Polonia

1900 Blalock at Campbell      MOVED TO 1780 BLALOCK (next to the new location of the Polish Grocery Store).


I had been to the Polish grocery store next door a couple of years ago when I first learned of it and enjoyed some excellent kielbasa and other items I picked up then and have been meaning to check out the restaurant ever since but it had completely slipped my mind until I came across the beer mustard I had bought while looking for something to put on a hot dog.

The restaurant is in a strip center, like many of Houston’s ethnic restaurants, but the interior is very distinctive, resembling perhaps a clubby bar. With the temperature outside in the upper 90s, the place seemed secluded and cool, a world away from the sweltering parking lot. I had the place almost to myself at 1 in the afternoon.

The meal started very well with a draft Pilsner Urquell, a very smooth beer, drawn with great care by the young waitress. While I studied the menu (I’d looked it over on-line but still hadn’t decided what I wanted), the complimentary rye bread with two spreads, a cream cheese and smalec, the poor man’s butter, made from bacon fat, lard, cracklings and onions arrived, then a cup of a complimentary potato soup. The spreads were good on the rye bread, the potato soup looked very good and it was, slightly sour with carrots, minced parsley, and, I presume, some sauerkraut.

I ordered the Polish vegetable salad, Salatka Jarzynowa, to start and Bigos, the traditional Polish hunter’s stew, for the main course. The salad is a Polish version of a Salade Olivier with potatoes, peas, carrots and other vegetables along with hard-boiled egg white and mayonnaise. I have grown so fond of the Olivier salad in the Russian style at Golden Grains, The Russian General Store and Phoenicia, all of which contain some meat along with the vegetables, that I was a little disappointed in this meatless version which also seemed quite bland. But when the Bigos arrived the salad proved a very apt complement to the sourness of the stew.

I was also a little disappointed in the Bigos at first, more like a hash than a stew made with both sauerkraut and fresh cabbage and various sausages and other meats. The sourness of it didn’t bother me, it was nicely seasoned, with bay leaf and, I think, juniper berries, but the meats had been cut in small dice and I would have preferred larger chunks of the excellent kielbasa.

The disappointments were minor and there are plenty of interesting items on the menu to choose from and overall I had enjoyed my first visit very much.

Because of the unexpected complimentary soup I was full long before finishing all the food and wound up taking some of the Salatka and Bigos home and was delighted to find they improved with refrigeration and with the flavors coming together. In particular the Bigos was much better whether cold or reheated. When I order this again I think I would get it take-out and save it for the next day.

As I left after my first visit, clutching my leftovers and a printout of the menu, the waitress came running into the parking lot after me to bring me my camera. I had gotten so entranced in the secluded lair of the restaurant and the meal I had totally forgotten I had it with me, sitting on one of the other chairs at the table. I really wish I had gotten a picture of that soup.

On my second visit my memory worked a little better and I got a picture. In the meantime I had studied the menu on line again and read up on Polish cuisine and went with very high expectations. The Sour Rye Soup (Zurek z Kielbasa i Jajkiem? - with sausage and hard boiled egg) in particular sounded awesome and I fully expected to be knocked off my chair by the dish but it proved to be no more sour than a soup with an added dollop of sour cream and I suffered a little let-down. It did however include a generous amount of the excellent kielbasa. The spreads accompanying the bread on this occasion included a whipped butter with a generous amount of minced garlic in addition to the smalec. I do wish the bread was served warm.

In keeping with my sandwich motif of recent weeks I went for the Breaded Pork Cutlet sandwich on rye (Kanapka Kottletem Schabowy). This proved to be quite a hefty sandwich with a thin portion of pork sirloin, breaded and fried, and served on rye bread with thick strips of onion, pickles, tomato and lettuce. It was unfortunately on the dry side and would have benefitted from some mustard or mayo; I tried using up the last of the whipped butter spread. I think I would have enjoyed the breaded pork cutlet plate served with sauerkraut and potatoes more than this sandwich.

But I left satisfied once again and determined to return to try more on the menu. Polonia is certainly one of my favorite ‘finds’ of the last couple of years.

Polonia, with a link to the Polish Grocery Store next door.

Restaurante Guatemala

3330 Hillcroft # N, just doors down from Jerusalem Halal Deli

I’ve been sampling the various Central and South American cuisines available in Houston for the past year or so and so far Guatemalan cuisine has proved to be the least interesting and adventuresome. This place may be the most accessible for those not familiar with the cuisine, however, it’s a bit more nicely appointed than your typical Houston hole-in-the-wall ethnic restaurant, well lit and friendly. The menu is very simple and unthreatening.

One online source says there are more than a hundred different styles of tamales known in Guatemala. One I’ve encountered at every place I’ve tried is the chuchita, a snack sized tamale that can actually be quite large. The first time I had this at Lo Nuestro I loved it, the shape and size of a billiard ball, moist, with a nice chunk of very moist and tender pork embedded in it. Everywhere else I’ve had it, including revisits to Lo Nuestro, it’s been about the size of 2 or 3 Tex-Mex tamales and sometimes so firm as to necessitate a knife and fork. The chuchita at Guatemala was very dry with a very dry chunk of chicken breast inside; the best part of it was the gravy-like salsa which accompanied it. Guatemalan food is not at all spicy, however. Other Guatemalan tamales I've encountered can be as large as 6 or 7 Tex-Mex tamales and constitute a meal in themselves. It is said to be considered rude to order more than one tamale at a time in Guatemala.

The only other tamales on the menu here are rice tamales, also an appetizer, which I didn’t try.

All of the staff I've encountered here speak enough English that I've barely had to call upon my limited Spanish. On my first visit the waitress suggested one of the chicken dishes, Pollo en Amarillo, chicken in a Mole Amarillo, which turned out to include carrots and chayote and was accompanied by plain white rice. i thought it was okay but nothing special and I concluded I had been steered me toward something very safe and Americanized but I have since learned this dish is a staple of the country's cuisine. It came with three individually wrapped tamales, called tamalitas, which the waitress offered to exchange for tortillas but I opted to stick with the tamales to see what they included. It turned out they included nothing - they were just masa dough, very firm, firm enough to be used as bread sticks although a little chunky and slippery for that purpose.


Recently after trying the Pepian de Pollo at Chapinlandia and being impressed by the dish, I decided to return to Guatemala and try their version. Pepian, or Pipian, is another Mayan/Mexican mole; it is based on pumpkin and sesame seeds. I found the mole at Guatemala to be more flavorful that that at Chapinlandia and the chicken - all dark meat here, white meat at Chapinlandia - tenderer and more flavorful but the sides at Chapinlandia were more satisfying. The vegetables in the mole were the same as in the Mole Amarillo - carrots and chayote, tender but not overcooked.

This time I opted for the tortillas as the bread side. They came wrapped in foil and very hot and falling apart from the steam. Even after they had been delivered the waitress asked if I wanted to exchange them for the tamalitas but I slightly preferred the tortillas.

Besides this place and Lo Nuestro I’ve had pastries and tamales from El Quetzal Bakery # 1 on Gessner and # 5 on Hillcroft, and # 1 Xelapan on Longpoint at Bingle, which used to be an El Quetzal location, and now at Chapinlandia Bakery on Rampart. Of those, the tamales at Lo Nuestro and Xelapan were superior while the chuchitas at Lo Nuestro and Chapinlandia were the best.

The desserts at Guatemala include Chocobanana and Chocopina plus Nuevo Tres Leches that are touted on a table card but I have not tried any of them. One dish I do want to return to try is the Kaq-ik de Pavo, a traditional turkey soup of Guatemala.

Note: this article was updated and revised 10/9/09 after a second visit.

Restaurante Guatemala

Sightings - Chicago foods

ACCORDING TO B4-U-EAT.COM TROY'S HAS CLOSED. That's a shame as he did a very good Chicago Italian Beef. I'm going to try to find out more.

Troy's Dawg House Grill
5204 Live Oak

Sandwiches have been on the menu a lot lately. In addition to trying a couple of the muffalottas and other sandwiches posted about recently I've tried a couple of new sandwich places, without much satisfaction until I happened on this place.

It's easy to miss, just a couple of doors south of Southmore on Live Oak, east of 288. It's not much to look at inside or out but in the 6 months he's been open, Troy has become a popular 3rd Ward neighborhood spot. The place was full for lunch; many of the customers were on a first name basis.

Troy is from Chicago and he's offering Chicago specialties like Chicago-style hot dogs, Italian beef sandwiches and Maxwell Street Polish sausage but the menu also includes gyros, burgers, a brat sandwich, a Vienna Tamale boat, chicken wings and 7 flavors of Hank's Ice Cream. There is pizza on the menu but not deep dish.

I've never cared for the Chicago-style hot dog but the Chicago Italian Beef sandwich is one of the greatest sandwich inventions and Troy does a good one, perhaps the best I've ever had in Houston. Though he uses Vienna Beef provisions for some of his offerings, unlike other eateries specializing in Chicago dishes here he does not use their pre-cooked beef, he makes his own from scratch. The beef is coarsely chopped and shredded, there are huge chunks and shreds of tender, melt-in-your-mouth beef - I calculated about 12 ounces on the traditional roll from Gonnella Baking Co. I ordered mine wet, which means the whole sandwich is dipped in the au jus. The sturdy Gonnella roll holds up to the juice and becomes a treat in itself. The giardiniera was less spicy that some I've had but okay.

All orders come with fries; for $6.25 it was a lot of food.

Places offering Chicago specialties here don't tend to last long. He hasn't got a great spot for his grill but I hope Troy makes it. I'll be going back for the Italian beef and the Maxwell Street Polish, which I've never had.

Gotta Muffalotta?

In the interest of full disclosure, I've never had one of these in New Orleans so I can't comment on 'authenticity' of the bread, balance of ingredients, etc., from that standpoint, only my experiences and taste buds here in Houston. However, I have just seen the re-run of the 'Sandwiches You Will Like' show on Channel 8 which had a segment on the original as served in New Orleans.

More or less in the order of preference, from the top: Spec's Liquor Warehouse Deli, downtown, loaded, everything seems in proper proportion to me, olive salad next to the bread on both halves of the loaf, as it should be. The quarter sandwich photographed better than the half sandwich.

Candelari's on Washington. Kind of a fu-fu presentation for this working stiff's sandwich but good. I liked Candelari's best a couple of years ago but I think they changed something (made it bigger so a half sandwich is all I can handle, for one thing).

District 7 Grill, Midtown location in the sleek diner on Pierce almost underneath the Pierce Elevated. No sesame seeds, but this may be the best bread; the online menu says there's turkey in there but I think that's a misprint. Mine had ham, salami, cheese; olive salad between the meats, preventing it from permeating the bread like it should. The olive salad was more like a giardinara than the others with cauliflower, celery, etc., and not enough olive-y taste for me.

Ragin' Cajun on Richmond. I was surprised at this one. I picked it up to go so maybe there was some shifting of cargo on the way home but I don't think so; still, there was almost nothing between the bread on one quarter of the sandwich.

Maceo's, Galveston. Also surprised at this one. Pre-made, they asked if I wanted it heated and I said yes so they zapped it in a microwave briefly. Part of the sandwich was almost too hot to put in my mouth, part of it was still room temp. I thought this one had the skimpiest ingredients.

Mandola's Deli on Leeland serves a Deluxe Paisano which they also refer to as a muffaletta; it appears to just be one of their regular po'boys (on a po'boy roll) with olive salad added.

Spec's

Candelari's

District 7 Grill

Rajin' Cajun