Low

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w-Cost Luxuries

Savvy
Gourmands
z
by Phaedra Cook
Photography by Phaedra Cook & Chuck Cook

Champagne tastes and a beer budget its an age-old

complaint. But savvy gourmands know that theres no
need to pay top dollar for every little luxury. Its true that,
to a certain extent, you get what you pay for. However,
there are great values to be had on items that are nearly as
good as the very best. We asked around
and got advice from experts on
best versus best value in
several everyday luxuries.
Read on and prepare to
stock up on a few indulgences.
Dont overlook the results of
our butter tasting and the list
of four under-$20 wines that
over-deliver, courtesy of Bear
Dalton, the fine wine buyer
for Specs, on page 38.

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Blue Cheese

COST: $16 per pound for Affine Buttermilk Blue

WHERE: Houston Dairymaids, 2201 Airline

Lindsey Schechter owns the Houston Dairymaids,

which has a small warehouse in The Heights and is one
of Houstons best places to sample cheese, crackers and
other fine fare. We asked about the best value in blue
cheese, and Schechter didnt hesitate. Around here,
the Affine Buttermilk Blue is regarded as delicious
and affordable. Compared to imported roqueforts or
stiltons the Colston Bassett stilton, for example, can
run more than $29 a pound the Wisconsin-made
raw-milk Affine represents a 45-percent savings.
Schechter also recommends California-made Point
Reyes Bay Blue, which even at $20 per pound is still a
good deal.

coffee beans

COST: $6.73 for 12 ounces of Cafe Copan Honduran

WHERE: Specs Wine, Spirits & Finer Foods (Smith Street

location)
If you think coffee isnt a controversial topic, think again. There are
few local experts who dont also have a hand in the game, i.e. own a
coffee-roasting business, have a special deal with a supplier or simply
dont want to stir up trouble by deeming one brand a better value than
another.
We did find one person who didnt pull his punches, though: John
Nechman, an attorney and self-confessed coffee snob who recently
wrote the Houstons Magic Beans feature for the October-November
2015 issue of My Table. He had this to say about coffee beans and where
to find great values: Quality single origins are rarely going to come in
at under $15 per pound. Quality blends are pretty available at $5 to $7
per pound, however. Lola Savannah, which roasts downtown but inexplicably doesnt have a storefront/cafe here (they have two in Austin),
has some excellent single origins (especially the Ethiopians) for around
$10 per pound. Cafe Copan sells some great Honduran beans at Specs
for less than $10 a pound. Specs is one of the more convenient spots to
get fresh-roasted beans at a decent price.
Hes not kidding. A 12-ounce bag of Cafe Copan is $6.73 at the
flagship Specs on Smith Street, and the price dropped to a marvelously
inexpensive $4.49 when using our Specs Key and getting a cash discount for paying with a debit card. Interested in trying the Lola Savannah, too? Check Central Market, which usually has some in stock.

himalayan SALT
COST: $8.99 a pound
WHERE: Central Market

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Almost anything that can be purchased in bulk e.g.

spices, nuts, dried fruit is going to be a better deal
than the prepackaged alternative. That goes for Himalayan pink salt, too. Sadly, Central Market no longer
features an endcap dedicated to specialty salts, but
some can still be found on the shelves near the spices.
Prepackaged, a shaker of pink salt is 63 cents an
ounce. In the bulk department though, it is 56 cents
an ounce. That savings means the do-it-yourself packaging and weighing is a worthwhile, nominal effort.

CAVIAR

COST: $31.50 (domestic sturgeon) and $9 (smoked

WHERE: Dr. Delicacy website (drdelicacy.com)

trout roe)

Foremost among luxurious foods is caviar. Wouldnt we all love to

have a one-pound tin of beluga to share with friends on a significant birthday or anniversary? Unfortunately, that costs a couple
thousand dollars. Even a one and three-quarter ounce jar of Petrossian Royal Ossetra domestic sturgeon is $211 at Central Market.
Thats manageable for special occasions, perhaps, but there are
alternatives inexpensive enough to serve anytime.
We turned to chef Lyle Bento of Southern Goods for help. He
just went through a tasting and selection process himself in order
to offer caviar service at his restaurant in The Heights. To keep the
cost of Southern Goods caviar service accessible to more diners,
Bento decided to use wild-caught hackleback sturgeon caviar from
Mississippi and smoked trout pearls from France.
About the hackleback, Bento says, The eggs are a nice size and
color. You can feel each individual little egg in your mouth. Thats
what I love about caviar having that little pop. A lot of the other
domestic caviars dont have that. He recommends checking Specs
and Central Market for domestic roe. Alternatively, order directly
from the Dr. Delicacy website, which also sells fresh truffles.

Ros

COST: $20.56 for 2014 Mas Sainte

WHERE: Houston Wine Merchant

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Berthe

There arent many in Houston who know more about ros than
Houston Wine Merchants Antonio Gianola (photo above), so
he was the perfect expert to ask for a recommendation. He says
the most in-demand ros is the Domaine Tempier from Kermit
Lynch. While thats not very pricey (about $42 a bottle according to a quick online search), its hard to find.
His value recommendation is the Mas Sainte Berthe Les Baux
de Provence Passe-Rose. For good value in the Bandol style,
the thing to look for is Ctes de Provence, advises Gianola.
Bandol is a specialized area inside Ctes de Provence. If you
consider Bandol to be like Bellaire, the Ctes de Provence would
be like Houston. Very similar style of wine. Some of the blends
can be a little different. They can be Mourvedre-based or they
can be more Cinsault-dominant, plus the color is very similar to
the Bandol wines color. The soft, salmon pink is the color most
people gravitate to. Gianola notes that the Mas Sainte Berthe is
2016
more Cinsault-based.

Blind Tasting for the Beyonc Butter

Oxheart pastry chef Karen Man and My Table magazine
co-hosted a blind tasting of eight unsalted butters in Mans home
in December. Seven were store-bought, and one was a stick that
the pastry chef made from scratch. The mission: to determine
if there is really a difference between fancy European butters,
domestic butters and store brands. When it comes to unsalted
butter, does more expensive really mean better tasting?
Butters are expected to be creamy or milky, but some rarely
considered characteristics include tart, sour, stale and even bitter
notes. All of these, for better or for worse, were picked up by
our tasters and were deemed to either give the butter distinctive
character or be undesirable.
Man herself always uses Plugra, a European-style butter, in her
breads and pastries. She feels its the most consistent, high-quality product. As it turned out, Plugra ended up being the popular
favorite among most of the tasters, too. The funny thing and
these moments are part of what make blind tastings so much
fun is that Man was the only one who didnt seem to care for
it much. This is so greasy, she kept commenting yet she kept
going back to re-taste it again and again.
(The other fun realization was that people approach sticks of
butter in diverse ways. Some people are top scrapers. Others go
for the ends. This might be a basis for an important psychological study in the future.)
Both H-E-B and Central Market store brands received mixed

reviews. About half of the tasters liked them and the other half
didnt. One thing is clear: It probably doesnt make sense to
spend an extra 54 cents just for the Central Market name or the
European Style differentiator. With that said, considering the
price, H-E-B butter is likely the best crowd-pleasing value.
Even more divisive was Falfurrias, a Texas-made butter. Some
tasters picked up on a buttermilk-like note that they either loved
or hated. Others described the flavor as subtle or even lacking. Clearly, this one was especially subject to taste bud sensitivity and personal preference.
Challenge, a butter from California that has a main selling
point of being hormone-free, was universally disliked by tasters.
It also was one of the most expensive.
The group tasted each unsalted butter on slices of baguette
from French Riviera Bakery and then re-tasted with a sprinkle of
salt. Salt, it turns out, is the great butter equalizer. Its what the
taste buds pick up on and embrace the most. As one taster put it,
It turns basic bitch butter into Beyonc butter.
Adding salt yourself gives you control over the process. Man
says for perfect salted butter, weigh the unsalted butter, then add
two percent of that weight in salt. That means adding .08 ounces
of salt to a four-ounce stick of butter. Blend together until
smooth.
A complete list of the butters with pricing and comments is
below. All butters were purchased at Central Market.

Butters
PLUGRA: Tasting Winner. 8 oz., $2.64:

Milky. Strong flavor, tart, earthy, smooth

consistency. Beautiful, fresh, creamy character. Nice, sour flavor with an aftertaste
thats not objectionable.
PRSIDENT, 7 oz., $3.99: Some tasters

liked the Prsident a great deal, but that

wasnt a universal opinion. Tastes like
cream! This one really pleases me. Least
favorite. Tastes like margarine. Fancier
popcorn butter.
KERRYGOLD, 8 oz., $3.08: This Irish

butter ended up taking second place among

tasters, even though they were sharply divided over it. They either loved it or completely
hated it. Grassy, smooth, very creamy,
sweet. My favorite to eat with bread. Oily.
Bright yellow. Is there dye? Not very sweet
or creamy. Oily. Nope. Smooth, sweet,
not particularly strong flavor. Slightly tart.
I feel it has a true farmy taste.

CENTRAL MARKET EUROPEAN

STYLE, 16 oz., $3.98: Odd, meaty un-

H-E-B, 16 oz., $3.44: Good texture. It

ter. Milky. Bland. Very creamy. Not flavorful. Mild. Not very memorable. Sweet,
smooth, creamy. Smooth. Lacks favor.

is firm but yielding. Not much character.

Easy to spread. True butter taste.
Excellent! Rich, creamy. Almost
stale-tasting. Off flavors. Tastes like
a musty refrigerator.

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dertone. Smooth texture. Not complex

in favor. Maybe a nice middle-of-the-road
butter. Oily. A bit nutty. Average. Very
smooth and creamy taste. Slightly tart.
Slightly bitter. Thick consistency.
CHALLENGE, 16 oz., $4.18: No charac-

FALFURIAS, 16 oz., $3.88: Buttermilk

character. Smooth and silky. Tart, sickly

flavor. Leaves a film on the tongue and
tangy aftertaste. Starts small, but blooms
in flavor. Soft, creamy, nice subtle flavor.
Very greasy. Lacks flavor. Creamy in
texture with easy spreadability.
KAREN MANS HOMEMADE
BUTTER: Melt-in-your-mouth texture.
Neutral flavor. A little boring. Creamy,
heavy, mild, very flaky. Lush deliciousness.
The best so far. Flavorful. More sour.
Fatty. Most neutral, clean flavor. This
butter is super-clean, like science butter. If
youre looking for fat but not flavor, this is
the one to use.
Phaedra Cook