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"Overheard at breakfast ..."
Hold your pepper shaker and don’t miss this one!
Love Caesar salad? Then you won’t want to miss the 22nd Annual Caesar Salad Competition on Friday, October 13th from 5-8 pm at the Doubletree Hotel at Allen Center. $35 entrance fee at the door allows you to view chefs from Houston’s finest restaurants prepare this classic dish plus taste each. The chefs will be competing for the following three coveted awards: Consumers’ Choice Caesar, Classic Caesar and Most Creative Caesar. A fine selection of wines will be served with the salads. The Doubletree Hotel is located at 400 Dallas Street. Proceeds from the event will benefit the Food & Beverage Managers Association Educational Endowments. The event is sponsored by the Food & Beverage Managers Association and, of course, My Table—Houston’s Dining Magazine.
We’ve heard that a well-known local restaurateur has his eye on the old fire station on Washington Avenue and has submitted a letter of intent
to buy. We’ll let you know if and when the sale is confirmed and what kind of eatery we can expect to go in there. As you know, Washington
Avenue is hot-hot-hot right now, with new restaurants and bars opening practically every week.
Chef Brenda Kieser emailed us to say, “After two years of serving the best homestyle cooking and making wonderful friends—I received more hugs and kisses in these two years than all my time in Houston— I have sold Just Lunch & Catering on Waugh Drive to Roger Turner, who will continue with my menu but will add some of his mother’s Cajun-style cooking.” Brenda went on to say that she will be running a spa on Harwin.
Cleburne Cafeteria, established, family-owned and operated since 1941, has announced that this year marks their 65’th year providing Houstonians with quality food and service at reasonable prices. On November 6, 2006 at 11:00am the Mickelis family, owners of Cleburne Cafeteria, will celebrate their anniversary by rolling back the prices of their delicious food to 1941.
Imagine tossed salad for $.10, fried chicken for $.39, baked fish for $.29 chicken fried steak for $.55, macaroni and cheese for $.10 and peach
cobbler for $.08. The Cleburne anniversary will also provide 40’s type big band entertainment in the parking lot for the customers in line as well as many other nostalgic touches promising to make this a very special “step back in time.”
Cleburne Cafeteria is located at 3606 Bissonnet and has been at that location since 1969. The original Cleburne Cafeteria was located in downtown Houston at 1018 Cleburne Street.
The Texas Department of Agriculture’s Food and Fiber Pavilion will pop the top on the interesting history of Dr Pepper the oldest major soft drink in the United States and a Texas original. In partnership with Cadbury Schweppes Americas Beverages, the Dr Pepper Museum will share its unique collection of memorabilia as part of a comprehensive exhibit on display in the Pavilion during the State Fair of Texas in Dallas, Sept. 29 to Oct. 22.
The exhibit will include vintage packaging, photographs, classic promotional items and other rarities from the Dr Pepper Museum in Waco, where the beverage was first developed at a pharmacy more than 100 years ago. Visitors to the exhibit on Oct. 14 will be treated to samples of Dr Pepper Berries and Cream and Dr Pepper Cherry Vanilla.
The Dr Pepper Gazebo Stage will play host to a wide range of twice-daily events throughout the fair, including musical groups, demonstrations and events such as “Have an Ice Cream Float Day,” which will take place every Wednesday from noon to 2 p.m. and feature Dr Pepper and Blue Bell Ice Cream.
Culinary Calendar
"American Food, a Gala and a Culinary Trip"
Explore and Celebrate American Foods
Wednesdays, October 11-November 15, 2006, My Table editor Teresa Byrne-Dodge leads a new and unique course at the Glasscock School of Continuing Studies at Rice University.
“The Anthropology of Food: American Originals” will explore and celebrate foods original to the Americas, including tomoatoes, chocolate, corn, chiles, and more. Lectures will include history, sociology, mythology, food lore, and recipes, and each session will conclude with a tasting. Fee: $160.
For more information:
Click here
10th Annual Houston Culinary Awards Gala
The gala dinner is set for Sunday, October 1, at Ibiza. If you’d like to attend, contact us ASAP at 713-529-5500 or email culinaryawards@my-table.com Tickets are $150 each, must be paid for at the time of ordering, and always sell out. Get your order in now.
Culinary Trip to Mexico
My Table is sponsoring a culinary trip to Mexico early next year. In conjunction with Hugo Ortega of Hugo’s restaurant, we will take a group of up to 30 people to Oaxaca January 17-22 for six days of cooking, tasting, touring, and shopping. Among the highlights is a cooking class and market shopping with cookbook author and cooking instructor Susana Trilling.
The trip is priced at $1552 per person (double occupancy) and includes RT airfare from Houston, hotel for five nights, daily breakfast, ground transportation, cooking demos, and five dinners with wine. Deposit of $500 due October 30, 2006 with the balance due December 1.
For more information, call Betty Feehan at 713-479-1312 or email Betty.Feehan@Navigant.com
My Recipe
"Crabmeat Salad"
Feelin’ crabby due to the hot weather? Try this salad to perk you up.
(Serves 4)
12 stalks asparagus
2 Roma tomatoes
4 ounces mushrooms
¼ cup olive oil
1 tablespoon freshly squeezed lemon juice
1 pound jumbo lump crabmeat
Salt
Pepper
Salsa Verde (recipe follows)
Crispy Shallots (recipe follows)
Method
Peel asparagus. Cook in boiling water until tender, about 5 minutes. Chop and reserve.
Blanch tomatoes briefly in boiling water. Peel, seed, chop into small cubes and reserve.
Grill over hickory about 2 minutes. Marinate mushrooms in olive oil and lemon juice about 30 minutes. Chop and reserve.
This is a composed and layered salad. For best results, use a “collar.” To assemble, per person, make layers in the collar, starting with asparagus, then tomatoes, then crabmeat. Repeat layers and top with mushrooms. Drizzle with Salsa Verde and garnish with Crispy Shallots.
Salsa Verde
2 cups extra-virgin olive oil
½ cup lemon juice
½ cup chopped parsley
1 tablespoon pureed garlic, or to taste
Crispy Shallots
4 shallots
flour for dusting
Pinch of cayenne
oil for frying
Slice shallots in rings. Dust lightly in flour seasoned with cayenne. Drop into hot oil and fry till golden.
From the Wine List
"Summertime Sippin'"
Rosé proudly struts its stuff down the catwalk of a wine beauty pageant just as well as the Sweet Pink Debutante and the Tannic Red Bitch.
Rosé can be much more savory and complex than the cloying sweet flavors of most White Zinfandels, and yet is softer and more approachable for the novice wine drinker than the tannic and often unenjoyable taste sensations of red wine.
Don’t be afraid of pink. Rosés are bright, colorful, fanciful, fun, enticing, and a little bit sexy. From France to South Africa to California and beyond, you’re sure to find one to please. They are beautiful wines in their own right and wonderful, light-bodied accompaniments to easy-going summertime fare.
See the June/July issue of My Table for our sipping recommendations.
Every issue of My Table includes Corks, a wine column with wine pros Randy McCrea and Chuck Jenkins going glass to glass in a point/counterpoint column. Coming up in our October-November issue, the guys taste and rate 21 Pinot Noirs. Subscribe at My-Table
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Disclaimer
Copyright My Table magazine, 2008
Protected by U.S. Copyright Law {Title 17 U.S.C. Section 101 et seq., Title 18 U.S.C. Section 2319}: Infringements can be punishable by up to 5 years in prison and $250,000 in fines.
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