The End of an Era

^ Could I BE anymore dramatic?

If you have been following my blog, first of all I love you (truly), and second of all, you've probably noticed I've fallen a bit off the radar in the past year. In think at one point in 2015 I was posting something like three posts a week, and lately it's been like, "Oh yeah remember my last post I did...three months ago?"

As a person who is constantly pushing myself to grow and evolve, the last thing I ever want to do is half-ass anything, including this blog, aka my baby, aka my creative [and edible] outlet that has seen me through moves, lots of travels, multiple relationship status changes, a major diet change of eating primarily plant-based foods, a wedding, highs, lows, joys, sorrows, lots of food, etc. etc. etc.!

In 2017 alone I got married, built a house, received my yoga teaching certificate, and was put up on the Astros Kiss Cam with my friend's husband (aka not my husband).

IF THAT ISN'T A CRAZY YEAR, I DON'T KNOW WHAT IS.

All that to say, the time has come for me to say farewell to my beloved blog. I've felt it in my heart for about the past six months that this ship would be sailing soon, but it hurt too much to really pull the trigger. So I kept drifting through, pretending the reality wasn't there, until finally I realized I needed to give my creative [and edible] outlet a proper sendoff. In doing so, I present you with my three major life takeaways from the last four years, directly and indirectly related to experiences I've written about on this blog:

1) Find your tribe. Fortunately for Houstonians, the possibilities here are endless. I've gone in and out of different tribes, creating wonderful relationships and gaining valuable experiences through them all - From book clubs, to yoga, to running, to volunteering, to connecting with other foodies, there are so many options out there! Find your tribe and connect with others in your community.

2) Be bold and ask for the things you want. The worst anyone can say is no! One of my favorite examples of this: I was contacted about covering a Houston food event and was offered a pair of general admission tickets in exchange. I responded by saying I was interested, and I asked the following questions:

• Could I have a pair of VIP tickets instead of General Admission tickets?
• Could I also have an additional pair of tickets to run a giveaway on my blog?
• Could I be one of the guest celebrity judges at the event?

To sum up their response, it was as follows:

• Yes
• Yes
• No.

Two out of three ain't bad! And who doesn't love being served a healthy dose of Humble Pie now and again?!

3) FOR THE LOVE OF GOD EAT THE BLACK PEPPER SPAGHETTI AT COLTIVARE.

The most important things in my life are my relationships - My husband, my family, my pups, my friends, and new and exciting people I connect with on the reg. Food has a way of bringing people together and creating incredibly special memories. I am excited to continue eating and sharing joy with the people I love, and I wish the same for all of you.

AND BECAUSE THIS ISN'T REALLY GOODBYE!

(!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!)

I have a NEW blog up and running, which is more in line with the direction my life is taking! Please visit www.chipsandyoga.com to read about my musings on life, spirituality, and of course food (psh, like I could really get away from that). My life is taking a new, exciting direction, and I'm merely shifting gears a bit. I'll also continue posting food pics on my Instagram, so I'll see you there!

One giant hug and a big ole thank you from the bottom of my heart for being part of such a special piece of my life! You truly mean the world to me.

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Brunch at The General Public

Raise your hand if you love brunch!!

Silly me, of course you do. So let me tell you about a great Houston brunch!

This Father's Day, Jon and I brunched with our families at The General Public, a super hip bar/restaurant located in Houston's City Centre area.

(Who said brunch was just for Mother's Day, ammiright?)

They were offering half priced bourbon and burgers for Dad's Day, which appealed to several members of our party, like my carnivorous husband.

Ermm, I totally posted that picture thinking it was of a burger, but upon closer inspection...that's chicken. I guess it really has been a long time since I've eaten meat?

But I'm getting ahead of myself!

To start, we split the avocado farm bread, as well as the burrata & pistachio farm bread.

The avocado farm bread was topped with extra virgin olive oil, an herb salad, and - you guessed it - avocado. I thought this would be my favorite of the two, and it was really light and lovely, but I could have used more avocado and less salad (huh, more fat, less greens, SHOCKING.) in the ratio. Still good! Just not my favorite of the two.

Because my favorite of the two was INSANE. The fresh burrata smeared on top of the pistachio crusted baguette was HEAVEN. The chilled burrata was creamy and silky, and the pistachios were seriously meaty. Like, for a second I was all, "You guyssss are you playing a trick on me? Is there meat in this????"

Y'all, there wasn't. It was just hearty yet delicate, earthy, and SO GOOD. So good, in fact, we ordered one two more for the table.

For my main course of food I ordered the Shakshuka (too bad no one recorded me when I ordered it because it was all kinds of mispronounced, and I sounded like a total tool).

I'd been wanting to try shakshuka for a while, and this seemed like a great opportunity to give it a whirl! And it was seriously delicious. The dish consisted of crushed tomato, toasted cumin, smoked paprika, soft poached eggs, and a  buttered baguette. And while it looks simply like spaghetti sauce with eggs, it is so much more than that! Juicy, acidic, and sweet, the flavors swirled wonderfully together to make a perfect dip for the baguette. The element that really stood out to me was the cumin, and not because it was overpowering (which is often the case if you aren't careful with cumin - I've certainly made that mistake a few times), but because it was such a perfect unique, playful complement to the rest of the dish. And I mean, you could throw a poached egg on a lizard and I'd eat it.

....that's not true.

I also got to sample my sister Emily's side of hash au gratin - crispy potatoes with green chili cream and parmesan cheese - and they were so sinfully good! Rich, indulgent, cheesy, hearty, delicious taters - It was all I could do to restrain myself from eating her whole side!

The General Public is a really cool Houston restaurant. The food is fresh, delicious, and affordable, and the industrial/masculine themed interior was pretty darn cool. I definitely recommend giving their brunch a try!

Brunch lovers unite!

Leave a Comment bars, brunch, city centre, houston, restaurants, vegetarian

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Houstonia's 2017 Taco Loco

This post was done in partnership with Houstonia, who provided me with an event ticket, free of charge. I was not monetarily compensated for writing this Houston food post. All opinions are completely, 100% my own!

Happy Taco Tuesday!

Taco Tue...Wednesday. It's Wednesday. Taco Wednesday. But, please, like that ever stopped you!

This year I was invited to attend Houstonia's Taco Loco, and it was awesome. The event was held in Uptown Park and included a Taco Takedown between several restaurants, a Margarita Mixoff, live music, and even a lil' wine for yours truly!

The thing that I especially loved about this Houston food event was that there were two vegetarian taco options, and several of the restaurants were also able to make a substantial veg option when asked - One that didn't just consist of a tortilla, salsa, and cheese (welcome to my world). Like, Broken Barrel made me a taco on an incredible pineapple tortilla (THAT'S A THING, Y'ALL), topped with caramelized onions and peppers, HELLO.

And Bosscat Kitchen & Libations offered me their hearty breakfast taco, sans brisket - Delicious!

A popular spot was Field & Tides for their taco, which happened to be vegetarian (and insanely good). It had great textures and popping flavors.

But my personal favorite was the vegan taco option from Cochinita & Co. I topped mine with some of their spicy garlic sauce, and it packed some serious heat!

Oh, also there were lovely desserts from Cakes by Gina, and Jon lost his mind over the churro cupcakes.

And margaritas upon margaritas of course!

They were all great, but my favorite margarita was...

...wine. My favorite margarita was wine. Sorry, sorry, I'm not a margarita person, and I never pretended to be! BUT there were some super duper spicy margaritas floating around that I did really like, cross my heart. Pretty sure Ambriza Social Mexican Kitchen was my favorite, and I almost died from the spice, but as the kids say, you only live once! (And it was reeeeally good)

The votes rolled in, and here were the results:

People’s Choice, Best Taco: Broken Barrel
People’s Choice, Best Margarita: Ambriza Social Mexican Kitchen (seeeee????)
Judges’ Choice, Best Taco: Fusion Taco
Judges’ Choice, Best Margarita: Cyclone Anaya’s
Judges’ Choice, Most Creative Ingredient: Sammy’s Wild Game Grill

And there you have it! This year's Taco Loco was an awesome, delicious Houston food event, and I'm so glad we were able to go!

Taco Wednesday and Thursday and Friday and Eeeeeveryday.

Leave a Comment dinner, drinks, events, food, houston, lunch, mexican, restaurants, taco loco, taco tuesdays, tacos, uptown, vegan, vegetarian

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Republic Diner + Sojubang, Plus A Giveaway!

This will be my last blog post for a little while because I'm getting married, oh, next week.

(!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!)

(Psst, Houston friends, scroll down for an awesome VIP giveaway!)

A few weeks ago I had dinner with my friend Heather at Republic Diner + Sojubang, a restaurant located in Houston's Heights neighborhood.

We figured we had to start off with some soju (a distilled vodka-esque beverage), so we each tried a soju cocktail containing pepper infused soju.

We both went nuts over this drink! It was wonderfully spicy, refreshing, and soul-warming. Think prickly pear margaritas without the tartness of a margarita, and with the crispness of a G&T. Omg LOVE!

For our first round of food, we split the kimchi fries (marinated beef on the side) and pajeon.

Don't those look incredible? And they were pretty darn good. Topped with kimchi aioli, sesame sauce, and scallions, the house cut fries were lively and delightful. I have a feeling the beef brought the fries to an even more elevated level, but the vegetarian version was very satisfying!

The pajeon was easily my favorite bite of food that evening. The hearty pancake was stuffed with scallions and red peppers, and was served with a side of spicy soy dipping sauce. And it. was. HEAVEN. The pancake was super dense yet fluffy, and the various different flavors were so savory and insanely delicious. It was so so good, y'all!

For my entree, I ordered the kimchi fried rice without the bul gogi (marinated ribeye). While I enjoyed the fried rice, I could have used a bit of sweetness to counter the kimchi, which was very present. Our server offered to add tofu to my dish, which was certainly thoughtful of him, but were I to order it again, I'd go without it, as I didn't feel that it really added anything. Regardless, it was a satisfying and flavorful entree, and you can't go wrong with anything that's topped with a runny, fried egg!

Republic Diner + Sojubang is an incredibly inexpensive Korean restaurant in Houston that offers an array of unique, flavor-popping dishes (TRY THE PAJEON AND PEPPER SOJU FOR THE LOVE OF ALL). It's a great spot that I definitely recommend checking out!

Oh, and about that giveaway...

The Houston Press Menu of Menus® Extravaganza, presented by Stella Artois, is one of Houston's largest food & wine events, featuring over 40 area restaurants alongside wine, beer, and spirit sampling.

Here's where the Giveaway comes in:

One lucky Adventures in a New(ish) City reader will receive two (2) VIP tickets to this year's Menu of Menus® Extravaganza, held at Silver Street Station in Houston on Tuesday, April 4, 2017, from 7:00 - 10:00 pm. And a VIP ticket (valued at $95) grants you admission to the event one hour early! To enter, go to the giveaway box below, and log in with your name and email address (this will not be posted publicly). Once logged in, click the "Enter Contest" dropdown, and then the "Enter!" button. One entry is allowed per person, and only Houston-area residents are eligible. The contest starts NOW - Wednesday, March 15, 2017, and it ends on Sunday, March 19, 2017 at 11:59 pm CST.

**Bonus: If you like my Facebook page, follow me on Instagram, and/or follow me on Twitter, you get a bonus entry for each social media follow. Just click the dropdown on "Like Facebook Page", "Follow on Instagram," and/or "Follow on Twitter," then click "Enter!" for each one that you follow! This is applicable for existing followers, as well as new ones.

This is a super fun event (check out my post from last year as well as my post from 2015), so you don't want to miss out! The winner will be drawn at random and announced next week - Good luck! a Rafflecopter giveaway

Leave a Comment asian, drinks, food, giveaway, heights, korean, restaurants, vegetarian

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Vacation Days: Charleston, South Carolina

"I thought Charlotte was in North Carolina...?"

"It is, Mom. We are going to Charleston."

^ This conversation took place right before getting on the plane to Charleston for my bachelorette party!

(...in other news, my mother has officially disowned me.)

Oh yeah, and Happy New Year everyone, since I haven't posted since 2016! I'll be all married and stuff in, oh, A MONTH, and blog life will be back to business as usual after that.

(Well sort of, since Jon and I decided that now would also be a good time to build a house. You know, since life is so calm for us at the moment.)

Last month, some of my favorite people in the whole world got together for a super fun trip to Charleston to celebrate my final crazy (they're not crazy.) days as a single woman! I caught an early flight out of Houston with my mom, my friends Lindsey and Danielle, and Jon's mom, Rosemary.

Snapchat: newishcityhou

My amazing sister and woman of honor Emily booked us rooms at the Hyatt House, a hotel that's located in historic Charleston on the main strip, King Street. And fun fact, they save a buck by swapping out wall decals for actual furniture!

Just kidding, that was only in the hallways. But that's my friend Heather proving that, despite what the world may tell you, you too can actually sit on large sticker benches!

When we walked into our room we were greeted with the world's MOST AMAZING CHOCOLATE CHIP COOKIES, roses, and a bottle of bubbly from my brideswoman Alice Ann and my sweet friend Sherz!

(We missed having them there with us, but this certainly eased our sadness).

Those of us who had arrived (my flight crew, plus Em and Heather) walked to lunch at a teeny, adorable restaurant called Five Loaves Cafe. I enjoyed their mediterranean garden burger and a chardonnay.

Then the rest of the gang arrived: my fabulous friend Christy, my brideswoman Courtney, and my bridesman L.J.! We set off walking down King Street (seriously, we were in such a central awesome location) and grabbed drinks at Charleston Beer Works.

After drinks, it was time for dinner! My sister made us reservations at Indaco, a rustic Italian eatery located off of King Street.

We ordered the burrata and ricotta toast for appetizers, and they were to die for! For my main course of food, I ordered the black pepper tagliatelle without the pork tesa. Our server seemed concerned about my vegetarian modification, but I ordered it, and it wasn't bad!

Then we decided to WIG OUT and hit up the bars!

Photo: Emily

(and by bars I mean one bar, Prohibition, because I was out way past my bedtime.)

The wigs were a hit, and it was so much fun! In fact, I'm planning on walking down the aisle in mine........

The next morning my mom and I woke up hours before everyone else (are you sensing a theme here?), and we enjoyed the FREE OMELETTE BAR at our hotel, OMG.

Then we all hopped in Ubers and headed to GORGEOUS Sullivan's Island, where my friends appeased me and endured pretty darn cold beach yoga!

(Mad props to Lindsey for teaching the class)

(Also, we lasted about 10 minutes and were like "okay, that was nice, get me to alcohol").

Photo: Rosemary

We received a tip from one of our Uber drivers that Poe's Tavern is the place to go on Sullivan Island. Well, you don't have to tell us twice.

This spontaneous, no-frills meal was easily one of my favorites of the weekend. The food was simple and delicious, and the Edgar Allan Poe decor was seriously cool.

We shared chips and queso to start, which was a delicious app, and I had my second yummy veggie burger of the weekend! (Fun fact, I actually had a third one the next day at home in Houston because I like to live on the wild side).

Then we went back to our hotel, freshened up (Read: NAPPED.), and took a walk down beautiful King Street! But not before stopping at the nearby Revelator for some awesome coffee. Seriously, this place revived my faith in and love for cappuccinos!

After tooling around town, it was time for a bevvy at Wine & Company, a lovely wine bar that basically looks like my dream house inside.

After a few glasses of rosé, we headed back to the hotel for the actual bachelorette party! I won't go into the nitty gritty details, but know that it involved toilet paper, underwear, a Jon-themed trivia game, wine, and snacks!

(Also Heather decided to move on from sitting on fake furniture to drinking fake champagne, which I assure you is way more fun than it sounds).

After these girls and guy went wild, we went to The Grocery, where Courtney had made dinner reservations for us.

Here was another meal in Charleston that I absolutely adored! The atmosphere was cozy and rustic, the service was fantastic, and the food was dynamite. We were given some complimentary, crusty fresh bread, and I ordered the roasted beet salad to start.

This sweet, light lovely salad was wonderful! I then ordered the cabbage gratinee, which was unique and incredibly enjoyable, followed by an off-menu vegetarian platter that our server recommended.

The platter contained a bunch of their vegetarian sides: roasted cauliflower, roasted carrots, brussels sprouts, the beet salad again (I wasn't mad about it), and something else that I don't remember because it's been too long, but it was all delicious!!

Then we were off to the bars (....bar), but not before hitting up Jeni's Ice Cream!

I've heard many-a rave review about Jeni's, and their creamy, flavor-popping ice cream did not disappoint!

After the bars (...bar), we went back to the hotel to rest up before our flights back the next day!

Charleston is an AWESOME city, filled with fascinating history, beautiful scenery, a great bar scene, and killer food. It definitely gets my glowing endorsement as a fantastic bachelorette party destination!

I mean, just look at that! (and pretend it's 80 degrees and not 42...)

1 comment bars, charleston, coffee, dessert, dinner, food, fun, pasta, restaurants, travel, vacation days, vegetarian, wine

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