Thursday, March 11, 2010

Kemah - T-Bone Tom's

My bad. Another unpublished post...

Actually saw this on Guy Fieri's Diners, Drive-Ins & Dives back in December. We headed down to Kemah on a Monday, right after the first of the year. Nice homey place with friendly wait-staff and lots of people waiting for a table. They even have a long narrow additional room for waiting. We were told the wait would probably be about 20-30 minutes but 5 minutes later we were seated at the counter, looking over the menu.

When I go back (not if) I want to order the Armadillo eggs which are jalapenos stuffed with chopped brisket and deep fried. They turn out to be about the size of jumbo eggs. A sign at T-Bone Tom's reads "No armadillos were harmed making our armadillo eggs."

The Monday special was chicken-friend steak (Rich's choice), but I was anxious to try one of the rib-eyes I had seen on Triple D, which are marinated for 24 hrs. All steaks are hand-cut (we actually watched a guy trim and cut a piece of beef that probably weighed at least 20-30 lbs. I thought the rib-eye was a little pricey for a lunch menu ($24.99 I believe), but it was good. Although I took part of it home, I wished it had been a bit thicker for the price.

The chicken-fried steak was excellent as was the cream gravy. (I realize what a good old Southern girl I must sound like with my repetitious mentions of cream gravy and chicken-fried steaks...what can I say?). Each plate was served with to die-for home-made biscuits and 2 sides.

T-Bone Tom's started out as a local country meat market back in the 60's and still prides themselves in their long-standing tradition of making their own smoked sausage and serving good old comfort food.

Live entertainment Friday & Saturday nites. T-Bone Tom's can be found on Facebook. Their website also has a You-Tube clip of Guy Fieri making his stop there.

707 Hwy. 146
Kemah, TX 77565
281-334-2133
www.tbonetoms.com

Salado - Johnny's BBQ

Salado is a pretty small town, settled between Georgetown and Temple on I-35. Johnny's BBQ looks like it has been around since God was a child. The building is rustic (under statement), the wooden floors are slanted and bits of Texas are splattered on the many times painted walls.

Daily specials are served every day, all day long or until they run out. Their specialty is mesquite grilled steaks (hand-cut certified Angus beef) and Texas pit barbecue. No liquor license, just soft drinks, tea, water & coffee to go with their large menu. Besides the steaks and barbecue, Johnny's offers fried chicken, shrimp, chicken-fried steak. There was lots more on the menu but we came to a screeching halt when we read chicken-fried steak (small or large option). We chose the large to split and ended up with 2 nice size chicken-fried steaks served with excellent cream gravy. It came with a baked potato that didn't leave me compelled to write much about (packaged butter, packaged sour cream, packaged bacon bits) but the chicken-fried steak made up for what the potato lacked.

Johnny's doesn't offer a breakfast menu (that I know of), so I'm guessing all the cars (I mean pick-ups) in the parking lot in the early morning hours are locals gathering for coffee. No matter what time of day, the parking seems to be full though, which is a good indicator when I'm trying to decide if this is a good place to try out.

301 Thomas Arnold Rd.
Salado, TX 76571
www.johnnyssteaksandbbq.com

Spring Break

This post for some reason never got published. Please excuse...

By golly, I think spring has actually sprung. Finally on the back side of an exceptionally cold and wet winter here in Houston, the azaleas are beginning to bloom, the trees are budding and of course, the pollen has hit. Got to endure it if we are really moving toward spring.

Rich will be spending the week up north with his family and my best friend is heading to the big H. I told her I've made a list of things we can do and most of them involve meals. Big surprise. We'll be hitting places from Houston to Galveston to Huntsville to Rosenberg.

I'm not a teacher, but my husband and best friend are, so spring break is still fun for me because I get to play.

Will be blogging next week or the week after about our new discoveries, so check back.