FoodFash

Adventure Begins in the Kitchen

Busy Bee Weekend

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Saturday was jam packed with the good stuff.  I woke up bright and early with a task from my favorite 5-year old cousin:  Star Wars Legos.  We poured millions of teeny tiny pieces on his bedroom floor and went to town.  I didn’t think we would actually be able to put the thing together, but Nick always ended up knowing exactly where the hard-to-find pieces were hiding.

After finishing up QT with the cousins, I headed to brunch with Phil and Ginnean & Co.  The three of us were big time brunchers when I lived in Dallas, so our time together at Penne Pomodoro felt much like it did back in 2008.  Well, with one happily welcomed addition!

From brunch I headed straight to the mall to meet Nathan.  Meeting Nathan to go shopping always goes somewhere along the lines of meeting at Barney’s for a quick hello and then going our separate ways so we can power shop in our respective departments.  We each found a few gems (mine will be posted in tomorrow’s Cure For The Common Monday) and headed home to get ready for dinner.

We swooped up Morton and Jonathan for our reservations at Oak, a new hip spot that the boys have been dying to try on a non prix fixe occasion.  We slurped on some amazing cocktails while we waited for our table and then ordered, what seemed like, everything on the menu.

Nathan and I started out with the Potato Dumplings and then split the Rhode Island Monkfish and Rack of Lamb.  Oh.  My.  Goodness.

Everyone at the table passed around bites of their deliciousness and, I have to say, that EVERYTHING exceeded expectations.  The one clear winner at the table was the Moroccan Octopus & Pork Jowls, but I would be beyond happy ordering anything we sampled again.  And then there was dessert…  We ordered everything but the bread pudding and were amazed with each and every sweet treat.  Oak may be my favorite dining experience in Dallas to date!

Familiar Faces

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Whether your an over-Facebooker, under-Facebooker, or somewhere in between, I’m certain you have a strong position on the positives or negatives of Facebooking that cause you to be this way.  I’m a self-admitted over-Facebooker that can see both sides, but I tell ya…  Being an over-Facebooker is the only way to be when you move to a new city.

Facebook not only allows you to shout off the virtual rooftops how much you love your new home, but it provides the means to meet new friends of friends and connect with old friends with whom you’ve fallen out of touch.  For the past two weeks I’ve been galavanting around Austin, posting every last one of my whereabouts and who-abouts.  This is mostly a reflection of being so darn happy with my where’s and who’s lately.  But!  It’s also a subtle way of saying “Hey Facebook friends, I just moved to Austin and if you’re here or have a cool friend here, let me know!”.

Here’s where Matt and Lauren come in.  Matt, who I’ve been friends with since Safety Harbor Middle School days, saw somewhere between one and one thousand of my one thousand status updates about Austin.  So, via Facebook, he invited me to dinner and drinks with him and his wife, Lauren.  So you see, this little over-Facebooking thing of mine worked out pretty well.

Our (unpictured) first stop was East Side Show Room, where we sipped on Moscow Mules and nibbled on happy hour small plates.  We exchanged stories about how our adult lives led us to Austin and I immediately found happiness in sharing my time with two friends that call the same place home.

Our next stop was Contigo Austin.  We went straight for celebratory prosecco and two of Matt and Lauren’s favorite apps: the white bean dip and crispy green beans.  Everything we had at both places was really tasty (actually, everything in Austin has been really tasty), but I was especially impressed with the crispy green beans.  They were the only fried veggie I’ve ever had where the integrity of the veggie wasn’t totally tossed out the window.  For all intents and purposes, they were perfectly steamed green beans with a little crispy crust.

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I had such a wonderful night (thank you Matt and Lauren!!) and am very much looking forward to our next get together!

The Box, In French

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It’s a shame to be cooped up in a cubicle on a super sunshiny day, like borderline painful.  As soon as it was an acceptable time to hunt around for lunch plans and not look like the hungriest kid on earth, I did.  The first taker to my lunch-outing offer was my co-worker Elizabeth.  She suggested this food-truck-ish place that she called “the box, in French”.

We chatted our merry way to La Boite and stepped into the box of a restaurant.  The menu was small but amazing.  We both ordered the pain au lait sandwich vegetarien du jour and a Topo Chico.

The outside seating was adorbs.

Our chatter continued as we decided we could live off of bread (perhaps this bread) alone, and went to town on the goat cheese and veggie perfection that sat in front of us.

First Weekender

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When I was driving down 6th Street one evening last week I spotted the cutest little spot with the cutest little name: Walton’s Fancy & Staple.  Later in the week I couldn’t for the life of me remember what it was called, but when I described it to my Austin foodie friend, he knew exactly which place I was talking about.  It’s that cute.

Also last week, my friend Nathan that lives in Dallas asked me if I was ready for my first visitor.  My response was somewhere along the lines of “umm heck yeah!”.  I’ve been dying to dive into the Austin restaurant scene (for all 8 days I’ve been here) and knew that eating my way around town with Nathan all weekend would be the perfect kick-off to this new life of mine.

First stop?  Walton’s!

Nathan started with a carrot cupcake topped with cream cheese frosting and darling little veggie art.

I’m not too fond breakfast sweets, so I stuck with a bite of cupcake and a piping hot cafe au lait.  I typically take my coffee black, but something about this soggy, gray morning called for froth.

Just as the last of the cupcake crumbs disappeared, our meals arrived.  Nathan’s plate was hearty bacon centric.  I mean, look at that stuff!  I hadn’t had bacon in ages, but reached over and broke myself off a piece.  Meat is going to happen for me at restaurants in the foreseeable future because, well, when in Rome?  There are too many amazing restaurants in this town to limit my living.

And for me?  Irish oats.  Although satisfying in the flavor department, both Nathan and I were a little disappointed that the oats were over-cooked.  I look forward to the chewy-ness of Irish oats and that was totally missing.  I pretended they were ordinary oats and kept on keepin’ on til the bottom of the bowl was staring back at me.

Now that we’re full-bellied, it’s time to get our shop on!