Vegetarian for a Week, Part 1

After reporting on the vegetarian restaurant Quan Yin recently I made the observation that I sometimes think about becoming a vegetarian, not for ethical, health or religious reasons but just because the food at Houston vegetarian restaurants is so good. But I never thought about doing it on a dare.

A couple of weeks later one of the moderators on eGullet announced he was going to try to go vegetarian for a week and challenged other eGulleteers to join him. The response was a little underwhelming at first but I was interested. His thread is really about cooking vegetarian rather than dining out so I'm posting about my dining out adventures here.

Of course I know people, including many of my relatives, who are of the firm belief that they will keel over and die, possibly within mere minutes, if they don't have meat at every meal, but I have long liked my veggies at least as much as meat. I was a vegetarian for about 6 or 8 months back in the 70s and most of my meals at home these days are meatless unless they include take-out or leftovers. Though I keep fish on hand in the freezer and there's probably some pork and chicken somewhere in there too, I bought beef to prepare at home only twice all of last year. I don't think I've gone as long as just 48 hours without meat in a long, long time but I didn't think this would be much of a stretch for me.

After a false start one morning when I absent-mindedly munched on some leftover cha lua from Banh Cuon Tay Ho as part of breakfast, I started in earnest with lunch at Cedars Bakery, 8619 Richmond. I'd been to this Middle Eastern bakery/cafe only once before and enjoyed a kafta manakish and remembered they had a veggie pizza on the menu, specifically the Harhoura Veggie Pizza.

Just what the difference between a manakish and pizza is here I'm not sure; they both appear to be cooked in the same brick-lined, gas-fired oven on the same thin pita bread crust. At least I never saw a saj, the domed cooking surface that a manakish is typically cooked on. But while the manakish was cut in quarters and was thin and flexible enough to be foldable like a New York style pizza, this was cut in thin wedges and wouldn't hold up when picked up. With no cheese on the pizza, the toppings just toppled off. It was just chopped tomato, onion and bell pepper but did have a very nice heat level, which is kind of unusual for Middle Eastern food in my experience. A couple of their other pizzas may be meatless, too. I should have asked first.

I did pick up a package of their beautiful, aromatic, tissue paper thin markouk, the thinnest flat bread I've ever encountered, and it was very useful in the ensuing week in meals I prepared at home.

My friend Ziggy Smogdust has been telling me about Pine Forest Garden, 9108 Bellaire, for at least a couple of years. The chef adheres to strict Buddhist vegetarian cuisine principles and it's one of Ziggy's favorite restaurants. I'd been just once and asked Ziggy to meet me there and help me pick the good stuff for lunch on Day Two.

The best thing on the first plate was the fried tofu skin wrap at 11 o'clock, wonderfully juicy with a crisp and crunchy, fresh tasting filling that I never took the time to examine, thinking I was going to make a second pass at the buffet and get another one. I'm pretty sure it had some sort of sprouts in it and possibly some nuts. I also enjoyed the turnip cake and the long beans and zucchini; the long beans still had a good bite to them. The greens in the middle of the plate were something of a mystery (the buffet is not labeled); Ziggy had always thought they were Chinese broccoli but Samuel, the chef, recognized Ziggy and came over to chat. He told us what they were - the Chinese name - and I cannot recall it. My guess would be Chinese mustard greens. The mock meat at 1 o'clock was even more of a mystery; neither one of use could figure out what it was supposed to be. It had a texture more like pieces of chicken skin than muscle meat which wouldn't have been bad had I not be expecting a fibrous texture like meat.

New things are constantly being brought out for the buffet and on my second pass through either there was no more fried tofu skin or I missed it because there were so many other things I wanted to try. By the way, vegetarian food is very filling and I was getting very full already. The big hits of my second plate were the deep fried mushrooms, the tree fungus, aka wood ear mushroom, at 1 o'clock, and the 'salmon croquette.' The deep fried mushrooms were just a little sweet and a little crispy; I could have eaten a whole plate of them. I've had the tree fungus only minced in banh cuon before and never encountered it like this; I loved it. I'm not really sure what the little fried ball was supposed to be but the texture reminded me very much of a salmon croquette. The disks at the top are mock fish. I've had these before in plates from San San Tofu and liked them just fine but here, braised, the texture became too soft and mushy.

Ziggy also had a second plate, with a big piece of the fungus and some sweets which he wanted me to try including lightly deep fried sweet potato and a Buddhist 'jello' - actually a cross between jello and custard in texture - and mango flavored. I'd noticed them on the buffet and just assumed they were pieces of mango and had passed them over. They were, however, virtually impossible to pick up with chopsticks.

Pine Forest Garden is going to be one of my favorite restaurants, too. I'm looking forward to going back sometime to try their dim sum service, from 3 to 5 as I recall.

I had made a list of all the vegetarian restaurants I've been to in Houston and had scheduled a visit to Georgia's Farm to Market on I-10 for Day Three, but I was still full from the feast at Pine Forest Garden and didn't want to deal with the temptation to over-eat at their large salad bar so I opted instead for something much closer to home, Saba's Kosher Cafe, 9704 Fondren @ South Braeswood, previously reported on on this blog.

Saba's has remodeled, possibly to counter the new competition in the neighborhood, and is a nicer room for dining-in now. The menu has been in flux and my favorite item, which I had decided on in advance, the Moroccan Cigars, is not currently on the menu, although they said it will be coming back. I opted instead for the Sabitch Baguette.

I'd had the Sabitch plate before, grilled eggplant, hard-boiled egg, Israeli salad (diced cucumber, tomato and bell pepper) and hummus, which comes with a pita on the side. You can get this as a pita sandwich, too, but this was excellent. There was some hot sauce, I think the Yemeni skhug is what they use, similar to harissa. The server might have noticed some consternation on my face, though, as initially I thought this was going to be a very dry sandwich, so he offered some tahini sauce too. Turned out it didn't need it, though I added it for flavoring, but there was probably at least a quarter cup of hummus on the sandwich and by the time I got through, the oil in the hummus together with the moisture from the salad was turning the lower part of the sandwich rather soggy.

See the second part of this series here.

Some Places I've Been Eating Lately

When I'm not hung up by a major obsession (most recently Sichuan cuisine and soup dumplings) I like to keep trying new things. These are some of the places or dishes I've tried recently and really liked.

Fainmous BBQ
10400 S. Post Oak # E (back in the corner)

Not all that many places around here serve pulled pork and even fewer do it well. Jamie Fain is from Tennessee, where pork barbecue rules, and turns out some very good pulled pork. Lightly smoked over hickory, my sandwich was juicy and flavorful, about as good as any I've had in Houston. There are two Tennessee style sauces (not sure what that means) - a mild one and a surprisingly spicy one. I thought the spicy one overwhelmed the meat and preferred the mild one.

The link sandwich was good too, a mildly seasoned pork sausage with a nice snap from a natural casing and likewise very juicy. The pulled chicken turned out to be chunked and I thought the spicier sauce helped that one out, while the sliced brisket was a disappointment. If you're looking for the intensely smoky sort of brisket you'd get from a Central Texas style joint you're not going to find it here and I gotta have that when I have brisket.

Sides include a creamy slaw (you can get that added to a sandwich to create a Memphis style pulled pork sandwich for a little extra), baked beans and potato salad, plus smoked, stuffed spuds. There are also ribs and half chickens, which I haven't tried. Sandwiches come in regular (4" buns, pictured), large and jumbo.

I'm a native Texan but I think the pulled pork sandwich, done well, trumps a chopped barbecue beef sandwich any day and I'm glad to have this place on this side of town.

They're open Tuesday thru Saturday for lunch and early dinner and have been very busy on Saturday when I went in.


Don Cafe
9300 Bellaire

I've recently gotten interested in banh cuon (Vietnamese rice crepes) and remembered I'd read Don served a good one; I stopped in intending to get a banh mi to go but spied this on the menu and requested it instead. I'm sure this would have looked better plated up in the restaurant, but it was very good. This was with the more common pork filling instead of the shrimp I had recently at Banh Cuon Hoa II on Beechnut and I liked it better. I'll be trying this again in-house as well as several other places in Chinatown that specialize in banh cuon.


Thuan Kieu Com Tam
10792 Bellaire Blvd, Suite A

Another dish I've been interested in trying lately is com tam - Vietnamese broken rice dishes. I was headed to the eponymously named place in Hong Kong City Mall when I spotted this one, which hadn't been on my list, and decided on a lark to save myself the hassle of the hordes at HK Mall on a weekend and try it. It's a large and noisy room; the young host virtually ran to the front door to welcome me and I was seated less than 2 minutes when a server appeared to ask if I was ready to order. It's a large menu and normally I would have wanted more time but I knew what I wanted and went straight to the Com Tam section of the menu and went with the first choice - Com Tam Thuan Kieu Dac Biet Mon A - bi (shredded pork) - barely visible under the fried tofu skin, baked egg, lap zuong (sausage), charbroiled shrimp (tom nuong), tofu skin with shrimp (tom hu ky), and pork chop (suon), plus garlic chives, pickled and fresh vegetables. A completely lame imitation of a tomato came on the plate and my pork chop was overcooked and dry but otherwise I liked this dish, especially the baked egg and pickled veggies. As is the case about half the time when trying a new dish, I really didn't get the appeal of the broken rice but as is also the case a lot of the time when I try it several times, I grow to like it so I will be having it again. There are several places in Chinatown which specialize in these dishes with com tam in the name of the restaurant; there are an amazing 50 varieties of com tam on the menu here.


Quan Yin Vegetarian Restaurant
10804 E Bellaire

I had seen this place several times before but never remembered to put it down on a list of prospects; it's been around a long time. I spotted it again pulling away from Thuan Kieu and finally remembered to make a note to go back.

The interior is in more appealing shape than that rather shabby shopping center; service was quiet and very courteous. There are signs in the windows proclaiming it's a vegan restaurant but not all dishes on the menu are identified as vegan. There is a menu book but also a big picture menu which I found most helpful/tantalizing in picking a dish. The picture menu is available on the website, too, and I had an idea what I wanted before I went in.

The Hand Roll was delightful - peanuts, lettuce, shredded cabbage, mock cha lua and vegetarian cheese plus a veggie mayo, wrapped in seaweed. Move over spring rolls - I just may like this better.

I seldom order soup at a restaurant; soup is one thing I do pretty well at home and seldom feel like paying someone else to serve me something I can fix at home but the Quan Yin Special Soup (Sup Dac Biet) was calling out to me. Mushrooms, Chinese cabbage, carrots, bamboo shoots, cilantro, and mock chicken breast in a veggie broth, about 6 cups worth overall. Add a little acidity, a little heat or a little umami to your individual servings with the condiments on the table and have a feast. This was just what the doc ordered.

I left very contented, feeling extraordinarily virtuous for eating such healthy fare, thoroughly hydrated and looking forward to going back. Sometimes I think about becoming a vegetarian in Houston, not for ethical, religious or health reasons but just because the vegetarian food in this town is so damn good.

Quan Yin

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.

Tejano Salsa and Tamale Company

10421 S. Post Road

Update 2017 - the building in which this business operated has been razed.  The business has moved to 5631 W. Bellfort (@ Chimney Rock) and now is known as Tamales A Mano.

I was headed up South Post Oak one day recently when I caught sight out of the corner of my eye of a large banner proclaiming 'hand made hot tamales, now open.' It took a couple of turns and a couple of Uies before I was able to get into the parking lot (you have to be headed north on Post Oak just south of West Bellfort) only to find they actually weren't open, but I did see the bales of corn shucks stacked in the windows and knew I had to come back.

This is a new store-front and tamale factory for Houston-based Tejano Salsa and Tamale Company, offering about a dozen varieties of hand-made tamales. I had never even heard of them before and they aren't in my neighborhood grocery store but here they are with a full line of salsas, cheese dips and more.

When I was able to catch them open they were still in a very rudimentary operating mode. They have frozen tamales and hot tamales, by the half dozen or dozen. I got a half dozen of the pork with salsa verde in a cry-o-vac pack, steaming hot, for $6. They were large, about 4 oz each, tasty, with shredded pork. The masa itself was dry for my taste - I like very moist tamales - but good, nonetheless.

Besides tamales they have the complete line of their salsas and dips and some sodas. There are no tables but I was told they hope to add plate lunches in the future to their offerings.

I see from their website their tamales have previously been available at Spec's.

Tejano Salsa and Tamales