Kiko's Place

One month ago I dropped everything in Houston and moved to San Diego, California. The beaches, the sunsets, the palm trees, the weather... everything about San Diego is beautiful. That includes the food.

In San Diego, the amount of Mexican restaurants is incredible. And I thought Texas had Mexican food. Here, with the border only a couple of miles away, you can really feel the Mexican influence in the restaurant scene. It's more than just "fusion" Mexican (like Tex-Mex), here you can actually get original Mexican food, and it's everywhere. More importantly, it's always delicious.

Appetizer

I haven't been here for long, but I already have favorites. Kiko's Place, a food truck on Texas St, is one of them. My boyfriend took me there once, so that I could try the mixed seafood taco. He told me I would only need one, to which I agreed to, very suspiciously. Tacos are usually small. I am used to having two to three tacos in order to feel satisfied. How could I have a meal consisting of one taco?

We ordered our mixed seafood tacos, which are $4 each. We were offered a cup of soup while we waited. The soup is a seafood, tomato-based broth with pieces of green bell pepper, celery, onion and tomatoes. If you're lucky, it could have a shrimp or piece of fish in it (I have never been lucky :( ) It's always super hot, which means I may or may not have burnt my tongue a couple of times. It's a nice little appetizer, and I would even go as far to say it's a palate opener (yes, I went there. Deal with it.)

Biggest taco EVER

Then, the tacos arrived. And it was the biggest taco I have ever seen in my life. I don't even think that could be called a taco. It's huge. So, I did the only thing I could do: I picked up a fork and dug in. And it was so. Good. There were shrimp, scallops, a mussel on the shell, octopus, marlin... all of the seafood inside of two corn tortillas, stacked on top of each other. The seasoning is similar to the broth, but more concentrated. Very concentrated. It's super well-seasoned, to the point where there is no need to add any salsas, or lime, or anything. It's ready to eat. And so delicious. The seafood is cooked to perfection, the shrimp is crunchy and tasty, the baby scallops are all over the place, the octopus... YUM. I may or may not go there today... hum...

The only bad thing about this taco is the celery. I am not a big fan of celery - I will eat it, but it bothers me when there's too much of it. In the taco, the amount of seafood easily overwhelmed the amount of celery, but I still took most of it out. 

I loved it so much, I went back two days later to try the other options they had. I found out that the spicy mixed seafood taco is better than the normal mixed seafood taco. The amount of "kick" is perfect! It complements the rest of the seasoning so well. Amazing, amazing, even more amazing.

Then, a couple weeks later, I tried their fish taco. One breaded fish filet with pico de gallo on top and some kind of white sauce. Delicious! But smaller - consider yourself warned.

Kiko's Place

Fish tacos - YUM

A couple of fish tacos will suffice if you're not THAT hungry, but if you are, I would order more. It's $1.75. It's so cheap! And so worth it! Every bite.

"Restaurant": Kiko's Place

Food: Great

Service: Great

Price: $ 

Mamak

It's been forever since I've updated my blog, mainly because I felt like it served a better purpose while I was traveling, and now that I'm not it's pointless. I moved to Houston about six months ago, and then got a job. Traveling became very limited to going to San Diego to visit my boyfriend, and so I thought maybe my food adventures weren't that interesting anymore. Lies!

Houston has many flaws, but lack of restaurant diversity is not one of them. You can find food from everywhere around the world here, along with loads of "fusion" cuisines as well. I admit I appreciate that about Houston. So, to make the most of my time here, how long might it be, I set out from the beginning to try new places to eat. FUN!

It's good that I work at a location that has several other businesses around, while it's also incredibly close to Chinatown (yes, we have one - at least Brazilians call it Chinatown). Now, that part of town can be very overwhelming and scary to go to - there are so many little cafes and restaurants to go eat at, some of them hidden, others with huge signs. Some restaurants don't have English menus, at others the waiters don't speak English. But once you get over your (I don't wanna say fear)... doubts, it is a whole new world and it is amazing.

Roti Canai and tea (left); noodle soups (right)

After being taken to some places, I've been feeling more confident to try out others on instinct. Mamak, however, was not an intuitive choice, because someone recommended it to me (along with what I should order). Mamak serves Malaysian cuisine, although there are other Southern Asian influences - Singapore, Indian etc. It was very cold day in Houston, and my coworker and I were craving some noodle soup. I was told the Singaporean Laksa Noodles were very true to their country of origin, so I was dying to try it.

First, we had an appetizer called Roti Canai. This is some kind of dough that is slightly fried, like a very thin pancake with a little bit of crustiness, that you dip in a curry sauce. So delicious. I mean, the little bread/pancake/crepe/pastry thing (seriously it's a mixture of all of these) by itself is already delicious, but the sauce gives it an uniqueness that I just love so much. Every time I go to a Malaysian restaurant I order this. So, so good.

Then, I got the Laksa noodles, as instructed. It's basically a curry noodle soup with pork, tofu, shrimp and egg. Yes. I know. Sounds amazing, doesn't it? I didn't know if I wanted a whole bowl of it, but because of the price ($7.99) we agreed that it probably wasn't that big and we should just order one each. Oh, the mistakes we make. The bowl was enormous. You can't really tell from the picture, but it was huge. I freaked out a little bit when it arrived and then I tried it.

The enourmous bowl of Laksa :)

Let me just make it clear that I love curry. I love it. And I was very excited for a CURRY NODDLE soup, because it's two things I love in one bowl. And the soup was great. Awesome. The curry tasted different, but delicious, the noodles were yummy, the tofu was squishy but good, the shrimp had great texture and the pork... well. The pork was a little bit of a disappointment. I was expecting saltiness, and it was sweet. It had a very distinct taste and I tried getting used to it, but I have to say I didn't really love it. I mean, I ate it, but compared to everything else, it was just not as good. The first bites were interesting, but towards the end it became too weird so I left a couple of pieces behind.

My coworker ordered a bowl of wonton noodle soup which she loved, except for the pork. All in all, I would definitely go back for that same exact meal, only I would share the Laksa, for sure. I ate all of it, but it was definitely too much food for a working day.


Restaurant: Mamak Malaysian Restaurant
City: Houston, TX
Food: Great
Service: Great
Price: $