Really El Real

We stopped in to El Real on Westheimer, just across the street from Hay Merchant. Bonus points: the have a parking lot. When I walked in the door the place looked small and homey, comfortable and friendly like a cafe, only to find out there's a huge huge room at the back and a whole second floor! What was I thinking? It is in an old time movie theater building- complete with the old marquis in the front. The wait staff wears black bowling shirts. There were TVs tuned in to sports in the bar. (A nod to the owners). And a really nice cement counter on the bar.......note that for decorating ideas. Need to bring The Deb.
It was early so there weren't many people there, mostly in the bar area. April was the bartender. She was busy, working quickly, but was a true multi-tasking bartender. Her super hearing kept her in on our conversation all night. We were served up house margaritas right away. (There are eight kinds of margaritas on the menu) and was quick to recommend something to eat- even though she is a vegetarian. I'm a big ceviche fan and the campeche, which is another name for the same, was super excellent! Campeche? If you check the link you might say "Was there shark in your Campeche?" No. Just finely diced crab and shrimp, along with avacado and salsa rojo. It was thick, probably served up with an ice cream scoop. With heavy tortilla chips on the side. Later on I had a smoked chicken enchilada with spicy salsa verde. It was full of flavor. Oh, and the refried beans had a great smoky meat flavor. They actually counted as part of the meal instead of being the usual plate filler.
The best part of the night was the fun we had chatting at the bar. I'd hoped for a Chef Brian Caswell sighting, but no luck. There was a guest cameo by Miss Nyla. And the arrival of our personal bartender and boyfriend (who we really didn't believe existed) of Nyla, Matthew. Let the fun begin!
Matthew and April work great tag teaming tending bar. The conversation flew all over the place. April has a Chihuahua. There's a coffee convention in town this week at the George R Brown. Matthew is a big sci-fi fan and he and Nyla are working their way through seasons of Battlestar Gallactica.
The nice man at the bar on the other side of Nyla was just trying to have a bite and a cocktail. But I saw him listening in on the conversations and snickering now and again. I was about try to sweep him into our banter but he was just about done and heading out. But never fear- he was quickly replaced. No lie- all I could think of the new guy was that he was a dead ringer for Lon Chaney as I watched him wolf down his food!
I have to apologize here, guys. I took a slew of pictures but I guess my phone had too many margaritas. However, I'll try to get some more shots next time for ya. In the mean time, here's the link to El Real. Check it out. It's a very interesting read!

THE GREAT MAI TAI CHALLENGE

 As  you know, over the years we have been questing for the perfect Mai Tai. All attempts to recreate them at home have been dismal. However, some of our Hawaiian tries were more cliche (in a bad way) than our home made trials. Here are the contenders:

Stinger Ray's

The Flatbread Company- on Maui. Perfectly done Mai Tai. Check out the layers of the fruit juices and the two rums.
 Duke's- in Waikiki. This is a very famous beachfront bar/restaurant. And Duke was an interesting character. Duke's Bio. Served in cute Tiki glasses. The drink, however, was watered down for tourists.
Stinger Ray's- Layover at the Maui airport. Pretty drink, looked good. Tasted like Grenadine Syrup. Oops!
Breakers- contributed by Pebbles and BOB, the look is right and the recommendation was very high.

AND THE WINNER IS: For this trip, It's a tie between Breakers and The Flatbread Company!

Breakers'

The Flatbread Company

Duke's

Now I've been put totally to shame! Check out this website. How quickly can I get back to Hawaii? A Guide to Mai Tai in Waikiki

BELLY UP ON A BUDGET

All over Hawaii are giant souvenir shops called Hilo Hattie's. They have everything from key chains to gold chains. We've picked up a few Hawaiian shirts there over the years. $10 clearance to $85 designer. Hilo Hattie's has everything you'd ever want from Hawaii. a look at Hilo Hattie's
The Hilo Hattie's in Honolulu is their main store. Along with the usual stuff, we saw hula dancers dancing to Hawaiin Elvis music. And they have food! Lunch ran us $7 per person for a decent lunch and a beer! Great deal!  Here's a photo of a thumbs up Hawaiian lunch: Pulled pork sandwich on Hawaiian bread, which is purple, spicy local BBQ sauce, assorted taro and tortilla chips, and  Aloha Lager, bottled in Honolulu. The only downside was the lager. It was really the Hawaiian take on Pabst Blue Ribbon. Which was a step up from Thor's canned Maui Bikini Blonde that kind of tasted invisible! As said again and again, Maui Brewing Co is great on tap but doesn't cut it in the can. They never bottle.

Does This Count?

 Shrimp trucks are the street food of Hawaii. Don't miss them!

                            

HAWAII QUEST DAY 2

We made it as far as Maui. Got here in the middle of the night. The only way to adjust to the time change is to have a few drinks quickly and fall asleep! We found 3s and listened to a wild good Hawaii Reggae Band: innavision. Hawaiin Reggae is much the same but the band JUST LOOKS DIFFERENT! And these guys were pretty cute! We met some fun people from Canada- a family  of a mom and her 20 yr old couple of kids. They were really dancing to that reggae. Then we met Kenny who went wild over Thor's disc golf shirt. He became our best friend in a split second. It's amazing how we always find fast friends in the local Hawaiians. What a happy bunch of people!
Next day we found a town called Piai.It was a bit touristy but not too crowded. It was made up of very old buildings turned into shops and restaurants. The usual charming. We avoided the one owned by Willie Nelson, for many obvious reasons, and chose The Flatbread Co.

It's an old time brick oven pizzeria and bar. The bartender really knew her stuff, I watched her make a Bloody Mary for the wahini sitting next to me. The Mai Tai she made for me was the best one I'd had since the Hawaiian Mai Tai quest began many years ago. She was from Washington State (as were the two sitting to my right) and had been in Hawaii for ten years.
 There were all kinds of healthful and such pizzas to choose from. Lots of goat cheese varieties. Of course pineapple was always an option- taken up by our daring duo travelling partners. There;s always something to be said for brick oven pizza. The dough is just so crunchy and full of flavor. I think it absorbs all the juice from the toppings.

I have to say, though, that once again the bartender shone through,

how about a Ginger Vodka Lemonade? Muddle candied ginger, a lemon wedge, and some ice in a glass. Add a shot of lemon vodka, Canton ginger vodka, and lemon ade. Top with soda water. Again a Pebbles highly recommended.

The Winning Mai Tai

HAWAII OR BUST.............

We're slowly making our way to Oahu by flying standby. Every plane delay is turning into an adventure! We have a few hours in LA so it's off to Manhattan Beach, where everybody really does talk in California-speak! And everyone young or old looks super healthy and beautiful. Ready to be on a magazine cover at any moment. There's nothing like an omlette and a beer at Four Daughter's Kitchen. The bartender was happy to tell us all about the local beer Hangar 24, which is really brewed in an old airplane hangar. Has was happily dancing behind the bar- at 10 o"clock in the morning! Everything here was served very fresh and the kitchen was happy to make a custom salmon scramble for us - at a price ($17?). The hash browns were the favorite. Small cubed potatoes, carmelized onions, diced chirizo.

After a few cold ones and lots of people watching, we went to the beach for an hour or two, than off to the airport to wait for a plane. Hopefully to Honolulu.

"Silver Bells, Silver Bells.......

It's Christmas Time In The City"

   Nothing is more fun than New York City at Christmastime! (Think of our    favorite Christmas movie ELF). FAO Schwartz is clearly the best Christmas  toy store ! We saw all the sights: the tree, decorations, used the restrooms inside Trump Tower. Then we tried to have a drink at The Plaza- voted the best business cocktail bar in NYC. Alas, it was closed due to a holiday party! What kind of Christmas spirit is it to keep people OUT of parties?! Not to worry- it turned out even better.

We started walking down 6th Avenue and saw a sign over Pazza Notte Restaurant that looked like this. How can you pass that up?  It's an old style bar with photos of famous celebrities going back to the '30s. There's a big center bar where we plunked ourselves down. And the dashing bartender handed us martini menus. There were about 10 martini choices. DD (designated driver) had just a beer, MA is a manhattan girl (who would have thought!) and The Mighty Thor and I shared two Cosmopolitans. Then we had two Pomegranate Martinis- Thor's must have, but not my favorite (sorry). The exciting part was that our bartender, when he made other martinis for people, poured a shot of each flavor for us to taste! Mango, Lichi,  Peach, Chocolate Espresso, and best of all, I highly recommend, The French Martini: Vodka, Chambord, pineapple juice, and a topper of champagne. Definitely try it!
Pazza Notte also has an open pizza kitchen, which was right behind out seats. The sight and smell of the hand made Italian-style pizza haunted us all night. We had one of those hand-tossed, random geometry, real Italian pizzas. Vegetarian, of Course, for MA. It was so good! Note to self: Pizza and Martinis go very well together. The bartender was very busy. It was early on a Monday night and all the young suits had just gotten off work. We were lucky to get barside seats. This was a great people watching spot!  Before we left we had to take a look at the celebrity photos on the wall. Nobody there can figure out who that is in the 1935 photo of  Obama.

In true Thor style, we continued our Texas Three Step in Manhatten.

Next stop was The Heartland Brewery on 41st. heartland brewery  To my dismay it is actually quite the chain within NYC! It was packed full of happy reveler types. We got a pub table near the bar. Their beers are pretty good (see my chart- if I can get in on line, that is). It's a variety from lights and wheat all the way to stout. Something for everybody. Of course, I got the flight. The bartenders do give tastes in little tiny sampler mugs. One of which accidentally came home to Houston in my purse. Then had to be mailed back to our DD who asked me to hold it as a stocking stuffer for MA.
 They have the usual bar menu fare- nachos, wings, sliders. All good but not unique.  When we left people were clambering for our table.

The final stop was just luck. McHale's Pub, right next to our parking garage. Again, a seat at the bar. And everyone else seated there seemed to be regulars. At least everyone I spoke to (friendly bunch) lived within a block or two of the place. The bartenders seemed to know them well. Next to me was a man who was a little worried about his son, who is 30, a lawyer, and unmarried. If I had had one more drink in me I just may have given him my daughter's phone number (Sorry A). Instead, we left it up to fate and when he left we said "see you sometime in the future, when our kids introduce us to each other!". In his place sat a young financial something or other. Mid-20s. He's really from South Carolina but has come up to NY to seek his fortune and live in a tiny one room walk up. Tiny.  Thor had better luck than me. He sat next to Gwyneth (P.) and Molly (R.)- named by their similarity to other famous faces. They were all bubbly. Actors, actually. Molly had even gone on tour with a play and come to Houston. She did mention that Houston has one of the better theater districts in the country outside of NY.
But better yet..... they were eating macaroni and cheese at the bar! Late night drinking meets luscious baked home made macaroni and cheese. That set us off again on another round of bar food- veg nachos, baked brie, and mac'n'cheese. Heaven.  Oddly enough, after all that crazy food and combinations of drinks, we all felt fine!

The ride home went smoothly if you don't count that we crossed the George Washington bridge twice (running the toll). No matter, it was a rental.