[title type="h5"]Sunday, January 25, 2015.
Menudo, Corn, Huevos Con Chorizo @ Habaneros.[/title]
It's remarkable that three unusually good restaurants could somehow exist in the same modest strip mall. In Covington, yet. Pardo's, the best of the three, is a recent five-star honoree from this quarter. Next door is Tchoupstix, a sushi bar that didn't start well. When Pardo's owner Osman Rodas took over a few months ago, it began improving enormously, while at the same time rejiggering its menu drastically.
The third impressive place in this mall is Mexican. Habaneros opened some five months ago with a menu that reminded me and the Marys of their favorite Mex eatery La Carreta. There seems to be some connection, although I don't think that's official. The menu is more exotic than La Carreta's, although for the most part it's heavily Americanized. We ate there last week and found it so interesting that we are back today.
Around New Orleans, you don't find too many restaurants with a sign out front advertising menudo. That tripe-based soup is very popular in South Texas, but rarely encountered in these parts. It makes a statement--not just with the tripe, but with the whole bowl of goodness. I start with a cup, but I could have downed an entire bowl. The restaurant runs menudo as a special, alternating it with a number of other offbeat dishes I look forward to trying.
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Corn with fresh cheese at Habaneros.[/caption]
The menudo was not the only offbeat appetizer. Here's a bowl of corn, with fresh cheese worked into it a little bit. Basically, it was corn, but once I started eating it I didn't want to stop.
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A lava rock topped with steak, chicken sausage, and a few other things.[/caption]
The girls have something unusual, too. "La Roka" is a big piece of lava stone on top of which are slices of steak, chicken sausage, queso fresco, and a few other things. We at first think this will be like something we enjoyed in Cabo San Lucas on a cruise some years ago. There they heated the lava rock and cooked the meats and cheeses on it. No hot rock here--just cold rock, for show. Still, this is as good to eat as it is striking to look at.
I order a dish that I find an index of goodness in Mexican places. Egg dishes are very popular in Mexico, even at dinner. They make two such entrees here. The one I eat is scrambled with chorizo sausage. Quite a lot of sausage, perhaps too much. Good, though, and my ordering it made the manager smile.
By the end of this meal, we were all thinking the same thought: how odd it is that such an assortment of excellent restaurants is in this center. And that we will add Habaneros to the rotation when the Mexican mood hits us, as it often does.
[title type="h5"]Habaneros. Covington: 69305 LA Hwy 21. 985-871-8760. [/title][divider type=""]
[title type="h5"]
Monday, January 26, 2015.
Stuck On Tchoupstix. Back To Song.[/title]
The Marys wanted to have dinner with me after the show. And where do we go? Yes, the same strip mall with the three great eateries, the one covered in this space yesterday. Today's selection is Tchoupstix. I am looking forward to the steaming beef broth, what with the weather being chilly.
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Sashimi salad with seaweed and caviar.[/caption]
The entree that follows is a sashimi-style seafood salad, to which I ask for seaweed to be added to the other crunchy vegetables. Except for the soup (which they give you free), my every meal here has been different and very good.
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Coconut shrimp and rice.[/caption]
Mary Ann, on the other hand, cannot get past the idea that if you're in an Asian restaurant, you must eat something like combo fried rice. Today's essay on the subject brings big grilled, coconut-sprinkled shrimp to the table in a matrix of spicy rice. She likes the shrimp but not the rice. I keep telling here to forget the rice and move on.
Our daughter has done that, and she is very happy with a big salad topped with Thai-seasoned steak strips. I had this one or two visits ago and thought it was good then, too.
After a week off following its successful madrigal dinner, the Northlake Performing Arts Society returns to a regular rehearsal schedule. We are working up steam to perform "Carmina Burana." It's music in Latin and German about bawdy medieval goings-on. Some of the music has become recognizable--in television commercials, among other places.
Unlike the madrigals, which were well into rehearsals when I joined the club, I will be able to keep up with this learning curve. I think. These are real musicians I'm singing with, and it's challenging for me. But that's what I was hoping for.
[title type="h5"]Tchoupstix. Covington: 69305 LA Hwy 21. 985-892-0852.[/title]
