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Patricia Lopez says if you don't have time to cook, you may find yourself constantly picking up food-to-go at grocery stores or drive-thrus. But there may be an easier, healthier option-- pre-packaged meals. These businesses are popping up all across the Houston area offering you an alternative for dinner.
Dream Dinners
www.dreamdinners.com
My Fit Foods
www.myfitfoods.com
Because it is the holidays and Christmas, we have your waistline in mind. Here is a page that shows you exactly how many calories that piece of Christmas dinner can cost you, plus tips on how to keep the pounds off.
Click here for our holiday food facts.
East side restaurant kitchens were on the checklist of city health inspectors, and Action 13 followed along.
The Panaderia Atotonilco at 973 Federal Road is the first stop for Health Inspector Ramonda Robinson. But managers did not want us in the kitchen.
"No, because, no," they said.
The inspection continued without us. When it was over, Robinson had three pieces of advice for owners -- clean, clean, clean.
Inspector Robinson said, "They have a lot of cleaning that they need to do, dirty floors, dirty shelves."
While no citations were issued, Inspector Robinson says she'll have to come back in two weeks to make sure things have improved.
Next, there's good news for a mobile taco stand. Inspector Robinson lifted a closure order issued the day before. The food was fine. Instead, the problem here was with the plumbing.
Inspector Robinson said, "The water was back-flowing into the two compartment sink, so they were not able to properly wash or sanitize, and I had to close them for that."
With the problem resolved, the taco stand could again serve the public.
The next stop is the Flamingo Supermarket on Canal Street. Here, too, managers did not want us inside. Inspector Robinson found problems within the meat market.
She explained, "They had quite a few violations. They had flies, cross-contamination with meat in the meat department -- raw chicken and beef that were touching, so that had to be discarded."
The meat slicer and cutting board needs to be cleaned and holes in the wall need to be fixed. No citations were issued, but inspectors will be back in two weeks to make sure problems have been resolved.
The city health department inspects dozens of restaurants each
week and we are showing you just a fraction of those they visit. But if
you'd like to see those reports, you can look them up in the city of Houston's online database.
(Copyright © 2007, KTRK-TV)
Here we go again. It's my shift to web produce on the weekend so I work with Joe Williams to come up with the best in Houston restaurants. This month we tackle the top Houston Mexican food restaurants.
That is no easy task as you might imagine.
See if you agree or you can tell us how wrong we are.
LEAVE YOUR READER REVIEWS BELOW
Health inspectors are working to keep you healthy as they look behind the counter in Houston restaurant kitchens.
Health Inspector Gary Lee's first stop was the Grand Lux Cafe across from the Galleria. Restaurant managers would not let us in, however Inspector Lee says the kitchen only had one minor problem with a pre-scrape sink.
"There is a sink they scrape all the food debris off of and it was missing a cold water knob, but it still has hot water available,” Lee said.
The Grand Lux called a plumber and passed its inspection.
Up next was the El Pupusodromo Restaurant on Renwick. Here too, managers did not want us to look behind the counter. Inspector Lee says he found an insect problem.
"Unfortunately they did have a roach that was crawling on some dinnerware, but they did have pest control service last night and whenever that happens it flushes them out,” Lee told us. “So we had them clean all the dinnerware, wash it with sanitizer before they can use it."
Because El Pupusodromo has routine pest control, no citations were issued. Inspector Lee also found slime in the restaurant's ice machine, he ordered it cleaned but issued no citations.
Next Inspector Lee visited the Dos Amigos food store on Chimney Rock, here we were allowed inside.
The store has a small kitchen. Behind the counter we saw roaches on the floor. Inspector Lee noticed them too.
"We did come across a roach that was crawling across the wall, I talked to the owner and they did call pest control and in looking at their documentation they were serviced on October 4th,” Lee said.
Because the store has routine extermination and corrective actions are being taken, no citations were issued. Inspector lee also found a problem with some of the canned food on the store shelves.
"We did come across what's called Austex Chili hot dog sauce, hot dog chili that was on the recall list earlier this summer so they pulled it off the shelf,” Inspector Lee said.
Because the store removed the three cans of recalled food, no citations were issued.
It was a clean slate for all three stops on this day.
To see how your favorite restaurant faired on its last health inspection, click here.
Ever wonder how Jeff Ehling compiles the Rat and Roach Report? Read more in our Q&A.
Taco Bell is handing out free tacos today from 2 to 5pm:
To obtain the Free Taco, consumers must visit any participating Taco Bell® restaurant in one of the fifty (50) the United States or District of Columbia between 2:00 p.m. and 5:00 p.m. (local time) on the Redemption Date only and request a Free Crunchy Seasoned Beef Taco. Free Taco's will not be offered on any other date or time, regardless of circumstance. Limit one (1) Free Crunchy Seasoned Beef Taco per person. Participating Taco Bell restaurant manager reserves the right to deny Free Taco to any person he/she reasonably believes has already received a Free Taco or has engaged in any other fraudulent activity. All eligible consumers: Everyone in line at a participating Taco Bell restaurant before 5:00 p.m. local time will receive a Free Taco, even if it is provided after 5:00 p.m. Free Taco offer is subject to store availability and Taco Bell reserves the right to substitute an item of equal or greater value if due to unavailability. All restaurant managers decisions are final regarding to Free Taco offer.
It has to do with a World Series promotion. Don't ask questions, just be happy you are getting free tacos.
Health inspectors were back inside restaurant kitchens this week, making sure they are clean.
Ruchi's on Beechnut is the first stop for inspector Abeid Fells. Inside the kitchen, Fells checked the chilled condiments and the temperature of meat. The only cause of concern was the dumpster. The doors must be kept closed and the boxes need to be picked up to keep flies away, but everything else here looks good, no violations.
"That establishment was pretty clean, they only had a few minor violations nothing major," Inspector Fells told us.
Next up, Fu Fu Cafe at Bellaire and the West Belt. Restaurant owners did not want us to follow the health inspector inside the kitchen. Inspector Fells says he did find some things that needed work.
"I saw two roaches on the inside,” he told us.
Inspector Fells did not issue a citation for roaches because the restaurant owners are taking steps to control the problem.
"He says he has had pest control to come out, he does not have the receipts in the establishment right now,” Fells said. “So what I am going to do is come back and check on that."
Up next, Cafe 101 in the 9800 block of Bellaire. In the kitchen, Inspector Fells found a common problem, a hand sink that is not working quite right.
“This is like the main hand sink in the kitchen, you have to have some hot water here,” he said.
That means cooks have to use a sink across the kitchen to wash their hands properly. Not using hot water to wash hands in the kitchen could lead to contamination of food and make people sick.
"Since they have another hand washing sink that has hot water, it was not necessary to issue a citation, but the hand washing sink that does not have hot water needs to be replaced as soon as possible,” Inspector Fells said.
Employees tell us a plumber is on the way.
To see how your favorite restaurant faired on its last health inspection, click here.
Ever wonder how Jeff Ehling compiles the Rat and Roach Report? Read more in our Q&A.
I managed to catch up with the very busy Jeff Ehling the other day to ask a few common questions we get about the Houston Rat and Report.
Mike McGuff: Can you shut down restaurants?
Jeff Ehling: No, I don’t have that power. Health inspectors however can shut down restaurants. In fact we have seen several places closed down for various reasons. Hot water was not 110 degrees, floor drains were backed up, not having proper permits…all things that have led to closures.
MM: How do you choose a restaurant to inspect?
JE: We don’t choose the places, the health inspector does. In fact we have no idea where they will take us until the day before and even then we only know the first place on the list.
MM: What's the worst thing you've found so far?
JE:
Roaches, roaches and more roaches. We went along with one inspector who saw roaches all over the kitchen of a restaurant.
MM:
When you go to eat a restaurant, does the staff now look at you funny?
JE:
Great question. I have noticed restaurant owners give me a second look when I go to eat. The other day I stopped by a place I go to occasionally and the owner asked if I was doing the Rat and Roach report and I said yes. He then basically ran off. I think he meant if I was doing the report on his place right then, but I was only just eating there. The owner of another restaurant owner said I was making people look bad, but then co-owner piped in and said, "no, it's not his fault a place has roaches."
If you have a question, leave it in the comments below.
You can go along with Jeff on the inspections every Thursday night on Eyewitness News at 6pm.
About.com did the research and found restaurants who are offering senior discounts.
The important lesson is you have to ask for the discount, the wait staff will not usually just offer it.
(10/11/07 - KTRK/HOUSTON) - Go inside kitchens as we follow along with health inspectors as they check out restaurants on Houston's west side.
Taqueria El Campesino in the 7700 block of Bellaire is the first restaurant on Inspector Abeid Fells list. It has a clean kitchen, with only minor violations that were corrected on-site.
Up next is the Olympic Chinese Bakery in the 9200 block of Bellaire. At first, owners said we could follow inspector around the restaurant, but when we saw a bug on the floor, we were asked to leave. The inspector says he saw problems.
He said, "They had a roach or two in the back. They had issues with cleaning the walls."
Inspector Fells says the bakery does have regular pesticide service. Owners promised call an exterminator and to step up the cleaning, but Fells will be back in two weeks.
Next up is Lucky Dragon, just a few doors down from the bakery. We saw more roaches here -- one near the dishwashing area and another near the back of the kitchen.
'There were just too many roaches in there, so he had to receive a citation," Inspector Fells explained.
When a restaurant is fined for having roaches, owners must go before a municipal court judge who sets the fine. It can range from $50 up to $2,000.
The inspector says the owners recently fumigated so he did not close the restaurant, but added more needs to be done to stop the pests.
He said, "I will also conduct a reinspection, possibly next week and if those conditions don't improve it'll be another citation and a closure, or just a closure."
The city health department inspects dozens of restaurants each
week and we are showing you just a fraction of those they visit. But if
you'd like to see those reports, you can look them up in the city of Houston's online database.
(Copyright © 2007, KTRK-TV)
Marvin's original Friday Rat and Roach report highlighted health problems at area restaurants, and we will continue to bring you this valuable information, but this time with Jeff Ehling.
Here is a way you can look up a Houston restaurant's inspection report.
http://houston.tx.gegov.com/media/search.cfm
This link gets you there, but we need to give some instructions too.
1. You'll need to enter the name exactly as it appears.
2. Second, you need to check out the dates, make sure your search
start date goes back at least three months. Some restaurants are
reviewed once a year, so you may need to adjust the year if nothing
comes up.
3. You'll need to click on the restaurant name when it appears to see the inspector's findings and corrective actions taken
This looks delicious. About.com linked to restaurants offering printable coupons and special clubs and deals!
We've shared our top burger, sandwiches and pizza places in Houston,
but we started it all with barbecue. This time we decided to hit the
road to find our top barbecue joints in Texas.
At least this time people can't say we didn't go far enough outside of the Loop.
LEAVE YOUR READER REVIEWS BELOW
(10/4/07 - KTRK/HOUSTON) - A 24-hour kitchen and a local meat market were both due for an annual inspection, and Eyewitness News was there to see how they fared in this week's Rat and Roach report.
Inspector Remonda Robinson took us along to the International House of Pancakes at 13405 East Freeway. Managers decided they did not want our cameras to follow along.
We asked, "Is it OK if we follow her through the kitchen?"
"No sir, I can't allow you to do that," was the response.
It took four hours to wrap up the inspection. That's an unusually long time. The health inspector found quite a few problems.
Inspector Robinson said, "They had quite a few serious violations, like food at the wrong temperature and employees not washing hands properly."
Inspector Robinson told Eyewitness News she found food that was left out for more than four hours including ham, beef and chicken. All of that had to be thrown away.
"Because there is a possibility that bacteria could grow and if it is out of temperature for over four hours it could make people sick," she explained.
Robinson also found dirty shelves and dirty utensils. With that many violations, Robinson says she'll have to come back. IHOP has a reinspection in two weeks.
Up next is La Michoacana, Carniceria, Fruteria and Taqueria at 851 Federal. It's an all-in-one meat market, supermarket and restaurant.
Right away Inspector Robinson found a violation -- boxes stacked up outside the back door. Robinson says they can attract flies and other insects. Employees immediately threw the boxes away. Robinson says she found problems inside, too. She said, "The walk-in cooler is going to have to be quarantined because it's not cooling properly."
That means no food can be stored in it until it gets fixed. Robinson says she found flies, food on the floor and cooked rice that needed to be thrown away. Robinson will reinspect the restaurant in two weeks.
The city health department inspects dozens of restaurants each week and we are showing you just a fraction of those they visit. But if you'd like to see those reports, you can look them up in the city of Houston's online database.
Marvin's original Friday Rat and Roach report highlighted health problems at area restaurants, and we will continue to bring you this valuable information, but this time with Jeff Ehling.
Here is a way you can look up a Houston restaurant's inspection report.
http://houston.tx.gegov.com/media/search.cfm
This link gets you there, but we need to give some instructions too.
1. You'll need to enter the name exactly as it appears.
2. Second, you need to check out the dates, make sure your search
start date goes back at least three months. Some restaurants are
reviewed once a year, so you may need to adjust the year if nothing
comes up.
3. You'll need to click on the restaurant name when it appears to see the inspector's findings and corrective actions taken
Jeff Ehling talks about Collina's Italian Cafe. It's one of his favorite places to eat a cheap lunch in Houston.
See the last cheap restaurant Jeff talked about
See some of our other favorite Houston restaurants
By the way, no one from abc13 receives money, advertisement or free meals when picking out these favorite restaurants.
(9/27/07 - KTRK/HOUSTON) - We're on the look-out for clean restaurant kitchens. This time Action 13 tagged along on Houston's east side, where health inspectors had to close one restaurant -- at least temporarily.
Our first stop was Rancho del Viejo on the East Freeway. After checking for the proper paper work, inspector Remonda Robinson hit the kitchen and is happy to report things look fine.
She said, "They were good. They were good, just violations like cleaning the floor."
While she finds nothing major at this restaurant, the same cannot be said at Taqueria Tepatillan at 902 Federal. In the kitchen, Inspector Robinson finds a problem with the hot water.
"It has to be at least 110 (degrees)," she said. "It's only getting to 105."
While that may not seem like a huge difference, it's enough for inspector Robinson to close the restaurant. That means no more food can be cooked, and no more customers can be served. Why the big deal over five degrees?
"(It's important) for sanitary purposes, cleaning, sanitary cleaning of hands, washing utensils," Robinson explained.
Inspectors say hands and dishes must be washed in water at least 110 degrees, otherwise bacteria could be transferred from hands to food and it could make people sick. Keep that in mind for your own kitchen.
A restaurant employee promised to turn up the hot water heater and after 20 minutes, Robinson let the place reopen. But while the inspector was looking at the water, we saw something else -- a roach crawling around the lid of a kitchen trash can and another insect hanging out on the freezer door.
It's interesting to note, the presence of a roach is not enough to shut down a restaurant. Eateries that have routine exterminations and show no signs of a massive infestation can stay open as long as another treatment is ordered. And that's what happened at this restaurant. However, because of the violations found here, inspectors will be back in two weeks to make sure things are cleaned up.
The city health department inspects dozens of restaurants each week and we are showing you just a fraction of those they visit. But if you'd like to see those reports, you can look them up in the city of Houston's online database. (Copyright © 2007, KTRK-TV)
Marvin's original Friday Rat and Roach report highlighted health problems at area restaurants, and we will continue to bring you this valuable information, but this time with Jeff Ehling.
Here is a way you can look up a Houston restaurant's inspection report.
http://houston.tx.gegov.com/media/search.cfm
This link gets you there, but we need to give some instructions too.
1. You'll need to enter the name exactly as it appears.
2. Second, you need to check out the dates, make sure your search start date goes back at least three months. Some restaurants are reviewed once a year, so you may need to adjust the year if nothing comes up.
3. You'll need to click on the restaurant name when it appears to see the inspector's findings and corrective actions taken
There's a recall involving boxes of frozen hamburgers.
Officials say a New Jersey-based meat company is voluntarily recalling some of its hamburgers after a cluster of illnesses in the Northeast caused by E. coli bacteria.
The New York Health Department says at least six people have fallen ill there. All are recovering. Contaminated burgers were found in one victim's home freezer.
The USDA says the recall affects more than 331,000 pounds of frozen beef patties that were distributed not just in New York, but nationwide.
They carried the number "Est. 9748" inside the USDA mark of inspection, and were produced June 22nd, July 12th or July 23rd.
The recalled products include certain 10-pound boxes of Butcher's Best 100-percent All Beef Patties; certain 10-pound boxes of Kohler Foods burgers; certain 10-pound boxes of Sand Castle Fine Meat; some two-pound boxes of Topps 100-percent Pure Ground Beef Hamburgers; and some three-pound boxes of Topps 100-percent Pure Ground Beef Hamburgers.
(Copyright 2007 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
No one could ever replace our late Marvin Zindler, but we're keeping much of his important work living on.
Marvin's original Friday Rat and Roach report highlighted health problems at area restaurants, and we will continue to bring you this valuable information, but this time with Jeff Ehling.
Here is a way you can look up a Houston restaurant's inspection report.
http://houston.tx.gegov.com/media/search.cfm
This link gets you there, but we need to give some instructions too.
1. You'll need to enter the name exactly as it appears.
2. Second, you need to check out the dates, make sure your search start date goes back at least three months. Some restaurants are reviewed once a year, so you may need to adjust the year if nothing comes up.
3. You'll need to click on the restaurant name when it appears to see the inspector's findings and corrective actions taken
We’ve made videos before on the Consumer Blog about eating lunch in Houston on the cheap, but did you know there is an entire book devoted to the subject? Let me add, it is a thick book too, full of 300 restaurant reviews.
In Houston Dining on the Cheap, author Mike Riccetti takes readers through the city and breaks each restaurant down by price, cuisine, hours, credit cards, service, alcohol, entrée prices, atmosphere & décor, appeal, menu suggestions and a lengthy review. Did you get all of that?
I particularly liked the lists of restaurants by cuisine and location. In a city this big, you sometimes need a little help, especially when you find yourself in an unfamiliar part of town.
So if you are looking for the price of an entrée at This is It or a menu suggestion at Dumpling King, then you might want to check the book out. Heck, I might start carrying it around in my car.
The book can be found in bookstores around Houston and also on Amazon.com.
Today we showed you a Consumer Reports story on how well 13 different brands of artificial sweeteners stack up against each other.
CR looked at Sweet & Low, Equal, Domino Pure D'Lite and Splenda Sugar Blend for baking.
They all did well in lemonade, but CR found Domino Pure D'Lite and Splenda Sugar Blend did the best in cakes. Keep in mind, even sugar free treats can have a lot of carbohydrates and calories.
(9/13/07 - KTRK/HOUSTON) - No one could ever replace our late Marvin Zindler, but we're keeping much of his important work living on. Marvin's original Friday rat and roach report highlighted health problems at area restaurants, and we will continue to bring you this valuable information, with a bit of a different look.
Keeping a kitchen clean is not an easy task, but when you run a restaurant, it's the law. The city of Houston makes sure where you eat is up to code. Health inspectors say nothing keeps restaurants on their toes quite like our rat and roach report.
Health inspector Gene Bowden took a thorough look at the kitchen of Amazon Grill at 5114 Kirby during his most recent visit. In the walk-in cooler, Bowden sees a common problem -- the cooler is not cold enough.
Remember, if meat reaches room temperature and stays there for two hours, bacteria could start to grow and could leave you sick. That's something to keep in mind for your own kitchen.
At Amazon Grill nearly 300 pounds of meat had to be thrown away. The owners got a repair man out and fixed the problem on the spot.
"We have our maintenance guy here and we are going to attach our cooler to the alarm system to receive immediate notification when something does drop below temperature," promised Bobby Wells with the Amazon Grill.
Across town, inspector Marcia Washington is doing a follow up at the Shoney's at 2360 South Loop. Store managers called the staff and said they did not want our cameras in the kitchen. So we waited outside for the results.
Washington reported, "They had grease build-up under the grills and fryers in the cook lines and they did not have paper towels in all of the hand sinks."
Nothing major, and even though managers took corrective action, they still did not want to talk to us.
Up next was Tel Wink Grill at 4318 Telephone Road. The manager didn't mind at all if we tagged along in the kitchen. Inspector Washington found the cleaning solution was not quite strong enough in the dish washer. But the owner fixed the problem right away. It was the only issue in an otherwise clean kitchen.
"It was clean, the temperatures were good," Washington said. "They had good practices, everything was perfect."
Even in your own kitchen, hot water is not enough when it comes to cleaning dishes. Sanitizing solution is needed to get the job done.
The city health department inspects dozens of restaurants each
week and we are showing you just a fraction of those they visit. But if
you'd like to see those reports, you can look them up in the city of Houston's online database.
(Copyright © 2007, KTRK-TV)
No one could ever replace our late Marvin Zindler, but we're keeping much of his important work living on.
Marvin's original Friday Rat and Roach report highlighted health problems at area restaurants, and we will continue to bring you this valuable information, but this time with Jeff Ehling.
Here is a way you can look up a Houston restaurant's inspection report.
http://houston.tx.gegov.com/media/search.cfm
This link gets you there, but we need to give some instructions too.
1. You'll need to enter the name exactly as it appears.
2. Second, you need to check out the dates, make sure your search start date goes back at least three months. Some restaurants are reviewed once a year, so you may need to adjust the year if nothing comes up.
3. You'll need to click on the restaurant name when it appears to see the inspector's findings and corrective actions taken
Today we are proud to announce on The Consumer Blog that Jeff Ehling will continue on the tradition of Marvin Zindler's Original Rat and Roach Report starting this Thursday at 6pm. Here he is with more:
Looks like a drink of that white stuff will cost you some more change says WLS:
The U.S. Department of Agriculture says milk prices are set to increase, at least until dairy farmers add more cows or switch production to powdered milk.
Last month, milk prices hit a record $3.80 a gallon on average. This comes as companies such as McDonald's ramp up milk-based drinks such as lattes.
So we've looked for the best in Houston barbecue and the top Houston burgers, the best Houston sandwich places and now it's time to eat some pizza!
So take a look at our top 13 pizza restaurants in Houston.
These are always fun to do, because through crowdsourcing, we find all the places we've missed or never heard of. There is no guarantee that we would actually like these places, but at least we know they are there now.
Make sure to visit the page and vote for your favorite pizza place.
WLS has some news that might ruin a few weekends:
The fight against the rising cost of gas and the push for alternative fuel could affect the price of a margarita.
Mexican farmers who harvest the blue agave plants used to make tequila aren't waiting the six years for the plant to ripen.
Instead they're bulldozing or burning their fields to make way for corn, which will be used to make ethanol--a clean-burning alternative fuel. Right now, there is an abundance of the agave plant.
But if farmers keep switching to corn, it could create a shortage that will drive up the cost of the tequila used in margaritas.
As you know, Marvin Zindler is fighting pancreatic cancer, but he's in great spirits, and recovering from a mix-up of drugs over the past weekend.
Dave Ward went to see Marvin today, in his room at MD Anderson Hospital, and he's getting stronger by the day. Marvin asked Dave to thank all of you for your cards, letters and emails. There have been thousands of them and he can't wait to get back to work. To that end, here is his original Friday night restaurant report. (READ FULL STORY)
Ken Hoffman had a funny site in a recent column that I thought would go well here on the blog. It's a site that compares fast food ads to the read deal, side by side.
Think this is a fair site?
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