Chicago to Houston bowl trip

Over the holidays 2 college friends and I drove to Houston to see the Illinois bowl game. We left on Monday, since there were 3 of us we drove straight through both ways.

We stopped for lunch at Lamberts. This is a fun experience. We ordered fried chicken, hog jowls, and country fried steak. Each came with 2 sides. During the meal Lambert had servers walking around with help yourself: fried potatoes. Black-eye peas, mac & tomatoes, apple butter, and sorghum. Of course there were the hot rolls which are thrown at you. The place was pretty crowded and the rolls were flying across the dining room.

The consensus was this was very good country style cooking. We had a split vote on the mac & tomatoes. I thought they were too sweet. My sides were fried apples and mashed potatoes, which were VG.

For dinner we stopped at Bob’s Catfish in Atlanta, Texas. This was a stop of convenience as we didn’t do a good job of planning. This was nothing special.

One of my friends stayed with his bother-in-law, while 2 of us stayed in a Marriott, with a free breakfast of normal hotel stuff.

On Tuesday our local host took us to Galveston to walk on the shore and see the old town. We had lunch at Casey Gaido’s. I had a dozen oysters which were (of course) very fresh. I followed it up with a blackened shrimp wrap. I thought the oysters were excellent while the wrap could have used more shrimp and more blackening. Our host had the wrap too, with equal disappointment. The ranch dressing in the wrap was over powering. Everybody else liked their seafood.

For dinner there were now 6 of us and we went to Ninfa’s. It was pretty crowded, but they told us about 20 minutes, so we waited. We weren’t seated until 70 – 75 minutes later. The group dynamics prevented a decision to leave.

Unfortunately, I think the long wait prevented a good assessment. People seemed to think it was ok Mexican food. I had fried oysters with jalapeño potato hash. I really like both. The chips and salsa was above average.

Game day we had lunch at Lulings City Market. This is a BBQ place. They sell their product by the weight on butcher paper. I had ribs, links, brisket, beans, and potato salad. Since we weren’t sure about dinner we overate. The ribs featured a lot of meat, a nice smoke and were excellent. The link was seasoned with jalapeño and garlic, too spicy for one of the group, but I liked it. The brisket was tender with a nice smoke, but on the dry side. I was disappointed in the beans and the potato salad. Both were below average. Their house made sauce was good.

Then we went to the game at Reliant Stadium. Reliant in indoors which was a plus as Houston got up to 10 inches of rain that day. The rain had stopped by game end and we went to an area called the Village. We hit two bars for beer and a snack. The first beer was at the Gingerman. This had a good amount of beer taps and very decent prices. Since one of our group is not a drinker we had a DD. We also went next door to another bar, forgot the name. It had a decent beer selection and a 2 man band.

We left the next day, Thursday. We had a mutual friend in Dallas so we went that way. He took us to lunch at La Hacienda, a Tex-Mex restaurant. I had one of lunch specials, soup and a taco. The soup was chicken tortilla, which was supposed to be spicy, but was kind of bland. It had a nice flavor and the ingredients appeared fresh, just needed more spice. The taco was ordinary, but was pretty big and had a lot of meat. I thought this was a good lunch value. A nice touch was that each of us got our own salsa bowl, so everyone could double dip. The chips were good.

For dinner we stopped in Joplin, Mo at RibCrib. This was a chain in that part of the country with 20 or more locations. My companions thought it was good. I just thought it was ok. I had ribs and chopped brisket, with cowboy and regular beans as my sides. The ribs had a nice smoke and were tender. I would have appreciated more meat. The brisket was ok. I was disappointed in both beans. The cowboy beans were supposed to be spicy, but were not. I mixed the chopped brisket in with the beans and this worked well. I would rate this place on a level equal to a Famous Dave's place.

My two friends are not foodies as such I had to go with the group on dining at times. But all-in-all it was a good to very good food trip. And Illinois won the game, so everything else didn’t matter.

D.


Lambert’s
2305 E. Malone
Sikeston, MO

Bob’s Catfish King
507 Loop 59
Atlanta, TX

Casey's
3802 Seawall Boulevard
Galveston, TX

The Original Ninfa’s
2704 Navigation Blvd
Houston

Luling City Market
4726 Richmond
Houston

The Gingerman
5607 Morningside Drive
Houston

La Hacienda
Preston Rd.
Dallas

RibCrib
2915 E. 24th St.
Joplin, MO

to clarify; it's not Casey Gaido's, nor Casey's, it's just Gaido's

As a habit I pick up a take-out menu (where I can) to remember my stops. The take-out menu calls it Casey Gaido’s. I think I saw Casey’s on the web. Our host told me that ½ the building was Gaido’s, a more white table cloth and expensive restaurant. The other ½ was Casey Gaido’s. We went to the cheaper ½.

Maybe you are right and I misunderstood some things.

D.