I Heart Balls

I must say, those Swedes make some damn fine meatballs. Until very recently, my only experiences enjoying their country’s home-cooked meal staple saw me sitting under big yellow letters that spelled out “Ikea.” But a couple weeks ago, I was called to Stockholm on a work trip, and I was able to partake in a genuine plate of the gravy-drenched morsels of goodness. Each were about a third of the size of traditional American or Italian spheres but dare I say ten times more delicious. The meatballs were accompanied by mashed potatoes and, of course, a side of tart-sweet lingonberries as well as a delicate cucumber salad. My lunching partners also ordered a side of other traditional Swedish fare, which included a kind of moose or elk pate, sweet pickled fish and a quiche-like cheese pie, all of which were delicious. The restaurant was located in the Old Town section of Stockholm, but sadly, I didn’t take down its name. But I did learn the Swedish word for ground beef—Köttfärs. A pound of meatballs to anyone who can tell me how that’s pronounced.

Pink Taco- Century City, CALIFORNIA

There have been a lot of nuevo-gourmet contemporary Mexican restuarants opening recently. We did a review a few months ago about Amaranta in Woodland Hills. Now lets turn our sights toward Century City and take a look at Pink Taco.

No this won't be a discussion on the historical notoriety on the name of the restaurant. You're free to peruse the web for that.

Upon entering Pink Taco, you notice that the decor is a blend of both traditional religious iconography with various crucifixes displayed on a column in the dining area along with contemporary Mexican street art in the way of artistically painted car hoods adorning the walls. It was a neat ecclectic mix of styles inside this restaurant, less garage-sale and more artsy in my opinion. This restaurant really looks fun.

I didn't know what to expect on whether this would be a family friendly place when we saw the greeter was similarly dressed to a Hooters waitress (sans the short-shorts). But it was indeed family friendly at least in the afternoon.

We were promptly seated and served freshly fried nacho chips and salsa. These were light and crispy. I really need to limit myself when served these chips, as I will often overeat prior to my main entree, but these chips were good!

For myself I ordered the Burrito Mojado. This had carne asada, pinto beans, cheese, peppers and pico de gallo. It was artistically topped with a Sour Cream, Pasilla Chile Sauce, more cheese and thinly sliced avocados. The presentation was excellent and it looked like they took time to arrange the food in the most appetizing way possible.

Was this authentic food? I'm not sure, but it was delicious. The sauce on top was a bit sweet for my taste, but that was countered with the interior which was meaty and spicy. Next time I do want to try their Crispy Brisket Tacos which just reading about makes my mouth water.

Pink Taco really was an enjoyable and fun place to eat. I suspect that dining there at night with cocktails might be a bit racier. But at least with this restaurant it just isn't all about style, their food is actually quite good.

There are 3 locations for Pink Taco (Las Vegas, NV; Century City, CA; and Scottsdale, AZ)
Check them out at www.pinktaco.com

Trader Joe's Spinach & Feta Cheese Stuffed Salmon- NATIONWIDE

A couple of nights ago, Mrs. Chicken Fried prepared some Spinach and Feta Cheese Stuffed Salmon Filets which we purchased at Trader Joes.

We love prepared meals which include all the ingredients but still allow you to cook them, but have had mixed results from the prepared dishes we get at warehouse stores.

However this was not the case with our latest meal from Trader Joes. We grilled the salmon and within minutes we had a wonderful restaurant quality meal. While this prepared meal had all the necessary ingredients, you would be best advised to flavor to your liking, and the only improvement I would add would be a dash of sea salt. Other than that though, The salmon was tender and flavorful. The Feta and Spinach really added to the personality of the dish, with the it combination of the smooth rich tasting Feta and the earthy nuttiness of the spinach. It was a perfect topping for the salmon.

We combined this dish with Rice Pilaf courtesy of Rice-A-Roni, and some non-fermented red wine courtesy of Welch's and had a wonderfully delicious and fulfilling meal.

This meal included enough to feed two and a half people. At least Mrs. Chicken Fried couldn't finish hers, so I ate it and was thoroughly stuffed.

We have had this dish at least 3 times since and it is always fresh, tender, and delicious. You really can't go wrong with the Trader Joe's Salmon stuffed with Feta & Spinach meal.

SPECIAL THANKS

Here's a special thanks to writer, Eddiebomber for keeping us afloat while our editor has been swamped with a lot of projects recently.

Thank you Eddiebomber!

Dallas Next Week

I'll have some reports from the Lone Star State yet again. We'll see what type of good eats we can get in Texas

The Grove - Houston (Downtown)

A little gem of a restaurant is the Grove. It has a good variety off comfort foods with a twist to it. I ordered the skirt steak that cme with a side of chilli fries.

The steak was a little to rare for my liking, but the seasoning was not to overwhelming. Sometimes (sorry Daily Grill), skirt steak is marinaded in sauces that detract from the flavor of the meat. In this case, it was ok. Another minute or two on the grill wouldn't have killed the steak. The chilli fries were GREAT. The chilli wasn't as good as Pink's or Tommie's, but it had chunks of braised beef that really kicked up the side a notch. I must say that I wasn't exactly pleased that the fries were made of sweet potatoes, but I got over it.

All in all, my meal would be an 8 out of 10. Our table was a little too small for five people, but the food was pretty good and they had gummy after dinner mints.

A Gripe

There are several contributors listed on this site, but it seems that only two contribute content. As one of the two, I say that we should remove the others from the site.

The Grotto - Houston (The Woodlands)

Back to Houston...we had a great dinner at the Grotto in the Woodlands. The Grotto is one of the Landry's properties. It's a somewhat casual dinning experience, but the bathroom has a touch that our blog founder, Chicken Fried, would consider quite fancy. The paper towels have that consistency of cloth that one would find at a fine dining restaurant. I remember a time we ate at The Delmonico Steak House at the Venetian and Chicken Fried made a point to make sure that we all checked out the paper hand towels.

Enough of that woolgathering and back to The Grotto. The company had an after work dinner with three options for the dinner. I went with the Rigatoni della Sansoni. It was your basic pasta shells in a red sauce, but they added some great tasting meatballs. The sauce had a slight wine-like flavor to it. I've recently discovered that I like wine sauces. I hadn't thought that a red pasta sauce would be good with wine, but this was quite tasty. The meatballs were more like slices of spicy beef that had been flavored with Italian herbs. Actually, the meatballs would make a great appetizer by themselves.

The restaurant itself is in a very nice shopping and entertainment complex called Market Street - The Woodlands. My Degrassi Jr./Sr. High & Saved by the Bell loving co-worker said it was quite aesthetically pleasing. I suppose we can thank Rick Caruso for the craze with making the open air malls. They do give that sense of a small town/main street feel to a shopping complex. The Mrs. wants to start a Rick Caruso Fan Club because she loves the Grove.


www.grottohouston.com

www.marketstreet-thewoodlands.com


The Grotto is located at:

9595 Six Pines
The Woodlands, TX 77380

281-419-4252

Cafe du Village - Larchmont Village - Los Angeles

The Mrs. and I were having breakfast at Cafe du Village on Larchmont today. We both had the pancakes and were quite pleased. It's a nice place to have a quick and simple breakfast and it's not going to break your bank.

So, we're enjoying our breakfast and who walks through the door? Huell Howser!!! He's as genial in person as he is on tv. He had a conversation with a woman about the political situation in the US. He gave quite the passionate speech about the shameful media and what they are doing to one of the candidates. His candidate isn't my candidate, but that's ok. We live in America.

All you people who think he's a complete dolt who can be impressed by drying paint be rest assured that he's quite intelligent and cares for his country.

Timpano Chop House - Houston

So, the multinational for which i work had me fly into Houston two weeks in a row. I stayed at the Magnolia Hotel and found this great restaurant, Timpano Chop House just two blocks away.

Timpano Chop House used to be known as Bossa the last time I ate there. It was a fusion of Brazilian and American cuisine. It was good, but it wasn't great. Timpano Chop House has all the standard fare you'd find at a chop house/martini bar, but there were a couple of things that made it stand out. The entrees were to die for. The deserts were innovative and delicious. The bar had a nice little jazz club feel to it with live music, but they still served a full menu. What's not to love about listening to good music and eating a good steak.

Our first visit, we arrived at about 7:30 without a reservation. They said it would be about 20-minutes for a table, so we went to the bar. They had a fine selection of wine and spirits. The bar tender was quite well versed in the wines and helped my co-worker select a nice wine. That type of service would be completely be lost on me since I wouldn't know a good wine if it hit me over the head.

After a brief wait, they seated us and showed us the menu. As I stated, the menu was what you'd expect from a chop house. They had prime steaks, chicken, seafood, and some pastas. I went for the petite filet cooked to a nice medium temperature. It took about 25-minutes for our entrees to come out. When they did, I was more than pleased with my filet. It was perfectly cooked. Once again, I must stress that there needs to be some pink left in a steak. I have learned the err of my ways when I used to eat my steaks well done. Each bite of my filet was a succulent flavor of properly cooked beef. My only regret was that I went with the petite filet.

Upon completion of our main course, the waiter brought out the desert tray. There were two options: 1. Small creamy deserts in a good sized shot glass; or 2. Cheesecake lollipops. We went for the cheese cake lollipop tree. The tree came with 10 lollipops or you can order them a l carte. I must say that the lolliops are the way to go if you just want a bite of a cheesecake. Sometimes, eating an entire slice is just too much, but this gave a nice sampling of 5 different cheese cakes. I'd rank them in this order: 1. Peanut butter crunch; 2. Toffee crunch; 3 Key lime; 4. Raspberry; and 5. Strawberry shortcake.

The following week, my co-worker and I were called back to the home office and we decided to go back to Timpano since it's down the street from the hotel. Since our flight was delayed, we didn't get into Houston until about 8 PM, but we didn't get to the restaurant until 9 PM. We were worried that they wouldn't serve us, but we found out that they will serve you even if you show up at 10:59 PM (they close at 11 PM). For that reason, Dikembe Mutumbo seems to eat there quite a bit after Rockets games.

This week, I decided to go with the New York strip steak since I'd had one the week before at another restaurant (look for a future review) and was quite displeased. I was quite elated when I bit into my steak and it was delicious. There was some sort of seasoning added to it that gave it that extra kick we all love in steaks. Once again, it was cooked to my liking and I just tore through that steak like I hadn't eaten in 3-weeks. For desert, we decided to try the smaller deserts in the shot glasses. We chose the chocolate tartuffo. It was a layered parfait type desert with chocolate and cream. YUMMY!!

So, if you are in downtown Houston, check out Timpano Chop House. They have great food, great service, and a great wine and spirits section. You won't be disappointed. Do make a reservation if you plan on going. It'll save you some time, but the bar/lounge is a good way to wait as well.

Timpano Chop House is located at:

610 Main Street

Houston, TX 77002

713-223-2622

www.timpanochophouse.net