THE FOOD NINJA
RESTAURANT REVIEW
The Texas Tea Room -- Quitman
I have eaten in this restaurant a couple of times before and have never been very impressed, but after eating there this week, I was glad to see some of the changes that have been made.
Walking in the front door is a little like going to a flea market at a dude ranch/vineyard. The décor invokes that feeling with lots of Texas décor mixed with a number of grape vines strung along arbors made of rough hewn wood. The look is not unpleasant, but does seem a bit cluttered. However, we are not there for what is hanging on the walls, we are there for sustenance.
One of my prior complaints about this restaurant was the cleanliness. I am not sure if it was not clean or if it just appeared that way due to the cluttered nature of the décor. This visit however showed a much cleaner restaurant.
As we entered, we were seated right away by a smiling young woman. In fact the overall service was friendly, helpful, and prompt. We were each brought a small plate of bread consisting of a small slice each of sourdough and pumpernickel rye, along with a pat of butter. I really like warm bread, but as so many restaurants do these days, it came out cold.
My lunch guest and I decided to order a couple of things and split them so we could sample a wider variety. I ordered the Chicken Tortilla Soup, which was one of the best that I've had in along time. The base was creamy and not too spicy, covered in fresh crispy tortilla chips and shredded cheese. It came out hot, as did all of our food, which is very important to me. There is nothing more miserable than getting lukewarm food that turns cold before you finish. I would much rather have to wait a moment for something to cool a bit.
My lunch companion ordered the chicken fried steak. When the plate came to the table we were aghast at the size of the steak. It covered half of the plate and was quite large for a lunch portion. However, when we cut into it we discovered that about 75% of it was crust. It was good crust, however, flakey and tasteful, so if the goal is to fill you up, they succeeded.
The Texas Tea room has a number of desserts to choose from. We chose the chocolate eruption cake which is a dense layer of chocolate cake (almost brownie like in texture) around the edges and bottom of the dessert. The filling is a whipped type chocolate cheesecake mixture with pieces of vanilla cheesecake floating in the middle of it and is topped with shaved chocolate curls and toasted sliced almonds.
My guess is that this and the other desserts are bought from a wholesaler because it did not seem to ring true to being made from scratch. A lot of restaurants do this and them claim them for their own. I know because I used to supply a number of restaurants that bought desserts from me and claimed to be slaving over the oven all day. It’s not an uncommon practice. This restaurant would not tell me whether they make them or not, which probably means that they don’t.
One the thing that I can say for The Texas Tea Room is that the prices are very reasonable. The most expensive item on the lunch menu was $7.99 and most items were between $5.99 - $6.99.
Overall, I would give this restaurant 3 Samurai swords with some room for improvement. I would liked to have had more info on the origins of the restaurant itself, but when asked for more information over the phone at a later date, the staff was unwilling to speak to me and the owner was out of town.
See ya next time, The Food Ninja
RECIPE
Neiman Marcus Cake
I have someone ask me for this recipe every so often. It is an easy cake to make and tastes great. It also works well to carry out to a party or as a gift because you can make it in an aluminum pan and leave it.
To make the crust mix together:
1-18 ounce package of French vanilla cake mix
1/2 cup softened butter
1 egg
Press into bottom of 9x13 pan.
Then combine the following , mixing well with mixer:
1 cup pecans
3 eggs
1 pound powdered sugar
1-8 ounce package of cream cheese
Pour over crust. Bake at 350 degrees for 1 hour. Cool and cut into squares. You may sprinkle it with powdered sugar if desired. Anyone who loves to cook, love to change up their recipes. This is a great one for that. You can change the cake mix to chocolate or lemon or any other flavor, and you can also add other ingredients to the top mixture such as coconut, chocolate chips, or any other sweet stuff you like. Just be prepared for this cake to live up to its name because it is very rich, so don’t eat too much at once!
TIPS OF THE WEEK
* Marshmallows won't dry out when frozen.
* For fluffier, whiter rice, add one teaspoon of lemon juice per quart of water. To add extra flavor and nutrition to rice, cook it in liquid reserved from cooking vegetables.
* Sausage patties rolled in flour before frying won't crack open during cooking.
* When separating eggs, break them into a funnel. The whites will go through leaving the yolk intact in the funnel.
* Cheese won't harden if you butter the exposed edges before storing.
See ya next time,
The Food Ninja