Houtonian Delicacies - Plethora of International Choices

As the Finnish and German saying goes...love goes through the stomach. I think it applies also to different cultures. Food plays important part in whether one starts to like country / area / town.

Houston is the melting pot of different cultures for centuries already, and respectively the variety of foods available is colorful. Also, eating out is very much part of the Houstonian culture. On top of variety of restaurant chains, there are plenty of nice smaller scale restaurants. The issue is not finding one...the issue is deciding which one to choose! :)

The best part here is that one can eat out and not go broke on it. Through the fact that I love cooking, eating out has been staying as special treat in our household.

I have listed below few of my personal favorites, which have been part of my cultural journey into the heart of Houston.
I have ordered Houstonia magazine for few reasons: it has the upcoming events, but also lists restaurants & places to go around Houston. I can only warmly recommend browsing even its web page, when you are looking for new ideas.
Happy exploring and Hyvää ruokahalua! / Bonne appetit!

Kolach / Kolache - originates from Check & Slovak immigrants. Houston style is slightly sweet bun with e.g. egg & bacon or other savory filling. Of course spiced up versions exist, when in Texas.
I got introduced to this at work. Friday morning meeting was energized with Kolaches from Kolachi Factory. I am not a sweet bun eater as such but the combination was delicious.
Colache Factory - One of the many places offering delicious Kolaches.

Mexican / Tex-Mex - Endless list of excellent real Mexican places (not just Tex-Mex) exists in Houston. One of the best one's is The Original Ninfa's (with their own Wikipedia page:LINK).
La Fisheria is known for their excellent Mexican seafood. Even my Mexican friends living in Alabama recommended this restaurant.

BBQ - Well it ain't Texas unless there is proper BBQ. Meat eaters love Houston and for a reason...this place hosts so many great BBQ places. One of the favorites is The Brisket House. My husband and myself took one of the Finnish friends there for his farewell dinner. We were all very happy of the outcome. The Brisket House is not a fancy place...it is down to earth BBQ joint, creating a cosy feeling with the slight smoky notes in the air.


Margarita / Tequila - Another create remains of the Mexican influence to the Texan history. Margarita's are available in any / every restaurant and mostly they are prepared well. Also, one can get here proper tequila without paying a fortune for it. One of the best places was TQLA, which I really liked...unfortunately now closed. But here is a list of some top places to go: LINK.

In Finland, Germany and Singapore...I tried tequila few times and thought that tequila & me do not match. I felt always so sick next day...even just after 1-2 tequilas. Till I was taught last summer by my project team / friends in San Luis Potosi how tequila is drank properly. If you get the proper tequila, you feel just great next day :) So, it is not allergy towards tequila...it is just crappy tequila, which causes the hang over. Claro que si!

Cajun & creole kitchen - the main meals I have enjoyed are the cajun style seafood - crawfish, fish and shrimps. Mainly in Galveston, which is THE place for excellent seafood (more about Galveston later). These dishes have made their way from Louisiana and as they are spicy, Texans have adopted the dishes with open arms. In Houston one of the best places for great crawfish and true Cajun style is Ragin Cajun. Relaxed atmosphere and bucket full of crawfish.

Vietnamese - Houston houses the 3rd biggest Vietnamese community outside Vietnam (as per the
statistics available now over 100 k people). Which leads to the positive outcome of having Vietnamese restaurants & "sandwich shops" everywhere. Some of them are ok, some of them are excellent. Vietnamese Pho restaurants have been well established around Houston. One of the mainstream offering of the restaurants is Pho. Pho is Vietnamese noodle soup, delicious broth, rich in vegetables and herbs with different meat choose.
I used to eat Chicken Pho in Singapore when ever I felt that I was coming down with something. I have taken back that habit here :) It is delicious and super healthy. Based on my experience, the Asian logic applies here too. You get the best Pho in places, which are not equipped with fancy exterior and glitter. Great examples are: Pho Basil and Nom Nom Noodles.

Japanese - Japanese places can be found anywhere and everywhere around Houston. As I am absolute fan of Japanese food and like making sushi at home as well...I love going to Japanese restaurants. Some of the ones I keep going back are: Sushi Nikko and Azuma. But like said, there are lot of places which I still need to explore. Now that I have found a Japanese store, Nippan Daido, close to our new place...I am looking forward to getting the ingredients and making sushi at home again.

Greek - I cannot say anything about Greek restaurants...except this one awesome Niko Niko's Greek kiosk in downtown Houston. It is right on the market square and one can sit outside enjoying the meal, observing people and happenings at the square. The food is excellent! Niko Niko's has also 2 restaurants (Montrose and Pearland) but the kiosk is just so cool. Reminds me of Europe and Asia with small food kiosks, simple and but delicious food.

German - There is one must place to go, when you want good German food...and that restaurant is now exactly behind our building :) Rudi Lechner's is the "Stamm Platz" / Regular place to go for Germans or those of us, who have lived in Germany and appreciate the German kitchen. Rudi's has been there since 1976 and they sure know to do their Schnitzel and German potato salad, as well as other German dishes. On top of that they have live entertainment several evenings a week, German schlager songs. Every month the Austrian & German community's Stammtisch gathers here. It is still on my to-do list to get connected to the German speaking community here.

Brunch - Weekend brunch is definitely the thing here. I really enjoyed getting introduced to brunch during my years in Germany & Singapore....then I lost the habit of that in between. After I moved here I introduced a habit in our household...every Sunday we go somewhere different for breakfast & coffee. My husband is a latte connoisseur and very picky about getting a proper coffee / latte. Sundays we got the time to find out new places to find latte for him and place to explore new breakfast menu. The list of good places to go around Houston is...again endless :)
Link to some places HOT right now: LINK.
Just some of the many places I have liked: Backstreet cafe, Grafiti, Siphon Cafe, Andes Cafe, Honeymoon, Tout Suite and Baby Barnaby's Cafe.

Food trucks - They are slowly making their more visible entry to the Houston streets. Austin is definitely the place to go if you want excellent food truck experiences. My bro can tell you by heart any of the new and delicious Austin food truck places :)
But Houston is promoting the food trucks and people are starting to find them easier.
List of some of the most popular ones: LINK1, LINK2.

Ode to Peanut Butter - the national delicacy of US

Prior to moving to Texas, I did not think much about peanut butter. I was probably like most of the Finns, wondering what the fuss is about that sticky paste.... until I tried it on Finnish rye bread and also with banana. My world has not been the same since then!

It is sweet but not really. The taste of a well made peanut butter is a perfect match to a Finnish taste buds (we tend to like sweet & salty and have even salmiakki - salty licorice).

If you are an American and think you have tried peanut butter in all variations and wondering about what the fuss is about; peanut butter and the Finnish rye bread (and possibly asking what that bread even is) :) I can only tell you that until you eat it on either Finnish rye bread (full rye) or Finnish Archipelago bread, you have not gone to the peanut butter 7th heaven. Same goes to all Finns, dare yourselves...try peanut butter on a a toasted Reissumies or Archipelago bread...Yauuuuza!

The only problem is that after that you will want to make sure to have proper peanut butter and proper (read: Finnish) rye bread in the house at all times. If for nothing else, than for the occasions you want to rock your taste buds and make them jump out of joy.

Since this experience, I cannot stop wondering why in Finland peanut butter has never become hit product? Through the appearance of some US import goods in some of the bigger grocery stores, some decent peanut butter has found its way to Finland. Or should have...I cannot say for sure, as I was totally oblivious to the product prior moving to Houston. On the other hand there are a good number of people in Finland with nut allergy. But still the rest of the country would go nuts, if they would get the chance to experience what I did...the peanut butter 7th heaven.


Americans have even national Peanut Butter day on the 24th January. Tells how much this nation adores peanut butter! Would you believe that making peanut butter dates back to aztec times? That is where the initial form of peanut butter found its form. In the more "modern" age, 1895, Dr. John Harvey Kellogg patented the production process from raw peanuts to peanut butter to help teethless patients to have alternative protein rich source of nutrition. In between the peanut butter making machine was invented, then came chemist Joseph Rosefield, who in 1922 invented a process for making smooth peanut butter that kept the oil from separating by using partially hydrogenated oil. In 1928 he licensed his invention to the company that created Peter Pan peanut butter. 

My husband wanted to bring a truly American souvenir to my newphews 2 years ago. It was a jar of Peter Pan peanut butter, the crunchy one. For a while the jar sat in the cupboard pretty much untouched...until I introduced the same thing for them, what I had experienced: peanut butter and rye bread. The next 2 days my older nephew was making my husband and sister-in-law breakfast in bed, with toasted rye bread with peanut butter. My heart was jumping out of joy for the sweet thing he did.

Since then my younger nephew announced to me, when I asked about their birthday present wishes:"I would like to have a BIG jar of Peter Pan. We ate the other one empty already some time ago." Once the present box arrived in Finland, I got a photo in return...showing my younger nephew's happy face, smeared with peanut butter with a bread slice covered under few centimeters of peanut butter. Accompanied with the comment from my brother quoting my younger nephew: "Peter Pan is really good...munch munch...aunt Inna is pretty nice...munch munch.." :) Oh happy days!

After I got into the whole peanut butter and rye bread, I started reading up on peanut butter. Against all the stereotypes I had formed about it, it is actually good source of many necessary nutritions. Taken of course that you buy one that is not on the high end with the sugar amounts.

My American father-in-law eats peanut butter on banana taking double health effect. Eating it with rye bread comes also with the double health effect, protein, iron and fiber combined.

The crunchy peanut butter, which is my favorite has good amount of fiber and is good source of unsaturated fat. Peanut butter also provides protein, vitamins B₃ and E, magnesium, folate, dietary fiber, resveratrol, arginine,and high levels of the antioxidant p-coumaric acid.

Those of you, who are nutrition freaks...I admit to be one, you would recognize also arginine. An amino acid, which has been marketed lately in many health products. Depending on the person's nutritional habits arginine may help to boost up the immune system.

It has other good usage too...the day will one day come that I can share the tip with my brother: Peanut butter helps to remove chewing gum from hair. I spy that there will be an event when one of my nephews masters to get it into his hair :)

Fun fact....peanut is not considered as a nut but legumes grown under ground...learning something new every day :)

I do have to admit that even though I miss Kinder Surprise egg during the Easter, the Reese's peanut butter egg, which the "bunny" brought to me in the basket...they are awesome yammi! Again for the simple fact that peanut butter balances the sweetness effect of the chocolate. I bet those cannot be counted healthy but they are healthier than munching big chocolate egg. The other good things about those candies is that you cannot eat too many in one go, due to the sticky nature of the texture. So, a win win deal for anyone, who wants to find a replacement for chocolate hunger :)

So, now I just need to figure out how to get rest of Finland liberated and get people to try the peanut butter 7th heaven: Finnish rye bread and crunchy peanut butter :) Let Peter Pan take over Finland ;)

For those interested: more about history of peanut butter and one of many taste comparison reports.

Easter and The mystery of missing Kinder Surprise Egg

Easter traditions are as colorful as the brightly painted easter eggs.

What I have learned by now from my husband and my American family, their Easter traditions used to include traveling to the family farm (when my husband was still a child) to spend the Easter with grand-parents and the extended family. They would visit the church with the whole family. Easter weekend also included egg hunt and eventually the Easter bunny also came for a visit. Easter bunny comes with a basket filled with hay and hidden Easter goodies.

Egg hunt most often means plastic eggs hidden in different places (to keep the chocolate from melting, especially in the Southern states), inside there are smaller toys, mini Easter eggs and candies. Alternatively painted eggs hidden in the house, garden, beach, etc.

According to some sources I checked, the Easter Bunny (Osterhase), is an interesting mammal...it lays eggs, as well as the hiding of eggs originally landed to US with the German immigrants around 1700. I knew these traditions from my years in Germany and it is really interesting to see how with the immigration so many colorful traditions have found their solid place in the US holiday traditions.

Out of all the egg variation one can find here, there is one major thing missing though...the surprise eggs. My all time favorite, Kinder Surprise Egg, was nowhere to be found in the mainstream grocery stores. Some speciality stores, specialized in import, e.g. Phoenicia or Specs, had some but ran out.

I was wondering why would THE Egg of all Easter Eggs, which is eaten across Europe, be missing from a consumer targeted country like US? After digging into it, I found interesting history.

The story of the Kinder Surprise egg started in 1974 in Italy. Since then the little surprise egg took over the world, one country at the time. Bringing joy to young and young at heart :)
Due to the US Federal Food, drug and cosmetics act dating back to1938 it was not allowed to sell confectionary including a non-food item embedded inside, unless the part had a functional value. Due to missing to read the texts of the age restrictions the egg was banned from US. For a while there was even a fine if anyone tried to bring the Kinder Surprise eggs into the country e.g. in their luggage.
The few cases, where public info exists, fines were between 300 - 2500 $ per egg.

Finally in 2013 the Kinder Surprise Egg was allowed to enter the US market as a result of failed attempt to succeed with the petition with the aim to ban import and sales of Kinder Surprise Eggs. That one luckily never got enough signatures. Thus, now Kinder Surprise Eggs are fully legal in US...but they can for now only be seen at the stores specialized for import goods. Hoping that some years from now they would not be such a rare commodity anymore. Because they are so good!!!

When I was living in Germany (as an young adult) I sometimes bought myself and my friends Kinder Surprise Egg to have it as the dessert after breakfast on Sunday. Just because one should have happy surprises throughout the year. I recall sitting on the beach with a friend on summer weekend, eating our Kinder Surprise eggs and enjoying the day. My mind started racing the path of its own...I started wondering how many engineers they need to design all the toys & games for the eggs and how many test cycles they have to go through to find the right balance for size, safety and not the least excitement. I think I would love to work for the department responsible for creating the surprises and testing them :)

Back from the egg to the....witch! As in Finland the Easter looks little different than in US, or Germany for that matter. Finnish Easter tradition is a mixture of old pagan traditions and the symbolics brought in with the orthodox church. Finland has only about 1% of population belonging to the orthodox church, thus the rest of Easter from religious perspective is mainly Evangelic Lutheran. In Finnish practical terms it means that the role of church is not in the center of the events.

On Palm Sunday the Finnish children dress up as witches and tour around the neighborhood casting the spell to all, who allow them to do so. Prior to that they have decorated several pussy willow branches with colorful decorations (feathers, paper ornaments, etc.). Those are the wands which they do the spell with and leave it to the receiver, in return for candy.
I remember when I moved back to Finland in 2007, all the years from there onwards the door bell rang first time at 10 am (the neighbors' kids knew I was up early during weekends)...and it continued ringing all the way till about 3 pm. As a result I had lovely bouquet of colorful branches and had been thoroughly casted with well being spells.

The Easter weekend itself is also a fun one, cause it is a long weekend. Good Friday (in Finnish Pitkäperjantai "Long Friday") and Easter Monday are public holidays. Most of the shops are closed all 4 days, only the big grocery stores (note big in Finnish context means only grocery stores beyond 400m2 / 4000ft2) are allowed to stay open some hours. I like that limitation, as it calms things down. Lot of people take the time to visit their relatives or many use this opportunity to go for the last ski trip for the season to Finnish Lapland or abroad. Some, like my brother and sister-in-law, use this weekend to prepare their yacht for the summer season. The spring is starting to show and, for most Finns, Easter marks the end to the long dark winter and start of spring season. Some even grow Easter grass (normal garden grass) on a plate or basket and put little chick decoration on it.

Easter weekend dinners are around lamb and vegetables. Some modern cooks might cook wild hare instead of lamb. Dessert is either mämmi, a sweet rye Jell-o like desert, Pasha (from the Russian traditions and more among the orthodox community), dessert made of quark / curd and something fruity to bring the spring colors to the table.

Mämmi is something, which is a must taste for foreigners, at least once. But do not think ALL
Finns love it. My husband got to spend one Easter by himself in Finland, as I was going for a girls trip with one of my good friends to Singapore and Bali. I prepared him for everything, he knew what to do and say when the witches came and he was exploring the Finnish cuisine. When I got home from the trip he proudly announced that he had saved half a box of mämmi for me :) Great! I was busy thinking how to tell him nicely that I do not normally eat mämmi and if I do, maximum one small bowl. He was highly confused...as he had read somewhere that ALL Finns love mämmi. Mämmi is one of those foods that you either love it, or you despise it. Do not judge it though only based on the somewhat enquiring looks of it.

I have been really awed to see how 2nd / 3rd generation American Finns post to Facebook community pictures of home made mämmi. Respect!

Eggs are of course solid part of Finnish Easter too. Kinder Surprise eggs are sold in every Finnish grocery store :) but we have our own speciality egg. Fazer has made a business of reusing empty egg shells from baking to fill them with chocolate. This delicacy is called Mignon egg.

Hyvää pääsiäistä! Glad Påsk! Fröhliche Ostern! Joyeuses pâques! Feliz Pascua! Happy Easter to one and all! May The joy of spring and New beginnings fill this weekend.

Seasonal Cultural Funnies

For anyone else this blog post by Martha Stewart is story like any other. But from a Finnish perspective this gets really a hilarious twist. I posted this originally to my Facebook wall and it got so many laughing reactions, that I decided to post it here too. Just to spread the laugh attacks.

Anyone, who is not Finnish speaker, please check as a preparation the translation from Finnish to English for the word Paska.
Then you can move on to the hilarious reading experience. I have read the text several times...each time I end up with a laugh attack, tears in my eyes and oxygen running out. This is too funny! Want to point out that one should take No offense towards Ukrainian baking culture. It just so happens that the story and the play with words hits the humor spots so well!

Martha Stewart Blog Post about Paska

Have fun!!!

The little Finnish things in Houston

I have noticed since moving to Houston a funny behavior in myself. It seems that when ever I live outside Finland the Finn in me raises its head more than during the years when I have lived in Finland. I lived, before moving here, 7 years in Finland and prior to that 12 years abroad (Germany, Singapore and Belgium). 

I guess in Finland all that "Finnishness" is part of daily life and getting the typical Finnish products e.g. rye bread, nobody thinks twice about those, as you can get those anywhere. Even the smallest village shop is well stocked with dozen different fresh rye bread brands. Same goes for sauna, everyone has sauna and it is part of the daily life (I will blog more about that separately). 

When you move abroad, suddenly the whole daily life gets extreme make over. One needs to rethink what one can find and where. Weeks were spent, this time around with the help of my American family and husband, to find what my husband calls my "comfort foods". In my case it helped that my husband lived in Finland for a while and a year with me. He knows exactly what Finnish daily life looks like.

It has been a positive experience though. In my opinion everyone should move abroad at least once in their life. For me it has been each time rewarding experience, even though the beginning is always tough to find ones way around in the new place.

What it has done to me though;

I have stopped taking things or people for granted and learned to appreciate things in Finland, which I did not even pay attention before. On the other hand from each country I have lived, I have taken new ideas and habits with me, able to recognize that there are some things which we are way behind in Finland or able to see things here in US, which would be in need of checking how other countries are doing it. I consider it a richness to be able to get deep into foreign countries' culture and melt as part of the local culture with my Finnish & international quirks :)

There are certain things though, which I try to keep with me, no matter where I live. Wanted to list some of them below and also tips or places in Houston / Internet, which help to keep the Finn in me content :) Maybe other Finns around Houston find these useful too.

Finnish Hairdresser / http://www.mikkosalons.com/

Might sound silly but most Finns (and Swedes too) have very different hair type than e.g. Germans, Belgians, Asians or Americans. It is thin but there is plenty of it and it bends / curls all directions.

When I moved here I was lucky enough to hear through a friend that there is a Finnish hairdresser in Springs, Mikko. Here some people might wonder, why on earth would I drive all the way to Springs for hair cut (it means about 45 - 60 min drive one way). I do it gladly when I know that my hair is cut by someone who know exactly how to cut it. My mother was hard core professional hair dresser and taught me to be picky about my hair. Plus now the hair cut is not just a hair cut, it gives a chance to speak Finnish and compare experiences in US. Mikko has lived here 12 years and has given me lot of good tips along the way.

Xylitol Chewing Gum

Having grown up in environment, where xylitol is part of daily life since child and importance of dental care starts from early years.

It was a relief to notice that Americans have actually gotten away from the sugar chewing gums and more sugar free chewing gum exists, which have xylitol. One can find main brands in any grocery store. My issue with some of main stream brands was though that I got some kind of allergic reaction.

After searching for a while I noticed that health food stores sell xylitol products, which do not cause any reactions. One good one is Spry, several flavors and available in most health food stores, as well as online.

I still remember when living in Singapore, where chewing gum in general is banned from being sold commercially. I had to "smuggle"boxes of chewing gum from each trip to Finland. That lead often to interesting discussions with customs. "Mam, you are certain that these 10 boxes of chewing gum are for your personal use only?" Luckily each time I was able to convince them that I really am "addicted to xylitol chewing gum".

Rye Bread

I have not found anything even close to my favorite rye bread, Reissumies. Yet there are luckily good selection of German rye breads (Thanks to all the German communities in town...Danke!!!).

Best places to find rye bread, which actually is rye bread (several US produces claim something to be rye bread, yet rye is the last ingredient on the list):

- Fun fact for those who did not know it from before, the ingredients are listed in the descending order of how much of that ingredient is in the product -

Phoenicia has good selection of German rye bread and dried rye bread (näkkileipä in Finnish).

Following chains have generally good selections:

Trader Joe's

Specs

Whole Foods

Ikea

But like said, one cannot get the Finnish rye bread like bread. Thus I decided to bake Finnish Archipelago bread. In Finland this would be nothing no big news. Here getting all the ingredients together was the most exhausting part. Kroger, Whole Foods and Central Market have good quality rye flour. The trickies one was finding malted rye and it took us few weeks to find a place....as we had to go to a hobby beer brewing shop to get it :)
Defalgo's has German malted rye, which is very close to Finnish malted rye.

I found this recipe, which helped me to find local equivalent to the ingredients, which one would use in Finland: Finnish Archipelago Bread

Those living Houston, happy to make some extra ones in my lil' home bakery when ever I bake, if I know that there would be demand for some.

Cheese

Finnish Edam cheese is not yet available here but Valio does have a daughter company in US, Finlandia Cheese.

One can find Finlandia's cheese in most of the chains listed above. Houston being international hub, decent cheese selections are available in most stores (also at HEB, Fiesta and Walmart). In most places cheese costs as much as it does in Finland...unfortunately.

Maybe Finlandia would start producing Edam if they get enough requests.

For many foreigners Finnish Edam may, with its taste, reflect the nature of most Finns, silent and does not say much. But that cheese goes with anything :)

So far the only way to get Edam cheese is to fill the suitcase with Valio Edam and stock them in the freezer. If I only would not forget the cheese pile to my brother's fridge....which happened during last trip. FOUR kilos of Edam cheese, which I forgot to pack when heading to airport in the crack of dawn.

Finnish Goodies

I have found Panda liquorice in Fiesta.

World Market has Haribo selections and other salmiak (salty liquorice) similar products. My advice is though to stay away though from the Dutch Salty Liquorice products....they are nothing but salt.

Fazer chocolate.... there would be huge market for it here. Fazer chocolate is refreshingly different compared to any US, Belgian, German or Swiss chocolate. It is not as thick and the different flavors are yammi. Right now only places one can get them here are internet stores:

Willy's Products

Suomikauppa

FinnStyle

Some of those stores run out the best products fast and prices reflect that you are buying luxury import goods. But definitely worth buying!!! It takes your tongue with it (Finnish saying), so smooth and yammi.

We were lucky to get from ex-project colleagues at Fazer 16 kilos of chocolate for our wedding, as their wedding present to us. The whole 16 kilos was eaten too! What stayed over from wedding disappeared during mid-summer with the core family. The whole American side of the family fell in love with Fazer chocolates :)

Vihi vihi vihi and greetings to family and friends back in Finland or who have access to Reissumies rye bread and Fazer Chocolate...do not hesitate if you ever want to surprise me with a survival package ;))))

Happy to hear from the other Finns in Houston if there are some other good places to get our comfort foods.