2012 Dining Journalism Resumed

1 Touch Reservations has resumed our dining journalism with our first wine and food pairing article of 2012. Last year we started our "Recipe of the Year," which was our best prepared entrée and or dessert.  This year the recipe will most likely be a combination of dessert and entrée, which is a fudge brownie chocolate cheese cake and a unique version of Bologonese that incorporates the idea of Braciole in the Bolognese sauce.  The article is posted at our dining website, www.finedining.ws.
Recently dined at restaurants, with a focus on meat and the Northwest part of town, starting with Peli Peli, a fine dining restaurant that rivals the best of Houston restaurants but, in the Spring area.  Not sure exactly how to describe the cuisine, "Peli Peli (also known as Piri Piri or Peri Peri), which means Bird’s-Eye Chili, is a spice found by the Portuguese in the 15th Century on the plains of Southern Africa. The spice rapidly became popular when used to prepare sauces and marinades for Portuguese and African foods." (from PeliPeli.com About page)  The only warning is to budget for visiting the restaurant for it is a little expensive, that is for the Spring area but, not compared to fine dining in Houston.  The price is well worth the money for the ambiance and food is some of the best fine dining I have tried in even the best known culinary cities.  The lighting, the design of the restaurant, the table space, everything makes the dinner extra special including the service.  Just down the street on Louetta from Peli Peli is Raoul's Italian Grill, www.raoulsitaliangrill.com, which some has said rivals the best Italian restaurant in Houston.  I am not certain I can pin point anything on the menu that stands out because every menu item served by Raoul's Italian Grill is incredible but, maybe, their desserts is their highlight.  If not, their ambiance and piano nights make dining there extra special as well.  Recently, I sent a couple friends there and they said if was the best Italian food they have dined at a restaurant.  
Meat lovers and or barbecue lovers truly need to try Larry's Barbecue off of the Northwest Frwy near Beltway 8.  The restaurant is a BBQ buffet and that is not the best part.  The best part of Larry's is the taste of the barbeque and the selection of food.  Well worth the visit and relatively inexpensive, I recall about $11/ person for dinner.  Their website is www.larrysbbq.com.  Heading North, Guri Do Sul is a worthy mention, a Brazilian steakhouse with a similar theme to Fogo De Chao.  Definitely go hungry and personally, I enjoy the food but I look forward to comparing to Fogo De Chao soon.  We dined for the first time at Hubble and Hudson's but, we have shopped there many times.  We were on our way to meet family and Ryan's in Conroe, so we just stopped in for an appetizer.  We tried their Flat Bread appetizer, which is baby arugula, shaved pecorino, house tomato sauce, hubbell & hudson evoo.  That was practically addicting for we were trying not to eat much since we were going to Ryan's.  Now, Ryan's, that is the story for us.  My wife, Carla is a southern girl, raised on a Texas ranch.  Although Conroe is a little far to drive for Houstonians, Conroe is a good choice for a weekend getaway and Ryan's steakhouse is the place to go if you are a meat lover.  The sirloin steak was outstanding and grilled as requested plus they have roast beef, ham and many other choices to dine.  So, those in Spring who are looking for good restaurants, traveling to Houston is becoming less necessary to find a the best of restaurants.
1 Touch Reservations is close to completing the restructure from Star Banquets and Travel as we have consolidated over 30 of our websites and are operating mainly Trips.ws, Fineding.ws and Menus.ws for PC/Laptop viewing and 1TR.Mobi for mobile.  Some of our Houston websites will remain such as HoustonReservations.info and HoustonRestaurants.ws.  Holiday websites have been consolidated to ThanksgivingRestaurants.info and ValentinesDayRestaurants.com.  We will most likely keep this blog up but, that is not for certain.  Our new national blog address is TheAmericanPatron.BlogSpot.com and we hope to launch by August, which will also include the launch of our newsletter, The American Patron.  You can sign up for the newsletter at www.1touchreservations.com.