Leg warmers for my sister

My sister asked me to knit her some legwarmers that she could wear beneath her clothes at work. She basically asked me to make another pair of socks (likes the ones I made her for Christmas 2010) minus the feet. She didn't want them slouchy (you know, Japanese schoolgirl-style). I used the leftover yarn from her socks to make them but ran out just at the end. Can you tell? She's not bothered, though, since they'll be hidden beneath her scrubs.


Also, while I was home for the holidays I was able to snap this photo of my mom wearing the cardigan I made for her!

It's funny because it's true

I've heard variations on a number of things that are said in this video, including:

• "So where are you from? No, where are you really from?"
• "So are you Chinese or Japanese?" (Ah, the Asian guessing game. It never gets old.)
• "Oh, Vietnam? My dad fought in that war." (Follow with awkward silence.)
• "I love pho."
• "So do you eat dog?" (This always appalled me until I actually went to Vietnam and noticed a carcass in a butcher's shop had paws instead of hooves. YIKES.)
• "Oh, Nguyen! I met another Nguyen today at the nail salon. Are you guys related?"
• "Your English is so good!"
• "So, is it like hard for you guys to tell each other apart?"

And here's a hilarious video that takes the Asian stereotype of med-school preaching parents and turns it on its head:

Chocolate chip muffins

Mmmmm … the breakfast version of the chocolate chip cookie! Because I have this big bag of wheat flour in my pantry that just sits there, I changed the original recipe slightly to incorporate a half cup of that ingredient. I also only used semisweet chocolate chips rather than a mix semisweet and milk chocolate. Good thing, too; I fear milk chocolate chips would have been a little too sweet for me. As it was, though, these muffins turned out just right.

Recipe from The Kitchenarian
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 cup wheat flour
1/2cup sugar
1 tablespoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 egg
3/4 cup milk
1/4 cup buttermilk
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/3 cup vegetable oil
1 cup semisweet chocolate chips

In large bowl, combine the first four ingredients. In separate bowl, beat egg, milk and oil. Stir dry ingredients into wet just until moistened, then fold in chocolate chips. Fill muffin cups three-fourths full and bake at 400F for 12 to 15 minutes or until top is golden brown and bounces back slightly to the touch. Yields 12 muffins.

End-of-year wrap-up: Books 2011

For my last 2011 wrap-up topic, I wanted to review my reading stats and my favorite reads for the year. I had a feeling this year was going to be prolific. It just felt like I was going through a lot.

I usually have three books going at a time: the one by my bedside, an audiobook I listen to when exercising and knitting, and the one I read at lunchtime. To help me remember what I've read, when I've read it and what I rated it, I log my reading at the extremely helpful (and free!) Goodreads. I got an account in 2007. Be careful — it's extremely easy to become addicted to saving lots of data about your reading! It's also handy for dynamically generating that "Books I've Read" widget on this blog as well as the nice bar graphs below.

So here's my yearly book counts since joining GoodReads:


(I actually read 112 books in 2011 but I screen-grabbed these bar graphs just before finishing that final book. No biggie.)

These's a couple notations I'd add to these graphs. While it looks like I read nearly the same number in 2010 as I did in 2011, my Summer 2010 Children's Literature course in library school added a lot of super quick-read titles to the count. (Not that children's lit doesn't count, I'm just sayin'!) I feel like I read more substantially sized titles in 2011. You can see how that plays out when I switch to the page-count bar graphs:


Wow, I somehow managed to churn through more than 36,000 pages' worth of material last year! Crazy! 2008's page-count follows at 33,000+ pages — that was the year I re-read Diana Gabaldon's fantastic Outlander series in preparation for installment No. 7, A Breath of Snow and Ashes, which came out the next year in 2009. Fewer titles, but lots of pages. That year, my longest title to read was Gabaldon's The Fiery Cross (Outlander No. 5), which comes in at a whopping 1,400+ pages. My longest read for 2011 pales in comparison: Studs Terkel's excellent Working: People Talk About What They Do All Day and How They Feel About What They Do, which had 640 pages.

I suspect the reason behind my growth in page count is that I've simply gotten more time to read this year: Jogging, which I resumed this year, is a great opportunity to get some audiobook listening in, and I've been trying to exercise with more regularity. In addition, I usually can squeeze in 30 minutes or so of reading at lunchtime; something I've never tried to do before until this year. It really does all add up!

Nonfiction

Drilling down into my GoodReads data, within the 112 titles I finished last year, 31 were nonfiction. Although fiction remains my favorite, my enjoyment of nonfiction is definitely growing, and my two favorite from the year were:

Everything They Had: Sportswriting from David Halberstam

I reviewed this for my library in August. An excerpt from it:

The best journalism offers context and perspective; it helps you make sense of what it is you're reading and fit it into the larger picture of world. Halberstam does just that. I know little of sports but Halberstam pulls in even in the least knowledgeable with his eloquence and love of the game. He doesn't report on athletic events and personalities just for form's sake, but rather as a window into what they say — about themselves, each other, and us as a society.

Lies My Teacher Told Me: Everything Your American History Textbook Got Wrong by James W. Loewen

While I don't remember much of my 11th grade Advanced Placement U.S. History textbook, I remember my firecracker of a teacher who challenged us and made sure we worked hard and thought critically about the material we covered. Soon after, she went to work for the National Archives.

Loewen does a great job of making a case for how American history textbooks are deeply flawed and do a grave disservice to students across the country: These books take out all the fun of what should be fascinating, relevant, culturally and educationally critical material and instead turn it into ethnocentric, blindly patriotic drivel. He does so by choosing a few examples, such textbooks' coverage of Christopher Columbus, slavery and the Vietnam War, and comparing their treatment of those topics with what actually happened, what the books left out, and how they could have done a better job.

In this Internet age when many people erroneously believe everything they read online, this is a reminder that even what you find in print is not always well-researched and accurate.

Audiobooks

I listened to 34 audiobooks in 2011. My favorites for overall story and performance were:

The Scottish Prisoner by Diana Gabaldon

Although Lord John Grey already features prominently in Gabaldon's Outlander series, this fascinating character has merited his own series and this is the latest installment. I won't get too much into the backstory — to really appreciate these stories, it's best to already be familiar with the Outlander series, at least the first two books, before reading this one.

The Scottish Prisoner takes place during prisoner-of-war Jamie Fraser's parole as a groom at the remote Helwater estate. The Scot has sworn off politics the conflict of the Jacobite cause but is drawn back into the intrigue by the English Duke or Pardloe, Harold Grey, who requires Jamie to work with his brother, Lord John Grey, to investigate a British officer. Left with little option, Jamie reluctantly partners with John, a soldier and occasional agent of espionage with whom Jamie has a long and uneasy relationship.

Lord John books have typically featured Lord John front and center with mentions of Jamie here and there. But in this one, James Fraser gets easily half the tale, which was a definite bonus, even though I'm still a big fan of Lord John. Both characters get their own narrators, with Jeff Woodman voicing Lord John Grey and Rick Holmes doing Jamie. They do an excellent job differentiating the two perspectives and further fleshing them out with their narrations. I loved the seriousness of Jamie's Scottish burr and the sadness you can hear from his loss of his beloved wife Claire. You can hear John Grey's intelligence and sensitivity as well as the vulnerability he tries to mask when he's around Jamie. A really lovely performance.

The Help by Kathryn Stockett

I'd not planned on listening to The Help but the book was checked out with a long hold line at my library I opted for the audiobook instead and boy, am I glad I did!

Skeeter Phelan, a young woman in Civil Rights-era Jackson, Mississippi, aspires to be a writer and decides to pen a nonfiction book from the point of "the help," i.e., the African American women who serves as maids for the affluent white families in the city. She enlists Aibileen, a friend's maid, as her first interview. Aibileen's friend Minny Jackson eventually joins the effort. The trio work to recruit other maids for their stories while tensely keeping the project a secret from everyone else to avoid the explosive racial tensions rampant throughout the South.

Different women provide the narrations for each of the three main characters. They all do a fantastic job imbuing the story with humor, heartache and honesty. One of the narrators, Octavia Spencer (who does the voice of the sassy, pie-baking, no-crap-taking Minny) even played the same role in the movie, which I also saw and recommend.

I am a Genius of Unspeakable Evil and I Want to Be Your Class President by Josh Lieb

You can read my review and listen to an audioclip at the library's website. An except:

Oliver Watson of Omaha, Neb., knows what everyone sees when they look at him: a sad, overweight schlub of a seventh-grader. That’s precisely the image he cultivates to hide who he really is: the third-richest person on earth. And aside from his brindle pit bull mix Lollipop (who, incidentally, Oliver’s trained to only respond to commands in Basque such as Hil Ito, which apparently translates to "Kill but make it look like an accidental drowning"), he pretty much loathes everyone on the planet.

This story kept me entertained from start to finish. I listened to the audiobook version, narrated by Marc Thompson, and he does a spectacular job with the many voices in the book. The 180-degree difference he makes between evil genius Oliver and intentionally pathetic Oliver is particularly gut-busting.

If you read the book version, Lieb litters it with snide asides from Oliver that add another extra kick to the dripping scorn he has for his fellow man. Certainly, it’s written for kids, so it has its fair share of potty humor, but Lieb's an executive producer of The Daily Show, so there’s plenty of satirical humor to go around for adults as well.

Children's Literature

I Want My Hat Back by John Klassen

I guarantee you will enjoy this book no matter how old you are. Check out the book trailer for an idea of what to expect.

Young Adult Literature

Heist Society by Ally Carter

I reviewed this fun, Ocean's Eleven-style caper story back in March. An excerpt:

Katarina Bishop comes from a family of elite, international thieves. But the bright 16 year old would rather learn than purloin, so she tries to distance herself from "the life" by hiding away at boarding school. But fate has other ideas and before she knows it, Kat’s drawn into a high-stakes job retrieving a priceless art collection filched from the lair of a notorious mobster.

There’s a lot to like in this book: The globe-hopping, the nicely handled hints of romance and the wonderfully snappy writing laden with hilariously unexpected nuggets of humor.

The Monstrumologist by Rick Yancey

This, I read over the summer and reviewed in July for the library. An excerpt:

Rick Yancey’s The Monstrumologist grabs you by the throat from Page 1 and doesn’t let go. The more you struggle, the more it gleefully squeezes you deeper into its gruesome clutches. And then it swallows you with a flourish and licks its chops.

That’s how over-the-top shivery and scary this riveting gothic tale is. Do you like monsters? Check. How about violence? Double-check!

You won’t be able to look away! Even when you’re covered in gore!

Fiction

A Prayer for Owen Meaney by John Irving

This was a re-read but it remains one of my favorites for its story and cleverness. I love it so much, it's one of the few books I own.

Not unlike the A-Team's Hannibal Smith, I love it when a plan comes together and Irving weaves this one together in a way you won't be able to see coming. An adult John Wheelwright relates the fantastical story of his best friend Owen Meany, a dwarf of a boy with a wrecked voice, and their childhood growing up the fictional town of Gravesend, New Hampshire. Owen accidentally killed John's mother in a freak baseball accident when they were little, and that incident sets off a chain of events that plays out through their lives until the story's final pages.

Irving examines ideas of friendship and fate — Owen believes himself an instrument of God — while mixing in comedy and small-town tomfoolery.

Lady of the Forest by Jennifer Roberson

Another re-read of a book I actually own. This is a retelling of the Robin Hood legend through the eyes of both Robin of Locksley and Lady Marian. Roberson's wonderful use of language brings layers of depth, detail and characterization.

She depicts a man scarred by war and the heavy weight that comes with being a close friend of the King of England's. He finds unexpected solace in the proud and brave Lady Marian, whose father Robin fought alongside in the Crusades. Marian is portrayed as a young woman confined by historic mores even as she challenges them. Together, the pair must navigate the schemes of Robin's father and the sheriff of Sherwood Forest. It a really nicely told story that easily goes beyond the traditional romance.

Shadowfever by Karen Marie Moning

The final book in Moning's five-book Fever series. The series' overarching storyline is that Southern girl MacKayla Lane continues her quest to solve the mystery of her sister's death in Ireland while battling Fae (lethal fairies) and tracking an arcane book of black magic that can control the worlds of both Man and Fae. She is aided by the mysterious Jericho Barrons and one of the Fae, unworldly and gorgeous V'lane, each with their own motivations for helping her. Mac herself has steadily undergone a transformation from rather clueless bartender to hardened, fearless warrior strengthened by the many horrible things she sees and experiences along the way.

I won't get into the particulars of this specific book because you really must read the preceding four books to appreciate it. Moning left Book No. 4 (Dreamfever) with a heart-dropping cliffhanger but she truly makes up for it in Shadowfever, delivering (to borrow a b-boy term) power move after power move. What a conclusion! Dark, sexy, and full of secrets, answers and more secrets, Shadowfever doesn't disappoint.

End-of-year wrap-up: Stuffing my face 2011

Any regular reader of my blog (all two of them, if even that!) knows I like to eat. Going to restaurants is a treat for me; I usually average eating out once a week or once every two weeks. I am partial to diners, small-time cafes, and eateries that specialize in burgers or chicken fried steak (which I like to call in my sillier moments, "CFS"). Or beignets. Or dessert. Typically not all together. Because then my mind would be blown.

As I fondly look back at 2012, I thought I'd list some of my favorite food places from the past year.

Best looking: Monument Cafe in Georgetown, Texas

Okay, my first mention has less to do with food and more to do with décor. I visited The Monument Cafe, just north of Austin, in March with my sisters and found the diner's visual aesthetic really pleasing. Traditional yet modern, subdued yet stylish. Although we ate at a booth in the corner, it was the counter, which wrapped around the bustling yet pristine, shiny, brightly lit kitchen, that inevitably drew the eye.

Come for the interior decoration but stay for the FRIED PIE.

Best view: Signature Room in Chicago, Il.

An and Shawn brought Van and me to the swanky Signature Room restaurant atop the John Hancock Center in downtown Chicago during our January visit. You can see a whole lot from the 95th the floor even if it's foggy!

Biggest serving sizes: Yolk in Chicago, Il.

That same trip to Chicago was kind of an eating fest; we were eating out constantly. But the prize for most gigantic portions goes to our breakfast at Yolk, where I got an overflowing dish that fed me for a good three meals.

Best kolaches: Old Towne Kitchen in Houston, Texas

If you're not from Texas, you may not even be familiar with kolaches. Growing up here, I assumed everyone knew what a kolache was — but I've learned that's not the case! I believe they originated as a Czech pastry but they've since been co-opted by Texans (as we like to do) and turned into something resembling a delicious delicious pig in a blanket.

Pretty much any donut place around here will have them but I like to check out the rare kolache specialty shops, too, which is why we visited Old Towne Kitchen, which turned out to have lovely sausage and cheese kolaches (my favorite). You can absolutely taste the butter in the light, mouth-watering bread dough, which is mildly sweet and pairs perfectly with the cheese and the savoriness of the sausage. We first hit the bakery in September and returned in November with our other sister in tow.

Best BBQ: Dickinson BBQ in Dickinson, Texas

Dickinson BBQ wins several superlatives for me: best customer service, best local (to me) restaurant. We ate here during the summer for the first time, and were greeted immediately inside by a staffer who asked if we'd been there before. When we said no, they offered us a sampler plate of a few small cuts of meat and two cups of their barbecue sauce, normal and spicy. Then they proceeded to explain how to order (there's a cafeteria-style counter up front that you run your tray along). I was impressed. And what put the cherry on top was the food turned out great, too. This restaurant isn't too far from me, either, so I see myself going back often. I've already brought my dad and he enjoyed their food, too.

Oh, and their homemade banana pudding is killer. I would eat vats of the stuff if my heart could take it.

Best source of late-night sweets: Shipley's in Houston, Texas

Shipley's is already know for its donuts but this one on Westheimer was a real find for my sister and me: Not only is it open 24/7, making it perfect for late-night cravings, but it serves beignets, too. I really couldn't ask for more from my neighborhood donut shop but this Shipley's goes the extra mile with a spotless interior, friendly staff and loads of other goodies, too.

Best burger: The Shack in Cypress, Texas

Probably my favorite find from the past year. The Shack, an unassuming all-outdoor dining spot located in the fields of northwest Houston, is definitely a keeper. I've only eaten there once, in early September with my sister and some friends, but everything I put in my mouth from there was consistently delicious. Their burgers are perfectly seasoned and their sides, ridiculously scrumptious. The only thing missing from their menu is dessert.

I resolve to revisit The Shack again in 2012. My parents have heard my sister and I go on and on about this place so we're hoping they'll get a chance to sample The Shack's mouth-watering cooking with us soon, too.

End-of-year wrap-up: Knitting 2011

I thought this year I'd actually make an attempt to look back on the things I've gotten to do in the past 12 months as a way to reflect, appreciate and be grateful. First up: my knitting for the year! Here are my finished projects:

Lil Green Riding Hoodie

One of my resolutions for 2011 was to make more things for myself, since I usually knit for others or no one in particular. I'd been wanting a vivid green hoodie for myself for a while. This is what came of it.

I keep this hoodie at work and wear it nearly every day because I get cold pretty easily. I knitted it with the cheapest bulk yarn possible, Caron One Pound, so by this point it's pilling kind of badly but it's still held up pretty well. It looks well-used and well-loved, both of which are totally true.

Clover Tweed Scarf

I knit scarves just because they're fun. But I live in southwest Texas, along the coast, which means the winters are so mild I never get to wear scarves! Ah, the knitter's dilemma. This scarf's for sale in my Etsy store.

Cabled Baby Blanket

I made this baby blanket as a way to use up the yarn. Of course, I ran out and inevitably had to get some more!

Currently for sale in my Etsy store.

Jelly Roll Pillow

My utilitarian way of using up the stuffing in an old, battered bed pillow that I otherwise would have throw=n away.

Socks for myself

Green socks — I just wore these last week! They are as cozy as they look.


Grey socks — because really, can you ever have too many socks?

Farrow Rib Scarf

I'm honored to say a friend from Abilene, Texas, saw this on my blog and is now the owner of this scarf!

Granny Square Blanket for Pepper

I love this dog like crazy! She's the best! This was my second granny square blanket for her. My sister asks that I make the next one like a cape so that it can stay on Pepper all the time rather than fall off when she gets up.

March Cardigan for my mom

This sweater took several tries to get right. I'm still not 100% happy with it but it's probably the most polished project I've knitted so far.

Corrugator Scarf No. 2

This was an early Christmas present for a friend of mine in Nashville to replace an earlier scarf I'd given him that had inadvertently gotten shrunk in the dryer.

So that's it for 2011! I am currently working on on the Raspy pullover from Denim People for myself, but its finish is a long way away. And after that project, who knows??

Reindeer Run, Sherry's Busy Bee Cafe

My sister, dad and I ran the Reindeer Run in Nassau Bay for Christus St. John Hospital last weekend. Because the family that runs together has fun together!

My mom cheered us on. We're hoping she agrees to walk our next 5K so we can do it all together!

It was my first time to do a 5K (3.1 miles), although I've been walking/jogging that distance for the past few months. I'd never actually run three miles straight, so to make sure I could do it, the week of, I ran that distance without walking or stopping while at the fitness center and made it through.

But running on a treadmill is very different from running outside, exposed to the elements! Also, when you're running on a treadmill, it sets the pace rather than you. So at the Reindeer Run I actually started out much faster than I'm used to — I usually start out walking to warm up — which led to my feeling not great by the 1-mile mark. Starting out at the brisk pace set by everyone else was a bad idea. Lesson learned.

I ended up walking for a bit, as you can see in the video, before meeting up with my sister (my dad had long since left us behind) and walking some more before jogging probably the final mile. Somehow my time was still better than when I run the whole way through at the fitness center! Weird.

For lunch, I chose Sherry's Busy Bee Cafe in Santa Fe, Texas. In Texas Monthly's Dec. 2008 issue, it had named the restaurant one of its Top 40 small-town cafes. I'd heard good things about their chicken fried steak and in-house pies. What wasn't to like?

Overall, I quite enjoyed my chicken fried steak, mashed potatoes and fried okra. The chicken fried steak and mashed potatoes were a little bland — I could have done with a bit more seasoning in both — but it's not a big gripe. Vannie liked her chicken strips and my mom was impressed by the serving sizes (she got the catfish po boy). My dad ate all his steak.

But definitely the pièce de résistance was the cafe's coconut pie. I don't even like coconut but when I tried it, I was blown away. That's how good it was. Sweet, but not too sweet, light and airy. I would totally come back for more of that.

Corrugator Scarf No. 2

Pattern: Hired Hands (no longer available)
Needles: Size 8
Yarn: 2.5 skeins Wool-Ease Worsted Weight in 180 Forest Green Heather
Dimensions: 7" x 5'1"
Cast on: 44 stitches (I think …)

This scarf was for a friend. I'd made him another scarf two years ago using superwash wool, which I'd warned could be washed but not dried. (Normal wool can't be washed or dried.) This was poor planning on my part; he ended up forgetting — totally easy to do — and throwing the scarf in the dryer. It came out the size of a kerchief, he joked.

So this time around I opted for washer- and dryer-safe yarn. Also, the original herringbone pattern I'd chosen for him had looked lovely but, since it's stockinette based, had the tendency to curl, so I resolved to choose something that was simple, reversible and that lied flat.

Since I'd enjoyed this ribbed pattern the first time around, I thought I'd do it again in the same dark green that he likes. I think it came out quite nicely and my friend's neck is warm again. As I told him, my job here is done.

Not enough superlatives for this video

Personally, I relish all 4:55 of this video — the pacing is a pleasure — but if you're impatient for the action, bump up to 2:09 when the action starts. I find this video both amazing and terrifying. The power lines! The power lines!

Burger Guys and 24/7 Beignets in Houston

I'm pretty sure I got my eating genes from my parents.

We had our usual Thanksgiving get-together of friends and family on Thursday during which there was already discussion on where we'd be eating together the day after for lunch. My parents and their friends were planning on paying our recent recommendation, The Shack in Cypress, a visit.

As psyched as I was by the idea, I didn't want my mom and dad to think we had to go that day just because my sister and I had been insisting we check it out at some point. I brought up how if my parents wanted to wait for another time — seeing as how we'd probably just eaten our weight in turkey with all the trimmings — that that wouldn't be an unreasonable thing to do. My dad just looked at me blankly like he didn't understand what I was saying. "Tomorrow's another day," he said. So, that was decided.

At least, that is, until Friday morning, when I checked The Shack's website just before we were going to head out and found out they're not open for lunch during the week. Bummer! So my family opted for a pared-down outing of just my parents, my sister and me (rather than the original 10-person party). My mom would have liked to have checked out an eatery in a small town (another shared family trait) but we were on a bit of a timetable since my sister needed to get back to Galveston, so we decided to head into town for lunch. My mom asked where we should eat and I consulted my List of Places I Want to Try (What? Doesn't everyone have one of those?) and chose Burger Guys in West Houston on Westheimer. I'd heard lots of good things about it, both from friends and family and online reviews.

First off, if you're looking for Burger Guys, know that their sign is really, really small. We passed by it twice without realizing it was there. I like the hunt as much as the next person but did find the lack of visible signage aggravating. The sign on top of their restaurant is small. They're completely absent from the strip mall's list of businesses out front by the road, too.


Once inside, we perused the menu on the wall that immediately greeted us. With offerings like the Saigon (pate, daikon, carrot & jalapeno, sriracha-lime aioli) and Perigord (onion bacon jam, gastrique, foie gras, toasted garlic aioli), Burger Shack comes across as a gourmet burger joint for those with adventurous palates. (This is also reflected in the prices; the burgers cost $8-$9 a pop.) They also have fancy milkshake flavors like salted caramel and cafe sua da, Vietnamese iced coffee with milk.

And the fries are fried in duck fat.

Is that a thing? Frying things in duck fat? I honestly don't know. Whatever the case, I found the fries pretty good. They taste … different from normal fries, I'm guessing precisely because of the duck fat. But still were tasty, at least to me. My dad said they seemed overdone, but I didn't get that impression. I liked my Ranch dipping sauce, too, which was made in-house — as are all their dipping sauces. My mom got the ketchup, my dad the cilantro jalapeño, both of which I found less appealing.

My mom, sister and I settled on the 1/4-pound bacon cheeseburger special and my dad got the Lancaster (sauteed mushrooms, onion & bacon, swiss cheese, Dijon mustard/mayonnaise sauce) with a side of fries. The burgers were super juicy. I don't think I've ever bitten into a burger that exuded so much liquid. Our table was kind of a mess. I ended up munching on my burger while holding it over my fries so the liquid had somewhere to go. Although, now that I think of it, maybe that's exactly why your burger is served sitting on top of your fries …


Despite all the accolades, I found my burger underwhelming. In fact, I kind of didn't like it because it was too salty. (I'm not the only one who apparently feels that way, either.) I think the patty was oversalted but my dad thinks it was the bun itself. Which is weird, because the Burger Guys say they use lightly toasted sweet challah buns. Normally I would totally love that because I prefer my hamburger buns slightly sweet and toasted. But I didn't taste any sweetness. In addition, the burgers didn't come with any tomatoes or lettuce, which I feel would have at least helped the burger taste less salty while adding that refreshing element that fresh veggies bring with them. Instead, you just carbo-load with the buns, patty, bacon and cheese. Not really for me.

I'm also not thrilled that Burger Guys apparently charges for water. Sure, it's only $1, but really?? I was doing the math in my head of what the meal had run and couldn't figure out the difference between what I was coming up with and what I'd actually paid until I read the Yelp reviews, which explained the extra charge. Not cool.

But lunch wasn't a complete bust.

Ever since leaving Austin, my sister and I have been on a quest to find a Houston equivalent to Mrs. Johnson's Donuts, which opens daily at 8:40 p.m. But all the donut shops we'd come across in around our area as well as our parents' only provided the standard morning service.

But what should we find just down the way from Burger Guys in the same strip mall?

A Shipley's Do-Nuts open 24/7. Not only that but they serve beignets. Omg. SCORE.

You have no idea how cheered my sister and I were at finding this place. My dad, craving something sweet, ordered a box of beignets for us to share. (Later, to counteract all the fried food clogging our arteries, my sister and I got some slushees at Tapiocafe in Webster.) I'm so glad to know of a place we can now go for late-night beignets! Up until now, there was just Crescent City Beignet in Rice Village and Chez Beignets in the Bellaire Chinatown area, which are considerably further away.