Spent the bulk of my Monday flying from San Luis Obispo to Houston, and by the time I had checked into my hotel (The Hotel Derek) I opted to stay on-property for my dinner. Walked down to Bistro Moderne and settled on a light dinner...Gazpacho to start, and their "Blue Crab Cake" entrée, a photo of which I've included here.If you ever find yourself at Bistro Moderne and find yourself in the mood for a crab cake, let me offer one word of advice: "Don't!"
You would think that a crab cake would at least contain a very high percentage of crab. Not at Bistro Moderne. This entrée could be better described on the menu as "bread flakes with a suggestion of crab, deep fried in a rancid oil". I actually found myself playing a little game while I took another bite: try to find some crabmeat. What little crab there was in this meal exhibited signs that it was recently revived from a long freeze, and lacked consistency, taste and any visual clue that it was once crab.
The cake (more like a hockey puck than a crab cake) was accompanied by spaghetti squash sautéed with green and red bell peppers. This dish looked and tasted like it was prepared days ago, and had the consistency of mush. As a matter of fact the entire plate could be featured as an 'early bird special' for folks with bad dentures...if not for the fact that the crab cake was breaded and fried in a manner which resulted in a very hard crust.
Tired and defeated, I grabbed my open bottle of rosé and headed back up to my room. A memorable meal...for all the wrong reasons.
Never been disappointed by the fare over at humor-blogs.com, though.
6 comments:
Oh my God, I can't believe your story. Everyone knows that Houston is the very center of the universe for Blue Crab cakes, and in fact the Bistro Moderne is at the top of the list when mentioning places to go to get the finest example of Crab cakes. Whats next, you will probably try to tell me that I haven't had the best BBQ pork in my life at a restaurant in Dubai :)
And, ohmygawd! I can't believe that you really think that regional boundaries apply to foodstuffs like crab! Next YOU'LL probably tell me you don't drink coffee unless you're in Keyna or Kona, you don't eat pork chops unless you're in Iowa, and won't eat Sushi in Scottsdale.
Really? ;)
It could just be that it was "Hotel food".
While there certainly ARE restaurants attached to hotels that I wouldn't eat at (like Chili's), or where I'd enter with lowered expectations (Marriott's American Grille), there are a number of establishments (like this one) that should be held to a higher standard.
Wait.....you'll stole my plate. I was looking forward to that brick!!!!
Plenty more to be had at Bistro Moderne...but it's listed in their menu as "Crab Cake".
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