We had our usual Sunday brunch a bit earlier today in preparation of all the games I wanted to watch. Texans at 3 and Astros at 7. My Patriots play at noon but since I am so underprivileged as not to have Direct TV football package, I just listen in (radio style) if their game is not shown on local channels. Such is the life of a cheap sports fan.

Lucky for me, I have a more decent budget for my eating out hobby. So we are here at Lucienne, the new restaurant off fancy Hotel Alessandra in downtown Houston. Decor is really pretty, color scheme is similar to that of Ladure, that macaron place in Paris, very inviting.

We ordered escargot for appetizer, but for some reason, the waiter forgot. So there we were, taking tiny sips as there’s nothing worse than taking in all this alcohol on an empty stomach. As our entrees arrived, I knew that the escargot was a goner.

This was really good. Although I felt a wave of guilt as I got to the bottom of the bowl because there was a little pool of oil. Who am I kidding? It is lard. After all, this is pork belly.

This is the first time I’ve had this and I am definitely intrigued. A quick perusal of Google revealed — pommes soufflées are a variety of French fried potato. Slices of potato are fried twice, once at 150 °C and a second time after being cooled, at 190 °C. The potato slices puff up into little balloons during the second frying and turn golden brown.

Because of the little mishap on our escargot, the manager decided to comp us our dessert.

This beautiful dessert is cow’s milk cheese (vacherin) admixed with pistachio. The solid top on the cup is white chocolate with raspberry.

We ordered coffee for the desserts and the unthinkable happened. As I poured the creamer, it came out in chunks. It was sour! I had to call the waiter again and the manager was horrified. They immediately replaced the bad creamer. When we got the bill, we were comped off our alcohol as well.

With all the faux pas that occurred, the management knew how to handle it. Impressive, considering they just opened less than a month. We gave a huge tip, because I really don’t like NOT paying for a good meal. As I have always said, good food covers a multitude of sins. We definitely are planning to be back. In all likelihood for dinner, when most of the staff are on their A-game.

Speaking of A’s, the Astros play tonight and I am kicking myself to have allowed myself to get hooked to this game. Last night’s game was heartbreaking. I have no need of this negativity in my life. But knowing me, I will still watch tonight’s game, sleep late, wake up angry, then of course, stress eat….

GO ASTROS!