausage.)

All in all, we had a lot of fun. Quite a few people showed up for dinner. We plan on doing it again when the book comes out in March. Meanwhile, here’s my Texas Cioppino recipe:

Texas Cioppino (from Texas Eats: The New Lone Star Heritage Cookbook)

Cioppino is an Italian-American seafood stew that originated in San Franciso. Some say it as originally made aboard fishing boats. This Gulf version using brown shrimp, redfish and blue crab make an excellent Texas-Italian cioppino.

Serves 8

4 pounds uncooked heads-on shrimp
One 4 pound whole redfish
8 live crabs
3 tablespoons olive oil
1 onion, chopped
3 ribs celery, chopped
2 teaspoons salt
1 cup chopped green onions
4 large garlic cloves, finely chopped
1 jalapeño, minced
Small can tomato paste
1 (28-ounce) can diced tomatoes
2 cups white wine
3 bay leaves

Shell the shrimp and filet the fish. Make a stock with the fish bones and head and the shrimp shells and heads. When the stock boils, add the crabs and cook until done, about ten minutes. Remove the crabs and allow to cool. Reserve the crab bodies and claws and return the rest of the crab including the innards to the stockpot. Simmer the stock for a total of 30 minutes adding water as needed, then turn off the heat. You should have 8 cups of stock.
Heat the oil in a soup pot over medium heat. Add the onion, celery and salt and saute until the onion is translucent, about 10 minutes. Add the green onion and garlic and jalapeño, and saute 2 minutes. Stir in the tomato paste. Add tomatoes and liquid, wine and bay leaf. Strain the stock and pour the strained liquid into the soup pot. Cover and bring to a simmer. Reduce the heat to medium-low. Cover and simmer until the flavors blend, about 30 minutes.
Cut the fish into 2 inch chunks. Add the shrimp and fish to the soup. Simmer gently until the fish and shrimp are just cooked through. Season the soup, to taste, with more salt and some pepper sauce if desired.
Ladle the soup into 8 bowls, hang a crab body on the rim of each bowl with the body in the soup and a claw on the outside. Serve with crusty bread and nutcrackers for the crab claws.

In the cookbook published years ago by Antoine’s restaurant of New Orleans, the author claims that when the dish known as Oysters Rockefeller was first invented, the French chef was actually looking for a substitute for escargot. Had that chef looked a little harder, he might have found a much closer cousin to [...]]]>

In the cookbook published years ago by Antoine’s restaurant of New Orleans, the author claims that when the dish known as Oysters Rockefeller was first invented, the French chef was actually looking for a substitute for escargot. Had that chef looked a little harder, he might have found a much closer cousin to the European snail.

In a recent post titled Bycatch of the Day: Texas Whelks,we wrote about the oyster-eating sea snails variously known as oyster drills, biganos and whelks. As mentioned, Chris Shepherd served these at the Foodways Texas symposium lunch in Galveston simmered in a spicy crawfish boil. We loved the flavor–but craved a little garlic butter.

Tommy Tollet at Tommy’s Steaks and Oyster Bar in Clear Lake took that idea to it’s logical end. After simmering Texas whelks until tender, he dressed them up like escargot. Each whelk gets wrapped in a spinach leaf and broiled in garlic butter with a topping of parmesan in one of those cute little escargot dishes. The result is amazing. The whelks have a little more flavor and chewier texture than the snails–I ate mine with garlic toast and single malt Scotch.

Tommy’s Steaks and Oyster Bar is considering putting Texas whelks on the menu. Reef and several other Houston restaurants also feature them as specials.

Chris Shepherd

Chef Chris Shepherd’s new restaurant, Underbelly, will be next door to the Hay Merchant Craft Beer Bar in the old Chances building–across the street from our very own Tex-Mex joint, El Real! I ran into Shepherd at the Farmer’s Market last weekend. Alison Cook had just reported the news. Underbelly will [...]]]>

Chris Shepherd

Chef Chris Shepherd’s new restaurant, Underbelly, will be next door to the Hay Merchant Craft Beer Bar in the old Chances building–across the street from our very own Tex-Mex joint, El Real! I ran into Shepherd at the Farmer’s Market last weekend. Alison Cook had just reported the news. Underbelly will be a Farm-to-Table establishment with a Nose-to-Tail butcher shop. Shepherd told Alison Cook that the name is not only a nod to his famous dish–fried pork belly with Steen’s syrup–it’s also a reference to the seedy neighborhood where he is locating the place. Hey, wait a minute!

I told him he should put some outdoor dining tables on the sidewalk so that our customers and his customers can hit beach balls back and forth across Westheimer!

Maurizio Ferrarese

Chef Maurizio Ferrarese of Quattro Restaurant in the Houston Four Seasons hotel was very kind to me when I paid the restaurant a visit last week. As I reported here, when he heard I was disappointed that Vitello Tonnato had been taken off the menu, he whipped up a plate of [...]]]>

Maurizio Ferrarese

Chef Maurizio Ferrarese of Quattro Restaurant in the Houston Four Seasons hotel was very kind to me when I paid the restaurant a visit last week. As I reported here, when he heard I was disappointed that Vitello Tonnato had been taken off the menu, he whipped up a plate of the wonderfully bizarre veal and canned tuna combination for me. Chef Ferrarese, who is a native of the region near Milan, has only been in Houston since July and he hasn’t had much of a chance to look around. So I offered to take him out to lunch. Where did I take the young Italian chef?

I took him the Sacred Heart Society Spaghetti Lunch, of course. I sort of expected chef Ferrarese to turn up his nose at the Italian-American spaghetti and meatball plate, but he was actually quite charmed. The scene reminded him of a typical civic event in an Italian village, he said. And as for the well-cooked spaghetti, well that’s the way everyone in his family eats pasta. The whole al dente thing is really just a foodie invention, he said. The meatballs were okay, but the high praise was reserved for Tony Leago’s sausage. Along with the Spaghetti Lunch, Tony supplies lots of Italian restaurants around town. (Call him at 713 591 8532 if you want to order sausage.)

Tony Leago

This Thursday, I will accompany another guest to the Spaghetti Lunch. Laurel Evans lives in Italy where she started a blog that turned into a cookbook called Un Americana in Cucina (An American in the Kitchen). “I love Italian food, but I started to miss mac n’ cheese and cupcakes,” she explained. Now she teaches American cooking for Italians. American food is surprisingly popular in Italy. “They love our brownies,” Laurel Evans laughs.

I figured she would have a ball talking Italian-American recipes with the guys in the kitchen at the Spaghetti lunch. Come on out Thursday at noon and sit down at our table!

Sacred Heart Society Houston
816 East Whitney Street
Houston, TX 77022-3540
(713) 692-0198

Thin crisp pizza at Caffe Bello

The pizza at Caffe Bello Taverna and Pizzeria at 320 Westheimer came on a cracker crisp crust that was a little charred around the edges. It was a delicious appetizer–but it would not have made much of a meal. We tried the one with sausage and peppers [...]]]>

Thin crisp pizza at Caffe Bello

The pizza at Caffe Bello Taverna and Pizzeria at 320 Westheimer came on a cracker crisp crust that was a little charred around the edges. It was a delicious appetizer–but it would not have made much of a meal. We tried the one with sausage and peppers for lunch the other day and practically inhaled it. Luckily we also ordered a salad and some pasta.

Thick cheese pizza at Quattro

The pizza at Quattro, the Italian restaurant in the Four Seasons Hotel, was gooey with cheese and loaded with mushrooms, onion and salami slices. The first slice was stellar, but the crust got kind of gummy after the pizza sat on the table for a while.

I thought a lot about these two pizzas.

I was talking with a Baylor brain scientist at a holiday party. The cabeza doc was from Buenos Aires, Argentina. We both agreed that B.A. was one of the world’s top pizza cities. The most disappointing pizza city in the brain researcher’s experience was Rome. He told me the story of ordering a pizza for dinner in Rome while traveling on a very tight budget. “I was disappointed the minute I picked up the box,” he said. “It was light as a feather. I knew I was still going to be hungry when we were finished eating this pizza.”

One of the many dilemmas of pizza criticism is comparing the full-size pizza you eat for dinner with the little pizza you order for an appetizer in a fancy restaurant. The two serve different purposes and must be judged accordingly. One gets high marks for filling you up and the other gets praise for leaving room for more–although ironically they tend to run about the same price. If your criteria is belly-filling satisfaction, then the Caffe Bello pizza is going to disappoint. But for a thin and crispy-crusted appetizer pizza, it’s excellent. The Quattro pizza is big enough for a full meal, and a little dull in the crust department. So which one is better? I wouldn’t throw either one away. You just want to be sure you don’t get stuck with a crisp little appetizer when you’re dying of hunger like my friend the B.A. brain scientist.

Lobster mezzaluna at Quattro

But if I had one dish to order in either of these two restaurants, it would be stuffed pasta. My friend Brane Poledica who is the food and beverage manager at the Four Seasons picked up the tab for my lunch. He also insisted I try some of his pasta.The half moon-shaped pillows were stuffed with lobster and served in a tomato lobster sauce topped with crabmeat. It was incredibly rich–it made me wish I was drinking Jermann Pinot Grigio instead of iced tea.

Pansotti at Caffe Bello

The butternut squash-filled pasta at Caffe Bello was equally fabulous–in a delicate vegetarian sort of way. The orange squash and ricotta cheese filling had just the right sweetness–the perfect complement to a peppery arugula salad. This kind of pasta often goes by the Italian name pansotti, which means “big belly.” The name refers to the bulging pocket where the stuffing goes. Maybe Caffe Bello should call these “little bellies,” since they are a mini version of the original. I would heap praise for the pasta on Caffe Bello’s wild, tattoo-decorated chef, Michael dei Maggi, but he has departed for Mo’s Place for Steaks. His replacement has yet to be announced.

Vitello Tonnato

Sadly the most remarkable dish I ate while visiting these two restaurants was the vitello tonnato that is no longer on the menu at Quattro. The dish is traditionally made with a slice of roasted veal covered in a sauce made (strangely enough) of canned tuna. Quattro’s new chef is a young Italian guy from Milan named Maurizio Ferrarese. He was making the vitello tonnato with medallions of barely steamed veal–he described it as sort of a veal carpaccio in tuna sauce. It was just stupendous. I would like to see this dish on a sushi bar menu. But Brane reported that the dish was a flop at Quattro because so few diners have ever heard of veal tonnato. “Try and explain a sauce made out of canned tuna to an average customer–it just sounds too weird,” he said.

Maurizio whipped me up one last plate of his rare veal and tuna sauce, just to be nice. I promised to repay the favor this week. Since the young chef has only been in town for 6 months, I told him I would take him out for lunch. Stay tuned for details.

Head Chef Casey Gaido