CFS at the Hollister Grill: Onward with the Quest!

Chicken Fried Steak at the Hollister Grill in Houston, Texas

Okay, anybody who’s paid attention to my previous posts on the subject knows that I’m on something of a Quest. A Quest to find the Best Chicken Fried Steak in Existence. Alright, alright, I’ll admit that this isn’t a full-time thing. Nothing like the Knights Templar and their Quest for the Holy Grail or anything. Nope, this is a spare time gig, but to me it is just as serious of an undertaking.

Recently I found out about a new restaurant just a few miles down the road from my house, called the The Hollister Grill. It is located where an Italian Restaurant had been a local institution for decades. Sadly, the original owners retired and sold it to some non-Italians, and the quality slipped. It closed a few years later. But after finding out about this new place, I did a bit of research and discovered that their menu was mostly American comfort food, especially for lunch. Things get quite a bit fancier — and more expensive — for dinner, but still even for dinner the American theme presides. One of my discoveries on their lunch menu was Chicken Fried Steak. Well, that settled it; I had to go and give the place a try.

The Hollister Grill is tucked away in the rear of a small strip mall on Long Point Rd. in the heart of the Old Spring Branch district of Houston. If it weren’t for their rather prominent sign out at the curb, you would scarcely know they were there. Parking is limited. We arrived during the peak of the lunch hour today, a Monday, which the owner says is a slow day for them. Yet the parking lot was full and the restaurant was almost full. We ended up parking on the street next to the restaurant. No big deal. Fortunately I had called earlier requesting a table for two, and it was waiting for us when we arrived.

The Hollister Grill is a family run business, and it shows. As soon as you walk in the door, they welcome you as if you are part of the family, and they are warm and friendly, offering prompt and thorough service. It is a smallish, rather cozy sort of place. The interior is simple: booths along a few of the walls, with tables elsewhere. Avant garde paintings on the walls.  When you visit their website, you’ll also see that they recommend you BYOB.

But enough of all that. Let’s get to the reason for this post: the CFS.

Don’t let the above photo fool you.  The food was placed on a platter, not a plate, really.  Such a large platter may make you think that the servings are just sort of medium sized.  But they are not.  The Chicken Fried Steak was a good nine to ten inches long by seven to eight inches wide, what looks like a dollop of mashed potatoes was actually a rather large heap, and the ample helping of mixed vegetables has been hidden from view, buried behind the CFS.  You know how many restaurants will offer smaller portions of their dishes for reduced prices on their lunch menus?  Not this place.  This big platter of food sets you back only $9.95.  And with food that is this good, well, that’s a deal any way you want to slice it.

Unlike many other places, the Hollister Grill’s Chicken Fried Steak is dipped in a rather thin batter that ends up being very light and crispy, and it adheres very well to the well-tenderized steak underneath.  The batter does the job that it is intended for: protecting the meat from direct exposure to the hot oil.  Despite being deep fried, however, the steak was well drained and not greasy at all.  The cream gravy is unique — or at least I’ve not run across anything similar to it yet.  Most CFS’s have a flour-based gravy that’s been flavored typically from stock or pan drippings.  The Hollister Grill’s is a genuine cream gravy, though: cream-based, which imparts a totally different flavor to the gravy than what I was anticipating.  Once I got used to the slightly sweet, rich flavor, I found I enjoyed it quite a lot.  The mashed potatoes are interesting themselves.  The skins are left on the potatoes when they are mashed so there is potato skin mixed up with the mashed potatoes.  I like this — perhaps because I was taught from an early age not to waste potato skins. “That’s where all the vitamins are,” my mom used to say. So like a good lad, I ate the skins too.  The potatoes are also topped with the same cream gravy, giving them a very rich flavor as well.  As for the mixed vegetables, well they weren’t bad.  They were mixed vegetables.  And I ate them all because I knew they were good for me too.

Okay, it’s true that  all I’ve mentioned is the CFS at the Hollister Grill.  That’s mostly because both my partner and me both had it.  But just so’s you know, they had several other very interesting offerings on their lunch menu as well.  So more than likely the next time I go there for lunch, I’ll give one of the other items a go.  We asked to see the dinner menu after we had finished.  Yes, definitely more upscale.  The crabcakes — not offered for lunch — are apparently a big hit.  And the shrimp and scallops risotto looks outstanding.  What about CFS for dinner?  Heh, they’ve even kicked that up a notch or two. The dinner CFS is a battered ribeye, served with jalapeño cream gravy.  Yum.  Can’t wait.

The Hollister Grill

1741 Hollister Street, Houston, Texas

Ph: 713-973-1741

Prices: Lunch $  Dinner $$-$$$

Reservations: Recomended

*** B Y O B ***

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Empire Turkish Grill, Houston Texas — So Worth It!

The Turkish Mixed Grill -- Enough for Two Hungry People

Last week, Bai Shin and I were out looking for mohair yarn.  Her mother knits and she wants a new mohair sweater, so she wanted to buy enough for her mom to make her one.  We found a place called Nimblefingers on Memorial Drive in Houston, just west of Gessner.  Upon arrival, I noticed a restaurant just a couple doors down and got curious.  Its name is the Empire Turkish Grill.  Well I was curious because I’ve never eaten Turkish food before, and I’m always willing to try something new.  Fortunately, Bai Shin often is too.

So we’re inside the yarn store and I ask the two women there if they’ve tried the Grill, and they both said they had and that the food was very good.  There was another customer in the store at the time, and she chimed in and said she’d just had lunch there, and that she had enjoyed it.  Okay, well my stomach was starting to rumble so I started dropping hints in Bai Shin’s direction.  She didn’t really say anything until we left the yarn store.  Instead, she just started heading for the restaurant, basically saying, Well, you wanted to try it out — let’s give it a try.  So we did.

Walking into the place, it sort of reminds me of a ladies tea house.  Nice tables with linen table cloths and real cloth napkins all folded nice and pretty.  No booths.  The single largish dining room is painted a pastel sort of peach color.  Not really at all what I was expecting based on the name of the place.  It was about 3pm and the place was almost deserted.  We were invited to take any table we liked, so we helped ourselves to one by the window.  We were seen promptly by the waiter, who dropped off menus and took our drink order.  The menu is about five pages deep and, if you are already familiar with Mediterranean food, then many of the items will already be familiar to you.  E.g., falafals, hummus, tabouli, eggplant babaganush, kebobs, etc.  We eventually decided on the Mixed Grill, which includes giros, lamb kebob, chicken kebob, and ground lamb kebob served over a bed of rice, along with thinly sliced onions, red cabbage, grilled bell peppers and tomato.  It is $23.95, but it is meant to be shared by at least two people.  We liked the idea that it had a variety of main courses.  Since this was our first visit, it gave us the chance to sample their fare.

While we were waiting for the main course, we were served some delicious flat bread with extra virgin olive oil for dipping.  The Mixed Grill arrived in a reasonable amount of time.  Lemme tell ya, I was in love from the very first bite.  The rice had a wonderful flavor that can only be achieved by cooking it in the juices of some of the meats, most likely the chicken.  The chicken kebob consisted of breast meat.  I’m not a big fan of chicken breast because it is often dry and gets stuck in my throat.  But this was surprisingly moist and flavorful.  The same can be said for the gyros, lamb and ground lamb kebobs.  Spices were just right, and the dishes were not too salty.  Over-salting food is a crime often committed by many restaurants and is one that Bai Shin and I especially don’t like.  So it was nice getting a meal that had just enough salt without overdoing it.

We were pleasantly sated after eating our fill, and even took enough home for a late night snack or a light meal.  Running into a place like this is always a treat.  We will definitely be visiting it again.

Empire Turkish Grill

12448 Memorial Drive

Houston, TX

Prices: $$

Reservations: Recommended for Dinner

Incidentally, the photo was taken with my new Smartphone — a Samsung Galaxy S.  It has a 5 mp camera built in and did a good job.  No flash, though.  About a month after I got this phone (signed a 2-year agreement, of course), Samsung comes out with the Galaxy S II, which among other things has an 8 mp camera.  Grrr . . .  Not much I can do about it now. If you click on the image twice, you’ll see it full-size.

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A Cool Leftover Turkey Dish. Easy and Cheap as well

Well, we’re entering into the home stretch, preparing for Thanksgiving Day.  And if you’re already thinking beyond T-Day for ways to deal with all the leftovers, here’s an idea for you that’s both fun and easy to do.  Guaranteed to be a hit as well: Turkey Pot Pie.  Yum.

The gang around here are all the same in one regard.  We all prefer the turkey dark meat.  So it tends to go pretty quickly and then we’re left with all that breast meat and wondering what to do with it.  Well, I finally figured it out.  Turkey pot pie works so well because it keeps the breast meat moist.

For ingredients, you will need the following:

Turkey breast meat.

At least one deep dish frozen pie crust (I bought two).  Each package includes two crusts so you will have crust for a pie top if desired.  We desire.

Turkey Pot Pies with funky looking crusts. Taste good though.

One 1lb package of  baby carrots

Two packages of frozen peas (I buy the 14oz packages at Kroger)

Plenty of gravy

So, if you plan to make pot pies with the turkey leftovers, plan ahead and prepare about twice as much gravy as you normally would so you’ll have plenty left for the pie(s).  Also, if you have, say, a 12 to 13 lb bird, you’ll wind up with enough of the filling mixture to make three pot pies using the standard size frozen deep dish pie crusts.  If your bird is larger or smaller, adjust quantities as necessary.

Don’t do like I did and let the pie crusts thaw out before you begin to work with them.  You want to remove that top crust piece and set it aside on a cutting board, etc., to thaw.  Because I didn’t do this, the top crusts to my pies shredded.  Also, even though I used Kroger brand pie crusts, I dunno if I recommend them.  Next time I will try the Pilsbury ones.  These Kroger ones just seemed to be too thin and the pie slices just sort of fell apart because the crust was so thin.

I pull the turkey breast meat from the bone and then chop it up into largish approximately 1″ size cubes.  Set it aside.  Precook your carrots and peas, boiling them until they are tender.  Drain and set aside.  Then, in a dutch oven, pour in the peas and carrots and the turkey.  Then add the gravy.  Stir well, but not vigorously, or you may shred the turkey.  You should wind up with a thick stew-like concoction.  Ladle the mixture into the pie crusts, add the crust tops and crimp down the edges.  With a sharp knife, cut a few slits into the top crust of each pie.

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees.  Take a flat baking sheet and line it with foil.  Some of the gravy will most likely bubble out; do this to save on clean-up.  Plus you can use the foil to wrap up any leftovers you may have.   Bake for 45 minutes or until the crust begins to brown.  Remove the pies from the oven and allow to stand for at least 15 minutes before cutting the slices.  Serve and enjoy.

Now in my case, guess what?  I still have leftover pot pie makin’s.  Well, I’ve decided that, rather than make another, I will prepare some pasta instead.  I’ve got some linguini that should work just right.  The turkey/carrot/peas mixture will work just like Chicken a la King, ceptin’ it’s turkey of course.  And that should be another pleasant meal I’ll have coaxed out of the leftovers.

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Tamron 60B SP 300mm f/2.8 LD IF — a Bargain Pro Telephoto

Well, if you don’t mind shooting with a manual focus lens, that is. And I don’t, cuz that’s how I got started in photography, and I’m still really used to cranking on the ol’ focusing collar. The Tamron 60B compared very well against its Canon and Nikon 300/2.8 contemporaries. If you visit the adaptall-2.org website, you’ll find the 60B listed there, along with a set of resolution and contrast tests performed by Modern Photography. As the tests show, the lens scores quite high. And as a bonus nowadays, the Tamron 60B can often be found for surprisingly reasonable prices if one is patient or willing to put a bit of work into the lens after buying it. Take this one, for example.

Tamron 60B 300mm f/2.8

I spotted it on eBay and what attracted me to it was its low opening bid: $499.00. It’s more typical finding this lens on eBay in the $700-900 range, often for more, but I don’t think the sellers with high asking prices are having much luck selling their 60Bs at those higher prices. So anyway, this lens had been placed up for a 7-day auction, no Buy-I-Now. So I waited, biding my time. As the days ticked off, nobody bid on it, which I found mildly surprising. I write “mildly” because the seller did an outstanding job of documenting the lens’s defects, most of which was some light fungus on the inside of the front element. It was also missing a few items that would have come with it originally: its case, a 1.4x teleconverter, and a set of rear-mounted filters. It did include the hood and the front cap, plus a Nikon Adaptall-2 mount, the latter of which was actually an option. I didn’t really need the case, I already have a Tamron 1.4x teleconverter, and the filters are mostly just used for B&W photography anyway, so it had all the stuff that mattered to me. But I suspect it was the photos of the fungus that kept other bidders away. Photographers tend to run in the opposite direction when the word “fungus” is mentioned. I wasn’t too concerned, though, because I’ve disassembled lenses before and cleaned fungus out of them, and removing this lens’s front element is a very straightforward procedure. So anyway, the clocked ticked down on the auction and I ended up getting the lens for the opening bid amount.

When the lens arrived, I was pleasantly surprised. The fungus was actually much lighter than I had been anticipating, and the other defects shown in the photos were much more minor in person. Good news all the way around, so I immediately grabbed my EOS DSLR, mounted a Nikon-to-EOS adapter on the lens, and took it outside for some shots.

It’s been stinkin’ hot here in Houston for the past couple of months and I really didn’t feel like dealing with the heat to much of an extent, so I just shot some more pics of the birds that hang around here to eat my dog’s food and drink his water.  Here’s a shot of a grackle perched on a branch in an oak tree in our front yard, followed by a 100% crop of the bird.

Common Grackle

100% crop of above image

The DSLR I used is a 10.1mp APS-C Canon EOS.  So, figuring in the 1.6x crop factor, the effective focal length of the lens was 420mm. Exposure info: ISO 400, 1/250 second, lens set wide open to f/2.8.  I did not use Live View to confirm focus.  Too bright outside.

This is the second one of these lenses I’ve owned. I bought a very clean used one back in about 1989. It was complete as supplied by Tamron, too. I took it to a number of air shows and auto races, and had a great time with it. Here are a few scans of some slides I took at a couple of air shows during the early 1990s.

Lockheed P-38 Lightning -- Fujichrome 100

A rare North American P-51B Mustang -- Fujichrome 100

Curtiss P-40 Warhawk

Grumman TBF Avenger -- Fujichrome 100

Unfortunately, I sold my old 60B during times having plenty of photo gear but not enough money.  I’m determined to hang onto this one quite a bit tighter this time around.

So, to sum things up, if you don’t mind handling the focusing chores yourself, instead of shelling out $6,000+ for a latest generation AF 300/2.8 wonder, you can pick up one of these that still does a bang-up job.

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Possibly the Best Manual Focus 80-200 Ever?

Tamron 80-200mm f/2.8 LD mounted to my Old Canon F-1

You may or may not be aware of this, but there is a growing trend among photographers, who are using older manual focus lenses on their digital cameras.  It isn’t just some flash in the pan sort of thing, either.  In fact, we have prestigious lens makers such as Zeiss making manual focus lenses expressly for DSLRs, and we have upstart companies, such as the Korean lens maker Samyang doing the same.  The surprising thing about the Samyangs is that this company is building top-notch optics for very reasonable prices.  They just don’t happen to be auto-focus.  But we also have more and more people taking looks backward at which optics were great in their day and reasoning that they may be worth a second look — or more.  Which is what leads to the subject of this article: manual focus zooms.  Zooms which haven’t been made in 10, 15, even 20 years or more.  There are many excellent manual focus zooms that were made over the years, and this article will discuss the one in particular that I feel is the best of the lot . . . for the group of 80-200 zooms at least.  Okay, about this comparison, when I wrote 80-200 in the title, I did not mean this literally.  Rather, this is a class of optics, to which I would consider 70-210s and 70-200s and 80-210s and even the old 90-230s to be qualified participants.  Think of this as a general zoom range, and it will probably work best for this topic.

So, moving along.  In order for a lens to be ranked “best of,” what sort of criteria would you judge as being essential?  Surely a lens’s resolution must rank highly on the list, but not just any sort of resolution, but corner-to-corner resolution, eh?  And of course a lens must also be blessed with good contrast.  Faithful color.  Minimal optical aberrations.  Maximum aperture value.  And the fact that we’re discussing a zoom here means that an inevitable challenge will appear: “Your zoom may be sharp, but it isn’t gonna be as sharp as my xxx prime.” (fill in the xxx with whatever focal length you want that fits within the zoom’s range)  So a zoom has to overcome what I call Prime Prejudice as well.  So, this “best of” zoom must also be able to accept the prime challenge and do well against them, despite the fact that, in this discussion we’re comparing zooms to zooms and not zooms to primes.

Beginning in the mid-1980s, a few lens makers started producing fast 80-200 optics — ones with a constant f/2.8 maximum aperture.  It could be argued, I suppose, that Vivitar started it all back in the mid-1970s with their Series 1 70-210 f/3.5 zooms.  After all, f/3.5 is only 1/2 stop away from f/2.8.  Nonetheless, pairing a lens with a top focal length of 200mm or so with a wide open aperture of f/2.8 caused a lot of interest.  Why?  Well, because 200mm f/3.5 lenses had been common for years, but 200mm f/2.8 lenses were uncommon.  In fact there were quite a few lenses that had fast f/2.8 apertures but that didn’t quite reach 200mm.  We had the Zeiss 180mm f/2.8 Sonnar and the Zeiss Jena f/2.8 Sonnar and Leica’s f/2.8 Elmarit and Olympus made a 180mm f/2.8  and the Nikkor 180mm f/2.8, and even Schneider made one for Rollei.  Again, why, you may be wondering?  Well, as it turns out, 180mm is still pretty much okay at f/2.8, chromatic aberration-wise, as is a lens with a longer focal length of 200mm and a maximum aperture of f/3.5, but when you open the design up just that 1/2 stop more or stretch it another 20mm — blammo! Color fringing all over the place.  In fact, I know of only two 200mm f/2.8 lenses that were made prior to this time that did not have special glass or optical formulations: the Canon 200mm f/2.8 and the Soligor 200mm f/2.8.  I’ve never tried the Soligor, but I owned the Canon — the late, internal focusing model, too.  And it had severe chromatic aberration problems.  They were so bad, I really had to be careful how I used it.  But that was back in the days of film, when Photoshop didn’t exist and if you had CA in an image, you were stuck with it.

Fortunately for photographers, the lens designers realized that if they were going to be offering zooms with a 200mm maximum focal length and a maximum aperture of f/2.8, they could not just use regular optical glass in these lenses.  So  the lens makers introduced their optics with special glass or formulations to reduce the chromatic aberration problems.  Of course, having to use special, low-dispersion glass and special optical configurations increases the costs for the lens makers, so they were forced to sell these premium lenses at premium prices.  Apparently, this wasn’t a problem particularly, because by all accounts I’ve seen, these premium lenses sold well, despite their much higher prices.  Compare the Vivitar Series 1 f/3.5 zooms, which sold in the mid-70s for maybe the mid-200s (USD), and routinely on the used market at the time for about $150, and the newer zooms with their special glass, which typically sold for $800 or more.  Street prices.  Interestingly, most of the manufacturers of the super f/2.8 zooms were aftermarket makers.  Sigma had its 70-210 f/2.8 APO, Tokina its 80-200 f/2.8 AT-X SD, and Tamron had its SP 80-200 f/2.8 LD.  The only exception I’m aware of is Nikon, who produced an 80-200 f/2.8 ED.  But this is a relatively rare lens.  I have the feeling that Nikon didn’t sell many.  Considering that theirs sold for about twice what the aftermarket ones sold for, this might have been some of it.  But perhaps not all.  In fact, I’d have to say that all of these f/2.8 super zooms are relatively uncommon.  They appear on the used market only occasionally.

Common Grackle: Tamron SP 80-200mm f/2.8 LD @ f/2.8

I was about 15 meters away from the bird when I took that shot.  Here is a 100% crop of the image.  Taken with a 10.1 megapixel Canon XS (the megapixel count determines the size of a 100% crop, which is why I mention this).

100% crop of the above image.

So this may not be the most photogenic of subjects, but as you can see this Tamron holds detail exceptionally well.  Here’s another — a white-winged dove.  I like these more than their more common ring-necked cousins because of their blue mascara.  First the uncropped image, then the 100% cropped image.

White-winged dove, Tamron SP 80-200mm f/2.8 LD lens

100% crop of the above image

Incidentally all of the above images were taken with the lens wide open at f/2.8 and at its maximum zoom setting: 200mm. I’m kinda funny that way about lenses, especially zoom lenses. I want to see how well a lens performs at its most demanding setting, and to me its most demanding setting is wide open, and if it’s a zoom, it’s wide open at its longest focal length. This is when it will tend to show softness, chromatic aberrations, and other problems. So if a lens performs well at its most demanding settings, I feel reasonably confident that it won’t let me down if I have to stop it down a bit or bring the zoom in a notch or two. And as you can see, this lens is doing very little in the way of letting me down.

Finally, I would like to mention that this lens is a recent acquisition of mine and that I bought it from KEH (keh.com).  I’m not getting paid a dime by KEH to mention them here and the only reason why I do so is because I feel that they are an exceptionally good outfit to do business with when one is shopping for used equipment.  This lens arrived in much better condition than their rating system indicated and I was able to obtain it for a great price.  KEH has a very large inventory of used gear and they have become the place I usually check first when I’m in the market for a piece of used gear.  Also, it’s worth noting that, despite their worldwide reputation as a dealer in used photo gear, they sell new stuff too.

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CFS at Pappy’s Café: The Quest Continues!

Pappy's Chicken Fried Steak with fries substituted instead of mashed, and Texas Toast

Okay, first of all, my apologies for the crappy photo above — it’s the best I could do with my cell-phone’s cheezy camera.  And while the photo might not get your mouth to a-watering, still, it gets the idea across.

What will most likely be my never ending quest for finding the Perfect Chicken Fried Steak  continues.  I revisited one of my favorite haunts a couple days ago: Pappy’s Cafe, a place I that I haven’t been to in a while, and I wanted to refresh my recollections regarding their CFS.  I’m glad I did, too!   It was actually quite a bit better than I remembered.

It is difficult to give an idea of scale in the above image, but let me just say that Pappy’s CFS is a very generous portion, and not shown is the garden salad that was included in the meal’s $8.99 price.  Everything arrived at the table piping hot, and it arrived quite promptly, which is one reason why Pappy’s does such a brisk lunch business.  It’s easy to get in and out and have a good comfort food meal in the process.  Oh — and by the way — you read that right.  $8.99 for a real sit-down meal that includes two sides (doesn’t have to be fries or mashed pototoes and a salad — it can be any of several sides they offer), but best of all, a real sit-down meal that’s really worth sitting down for.

Yes, after having their CFS, I’d rate it right up there with Hickory Hollow’s.  It might not be quite as large, but the taste is memorable.  The batter is crisp but not heavy, the cubed steak is reasonably tender, and the cream gravy has just a detectable hint of bacon in it.  Most likely from some good ol’ bacon fat drippings, I’ll wager.  The fries are fresh cut and crispy, but if you feel like something different, try their black-eyed peas or fried okra. Pappy’s also has a full bar and Happy Hour from 3-7pm Mon-Fri, with drink specials every day of the week.  Pappy’s is an informal, down-home place that will likely become one of your favorite haunts, as it has become one of mine.

Be sure to visit Pappy’s website so you can preview their menu.   Their hours of operation are 11am to 10pm Mon-Sat, 11am-9pm Sunday.  Early birds will likely find a parking space in front (there are only about seven or eight of them), but if you’re heading there when it’s a bit more busy, just park around back and enter through their back entrance.

http://www.pappyscafe.com

Posted in Comfort Foods, Cooking and Food, Main, Restaurant Reviews | 2 Comments »

Canon IIIa Rangefinder Outfit Continues to Grow

Nowadays, lenses and accessories for these old Leica Thread Mount (LTM) Canons are getting pricey.   Unless you’re patient, that is.  Or you fall into good deals.  Both happened to me recently.  I managed to snag a Kyoei Super Acall 135mm f/3.5 off eBay recently — complete with the original box and instructions — for an unexpectedly low price.  And a couple weeks ago, I found a Serenar 100mm f/4 with case and finder in an antique/second hand store for a low enough price that I couldn’t let it sit there.  I owned a copy of the Kyoei 135mm back in the 1980s — bought it along with a Canon IVsb out of a pawn shop for cheap — and back then its reputation was that it was “just okay.”  Heh.  That was the reputation for many of LTM lenses, including the Canon Serenars.  Funny how attitudes change over time.  Nowaday’s the old Kyoei optics have a rather dedicated following, and the Canon Serenars have become highly respected — and highly sought-after — lenses.  So I feel very lucky to have found both of these within the space of a few weeks.

Canon IIIa Rangefinder with 50mm, 100mm, and 135mm lenses

The 135mm is a standard addition to a rangefinder kit.  The 100mm is gravy.  Next on the list is a wide angle.  Probably a 35mm, maybe a 28mm, but boy howdy, talk about pricey!  Looks like I’ll be saving up for one of them for a while.  Fortunately after I’ve bought a wide angle, the outfit will be pretty much complete. As long as I resist going for even wider wide-angles, that is.

I don’t have any example photos from these two new lenses yet.  No excuses.  I just haven’t made the time for photography lately — been busy with other projects.  But I’ll be sure to post some examples once I got ‘em.

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Chicken Fried Steak — The Quest

Chicken Fried Steak with chipotle cream gravy as served by the Moonshine Patio Bar & Grill in Austin, Texas

It is not “country-fried steak.”  Those who feel compelled to modify the language to suit their own prejudices just need to get over it.  It’s chicken-fried because it’s fried like chicken. Simple as that.

For years I’ve been on something of a quest.  If I visit a restaurant that has chicken fried steak on their menu, usually I’ll order it.  Even if they’ve succumbed to the newspeak nazis and call it “country fried” steak.  Back when I lived in Southern California, there was a small restaurant in Fullerton my wife and I liked going to called The Hungry Bear.  Their nomenclature was weird and typically revisionist SoCal.  If you ordered a “chicken fried steak,” as I recall, you got chicken. !!!  If  you ordered a “country fried steak,” you got a proper chicken fried steak.  And despite their cognitive dissonance, it was quite good.  The serving was generous, but not overly large the way many places serve it.  Flavor was excellent, however.

The other SoCal restaurant that was a standout — well, it’s actually a chain throughout the West now — was Claim Jumper.  They also insist on calling it “country fried,” but I tended to forgive them because their CFS has to be seen to be believed.  It is huge! Flavor-wise, it was good.  Not excellent, just good.

When I go on road trips, if the place has it, I’ll order it.  I don’t recall any standouts from these times, though, so there are none I can really pass along as recommendations.

I live in Houston now, and there are a number of places around town that come highly recommended.  I’ve tried a few of them.  Here they are in the order of preference:

Hickory Hollow — I’ve visited the location on Heights Blvd.  Mostly a barbecue joint, its CFS is still killer.  They have it in different sizes.  I believe the one I ordered was actually the “medium,” which I ordered with fries.  It was served on a medium-sized pizza pan with the fries, and was probably the biggest CFS I’ve ever had.  And that was the medium size!  But fortunately its size comes in second to its flavor.  Hickory Hollow’s CFS is also the best I’ve had so far.  Excellent flavor.

Jax Grill — (for some reason, WordPress won’t let me do another link in this post so here’s the URL: http://www.jaxgrillhouston.com/) — Jax Grill has a great menu of American classics and a nice special menu as well.  But their CFS is consistently good and the serving size is generous.  I’d rate it as just a notch below Hickory Hollow’s in flavor, but just.  It is very good.

Pappy’s Cafe — http://www.pappyscafe.com/ — I like Pappy’s, and I like their menu.  They bill it as “Texas Comfort Food,” and I’d say that’s just about right.  And their CFS fits the bill nicely.  I’d say that Pappy’s is in a dead heat with Jax as far as quality and value.  Very good.

As I mentioned before, there are quite a few other places here in Houston that come highly recommended.  But I haven’t made it to any of them yet.  As I get to them, I’ll review them.  So, check back periodically.  And if you have any CFS favorites, be sure to leave a comment, okay?

Posted in Comfort Foods, Cooking and Food, Restaurant Reviews | No Comments »

Gumbo!

Authentic Seafood Gumbo with Louisiana Smoked Sausage

My friends call me lucky because my wife is a trained chef.  I suppose I am.  But when she makes gumbo, I know I am.  Her gumbo is simply the best I’ve ever tasted, and anybody who has had a bowl agrees with me.  But there is no deep, dark, arkane secret involved in making a knock-out gumbo.  What makes it is being faithful to its ingredients.  Now I suppose I need to say here that there are many types of gumbos.  You can have seafood gumbo, which is what the above photo is about, or you can have a sausage gumbo or a chicken gumbo or a pork gumbo, etc.  Gumbo is basically a hearty soup typically served over rice where either a roux is used or gumbo file (ground sassafras leaves) is added, or both.

I feel like writing about seafood gumbo because this is what my wife fixes and I think seafood gumbo is the King of Gumbos.  Done right, seafood gumbo is not a cheap dish.  We usually make a large dutch-kettle-sized pot of it, and in that quantity, the ingredients will cost upwards of $50.  So if you want to make a good seafood gumbo, be prepared to shell out a few bucks.  It is so worth it, though.

Our recipe is an adaptation of Paul Prudhomme’s seafood gumbo with andouille smoked sausage, the recipe for which can be found in his landmark book, Louisiana Kitchen, and out on the internet, if you search for it.  Rather than give  you a rundown on the way my wife makes her gumbo, it makes better sense for you to just go to the source, try Prudhomme’s recipe first, and then do as we have done — adapt it to your own set of preferences.  My wife did a fair amount of experimentation before she finally settled on a recipe we all seem to prefer.   The base is a roux mixed with a  modified mirepoix, called the trinity in Cajun and Creole cooking.  A typical mirepoix is diced onions, carrots and celery, but the trinity is diced onions, bell peppers, and celery.  Added to the base is Prudhomme’s suite of seasonings, and seafood stock.  This is the basic gumbo stock.  She then adds the seafood — crab, shrimp, and oysters (with their liquor) — and the sausage.  Andouille sausage is what’s called for, but we often use a good quality Louisiana smoked sausage, and we feel it works just as well.

A lot of  Paul’s Cajun and Creole recipes, including gumbos, can be found at his website. If you enjoy Cajun and Creole cooking, give his recipes a try.  They’re not hard.  And most aren’t nearly as expensive as seafood gumbo is. Best of all, they are so worth it!

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Fun with a Canon IIIa Rangefinder

There’s a certain something about the old Canon rangefinders that just appeals to me.  The French have a term for it: je ne sais quoi. Which literally means ‘I don’t know what’.  Thanks, guys.  That was a big help. Must be the accent that does it.  But whatever it is, it’s enough for me to put up with the camera’s idiosyncrasies to shoot with it.

With all images below, click on the image, then click on it again to see it full size.  Then click on the back button twice to get back to here.

Canon IIIa Rangefinder with 50mm f/1.8 Serenar lens

Years ago, I owned a Canon IVsb, one of the most commonly found Canon rangefinder cameras.  Functionally, it is identical to the IIIa, except the IVsb has a proprietary flash rail on the side, whereas the IIIa came from the factory with no flash sync at all.  The original owner of this camera had flash sync added, however.  Note the oval shaped plate with the two flash sync connectors on the camera body’s right side.  This was an aftermarket addition, and was apparently fairly popular because I’ve seen quite a few rangefinders from back then with this front plate added to them.  So, to me then, this IIIa is actually more useful than my IVsb was.  Because it was difficult to find the original flash attachment for this cameras, and besides it takes bulbs only.  Try finding flash bulbs these days.  Whereas my IIIa’s flash sync includes terminals for both X-sync (strobe-type flashes) and F-sync (focal-plane bulb type flashes).

I bought this camera off eBay back in 2009 and was glad to find it for the price I did.  It was a good deal because it came with the 50mm f/1.8 Serenar.  Sometimes these Serenars will go at auction for the same price as one of the camera bodies will, and since I won the auction for what amounted to the price of a clean body alone, yes, I’d say I got a good deal.

The only problem I found with the camera was that the shutter had pinhole light leaks.  This is actually fairly common for camera shutters this old.  The Canon’s shutter is a rubberized cloth and the rubber has hardened and cracked over the years, which is where the light leaks come from.  A rather simple cure for this problem is to use a product called Plasti-Dip.  It comes in a can or aerosol spray, and also comes in different colors.  I bought a spray can of black, which I felt was most appropriate for a shutter.  To get the Plasti-Dip on the shutter, I selected a small artist’s paint brush with fairly stiff bristles, then sprayed some of the Plasti-Dip onto a paper plate.  Doesn’t require much.  Maybe a 1/2-second burst.  Then I dipped the brush into the wet Plasti-Dip, and gently brushed it onto the shutter curtains.  I waited a few hours after applying it to the first curtain before I wound the shutter on and applied it to the second.  I waited several more hours before I attempted to fire the shutter.  I wanted to make sure it was completely dried.

This worked great.  Before I had eleven pinholes.  After the procedure I had one.  So I gave the shutter another application, and that did the trick.  If you should decide to do this, keep in mind that adding material to the shutter increases the mass of the shutter, and can affect the speed at which it operates.  Thus it’s important that as little material as possible is added to the shutter during this procedure.  Less is truly more in this case.

Exposures

Recently, I discovered pedestrian access to a creek that  runs close by my house.  So, I figured this might be a good setting to shoot some photos.  It worked out pretty well, actually.

I got to playing around with various filters, trying to get a “look” to a few of my exposures the way I wanted it.  Stumbled across the “Threshold” setting in Paint Shop Pro, and found that I really liked the effect I could get with it.

I probably wouldn’t have done much playing around at all, but my negatives came out very thin this time and all the shots required quite a bit of adjustment to get them to look okay.  Mostly curves, some basic brightness and contrast, but a few were tricky to get to look right.  It was while I was doing all this — basically trying anything that might help — that I ran across the Threshold setting.

One of the things I didn’t have to do was sharpen the images.  The more I use this 50mm f/1.8 Serenar, the more impressed I am by its performance.  Its center sharpness is probably as good as the best normal lenses I’ve used.  I’ve taken some close-ups with this lens and I’ll show some of them in a separate article, which will confirm just how good it is.  Stay tuned!

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