Last week/weekend updates

So last week I went to dinner at Cuba Libre on Colorado near 4th St. with some friends for dinners and drinks. www.cubalibreaustin.com We ordered a round of drinks that were on special for only $5 (The Bay of Pigs - which is their take of a Bloody Mary, The Key Lime - which is like key lime pie in a glass, The Bird of Pear-adise which contained Grey Goose disarrono and lemon juice). All of the drinks were well prepared and were very tasty. We decided to throw in a few appetizers as well since we had a coupon from Restaurant.com and ended up with two orders of their fried calamari with buttermilk ranch and marinara sauces as well as one order of the plaintain chips with pineapple mint mojo and chipotle ranch sauces. The calamari was lightly fried and were the tentacle and ring variety and not the finger-type and the plaintains were sliced longitudinally so that you had long, crispy chips to dip.

Both of these appetizers were popular and served fresh and hot so they were not long for this world with six hungry patrons. Lastly, we also ordered some potstickers since they were out of their bacon wrapped jalapenos. The potstickers were chicken filled and served with a sesame soy sauce. There were only four potstickers on the plate so I would suggest ordering the other appetizers that offered more bang for your buck. They were good but very fleeting.

For dinner four of the six attending ordered the Caribbean Pork Tenderloin that was described on the menu as being served over garlic mashed potatoes, garnished with a smoky mango sauce and julienned vegetables. As you can see from the photo below

That is an accurate description. The julienne vegetables were squash and zucchini. Now of course you know that I had to deconstruct - ie. untouch all my food. I would have preferred the sauce on the side as well but forgot to ask. The pork tenderloin was very moist and tender - in fact fork tender so no knife was needed. The smoky mango sauce was a wee bit sweet for my taste but it still complemented the savoryness of the pork and the mashed potatoes were delicious. Fluffy but still with some heft to them. They had just a hint of garlic - I would have preferred even more garlic flavor since I love garlic overall very delicious. For $14 this dish was a good deal.

One of the other diners ordered the Cuban Sandwich and that came out very hot and quite a plate of food. The sandwich had roasted pork, sliced ham, swiss cheese, pickles, and dijon mustard. It was served pressed (pannini style) and grilled. There were a few tostones (squashed fried unripe plaintains) on the plate as well. This is what it looked like:

For only $11 this was a bargain meal and as you can see, the sandwich is enormous. The last dish that was ordered was the Portobella and Mushroom Crab entree that was served over garlic mashed potatoes topped with a creamy crab and manchego cheese. This dish smelled heavenly and looked very creamy and decadent. It was consumed toute suite and although I did get a photo of it, the photo did not do it justice nor come out very well. Trust me when I say that I wish that it looked quite delectable and judging by how quickly it disappeared, worth checking out for yourself if you like the combination of ingredients.

We ended the meal with a dessert - the tres leches cake. It was described as a creamy-styled cake moistened with three sweet creams topped with whipped cream and boy did it live up to that description! It was very rich and creamy and moist and gooey and had some red sauce drizzled over the top. I had one bite and that was all that I needed. I am not a big dessert person and we were all stuffed by the end of the meal but it was a nice ending to a great night.

Now, at the end of the week I mentioned in my last post that I was going to try out Max's Wine Dive. www.maxswinedive.com I met another friend at 5:30 PM Friday night at Max's and the joint was beginning to fill up. The interior is dark and cozy with some booths and tables mixed up. We dove right into their Happy Hour specials w/ half-prized plates. There are a set number of plates that they serve at the full plate size but at half the price and we decided to go with Nacho Mama's Oysters (half dozen), Cabrito, Killer Calamari, and Portobella Carpaccio. Along with a glass (or two or four) of the 2007 Sagelands Riesling, Washington that was described as slightly sweet framed by vivid acidity...classic aromas of peach, apricot, citrus and honey balanced with mineral and floral notes we were good to go. The wine was only $4.50 a glass and the sweetness balanced out some of the spiciness that was found in our food.

The Cabrito was served with homemade corn tortillas that smelled divine when it arrived at the table with the habanero relish. The dish was described as 'Succulent braised and pulled local goat in a rich and spicy curry glaze with habanero onion relish,Chef Pito’s fresh corn tortillas, micro cilantro and mint' and it fully lived up to that description.

The Killer calamari was again the combination of rings and tentacles and was served with two dipping sauces - a spicy kimchee and sweet and tangy mango mint. I didn't care for the mango mint but the kimchee sauce was great! It had a nice kick to it and was very savory/salty - which is what I absolutely love.

My absolute favorite dish however was the Nacho Mama's Oysters. These Gulf Coast oysters were served on aioli and fried wontons wrappers, topped with habanero salsa and cilantro. This my friends was a foo-gasm. I food orgasm in my mouth. The crispy wonton chip with the creamy aioli plus the tender-but-crispy-on-the-outside oyster topped with the salsa and cilantro was a fireworks of flavor in the kisser. Yummers! I would have/could have finished off another dozen. The combination and contrasts in flavors and textures were ingenious! I am definitely going back to their Happy Hour just to order a dozen of these next time...and I might share...maybe...

The last dish that we sampled this evening was the Portobella Carpaccio which was marinated, roasted and pounded portabella mushroom, seared Texas chevre, baby organic arugula, pesto, white balsamic reduction and toasted pine nuts. This dish was divine as well! I love me a well-marinated mushroom and the crunchy toasted pine nuts were a nice addition. It almost looked too pretty to eat but we attacked it with verve and it was also decimated.

Overall, the experience at Max's was great. Although the noise level was pretty high inside due to the stained concrete floors and brick walls, I thought that the ambiance was wonderful. The servers were well-informed of the dishes and were attentive but not overly attentive. We had five glasses of wine and these dishes all for about $35/person.

I'd definitely return to try some of the other plates that we didn't get to such as the Gator Bites, the Tres Fritos which is cornmeal-crusted local fried green tomatoes, fried sour dill pickles, and Max’s own fried house-pickled jalapenos – comes with a side of creamy buttermilk for dipping. Doesn't that sound delicious!? And on their dinner menu they also have Shrimp and Grits which I have had a hankering for since I ordered some from the Soup Peddler months ago and recently saw on the Food Network with Bobby Flay's Throwdown.

I hear that their Fried Chicken is also worth trying out and on Sunday they have Sunday Brunch that lasts all day (11 AM - 9 PM!) so you can come and get All-You-Can-Eat Fried Chicken and Waffles for $25 and that includes all-you-can drink Mimosa's as well!

Now lastly, I just wanted to share one last photo with you of the breakfast that I had on Sunday morning at what is now my local favorite joint - Cafe Java - that is just down the street from me on Metric Blvd. It's a great little place that has a lot of heart and love. Their motto is Your Neighborhood Bistro and I have had many a great breakfast/brunch here. I had "The Java": 2 eggs, 2 bacon, hash browns, white or wheat toast & coffee or tea for under $6 before heading to my blood donation appointment.

Check them out if you are in the area. They have blackboard daily specials every day and their coffee is pretty good to boot - not that I have had it since I don't drink coffee - but I hear that is good. http://www.cafejava.info/

So that concludes my updates on the last week. There are always new places to try and enjoy and I am looking forward to sharing and posting about Lulu B's (my favorite Vietnamese food trailer), Perla's Oysters and Seafood, Chedd's Gourmet Grilled Cheese, Frank, as well as many others in the coming weeks. Stay tuned!

Is it Happy Hour time yet?

This week has been LONG and I can definitely say that I am looking forward to having a cold adult beverage and some tasty nibbles. I am going to go check out Max's Wine Dive tonight. They have half-priced appetizers that included the following: gator bites, oysters, Max & Cheese, calamari, portobello carpaccio and cabrito to name just a few items. Drool!

I will try to refrain from ordering one of everything (those of you that have eaten with me before know that I do tend to overorder because I want a bite/taste of everything) but if I like the few things that I order, I foresee another future visit.

Look for an updated post with photos and descriptions to come soon!

Have a great weekend!

Hot Boiled = Pho + Crawfish

So we're driving around this past weekend hauling some furniture to the new pad and we see a sign on the side of the road at Parmer and MOPAC that says "Hot Boiled Crawfish". We look into the shopping center and there is a sign where Thai Spice used to be next to Odaku Sushi that says "Hot Boiled" and underneath that it says "Pho + Crawfish". Jamie and I turn to each other and ask "Pho + Crawfish?! What's that about?" I am definitely interested as I love both of those things and can't imagine them put together but hey, there are stranger combinations.

So for the rest of the day we are busy moving but at the end of the night, this Hot Boiled place has been percolating in the back of my head. I have already googled them on the web and looked at their menu online and it intrigues me even more because they do have a Crawfish Pho on their menu in addition to other Pho and traditional Vietnamese entrees. AND they have menu items that are definitely Cajun - red beans and rice, dirty rice, gumbo, etc. By this time I am just drooling and have decided that we must go give them a try since 1) they are in our new hood/local 2) it's just too interesting not to check out.

We drive by and I am bummed because they are closed. It is after all July 4th and 8PM. I decided that we will have to give them a try another time. Well the other time turns out to be Monday on my way home from work. Truth be told, I was like a dog with a bone and was hoping that they would be open on Sunday but alas, they were closed Sunday too. I guess they were just fully enjoying (or possibly recuperating?) from the holiday weekend. Perhaps they drove back home to Louisiana to visit relatives for the holidays? Who knows. All I know is that I now have made it a mission to try them out.

We get there around 7:45 PM. I have already decided what I want to order. We get an order of their spring rolls with shrimp (goi cuon tom). They offer a grilled chicken version as well. I am continually trying out this dish at every restaurant that offers it...and continually being disappointed that they aren't as good as mine. Hot Boiled's version was actually not bad. It was definitely made from scratch and made-to-order because it took a while for them to come out. That was partly also due to the fact that we ordered Vietnamese eggrolls (cha gio) as well and those you have to deep fry. These spring rolls had good sized shrimp in them, shredded carrots and lettuce, and the best part were some crunch fried won ton strips (?) that gave them an unexpected crunch. Their peanut sauce was decent with the addition of some ground chili garlic paste. Here's a photo:

So about their cha gio - the eggrolls. Those were actually not bad but they were not tightly wrapped and did not contain the high meaty filling that I am used to getting with good eggrolls. They seemed to have more bean thread noodles and black wood ear mushroom than shrimp/pork/crab which is the typical filling. They were definitely freshly fried though as we had to wait for them to cool down and Jamie actually didn't finish his because the mushroom flavor was too overpowering to him. He is really sensitive to mushrooms (tastes like dirt he says) so he handed his eggroll over to me after his first bite. Here is a photo of the eggrolls:

So far, I would order the spring rolls again but probably not the eggrolls. The fish sauce for the eggrolls was really good though. I have hopes for the two entrees that we ordered. While we were in the restaurant, there was already another couple there that had ordered the crawfish. The minimum order is 2 lbs and from what we could see the crawfish were small. However, the season is over so that was no surprise.

When our food came out, my rice vermicelli (bun) bowl was a good size and Jamie had ordered the crawfish pho. I forgot to take a photo of his crawfish pho but it was actually the smaller bowl and still a good size. Instead of beef and other beef products being in the bowl there were crawfish tails plus smoked sausage pieces that had been cut into slices on the bias. I had heard that it was spicy but it was not spicy in our opinion (we love spicy and can take quite a bit of spice in our foods). The broth was slightly sweet which was surprising.

My bowl was filled with rice noodles, grilled chicken and shrimp. I had actually ordered the grilled chicke and eggroll bowl and when the server brought it out, he realized that there was chicken and shrimp in my bowl not chicken and eggroll but he went right back to the kitchen to get the eggroll and just said that I got shrimp for free (score!). Overall, I enjoyed my bowl. Here's a photo: (note the cut up eggrolls in the background along with the chili garlic paste and excellent fish sauce)

There was shredded carrot and shredded cabbage in the bowl along with the rice noodles. There were crushed peanuts (garnish) and also some julienned cucumbers. My one complaint with the dish was that there were no traditional herbs in the bowl. To me, Vietnamese food is about the combination of flavors and traditional cooking uses many herbs. Heck, there wasn't even any cilantro in there at all and I love cilantro and it belongs in this dish. Traditional herbs used in this dish are basil, mint, peppermint, and cilantro to name a few. What made this dish even more disappointing was that I went to Lulu B's Tuesday for lunch and had the lemongrass tofu rice vermicelli bowl there and it was WORLD of difference. The addition of the herbs makes the dish really pop and taste so fresh and wonderful. I highly recommend that you try Lulu B's for a really great vermicelli bowl done right.

In the photo you do seen flecks of green. That is from me snagging some of the basil that is supposed to go in his pho bowl and putting into my bowl as well. I thought it was interesting that they used shredded cabbage instead of chopped lettuce in the bowl. It still added crunch but did not help in punching up the colors in the bowl. Overall, we decided that we would return to try more of the Cajun items on the menu such as the dirty rice, red beans and rice and gumbo to see how they fare.

I would recommend folks go try this place out if they are looking for unusual flavor combinations. There was a house special Cajun Chicken that sounded great and during Happy Hour they have $2 beers. I will report back on the Cajun half of the menu once we have tried that out.

Dim Sum photos

These photos are just a sampling of all the various dished that we tasted and tried at dim sum at Shanghai Restaurant over on Middle Fiskville. We arrived at 11:30 AM and the carts were already bustling around the restaurant. NOTE: They take reservations and I highly recommend making a reservation if you are a party of 6 or more people. Typically dim sum restaurants will have tables set up that hold up to a 12 people and there is a lazy susan in the middle of the table that facilitates the sharing of the dim sum dishes by a simple spin.

Shanghai is by far my favorite dim sum restaurant in town. There are a few other places to note - T&S Seafood on North Lamar, Chinatown on Mopac, and Pao's Mandarin House (which is a drive out to Lakeway) but all have their fans but Shanghai is tops in my book because it serves the traditional dim sum that I am accustomed to with a few unique dishes (such as the creme brulee).

At the top you have pictured two kinds of savory pastry morsels. The pastry is called sou - a type of flaky pastry - and the fillings for these two were curry chicken and barbecue pork (char siu - Cantonese style barbecue pork - it is magenta red and has a hint of sweetness). You will see char siu again inside a steamed bun later.

Next is a plate of shrimp fried dumplings. The filling is a shrimp paste and the outside is covered in crunchy strips. I should make mention that dim sum is usually eaten by dipping your dim sum items in a sauce that you make yourself consisting of soy sauce and sate chili sauce. However some people do not dip their items but prefer to eat them on their own. A pot of hot tea is also the beverage of choice for traditionalists to help aid digestion and also to cleanse the palate. Dim sum is also known as "Yum cha" which literally means "drinking tea" .

Chinese broccolli (gai lan) and oyster sauce is one of the vegetables that you will see being pushed around on the cart. The broccolli is cooked just enough to wilt the leaves but still allows the stems to be crisp to bite into. It's one of the few veggie dishes so I always try to order one plate to make myself feel better and also to satisfy the voice inside my head (my mom's) that says you need to eat your vegetables.

Pictured after the chinese broccolli are some pan fried dumplings that have leeks and cilantro in them I believe along with a bit of ginger and green onion. They are delicious and have a very delicate flavor.

One of my all time favorite dishes is pictured next and that is the lotus leaf rice. It is steamed glutinous (sticky) rice filled with meat - usually pork - some mushroom (shitake) and varying other ingredients (such as chinese sausage). It is steamed in the lotus leaf that is wrapped around it so that the flavor is steamed in - you don't eat the leaf however. Usually it is triangular or square in shape and differs greatly from another steamed rice that comes in a glass bowl. Try both kinds if you'd like and decide for yourself which one you like better.

Moving on to the next steam basket - and here I will digress and talk about how many restaurants now use the steel/metal steaming baskets instead of the traditional bamboo steamers. I do not think that there is a big difference between the two different kinds of containers. Obviously the metal ones are easier to clean and durable and more than likely cheaper than having all bamboo steamer baskets. Just note that the metal baskets are usually very hot so be careful to not touch them directly with your bare fingers or you will get burned. After they have spun for a few minutes, they should be fine to handle.

In the next photo you see two lovely char siu bau - steamed Cantonese barbecue pork bun. These are one of the most popular dim sum items and many a fight has been over who would get the last bun. Be sure to get enough so that each person at the table gets their own - unless you have some kind souls who are willing to share because these buns are the bomb! :P You might also see a similar item where instead of the bun being steamed and all white and fluffy, the bun is baked instead and has a smooth, golden brown crust. I prefer the steamed version but both are yummy in the tummy.

Next you have the double punch of two of the anchor mainstays of dim sum - the shrimp dumpling (har gau) in a translucent rice wrapper and a pork and shrimp dumpling (siu mai). Both are steamed and are a must-order for any dim sum outing. Be sure to get plenty of these as well because they are inhaled quickly as well.

The last of the savory dim sum dishes pictured is the shrimp ball with crab claw. What you see pictured is a shrimp fried ball of goodness that is wrapped about a crab claw that still has crab meat on it. It is an awesome creation that puts two of my favorite things together - shrimp and crab - very much like my favorite Vietnamese soup bun rieu. Definitely a must try as well if you like seafood.

The next few items photographed are from the selection of sweet dim sum or dessert dim sum. I am not a huge dessert fan but keep in mind that Asian desserts are much lower in sugar and sweetness than American desserts. The first picture is of silken tofu that is served with a light ginger syrup (dou fu fa). The tofu is so light and soft that it just melts in the mouth. I can never get enough of that tasty ginger syrup.

The creme brulee is pictured next and although this is not a traditional dim sum item, Shanghai makes a really great little cup of creme brulee. My friend says that this is one of the best in town and loves the mode of service - the tiny espresso cup. There is usually always some bits of fresh fruit on top and this time, blueberries were the topping. One of my friends had TWO of these because it was sooo delicious. If you are sticking to traditional dessert dim sum then you can't go wrong with either (or both) of the next two items. The red bean paste sesame balls are chewy dough filled with sweet red bean paste and then rolled in sesame seeds which are then deep fried. The egg custard tarts (dan tat) with the phyllo-like shells are creamy and sweet egg custards bits of heaven.

So this weekend is the Fourth of July and my first as an American! Go, America! Having just gotten my American citizenship this past year, this Fourth of July is memorable in that it will be my first to experience as an honest-to-goodness card (or certificate)-carrying American. Fourth of July weekend has always been about barbecuing and grilling and this will probabably be one of the few when I WON'T be doing so. Instead, I will be unpacking the numerous boxes in my new apt. However, I will be indulging in some dim sum on Saturday morning at my favorite dim sum restaurant in town - Shanghai Restaurant. I love the hustle and bustle of dim sum and the wide assortment of yumminess that is pushed around to the tables on various carts. Dim sum has been a part of my life as far back as I can remember. Don't know a thing about dim sum? Check out this link: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dim_sum

I'll try to post some photos of some of the items that we choose this weekend. It's the usual suspects that I always crave - har gow, shu mai, congee, and char siu bao to name a few.

Happy Fourth of July and Happy eating!