Iced Coffee

This summer, for the first time in my life, I have been drinking iced coffee.

It just happened one day that we were out of fresh iced tea, I was thirsty for a little caffeine, so I poured the leftover coffee from the morning's brew into a glass (it was room temperature), added a little sugar, ice, water, and dash of whole milk. Unlike hot coffee, I like iced coffee a little sweetened.

Coincidentally, a couple days ago the Wall Street Journal ran a whole section on iced coffee. Their suggestions included brewing it cold-pressed to eliminate the acidic tastes. That's way too much trouble for me. As long as your morning coffee is not sitting on a warmer too long it works just fine.

If you have any suggestions for iced coffee that don't include a lot of trouble to prepare it, please let me know. I'm kind of liking it.

Only 1% of coffee consumption is iced, so there's a good chance you haven't tried it. You might be surprised, I was.
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Bistro Bakery of San Antonio. Indigo Hotel on the Riverwalk.

Trust me on this one.

The next time you are in San Antonio, run, don't walk to the Bistro Bakery of San Antonio. 

Why a French bakery baguette served with butter and strawberry jam tastes better than a baguette bought at the local grocery store I do not know, but it does. And so does everything else I tasted at the Bistro. The two days we were in San Antonio we visited the bakery three times. I give credit to my son and his wife for leading the way.

Croissants, baguettes, hard-crusted french bread, and every imaginable pastry, all made by the mostly French-native staff under the guidance of Lucil Watel. Ms. Watel is the mother of one of San Antonio's most popular chef's, Damien Watel.

The Bistro Bakery is open for breakfast, lunch and dinner. The menu is hand-written on one of those erasable boards and hangs by the cash register. The Bistro looks, feels, and acts like a place that doesn't want a mission statement, or company policy manuals, or cookbooks with pictures. It is more of a family kind of place. I like that. All the food looked and tasted like someone cared.

The lemon tart pictured above? We ordered one -- and it tastes even better than it looks.

Bistro Bakery
4300 McCullough Ave (at Olmos Circle)
San Antonio, TX, 78212-1909
(210) 824-3884

http://www.bistrovatel.com/bakery/ 

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I'd also like to give a mention to Indigo Hotel / Riverwalk and their very friendly staff. It appears to me that the Indigo people have tried to re-evaluate every party of the hotel and gotten rid of things no one wants and added some color, texture, and atmosphere not found at the average Hampton Inn. This ain't your grand-daddy's hotel, that's for sure (wait a minute, I am a granddad, and I stayed there).

Anyway, I had read good things about Indigo Hotels, so I decided to try one.

They get high marks for the following:
1. Large walk in shower
2. Very comfortable bed
3. Large HDTV
4. No carpet in room. Hardwood-floor tiles, the floating kind used over concrete (much cleaner than carpet).
5. Self-parking. Nearby and inexpensive.

Some of the online reviews mention the hotel being in a rough neighborhood, which I do not think is true. It is a redeveloping neighborhood (the hotel itself is part of that redevelopment), but it appeared safe and comfortable to me. The Indigo Hotel Riverwalk is on one of the newly developed forks of the River and in my opinion is a great setting for a hotel.

Price: I'd put the Indigo in the middle price range. It was a good value.

Minor complaint: Quite a few of the rooms had large, beautiful balconies. Mine did not. I would have liked to have known the price difference between the balcony and non-balcony rooms. I didn't notice them until the evening.

 http://www.ichotelsgroup.com/h/d/in/1/en/hotel/satsm 

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Yogurtland. Montgomery Plaza. Perfect frozen yogurt.

Marian's been out of town this week so I've been going out in the evening for an ice cream or frozen yogurt -- and most nights I've been going to Yogurtland at Montgomery Plaza on 7th Street.

I can't say one of the frozen yogurt places is better than another -- Yogurtland, Yogolait, Menchies, Pinkberry, Frogberry -- they're all good. But I do like self-serve, which Yogurtland has. Yogurtland serves about ten flavors of frozen yogurt and plenty of fresh fruit toppings. I always choose the tart-plain flavor because I like the contrast with the sweet fruit toppings. I also add a few crushed walnuts for crunch.

I like the buzz of the Montgomery Plaza, at least in the drive-through area, and Yogurtland is a good addition.

I never would have dreamed that I would choose this new frozen yogurt over old fashioned ice cream, but I have and I will.

Unless I'm at the beach.

Yogurtland link.

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Taco Cabana. Renovation. I went by to investigate.

Last week the Fort Worth Taco Cabanas had a kind of grand re-opening. Restaurants had been renovated and the menu updated -- so I decided to try it out. Here's a summary of my visit.

The renovation. Great job. Loved the two-toned wood tables and chairs, brushed steel on counter spaces, and lighting. One HDTV. Very comfortable, clean, and easy on the eye.

The menu. "Out" are those really bad pictures of Tex Mex platters. "In" is simplified ordering. It's got kind of a Chipotle look to it instead of old Burger King.

All that is good.

The food itself. I ordered the two fajita lunch for $6.50. The tortillas are made on-site and delicious, the fajita beef was tasty and good but something is lost when it is not sizzling from a pan. I had assumed beans and rice would be served with the fajitas but chips accompanied them instead. That was disappointing. Then again, I could have actually read the menu. The salsa and condiments island is good, clean, and well stocked. I have always liked their salsa island. Fresh cilantro helps.

A little serving of rice or a small bowl of charro beans would have made the meal much better and not added much to their cost. Two moderately portioned fajitas with a handful of chips for $6.50 is not a bad deal but probably not enough to make it my lunch spot of choice.

One other change to the Taco Cabana method is the roving server. Ordering is done at the counter but a server brings the meal to the table and asks if more drinks and chips are needed. I liked it except the girl, even given her friendliness, came back four or five times during a twenty minute meal. I know one man's helpfulness is another man's annoying helpfulness, but this seemed overdone to me. Yes, we did leave a small tip.

Free offer: Taco Cabana is offering free chicken fajita tacos on Tuesday, August 3, from 4-9 pm., and half-priced nachos and $1.50 margaritas during happy hour. (one free taco per customer, in-restaurant only)

There are about a half-dozen Taco Cabanas in the Fort Worth area. I visited the one on I-35 around Seminary. Here’s a link:  http://www.tacocabana.com/locator/
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Update two weeks later:
Editor's note: I went back a second time and asked for the dinner which included rice and beans, same price, and it was excellent. Great value. I will go back.

Groupon and Habenero's Mexican

Marian and I made our virgin voyage into Groupon coupons tonight.  She paid $12.50 for a $25 dining coupon to be used at Habenero's Fresh Mexican Cantina. The coupon purchase and use was seamless. We printed the coupon and presented it to the waitress when were seated. It worked perfectly.

That is the end of this evening's good report.

What can I say good about Habenero's Fresh Mexican Cantina? First, it's more in the sports-bar-meets-Mexican-food category. Big space, lots of TV's and large bar area. I liked that part.

As far as the food, I ordered the taco dinner and the taco's shredded beef was plentiful in portion and very tasty. But the flour tortilla tasted like it had been just pulled from the package in the fridge. It was tasteless and cold. Beans and rice come with the dinners and they weren't bad, but neither the rice or the beans were served hot. Lukewarm black beans are just not very tasty.

The guacamole. I have always assumed that guacamole was made from avocados. I guess I was wrong. I'm not sure what we were served, it was green and it had a little tang to it. But it was god-awful. The serve-yourself chips were very greasy and the hot sauce tasted more like shrimp-cocktail sauce. The occasional green and red tortilla chip mixed in with the other chips only confirms to me that the emphasis is on style not substance. Why ruin a good tortilla chip with food coloring?

I have an idea for the Habenero's people, and I'm being serious about this: if you're going to use Groupon as a promo service to get people to try your restaurants, serve the fresh food your website advertises.

Marian and I like to try new places and enjoyed the evening in spite of not caring for the food. Maybe they just had a bad night. The 50% off Groupon helped.

Habenero's: http://www.habanerosfreshmex.com/

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