FARMERS MARKET

URBAN HARVEST FARMERS MARKET

Every Saturday; 8:00 am to Noon

2752 Buffalo Speedway

URBAN HARVEST MOBILE MARKET Visit www.urbanharvest.org for locations

Urban Harvest cultivates thriving communities through gardening and access to healthy, local food. We are improving the lives, soil, and plates of all Houstonians through: the Farmers Market, Organic Gardening & Nutrition Education, Healthy Food Access, and Community Gardens.

CLASSES LEARN MORE

Insectary Gardens: Nature’s Pest Control, Wildlife Habitat Gardens at Home, Starting Fall Tomatoes, Healing Culinary Herbs, Preparing for Fall Organic Gardening and much more!

EVENTS

Secret Supper September 21

Cultivators Cocktails October 19

Sunday Supper November 5

Visit urbanharvest.org

Food keeps us connected — connected to family, friends, our hometowns and homelands. This is especially true in Houston, which has long been a city that immigrants, refugees, migrants and their families have called home. I didn’t set out to explore these connections in this issue, it just happened. But maybe it was inevitable because so many stories about food in Houston turn out to be about maintaining, sharing and growing our roots.

In this issue, we highlight Mansour and Karim Arem, Tunisia-Texan brothers who started a food company grounded in their family’s Tunisian cooking. We profile chef Beatriz Martines, who started her culinary career as an elementary school lunch lady and has now opened a restaurant that explores her Mexican heritage. And we visit community gardens in Alief where immigrants and their families are growing fruits and vegetables that connect them to their home countries and their new neighbors. We also travel to Hill Country lavender farms inspired by France and discuss restaurants and products worth trying, from a Caribbean restaurant helmed by a Trinidadian chef to cheese made by an Italian who missed the cheeses of his homeland.

Food, especially locally grown fruits and vegetables, also keeps us connected to the land, weather and seasons. We know it’s summer, which in Houston starts long before the solstice, when we find peaches, eggplant, okra, cucumbers, sweet potato greens and melons at the farmers market. We know it’s time to dig out that favorite eggplant recipe or try something new such as the recipe for a refreshing watermelon, cucumber and mint agua fresca you’ll find in this issue.

We hope the stories we share at Edible Houston keep you connected to our community. If so, drop us a line and consider subscribing.

Happy Summer and Stay Cool!

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Monique Threadgill monique@atxpublications.com

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David Leftwich david@ediblehouston.com

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Edible

A Texas-Italian, French-Inspired Cheese

When Andrea Cudin, who is from northeastern Italy, moved to Victoria, Texas, in 2012, he couldn’t find the cheeses he loved, so he made his own. Knowing that good cheese starts with good milk, he partnered with Four E Dairy outside Moulton in Lavaca County. His creamery, Lira Rossa Artisan Cheese, is located on the third-generation dairy farm, giving him easy access to fresh, raw milk from the Jersey and Jersey-cross cows tended by the Chaloupka family.

With that milk, Cudin and his team make a variety of Italian -style cheeses including a creamy, ricotta fresca; a milky mozzarella; moultonzola, a funky, Italian-style blue; and robiola, a rich, soft-ripened cheese from the hilly Langhe region of Italy. They also produce a unique Texas-Italian take on the soft, creamy surface-ripened French favorite, camembert. As the inoculated Texas milk ripens from the outside in, it produces a luscious, silky cheese that opens with hints of sweet butter and finishes with suggestions of dark chocolate. Cleverly called C’mon Berto!, this cheese is perfect for a cocktail party spread served with a drizzle of local honey or dollop of Garden Dreams strawberry jam, or enjoyed as a snack on crackers, maybe with a sprinkle of Aleppo pepper and some flaky sea salt. Lira Rossa cheeses can be found at Urban Harvest’s Saturday Farmers Market, local shops such as Henderson & Kane and the Asch Building Market and select Central Market locations.

If you’re in Austin, you can purchase Lira Rossa on Sundays at Texas Farmers Market at Mueller. lirarossa.com

Dreamy Chocolates for All Occasions

A good meal deserves a good ending and sleepy afternoons need a tasty pick-me-up. The imaginative, handmade chocolate delights created by sisters Susy and Cristy Vazquez are both. In 2019, the sisters founded Migaloo Chocolatier to honor the late husband of the eldest sister. He dreamed of starting an artisan chocolate company as they toured many artisan chocolate shops together. That dream goes beyond just making treats using fine Belgian and Mexican chocolates.

“We are proud of being part of the Cocoa Horizons Foundation, where all of us can be part of the story of improving the livelihoods of cocoa farmers and their communities through the promotion of sustainable, entrepreneurial farming, improved productivity and community development, which protect nature and children,” says Susy.

Based in Cypress, the sisters offer a wide array of artisan chocolates such as boxes of truffles, bars that range from flavored white chocolate to dark chocolate with various percentages of cacao, vegan chocolate and chocolate barks in various flavors, including my current favorite rosemary, orange and almond dark chocolate. The bark’s robust, silky dark chocolate expresses hints of coffee that pairs well with the herbaceous spark of rosemary, crunch of almond and tart charge of orange. The sisters’ products are available at area farmers markets such as Smith Street, Tomball, Rice Village, Heights Mercantile, Rice Village, MKT Sunset and McKinney Street; seasonal pop-ups; retailers like Henderson & Kane, Central City Co-op, Local Foods and Houston Dairymaids; and via their website.

migaloochocolatier.com

Phoenicia’s Aleppo Pepper

In 1983, Zohrab and Arpi Tcholakian, Lebanese immigrants of Armenian descent, opened a small deli on Westheimer in west Houston that sold shawarma and a handful of Mediterranean and Middle Eastern groceries. Over the years the grocery selection grew and, in 2006, they opened Phoenicia Specialty Foods, a 55,000-square-foot store across the street from the original deli. It quickly became one of the premier gourmet grocery stores in Houston with a selection of over 15,000 products from over 50 countries. In 2011, they opened a second store downtown next to Discovery Green.

Highlights include a large selection of imported olive oils, housemade pita breads that hover through the store on a hanging conveyor belt and Phoenicia-branded spices. One of my favorites is the store’s Aleppo pepper, which is called “pul biber” in Turkey. Named after Syria’s second largest city, this spice is made from semi-dried and crushed Halaby pepper, a variety of the ubiquitous Capsicum Annuum (the Americas native that is the source of everything from sweet bell peppers to cayenne). Aleppo pepper expresses a complex synthesis of earthy sweetness, fruity tang and a slow-building medium heat that is much richer than the one note of most crushed red pepper flakes. It can be used not only in recipes from that region but also as a substitute for crushed red pepper.

Jamming with Garden Dreams

Initially, middle school teachers Kirk and Elaine Lupovitch O'Neal planned to sell the produce they grew in their home garden as vendors at Urban Harvest’s now-closed satellite farmers market at Highland Village. Shortly after joining the market, they had a bumper crop of Meyer lemons, more than they could sell. To maximize their harvest, the couple turned to a time-tested method of preserving citrus — making marmalade. This decision led their new business in a different direction. “We were drawn to the craft of preserving food in the form of jams, jellies, marmalades, conserves and pickled vegetables,” says Kirk.

To better understand the art and science of transforming and conserving fruits and vegetables, the couple received certification in food preservation from Louisiana State University and then got a manufacturers license. They now make a variety of preserves including strawberry, strawberry balsamic, peach, blackberry, mayhaw (a small, red native fruit that likes moist soil) and a variety of pepper jellies. My personal favorite is strawberry rhubarb pie jam, which combines the sweetness of Texas strawberries with the tartness of rhubarb to create a well-balanced spread that’s perfect on morning toast or a mid-day PB&J. You can currently find Garden Dreams’ products at Urban Harvest’s Saturday Farmers Market and Houston Dairymaids cheese shop. On Instagram @gardendreamstexas thanksdanks.com

WORDS AND PHOTOS BY DAVID LEFTWICH

Gulf Coast Comfort

Houstonians love fried chicken, and we have a menagerie of great options from Southern-style to spicy, double-fried Korean. So, it’s not easy for a newcomer to capture the attention of the Bayou City. But chef and pitmaster Greg Gatlin, who was a 2023 James Beard Award semifinalist for his cooking at Gatlin’s BBQ, has done that with lettercrisp-yet-tender fried chicken at his newest restaurant, Gatlin’s Fins & Feathers. The eatery opened last year in historic Independence Heights, the first incorporated African American city in Texas (before it was annexed by Houston in 1929).

But there is more to this home-style restaurant. The menu — developed in partnership with chef de cuisine Darius King and former executive chef Michelle Wallace, who recently launched her own venture B'tween Sandwich Co. — explores the joys of Gulf Coast comfort food from chargrilled oysters and platonically ideal buttermilk biscuits to fried catfish and a bowl of gumbo brimful with chicken, shrimp, crab, smoked sausage and okra. Don’t skip the sides such as red beans and rice, basil coleslaw and collard greens slowly braised with smoked turkey.

The earthy, slightly bitter greens combined with a hint of spicy heat and smokiness are some of the best I’ve had. You, like me, might find yourself drinking the rich pot liquor right from the bowl and wondering when you can return for more.

Visit at 302 W. Crosstimbers St. | gatlinsfinsandfeathers.com

FARM-TO-TABLE, CARIBBEAN-INSPIRED

Houston’s best food is often found in what some may consider unlikely places such as gas-station strip centers. That’s the case with Kuji Kitchen, which shares a building with a farmers Ivy Walls of Ivy Leaf Farms and Jeremy Peaches of Fresh Life Organic — the duo who also co-founded the recently-opened Fresh Houwse Grocery — to launch this Caribbean-inspired café that serves breakfast, lunch and dinner in Southeast Houston. Breakfast options include: a breakfast sando, which comes in various options; two customizable breakfast platters; island shrimp and grits with sautéed Gulf shrimp, bacon, avocado and roasted bell pepper broth over smoked cheese grits; a full coffee program; and more. The lunch and dinner menu, which changes with the seasons, not only explores Caribbean cuisines but also its intersection with African American foodways. Try the delectable masala braised beef that pays homage to Indo-Caribbean cuisines, which developed when Indians arrived on islands colonized by the British, paired with sides such as sweet potato croquettes and Gullahstyle greens, honoring the unique African American culture of the coastal Southeast. Or dig into a snappy Jamaican-inspired jerk chicken with plantains and a side of coconut rice and peas and garden vegetables. There are also several burger and sandwich options and a rum pound cake for dessert. And don’t miss the house-made iced teas such as the tart sorrel (hibiscus) tea energized with ginger. Visit at 8601 Martin Luther King Blvd. | kujikitchenhtx.com

Kolaches For The 21st Century

In Texas, the kolache has adapted — both linguistically and culinarily. The word “kolache” has, for better or worse, become what Texans call all types of Czech-inspired, fluffy pastries, whether sweet or savory, even though the popular sausage-filled version is technically a klobásník. The fillings have acclimated with the language, incorporating flavors and ingredients found in Texas from boudin to barbecue to butter chicken. Randy and Lucy Hines have been part of that evolution since they purchased the Kolache Shoppe on Richmond from longtime owner Erwin Ahrens in 2014. The couple have preserved Ahrens’ traditional approach to yeast dough while expanding to three, and soon four, locations in the Houston area with a franchise model that involves working with fellow mom-and-pop owners who are committed to maintaining the neighborhoodfocused character of each location.

At these locations, the couple have introduced new elements to the traditional kolache shop. They developed an extensive craft coffee program that includes monthly specials such as a Biscoff latte made with milk simmered with Biscoff cookies and yearround offerings like Vietnamese cold brew. In addition, they have partnered with local vendors to create unique kolaches such as a smoky brisket, egg and cheddar kolache made with Pinkerton’s Barbecue brisket and a whipsmart venison and cheese version stuffed with sausage made by Prasek’s Family Smokehouse in Central Texas. There are also monthly specials such as recent collaborations with burger-chan to create a cheeseburger kolache, Tex-Mex-favorite Molina’s to make a Frito pie kolache, and Houston creole-classic Brennan’s

A Cavalcade Of Flavors

to offer one filled with crawfish and andouille. Of course, there are traditional sweet flavors such as blueberry and peach. All of this combines to keep this traditional Czech staple thriving in the 21st century.

Visit at Houston Greenway: 3945 Richmond Ave., Houston Heights: 1031 Heights Blvd., Kingwood: 4521 Kingwood Dr., Pearland: 11940 Broadway St. (coming soon) | kolacheshoppe.com

In a low-slung, nondescript building on the edge of Norhill Heights, familyowned Street Food Thai Market, which is half-grocery store, half-restaurant serves some of Houston's best Northern Thai and Laotian food. Though the eatery has only a handful of colorful tables, it offers an extensive range of dishes. These include classics such as pad thai and stir-fried basil. However, be sure to try the Northern Thai specialties (under “Esarn Classic” on the menu) such as yum nam khao tod. This robust dish is a symphony of tastes and textures. The salty, slightly tangy esarn sausage plays well with spritzes of bright, acidic lime; the verve of the spicy chile dressing; and the crunch of peanuts and fried rice balls, which have been broken into bitesize nuggets.

Also worth trying is the market’s version of khao soi gai, another Northern Thai specialty. This creamy, coconutbased curry soup is a nuanced delight that interlaces noodles and tender chicken with fragrant toasted spices, a judicious level of chile heat and poignant mustard greens. The lovely yellow concoction is topped with fried shallots and crispy noodles, adding crunch to every spoonful. Once you finish the last bite, you’ll likely be planning your next visit — with several friends, so you can reorder your favorites, but all also try new dishes such as deep-fried whole white pompano with Thai triple-flavored sauce.

Visit at 1010 W. Cavalcade St. | streetfoodthaimarket.com

Previous Page:

Upper Left: Fried chicken and collard greens at Gatlin's Fins & Feathers

Lower Center: Jerk kitchen at Kuji Kitchen

Right Page:

Lower Left: Kolaches at Kolache Shoppe

Upper Right: Yum nam khao tod at Street Food Thai Market

Coffee For A Cause

Erica Raggett launched A 2nd Cup as a coffee shop pop-up to help raise awareness about human trafficking. As her mission grew, so did the coffee shop. In 2015, A 2nd Cup moved into a spacious brick-and-mortar home on 11th Street in the Heights. However, in fall 2022, the landlord sold the building, and Raggett and her team had to find a new location. Happily, customers didn’t have to wait long. In early December 2022, A 2nd Cup reopened in a contemporary-yet-homey space in Lindale Park.

From there, the group offers a full array of coffee drinks from classics such as flat whites to house specials such as the Secret Squirrel, a double shot of espresso with housemade hazelnut and amaretto syrups and milk. The kitchen serves, from 7:30 a.m. to 5 p.m., a selection of pastries and made-to-order dishes such as fresh, hearty breakfast tacos, Southern breakfast biscuits with a choice of bacon or sausage, a full breakfast plate and more. The food and drinks are likely to be prepared and served by participants in 2nd Cup’s Brazen Table program, which provides job-and life-skills training for survivors of human trafficking. In addition, the group hosts life-skills training for survivors of human trafficking. In addition, the coffee shop hosts regular educational events about human trafficking and partners with other organizations fighting this crisis, often providing financial and in-kind support.

Chao with chef Tony Nguyen. In 2022, Ha and Nguyen were James Beard Finalists for Best Chef: Texas and, in 2023, semifinalists for Outstanding Chef for their work at Xin Chao. Ha closed the original food stall and, in February 2023, opened a brick-and-mortar reboot of The Blind Goat in Spring Branch. The modern, airy restaurant, in a revamped strip center on Long Point, is bathed in soothing blues and greens and uses vertical arrays of ropes to divide the dining room. The new location also features a full bar that offers wine and cocktails, a patio, more seating and a bigger kitchen.

Visit at 4928 Fulton St. | a2ndcup.com

A New Home For The Blind Goat

Chef Christine Ha, who won Season 3 of Master Chef, has been busy. In 2020, during the height of the pandemic, the first iteration of her Vietnamese eatery The Blind Goat, a stall in Bravery Chef Hall, was a James Beard semifinalist for Best New Restaurant. That same year, she opened modern Vietnamese-Texan Xin

The new space gives Ha the opportunity to create new dishes such as zesty crawfish and garlic noodles, her Bayou City take on San Francisco’s classic garlic noodles, while perfecting signature dishes like G.O.A.T. Curry. This stew combines perfectly tender goat with a jus that is both light and rich with the gingery citrus of lemongrass and subtle zings of spicy heat. Then there are the eggrolls inspired by her mom’s version, perfectly crisp wrappers stuffed with a flavorful mix of pork, shrimp and wood ear mushrooms. The focused menu offers many reasons to come back — from Texas BBQ brisket fried rice, which uses smoked brisket from their plazaneighbor Feges BBQ, to whole roasted turmeric fish. No matter what you get, don’t miss Ha’s nowfamous Rubbish Apple Pie that weaves in fragrant zips of star anise, ginger and lemongrass and is drizzled with rich, sweet and savory fish sauce caramel.

Visit 8145 Long Point Rd. | theblindgoat.com

David Leftwich is editor of Edible Houston and loves to cook locally grown vegetables and hang out with his daughter, wife and a few too many stacks of books.

Upper Left: Breakfast tacos and flat white at A 2nd Cup Lower Center: G.O.A.T. Curry at The Blind Goat