Wee hours seafood? (HOU)
We are so close to the coast but no 24 hour oyster bar, or even one open past midnight?
How about other seafood in the wee hours? Any of the 24 hour Mexican places do a decent job on some seafood at that hour, especially ceviche? I checked Spanish Flowers menu; no ceviche at any rate. Chapultepec? Rico's?
Coctel de Camaron? I'm not looking for fried fish, especially catfish!
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Went to Ostioneria Mar Azul yesterday for an early dinner. And, with you in mind, paid particular attention to the oysters. Along the back wall of the restaurant is a bar and over it is a great big sign that says "Oyster Bar." I took one of the restaurant's "to go" menus so I could look it over and report back. The waitress told me that the prices have gone up slightly since the menu was printed, but it says that oysters on the half shell are $4.75 for a half dozen; $7.25 for a dozen. I got the fish ceviche, as usual. I got the large portion and I'd say it was about 1 cup's worth. They have several kinds of ceviche - shrimp, octopus, fish, mixed. They also have the standard Mexican shrimp cocktail - 'coctel de camaron' - the shrimp in a tomato-based sauce. They are all around $8.50 for a large. The restaurant bills itself as offering "The Best in Seafood and Mexican Cuisine." It's obvious that the seafood is the reason why most folks come here. I got there around 5pm, late for the traditional Mexican comida, but early for gringo dinner. There were folks at about five or six other tables and at every single table without exception at least one person was getting one of the wonderful fish stews, the steaming hot bowls of "caldos."
I tried the beef enchiladas, something I wouldn't usually order at a seafood place, but I was on a research expedition to see if I can find beef enchiladas in Houston that are stuffed with machaca or carne seca. If so, it's not here. I've tried several places now and I've decided that the shredded beef enchiladas, which I very much prefer, must not be common in Houston. If it's not ground beef, it's chopped up fajita meat, not my favorite. And although the 'fajita' enchiladas were good, next time I'm going back to seafood. Those caldos are perfect tummy warmers as we head into the cool fall months. They're also great to bring home and have on hand.
I don't know if this place will be your cup o' tea as far as oyster bars go as it's very authentically Mexican and perhaps not the ambience you're looking for, but I think it's pretty good and I'd suggest you at least give it a try.
It's only a block off 59, north on Bellfort, so it's easy to find, with plenty of parking.
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re: Jaymes
Thank you very much for that report. I love pulpo so I guess I will get the mixed. I'm trying to set up a visit with a friend so we can share several dishes, but he will mostly want beef, probably.
Are machaca and carne seca the same things and how about machacada? I know I've seen machaca or machacada on a handful of menus around town but the only one I can name is La Guadalupana on Dunlavy where the dish is Huevos on the breakfast menu. Check out the reviews on b4 where the reviewer has spelled it manchaca. Perhaps you could persuade them to fix enchiladas for you.
I think I've seen carne seca on a menu in Houston, too, but can't remember where. So many of these little places not only don't have websites, they don't even have menus to go printed up. I think it was over on the east side; if I think of it, I'll return and post.
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re: dexmat
Carne seca and machaca are pretty much the same thing. If you cook a roast, for example, in some sort of liquid until the liquid is all gone and the meat is essentially "dry," you can shred it. Machaca is basically the same, although there are places that dry the meat in the sun and then shred it.
It's very popular to scramble some of this shredded beef in with eggs to make a breakfast dish.
Here's a typical recipe:
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re: Jaymes
I hate to take a detour, but have you found a place in Houston with good breakfast tacos using machaca? Just got back from some great ones at Taco Taco in San Antonio and crave some local ones in Houston. Any help would be appreciated! As a ceviche lover, I'm sure we'll be off to Ostioneria Mar Azul as well. On that front, I would add El Rey downtown and on Washington for take out or eat in, although I'm not sure how late they stay open--too old.
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re: Jaymes
Just reread this. Not a big deal (especially since this is a 'seafood' thread) but in that post, I inadvertently typed something backwards and want to correct it.
For a traditional carne seca/machaca - you cook it, shred it and THEN "dry the meat in the sun" or roast it.
And delancey, I think I'll start a thread on finding some in Houston.
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re: delancey
danhole
Oct 22, 2009 08:16 AM
delancy,
the new thread about this is here:
http://chowhound.chow.com/topics/661194
Dani
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I really love the seafood, and especially the ceviche, at Ostioneria Mar Azul on Belfort. The Cocteles de Camaron are also wonderful. And the Mojarra. Actually, everything I've tried here is terrific. I think they close around 2am but you can call and check. Lively jukebox and lots of fun into the bargain.
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re: dexmat
Hard to say what makes that ceviche "special." In fact, I guess I'd say it's not. It's a pretty basic ceviche, but that's how I like it. It's really tasty and they don't try to fancy it up like some upscale restaurant that's working hard to come up with some kind of contrived twist on a classic. It's certainly a fair portion. And it seems to me that you can get either a regular size or a large. But I always get some to take home. It's so nice having something on hand that I really love that isn't fattening.
And that reminds me that I used to live in Panama where we bought ceviche from our favorite restaurant. We got a big gallon glass jar of the stuff. That was only enough to get us through two or three days.
I've never tried the oysters at Ostioneria Mar Azul, but since 'oyster' is part of the name, and everything else I've had there is terrific, I'd bet the oysters are probably pretty good, too.
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re: Jaymes
That sounds good to me. I'll have to get down there and try it sometime not waiting until I get the craving in the middle of the night.
Funny that you should mention Panama. The other night when I was jonesing I was surfing around for information on ceviche and came across this:
http://cevichepescafina.com/html/prod...
products of Panama. We have supermarket ready-to-eat sushi, why not ceviche?
They have an importer in Miami but don't list whether there are any places here that carry it. I don't guess we have any Panamanian grocery stores or restaurants in Houston or even anywhere in Texas.
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