We had a small crawfish boil at church yesterday. It was not a big event, so we ended up just boiling the crawfish with conventional cooking methods, ie a stove. Actually, I would call the event a test run since I wouldn't want to do a big event without mastering the process.

For the 7 of us who were eating, I bought 21 pounds for a nice $1.29/pound. It would have been only $.99 a pound, but I would have needed to buy a full 36 pound sack, and I knew that I didn't have enough people to finish that. The price was great though, although after eating them, I am wondering how much larger the crawfish would be from a seafood delivery place that charged $1.85/pound. Even that is a good price since it's $2/pound cheaper than the cheapest restaurant I've found.

So, after dumping the crawfish into the big sink in our church's kitchen, I tossed in some salt. I read before that salt water causes them to purge themselves. I don't know how much of a difference it makes, but I didn't think it would hurt. I thing I did notice is that they were a bit more lively after that!

While we waited for our two big pots to boil on the stove, we prepared the potatoes and corn. We cut some of the larger potatoes into smaller pieces and poked them with a fork. Next time, I'll at most halve the potatoes. They cook too fast and fall apart when they're too small. When the water was close to boiling, we added them to the water. These take longer to cook than the crawfish, so they needed some extra cooking time. I think the timing was right since they were also able to soak in some of spices. In hindsight, I should probably spend more money on these.

Finally, when the water returned to a boil, we tossed in the crawfish. Just like regular shellfish, they cook super fast. We added the crawfish in batches as we grabbed them from the sink, and by the time we had added the last batch, it seemed like the ones already in the pot were already cooked. After letting them boil for 5 minutes, we cut off the heat and let them soak for 20 minutes or so.

After the 20 minutes, I tested one. It was definitely cooked, but it wasn't spicy. I knew that I could let them soak longer, but I didn't want to let them soak any longer since they were already getting soft, and I didn't want to overcook them. I knew I'd be eating mine with some spicy sauce, so I figured the spicyness wasn't an issue. Nobody seemed to mind that they weren't spicy, so I guess it was a nonissue.

For a sauce, I mixed mayonnaise with the crawfish boil spices and lime juice. I saw some people mixing this up at the crawfish restaurant a few weeks ago, and I tried myself when I went back. A little mayonnaise goes a long way, and you have to add lots of lime juice to thin it out. If you don't put enough lime juice and spice, you can taste the mayonnaise, and that's not good. I wonder what I could use as a substitute for the mayonnaise?

So, the crawfish boil wasn't quite the success I was looking for. However, it definitely wasn't a failure, so that's good enough for me. I'll have to do some research on cooking times if I do this again for a larger group. I don't think our pots were optimal for cooking though since they seemed a little too full with the crawfish, corn and potatoes. Oh well, practice makes perfect ...

Arandas Bakery is next door to Doña Tere, the place where I buy monster sized tamales. I haven't been to a panaderia in a while, so it was good to back.

When I was there, I noticed a few people waiting in line next to a bin where there were some bolillos, which are like the bread you'd get in a po-boy. There were some rolls still in the bin, so I wondered why they were standing in line. In a few minutes, I knew why there were waiting. Out of a chute came a new load of fresh rolls. The first guy in line grabbed probably 2 dozen rolls! Other people grabbed at least 5 each, and I figured I'd take advantage of the fresh rolls too, and I grabbed 4 of them.

Before I drove away, I sampled a bolillo, and it was awesome! How should I describe it? Pillowy softness! After that, I figured I might as well have more of what I bought at the bakery, so I also tried a churro. The churro was good, but it wasn't warm, so it was a little hard. I probably should have waited to warm it up so that it would be software. Anyhow, it was delicious. 25 cents for bolillos and 50 cents for churros! I should go more often!

Saving money is great, but it can be at the expense of your health! My local grocery store was offering a free half gallon of ice cream if you bought 3 Boston Market microwave dinners. I usually buy Healthy Choice dinners for around $2, and these were only slightly more at around $2.50 each. I figured the free ice cream was worth the extra cost, which really only meant that the ice cream was $1.50; That's still a good deal.

Today, I brought the first one to lunch. As I was microwaving it, I was talking to someone in the office next to the kitchen area. I told her I was breaking my usual tradition and eating a dinner with 720 calories instead of the usual 300 calories of a Healthy Choice dinner. Then, she asked me how much sodium was in it. I usually am pretty conscious about sodium when I buy some things, like lunch meat, but I didn't even think to check these meals before buying them. I was shocked to see that one meal was a massive 2100mg, 88% of the daily recommended allowance! Ouch!

After the next 2 dinners, I won't be buying anymore Boston Market dinners, even with free ice cream!

I actually have clients at work that like us! They took my coworker and me to Thai Sticks (4319 Montrose Blvd Houston, TX 77006 (713) 529-4500) for lunch on Good Friday. It was a great day outside, so we sat on the patio.

I have never eaten "family style" at a Thai restaurant before, so this was a first. I started the meal with a spring roll and a small cup of chicken soup. The soup was flavorful, but I did notice there was a layer of oil on top. I would have liked it better if the oil had been skimmed off, but at least it told me that they made the chicken broth themselves rather than with just bouillon cubes. It actually was closer to a chicken noodle soup since there were some noodles at the bottom of the cup. They were hard to get at in the small cup, which was like a large teacup, so I didn't finish them.

We shared 4 dishes among the 4 of us. One was a noodle dish with glass noodles, another was green curry, salmon salad, and cashew chicken. I liked all of them, but the cashew chicken was a little plain. "Cashew chicken" is more of something that I associate with a chinese restaurant ...

For dessert, I had a creme brulee, which was great; I haven't had creme brulee in a while. My client had "mango with sticky rice", which was a whole sliced mango next to a small disc of sticky rice. Heh, she didn't touch the sticky rice. The other two had fried bananas with ice cream.

It was a pleasant lunch, so hopefully they'll take me lunch again =)

Last night I bought beef fajita meat, and they threw in a bag of potato chips for free. They had adobado flavored potato chips?! In Mexico, one of our favorites for tacos and burritos was the adobada, which is spicy marinated pork. Now, I'm strangely curious what these potato chips will taste like.

Does anyone want me to ship them a bag to taste? =)

This morning, there were oatmeal cookies in the kitchen at work. A few hours later, I was surprised to see the remains of a tres leches cake. There was enough for me to get a good taste of it. It looked homemade and not storebought, and it was pretty good. It was a bit soggy for me, so that means it's been soaking for a long time, or the cake was a little spongy to start with. I like my cake dense so that the tres leches milk stays in the air bubbles of the cake, but the density doesn't allow the cake to get super soggy.

My coworker was in the kitchen, and we started discussing our favorite tres leches cake places in town. He likes a French bakery place near Highway 6 and Westheimer. That's not too far from me, so I'll have to try it this weekend. I told him that I'd take him to 100% Taquitos for their tres leches cake, which I said was the best cake for the price. After I said that, another coworker popped in and said he'd agree about the cost part, but his overall preference was Churrasco's. I've had a Churrasco's tres leches before, and it was not better to me than my first tres leches experience at Pappasito's. He said he hasn't had it from there in a while and that it may not be as good as it once was.

Last week, I was reading again on how to beat egg whites properly. I've always used lemon juice, but I think the next time I try to make tres leches, I will use cream of tartar instead. Hmm, maybe I'll just buy a copper bowl instead and not worry about adding either.

Self serve kiosks are springing up everywhere. I've used them at the grocery store, airport, and gas station, but now they're starting to appear in fast food places. Just the other day, I was commenting to a coworker about drive thru pharmacies. We want everything fast!

I like the article's blurb about its acceptance: "And they worry little about customer acceptance, given that fast food's target market – hungry young males – is filled with technophiles."

Read the full article

Can we say, "Too much Mexican food?"

I didn't write earlier that I had lunch on Friday at Lupe Tortilla, which means that I had Mexican food three days in a row. I am definitely not getting $1.99 fish tacos at Berryhill Tamales tonight. That's just too much Mexican foo. I'm sure I'll eat plenty of Mexican food when I'm in Mexico next month. But, as they say might have said in Friends, to them it's just "food".

Lupe Tortilla definitely has good tortillas, and they are monstrous. Most restaurants give you small plate sized tortillas for your fajitas, but at Lupe Tortilla, they give you the huge ones, like you'd get at the big burrito places. The tortillas are also the "chinese style" ones that I like instead of the usual kind I'd find at the grocery store. I didn't order the fajitas, but my friends did, and they seemed pleased. The fajitas did seem rather pricy at $25+ for an order for two people.

Jesse and I got the "The Original Beeg Sucker Burrito". It was big, but not once you've been to Chipotle and Freebird's, it's not that big. However, it may still be the "original". Before I took a bit of mine, Jesse said it tasted salty. As soon as I had my first bite, I agreed with him. The meat inside was a little on the salty side. It was good, otherwise.

After watching Casino Royale, my friends and I went to Chachos to eat. I had a $25 gift certificate, so I thought an easy way to use it up would be to feast on the King Kong Nachos. Note the size of the nachos in relation to the dollar bill. This thing was HUGE! The menu says it's "A huge plate of 6 varieties of nachos - nachos flameados, bean & chese, super beef, chicken black bean, select chicken & beef nachos, served with queso, guacamole, & sour cream. There was so much food that I wonder why my friends even bothered to order anything else! Check out the pictures and see how much we finished.

Yesterday, for lunch, we went to Bubba's Texas Burger Shack. Little did we know that the Food Network show, The Hungry Detective, profiled the show the night before. The place has the "shack" in it's name, and that's not far off from what the building is. The shack doesn't have much room inside, so make sure the weather is nice when you go, because you'll probably have to sit outside.

If you order a burger there, your first choice is to decide on which meat you prefer, buffalo or beef. Their menus says they are "Home of the Buffalo Burger", and it's got a reputation as one of the only places in town to get a buffalo burger, so I opted for that. They state that buffalo has 70% less fat, 50% less calories, 50% less cholesterol, and 30% more protein than beef. Those are some nice stats.

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The maps work properly on Internet Explorer on the PC now. I forgot that Internet Explorer doesn't like the Google Map functions inside <div> elements. You'd think I'd remember that by now ... and that I'd remember to test everything on the PC side.

Tonight was the annual "Turducken in November" dinner hosted by the Hu's. The highlight of the evening meal was the 16+ pound turducken, which is a TURkey stuffed with a DUCK and then stuffed with a chickEN. If you like meat, then this is the bird for you! If you look at the pictures, you might notice the different colors of the various birds.

The Hu's provided the turducken, and all the guests brought other dishes. Tonight we also feasted on ribs, roasted duck, turkey and jalapeño sausage, boudin, jamalaya, vegetables, potatoes au gratin, quiche, chicken pot pie, macaroni and cheese, chicken nuggets, and many other dishes I can't remember. Dessert was a homemade pumpkin cheesecake, coffee cake, Goode Company pecan pie, pumpkin pie, and chocolate chip cookies.

The turducken and the other foods everyone brought was easily enough to feed 25 people. Wow, how decadent!

Check out more pictures.

Once again, I went to Berryhill Tamales for their $1.99 fish taco special (Mondays and Fridays). This time, I remembered to ask for the fried fish tacos instead of the grilled fish tacos. Sure, the grilled ones are healthier, but they just don't taste as good, and I think they give you less fish too! As usual, they did not disappoint me with the amount of fish given. As many have pointed out, you can easily turn one fish taco into two fish tacos since they give you two pieces of fish and two corn tortillas. That was the good.

The bad part of my lunch was the tres leches. On prior visits, I have noticed how large of a piece they give you for the reasonable $3.99 price. Today, I decided it was time to finally try it out. My first impression of the cake was its large, shareable size. The second thing I noticed was the shortage of the "milk". I like my tres leches to be soaked with milk. After I took my first bite, the first thing I noticed was the regular cake frosting. I don't like regular frosting on my tres leches, and that signaled to me that this might be just a regular cake but with a little bit of milk. To be sure, I took another bite without frosting, and I confirmed my suspicion that this was a pretty standard cake disguised as a tres leches cake.

So, Berryhill Tamales gets a thumbs down for their tres leches cake. I have a few preferences for tres leches. First, the cake should be "dense" and not spongy and soft. I read once that it should almost be like a bread. I also like to see large air bubbles, which are good for holding the milk mixture. Along with that, the cake should be thoroughly soaked with the milk. Finally, the frosting shouldn't be regular cake frosting. Even whipped cream is better, to me. I grade my own attempts at making tres leches with these same "preferences", and I tend to do poorly in the air bubbles part. I also can't seem to bake a tres leches cake that is more than two inches high.

This is the inaugural first posting in the blog.