Jeffrey "All I Do Is Eat" C.'s Profile

Review number five hundy goes out to a unique, and soon to be lost, treasure in Houston: the Byzantine Fresco Chapel Museum.

Part of the Menil collection, the museum is free admission with free parking (either in the lot or along the street), meaning it's a great free date place. It's unique not only to Houston, but also to the rest of the Western Hemisphere. The chapel houses the only intact Byzantine frescoes on this side of the globe. Or at least, it will until March 4, 2012.

The frescoes were actually stolen from Cyprus in the 1980s, cut, and sold on the black market. The Menil Foundation, recognizing the opportunity and historical significance, bought the frescoes on behalf of Cyprus and restored them to be displayed in Houston. On March 4, the Foundation will return the frescoes to Cyprus, ending their time in the states.

The chapel itself is rather eerie, a stark dichotomy of modern and pre-Renaissance. The architect, Francois de Menil (Dominique's son), replicated a church setting--dome and apse--but used suspended opaque glass that's rather startling to those unprepared. Lighting within the chapel is part artificial and part natural, offset by the dark walls and built to draw your eyes' attention to the colorful, intricate frescoes. For those that can't stand the sheer bleakness of the Rothko Chapel (I love it, but that's a review for another time), the bright/dark dichotomy of the Byzantine Chapel may be more alluring.

It's a marvelous experience, and one I highly suggest you do before it's gone forever.

For more, check out this outstanding NYT article from when the frescoes first debuted: http://www.nytimes.com...

Planning a destination wedding is tough. The fiance and I wanted a weekend getaway to relax with friends and family, and thought the destination wedding would be a perfect idea. Too bad no one tells you that the journey is pretty darn tough!

After getting situated with our venue and caterer on-site in Sonoma, we planned the rest of the wedding remotely from Houston. For our DJ, we were unimpressed with the corporate conglomerate DJ houses recommended by our venue/caterers and struck off on our own to find the best possible DJ.

Thanks to Yelp, we found DJ Sir Edgar and a perfect fit. Three things really stood out that led to our decision to pick him as our wedding DJ.

First, he is incredibly responsive. Both via email and phone, he makes himself available, reads and responds to your questions, and lays out plan options with sufficient detail and clarity.  

Second, he is organized and detail-oriented. For a couple that has a million things going through their wedding-planning brains, having a vendor that understands what he wants while also understanding what you need is very important. When we first reached out to him, Edgar sent back a short questionnaire, showing how prepared he was and how eager he was to understand what we wanted out of our DJ. Our subsequent phone and email conversations only continued to prove how dedicated he was to contribute to our desired "perfect wedding."

Third, his Yelp reviews and experience speak for him. When we spoke via phone, he was very positive and enthusiastic about our wedding and what he could offer. But if you're looking for more information beyond just talking with him, Edgar's website has extensive information about his services as well as sample mixes, and also further reveals a genuine passion for what he does. He's not "just a wedding DJ," and we appreciated that.

FYI, Edgar also offers photo booth, lighting, and A/V services, for anyone looking for a more complete package. He also offers credit card payment services through Venmo, which we found very easy and convenient.

We look forward to having DJ Sir Edgar perform at our wedding (May 2012), and are very confident that he will get a 5* update post-reception!

You know that scene in Nutty Professor where Dave Chappelle at Club Scream goes "WOMEN BE SHOPPIN!" Well, at Wild West, it's "WOMEN BE TWO-STEPPIN!"

Seriously guys, if you want to get your best mack on, saddle up in your best cowboy hat, flannel shirt, Wrangler jeans, and cowboy boots. And then learn a country western dance move or three.

Wild West is the white man's answer to the Asian infiltrated Dave & Buster's right down the street. The parking is horrible, there's way too many people in one space, but the drink specials are good and there's plenty of entertainment to be had.

On busy nights, Wild West charges a cover ($6 last I went), but makes up for it with cheap drinks like dollar draft beers and two dollar domestic bottles. There's multiple main bars as well as draft only and bottle only service areas.

Yes, the music is primarily country western, but they'll bust out a double dose of hip-hop every 45 minutes or so, as well as the obligatory Don't Stop Believin' anthem for drunks.

The dance floor is generally filled with people that can't dance (like me) but try their darndest, but every so often you'll see a guy that really knows his stuff. Then you wonder why your mom didn't enroll you in dance classes when you were in elementary school, knowing full well one day you'd want to impress the female populace. C'mon, Mom!

Canyon Cafe is one of those quintessential three star places I never end up reviewing. There's nothing terribly wrong with it, and I don't object to going there, but I would never recommend it. It's just...a place.

The menu is a fusion of, say, Guadalajara and Applebee's, and if you like either you may be better off going to a place that does one better than a place that does both kind of okay.

Service is average, food is average, decor is...well, there are open flames that greet you outside the stairway. Yes, it's on the second floor, and one of the annoying things is that the bathrooms are on the first. There's a long walk from table to receptacle, let's put it that way.

Their chips basket is very good, and would fall perfectly in line with the Terra brand. So there's that.

I hit up Blansky's BBQ on a hat tip from @HouBBQ on Twitter. He (she?) called it "virtually unknown, but solid East TX 'cue." I'd say that's apt. It's located between 288 and Cullen off Almeda-Genoa, and if you've been round them parts you know there's not much there. The Google maps is accurate enough, if you're trying to find it.

Blansky's is nestled in a neighborhood and is itself a former house. There's some parking outside the fence, and interior seating is friendly enough (I took mine to go) and separated from the food prep area by just a divider that doesn't touch the ceiling. I envision that the smoker resides in the backyard.

They've got the gamut--brisket, ribs, links, and chicken--plated or by the pound. That gamut is available only Thursday to Saturday, 11am to 7pm. On Fridays, they do a catfish fry, which sent my tastebuds watering.

Unfortunately, it was a Thursday, so I settled on a beef-chicken plate (which comes with baked beans and potato salad) for $9.50. I had a craving for Peach Cobbler (they ran out at Gatlin's last time I went), so I picked up a side of that for three additional Washington's.

I'll start at the brisket, since that's what I do best (and by do, I mean eat). Unfortunately, as good as the brisket looked (nice smoke ring, solid char, hint of fat), it was just too dang dry for my taste. Unlike the fall off the fork goodness from Gatlin's or Thelma's, Blansky settled more in the "I prefer my meat dry" adage of Houston conglomerates like Goode Company or Pappa's. Sorry, that's just not my cup of tea. It's particularly disappointing to me since this was on Thursday, when Blansky's restarts business. Shouldn't I have been privy to the best cut?

With all that said, you may be wondering why the four stars. Well, in short, the rest of the plate was borderline phenomenal. The chicken was one of the best I've had smoked, fall off the bone good with the skin undercooked just right. The sides were even better. The potato salad is in the "mashed" form I find so delectable at Gatlin's, but it's even better at Blansky's. Ditto the beans. The reason, I think, is the copious use of a vinegar-sugar mix, which gives it a mouthwatering tang. For Asians whose families raised them on cucumber salad soaked in rice vinegar, sugar, and sesame oil--y'all know what I'm talkin' 'bout.

Also forgivable on the brisket was the fantastic barbeque sauce, poured directly on the meat. Like the sides, the vinegar force was strong with the sauce. Yet it's surprisingly thick, which I suspect comes from a brown sugar and/or molasses treatment. The website says it's good enough to eat with just bread, and I concur.

The cobbler was fine, but I'm guessing made with canned peaches and too much emphasis on nutmeg.

All in all, it's a place I'd try again. Only this time, I'd probably ask for fatty brisket and more sauce.

With the Houston foodie craze all abuzz about food trucks, one would think that The Rice Box Truck (a.k.a., Rice Box Truck or The Rice Box) would have found its way onto Yelp. One would've been wrong. Luckily, this intrepid Yelper is here to correct this oversight, and add yet another delicious food truck to the Yelp review listings.

The Rice Box Truck got some positive pub from the Chronicle's Alison Cook (http://www.29-95.com/r...), who noted the food-serving vehicle as an homage to Blade Runner. Unfortunately, Rice Box is currently open only during lunch, Mondays through Saturdays, so I didn't get to see the visual tapestry and lighting in proper action.

Back to those hours: Monday-Saturday from 11:00-2:30, with a schedule that shows them parked in front of Anvil (1424 Westheimer) for the foreseeable future. It's a bit of a strange location, given that Anvil itself doesn't open until 4:00, meaning there's no bar crowd with munchies fever. Also, with no dinner hours, Rice Box is strictly a lunch deal, yet too far away from Galleria or Downtown to get businessmen foot traffic. But it must be working for the owners, two Houstonians with some inspired yellow fever.

They got a craving for churning out Chinese-American dishes, and I'll be honest--I dig it. Despite my Asian heritage and my parents' many attempts to raise me on traditional fare, I've long been a sucker for Americanized dishes like Sesame Chicken and Broccoli Beef. The Rice Box meals, which run roughly $7, come packaged in those famous Chinese take-out boxes featured in such movies as Rush Hour and Rush Hour 2. The meals are pretty standard Chinese-American favorites, from the aforementioned above to General Tso's, Kung Pao, Sweet and Sour, etc. The protein/vegetable combo sits on a bed of white rice, and comes with an egg roll and fortune cookie.

I went with my personal favorite, the Sesame Chicken. The chicken pieces were hearty and plentiful, with just the right amount of the batter/chicken combination. The sauce was a little on the sweet side. With the overtly sugary taste, I might have preferred the spicy kick of General Tso's, which likely would have come with a spicy kick. The vegetable mix was healthily portioned, and I particularly liked the fresh crunch of the green bell peppers.

After receiving my take-out container, I pondered if the $7 was worthwhile and if the meal would be filling. Despite the small stature of the box, I downed the hearty Americanized goodness and was left sufficiently full. I guess appearances can be deceiving. For those that have a particularly big appetite, the Rice Box also offers appetizers like Fried Dumplings and Popcorn Chicken, and is currently experimenting with soups as well.

Overall, the Rice Box is a solid option that's certainly better than the traditional mall dreck that Joe American considers the end-all, be-all of Chinese. I'd like to see some two would-be-helpful improvements: dinner hours most importantly, as well as more meat variety into beef, pork, and/or seafood. But if you're asking me to pick between this or, say, Panda Express, I know my answer: go Local, and go Rice Box Truck.

I'm a huge fan of Pink's Pizza's gigantor cheese slice. It's probably as close as you can get to $2 New York thin crust slice. The difference, of course, is the gigantor part: one of these bad boys will set you back $5. That gets a little annoying because Pink's retail locations will have slices available, but they need to be reheated. And if you want toppings, those go on after you order. To reheat, they have to be slid through the baking machines just like a regular pizza. So you're not really saving much time by ordering by the slice during peak hours.

As for their specialty pizzas, there's lots of good stuff. A medium specialty pizza is $17, and a large $21. Not cheap, but Pink's is healthy with the toppings. Unfortunately, their crust to cheese to toppings ratio loses a lot of integrity once toppings are added. So while you're improving your pizza with artichokes, sun dried tomatoes, Italian sausage, rosemary chicken, feta cheese, or whatever floats your boat, you're losing the wonderful, understated deliciousness of the thin crust plain cheese.

Oh by the way, Pink's sets up shop at Free Press Summer Fest, where a slice of pizza, a Melange crepe, and a wash-it-down drink from Juice Girl will literally be the best thing you've ever tasted while not exactly sober.

Curse you, Vosges, for setting up shop in O'Hare Airport. I first stumbled upon Vosges on NYC's Upper East Side and quickly realized two things. One, it might be the most expensive retail chocolate store in America, and two, it makes for a brilliant gift.

With Christmas on the horizon and still plenty presentless, we took advantage of our extra time at O'Hare (yay for short security lines!) and did a little shopping. Now, I've never actually had a taste of Vosges chocolate; I've always just given it away. But the flavors sound plenty spectacular, and for $8 or so a bar, they better taste as good as they're described.

We picked up a couple of sampler boxes, one of the bars and another of the truffles, and were promptly set back roughly a Grant. Yeah. It hits the ol' pocketbook, all right. But it's a fantastically attractive gift that satisfies the five senses, so I'd call it worth it. Sort of. Maybe if I can sneak in a bite of one of the gifted chocolates, I could better let you know.

We hit up Oysy Sushi for our last lunch in Chicago. It's a solid businessman's approach to sushi. The lunch menu is pretty standard: bento boxes headlined by a teriyakied meat or sushi/sashimi sampler. It's also priced slightly steep at $12.

For that price, the box better be packed, which it was. It came with a couple pieces of California and Spicy Tuna rolls, a heaping of tempura, an interesting tofu pancake, and salad, with a miso soup starter. The tempura was the highlight of the bunch, in my opinion. The sashimi, even for a lunch serving, was fresh enough.

On the basis of Yelp, I also went with an Arizona Summer roll and was left wanting. I was hooked by the prospect of a cilantro + avocado + spicy sauce combination, but it didn't have the requisite salty/sour kick I was expecting. I also wasn't a fan of the tuna tempura, with the flash fry basically absorbing all of the tuna's taste and moistness. The regular Summer roll, presumably with raw tuna, may have been a better choice.

Decor-wise, Oysy is bright and green. Service is friendly, if a little slow. Overall, it appears fine as a business lunch joint, but I'm not sure I'd ever go out of my way to eat here.

Armed with a sweet tooth and disappointed that XOCO with its awesome churros were closed on Mondays, we took a flyer on Pierrot Gourmet and its pastry shelf. Located in the Peninsula Hotel, Pierrot Gourmet also has a tasty-sounding, if thoroughly expensive, brunch menu.

As for us, we went straight for the pastries, filled with delicious goodies. Alas, there was no coffee eclair, something I've been searching fruitlessly for since my days in Paris.

There's still pretty much everything else under the sun, including the purpose of our visit: macarons. There were 10 flavors, from the standard (vanilla, chocolate, etc.) to the seasonal variety (peppermint, for example). Unfortunately, the macarons disappointed. The filling was minimal and not nearly enough, and the cookies didn't hold up nearly as well as other macarons we've brought home via airplane.

They also had a huge macaron, the PB&J, that thoroughly intrigued us. After all, our best macaron ever was the Pierre Herme's world famous Ispahan. Unfortunately, the PB&J fell far short. The interior is as it says: peanut butter and jelly. There's some honey roasted and sugared peanuts in there which totally rocked. But I would have preferred for them to try and go with a traditional cream filling, infused with PB&J character.

As it was, it didn't read like a macaron tasting like a PB&J sandwich, but rather a PB&J sandwich that was trying to masquerade as a macaron. Like the smaller macarons, the PB&J cookie shell was unduly hard, not nearly fluffy and lightly crisp enough for it to be considered a macaron masterpiece.

Still, if you're in and around the area, Pierrot Gourmet is a decent place to check out, if only to admire the pastry shelf. That's always fun.