What kind of candy was in the chips?

wasn't it leche quemada?

what is this?

I don't know. I'm white and was a kid. I just know it was good.

drey: You never went to Monterrey House back in the day? They put candy in the bottom of the chip bowls.

They made a great version, it was served warm most of the time.

Oh Good Lord, I grew up eating their tamales, refried beans and rice. That was my favorite place to go, until we discovered Los Tios in the late 70's.

oh, i'm not from houston. no idea what this is...

I remember it. It was like a brown sugar concoction, and they wrapped them individually in little white papers and put them at the bottom of the chip basket.

I thought they were pralines, but with no pecans in them. I remember them being kind of gooey and really sweet.

Check it out:

http://www.houstonarchitecture.info/haif/index.php?showtopic=2777


and from the above thread:

http://www.theingredientstore.com/joesplace/swap1.pl?read=3765

interesting in the second link it mentions that there is still a Monterrey House in Beaumont that didn't convert to the Tex-Mex and still serves the candy.

Wonder if they have the disc shaped ice cubes.

leche quemada - as Scantron mentioned.

Here's a quick recipe

buy can of sweetened, condensed milk
tear off the label
put it (un-opened) in a pot of boiling water
continue to boil for 2.5-3 hours
take it out & let it cool for awhile
open the can & you've got greatness

I miss Monterrey House...

There was one in Dickinson when I went to schoool there. It got old after a while, but now that I have been away, I kinda miss it.

Anyone like Pancho's?

I don't recall gooey. More like mentioned brown sugar concoction that broke up and melted in mouth.

Panchos was awesome back in the day. I only know of 2 that are still open.

Theres one near my office at Hwy 6 and Jones.


I may go there sometime soon...

I grew up on the one in Beaumont. I think there used to be more than one there, but I never knew it was in Houston too. Thank candy was badass, my brother and I used to fight over it.

Monterrey House? Goodness, that takes me back. My parents used to take me and my sister there when we were kids. The closest one to our house was on Gessner, in the Spring Brach area.

Yeah, I don't remember it being gooey at all.

My friend took gymnastics at Bela Karoyli's gym off of 1960. Her dad always took us to Monterrey House after practice when I went with her.

yeah it wasn't gooey. it was like a not so dense fudge consistency. And it had been pushed through a form that gave it that Churro shape with ridges.

I use to love their queso. Thats about all i really remember about Monterrey House.

viva Monterrey House!!

I also grew up on their tasty food in Beaumont.

i grew up in the neighborhood behind the one ellie is talking about, and I also found out that my BIL married one of the grand daughters that started the whole then, then ended up selling it in that early 90's

Do any of you Beaumont folks know if the one over there is still open?

That would be a worthwhile road trip.

I've found a reasonably similar leche quemada candy that is a little more creamy than the Monterrey House version but it is sold at a few of the mom and pop tex-mex joints around town, usually at the cach register, it is made by a company in Kingsville called Moreno's. They sell it in a log version that is about 3 inches long and one that is just the log curled into a 'C' shape that resembles a patty type candy. The sell ones without nuts(like Monterrey House) but they also make one that has pecans on top.

http://www.hotfrog.com/Companies/MORENO-S-CANDY-FACTORY

This thread talks about that candy maker's version and someone attempting to recreate it, it is basically the same way Chico said to make it:

http://www.cookingforengineers.com/forums/viewtopic.php?p=4734&sid=724c55e20dc70e86fc28f75c5a9702fb

Many evenings were spent at (or getting take out from) the Monterey House on Oak Forest and 34st.

Or Doyle's...

I always assumed I was putting one over on my parents by sneaking the candy out of the chips.

Montery House was my favorite restaraunt to have my Birthday when I was a kid. Well that and the Chinese restaraunt with the poo poo tray. Man I was a dumb kid, but in my defense I grew up in Port Arthur where selection wasn't the best.

scantron - the author of the thread on your engineers' link is a good friend of mine. I can honestly say he knows more about Houston food, cooking, ethnic, etc. than anybody in existence. He has consulted with restaurants & food critics/authors around town & elsewhere. He's been on the Food Channel. I remember when he was telling me about his experimentation & research with leche quemada. He actually went to that shop in south TX to research it!

He's the one who told me about the boiling a can of sweetened condensed milk. I've done it several times & the result is always terrific!

I'm from Beaumont too but never a big Monterey House fan. My mom did say a few weeks ago that they opened up a new one next to that new HEB on the corner of Dowlen and Delaware but it is terrible.

I was always an Elena's person until Carmela's opened. That place is money.

that's wild chico.

I'm going to give yall's version a try. I remember as a kid my mom trying to get the recipe for the candy at the Monterrey House on Southmore in Pasadena, she asked the waitress who returned a time later with a very distinguished looking older mexican cook, he wore the all whites and a crisp bifold paper hat. He proceeded to give my mom the recipe, but completely in spanish, my mom knew about two spanish words, it was a pretty hilarious exchange that yielded nothing but a funny family story.

I'd like to go to the one in Beaumont not expecting a great meal necessarily but more for nostalgia's sake.

tron - part of the fun of making that is doing it during a dinner party. You've got it boiling on the stove while everyone is talking, then eating dinner, everybody is scratching their heads at your boiling pot of water with a can in it, then you finally open it & pour it over Blue Bell vanilla or baked bananas or fried plantains and everybody's happy!

ps - leche quemada is available all over town (as mentioned elsewhere on this thread) at pretty much every small Tex-Mex restaurant, just look in the basket by the cash register. Also many varieties available in every Mex grocery store in town (La Michoacana Meat Mkt or Fiesta for example).


[This message has been edited by chico (edited 4/10/2008 4:40p).]