Green Vegetarian Cuisine

One month from today, I will be on a plane en route to WINE COUNTRY VACATION 2016!!!!

That being said, in preparation of this upcoming slightly indulgent (okay, indulgent.) California vacation, I've been scaling it back on the booze (WAAHHHHHHH) and eating healthier foods.

Fortunately, Houston has a plethora of options when it comes to restaurants that serve good-for-you eats! One such restaurant is Green Vegetarian Cuisine, located in Houston's Bellaire neighborhood.

My friend Isabel and I recently decided to have a "business dinner" there (I'm using air quotes because it was 20% Houston Food Blogger Collective business and 80% friend time), after hearing rave reviews about the restaurant from our friend Julie. I had always wanted to visit their location in San Antonio's Pearl District, so I was stoked when I found out they also had a restaurant here in Houston!

Isabel and I decided to go splitzies and share three different items. For our first round of food, we ordered the cauliflower hot wings.

It never ceases to amaze me how restaurants are constantly able to make gorgeous, saucy, chicken like appetizers out of cauliflower. Green Vegetarian Cuisine's fell right in line and were absolutely fantastic! The cauliflower bites were coated in a delicate layer of breading, fried, and swimming in a tangy, spicy buffalo sauce. The outer layer was soft, with a subtle crunch, and the natural textures of the cauliflower shone really through. Served with a side of celery sticks and poblano ranch, the "wings" were great on their own or with the creamy dip. We could not get enough of these!

For our next round of food, we ordered the protein bowl.

This rainbow-in-a-bowl contained kale salad, fresh spinach, chickpeas, quinoa tabouli, flaxseed, pecan hummus, carrots, tomatoes, avocado, and roasted tofu. This dish was as nourishing, filling, and earthy as you can get! Isabel and I were in awe of the pecan hummus which looked - and tasted a bit - like tuna salad. Combined with the mashed avocado, it swirled into the bowl to create an underlying softness to some of the more hearty ingredients, such as the quinoa and tofu. The tofu itself was firm, crisped, and wonderfully golden. The tomatoes added a nice dose of citrus and freshness, and everything went together superbly. I wanted a healthy dish, and by gollee, I got it!

Isabel and I were super intrigued about the chopped barbecue sandwich on the restaurant's menu, so we decided to order that for our final round of food.

OH MY. Y'all, I hadn't eaten a barbecue sandwich since before I became a vegetarian, which was well over two years ago. And what a glorious delight this was! Soy protein pieces were marinated in a thick, sweet, hearty, barbecue sauce, and slopped onto a fluffy whole wheat bun. The sandwich was comforting, soul-warming, and ridiculously tasty. Isabel and I were completely flabbergasted by the awesomeness of this sammy! She and I were torn between this or the cauliflower being our favorite dish of the evening.

Green Vegetarian Cuisine is a great choice for a Houston restaurant that offers inexpensive, insanely delicious, healthy food that still seems like a real treat. Even non-vegetarians (like my friend Isabel) will fall in love with it. If you're used to sticking inside the loop, this restaurant is a beyond fantastic reason to venture out!

California, here I come! (...in 30 days.)

1 comment barbecue, bellaire, dinner, food, houston, restaurants, vegetarian

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Vacation Days: Fort Worth, December 2015

It's the mooooost wonderful tiiiiime of the yeeeearrrr!

Christmastime for me means spending time with family, eating lots of good food, relaxing, contemplating Christmas pop culture, and carrying on traditions. This year, Jon and I repeated a tradition from last year, by driving to Fort Worth to pick up my sister Emily for the holidays. It's a nice excuse to get away right before Christmas and not feel like there are a million things that need to get accomplished the weekend prior. Also, it's just plain fun!

Jon and I both took the day off on Friday, and we arrived in Fort Worth that afternoon. We met up with Emily (who had just come straight from the school where she works, decked out in the world's most fabulous bedazzled Christmas vest), for a late lunch at Pho District, a Vietnamese restaurant that serves INCREDIBLE food.

^ You probably didn't know something that cute existed. Now you know.

And lunch was SO amazing at this restaurant that I'm going to do a whole separate post on the experience! It earned it. So more on that later, folks!

That night, Jon and I joined Emily and her boyfriend Danny in downtown Fort Worth for dinner at an Italian restaurant called Vivo 53.

We started off with the fried brussels sprouts and the burrata. The brussels sprouts were crispy and airy, and were made unique and enjoyable with the addition of salty capers. The burrata was soft, mild, and absolutely lovely when spread on some toasted crostini, and topped with olives and roasted vine tomatoes.

For my main dish, I ordered the restaurant's roasted mushroom pizza. I did like it, though I found the mushrooms to be a bit overwhelming. If they had been sliced instead of whole, I think it would have come together better. The caramelized onions and oozy taleggio were awesome though, and the dough was wonderfully golden and crispy.

The next morning we raided our hotel's A+ continental breakfast.

For lunch, we met up with Danny's awesome parents, Susie and Steve, at Fort Worth's Woodshed Smokehouse. This barbecue restaurant is enormous and has a lively giant patio, which we were able to sit on while enjoying the cool, sunny weather.

For our first round of food, we split the crispy potatoes, which were served with smoked garlic aioli and barbecue sauce. The crispy potatoes were - as the name implies - incredibly crispy and flaky. These were by no stretch healthy potatoes and were not pretending to be. They were hearty, slightly greasy, salty, and sinfully delicious when dipped in the creamy garlic aioli. Awesome!

As a vegetarian, when I go to barbecue restaurants, I sometimes find myself grasping at straws - Not so with Woodshed! For my main course of food I had crispy brussels sprouts (yes again, 'tis the season) and slow smoked cauliflower. The brussels sprouts were crunchy and tangy, having been marinated in a fermented lime vinaigrette. The cauliflower had a wonderful smokey flavor and swirled beautifully in a creamy, lemony, cheesy mornay. Not a bad meal, if I do say so myself!

That night, Emily and Danny hosted a tacky Christmas sweater at their apartment.

This marked the first time I had played beer pong in probably 10 years (ignore the fact that I filled my solo cups up with water, because I'm the #LifeOfTheParty). Regardless, even though Jon and I were the oldest folks there by an average age gap of about 8 years, I am happy to report that old ≠ lame. He and I hung in there until the bitter end! (2 am, to be exact. Which I don't think I'd seen in probably 15 years). We also played a "fun" game by Jelly Belly called Bean Boozled, which is really only fun if you get the good flavors and not things like barf and rotten eggs (Jon got those).

Before leaving Fort Worth the next day, Jon, Emily, Danny, and I fueled up with some tasty food at Fixture.

We started off with the restaurant's Texas beet fries. Served with a spicy, delicious aoili and pepita chili mix, these hearty beets were unique, flavorful, and insanely good!

For my main course, I ordered the veggie sandwich, which was loaded with raw carrots, radishes, cucumber, tomatoes, an herb vinaigrette, hummus, and cilantro pesto. Served on wheat bread, this healthy meal was fresh, filling, and just what I needed after my indulgent weekend!

Every time I go to Fort Worth, I have a fantastic couple of days. It's a really neat town, with countless fun and unique restaurants and food options. No doubt I'll be back again soon!

#PartyAnimals

Leave a Comment barbecue, breakfast, christmas, dinner, food, fort worth, fun, italian, lunch, pizza, restaurants, travel, vacation days, vegetarian, vietnamese

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Houston Astros Games and then a Little Extra Sumpin' Sumpin'

Why hello, April!

That photo is of me and my high school BFFL Erica before an Astros game. Based on the Reeboks I was wearing, you would justifiably think the year was 1984, but you would be mistaken as it was actually 2006 kids.

I'm not a sporty person, per se (my father learned that the hard way when he bought me my first baseball glove at age 7 and discovered I couldn't throw or catch to save my life, when he took me to play tennis at age 10 and witnessed me screaming every time the ball came near me, and when after being the tallest person in my class with a "promising" (it wasn't) career in basketball ahead of me, all of a sudden I stopped growing at age 12 and have been stunted somewhere between 5'4" and 5'5" ever since), but I do enjoy the act of attending sporting events. Especially, Astros games, Especially when they're good.

But beggars can't be choosers of course.

And although I couldn't have named you a current Astro before this weekend (I got my eye on you now, Altuve!), I can name you my all-time favorites from the past:

1. Brad Ausmus (I mean I am a red-blooded American woman) 
2. Lance Berkman (seriously, have you seen him hit a homer live? Magical.)
3. And my all-time favorite pitcher Roy Oswalt.

So this weekend I went to Saturday's game against the Angels with my friends Lenny, Christy, and Caleb, and it was super extra special when, no Brad Ausmus was not there and did not declare his undying love to me, but yes I got to see Berkman and Oswalt retire their jerseys as Astros.

Pretty cool stuff.

After the ceremony, Christy and I decided to wander off and get some grub. I have yet to experience the infamous magic of Killen's Barbecue, so we stood in line for half an hour at the new Caswell's and Killen's Smokehouse stand in Minute Maid Park. Did the luscious barbecue baked potato I ordered justify the long wait?

You bet your cute little faces it did!

Funny story about this picture though.

I sat down in my seat, put the baker in my lap, leaned over to grab my phone out of my purse so I could take said picture, sat back up, and discovered that my entire upper lady bits were completely covered in barbecue sauce.

And I was wearing a light blue shirt.

And of course I was tempted to channel my inner Barney Stinson and take my friends up on their challenge of seeing how many dudes' numbers I could get while covered in barbecue sauce. However, after I finished eating that heavenly monster potato (look, a girl's got priorities), I went to the bathroom and performed soap and water surgery on my poor shirt. I came back to my seat, wearing a now soaking wet shirt mind you (I was totally that girl), but now barbecue-free, much to the disappointment of my friends.

A few innings later, and my shirt was totally dry. But then!

A fly ball suddenly popped over into our section and landed in someone's popcorn bucket five seats away from us. My now dry shirt became completely covered in beer as Christy flailed about trying to protect her face.

I must have smelled AMAZING.

After the game (Did we win, my parents asked me? I think we all know the answer to that question.), we walked to the downtown bars, which I actually had never been to. I eventually want to do individual posts about each of these bars when I've had a more, uh, clear experience with them, but I'll give a brief overview.

Our first stop was The Pastry War, and it was super adorable and super fun. Our last stop (well my last stop) was Captain Foxheart's (Bad News Bar), which 100% reminded me of a cool NYC Speakeasy. And side note, when we got in there Lenny asked me what my Twitter handle was, and I full on lied to his face and promptly told him it was @VodkaSoda (It's not. It's @kimmyog).

But the stop in between, Goro & Gun, just might be my new favorite bar in Houston, for three reasons:

1) This creepy awesome thing:

Is that a Pee Wee Herman puppet riding a taxidermed coyote? Yup, sure is.

2) These RIDICULOUS Brussels sprouts that are so good they'll melt your face off:

3) I asked the beyond friendly bartenders if they would play "Africa" by Toto over their sound system, and THEY DID, and I became that totally *ahem*sober girl with beer and remnants of barbecue on her shirt, dancing alone in the bar, fulfilling my every dream.

So long story long, Astros games are one of my favorite spring/summertime events to attend in Houston. You can get decent seats for not a whole lot, and now I've discovered that the after party downtown bar scene ROCKS. You should totally go!

I'll even let you borrow my lucky shirt.

Leave a Comment barbecue, bars, baseball, dinner, downtown, food, fun, houston, restaurants

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The 2014 Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo

On my long list of  reasons I was excited to move back to H-Town a year ago, the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo definitely ranked high. The list went something like this:

1. Being close to my family. 
2. Never seeing another snowflake for as long as I live, SO HELP ME GOD.
3. Getting to live in a space that is greater than 380 square feet.
4. The Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo

The fried food covered, animal laden, sugar crashing event is SO MUCH FUN. The rodeo has it all: Awesome artwork from local kiddos, a massive carnival, fried butter (um, ew.), a wine garden (yes please), all sorts of animals (!!!!!!!!!!!!!), MUTTON BUSTIN' (just do yourself a favor and look it up and then be forever indebted to me), and bacon. wrapped. turkey legs.

If this isn't heaven, then I don't know what is.

So without further adieu, please join me as I reminisce through photos over the rip-roaring good time I had this year with my mom at the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo.

My people were there! Side note: I need to run not walk to wherever this restaurant actually is in Houston.

Yeah that's a turkey leg wrapped in bacon. #dreamsdocometrue

Cow posing with a bucket, obvs.

My spirit animal.

#Bootstagram #sorryimnotsorry

Put padding on kid, strap kid to sheep, and watch the magic unfold. (Also, yes I'm 28 years old and I saw Selena Gomez in concert, what.)

I cannot wait to see what's in store for the 2015 rodeo!!

All photos were taken on my iPhone and were edited in Pixlr and Instagram.

4 comments barbecue, events, food, fun, houston, lunch, polish, restaurants, rodeo, wine

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Beaver's

Want to hear a funny story?

(I'm hoping that if I charm you with a funny story, we can all ignore the fact that it's been FOURTEEN DAYS since I've put a post up here. Though I did warn you.)

The other day I was at the Kroger on West Gray, grabbing a few things for my parents. Because I have this disease where I cannot exit a grocery store without a bottle or three of wine in my hand, there was some malbec thrown in there for good measure.

Long story long, the grocer had an oops moment and dropped the bottle of malbec, which shattered in dramatic fashion all over the floor.

In the midst of him apologizing profusely and me telling him over and over again it was totally fine, the sequence of events went something like this:

Cranky Woman: (walks in, looks at the wine, scrunches up her nose) Smells like wine in here.

No kidding.

Non-cranky woman: (walking out, looks at the wine) Oh, that's just unfortunate.
Me: (laughing) Yes it is.

Now before I get to Person #3, you guys know how Américas is my favorite restaurant in Houston? Well, it is without a shadow of a doubt my favorite restaurant in Houston.

So out walks none other than DAVID CORDUA of Américas fame, but before he leaves...

David Cordúa: (stops, looks at the wine) Oh, that is just the saddest sight I've ever seen!
(Painfully long pause as David Cordúa waits for me to laugh or respond or I don't know SOMETHING)
Me: (gapes awkwardly and has seemed to have lost any ability to speak).

So I shared a moment with David Cordúa.

Okay, I almost shared a moment with David Cordúa. It was more he was all awesome and stuff, and I stood there like a noodle. But there it is!

Do you forgive me now for my lack of blog posts in the month of February?

A few weeks ago (okay a month ago, let's be real I'm way behind here), my best friend Courtney came down to visit from NYC. And it very well might have been the best weekend of my life, no lie. While I was sure to take her to a bunch of my faves (El Tiempo, Brasil, Torchy's, Spec's and Underbelly), at the suggestion of my friend Lenny, we had dinner at Beaver's in the Heights one night.

Y'all. Y'ALL. This is a Houston staple, and I cannot believe this was the first time I'd been there.

Beaver's kind of looks like a place that would have just standard pub fare (aside from all of the immature - and by immature I mean HILARIOUS - beaver jokes plastered everywhere). But the food most certainly is not standard pub fare.

To start, we ordered the Tots 'N Shots to split. Green chile pimento cheese risotto tots with BLOODY MARY dipping sauce, are you kidding me with this? They were absolutely magnificent. The cheese oozed out of the tots in perfect harmony with the risotto, and the bloody mary dipping sauce offered a tangier more flavorful alternative to the standard marinara or ketchup.

Because I felt it important that Courtney sample some true Texas staples, she ordered the Smoker Sampler, and I ordered the Chicken Fried (Beaver) Steak.

When I said the words "chicken fried steak," she looked at me like I had three heads. Psh, Northerners.

But she loved the CFBS! And this was a pretty darn good chicken fried steak. Tasty BACON gravy (dear lord) that didn't make the breading soggy (we Texans know what that's like, ammiright?), covering a hearty helping of fried steak. It was absolutely awesome and totally healthy because it came with vegetables!

Let me dream.

Courtney's barbecue Smoker Sampler was pretty good as well. Not the best barbecue I've ever had (though I'm not really sure what the best barbecue I've ever had is), but it definitely had a nice variety of offerings: Pork ribs, beef brisket, Carolina vinegar pulled pork, and half a link of sausage. And let me tell you, the sausage was phenomenal. I think it was some sort of jalapeno sausage. Whatever it was, I could have had 8 links of it as my whole meal.

Apologies for that visual. I just grossed myself out too so you're not alone.

I loved Beaver's so much, and I really am baffled it took me almost a year to finally get there. The environment is quirky, casual, and utterly pleasant, and the food is a surprisingly creative, delicious, and flattering homage to down-home Houston food.

I bet my BFF David Cordúa would totally agree.

Leave a Comment barbecue, bars, dinner, food, heights, houston, restaurants, southern

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