Mamak, Houston

There is a new Malaysian restaurant in town. The name, Mamak, conjures scents of Indian spices and images of curries cooked all day over slow fire. In Malaysia, mamak stalls are very popular among office workers and college students for a quick delicious lunch. This place certainly did not disappoint.

For our inaugural visit, we ordered nasi lemak, Singapore curry laksa and char kuay teow. The dishes, surprisingly, taste a lot like those from Banana Leaf - the other Malaysian restaurant in Houston. The biggest difference between these restaurants is the interior decor. The Mamak restaurant is decidedly more upscale, with gleaming tables and stylish plate presentations. We have been back a few more times since then, and generally, have been pleased with the food and service. The one dish that I would steer clear from at this place is the Assam Laksa. While the Assam Laksa at Banana Leaf is palatable, the one from Mamak is a bowl of dull sour soup with limp disintegrating rice noodles.

Things to do around Houston

I can't believe it's been more than a month since I last wrote. Time sure flies when you are discovering all the fun things to do around Houston. I discovered a cheap buffet place off I10 called Hibachi Grill. It was truly value-for-money for the quality and amount of food that you can eat, it costs a whopping $10.89 per person. It was packed on the Saturday night that I was there, no doubt, all of Houston has discovered this all-you-can-eat place.

We've also discovered Karbach brewery. On a Friday evening after work, they have some sort of Happy Hour brewery tour where you can have 4 pints for $12. The caveat was you had to drink this all in 2 hours. Needless to say, we didn't drink 4 pints. We did try the IPA and the wheat beer; they were good. I am looking forward to Karbach being more widely available in Houston's food establishments.

  

We also went to a Houston Dynamo game at the brand new BBVA soccer stadium. Houston was playing Toronto that day, and though Toronto came out strong. Houston played better in the final 20 minutes to tie the game 3-3.

We celebrated our first 4th of July in the USA by going for a run in the morning. We then met some friends at Empire Turkish Grill for dinner. We had some Efes Pilsener beer from Turkey, which turned out to be quite delicious.

The Empire mixed grill was super delicious. I haven't had such good meats for a long time. The appetizer of eggplant soslu was really superb as well. Finally, we had keskul and turkish tea for dessert, and they really hit the spot.

After dinner, we made it to a park south of Washington Avenue where we could watch fireworks that were being launched at Eleanor Tinsley Park. It was supposed to be the largest fireworks show in the nation. It was very grand, all in all, a good finale to our first 4th of July in America.

Girls Trip

Last weekend was Memorial Day weekend. The girls came to visit me in Houston. It was so awesome to see each other again. I haven't seen them in over six months.

We immediately took them to Banana Leaf - the Malaysian restaurant in Houston. We ordered roti canai, shrimp noodle soup, kang kung belacan, tom yam mee hoon, nasi lemak and curry mee. It was delicious, and we were starving since we had to make a little detour to pick up a lost luggage from a shady warehouse along the way.

On the next day, J left for Calgary while the girls and I took a road trip to San Antonio. There was an accident on I10 near Brookshire and we were delayed for an hour. We made the most of it and stopped at a gas station right after to go to the bathroom, and then we also stopped at Buc-Ee's for kolaches! For those unfamiliar with Buc-Ee's, it's practically the largest highway stop you will ever find anywhere, and it has clean bathrooms. Kolaches are a must to eat while you're in Texas.

Well, we arrived, checked into the Marriott Riverwalk. It was gorgeous. We got a room on a high floor with a view of the riverwalk. The service at Marriott was awesome, the location just perfect.

We had lunch by the riverwalk. We went to The Original Mexican restaurant. We should have seen the warning sign when the menu was really long, but the descriptions of the items sounded similar. The food was mediocre. We then went to the Alamo.

I told the girls that they had to go to the Alamo, it was THE thing to do in San Antonio. So we went and watched the video on the historical defeat that was suffered by the Tejanos at the Alamo and the eventual victory at the San Jacinto monument.

After that, we went and had cappucinos at the Zocca at Westin riverwalk. On a warm afternoon at the riverwalk, this is one of my favourite things to do. Sit, drink cappucino and stare at the river passing by. Cappucinos at Zocca has got to be one of the best kept secrets along the San Antonio riverwalk.

Well, it was then dinner time. So, we headed over to Ostra at the Mokara hotel. The menu at Ostra sounds amazing. We ordered some cocktails and half a dozen raw oysters to start. We then shared a lobster and orzo pasta, a blackened fish and grilled broccolini. Lovely lovely dinner. The orzo and lobster was perfectly cooked, the fish was fresh and the broccolini had a charred earthy taste, which gave the vegetable a whole other dimension in taste.

The next morning, we headed to the Mercado Market in downtown San Antonio, where we saw different types of Mexican crafts, and had lunch on the patio of La Margarita.

After we got back to Houston, we had dinner at Goode Company BBQ, where we enjoyed some spicy pork, bbq ribs, beans, coleslaw and jambalaya. Goode Company is absolutely THE place to be that night. It was packed, and it was delicious.

The next day, T left early. A and I went shopping at the Houston Premium Outlet Malls. We arrived approximately at 9 am, just when the malls open, and shopped till nearly 2 pm when we were too hungry to keep on going. We thought about picking up something at the food court, but it was absolutely packed on a holiday Monday. So, instead, we left the outlet mall, and went to Le Viet. Her vermicelli and my hu tieu totally hit the spot that day.

Chanel Vitalumiere

After reading so much about the awesomeness of Chanel makeup, I finally decided to give it a try. I am using the Chanel Base Lumiere, Chanel Concealer Beige 20 and Chanel Vitalumiere Beige 30. I have used it for a couple of weeks now, and the experience has been great. My skin has taken to the makeup without any problems. There were no breakouts to contend with. The base is great for making the final application of foundation appear smoother and more even, particularly in areas where I have some acne scars on my cheeks. The concealer works well for covering reddish vein marks, and the foundation goes on light and gives great coverage. It doesn't feel like you have any makeup on, and it smells great as well.

Central Market

The peonies at Central Market are amazingly beautiful, and they smell so delicious. Spring is my favourite season! The floral section of the store is my favourite, I just love browsing through all the lovely flowers that they display and stopping to take a deep breath of the sweet sweet scent of fresh cut flowers.

The big bike ride

Last weekend, Josh did the big bike ride from Houston to Austin. It was a bike ride for the charity that tries to find a cure for Multiple Sclerosis. The ride was 177 miles over two days. I volunteered with the SCC and made many new friends over the weekend. It was one of the hardest MS 150 ride, according to some of the experienced riders. On the first day, the riders were faced with tough cross- and head-winds during the long 100-mile ride. The second day presented many rolling hills and strong heat. I am so proud that Josh finished the tour strong, and with some of the stronger riders in the club.

Brazos Bend State Park

Last Saturday, we went to the Brazos Bend State Park. It was a lot closer to the city than I had anticipated. The weather was warm and humid, so we expect to see many alligators out that day. There are many gravel trails in the park and you can bike on these trails. The entry fee for the park is $7 per adult. We took a hike around the 40-acre lake trail and even went up to the observation tower. We also took the connector trail to check out Elm Lake. We saw some baby alligators, tortoises and nice birds along the way.

Major league baseball

I attended my first major league baseball game last Friday. It was the season opener between the Houston Astros and the Colorado Rockies. Americans sure take their baseball seriously. The entire stadium was filled, parking and traffic were horrendous.

I learnt a lot about baseball that day. There are nine innings in a match. Points are scored when a team makes a complete run around the bases. After 3 hitters are taken out, the teams switches turns from being batters to catchers. While it was interesting for a first time, I found the whole process rather arduous and somewhat boring by the end.

The best part about the game was the fireworks at the end.

Visitor for Easter

Jonny came to visit us this weekend. He arrived on Friday night and will be here till after Easter. We have some activities planned for him while he is here. So, to kick it off, we drove to San Antonio yesterday.

We stayed at the St. Anthony Wyndham Hotel on East Travis Street. The room had two double beds and the best part about it was that it had two bathrooms. We did the valet parking at the Wyndham, and totally loved the convenience of it.

We visited the Natural Bridge Caverns and took the Hidden Passages tour. We went there previously with Ben and took the Discovery tour. In comparison, the Discovery tour is longer and more interesting, however, the Hidden Passages tour is less strenuous.

After checking in at the hotel, we walked to the Alamo and saw a stunning wedding party taking pictures in front of the shrine.

We managed to sit through a short video at the Alamo which totally explained the significance of the historic site in a vivid and memorable manner. It was very enlightening.

After the Alamo closed for the evening, we proceeded to the riverwalk. We went to Saltgrass and had some coronaritas. They were very refreshing on a warm sunny day. We had dinner there, and later had drinks at Ibiza, also along the riverwalk. We also had the opportunity to visit the Coyote Ugly Saloon which, true to its reputation, had girls dancing on the bar while being gawked by the mainly male patrons.

This morning, we had breakfast at a Mexican restaurant called Mi Tierra at the market square in downtown San Antonio. The restaurant had a plethora of shiny gaudy decoration, which looks pretty trippy and happy!

All in all, it was a great trip, and we had amazing sunny and warm weather throughout.

Strange things people do

Today, we saw something strange. My husband and I were sitting outside Starbucks enjoying our frappucinos and reading the New York Times. Some guy, with a hard-boiled egg in his hand, walked up to almost the front door of the Starbucks. He stopped on the sidewalk and started peeling the shell off the egg, tossing the shell on the parking lot between some parked cars. He proceeded to split the egg apart, separating the yolk from the white. He then tossed the egg yolk on the ground between the parked cars. He did all this while everyone on the patio of the Starbucks could see what he was doing. All of it, while a trash can is about 5 steps away!

Crash

J had a crash on his bike yesterday. Poor guy. He hurt his left shoulder and knees pretty badly. It happened during the Education Expedition bike ride. It was a nice warm clear day in Missouri City, TX where the ride was held.

I had the most wonderful 80 km bike ride on the country roads surrounding the area. The ride was really well organized, and there were many, many rest stops filled with energetic and helpful volunteers. They were well stocked with water, gatorade, bananas and other goodies. My definition of a successful ride is always no crash and no flats. J was not so lucky - he had both! He still completed his 121 km bike ride which is an amazing feat!

Dinner at Abdalla's

Last night, we had the pleasure of trying out a Lebanese restaurant on Hillcroft Avenue called Abdalla's. We had read several reviews of the place and they were highly favorable comments. We were to meet some friends there at 7:30 pm, however, true to Houston traffic, everyone was running late, and they finally showed up at around 8:10 pm.

Unfortunately, we discovered that the kitchen closes at 8:30 pm and they have stopped making fresh food at the time. We had limited choices that had been sitting out on the counter for some time. Unwilling to make a fuss, we ordered some chicken shawarma platters with rice, dolmades and tabouleh. Our server placed the rice and dolmades on plates and then microwaved them. It definitely felt rustic.

Regardless, we got our food, hung out with friends and had a great time. The food tasted really delicious too. After brief conversations (the restaurant closes at 9 pm), we bid each other adieu. We just managed to take a picture of all of us in the restaurant prior to the lights being switched off in the building.

An online journal of life moments

Just the other day, I was thinking to myself how time flies as you grow older. Some say that it's because as you gain more experiences, your brain filters recurring events such that the daily grind seems to pass by in the blink of an eye. Others argue that as you grow older, time intervals become smaller fractions of the total time that you've been living. Hence, the perception that time passes sooner.

The faster that time passes, the harder it is to remember our life experiences. Consequently, I thought it might be worthwhile attempting to keep a journal of life moments. An online record of events and feelings for future memories.