BoneHeads

Half chicken with medium piri piri sauce served with rice and zucchini 

We were looking for a place to eat lunch today after Ramona's music class and made our way on over to Mueller. I've been looking for new places to eat, so we decided to check out BoneHeads. They serve chicken and fish in various forms with some signature sauces that feature piri piri, or African bird's eye chilies. Since I'm still feeling my way around blogging again, I'll be brief: they can't cook anything particularly well, but the sauces are really good. Colby got a super fishy-tasting rockfish with broccoli. I got the pictured chicken with zucchini that basically had grill marks for show since it was basically raw otherwise. Their medium sauce is on the spicy side, but it's pretty flavorful. They sell bottles of the sauce for $4.99 each, so my next trip to BoneHeads is likely just to get a bottle of it.

San Francisco Day 1

We've been in San Francisco for almost two days now and it's been a lot of fun.  I'm hoping to summarize each day for both the memories and to regain some blogging mojo.  There will be a bit of food involved (since we obviously need to eat), but a lot of "stuff we did".  Here's hoping that it's not too boring, but I'm not going to try to make it interesting, it's mostly just me chronicling our adventures here.

We flew in on JetBlue, which is seriously my new favorite airline.  They moved us to a row with an open seat in the middle so that we could have an entire row to ourselves and they gave Ramona stuff to play with on the flight.  It was awesome.  We came in on the BART and were able to check in early to our hotel, which was great.  We then headed to the rental car company and made a harrowing drive out of San Francisco (seriously, when someone claims that a city is "walkable" it ALSO means that it's basically impossible to drive in) to Muir Woods.  It was pretty, though crowded, but we took a ton of pictures and I'm hoping to post them soon.

After we got back and clean, we went to Osha Thai on Second and Mission.  Their tom kha soup was fantastic and the right amount of spicy to help me with my cold.  We also got beef wasabi rolls and those were great and served with this amazing sweet and sour sauce that I could have drunk.  Colby got the pineapple fried rice and he was sort of okay with it.  He said it was a letdown based on how good the first two items were.  I have no way of telling if his meal was good because I hate pineapple fried rice and on the unfortunate bite I took, there were raisins it in. Gross.  I got the crab fried rice and thought it was great.  The place was super clubby and dark and dun dun dun dun dun with the music, so no pictures.  Also, I think they weren't thrilled that Ramona was there and were super slow with the service.  We called it even after Ramona puked on the floor and so we left a nice tip.  There are other locations that are apparently cheaper, but the one by our hotel was in an area called the Tenderloin.  It's apparently not a good neighborhood and between the loud dundundun and the fact that Ramona was super tired, she was way overstimulated and I ended up going outside with her and walking around to try to get her to calm down.  Needless to say, I'm glad that we ended up going to the not dicey neighborhood.

Thai Cuisine

We went to a place called Thai Cuisine in way north Austin with some friends the night that we took Ramona to see Santa.  It was great, especially for the price.  I'm pretty sure I could eat their coconut ice cream every day.  Gotta love good strip mall Asian food.  We went back last week and got mostly different things, which were all similarly good.  We'll definitely hit up this place again.

By the way, I'm going to try to start adding in contact information for all the restaurants I review, where I'll have the website, address, and phone number (when all available, of course) for each restaurant.

Thai Cuisine
http://www.thaicuisineaustin.com
4104 W. Parmer, Suite F
Austin, TX 78727
(512) 835-7888

tom ka soup (large) - $8.95

green curry with chicken - $10.95

coconut pineapple ice cream - $3.50

fried banana - $3.95

Franklin Barbecue

I'm doing something I almost never do: post about a restaurant the day I visit it.  In most cases, it's days or weeks or months (ahem) after I visit, but this was really good and there is at least one cute baby picture involved, so that's motivation enough.

I'm not a huge fan of barbecue, but everyone else is, including Colby.  Two years ago, when it was Colby's birthday, we tried to go to the Franklin trailer, but I was about to fly out to Boston for a work trip the next day and we didn't have time to stand in line.  Colby's maybe only a little bit bitter about that still.  I found out from a friend this year that we could pre-order and pick up if we got our order in early and were willing to buy 5 lbs of meat.  Challenge accepted.

Colby sent an email 5 days before his birthday this year and the earliest availability they had was 11 days later, so this morning we picked up 3 lbs of brisket, 1 lb of pulled pork, and 1 lb of ribs along with a pint of beans.  It comes with three kinds of sauce, bread, and pickles+onions.  Let me preface this by saying that I don't really like barbecue.

We've been to Rudy's a lot, Sam's once (you know, pants meat), Iron Works, Bill Miller Barbecue, places in Lockhart and Elgin, the Salt Lick, and several other barbecue joints and trailers around Austin that I'm sure I'm forgetting.  They run the gamut from should-have-known-better to nationally renown.  From all of those places we've visited, these are my favorite things: Salt Lick's potato salad, getting the hell out of Bill Miller's, Rudy's ice.  Yes, Rudy's used to have crushed ice, which is the best ice and I enjoyed that more than any of the food.  Franklin Barbecue is hands down the best barbecue I've ever had.  This is nothing new.  Everyone thinks this, but let me just say, that as someone who just doesn't like barbecue that I thought this was good, great even.  And not "good for barbecue", just plain good.

beans - $4.50/pint

When I saw the order Colby put in, I questioned why he would get beans, but he said that the reviews said that the beans were excellent.  I no longer question these people.  The beans were magnificent, though it's probably a misnomer to call them beans.  There was a lot of meat in the beans, but I'm not complaining here.  Their hot sauce isn't incredibly hot and it's on the acidic side, but a splash of hot sauce on the beans?  Perfection.

ribs - $14/lb

I really really liked the ribs.  They were fall-off-the-bone good.

pulled pork - $13/lb

The pulled pork comes unsauced and is dry enough to warrant some.  The three sauces were the aforementioned hot sauce, a more traditional barbecue sauce that has espresso in it, and one that reminded me of the tamarind chutney that gets served with samosas at Indian restaurants.  I definitely liked the tamarind sauce with the pulled pork the most.

meatucopia - $16/lb

From all of my friends' exclamations, the brisket is the reason to come to Franklin Barbecue.  It was definitely delicious.  When we put the 3 lbs of brisket on the table to photograph, it looked like a cornucopia filled with meat.  A meatucopia, if you will.  And this bounty of meat lived up to the hype.

take in the meaty abundance
 

Kimchi was about to keel over with excitement

Kimchi, no surprise, wanted in on the action.  She got a few bites. :)

brisket - $16/lb

Eating this with the loaf of Mrs. Baird's bread is a mistake.  I made a sandwich with pickles and the espresso sauce and the bread brought the meal down, as the juxtaposition of carefully crafted meat with chemically-preserved white bread is strange.  Perhaps a loaf of homemade white bread would have been better.

baby's first barbecue - priceless

We also decided that this was probably the best opportunity to introduce Ramona to brisket.  She really liked it too, although now she's probably ruined forever, since no other barbecue that we get on the regular can really match this.


Will we ever go there "for real", with the lines?  Unlikely.  My barbecue apathy combined with my extreme aversion to waiting will prevent me from ever getting up at the crack of dawn to wait for hours for meat; however, I'm already looking into pre-ordering again.

Corner Bakery Cafe

When I was in the 7th grade, I went on a big class trip to Chicago.  This was a big deal because it was an overnight trip and we went by bus.  One of the places we stopped by was the Field Museum.  As embarrassed as I am to admit this, the only thing that i remember from the museum was what I ate for lunch.  I went to the Corner Bakery Cafe with my friend and we split a salad and a pre-made sandwich.  We picked out this particular sandwich because it had brie on it and, at the time, brie was a super fancy cheese that grown ups ate.  We ended up finishing the salad and were both full, so we wanted to return the sandwich because we hadn't touched it and then realized that we were never charged for it, so one of us quietly put it back in the refrigerated case.  

Fast forward 13 years (oh my gah how am I so OLD?), and I found out that a Corner Bakery was opening up super close to where my brother-in-law lives and where Colby works.  We kept meaning to stop in at some point and then I was contacted by the awesome people at CB to see if I wanted some vouchers to try the food there.  Yes, please.  We've been there several times and, between the two of us, have sampled a large part of the menu.  Here's what we got:

The Uptown Turkey Sandwich was really good.  It's basically a club with avocado.  I also really like their chips and Colby likes their pickles.  I know this because he always tries to steal mine.

 

Uptown Turkey Sandwich - $7.29

 

They have a lot of combo offerings, from soup and salad to salad and sandwiches, etc.  I got the chicken noodle soup and a half turkey pretzel sandwich.  The soup was unremarkable, but the sandwich was pretty good.

Signature Sandwich Corner Combo: Chicken Noodle Soup and Turkey Pretzel - $7.69

Another combination that they let you get is a whole lot of salad and some soup.  Here we got the broccoli cheddar soup, again not remarkable; the Mozzarella, Tomato, and Arugula Salad which tasted like a MTA salad... so very good; and the Southwest Avocado Wedge salad, which was great except that it had cilantro in it.  If you don't hate cilantro, and you're looking for a really good, refreshing salad, I'd go with this one.

The Trio: Southwest Avocado Wedge Salad, Mozzarella, Tomato and Arugula Salad, Broccoli Cheddar Soup - $7.99

 It's chicken and pesto, which is one of my favorite combinations.  Very well executed!

Chicken Pesto Sandwich - $7.49

It's the Turkey Pretzel sandwich again -it's that good!  Also, no soup.  This also comes with ham, which we haven't tried.

Turkey Pretzel Sandwich - $6.99

This chicken pomodori panini is probably my favorite sandwich of the bunch.  There's nothing better than a good panini and between the cheese and the chicken and the tomatoes, it made for a really tasty, filling dinner.

Chicken Pomodori Panini - $7.59

And who could forget dessert?  I honestly would come here specifically to get the sugar cookies.  I'm not a huge sweets person, but these are really quite excellent and maybe my favorite thing that I've had here.

Chocolate Chip and Sugar Cookies

In essence, this place is great for lunch if you're in the Arboretum area of Austin or for a light dinner.  We've been there several times now and it's already becoming one of our regular spots in Austin.

P.S.  If you happened to grab a turkey and brie sandwich from the Corner Bakery in the Field Museum on a Spring day in 1999, please know that we never opened the sandwich and that it was perfectly fine that you ate it.

Disclaimer: I received vouchers that covered the cost of part of these meals, but the opinions are all my own.

Mackinaw Brewing Company

Continuing on our Michigan vacation, we made it up to Traverse City with the in laws for a couple days of beaches, wineries, and great food.  The first stop we made was the Mackinaw Brewing Company, a local restaurant in the downtown area near the waterfront.

Traverse City is the cherry capital of the world, so I obviously needed to try the cherry lager.  It was really tasty.  I also started feeling buzzed after drinking about half of it.  Before I got pregnant, I was a lightweight, but after being off the sauce for almost a year, my tolerance is completely and totally gone.

I really miss freshwater fish when I'm in Texas, so I make it a point to eat as much of it as I can while I'm home.  We started with the smoked whitefish dip, which was served with toasts and tortilla chips.  It was really good and was delicately smokey.

Smoked Whitefish Bake - $7.99

Next came the entrees: a reuben for Colby and a whitefish sandwich for me.  I'd say that I won lunch that day, not because Colby's reuben wasn't good, but because HELLO whitefish.

Reuben - $8.99

Whitefish Sandwich - $8.59

Everyone really liked their meals, including Ramona, who decided that she wanted to nurse while we were waiting for our food.  (Don't worry, I fed her before I started drinking).

happy baby - priceless

Baguette House and Texas Bakery

My kitchen is a horror show.  It looks like a band of hooligans came in, cooked a bunch of stuff, and used all our dishes without cleaning anything up.  It turns out that this does not put me in the cooking mood.  I told Colby that we weren't eating at home tonight and we decided on Baguette House.  Baguette House serves up banh mi and an assortment of other Vietnamese dishes, including dessert.  It's seriously one of my favorite sandwiches in Austin and I don't know why we don't go there more often because it's criminally inexpensive as well.

grilled beef - $3.75

grilled pork - $2.75 

It's always tasty.  These sandwiches come with the meat, house made mayo, and vegetables, which include pickled daikon radish, pickled carrots, cilantro, cucumber, and jalapeno all on a ridiculously good baguette.  I get the vegetables on the side because I hate cilantro with the fire of a thousand suns and also because the jalapenos are crazy hot, so I usually only eat one.

On our way out of the shopping center, we noticed a sign for the grand opening of a place called Texas Bakery (no website, unfortunately).  They have an assortment of savory and sweet pastries, along with white and whole wheat sandwich-looking bread.  We grabbed a few pastries for dessert.

coconut bread - $1.39

pineapple bread - $1.39

red bean bread - $1.29

The coconut bread had coconut and raisins baked inside.  The pineapple and red bean breads were both stuffed with filling, though there was no pineapple in the pineapple bread.  If we go back there, I'd like to try the sandwich bread, since the bread part was the better part of both the pineapple and red bean breads (as opposed to the fillings).

Oh... and since I haven't posted a baby picture in awhile, here's Ramona, helping out with the photography.

"Mama, try a different angle on that one."

"Yes, much better!"

Austin Cake Ball

It's the Ides of June and I've only posted once.  It's been busy around here, between trying to figure out the best way to work at home and my ever-growing baby.  As of last Saturday, Ramona weighed 16.5 lbs.  My assumption is that breast milk is magical.  One thing that we have been able to fit into our schedule is trying out different restaurants while Ramona is still content to sleep in her carseat while we eat.

A couple weeks ago, we went to Austin Cake Ball with Dustin for dinner.  The food totally exceeded my expectations.  I started with a chicken and potato curry soup.  It was good and I don't have anything else to say about it.  For my entree, I got the chicken and mushroom crepes, which were tasty and covered in a rich gravy.  The salad was a nice way to break up the extreme richness of the meal.  Colby got the gnocchi alfredo.  These were excellent.  On the salty side, but I like things on the salty side.  Also, (again) incredibly rich.  There's no way I would have been able to make an entire meal of out them without getting sick.  Colby ate a lot of my salad.  Dustin got the roasted chicken with brussels sprouts and bacon.  This was definitely the winner.  If we ever go back there, I'm ordering that.

The cake balls themselves were a bit disappointing.  Every time I have a cake ball or a cake pop, I'm always reminded that I kind of hate the way candy melts taste, so it sort of takes away from the experience.  They're also CRAZY expensive.  At nearly $3 a piece, these cake balls are on the small side.  Dustin said that the peanut butter cake ball was worth the expensive, though.  We'll likely come back here again, but I'll probably skip on the cake balls.

obligatory menu shot

chicken and potato curry soup - $3

chicken and mushroom crepes - $12

roasted chicken - $14

gnocchi alfredo - $13

German chocolate (left) and salted caramel (right) cake balls - $2.95 each

peanut butter cake ball - $2.95

Cakeballs!

Chocolate monsters

24 Diner

24 Diner is by and far one of my favorite places in Austin.  The food is great and the atmosphere is fun.  I always take out of town friends here whenever they visit and even ate Thanksgiving dinner there last year.   I've tried almost everything on the menu and I have too many favorites to count, but my must haves include the (brisket) chili cheese fries, their patty melt (with a fried egg on top), and the applewood bacon and cheddar fritatta.  Colby likes the chicken and waffles and if I keep going, I'm basically just going to list the menu.  I'm sort of surprised that it's taken me this long to write about it, but I finally brought the camera along with us.

So what I'm saying is I'm really craving some chili cheese fries right now.  I'm sort of tempted to make a run downtown to get some, but that would require, unfortunately, pants.

chili cheese fries - $8.95

patty melt w/fried egg and macaroni and cheese - $12.90

Austin Terrier

At some point in December, we brought our Boston Terrier to Austin Terrier.  It turns out that they had mostly closed the outdoor seating because it was "winter" and it was about to start raining (seriously snow = winter, rain = not winter), but they were totally accommodating.  In all, the food was pretty good, though I was hampered by pregnancy (again!), so it definitely deserves another try when I can eat things like soft cheeses that aren't heated.  Plus the decor is totally cute.

trio of fries: sweet potato, truffle oil+parmesan, and paprika+mustard - $5.95

Buffy on wheat - $7.95

side of slaw

Travis Pie: pesto pizza with chicken, feta, red onions, and basil - $8.95

my personal Austin terrier

Austin Restaurant Week: Brunch at Cru

It's that time of year again where the prix fixe menus come out and my eating-at-home willpower all but disappears.  Yes, it's Austin Restaurant Week.  This time around, the beneficiary is Meals on Wheels and More.  The past two ARWs we went to Urban: An American Grill and McCormick & Schmick's for brunch.  Since these were both successful endeavors, we decided to try brunch again and we weren't disappointed.

This time it was a bit trickier with Ramona, but after asking twitter whether or not it was a good idea to bring a baby to a wine bar, I received the helpful tip to call the restaurant and ask.  Cru said that they totally encourage families to eat there, so Colby, Dustin, Ramona, and I made our way to the Domain.  We had a reservation for which we were almost 15 minutes late, but they seated us anyway.  It was such a nice day that we decided to eat outside.

Ramona had no preference between indoors and out.

Part of my motivation for brunch was to have my first alcoholic beverage in nearly 10 months.  I've always been a lightweight and taking a year-long hiatus from the booze didn't really help that.  Colby, Dustin, and I all ordered mimosas, which seemed on the strong side.  So strong, in fact, that I made it about 1/3 of the way through mine before I quit and gave it to Colby.  I could feel the Asian Glow coming on and I really didn't need to get drunk at brunch.

Party time!

The prix fixe menu included the cocktail, an entree, and a dessert.  I got the croque madame, Colby got the steak and eggs, and Dustin got the eggs benedict for our entrees.   The steak and eggs were excellent.  I had to fight Colby to get a bite.  My default argument for anything now is "I was in labor for 23 hours and she weight 8 lbs 9 oz".

The croque madam consisted of a croissant with smoked ham, gruyere cheese, and a bechemel sauce all topped with an egg.  Unfortunately the bechemel sauce had separated a bit, but considering the strong flavors of the gruyere and ham, it didn't really matter.  And adding an egg with a runny yolk to pretty much anything makes it more delicious.

Dustin got the eggs benedict, which he said that he liked.  Colby took the picture, which is why only part of it is pictured.

For the dessert course, Dustin and I both got berries and cream, which was served in a cookie-like tart shell.  I really really liked this.  The creme was actually a citrus mousse and it paired nicely with the blackberry, raspberry, and blueberry sauce.

Colby, being the chocolate-fan, ordered the molten lava cake with raspberry coulis and creme anglais.  He said that he liked it too.