Reef *** (Three stars)

While I was in Houston, I went to Reef Restaurant not too far from my downtown hotel for dinner one night. Reef is Bryan Caswell's restaurant (he was Jean-Georges Vongerichten's executive chef at Bank in Houston) dedicated to seafood. I found it while trolling around Gourmet Magazine's website, hoping to find someplace decent to eat. The restaurant is a modern style, with a spare but chic dining room that has a view into the kitchen, as well as a lounge/bar area on the other side. It also has a private room near the glass-encased wine cellar.

I started with a glass of Argyle Brut sparkling wine and the Kanzuri cured African pompano with cucumber and cucumber water. Kanzuri is an Indian paste that has some spice to it, but somehow the curing process ended up yielding a gummy, tasteless fish. The spice itself has a pleasant sweet and sour dynamic, but the cucumber slices were essential to offset the fish with some texture. When I remarked on the fishes gummy texture, the waiter offered to get me something else (which I declined).

The main course was much better (and was a recommendation from the waiter). I had the red fish on the half shell with truffle infused polenta (as a replacement for the normal mac n' cheese side). The red fish has a great spice crust that doesn't overwhelm the fish, but brings some heat as a counterpart to the moist fish. The polenta was fantastic, with a reassuring corn flavor and a subdued truffle infusion that didn't scream too much as truffle infusions can. The yeast rolls with sea salt that came with the meal went well with the sweet relish jam. This restaurant likes to match spices with everything and does it well.

I had a mini-dessert called milkshake "no minors" which has kahlua and a dark chocolate tuile that was a pleasant way to end the meal.

The wine list had an interesting entry called Bin 713 that featured wines in which Houstonians have been involved -- which could mean anything from owning a vineyard to having a minority stake. None of the wine is actually grown in Texas; it's all from the West Coast, apparently. It seemed a strange thing to highlight on the menu.

Jim Beam Distillers Series

Jim Beam's Distillers Series is a limited release bourbon from the great bourbon maker. In fact, its release was announced last October with an availability only running through January 2009. So it was somewhat serendipity that I ran across a bottle (cluelessly not knowing what I was looking at) in a liquor store near the Texas Motor Speedway in Fort Worth, Texas. This is a seven year old that is bottled at 90 proof. The bottle itself has small portraits of each of the seven master distillers going back to Jacob Beam in 1795. The liquid inside is a dark crimson (I wonder if bourbon is colored with caramel coloring like some other whiskies?) and has a rich nose, with tons of spice, hints of chocolate, some burnt sugar and caramel (the gooey stuff, not the coloring agent). This is a fascinating bourbon: with water it is soft and round, a fabulous bourbon with tons of complex layers; on the rocks it is very spicy and has some roughness to it.

Major Changes to Laphroaig's line-up

Laphroaig recently announced a major change to its line of whiskies -- Prince Charles's favorite tipple is being replaced. The last 15 year olds are going quickly to be replaced soon with an 18 year old expression. No word from Beam Global Spirits when the first bottles will arrive in the US. Here's John Campbell's complete announcement:

Laphroaig 18 year old

This is a fantastic new expression that is replacing our venerable 15 Year Old. It is not without shedding a tear or two that I wave goodbye to our multi award winning "15". I have been to our warehouse in Glasgow and retrieved the last 65 bottles. For the collectors amongst you I have made 30 available for "Friends" on a first come first served basis. But frankly the new "18" has a flavour to behold. Not only has it enjoyed the extra 3years sleep, we have bottled it at the higher strength of 48% ABV and thus avoided the chill filtering process. It is absolutely delicious and I hope to have some of the first bottling available for you in a month or two.

My dream project

Yale students working on the Yale community farm have started a tradition of roasting (actually, smoking) a whole pig for the last class of the year. That would be my dream project, except that a whole pig would not fit in my smoker at home (you can see what kind I have and where I got it here). I have tried smoking chicken (I end up getting frustated and finishing it off as a blackened mess on the grill) and pork butt (which takes a long time on its own, that I usually bring it in for a couple of hours in the oven). Ribs I have not had any problems with, especially baby back.

Better BBQ in Texas

I told you about the bad, now how about some good? Well, H3 Ranch down at the Ft. Worth stockyards is mainly a steak restaurant, but it also does some BBQ ribs that are pretty good (St. Louis style pork ribs, not beef ribs) and smoked steaks that are nice treat since it's not usual to find smoked steaks in BBQ places. I actually had the rainbow trout, which is grilled over hickory wood and comes with a rice pilaf that has great spice (but not too much) and sauteed veggies (zucchini and squash). The fish was flavorful and moist. I tried a bit of my neighbor's filet mignon, which was good as filet should be. H3 is not a cheap place, but it is competitively priced for a steak joint, plus you can sit on a horse saddle at the bar or watch the cooks sweating over the grill.

Bad BBQ in Texas

There are undoubtedly wonderful things about Texas, and even about Texas BBQ, but I have to say the Sonny Bryan's BBQ is definitely not one of them. This is a chain in the Dallas-Ft. Worth area that offers lots of choices, but not many of them are good. I wanted to try a mixture of things, so I went with the half-pound plate with two veg, which lets you try up to three meats. I tried the pulled pork (tasteless), the ribs (some taste, but not very good), and brisket (equally tasteless). The BBQ sauce that came on the whole plate was obviously made with too much tomato paste (no BBQ sauce should have much, if any, paste in it), which gave it a metallic, sharp tomato flavor. The coleslaw had no flavor either. The only semi-redeeming piece on the plate was the fried okra, which was okay, as long as you added mayo to it.

When in the Dallas-Ft. Worth area, stay away from Sonny Bryan's.

Laphroaig 15 Year Old

The Laphroaig 15 year old is apparently Prince Charles's favorite scotch. I can't say that I blame him, because it is a rich, smokey, briney wonder. I found it had a light copper color and that first whiff tells you right away that it is a Laphroaig, though perhaps a bit softer and less sharp than the quarter cask or the 10 year old. I almost felt as though it didn't even need any water. It has strong smoke, even some ash-like qualities. (These are good things, but definitely an acquired taste). The flavor has some powerful spice and smoke. When water is added, I get some wine notes, perhaps caramel and something sweet. A little plastic too, but very subtle. The smoke, spice, sea-salt, and brine are all still there, but more subdued, and the 10 year old's seaweed is not truly in evidence. Wonderful stuff, and well worth the price (I got mine at a Pennsylvania state store for $57, which I considered a steal).

Going Whole Hog

The New York Times has a piece today about a heritage breed of pig from Hungary that has been bred back from the edge of extinction. The Mangalitsa pig has much higher levels of body fat than the pigs we're used to in the US and they take longer to mature. Much of this results from our misguided obsession with eliminating fat from our diet, so pigs have been bred much leaner in the past fifty years than they used to be. The USDA recommends cooking pork to 160 degrees internal temperature to ensure food safety, particularly against trichinosis. The thing is, we all have had pork cooked to that temperature, and it's far too dry. In fact, cooking to 137 degrees kills most of the bugs, so you can be reasonably assured of better tasting meat and little chance of illness if you cook to 135-140 (the temperature will rise another 5-10 degrees depending on cooking method as you let it rest).