Logan's t-shirt

For the past few months, I have been thinking about a new Jenni’s Noodle House t-shirt. I wanted it to really acknowledge the mission of our restaurants and the attitude and devotion to service that has kept us in business for close to ten years.

Immediately I thought of Logan. My son has lived his entire life in one Jenni’s Noodle House or another, absorbing the culture, witnessing what it is to serve others and synthesizing the millions of different components that dance together in order to create functioning restaurants.

Even as a very small child, our businesses are child friendly, so Logan has never been one of those kids who didn’t understand what his parents did. On a very basic level, little Logan knew that Ma and Ba were going to a place where people make food and people buy food.

As Logan has gotten older, I believe that this knowledge of the place we work in and the respect we have for our staff, as well as the meaningful and authentic way we serve customers has rubbed off on him.

Which is why when we were sitting in the car one day and as a young child he turned to me and said, “When you say nice things, it makes the heart happy” it made perfect sense. This was a child that understood that one action creates a direct reaction, whether it is treating people well, being nice to strangers or just the simple act of taking good ingredients and making a wholesome meal – Logan understood what our businesses were built on.

I am proud to present, the latest Jenni’s Noodle House T-Shirt, a special Logan edition. I hope it means as much to you as it does to me.

America, eat your vegetables!

With the holiday season here, we are giving away FREE VEGETABLES!

To encourage children to eat more vegetables, we are giving away vegetables to children (under the age of 12) at all our locations. Yes, you read it here first…FREE VEGETABLES. I love to give. What a better way than to give than to my future generations good eating habits.

While there are many children’s menus across Houston and beyond I often see very similar items. We have Logan’s Five Menu here at Jenni’s Noodle House, named after my little Prince, everything is five bucks on the menu. Your child now has the option of including one or more of their favorite vegetables at no cost to you.

Please encourage children to try a new vegetable.

Choices of vegetables are;

• green leaf lettuce (great in soups)
• snow peas (great in everything)
• bean sprouts (great raw dipped in their favorite soy sauce)
• broccoli (let the monster in the child consume those mini trees)
• shiitake mushrooms (diced up will trick the taste buds to think they were ground meat)
• cucumbers (will get your skin oh so soft)
• green onions (just like the big boys)
• red onions (just like mommy and daddy)
• red grape tomatoes (looks just like grapes but these pop out a burst of surprise)
• carrots (produce eyes that can see to infinity and beyond)
• sliced bamboo (good luck!)

I would love to see pictures of your child slurping some noodles and eating all those colorful vegetables. Please post pictures on our Facebook fan page to show us what your daring little one did. Much gratitude and love for your support of the noodle house.

Durian in Nha Trang Vietnam

As we were walking in Mui Ne, Vietnam, brave Mr. Scotty Steak boldly says, "Wanna have a durian eating contest?" Sure, why not: I do love durian. I knew this will be an easy win for me since whitey here has never had fresh durian before. Durian is not called the king of fruit for any easy feat. It is called the king of fruit for the very reason that few warriors (such as myself) can devour its flesh while savoring the delicious-ness of the entire experience.

On Friday night, February 5, Mr. Scotty Steak conquered the durian flesh without the gag as I had imagined. He ate a whopping tablespoon leaving me to finish off the entire fruit. I ate 8 pods, thank you very much! As I enjoyed every bit of the fruit, I noticed Mr. Scotty Steak kept drinking water to wash down the itty bitty amount he consumed. As I turned, he says, "Man, it smells like ass and tastes like wet baby diaper!" Wow, I cannot imagine how someone can describe my durian this way. As I tried to smell the ass, all I could smell was an airy aroma I can only describe as perfection to the palate. The sweetness, delicacy of the fruit melts me.I will surely miss this creamy texture and stunning aroma when I leave Vietnam.

As I ate the durian, I looked out to the Nha Trang beach envisioning this was where my mother loved to swim as a little girl. This is the city of my birth. This experience will be treasured as I share this king of fruit in this amazing city with my Logan and Mr. Scotty Steak.