March | 2015 | Tag Sale Tastes

Recently our friends introduced us to Nu Ice at Nu Café. Nu Ice, also called Snowflake Ice and Ribbon Ice, is a Taiwanese frozen treat. It’s not ice cream, although it does contain a small amount of milk (for the lactose intolerant out there). Somewhere in the back of my brain I recall something called ice milk from my youth, which is how I might describe Nu Ice. The website says that “Nu Snowflake Ice has the consistency of ice cream, the deep rich taste of gelato, and melts in your mouth like snow. There are no preservatives and just 100% natural taste.”

Nu Café has two locations — one in Chinatown at 9889 Bellaire Blvd, and the one we visited near the Galleria at 5901 Westheimer. Between the karaoke bar and the Mongolian Hot Pot restaurant in the same shopping center, the Galleria location is hopping at night.

Note the fancy chandeliers — classy!

Although Nu Cafe also offers smoothies, slushies, cream-topped ice coffees, “Marco Polos” and other specialty drinks, it’s the Nu Ice that makes this place worth a visit.

Here’s the drill. Start with an order form:

First decide if you want a Mountain or Hill of Nu Ice. The Mountain, which comes with 2 toppings and a drizzle, is easily enough for two people (so is the Hill, for that matter, although it only comes with 1 topping). Next pick your flavor. We’ve tried the coffee, strawberry, and coconut, all of which I can recommend, although I really loved the coconut. Perhaps the hardest decision you’ll have to make is which toppings to pick. In addition to Oreos, M&Ms, and the usual suspects, there’s a variety of jellies, poppers (tapioca pearls), and fresh fruits that go particularly well with the Nu Ice. I especially like the coffee jelly. Last but not least, pick a drizzle — chocolate and condensed milk are popular.

Hand your order form to the young man behind the counter and watch the fun. The Nu Ice is shaved from a large cylinder of frozen ice, which they will tell you takes 10 hours to prepare. (The ice shaving machine comes from Taiwan, in case you were wondering):

In just a minute, you’ll be handed a mound of delicate ribbons of shaved ice:

Seriously, isn’t this amazing? It looks like a Dresden lace figurine:

Dresden lace figurines

Nu Ice (coffee with chocolate drizzle)

As an added bonus, you don’t really need to wear your stretchy pants to enjoy Nu Ice, as it’s lighter and less filling than ice cream or frozen yogurt (which also have a special place in my heart). Nu Ice is sweet and cold and fun and delicious, and I expect as the weather warms we’ll be making more than one trip to Nu Cafe.

I saw this hanging on the wall at an estate sale, with a $5 sticker on it. Can you imagine trying to sell your kids’ elementary school artwork — is nothing sacred? Who knows, maybe there is a market for such stuff? Let’s see, I’ve got some of my daughter’s artwork that might interest y’all. Here’s a sample of her cowboy art:

Perhaps something from her Degas period might appeal to you:

This one is my personal favorite, which I could never part with at any price:

Then there was the dark period — we’re still trying to figure this one out:

In any event, I’d be willing to bet that the cowboy picture was drawn during that time of year in Houston when everyone’s a cowboy — the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo, which is presently upon us. Friday was Go Texan Day, the day the trailriders thunder into town, the barbecue cook-off starts (a full weekend of smoke and debauchery), and the rodeo season officially kicks off. My newsfeed was filled with adorable pictures of my friends’ kids and grandkids in their cowboy couture. I got kind of verklempt thinking back to the days when I used to dress my kids up for Go Texan Day.

Inspired by the child’s cowboy drawing and all the Texas-ness going on around me, I set out to make a Texas cookie. The one that kept popping up in my searches was Laura Bush’s Texas Governor’s Mansion Cowboy Cookies (rather pompous sounding, don’t you think?), her entry in the 2000 presidential cookie contest. The inane contest began in 1992, when Hillary Clinton rattled a number of women with her comment that “I suppose I could have stayed home and baked cookies and had teas.” Family Circle magazine seized on this and came up with the contest, pitting HIllary’s chocolate chip recipe against a classic one from Barbara Bush, and asking readers to vote for the winner. In 2000, Laura Bush’s cookie beat out Tipper Gore’s gingersnaps.

This recipe for Texas Governor’s Mansion Cowboy Cookies makes a huge batch of very stiff dough — you might wind up mixing in the chips and nuts with your hands, as if you were making meatballs. You can follow the recipe and make Texas-sized cookies by scooping out the dough with a 1/4 cup measuring cup, but we preferred them regular size, using 2 tablespoons of dough. There’s some debate about how long to bake them. I baked them for about 16 minutes, and they came out golden around the edges and crisped up as they cooled, which we preferred over ones that cooked for a shorter time and were softer in the middle.

At first bite, we did not love these cookies. But they were vastly improved the next day, to the point where they were really good — crunchy and packed with goodies. Come and bake it!

COWBOY COOKIES

Author: Tag Sale Tastes

Recipe type: Cookies

Ingredients

3 cups flour
1 tablespoon baking powder
1 tablespoon baking soda
1 tablespoon cinnamon
1 teaspoon salt
1-1/2 cups (3 sticks) butter, softened
1-1/2 cups sugar
1-1/2 cups packed light brown sugar
3 eggs
1 tablespoon vanilla
3 cups semisweet or milk chocolate chips
3 cups old-fashioned rolled oats
2 cups sweetened flake coconut
2 cups chopped pecans

Instructions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Place flour, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, and salt in a medium bowl, and mix together.
Place butter in a large bowl, and using an electric mixer, beat until fluffy. Beat in sugars. Add eggs one at a time, beating after each addition. Beat in vanilla.
Add flour mixture to butter mixture, stirring until thoroughly combined. Mix in chips, oats, coconut, and pecans. (These steps will take some time and elbow grease.)
For Texas-sized cookies, use ¼ cup of dough for each cookie, spacing cookies 3 inches apart on cookie sheet. For cookies the size of those eaten in the rest of the U.S., use 2 tablespoons dough for each cookie, spacing 2 inches apart on cookie sheet. Bake cookies for 15 to 17 minutes, until edges are lightly browned and centers are set. Remove to racks to cool.