FoodFash

Adventure Begins in the Kitchen

A Thai Breaker

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Can you believe I haven’t had Thai food since moving to Austin??  Five months of no Thai.  Five months of waiting to use Emily’s best, most cheese pun ever: the Thai breaker!  But you can’t have a Thai breaker without multiple Thais to break, so I turned to Twitter for help.

Kara and I headed to Titaya first as it was the closest and we were both craving Thai in a big, bad, now sort of way.  We both agreed that it looked so sketchy that it must be good.  Then we realized that it looked so sketchy because there were zero cars in the parking lot which meant that… it must be closed.  Oops!

Feeling famished and defeated, we continued another nine miles north to Thai Cuisine.  Nine miles…  is a lot for two downtown dwellers.  But we did it.  And we ordered dumplings and waters the second our bottoms hit the seat.

We inhaled the dumplings before placing the rest of our order.  Chicken panang for Kara, Tofu pad thai for me.  Both of our dishes definitely hit the spot, but I don’t see either of us driving 15 miles again for this dinner.  Hopefully our next Thai craving falls on a non-Monday so we can see what Titaya is all about!

Shut Up And Play The Hits

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It’s hard to believe a month has gone by since I obsessively refreshed Alamo Drafthouse’s website, checking multiple times a minute for hours, waiting for tickets to become available for LCD Soundsystem’s documentary Shut Up and Play the Hits.  Six-ish hours later, I had four tickets for me and the boys.  “Your persistence is appreciated”, Matt said.

We arrived about an hour before the show and held a pretty solid place in line.  I was expecting zigzagging lines around the building in July heat, but that couldn’t be further from what happened.  Cushy seats in the front of the line with ice cold beers and AC was more like it.  We were…  So. Excited.

The documentary was everything I wanted it to be.  The scenes switched between live footage from LCD’s final show to interviews before and life after, all in a way that made sense.  I danced in my seat as I experienced the emotions of a man who single-handedly crushed his own dream.  James Murphy, a man so terrified of fading away, that he created his own burn out.  I wonder what Neil Young and Kurt Cobain would have to say about this?

Florida In Austin: A Dinner Party

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It seems like whenever Hansell and I get together, we combine our cooking powers like little Captain Planet-eers and invite as many people over for dinner as possible.  It’s a thing.  A really good thing.

What made this thing even better was that we were able to pull 13 people together within a day, seven of who were from Florida.  I’m not certain why there are so many Floridians in Texas, but it makes me as happy as a Gulf coast clam.

Hansell got all Top Chef-like and prepared salt crusted snapper and forbidden rice with roasted vegetables .  Naturally, he waited until everyone arrived to tell me that this was his first time attempting this technique.  And lucky for him, it turned out as wonderfully as he had planned.  Only a guy would take the risk of serving something he’d never made before to a group of people!

I, on the other hand, played it safe with pie.  White peach and rhubarb pie served with Blue Bell vanilla.  When I sampled some of the fruit goo, I knew this was going to be a personal best.  And when five of our guests went out of their way to tell me this was the best pie they had ever eaten, my thoughts were validated.  If only baking pies paid the bills…

The Hanz Is Here!

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“Could this place be any more you?”, Hansell said as we sat down at Elizabeth Street Cafe to order his first meal in Austin, ever.  “Even the waitress’ outfits are you”.  Flattered, I encouraged my old Tampa roommate to look at the menu, assuring him that the food was every bit as good as the atmosphere.

I didn’t give him much of an option as far as apps were concerned, we were going to order escargot.  Not only is their broiled escargot flawless, but the first time I ever tasted escargot was with Hansell and Lex at a crazy little place in Tampa called Front Porch Grill.  It was a sentimental order backed up by extreme goodness.  Hello, Thai basil curry butter, how does it feel to be perfect?

Hansell ordered the waitress’s suggestion of Singapore noodles.  There was a solid flow of yummy noises coming from his direction, so I made the safe assumption that he was happy with his selection.  I reached over with my chopsticks for one of my infamous bites and decided to see for myself what it was all about.  Elizabeth Street is spot on in every flavor department – wonderful balances of strong flavors with subtle flavor highlights.  Everything is bold without being the slightest bit heavy.

I ordered the poached shrimp and hard boiled egg banh mi and coated every inch of freshness with sriracha and the occasional dollop of hoisin.  This sandwich was so fresh and totally up my alley.  You could think of it as the Vietnamese version of a chicken salad sam – cool, filling and fulfilling.

Lastly, we ordered one of each of the daily macaron flavors, chocolate curry and peach cinnamon.  I’m not the hugest macaron fan, but there just so darn cute I can never resist.  Both of us agreed that the peach cinnamon was where it was at, which made think a homemade peach pie is in The Hanz’s Austin future.

We’re off to adventure!  Have a happy (early) weekend!!