Frenchy's open, Acacia closed, Lotus gets a rave - UPDATED 9/1/17

The Frenchy's Fried Chicken on the Beltway at West Bellfort is open for business.  Frenchy's has been adding locations all over town.  UPDATE:  THIS LOCATION HAS NOW BECOME WALLA-BEES - THE STING IS IN THE WINGS.

Acacia Food Market, the ambitious and impressive Turkish market on Wilcrest at the Southwest Freeway has closed. Correction:  Acacia just moved, just south of 59 at 11821 S. Wilcrest, back behind a Popeye's, in a big strip center with an Office Depot and Dollar General.

Another option for Turkish foods is Makkah Mart, 10560 Synott @ West Bellfort, Sugar Land, and, of course, Phoenicia on Westheimer. Makkah Mart is now known as Anatolia.

Lotus Seafood Market, 8550 S. Braeswood at Gessner got a rave review in Houstonia Magazine.  It's rare for any place in our part of town to even be noticed by the foodie media.  Dining in accommodations are very basic.  The tales of long lines are true and the parking lot is usually crammed; it's best to call in an order and get it to go.  Lotus Seafood Market on Facebook.  There are pictures of the menu.

Ruchi's Taqueria on Gessner between 59 and Beechnut has become Jabastian's.

Edit to add:

I drove by the former Sheba Cafe location, 6521 Bissonnet @ Hillcroft, and saw the 'Open' sign lighted in the window again.  I found a Facebook page.  It's now called Habesha Cafe, an Eritrean restaurant, and apparently it's been open all along.  The sign in the window says it's open 7 days a week.  They must neglect to turn on the Open sign many days! 

Panaderia y Pupuseria La Sultana has moved into the space formerly occupied by Panaderia Mexicana & Colombiana, 6039 Bissonnet.  La Sultana was for a long time located in the center at Beechnut and Bissonnet that has been razed for an Aldi.  It also housed a Central American grocery store at the former location but I don't know if that's the case here.

Mido, the Turkish/Middle Eastern sandwich shop at 6905 Bissonnet has closed.

Openings and Closings 2013 - 2014 (Edited 10/3/14)

So I don't go out for a year and a half and there are all these changes.  Who knew this was going to happen?

Around the intersection of Hillcroft and Bissonnet, which I once bragged about as one of the most diverse in Houston the kosher pizza place Aroma Pizza Cafe has closed.  It looked for a while like a pizza chain was moving in but the space is now vacant.  Tortilleria La Reyna and Birirria La Reyna, next door to each other, have merged into just the tortilleria.  Their Miercoles con Pollo Wednesday special is a cheap eats bargain - a whole rotisserie chicken, a cup of rice and half cup of a decent ranchero type salsa for just $6.  Fresh, warm, corn tortillas are extra but just $1 per pound.

Sheba Cafe has apparently become Habesha although the Sheba name remains on the building.  Sometimes it's closed when the sign says it's supposed to be open and other times a I see the Open sign lit in the window.  Next door, which long ago was Hoagies and More offering banh mi and pupusas, is now Ostioneria La Reyna.

South on Hillcroft, Istanbul Market has closed and Pollo Loco Charcoal Roasted Chicken has moved into the strip center with Pupusa Buffet.

On South Post Oak where Willow dead ends, Super Chicken offers Peruvian style charcoal roasted chicken with sides.  There's a dining room but I've never seen any one dining in the couple of times I've stopped in.    SUPER CHICKEN HAS CLOSED.
 
On Fondren at South Braeswood a shop offering cake pops, donuts, cupcakes and coffee according to signs in the windows has taken over the space formerly occupied by the Chili Bowl and before that Luke's.  There's still no sign on the building or streetside but a banner on the building now announces the Grand Opening of The Cake Fairy.  Maybe the third time will be the charm for that space.  ETA:  There is now a street-side sign, although it's mostly obscured by trees.

Shortly after I reviewed it, East Africa and Middle East Restaurant changed names to Mandi Halal and was identified online as serving Somali and Yemeni food.  Now Mandi Halal has closed but a new place has opened at 8403 Almeda at Holly Hall named House of Mandi.  Mandi is a Yemeni dish. 

Our second Afghan restaurant, Afghan Village, 6413 Hillcroft, has been open for about a year and I still haven't gotten around to going; now another Afghan place, Afghan Dastarkhwan, a word which I understand means something like smorgasbord, has opened at 6800 Southwest Freeway, back behind Lucy, which I've never been to either.  Edit to add:  a second location of Afghan Dastarkhwan has replaced Durrani's Tandoori Grill at 10581 S. Hwy 6 at West Bellfort, Sugar Land.

On Gessner between 59 and Beechnut, Taqueria Cancun has closed.  A block south of 59 Taqueria Arandas has become Don Rey Mexican Restaurant.  The huge streetside sign is new, as is the hand-painted plywood sign saying they're open.

I watched for months for the opening of Lahori Maza on Bissonnet next door to Afrikiko Ghanaian Restaurant, then I found out it was only open in the evenings or maybe only after dusk.  I still haven't checked it out.  Signs in the windows have advertised supari, bun kabob, keema paratha, samosas, tea, chess, and pool.  The other Desi game rooms I've been to, Salaam Namaste, Alpha Capri and Mehfil Grill, have more than just snacks on the menu.  The strip center parking lot up front is notorious for prostitution activities and raids

And probably the two best for last - AA Supermarket, 9896 Bellaire, is in the process of becoming an H Mart.  I read about it on Yelp and went to check it out.  There's no indication outside or in except that your receipt will show H Mart and you groceries will be in H Mart bags.  It's not a bad supermarket but it has a long way to go to match the H Mart on Blalock.  Still, I'm excited to have an H Mart much closer to home.

And Pho Binh, the acclaimed pho restaurant, has opened it's fifth location, Pho Binh Grill, in the shopping center at the corner of Gessner and the SW Fwy, between Maharaja Bhog and Peking Cuisine, making that strip center a great destination for dining.

Edit to add:  India Grocers, 6606 SW Freeway @ Hillcroft, has become Subhlaxmi Grocers.

East Africa and Middle East Restaurant

 6121 Hillcroft, Suite B

AUGUST, 2014 - MANDI HALAL IS CLOSED.  MAY HAVE RELOCATED AND RE-OPENED AS HOUSE OF MANDI, 8403 ALMEDA @ HOLLY HALL IS A NEW RESTAURANT FEATURING YEMENI CUISINE, REVIEWED ELSEWHERE ON THIS BLOG.

JUNE 7, 2013:  THIS RESTAURANT IS NOW KNOWN AS MANDI HALAL RESTAURANT.  WHETHER THIS MEANS A CHANGE IN THE MENU OR NOT I DO NOT KNOW.

CHECK IT OUT FOR YOURSELF:  MANDI HALAL 

ON ZABIHAH.COM THE RESTAURANT CLAIMS IT'S MAIN FOCUS IS SOMALI, YEMENI AND SAUDI FOOD.  JUDGING BY THE PICTURES ON FACEBOOK, THE PLACE HAS UNDERGONE QUITE A RENOVATION. 

All of the buzz about Houston’s dining out scene in recent months both nationally and locally has been about the emerging chef-driven restaurant scene inside the Loop.  But Houston’s stature as a fantastic place to experience ethnic cuisines as offered by small Mom and Pop restaurants hasn’t gone away, it continues to grow and mature.  Last year I was thrilled to find several restaurants offering regional variations of Indian cuisine; so far this year, it’s been the Middle East and Africa.  In just the last couple of months I’ve come across Syrian, Egyptian, Yemeni, Turkish-Italian (I think that’s what the guy said) and Somali places that are new to me, anyway.

I guess I’m like most Americans in that I know very little about Somalia and most of what I know has come from the headlines over the last 15 years or so and hasn’t been positive.  So I was surprised when I started to read up on Somalia to learn that because of its colonial history and location on a major trade route, Somali cuisine over the centuries has been influenced by several of the world’s most notable cuisines including Italian, Turkish, Ethiopian, Indian and Chinese.  Both rice and pasta dishes are served, sometimes on the same plate which are known as Federation dishes. The cuisine is an un-like the foods of West Africa as Tex Mex and Scandinavian and even bears little resemblance to neighboring Ethiopia.

East Africa restaurant has recently undergone a change of ownership and its menu is in flux.  There are no printed menus and many of the dishes listed on the menu board are no longer offered.  Sharwarma, a couple of Eritrean stews - zegnis - and moofu, a Somali version of cornbread are some of the dishes I wanted to try but couldn’t.  Much of the menu uses English only; there are relatively few Somali terms used and the two young men who run the place both speak good English and are very easy to communicate with and ask questions.

On my first visit I was told goat is a specialty so I went with a goat dish, Goat and Rice.  This was also available with spaghetti but I was told more people order it with rice and it appears to be a common dish at Somali restaurants elsewhere.  The goat is so good, I wound up having something with goat for all my visits except one.  If I hadn’t been told it was goat I would have guessed it was lamb.  When I first looked at the plate I thought I was going to be experiencing some mango/banana rice, which sounded very interesting, but alas it was just slices of potato on top; I thought the potatoes were superfluous but otherwise the rice was excellent.  They do as good a job with the rice here as they do goat.  This came with a small, simply dressed salad and a beverage of choice - I went with the Somali tea., shaah.

Bananas are a regular accompaniment to Somali meals, presented on the side, unpeeled.  I was saving them for the end of the meal, even taking them home, but then I read a Somali blog and learned the banana is usually eaten along with the meal, alternating bites or sometimes even mixed in with the rice or pasta, the sweetness of the fruit serving as a counterpoint to the savoriness of a dish or a hot sauce which here is a house-made concoction with jalapeno, garlic, lemon and cilantro I believe.  The Somali blogger said rice or pasta without a banana just didn’t taste right and the proprietor of East Africa said probably 95% of Somalis eat the banana with the meal but he personally prefers to eat it at the end.  Some of the customers I’ve observed have taken the banana with them when they left and others have gone off and left it on the table.  I suspect this may have something to do with the quality of bananas available here vs. those in Somalia.  More about Somali bananas below.

On another visit I stopped by after running some errands and was anxious to get home with threatening weather making its presence known so I grabbed Angelo and Chicken to go.  Angelo is one of the staple breads of Somalia, usually compared to the Ethiopian injera.  It is also spelled with an ‘r’ instead of an ‘l’ and with a ‘c’ in front as in canjero or even canjeero.  Though it resembles injera there are significant differences - angelo is made from wheat flour not teff, it is smaller in diameter, about 9 inches vs. 13 or so, and it is thinner.  The elastic properties of wheat make this possible and angelo is less likely to disintegrate in contact with a wet dish like a stew and doesn’t tear as easily.  It is also fermented a lot less than injera, typically only a few hours or a day and so is noticeably less sour.  The angelo here has a little sugar in it and contrasts even more with injera.  It is used sometimes as a plate like injera and also as a utensil, it may be eaten alongside a meal or just by itself as an accompaniment to tea, especially for breakfast.  It actually is more comparable to a crepe than injera, I think, and it really made this dish.  There are four pieces in the picture.  A couple of pieces of this would make a very good snack with a cup of sweet and spicy Somali tea.

The other bread served at East Africa is malawah (also spelled malawax).  From the spelling and composition this is obviously related in some way to the Yemeni malawach which I encountered at Saba’s Kosher Café on Fondren.  Brought to Israel by Yemeni Jews malawach  has become very popular but whereas malawach is a layered bread made from multiple layers of phyllo like sheets and fried (and picks up a lot of grease in the process in my experience) and thus is comparable to Indian paratha, Somali malawah is served in single sheets (there are four on the plate).  The batter contains some egg and more sugar than angelo.  This is listed on the menu board with beef and maybe chicken but I asked if I could have it with some more goat.  I used the malawah as a utensil, pinching up the food and bringing it to my mouth. The combination of the savoriness and saltiness of the meat, the still slightly crisp vegetables contrasting with the slight egginess, caramelized sweetness and crispness of the malawah made for some of the tastiest mouthfuls I’ve had so far this year. 

I did not know that bananas were grown in Somalia but I've learned Somali bananas are known for their sweetness and are highly prized in Italy and Saudi Arabia.  Banana production has been decimated in recent years because of the civil unrest, piracy and the lingering effects of an El Nino, but efforts are underway to rejuvenate banana production. Still it’s unlikely we’ll ever be seeing Somali bananas here in Houston.  My one experience with eating the banana along with the meal was not very satisfactory; the banana was a little past prime both in terms of texture and flavors.  But I plan to try again, maybe with a different variety of banana such as a red banana or a burro from Mexico.

The restaurant is back from the street in a u-shaped shopping strip that also includes the Honduran restaurant Coquitos, a 24 hour Central American/Salvadoran restaurant Mondongo, a Desi game room, Sheikh Chilli's and the Pakistani grocery store Gulshan e Iqbal and formerly housed a location of the Pakistani sweets shop Dilpasand Mithai.  The menu board includes some breakfast dishes but I don't know for sure that the restaurant is open for breakfast under the new ownership.

New Restaurants on the (Southwest Houston) Horizon UPDATED AGAIN

There's a couple of new restaurants opening soon on the SW side that I'm looking forward to, especially since I like my veggies.

Maharaja Bhog, an Indian vegetarian buffet, is going into a space next to Peking Cuisine on the SW Fwy at Gessner.  It's a chain restaurant out of India with only three other locations in the world, two in Mumbai and one in Dubai...now, this one within walking distance of my home.  From my experience with Sankalp in Sugar Land last year, I have high hopes for it even though it's a chain.

UPDATE 7/29/12 - Maharaja Bhog is now open for business.

And Yelp, b-4, and Facebook all have listings for Lucy Ethiopian Restaurant and Bar opening soon at 6800 SW Fwy, just south of Hillcroft (although for some reason, currently, Yelp locates the SW Fwy on the SE side, by Gulfgate).  This will bring to five our number of full service Ethiopian restaurants and presumably won't be totally vegetarian.

UPDATE 8/5/12 - CORRECTION!!!!  Lucy is now open for business.  (The For Lease sign I saw is for another space in the building).

MexAfrican Foods

9817 Bissonnet # N

I'd seen this little store before but wasn't sure it was open; the shopping center has been home to a continuing parade of failed eateries and is mostly empty. Recently I saw a lighted 'Open' sign in the window and pulled in to check it out. I was hoping against hope it was an eatery offering a fusion of African and Mexican foods, maybe African inspired tamales and enchiladas?

Alas, it was just a small grocery. The narrow aisles carried the usual West African staples, some spices and herbs and flours, jars of ready-made 'African Stew' which mentioned jollof on the label. There were also some Goya products displayed, apparently the reason for the 'Mex' part of the name (the street side sign, easy to miss, says Mexican African Caribbean Food).

In the rear was a small meat case with oxtail, cows foot and some other typical cuts; in the freezer case were bags of stockfish pieces and whole stockfish, the unsalted, dried cod from Norway that is widely used in West Africa.

At the checkout counter I spied what I hoped to see - some ready made snacks. Communication was virtually impossible, however. All I could pick up was 'bread' and 'bean' referring to the items I picked up.


It turned out they were all 'bread' - fried breads, that is. The round one was very dense, slightly sweet and tasted faintly of banana or plantain. The flatter more irregularly shaped ones were still warm, very savory and surprisingly spicy; they were also still quite greasy.

The dubyadubyadubya wasn't much help on these but I finally formed the opinion the slightly sweet one was Puff Puff, a Nigerian donut, often served with powdered sugar, while the savory ones were Akara, essentially a black-eyed pea fritter. I like the Akara much better; they would go good with greens or in lots of situations where cornbread might be served.

There had been a couple of empty display cases and trays at the counter so I went back a few days later to check for some others snacks. This time the clerk spoke perfect English and confirmed my deductions about the Puff Puff and Akara (you can just call me Sherlock from now on). I found cone shaped items, wrapped in banana or plantain leaves, labeled jollof - an African tamale? - but I was more interested in the foil pockets which had moi moi, the Nigerian steamed black-eyed pea pudding. This is a popular breakfast and street food in Nigeria and I've seen it on menus before but never had it. As with the Akara, the peas are soaked until the hulls are easily removed, leaving them a pale yellow/cream color instead of brown, then mashed or ground into a paste or flour. Moi moi is made with red palm oil, onions and red pepper and has a reddish tinge and a little bit of heat depending on how much red pepper is used. Sometimes onions, bell pepper, corned beef or chicken are mixed in, too. Sometimes habanero is used but these were only mildly spicy and I don't think it was habanero.

I've never made anything with red palm oil but I have to go back and get some and try it plus the jollof tamales.

The store is open 7 days a week.

Al-Nile Restaurant and Bakery, Grocery and Halal Meat

6502 Bellaire @ Rookin


This is new signage identifying this place as a restaurant. I’ve driven by this place dozens of times, usually heading east on Bellaire on the far side of the street. I’ve noticed it before but never realized it was a restaurant until I was stopped at the light heading west a couple of months ago and could see the signs in the windows advertising Shawarma and Desayunos for $2.99. Hola and selam and welcome to the United Nations of Sharpstown. I could also see that there were tables and chairs in the windows facing the side street.

I wasn’t able to find out much about it online other than it had changed hands recently and was allowed to serve food on reusable plates and with reusable utensils. I hypothesized that a restaurant serving schawarma with Nile in the name might be Egyptian so I read up on Egyptian cuisine before stopping in only to be confounded when I first confronted the menu board. Though I recognized a couple of listings - I guessed Beans and Egg was a reference to Ful Medammes (confirmed a few minutes later) and Falafel - both of which are Egyptian in origin - none of the other dishes looked like the Egyptian dishes I’d read about online, nor did they look like Ethiopian dishes.

There was no schawarma or desayunos but there was a line at the bottom of the board that said Gracias Por Su Visitar. I think the change of ownership is probably a factor here.

It took about 10 minutes before anyone came out from the back. In the meantime I browsed the shelves of the small grocery store where I saw products from Syria, Spain and California, rows of Goya products, mulberry syrup, pickled turnips, and bagala, cumin chickpeas, from Lebanon, bags of masaseca and loaves of both the white and brown injera from nearby Maru Ethiopian Grocery. In the freezer were packages of okra and jute leaves and frozen pita and in the cooler, lassis, Karoun’s yogurt drinks, Bulgarian Feta Cheese and tubs of Abali yogurt, plus non-alcoholic malt drinks from Lebanon and Holland and Arizona Tea.

Two young men sat at a table drinking from glass mugs what I assumed to be coffee; the dishes on their table were devoid of food and piled on the side. At another table 3 people, soon joined by a fourth, talked but they had no food. I’ve since learned they don’t serve coffee here; the beverage was hot tea.

Finally a young man came out from the back and apologized he had not known there was a customer. I immediately began asking about the dishes but his explanations didn’t help much so I just decided to order the falafel and head for home to hit the internet to try to identify some of these dishes. But he said he couldn’t serve the falafel because he was all alone in the kitchen and didn’t have time to make it so I went for the Beans and Egg instead. He said he could have that ready in a few minutes and he would give me a salad, some pita and a hot sauce on the side. At this point I was going to consider my visit a success just to get out with something identifiable and edible but this was sounding pretty good.

He came back out in just a few minutes carrying a tray of food for the table of four. I saw something that looked very much like fufu in a bowl of a red sauce, a small salad and some pita bread - that was all I could get a glimpse of. The food all seemed to be for one man and he immediately started pinching some of the substance in the middle of the bowl off and popping it in his mouth. I thought fufu was a West African thing; does the Nile extend all the way to West Africa? Which of the dishes on the menu board was fufu?

As the man went back into the kitchen I spotted a display case in the corner I had not noticed before with some t-shirts for sale so I went over to take a look and at last got a clue - I saw t-shirts promoting a free and independent state of South Sudan and proclaiming ‘I am a Free Citizen of South Sudan.’ In the clutter on a counter nearby there were several business card holders including one with cards for Dar4 Auto Sales, a car lot in San Antonio, and one for this business itself: Al-Nile Grocery & Halal Meat was the name at that time, with a sub-heading for the restaurant - House of Delicious - Sudanese, African and Middle East.

Okay, so my knowledge of the geography of Africa is a little rusty. Sudan is the largest country in Africa and more of the Nile flows through Sudan that either Egypt or Ethiopia with the White and Blue Niles meeting at Khartoum, the capital. This was before the recent referendum on separating the south from the north had even gotten underway and I’ve never seen any of the t-shirts since.

It was about 10 minutes before my food came out. In the meantime I had selected a powdered sugar cookie from a table of baked goods on display (I’ve since learned the baked goods are produced elsewhere). The food smelled great on the way home. I only recently discovered the dish Ful Medammes but it has quickly become a favorite and I’ve taken to keeping canned fava beans at home because the dish is so easy to prepare and so satisfying; it’s no wonder it’s been around since the days of the Pharaohs. I’ve been experimenting with seasonings and condiments to add when I make it at home and I’ve only had it one time at a restaurant up until this place but now that I look for it I have encountered it on many menus of Middle Eastern and African Restaurants.

This was the best version I’ve had, pungent with cumin, with a nice kick from chile pepper plus lemon juice, piping hot, topped with chopped, ,hard boiled egg and a small amount of cheese that I couldn’t identify but might have been feta. My salad had suffered a bit from being closed up with the steaming hot beans and the greens had darked a bit, the pita bread, beautifully golden on both sides, was thinner than any I’ve ever had before and the hot sauce was a real plus - the color of wasabi paste but spreadable, grainy like a mustard, packing a wallop of garlic, chile pepper and lemon juice. The large powdered sugar cookie had a date filling. This turned out to be a very satisfying first visit after all.

I hit the internet and immediately began finidng the dishes I remembered from the menu - Molokhiya, Aseeda, Tagalia, Tamia (these are the internet spellings).

On another visit a couple of weeks later I hoped to find Tamaaya and Shorba on the menu, two dishes I had read about online that intrigued me the most, but neither were available (the former is ‘Sudanese Green Hamburger,’ the latter a lamb stew from Khartoum with vegetables and spices, seasoned with peanut butter and lime). The falafel was not available again nor was my second choice so I settled for the Mo Khia (the spelling on the menu board). This is actually another dish of Egyptian origin, some say created by the Jews during their stay in Egypt. Molokhiya or jute leaves or Jew’s Mallow is a plant in the same family with okra and it has the same properties as okra, adding a thick mucilaginous texture to dishes. The stew included chunks of lamb. The sliminess didn’t bother me at all but jute doesn’t have much taste, less than spinach, no where near as much as collards or mustard greens.

I was given a choice of accompaniments, injera, pita or rice and went with the injera. Kissra is the staple bread of Sudan, made of corn or wheat, typically, but I was told it’s the same thing as injera and they don’t make their own here, they just serve the injera from Maru. I got three pieces of the white injera and proved to be a bad choice - it didn’t hold up to the thick stew at all, dissolving almost immediately when I tried to use it to pick up the pieces of lamb. It is common in Sudan to eat with the bare fingers of the right hand and it was quite messy; fortunately plastic utensils are provided. The very fresh injera didn’t even hold up to the simple salad of lettuce, chopped tomato and cucumber, sans dressing of any sort, nor the hot sauce (Shata it’s called) which accompanies everything here.

The stew got a little boring. I’ve read one reason people don’t find African food very interesting is they use a lot less salt than we are used to in the West so I looked around for a salt shaker but saw none, nor was there a pepper shaker. Then I realized I probably was supposed to add the Shata to the stew but by that time the Shata was all gone - I had polished it off like it was a side dish (I’ve got to do something about my garlic addiction, I guess). I was subsequently to learn I was using the injera wrong, too.

Continue reading the report here.

Sheger Restaurant

5506 Bellaire, Suite C

Unlike the Sudanese restaurant I happened upon recently where it took me a quarter hour to get a clue about what cuisine I was about to experience, this one's sign gives it away: those are the colors of the Ethiopian flag. I've also learned Sheger was an old name for Addis Ababa in one of the regional dialects.

They've been open since September. I've passed by numerous times without ever noticing them because they're easy to miss, back from the street, not facing the street, and with no street side sign.

The room is large, sparingly appointed. The young hostess was very pleasant and personable.

I went with the Yesiga Wat. I'd never had this before at an Ethiopian restaurant but had seen it mentioned in a thread about beef stews on a discussion board and wanted to try it. Beef stew my foot! I know a bowl of chili when it's served to me and that's what this is - the Ethiopian version of chili. And damn good, too. I wonder if any competitors in chili cookoffs have considered using niter kibbeh and mitmita in their recipes? It came with just a generous side of aib, the Ethiopian cottage cheese made from buttermilk, and 3 pieces of injera.

The menu does not list any beverages but there were perhaps 2 dozen beers and a few wines displayed behind a counter/bar. There is a section set aside for the Ethiopian coffee ceremony but after finishing off the wat I didn't think I had room for even one cup of coffee without exploding.

I'm kind of swamped with places I'm investigating right now so it will probably be some time before I get back by but I am very happy we have another Ethiopian restaurant in town. Although they have escaped notice so far the word is out in the Ethiopian community, apparently; I was alone at first just after noon, by the time I left 5 tables were occupied.

Sheger Restaurant

Best of 2010 - Part 1

It's been a great year being Chili Bob. I've sampled a huge number of new places and had many good meals and only a few that made me wish I'd jumped at that career as a toll booth collector for the HCTRA and been making change in a toll booth and having a sack lunch that day. I've also had some great finds and I thought I'd jump into the fray this year with my own version of best picks of the year. For the first (and possibly last time), here's what I thought was the best of what I encountered this year. Keep in mind the limited focus of this blog - for the past year, mostly street food and small ethnic eateries that are new discoveries.

In making these selections I've followed a principle we always followed in my line of work: cream rises to the top and clearly separates itself from the rest of the glass. Also, not only is the delineation of 10 bests in any category arbitrary, sorting out any below the top 2 or 3 or at most 4 in any category is arbitrary, too (and requires much to much mental effort). Well, that and for none of these categories do I have 10 to reasonably consider anyway.

BEST STREET FOOD - Gourmet Food Truck Division

1. Pork Belly Taco from HtownstrEATS - I've caught up with this truck several times since my report and am very impressed with both the inventiveness of the menu and the execution but nothing has surpassed the pork belly taco (or it's complement on that day, the butternut squash taco).

2. Just about any Crepe from Melange Creperie - this is such a novelty food to encounter on the streets of Houston (and such a welcome one); I haven't had a disappointing one of all the varieties I've tried.

3. Signature Taco - Indian beef short rib on grilled flatbread with spicy raita from Fusion Taco - I've liked everything I've had from the Fusion folks, especially the Fish Taco, perhaps the best I've ever had (in a category that doesn't get much love from me) and I love the Asian slaw on all their tacos, but this one really is special. The filling is different from the usual taco, the condiment is different and they've changed the holder but intrinsically it's a taco; it occupies the same space, intrinsically, as a taco. I haven't even tried the quesadillas, chalupas, flautas - hey!, it's a taco truck, not a quesadilla truck, right?

4. Grass-fed beef hamburger from Oh My Pocket Pies! - once again, I've liked just about everything I've had from OMPP! (is this sounding like a broken record?) but the deal is, a few years ago I was obsessed with finding the best burger in Houston, Burger Joint Division; hence the category on the sidebar. But I hardly ever eat burgers anymore; I've had maybe 5 at the most in the past year including a vegan burger at Loving Hut. There's so much more out there to try and enjoy but a great burger is still hard to resist and this is my favorite burger in Houston right now - simply and straight forwardly presented, without all the frou-frou that other burger joints are throwing between a bun in the competition to create the most elaborate, trendy, eye-popping and media-attention-grabbing variation as possible, just lettuce, pickle, onion, mustard, mayo, ketchup (if those condiments were good enough for Moses and the Twelve Apostles, they're good enough for me). I even forgo the cheese - with this burger, it's the grass-fed beef and the fresh-baked Krafts'men bun that does it.


BEST STREET FOOD - International Food Truck Division

We have a small and perhaps slowly growing collection of food trucks that don't really fit into the Gourmet truck category but aren't taco trucks. I've hit quite a few of them this year, more than actual taco trucks in fact. These were the best finds:

1. Arroz con gandules with Pernil at El Mofongo Boricua

2. Chicken Seekh Kabab Masala at Tandoori Nite

3. Empanadas and Hallacas at El Punto Criollo

All happen to operate along Highway 6 between I-10 and Bissonnet but that's just a coincidence. So far as I know, most of these International vendors are on the Southwest and West side of town.


BEST NEW FINDS - Brick and Mortar Restaurant Division

Again, more great finds, places that will be in my regular rotation for a long time, I surmise. I think about the food I had at these places regularly.

I've been unable to rank, them, however. I wind up either with three tied for # 1 and the fourth in second place or one in first place and the other three tied for second. I could have listed them alphabetically but decided just to list them in the chronological order in which I reported on them which happens to also be alphabetical. It's like destiny or something.

1. Argentina Cafe - empanadas, Sandwiches de Migas, Matambre and Chorripan - although the variety of empanadas isn't as impressive as Marini's, this is my go-to Argentinian place.

2. Jonathan's Grill - Pampanga's - Authentic Filipino Cuisine, Kapampangan Style, the haute cuisine of the Philippines and served up by a great crew in a food court.

3. Sheba Cafe - of our limited number of Ethiopian places, I prefer the wots here slightly and also the coffee, though the injera tends to be on the dry side for my taste.

4. Sweet n Namkin - Discriminating bloggers agree, this unpretentious Indian and Pakistani vegetarian snack place is a real jewel.

Sheba Cafe

6251 Bissonnet @ Hillcroft

UPDATE - JUNE, 2014:  SHEBA BECAME HABESHA ABOUT 8 OR 9  MONTHS AGO BUT NOW HAS CLOSED.

I've been seeing this restaurant when passing by on Bissonnet for months now but it never has registered with me. Recently on a wee hours insomniac's cruise I saw it again and finally remembered to look into it when I got home. When I realized it was Ethiopian I had to check it out.

It's a pretty new place, open only a few months. I like the room a lot. There's very limited seating - only 4 tables, 12 chairs, plus some stools at a counter. Unlike many small ethnic restaurants it's actually kind of roomy for such a small space. The table linens look like craft work instead of mass produced and the overall effect is peaceful, not what one would expect from the exterior of a cookie-cutter strip center in Southwest Houston.

I asked the waitress, who I think is also the owner, for a her best dish and she suggested the Kitfo (minced tenderloin of beef in spiced butter, the ubiquitous niter kebbeh of Ethiopian cuisine). I hadn't read up on Ethiopian in some time and didn't remember just what this dish is and misread the menu, thinking that by ordering it medium rare I was ordering it less cooked than it normally is served. Actually, this is the Ethiopian version of Steak Tartare and fortunately she seemed to have realized I didn't know what I was doing and the dish came out barely cooked at all, still very rare if not completely raw. It was accompanied by a small side of Iab (eyeb), a slightly sour Ethiopian cottage cheese made from buttermilk, and a small portion of Gomen (collards) and it was excellent. Having tasted the dish and observed the cleanliness of the restaurant I would have no qualms about ordering this raw next time.

At the end of the meal I had a cup of Ethiopian coffee. She doesn't do the coffee ceremony here but she does roast and grind her own beans and this too was excellent. Some years ago, having read about Ethiopian coffee, I bought some roasted beans myself and ground them at home for my coffee but it was nowhere near as good as this. I usually don't like sugar in my coffee but I understand Ethiopian coffee is typically consumed with lots of sugar or honey so I added a generous amount and it made it even better. I lingered over my cup for some time after the meal as customers tend to do here and walked out the door on a huge protein, caffeine and sugar high with expectations of returning very soon.


Actually I wound up going back the very next day. I had not been able to eat even half the Kitfo (you eat a lot of bread at an Ethiopian restaurant, of course). I had calculated from the portion I took home it was about a 12 ounce serving of tenderloin + niter kebbeh and I wanted something light on my second visit. I decided to try their vegetable combination platter to compare with what I had the only other time I'd visited an Ethiopian restaurant. This was only half the number of wats I had at Nazareth but much larger portions of each. From 11 o'clock there is the Kit Alicha (split yellow peas), Gomen (collards), Shiro Wat (pureed split peas), Tekel Gomen (sauteed fresh cabbage and carrots), Fasolia and Carrots (green beans) and Mesir Wat (lentils), plus a salad in the middle with some slices of fresh jalapeno that had been completely de-veined and de-seeded. I loved the Mesir Wat, Fasolia, Tekel Gomen and salad; I'm not fond of either of the split pea preparations or the collards - what can I say, I'm a dyed-in-the-cotton Southern boy I guess, I love a mess of greens but I've never found any preparation I like as well as one that includes pot likker.

Light? Hah! I know well by now of course that vegetarian food is not necessarily 'light' fare. Once again I couldn't finish the dish, barely more than half, and I passed on that excellent coffee this time - I wanted to go home and take a nap.

I wanted to visit again soon so I could post a report since this place is pretty much off the radar and deserves to be known. I knew my friend Ziggy Smogdust wanted to go with me on a visit to an Ethiopian place so I emailed him a copy of the menu and we made plans. While the vegetarian dishes were good I was so impressed by the Kitfo I definitely wanted to try another meat dish; we discussed one of us ordering a lamb dish, the other one of the other beef dishes. I went in wanting to ask about the Dulet, listed on the menu (linked below) as a lamb dish - tripe, liver and red meat with onion, garlic and jalapeno with niter kebbeh, cardoon and mitmita, the ground African bird's eye pepper used for heat (shakers on each table for added heat as diners prefer), served anywhere from raw to well-done - but it is not on the in-house menu any more. I asked about the best lamb dish and she suggested the Yebeg Yeawaze Tibs. Ziggy beat me to ordering that one and I went for the other raw beef dish, Gored Gored.



That's the beef dish on top; guess which was better? Actually we were both disappointed in the Gored Gored; supposedly filet mignon it was a little tough and chewy and though both dishes are made with awaze, not as spicy or favorful. The lamb dish was awesome, I may like it better than the Kitfo; it had a slightly greater heat level from the jalapeno slices, though Ziggy was regularly reaching for the Mitmita shaker. Both dishes came with a small side of Tekel Gomen.

One of my pieces of injeera was rather dry; I tore off a sample of Ziggy's and his was not quite as stale but neither was really fresh. This had not been a problem on my earlier visits but was a little disappointing.

I wanted Ziggy to try the Ethiopian coffee. He is much more of a coffee connoisseur than I and I wanted his opinion. I could tell from the reaction on his face at the first sip that it was going to be positive - he was really impressed and asked the waitress some questions about the preparation. Score another big one - you have to try the coffee when you go to an Ethiopian restaurant.

They are open 7 days a week; due to proximity to a school they are not able to serve alcohol nor allow BYOB. This will put them at a disadvantage to the other Ethiopian restaurants in town. Obviously if it catches on, there's going to be a problem of limited seating.

Having only been to one other Ethiopian restaurant and a grand total of four meals I'm clearly no expert nor able to judge which of the two I've visited is better but I do plan to hit both of them again, as well as Blue Nile and Addis Ababa, our other well-known places. This one is so convenient to me I will probably hit it with more regularity.

A web site is supposed to be in the works. In the meantime, I have scanned the hand-out menu and posted it here where you can read more complete descriptions of the offerings. Remember prices and dishes may differ at the restaurant; in particular, as noted above, the Dulet is not on the in-house menu any more; there are also beverages listed on the back of the menu - as best I can remember they were Ethiopian coffee and herbal tea, latte and cappuccino, sodas and bottled water.

Nazareth Cafe

6711 Chimney Rock

EDITED TO ADD THE NAMES OF SOME OF THE DISHES (IN PARENTHESES) AS GLEANED FROM STUDYING THE MENU ON ANOTHER VISIT AND OTHER SOURCES.


I have been meaning to try Ethiopian cuisine for some time and decided it was time to hit this place. It's a small cafe with linen table cloths and napkins although, of course, no dining utensils (they are available on request). The menu is not very large but there are chicken, beef, lamb and vegetable dishes. I tried the vegetable platter ($12) to get a sample of as many dishes as possible.

I liked the beets - keey sir - (12 o'clock) perhaps best and the preparation made with injera next to that, listed as Sufe Fitit and described as sesame juice mixed with injera, it was served well-chilled and would make a good vegetarian/grain substitute for a chicken salad or similar meat dish. I also liked the salad in the center of the plate, Timatim salad, fasolia (green beans and carrots at 7 o'clock) and the carrot/cabbage dish at 6, listed as Atkilt Wot. I liked the red lentil preparation at 9 o'clock, Mesir Wat, better than the brown lentil preparation at 3 o'clock (Azifa?) while the greens (Gomen - collards), at 2 o'clock, were the bitterest greens I have ever had and I was not too fond of them, and I like greens.

The most intriguing and readily appealing dish was the item at 5 o'clock which I initially thought was something made with balls of yam but finally decided the texture was too dry; this is Shimbra asa, dumplings made of chickpea flour.

The items at 10 and 11 o'clock, respectively, are Kit Alicha (split yellow peas) and Shiro Wat (pureed split peas). I wasn't too fond of either of those.

Although it's readily apparent in the picture, the slit in the pepper wound up facing down after I took one bite off the end and I didn't realize until the end it was stuffed, Almost all the seeds had been removed, except right at the stem end, and it was as sweet and crisp and juicy as a bell pepper, with a filling that included I'm sure minced onion and tomato and more.

A new cuisine, many new tastes to explore and learn about. I'm looking forward to more visits.

As I have learned at other venues, vegetarian fare can be very filling. I left absolutely stuffed and I didn't finish off but one of the two pieces of injeera.

The restaurant serves breakfasts, has beer, wine and alcohol, including the Ethiopian honey wine Tej, plus coffee and tea.

Suya Hut

11611 W. Airport, about ½ mile west of 59S

The Houston International Festival this year focused on Africa and listed some of our city’s African restaurants. I learned that most of them as well as most of the African food stores in Houston are in my corner of town (southwest) and decided to try them out. I had never heard of Suya Hut but picked that one first.

This is like your typical Houston hole-in-the-wall ethnic eatery but it is located in a rather new strip center and is spic-and-span. The lady was very friendly and helpful. I tried the chicken suya (kebab) and found it was very good, very juicy and flavorful with all the spices. I also had the masa, a fermented rice cake that puffs up when fried and has a mild sour taste - very good. And I tried the lansir, the green salad which is nothing but chopped cilantro, kuli-kuli (defatted groundnut flour) and some diced tomatoes and onions. The picture on the menu looked like a moist green salad but it was quite dry owing to the groundnut flour and could have used some dressing. I thought this would be fine as a small side accompaniment to some of the plates but was a bit much as a full salad.

The words peanut and groundnut seem to be used interchangeably and groundnut flour is used a lot in the foods here (and other West African eateries) so I think if you had a peanut allergy you might need to avoid this place.

There are shakers of cayenne on the tables and toothpicks, which are used for eating some of the foods, apparently. Among the beverages offered (not listed on the menu or on the website) are Bud Lite, Heineken and Guiness plus Star Lager, a Ghanaian brew that is produced by Guiness. There were what I assumed to be bottled waters also but as I was leaving another customer was asking about the alcohol content and I learned they include Emu, a Top Palm Juice according to the label but palm wine according to the sign on the cooler door.

On a second visit I tried the jollof rice with lansir and beef suya with the masa asa side. This is only a 4 table place and I decided to get this to go. The beef was cube steak I believe and there was still a little pink in some of the pieces but the exterior was somewhat pasty from the powdered groundnut that is part of the coating. I think the chicken suya is better.

The jollof rice is made with tomatoes, tomato paste and red pepper and there was a very generous portion. I have read that West African foods can be quite spicy but I could barely detect any pepper in this dish.

On this occasion the lansir was not as dry, probably because of being moistened by a little steam closed up in the box on the way home. Lime and EVOO helped a little, especially with the passage of a little time. Maybe some more chopped tomato would be good, too, but as I expected this worked better as a side salad.

On another visit I tried the Pepper Fish Soup. Pepper soup is a staple of the region consisting of a thin, peppery broth in which various other ingredients including vegetables and meats are served. The fish choices are catfish and tilapia and they are served as steaks, not filets. I really liked the peppery broth but tilapia is a very bony fish and it was tedious dealing with all the small bones. I have since found a spice mix for this soup at Makola Imports, a Ghanaian food store on South Gessner, and have made it at home with filets.

I have also tried the shrimp suya; it proved to be very tiny shrimp, coated with the groundnut flour and with that pasty exterior but very spicy, the spiciest thing I’ve had at Suya Hut.

I’ve since discovered several African food stores sell suya also; I’ve observed many customers at Suya Hut buying them in quantity to go.

So far the real winners have been the chicken suya, masa (also called waina on the menu) and the pepper soup.

The website has a menu and some helpful pictures.

Suya Hut

Sheba Cafe Menus

Prices and dishes at the restaurant may differ.