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What I Ate: December 20, 2009 (The Salt Lick)

Posted 20 December, 2009 at 11:03pm by Michael Chu
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Lunch: I whipped up a simple tuna fish salad for lunch and served it on Ritz crackers. We also heated up a cong you bing and ate that along with our lunch.
Tuna Fish Salad

Dinner: Greg and Yachi were in town, so Gary, Mary, Greg, and Yachi came over to see the house. We then went out to The Salt Lick (Greg and Yachi had never been) for barbecue baby back ribs (a Sunday special), some brisket, sausage, potato salad, and cole slaw. We enjoyed the dinner with a couple of bottles of wine from our "cellar" (the boxes on the floor of our pantry that we hauled from California) - a 1997 Cabernet from Mondavi and a 1998 Bordeaux from a winery I forgot to record. BBQ, friends, and great conversation - isn't that what it's all about?
The Salt Lick - Baby Back Ribs

What I Ate: December 19, 2009 (Sichuan Garden)

Posted 20 December, 2009 at 12:26am by Michael Chu
(Filed under: Food, What I Ate) 3 comments

Lunch: We heated up some tamales and ate them for a quick lunch before heading out on errands (my desk chair doesn't do a good job at supporting my back and shoulders, so we went to a couple of stores to try a variety of ergonomic task chairs - then to IKEA to pick up some more bookshelves so we can furnish my office and continue unpacking).
Tamales

Dinner: After IKEA, we drove over to Origami which is supposed to be some of the best sushi in the Austin area (on par with Musashino). Unfortunately, they closed early today (9pm instead of 10pm). I noticed a neon "open" sign a few doors down at the Sichuan Garden (110 N Interstate 35 # 240, Round Rock, TX‎ - (512) 238-0098‎), so we went there. Upon entering, we were greeted by several stares. A group of older Chinese people were eating at one table and a couple of Caucasians were at another table. All looking at Tina (she was in front of me since I opened the door for her). Finally, after an awkward few seconds, a tired man walked slowly towards us and reluctantly asked in Chinese if we were eating there or taking out. Tina replied in Chinese that we were eating in and the man glanced up at the clock (it was 9:40pm). As he showed us to our table, Tina asked what time they closed and he said 10pm. He asked what we wanted to drink and after a few moments of hesitation (since I hadn't even sat down yet), we responded that we'd like tea. Looking over the menu, I didn't see all that many Sichuan dishes and decided that I'd try the Yang Zhou Chao Fan. When it came, it didn't look very good and had plentiful amounts of spam or vienna sausage instead of cha shao (Chinese BBQ pork). In the end, it didn't taste bad. (Of course, we ordered all three dishes when first and then were served them, but for brevity I've included my thoughts on each dish as I tell how the ordering process went.)
Sichuan Garden - Yang Chow Fried Rice

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What I Ate: December 19, 2009 (Sichuan Garden)

What I Ate: December 18, 2009

Posted 19 December, 2009 at 2:05am by Michael Chu
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Lunch: We finally got a box of the ramen instant noodles that I like - Nong Shim Seafood Ramyun - when we went to an Asian supermarket last weekend. So, I looked forward to having a bowl of instant noodles with a poached egg for lunch.
Nong Shim Seafood Ramyun with poached egg

Dinner: We were planning a nicer dinner, but work constraints had us rushing back and picking up some KFC (which I ended up wolfing down cold in between fixing server stuff). Got the three piece meal with two drumsticks and a thigh. I asked for all Original, but they didn't have drumsticks in Original so I got Extra Crispy which was a blessing since I didn't get to eat it for over an hour and the Extra Crispy pieces were still somewhat crispy! I also had mashed potatoes with gravy and cole slaw.
KFC - Three piece meal (two legs and a thigh) with mashed potatoes and gravy and cole slaw

What I Ate: December 17, 2009

Posted 18 December, 2009 at 1:14am by Michael Chu
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Lunch: I had store bought frozen tamales from HEB for lunch - three different kinds: pork, chicken, and beef & potatoes.
Tamales

Dinner: We were going to go to Stubb's for the Austin American-Statesman's Cookie Swap party, but work duties prevented me from leaving. We had leftover materials from Tuesday's hot pot dinner, so we did hot pot again.
Hot Pot
Hot Pot

What I Ate: December 16, 2009 (Buenos Aires Cafe)

Posted 17 December, 2009 at 12:16am by Michael Chu
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It seems that all my waking time is spent either eating or working. I don't know what happened, but I seem to be working all the time now - which means when I get to post my food pictures, I'm exhausted and cannot provide as much feedback as I think the food deserves… today is a prime example - we had a good dinner at Buenos Aires Cafe (1201 East 6th Street, Austin, TX‎ - (512) 344-9198‎). Originally, Tina and I were going to go to Estancia Churrascaria but Victor asked if we'd want to join him to try this Argentinian restaurant in East Austin - going to eat food at a restaurant new to us with other people sounded like more fun than stuffing ourselves with Brazilian grilled meats (which is never a value proposition given how little Tina and I tend to consume at these places), so we joined Victor, Peter, and Teddy for dinner.

We shared several different empanadas - two of each of carne picante, verdura, and pollo. Tina's favorite was the chicken (pollo) and I liked the vegetarian (verduro which had spinach, ricotta, and parmesan cheeses) the best.
Buenos Aires Cafe - Empanadas

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What I Ate: December 16, 2009 (Buenos Aires Cafe)

What I Ate: December 15, 2009

Posted 15 December, 2009 at 10:17pm by Michael Chu
(Filed under: Dining, What I Ate) 3 comments

Dinner: Tina and I prepared Chinese hot pot with an assortment of fish balls, beef balls, fried fish cakes, enoki mushrooms, napa cabbage, shrimp, and tofu.
Hot Pot
Adding shrimp to hot pot

Lunch: We finished off the clam chowder in another couple of bread bowls.
Clam Chowder in a Bread Bowl

What I Ate: December 14, 2009

Posted 15 December, 2009 at 1:37am by Michael Chu
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Dinner: Another one meal day today. For dinner, I ate the leftover Cajun food from Razoo's - andouille sausage, beans, rice with shrimp creole, and dirty rice with crawfish é.
Leftovers from Razoo’s Cajun Cafe

What I Ate: December 13, 2009 (Austin Food Blogger Cookie Swap, Korean Grill)

Posted 13 December, 2009 at 11:46pm by Michael Chu
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Dinner: after grabbing some Asian groceries at MT Supermarket, we decided to try Korean Grill (10901 North Lamar Boulevard, Austin, TX‎ - (512) 339-0234‎). I got pretty excited by the smells since Tina and I have only had one Korean meal since we moved to Texas seven months ago. We used to live a block from El Camino Real and Lawrence Expressway in Santa Clara, California where there is a high concentration of Korean restaurants and markets - so we've grown to love Korean cuisine.

We started with Pa Jun (Seafood Pancake - Pan fried Korean pancake, vegetables with seafood, $9.95) which was okay, but not even close to the best we've ever had. The flavor was pretty good, but the texture was a tad gooey and the sauce could have been better - the sauce was a bit too sour/acidic.
Korean Grill - Pa Jun

We also had the Galbi (short ribs cooked in Korean BBQ sauce) ($11.95) which was a bit chewier than I like it and not very strongly flavored (could barely taste the BBQ sauce let along the Asian pear that makes it so special).
Korean Grill - Kalbi / Galbi
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What I Ate: December 13, 2009 (Austin Food Blogger Cookie Swap, Korean Grill)

What I Ate: December 12, 2009 (Razoo's Cajun Cafe)

Posted 13 December, 2009 at 1:18am by Michael Chu
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Dinner: We only got a chance to eat one meal today. We ate at Razoo's Cajun Cafe (201 University Oaks Boulevard, Round Rock, TX‎ - (512) 255-2400) in Round Rock. We didn't have high expectations of the place (with it's neon lit exterior and kitschy interior decoration), but were quite pleasantly surprised by the flavor of the food. The first thing we tried was a sample of their gumbo which was much too salty for us - the small taste they provided came with a lot of white rice - but I could see being in the mood for that in the future (mixing with a lot of rice helps).

We tried the Cajun Combo Skillet ($12) which had Cajun grilled andouille sausage, zesty shrimp creole, crawfish etoufee, red beanz 'n' rice, veggie, w/ toasted French bread. The creole was serve over white rice and the etoufee over dirty rice. Both were spicy with the etoufee the milder of the two. Again, no lack of flavor in any of these components.
Razoo’s Cajun Cafe - Cajun Combo Skillet

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What I Ate: December 12, 2009 (Razoo's Cajun Cafe)

What I Ate: December 11, 2009 (Yanagi Japanese Restaurant and Sushi Bar)

Posted 12 December, 2009 at 2:54am by Michael Chu
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Don't have much time to write right now - spent most of the night baking cookies for a cookie swap on Sunday… I'll try to fill in the lunch pictures a little later.
Cookie making
Cookies

Dinner #1: We went to Yanagi Japanese Restaurant and Sushi Bar (4404 W. William Cannon Dr. Suite B, Austin, TX‎ - (512) 891-0989‎) for lunch, but ended up there at around 4pm. We tried several sushi items from their happy hour menu (which is about 40% less than their regular menu). We had shrimp gyoza to start (they were the frozen kind, but they deep fried them briefly which made them taste quite a bit better than the other frozen gyoza we keep getting served). We also had salmon, sea bass, and escolar nigiri. The fish was sliced rather thing and narrow, so a tad unsatisfying especially since I thought the fish all could have been a bit firmer. We also had a tempura roll and spicy salmon roll.
Yanagi - Spicy Salmon Roll

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What I Ate: December 11, 2009 (Yanagi Japanese Restaurant and Sushi Bar)

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