Houston trip: Les Givrals and Giacomo's cibo e vino

I'm visiting my daughter, Helen, granddaughter, Grace, and Will, Helen's boyfriend and his son Atticus, in Houston for Memorial Day weekend.  This weekend I have not done any cooking and instead was fortunate enough to have some great meals here.  Helen lives in the Bellaire area, close to everything, so she didn't blink when I asked to try Les Givrals, a Vietnamese restaurant.  We went Saturday and enjoyed their Bahn Mi sandwiches and spring rolls.

All were freshly made with just the right crispy french rolls.  The spring rolls were tender, not rubbery as is often the case, and there were several sauces available to spice up the food.  The entire dinner for all 6 of us was $30.00.
Breakfast the next morning at the local "Egg and I" was just fine.  A cute family restaurant with fresh and imaginative food.  I had a vegetable frittata and freshly squeezed orange juice.  The highlight of this weekend's eating was tonight, however.


Helen had been to a local place called, Giacomo's cibo e vino, an Italian style wine and food bar.  She loved it and thought that I would "get it".  There are several ways to eat there and it is not typical in any way.  It reminded me of the little wine bars all over Italy where you could stop in, buy a glass of wine and then help yourself to antipasti set out on the bar.  At Giacomo's you are shown the day's special antipasti, or "chichetti freddi"  (little cold dishes) and you can have a sampling of any of them, for about $5-6 per plate.  You can also order anitpasti from the menu, or "chichetti caldi" (little hot dishes).  Then there are soups, salads, "secondi" (main course portions) of meats and seafood, house made pasta, panini, and "contorni" (vegetable sides).  We selected glasses of wine (which come in half and full glasses--a great way to sample several wines), however we chose just one glass each of Pavillion Cabernet Sauvignon.  The waiter escorted us to the bar area and showed us the 10 or so special cold antipasti.
 
Daily selection of cold antipasti

It was hard to choose but we decided on the marinated mushrooms, seafood salad with shrimp and squid, and spicy broccoli.  We ordered a basket of bread which included some nice foccacia.


Marinated mushrooms, spicy broccoli, squid and shrimp salad, foccacia

Instead of the heavier tortellini in brodo (pasta stuffed with meat) and served with cream sauces that the girls ordered, Helen and I decided on vegetable misto and salsiccia di pollo (chicken sausage) with frisee and arugula.


misto (vegetables) and salciccia di pollo (chicken sausage)

We weren't sorry with our choices.  We sampled the pasta and although it was al dente and flavorful I preferred the variety of vegetable dishes and the one meat dish.  Since we had room for dessert we all ordered it:  lemon tart, gelato for Grace (white chocolate and chocolate), and panna cotta for Helen and I.  The panna cotta with vanilla yogurt, cinnamon and lemon was silky and tart, reminding me of the melt in your mouth gelato I had at the Motti School in Reggio Emilia, Italy.

Just give me gelato!



The silky vanilla lemon cinnamon panna cotta



Lemon Tart

If I lived in Houston I would go to Giacomo's on a regular basis and sample everything.  Helen, next time you come visit me in Azle, bring a cooler full of Giacomo's cold antipasti, bread, and a panna cotta.  Please!