Sunday, Food Day

3 September 2011

Sunday, Food Day

Last Sunday may be nearly a week in the past, but it was a noteworthy day for food and deserves mentioning.  Sunday morning I woke up early to into the hospital for early morning rounds.  I had to settle for a bland latte at Starbucks out of desperation since I’d only gotten about 5 hours of sleep the night before.  Frankly, I would have preferred a McCafe latte which is cheaper and better than Starbucks’ version, but unfortunately the McDonalds in St Lukes hospital was shut down from a grease fire.

By the time I had finished working and biked back and forth from the medical center, I was ready for a second breakfast.  I had read about Villa Arcos taqueria a while ago when I was searching for the best breakfast tacos in Houston.  Located out in Second Ward, it isn’t particularly convenient to get to so months had gone and I still had yet to try it.  On that balmy 110F morning, I decided it was finally time to make the pilgrammage out to eat the “best breakfast tacos in Houston.” 

I have become somewhat familiar with Second Ward from many visits out to Moontower for beer and dogs.  Villa Arcos is just down the street from Moontower, located in a non-descript some what abandoned looking neighborhood.  There are a few other Mexican restaurants in the immediate area, including the original Ninfas.  I found a shaded parking spot right outside the front door of the cinderblock building with bars over the windows.

It is a small taqueria with about a half dozen tables inside and a small window where one places one’s order.  The menu is listed on a board and is mainly tacos with a few burritos, enchiladas and platters thrown in for completeness.  Some specialties, like chicharron (pork rind) were only offered on weekends.  The place was dirt cheap, at roughly two dollars and change for a taco.  Coffee cost 75 cents; I honestly didn’t know anything was sold in this era for under a dollar.

I waited in a short line, got to the window, placed my order with the friendly senora, reached into my purse to grab my wallet, and realized that I had left it at home!  This was the second time I had done this in one weekend.  I had used my backpack when I biked to work that morning, and had forgotten to take the wallet out of their when I switched to using my purse.  Damn it!  Those tacos looked good.

I left, stomach rumbling, debating as I drove back towards home if I should actually come back to Villa Arcos or just go somewhere close to home.  It didn’t take me long to decide that I wanted one of those damn tacos!  This was my day, all to myself, so why not!?

It was probably thirty minutes before I actually made it back there.  I told the senora that I had brought money this time and I replaced my order.  I got a chicarron and bean taco and a taco called Super Bacon.  How could I resist a name like that?  My total was five dollars and change. I read the Houston Press while I waited less than 10 minutes for my tacos to come out. 

It may have been 110F outside, but that didn’t stop me from sitting on the street side patio to eat my tacos in the “fresh air.”  I guess they call the taco Super Bacon because it is jam packed with thick pieces of crunchy bacon as well as refried beans and eggs (I opted out of the potatoes).  The chicharron was fried so crispy that every piece literally just exploded with porky goodness in my mouth.  I caught up with a co-worker and her husband who also happened to be there that morning.

The next stop on my food-fest Sunday was Heights AshburyCafé, another place I’d been meaning to try for ages.  It is a colorfully painted little hippie hangout in the great Houston Heights neighborhood.  I love this little art-deco styled main street with it’s funky shops and eateries. 

The inside of Heights Ashbury café is covered with local artist’s work.  On most weekend mornings and afternoons, there is some kind of live music.  I was sad that I had missed the French gypsy band that had played throughout the earlier part of the summer.  Today there were two young guys and their acoustic guitars.  This café just oozed calm vibes.

I chatted with the staff at the counter and debated on whether I should try some of their locally roasted coffee, or a beverage from the juice bar.  A woman named Deborah Morris basically uses Heights Asbury to sell her freshly juiced drinks; she calls her company Juicy in the Sky with Vitamins.

Deborah was there that morning and I discussed which kind of juice I should try.  There were some unique options, some sweet containing just fruits, some vegetable only, other mixes.  There were ingredients like tumeric on the list.  I was intrigued.  I chose a concoction that contained apples, beets, carrots, lemon juice, spinach, parsely and garlic.  It was called the Crudbuster and she assured me that it was delicious.  She also promised that it would help to detoxify my body and to rebuild cellular damage.  It sure couldn’t hurt, right?

Deborah, a thin, silver haired, tie-dying wearing woman sprying hopped around behind the counter, washing and chopping up all the fresh produce before she threw them in the juicer.  She served it to me in a compostable cup; I think I like this place!  I got a punch card from the cashier.  All I had to do was buy 10 more juice drinks and I’d get the next one free.  Deborah and I spoke a little more about her business.  She said she really saw a need for more health food options in Houston and so she started Juicy in the Sky.  She said business had been good and she was happy to see that people were paying more attention to what they ate these days.  “If you are what you eat, wouldn’t you rather be a vegetable than a piece of bacon?” she rhetorically asked me.  I replied, “Well, I do love a good piece of bacon...”

I sipped my juice while listening to the soothing sounds of acoustic guitar.  I could practically feel my cells vibrating around happily while they detoxied and rebuilt themselves.  But in all honesty, I did feel a sense of relaxation throughout my body as I sat there.  It probably had more to do with the calming reverberations of the acoustic guitars, or maybe it was the post-chicharron bliss setting in, in any case, I felt good! 

For the last few weeks I had been stalking down the EatsieBoy’s new ice cream truck.  It seemed like every time I tried to find them, there was some sort of obstacle that prevented it from happening.  I had been hearing a lot of good buzz about their inventive ice creams and sorbets.  The culinary mastermind behind the Eatsie Boys, besides being a chef, also worked in the research and development side of the food industry, creating the little bits like cookie or brownie pieces that are inside of ice creams.  The food I’d had from the other Eatsie Boy’s truck had never disappointed, so I was sure the desserts would be great too.

The Eatsie Boys were hanging out at Buchanan’s Native Plants nursery with the Good Dog truck that afternoon.  I read over the list of ice cream and sorbet options before I made my choice.  I went for the Sweet Corn Shazaam and the Brass Monkey Carmelized Banana flavors.  Two big scoops in a cup cost me just $4.  The sweet corn ice cream was subtle but delicious, with little pieces of corn inside.  The carmelized banana was full of flavor, and not some artificial banana flavor, but a really nice natural ripe banana taste.

I took a brief intermission from eating by doing a one hour yoga class.  Hopefully I further repaired some cells and flushed out some of the beer toxins from the weekend.  I was home from the day’s outings just long enough to shower and change before Eric and Angira and their 9 month old baby, Ryan, came to pick me up.

Eric loves food as much as I do and had been telling me about this authentic little Thai place in the Heights that I would love.  That Friday at Moontower, high on the hot dogs, we made plans to go out for Thai food on Sunday night. 

Asia Market is a small strip of a building that one would easily pass by without noticing.  Most of the place is literally an Asian (but Thai dominated) market, selling all kinds of interesting things from cuttlefish to aloe drinks and even insects at times.  One little portion of the market is a restaurant.  I let Eric do most of the ordering since he’d been there many times in the past.  While we waited for our food, Eric and I perused through the aisles.  He got some toasted coconut juice for him and Angira to drink.  I chose a chrysanthemum tea for myself.  We snacked on shrimp chips and I grabbed some sticky coconut rice for dessert.

The food came out quickly and there was more than we really needed.  First came a rice dish with strong flavors of kefir lime, cilantro, and peanuts.  Besides the amazing flavor, I also loved the chunks of crispy rice that were found throughout the dish.  Next was a noodle dish made with the wide rice noodles as well as a mix of seafood and other flavors I can’t even identify.  It had that awesome smoky wok flavor that I haven’t often been lucky enough to taste outside of Asia.  Next was a green papaya salad, that was a bit on the bland side.  Eric said it was usually better.  It was still a nice contrast to the strongly flavored spicy dishes we had.  Last but not least was the green curry with chicken and Thai eggplants.  I ate to the point of near sickness but still vowed to the woman at the counter that I would be back soon with friends. 

I wanted to slip into food coma after the massive about of Thai food, but Jason was on his way to pick me up to go for a beer at CedarCreek bar in the Heights.  We were supposed to be meeting up with a group of people who were celebrating a birthday.  By the time we trekked up there, we found out that the party had already ended.  Guess it wasn’t much of a party considering it was only about 7pm.  Jason was hungry so we stayed for him to eat and me to drink.  I tried a Moose Drool beer.  It was a brown ale made my a brewery in Montana called Big Sky Brewing Company and it quickly became one of my favorite beers.  It very much reminded me of the nutty caramel flavor of Buried Hatchet Stout.  By the time I finished that, I was truly ready to fall asleep and so I did just that, feeling very fulfilled about my food-filled Sunday.