Flavor Boulevard

Are there sit-down restaurants that you would go out of your way to just for the dessert? When I’m in Berkeley, I would stroll down Shattuck for Herbivore’s coconut ice cream and rhubarb pie. When I’m in Houston, I would drive 2 hours to College Station for Eccell‘s bread pudding. Crazy, you say? Well, 😀 I blame Beverly for recommending Eccell, I blame my parents for spoiling me, and most of all, I blame myself for sometimes being unreasonably particular about food.

Tucked away at the west end of University, Cafe Eccell is a posh little resto: black wooden table, old brick walls, just enough sunlight through the simplistic rectangular windows to connect the quiet world it contains with the happening streets it sees. Its staff is cordial. Its setting would suit the more respectable guests for a casual lunch. However, I had no memories of its lunch entrees and I don’t intend to create new memories of them. However, I do vaguely recall having a good slice of key lime pie, so when Beverly suggested the strawberry tart, I felt complied to give it a try.

I must admit it looks nothing like my imagination. I thought a strawberry tart would be like… a cake with tart strawberries, but no, Eccell’s strawberry tart is an almond lace cookie shell, a lot of whipped cream, and, at least I got this part right: lots of tart strawberry (They were tart. I couldn’t detect any “apricot glaze” as advertised on the menu ‘cept for its shine).

It’s good. The cookie shell has an addicting chocolate chew to it.

Just for variety, we got the apple bread pudding, too, which we unanimously agreed to be a good call. Those sticky burnt corners. The spongy middle. The crunchy apple slices.  There just isn’t a better thing.

server: Dane, amount: 15.16, time: 2:23 pm, date: 1/8/11
Address: Cafe Eccell
101 Church Avenue
College Station, TX 77840
(979) 846-7908

Afternoon leaves fall,
family of three gathers
by hot noodle soups.

How d’ya like my first ever haiku, inspired by a linner (lunch/dinner) at Haiku? 😀 5-7-5 syllables (not on, though), with kigo (seasonal reference) and kireji (cutting word) too… You can’t say I didn’t try.

This was the easiest Japanese/Korean restaurant we could get to while driving on University. It’s more Japanese than Korean, evident from the short section of bibimbaps and whutnot among everything sushi. Seeing how this weather cries for soups, Mom decides on some piping kalbi tang (갈비탕). It’s not as oomphing good as the one I had at Bi Won in Santa Clara, just how many Koreans live in College station after all (*), but it sure is satisfying with loads of egg in a beef bone stock.

The basic banchan set (clockwise from left): baechu kimchi, shredded kohlrabi, sigeumchi namul (시금치 나물) (blanched spinach), and kongnamul (콩나물) (boiled soybean sprouts). Kimchi and rice go a long way.

Dad and I side with more noodles than broth. Such as the chubby strings in the beef udon, where short strips of chewy black konbu (dried seaweed) and plump mushroom halves dominate the flavors.

Or the al dente soba noodle stir-fried with shrimps and green onions, where sesame oil and tonkatsu sauce deliver a complete savory affair. Haiku’s yakisoba is as good as any yakisoba I’ve had, but it would have been even better if they’d tossed me double this portion. Maybe triple… I was hungry, ya know…

Address: Haiku Japanese Restaurant
607 E. University Drive, Suite 100
College Station, TX 77840
(979) 846-7900

Shrimp yakisoba: 9.99
Beef udon: 8.95
Kalbi tang: 11.99

Total: $33.48

(*) The answer is 1026, or 1.51% of the city population, according to the 2000 census. For comparison, the Korean population counts 1916, or 1.9% in Berkeley, and 1780, or 0.4% in Oakland, also in 2000.
Interestingly, Vietnamese counts only 274, or 0.4% in College Station, but the ratio of Korean to Vietnamese restaurants is 2:3. It’s awesome that people like pho, but yo Aggies, eat some kimchi and gogi too! Mkay?

We dive into the briskets and ribs at Martin’s Place for my birthday in 2011. That’s their 86th year. I was born in ’86. I like to think Martin’s and I share some common destiny to cross path, beside the appreciation of good ribs.

There is one flimsy door to the side of the red brick building, facing the supposed parking lot, which is just a flat pebble-and-dust land free to park wherever convenient. Crack open the flimsy door, we turn the knob of another, more solid door to the interior, and with it being our first time, we awkwardly stand there looking at the few customers who are in for an early lunch, not sure whether we should wait or just pick a table ourselves. The only hostess of Martin’s Place points us to a table next to a window with broken blinds.

The menus stand ready by the side of sugar, salt, and hot sauce. At first she seems a bit indifferent to us, the opposite of her cheerful friendliness to the likely long-term acquainted patrons at the other tables, but as I tell her that it is our first time here and I would like her to recommend a dish among their various delicious sounding options, she starts smiling more. Somehow I get the feeling that Asian families don’t often visit this family-owned beef stop between Bryan and College Station.

The BBQ dinners with choice of beef, pork, or sausage, and two sides cost $7.25, pickles and bread available upon request, but the bread is simply two white slices. A bigger appetite for meat would be met by the BBQ plate alone, ranging from 1/4 ($4.25) to 1 pound ($10.50) each.

Like at most Southerners’ country cooking joints, vegetable sides are not exactly vegetables, and it all comes down to picking fried (onion ring, okra, tots, corn, fries) or non-fried (cole slaw, beans, potato salad, sliced jalapeno, cheese). I go both ways: a house (German) potatoes and a fried corn nuggets.

The house mashed potato is sweet and creamy, highly recommended. The ribs, not as falling-off-the-bone tender as those from Potatoe Patch, are much more filling than they look. Two ribs out of three and I find my hand rubbing my belly.

How does a place so underkempt and lacking of attentive and giggling service stay in business for 86 years, when its beef does not quite give the most tongue-catching experience? The only answer must be its small town charm, fostered by its loyal patronage of the locals that does not need any advertisement about supporting local business. Maybe it’s my Texas self taking over, but I like it beyond reasons, like any other little country sites in the middle of nowheres.

Happy First Birthday to Flavor Boulevard! 🙂

Address: Martin’s Place
3403 South College Avenue
Bryan, TX 77801
(979) 822-2031

How do you write about a place you haven’t been to for ages?

The consensus is that fresh memories, like fresh ingredients, are best for blogging. I often find myself writing effortlessly about a meal I just finish or an event from which I just depart, when the details have yet to sneak out the back door. If I wait two weeks, the tastes are still there, the ambiance is still there, but the minute corner-of-the-eye observations are gone. If I wait a month, expectations creep in to fill the fuzzy spots: I write what I think should be true as pictures trigger the taste buds, but reality can certainly outplay expectation anytime. When I wait a year, even the ambiance is nothing but a flimsy strain of smoke. Notes may take care of facts, but when memory fades, so does the flow to glue the facts together into a comprehensible piece. I’m now in such affair with Cenare.

I remember Cenare as the cozy white-table-clothed Italian restaurant with affordable under-fifteen-dollar plates where I had my twenty-first birthday dinner. I remember that they didn’t mind pulling together extra chairs when we had more guests than we reserved. There were salads for my vegetarian friends, pizzas and calzones for those who don’t mind getting their hands oily, chickens for my Hindu friends, red meats for those like me, all in portions big enough for twenty-year-old boys.

I also remember Cenare as the crowded yet orderly place where I had my graduation dinner. With plenty of parking, less than ten minutes away from campus and no turns, Cenare offers nothing but convenience for the non-locals visiting their kids in caps and gowns. They had a special graduation menu condensed with the best pastas, meat and seafood for the occasion. There were plenty of fresh crisp bread to appease the hunger, wine and coffee to keep the conversations warm, crème caramel, triple chocolate silk cake, and tiramisu to reward us after the long drive and many hours of sitting.

So even if I can’t remember the exact tastes of the tortellini, the lobster ravioli, the fish, the chicken, the lasagna, the decor on a quiet late winter evening and a hectic early summer afternoon, it doesn’t really matter as long as I remember my friends and families who dined there and enjoyed it with me. It was a good restaurant because I was in good company.

Address: Cenare Italian Cuisine
404 University Drive East
College Station, TX 77840
(979) 696-7311

Just a few months ago, only certain people could go inside to inspect the construction, and everyone permitted had to wear hard hats. Now, driving on University, it would be hard to miss the gigantic banner leisurely hung to announce a brand new presence, that was much awaited and is worth every minute of effort put into it. The two physics buildings at A&M are a charm, and doesn’t one of them (left picture) remind you of some famous structure? (Hint: something in New York).

Seven stories high (including the basement for laboratories), the newborn Mitchell Institute now houses the high energy theorists and the astrophysicists, as well as a brass Foucault pendulum complete with a full electronic protractor. Marking a crimson comet tail along its path, the pendulum pridefully swings across the floor, its movement sparks gratification in the eyes of Prof. Edward Fry, the department head. (For comparison, the pendulum at the Houston science museum is tracked by knocking down wooden pegs, much less chance for malfunction and more eco-friendly, I guess?). And just to entertain your scientific mind, every step you make on the first floor is a step on a mathematical pattern, known as Penrose tiling (pictured below). If one tile is misplaced, the whole pattern is destroyed. I wonder if the architect, Michael Graves, had drawn the floor precisely to each tile, to make sure that the construction workers got it right. But I do know that Prof. Glenn Agnolet, the main supervisor of the project, had at least once caught a mistake before it was too late, and that was just among many nameless incidents occurring and overcome in the four-year span of the construction. Each such incident cast an extra amount onto the total cost in this skimming economy, and the generosity of George P. Mitchell alone would not have been able to bring the buildings to completion. Thus, the two buildings bear proofs that Texas A&M physics professors are not only experts in their fields but also charismatic businessmen, proficient managers, and visionary designers.

Fresh and spacious, the interior has an unscathed beauty, with unadorned walls, long hall ways, tall glass windows, offering a full view to my most favorite part: the rooftop garden, which is accessible from the third floor. Give it a few more months, and the now barren poles will be embraced with vines, forming a green canopy. The small trees will grow, the flower beds will thicken. Young birds will make this garden their new homes…

… and young Physics students will aggregate here, with wholesome pride.

This is it. My last day at TAMU, at least for a while.

Also my last meal at Sbisa for a while. I’ve eaten here almost every Sunday and used to eat here every dinner my freshman year (I was naïve and got a meal plan then).

They’ve raised the price since then too, so that if you don’t have a meal plan you have to pay about 25-30% more than those who do, but it’s an all-you-can-eat buffet, hence cheap for those with big appetite. With 8.25 you can make your own salad, make your own burger, wait in line for crepes, or do what I usually do: go straight to the main arrays of meats, veggie, rice, potato, rolls, etc. then head to the dessert and grab a cookie or two. Sbisa’s chocolate chip cookies are unrivaled.

They usually have someone cutting barbecued brisket or ribs too, poor guy cuts and cuts, so many students always stand around waiting for him with hawk hungry eyes.

The selection varies every day, but that’s a typical tray I get. You wouldn’t be able to tell, but I try to eat a balanced meal when I can. At least color-balanced: green broccoli and Brussel sprouts soaked with cheese, orangish yellow hush-puppies, red tomato, see? The fried chicken lady handed me 2 pieces when I asked for only 1. The rolls are usually good. It’s nice to make your own salad, I discovered that tomatoes and raisins make a good blend. On the tissue are pumpkin bread and some other bread (I want to say banana, but I’m not so sure). They’re ok. Sweet and mild, a tad gooey, not something I would seek for at a store, but not bad.

Read their blog. I’ll miss the meat abundance here in Texas. Well, really the abundance of everything.

(*): Sbisa, however, doesn’t have buffoons and drunken Germans as far as I’ve seen; some students who act like those, maybe.

Here in College Station, the first weekend of spring break is a wonderful time to eat out (except on Sunday, when no non-chain restaurant is opened). Especially when it rains lightly and is cold. Like today. No students, little traffic, plenty of parking space. We tried out Madden’s today. I’ve been there before, but I tend to ignore street names and number, rely on my sense of direction and memory of the building’s color and architecture to find a place. It’s a mistake in downtown Bryan. Every building is about the same style, either stained white or bright red brick. We got lost, and hungry. But that’s ok, we were treated by crusty fresh bread and a very friendly waitress once we were seated. I feel bad when the waitresses say their names and I can never remember them. So-so oil dip, not too much of an enhancement. A little more butter on the crust than for those who are not interested in buttery fingers. Anyway, strong recommendation for the bread.

We did not have to wait long for our entrees. 3 plates, 6 crab cakes total. School work has kept me from blogging for so long I forgot to bring my camera, hence no pictures today. But the crab cakes were pretty, I assure you. Tasty too, if you’re concerned. At first I thought there was no way a polenta crusted crab cake and a seared crab cake could fill me up, each of which was about as big as a small clementine (with 2 flat ends, of course). But perhaps the aid of 2 squares of appetizing bread was more significant than I expected. I ended up stuffing down my last scoop of crab meat slowly as the eager waitress took away my plate. The lunch menu did disappoint me a little, what’s with tacos and quesadillas? It’s economic down time and all, but have some respect for the quiche and the creme brulee. How about a glass of Gemtree Citrine Chardonnay to go with a fish taco, your excellency? Geographically we’re close to Mexico, but some things just can’t stand side by side on a menu, you know…

Put it this way, at Madden’s, you pay a decent price for a good meal, in a cozy red brick room, served by a well-mannered waitress, it’s overall a very satisfactory experience, but not too high up there. Perhaps I’m just picky about what I see.

On the way home, we took a long detour on Texas 6 to watch bluebonnets blooming in thick formation on the hilly sides along the road. Rain and fog clouded our vision, but it feels refreshing to see spring time. Still the sporadic cold fronts are too harsh for buttercups, but little yellow daisies and Indian paintbrushes have lighten up. For completeness, here’s La Nuit, by Salvatore Adamo. There, sight, taste, and sound, for a rainy Saturday. 🙂

Wellsfargo has always been my favorite bank, for small reasons. Very recently I have one more small reason to like it. I usually go to this Wellsfargo bank on University Dr. Last Saturday morning, I saw these red envelopes (well, not as decorated as the one on the right, but still nice red ones) on the teller’s counter. I asked her how much they cost, and she said they’re free to take. I also overheard the tellers’ chatting about eating opossums. Now that is new. The teller who helped me said her grandfather ate them (but personally she wouldn’t want to find out how they taste). I wonder how they taste, but I wouldn’t go out of my way to get barbecued opossum with mushroom sauteed in melted mozarella cheese topped with grounded peanuts or whatever. Anyway, cultural thoughtfulness, generosity, friendly tellers, interesting conversations to gossip, what else can you expect from a bank?

*Red envelope is called “bao li xi” in Vietnamese.

Today it snows…
… in Texas. Yep, College Station… It was 70°F yesterday, and this morning I went outside at 10:30, seeing shrubs, lawns, cars, and the roof of the All Faiths Chapel covered in white. But I didn’t have my camera with me then. And it is snowing outside my window right now, for hours, but little Kodak can’t capture this momentous event through 2mm thick and dirty glass, so that I have no hope of disproving people who laugh at Texas for not having snow. Not that it will be long. AccuWeather says Sunday may reach record high of 82°F set in 1921. Aw… you mean I can wear my gloves only one day a year?

That’s what you get for living in the South your whole life (so far). Have some snow white food instead. (Presented to you by Eistube with limited commercials, production of Gio Cha Duc Huong, Houston, TX.) I have faith in sausages. I’ll try haggis when I find a place in America that has it. Meaty, seasoned, high in calorie, compact, preservable, easy for cooking, efficient, what more can you expect from a food? It is tofu for meat-eaters. I’ve never come across a type of sausage that makes me cringe and run away. But if you think about it, it comes from the black sheep of the meat production line, it’s bits and scraps stuffed in an intestine. Is there any kind of sausage with a cleaner background? Yes. There is. At least one that I know of. This is the purest form of sausage in my list, and possibly in the world.

Just lean pork (no fatty allowed, sorry) and a little fish extract (nuoc mam).

“…The pork has to be pounded until it becomes pasty; it cannot be chopped or ground as the meat would still be fibrous, dry, and crumbly…” (Wikipedia – Cha lua)

No intestine. No skin. No liver or kidney. No congealed blood. Usually people eat it right after they got it out of the banana leaf wrap. But my mom, having her own way of doing things, boils it. That lessens the flavor of nuoc mam and keeps the cha lua 1-2 weeks longer.

Did you know sausage is lighter than water? It floats.
And it’s still snowing outside…

The pho was good. The broth was beefy and the noodle was brothy. Every twirl you manage to pick up with the pair of disposable bamboo chopsticks was worth inhaling a deep breath for the flavor to soak your taste buds and dally with your turbinate. The tripe and the sweet onion rings texture-wise taste about the same to me (see, tripe tastes just fine!), which is good, since I’m soft-tongued and those little zings of spiciness can easily bring me to tears. Tendon and Flank were, frankly, tender, but still a good change of texture from the lean brisket consistency and the rice noodle naivete.

Rosie’s Pho does not serve just pho. It serves a whollota things. Mudpie once amusedly predicted that one day its menu will include pizza and hamburgers. But no, it has stopped expanding, at a menu large enough that I had to carouse over for 5 minutes to find my order amidst various noodle and rice dishes. But my dad didn’t take that long, and he didn’t even have glasses on. So here’s his order:

Grilled beef chunk steak served over rice. Don’t you just love the colorful display? I have no idea what the sauce to the side was, he didn’t have it with his rice, and I was busy snouting in my soup, so I didn’t remember to chopstick a taste, until now. My take is soy sauce with ground peanuts, but please let me know if you have a guess at what it is.

Another shot close up. I just really like the colours, the flowery arrangement, the inviting variety. We see fresh cucumber, tomato, lettuce, onion; we see stir fried bell pepper, more onion; and we see grilled marinated beef, and very little rice. The Vietnamese dishes here are so Americanized that meat overpowers everything. Anyway, dad said he remembered the beef here used to be more tender. Maybe the chef was a little occupied with my humongous USS Pho, and chunky beef got overcharred. Sorry for the hype over the colours.

But we have desserts to make up for it. 🙂

I know, that is not the most dazzling presentation. We had to ask for to-gos, because we sat there too long to let the dust food settle before ordering dessert, and ended up running out of time. In the plastic cup is green tea ice cream, which tastes extremely like banyan pandan leaf (lá dứa) to me. My favorite. I can come here just for this ice cream. Avocado bubble tea and chocolate Capuccino bubble tea were pleasant endings as well. What else can you expect?

Lunch for three with desserts costs a total of $36, tip and tax included. (I kinda miss dining in Vietnam, no tip and tax there.) And we were rolling out filled to the brim.

Address: Rosie’s Phở – Asian noodle soup
2001 Texas Ave S #300
College Station, TX 77840
(979) 680-8580