Taste of Austin: Food Overload

I had Eggs Jennifer for breakfast, a hummus and cheese sandwich for lunch and an Izze Clementine to drink. It didn't taste very cmuch like clementines to me, despite the fact that it is 80% real clementine juice. yeah right.

----TASTE OF AUSTIN WITH BECKY----


Reale's Baked Ziti

Mine is so much better, this was really soggy!








Rudy's Country Store and BBQ

YEAH! This sausage was so good. And the turkey was super moist. I didn't care for their brisket, but I don't care for brisket in general. What you really need to try here is the corn and potato salad! Seriously, I thought the corn might make me feel sick because it was in this heavy cream sauce, but it actually ended up not being that heavy. And the potato salad was the best I've ever had.



Sashimi Napoleon from only God knows where

Um what? This would be so good except for underneath all that fuss was a good spoonful of wasabi. Yes it was unbearably hot, but also it tasted like disinfectant spray. Seriously, the tuna tasted so good, but only for about a second. And the fried wonton that it was sitting on was delicious as well.


Star Seeds Spicy Crab? Nachos

These were decent, the actual tortilla chip was actually pretty decent, the seafood and salsa topping I could have done without. I love Star Seeds though.



Iron Cactus Pork Tenderloin

The chef serving this really sold it. It was a piece of pork tenderloin with a chipotle rub and mango something sauce. It was probably my favorite food of the night. I ate every bite of it, not that it was that big. But it was delicious, and I felt like I was eating something special, even though it was served on a styrofoam plate with a plastic fork.




Mangias Cheese Pizza

This was pretty good. It was room temperature by the time we got it but the sauce was really good.







Mango Apricot Iced Tea

This tea was amazing! It was so good it didn't need to be sweetened at all.









Melting Pot Strawberry

The Melting Pot ran out of chocolate but they had a bunch of strawberries. They were actually really fresh, I was surprised.






Miller BBQ

More Brisket, pretty blah.











Cool River Tuna

I felt really fancy eating this. MOM LOOK: RAW TUNA. And I ate it. There was too much pepper on the outside, way overwhelming. It tasted a lot better with the sauce but they were turning these things out so fast that sauce was minimal.




Dolce Vita Neopolitan Gelato

yum yum yum. Gelato is so good, vanilla is so good, chocolate is so good, strawberry is so good. The cups this was served in were really gorgeous too.




Free Birds Veggie Burrito

This was soggy and gross and I almost had to spit it out.








TGI Friday's Roast Beef

This was actually the first thing we had so I felt obligated to eat all of it. It wasn't anything special though.






Hooter's Chicken Things

Gross. Greasy. Why would anyone ever eat this?








Basmati Rice

This is imported and flavored and sooo good. It had a bit of a crunch/bite to it which I like in my rice but Becky really didn't like. I could eat mounds of this though.





Johnny Carino's Shrimp and Chicken Spicy Thing

I got the las serving of this. It was pretty good despite there being no chicken or shrimp in it. There were roasted tomatos though and they were really good.




Chapara? Quesadilla

Too much Cheese!! They did make it especially for us though, which was fun to watch.





Chicken Garlic

I don't remember where this was from but I didn't like it. The chicken was like chewing a gumball and the garlic tasted bad.





Cookies in Bloom

Your average sugar cookies that are decorated really cute.






Austin Culinary Academy Jabanero Brownies

What? These were underbaked or something. Not impressive.








Austin Culinary Academy Sweet Potato Chips and Roast Beef

what was up with all the roast beef tonight? It was overwhelming and undigestable. The sweet potato chips were delish.





15th Street Cafe Salad and Cookies

The cookies were hard and bad. The salad was good but there was too much dressing. Congratulations on being the only vegetable in the entire place though.




Gelato's Doube Dutch Dark Chocolate

This is probably the gelato i've had.








Gelato's Double Dutch Dark Chocolate

So good I had two!

Surprises

Clementine Iced Coffee

Okay this afternoon we went to Clementine to study (plus I got to go to cross off another place off of Matthew's list of places in Austin I need to try). I had an iced coffee and the gooze had a root beer, which you can see on the right of this picture. The iced coffee was very good, definitely the best I've had in Austin. It was cold and tasted like coffee, not bacon. Plus they had skim milk for me to use, not just half and half like other coffee shops I won't mention here. Also somehow the sugar I added to it managed to actually blend in with the drink and not sink to the bottom. It was some sort of miracle.


Clementine Bagel Special

Once we finally got our bagels (boy in black tights let them toast for like twenty minutes, but they didn't burn?) we were more than happy to assemble them. We got a little container of cream cheese, a sliced roma tomato, and onion. It was a pretty good bagel sandwich overall. I figured the tomato would be good, but I wasn't sure how the onion would be. It was surprisingly fresh and tasty. I don't know if I would get this again, because I'd rather try this cinammon almond croissant my friend Jackie got that looked amazing. But the bagel was definitely okay, considering it's the first one I've had since Murray's.


Noodle-ism Pad Thai with Shrimp

Amanda, Eunice and I headed to Kyoto for sushi tonight but after we waited outside in the cold for fifteen minutes they told us we weren't going to be let in, even though there were still twenty minutes of happy hour left. Garbage. Anyway, after walking around for a few minutes we stumbled upon Noodle-ism, an asian noodle restaurant on fifth street. I just looked up an online review of this place, and it says that "as soon as you walk in the door, you feel like you're in southeast Asia." This is completely false. It's pretty modern but plain as far as the decorations are considered. The best part was that there is a huge mural of pictures of the food, so you can see what you're going to order and don't get stuck with something you weren't expecting. A lot of things looked good, but Pad Thai (stir fried rice noodles with peanuts, lime, and cilantro) sounded really good, even if it is kind of the Americanized fake Thai dish. So I got it with shrimp and loved it. It was spicy (upon request) and my mouth was in Thai heaven. The spices were familiar, I guess similar to other pad thais I've had, but on a whole nother level with the heat. The shrimp was overcooked and blackened by the grill but whatever. Also there was too much cilantro, which tasted like soap, but that was easy to remove. I would go back here, but the next time I go eat downtown I'm definitely getting sushi.

The American Dream

Austin Java Baked Potato Omelette

After the "Land Art" (actually just pictures of land art) show tonight, Mathieu, Annabel and I headed to Chuy's. The wait there was hours long, so we went next door to Austin Java instead. I had the Baked Potato Omelette, which had home fries and bacon and sour cream. I felt pretty gross afterwards. The bacon was too hard to eat. I couldn't cut through it with my knife so I just picked it up, and I could barely chew it. The home fries were mediocre at best. The black beans were lacking flavor. The eggs were cooked perfectly though.


TCBY White Chocolate Mousse

Afterwards I was in a funny/bad mood so Maggie and I went to TCBY for White Chocolate Mousse. I would rather have this than any other kind of ice cream any day of the week. It always cheers me up, and never lets me down. Sometimes I get it with mix-ins (heath bar is definitely the best), but tonight I decided not to because I was still feelin that bacon in my stomach. It was fun driving in my car, listening to the jams on 105.9, and eating my TCBY. While others may have dreamed of Keystone Light and Frat Houses, my dream was cruising around eating ice cream.

It was the Best of Times, It was the Worst of Times

Chocolate Fountain

Wednesday night I went over to the gooze's because she got a crunk chocolate fountain from her bro. It was gorgeous. We dipped strawberries, bananas, marshmallows, and apples into the flowing chocolate heaven. The strange thing about melted chocolate is, it feels as good as it tastes. When we were done Maggie and I both stuck our hands in it. It reminded me of the time in girl scouts when we mixed water and baking soda (or was it powder?) and food coloring. When you press down hard on it, it gets hard, but when you let it go it just runs over your hands.

Not Letting the Snow Bring Me Down

Feast For the Icicles (my blog could survive on puns alone) Part One: View of the Icicles

This afternoon the icicles grew to be 15-20 inches long and almost 2-3 inches in diameter. They still are that big, maybe even a little bigger. They are really pretty, I wish they would stay after everything else melted and warmed up.



Fricano's Deli Sandwich

It's a customize your own deli sandwich around the corner from my apartment. Becky and I agreed to meet there tonight. It was nice to finally get out of the place and have some human interaction. The people that run the place are the friendliest restaurant people I've ever encountered. So this was my sandwich: turkey, muenster, tomato, cucumber, onions, and mayonnaise on sourdough. I asked for sprouts and didn't ask for onions, but whatever. It was still a good sandwich, especially the bread! Becky had a grilled cheese with tomato and onions that looked amazing. I will definitely be getting sandwiches from this place on a regular basis.


Fricano's Sandwich

Just wanted to provide another angle. It also came with a pickle which wasn't very good, but I don't really like pickles except the ones that are jalapeno flavored.





Feast for the Icicles Part Two: Icicles on my car

There is a two inch layer of ice on my entire car, and foot long icicles hanging along the bottom. Very cool but kind of crappy. I hope nothing that requires me getting in my car happens anytime soon.


Feast for the Icicles Part Three: Frozen Cactus

There are some really random plants around my new building, including this cactus. My cell phone's camera has a really sweet "night" feature that takes good pictures at night. I really like the colors in this picture because they are very accurate. It was neat to see the icicles hanging from the cactus and still see the green shining through.

Yesterday and the Day Before Yesterday

Stash Apple Tea

I fell asleep after Oprah (this is a favorite pasttime of mine). When I woke up it was after 7:30. Big deal right? Well yesterday on Oprah they were talking about the Best Life Diet, and they say you shouldn't eat after 7:30. So I chose not to eat dinner. I wasn't really hungry after my burrito anyway. But I did decide it would be okay for me to have some tea. I got a box of different fruit teas at Central Market, and they have all been pretty good so far, but this one definitely has the most flavor, so much that you don't need honey or sugar.


SUNDAY

Red River Café

I have been wanting to eat here since I moved into my old apartment. It is literally right next door and so cute and always smells good. The thing is, it's mostly a breakfast place, and closes around 5 every day. I never go out to eat during those times because I'm either at school or work, or asleep. Luckily my parents were down on Sunday morning helping me move into my new apartment. In between trips back and forth, we stopped here. It was so good, I can't believe I didn't eat there every day all semester. Also, the eggs that are seen here on the menu are also painted on the outside of the building.


Red River Café Eggs Montreal with home fries.

So, what is Eggs Montreal? It's an English muffin cut in half, each piled with a slice of tomato, a fried egg, and a piece of Swiss Cheese with Hollandaise sauce (just so you know, I originally spelled that "swish" and spent five minutes staring at it trying to figure out what was wrong). When I ordered this I didn't know it was going to be fried eggs. You guys know I'm terrified of egg yolks. But what was I going to do, send it back because of my ignorance of the menu? Of course not. I had to toughen up and eat it. I ended up loving it. I tried not to look at it and for the most part succeeded. I really liked the swiss with the egg, which is a combination I had never had before. The slice of tomato was pretty small and was lost between everything else. I didn't think the hollandaise sauce was everything it's cracked up to be. For me it was all about the egg, cheese, and muffin.

Oh yeah, and the home fries sucked. I added a lot of ketchup and they still sucked. They tasted like an old uncleaned skillet. I couldn't even taste the potato in there. But that doesn't scare me away from the restaurant. You have a choice between home fries, regular fries, and fruit. Don't worry, I will be back.


Red River Cafe Eggs Montreal Close Up

See how small the tomato is? I do think it adds some color that they plate would otherwise be lacking though.






Chili's Southwestern Egg Rolls

After I moved in and my parents, left, Becky called and invited me to go to Chili's with her and Patrick. Sure why not give it a try? I've never been a fan of Chili's, and growing up in the suburbs it was easily my least favorite restaurant of all time. What do they really have to offer? They have a huge variety but nothing is their speciality, nothing is really good, except the Awesome Blossom. Anyway, Becky and Patrick were raving about the Southwestern Egg Rolls so we had to get them. It's a really interesting concept, and surprisingly good. In it there is chicken, cheese, black beans, peppers, some green onions. I don't remember what else. It kind of smelled like burned queso but it tasted really good. and The shell/egg roll part was really crunchy and easy to eat.


Chili's BBQ Ranch Hamburger

Messiest burger I've ever eaten. There was nothing special about it. Way too much bbq sauce. Not enough ranch. The bacon was too hard to chew. The actual hamburger patty was okay. I would definitely rather have something a little easier to eat. I'm not opposed to layering on the ingredients on a burger, but these just didn't work. It was satisfactory, it's definitely not the worst thing in the world. But if you're going to eat a burger, bottom line, you want it to be spectacular.

EZ Blog Day

EZ's Chicken Pesto Pizza

EZ is a very parent friendly restaurant in the area. I thought my parents would like it, or at least we would all be able to find something to eat there. I thought my mom was going to share the pizza with me, but instead she got a ceasar salad. Oh well, now I have dinner tomorrow too. The pizza wasn't very good though. It was really limp and had virtually no crust. Who wants to eat pizza with a fork? I like the pesto a lot but I still think all pizza needs tomato sauce. Why can't they have the pesto and a little bit of tomato sauce? That would be ideal. This had roma tomatoes on it, but not enough to compensate for the lack of sauce.


EZ Onion Rings

My dad had onion rings and I didn't try them but they looked good.

Sushi Sushi Sushi

Kyoto Seaweed Salad

I had never been to this sushi place before, but I am so impressed by it. Amanda and I went to Happy Hour which is from 6 to 6:45. We had to wait in a long line that went out the door for fifteen minutes before we could be seated. When we were seated the service was pretty fast, and our waitress was really good about refilling my water. We started with a seaweed salad, which was tiny, but it has such strong flavors that it is plenty to share. Seaweed salad is marinated (I guess) sliced cucumber and seaweed. I have had some bad seaweed in my day, so I wasn't very excited about this. But this was amazing. It was room temperature, which I think made a big difference with the flavors. I could taste the seaweed but it wasn't too strong. It was sliced so thin that it was kind of hard to eat with the chopsticks, but I'm getting better.


Kyoto Unagi Roll

Eel is my favorite kind of sushi and this was true again tonight. The eel was laid across the top of the pieces and inside the roll there was something crunchy that looked like iceburg lettuce, but I really don't know what it was. The sauce on top was like a thicker, sweeter soy sauce. And it was warm, which I really am liking lately with sushi sauces. This was truly delicious, and it cost three dollars. Eel just has a good flavor that I don't think other fish has. Don't worry mom, it is cooked, not raw.


Kyoto Longhorn Roll

This is so strange but really enjoyable at the same time. They arrange the thinly sliced pieces in the shape of a V which I think they think resembles the longhorn. Also, the sauce is burnt orange. The sauce was so good, it was kind of like a sweet and spicy sauce, but much more on the spicy side than sweet. Also, I couldn't tell for sure because it was so dark in there, but it tasted like the edges of the pieces were dipped in tempura batter and fried for a second. I have no idea what was in it, but my guess is shrimp. It was also served warm, and the pieces weren't too big, so I didn't feel like I was going to choke each time I ate one.


Kyoto Spider Roll

I never realized that spider rolls were soft shell crab before. I always thought they were shrimp (shows what I know). This had the same sauce that the Unagi roll had, and it was just as delicious on this as it was on the Unagi. There was nothing wrong with it, it was a great sushi roll, and it was also three dollars, there was just nothing magical about it. I did totally enjoy eating the end pieces of the soft shell crab though. It was fun, and challenging to pull them out of the piece of sushi with chopsticks and without making the whole thing fall apart.


Kyoto Godzilla Roll

This was ridiculous. I ordered it just because of the same and it was incredibly extravagently plated. They were stacked on top of each other and there were crazy lines everywhere and celery or something sticking out of the whole thing. Plus there were fried pieces of salt (at least, that's what they tasted like) sprinkled arcross the whole thing. The sushi itself wasn't bad though. It was salmon (that was raw, mom) and avocado I think with fried salt galore. The worst thing about this was the rice, it was falling off the seaweed and it made it really hard to pick up. Overall it didn't detract from the sushi eating experience though.


Bellagio Caramel Praline Hot Chocolate

My brother's girlfriend's family gave our family a multipack of hot chocolate for Christmas so I brought a couple back to Austin with me to try. The first one I wanted to try was caramel praline. It wasn't bad, but it was nothing compared to the hot chocolate I had at Aroma in New York. The praline flavor was too strong and the caramel flavor was too weak. It was really rich but I used water instead of milk so it was bearable.