Lunch: Tina cooked lu rou (pork braised in soy sauce and spices - in this case pork ribs) and sauteed some spinach for lunch.

Dinner: We had a craving for Indian food, so we decided to try Whip In (1950 S I H 35, Austin, TX‎ - (512) 442-5337) which features a kind of Indian + Western + natural foods menu. It's really more of a natural foods convenience store / beer and wine shop with the restaurant tacked on. The restaurant features live music on weekends in a very intimate setting.

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What I Ate: September 18, 2009 (Whip In)

I had lunch with Harold today… but didn't have any place in mind when I met him. We decided to just randomly drive until something caught our eye. We noticed a few places we hadn't tried yet but didn't look like we'd want to risk it and a few places that one or both of us knew were just no good. Somehow at the end of it all we ended up at Arby's - a place I hadn't eaten at in at least 15 years. I ordered a Bacon Beef 'n Cheddar sandwich with a side of Potato Cakes (instead of curly fries).

The sandwich wasn't very good. The bread was really soft and the bits of onion on the bread tasted a little odd (maybe it was too sweet). The beef was fine and so was the bacon, but the cheese was a little sour and tasted more like American cheese than cheddar. Overall, the flavor was a tad bland. I really liked the potato cakes though. They are essentially extra thick hash brown patties. Too bad it comes at the price of 1 gram of trans fat (for the two cakes).

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What I Ate: February 20, 2009 (Arby's)

After the Maharani Indian fiasco earlier this week, I've been craving Mehfil Indian. I went to Mehfil (600 Folsom St, San Francisco, CA‎ - (415) 974-5510‎) and got three of their lunch specials (intended for my lunch and our dinner). Mehfil describes the dishes best on their website. (I apologize for the pictures - I forgot to take them until I had eaten some of each dish.)

Coorgi Tarkari - (Fresh vegetables cooked with red onions, coconut, garlic, and cumin’s) "In this dish a masala is prepared by grinding fresh turmeric roots, garlic, red onions, cumin, mustard and coriander seeds, green chilies, red chilies, and fresh coconut. This masala paste is tempered with curry leaves and finally the vegetables like blue lake beans, potatoes, eggplants, mushrooms, and carrots are sautéed and cooked." $5.00

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What I Ate: February 19, 2009 (Mehfil Indian)

Today's dinner was one of those examples where I dined there so you wouldn't have to. But, I'm getting ahead of myself. For lunch, I took Tina up to Crossroads Cafe (699 Delancey St, San Francisco, CA‎ - (415) 836-5624‎) where I often have lunch. She had never been there before so I spent a little time telling her about the Delancey Street Foundation that runs the place (and also about Delancey Street Moving School where the founders of Moovers and many of their movers graduated from - which is probably the moving company we're going to choose for our move to Austin). We had a BLT with Avocado and a Focaccia Pizza.

The BLT was excellent (as usual) with thick tasty bacon slices (not thin and crisy, but slightly soft and chewy), whole leaves of butterleaf lettuce, just enough mayonnaise so nothing tasted dry, and creamy avocado.

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What I Ate: February 15, 2009 (Crossroads Cafe, Maharani Restaurant)

Papa and I walked over to Mehfil's Indian near 2nd and Folsom in San Francisco. This is a common lunch destination for us since they have $5-6 lunch specials (which pretty much involve rice covered by a tasty long cooked sauce/curry) and the take-out menu changes daily. First Indian food of the year for me… tasty! Unfortunately, I forgot to record what it was exactly - chicken something.

For dinner, I boiled ruote pasta to al dente and then cooked briefly with some of the meat sauce I made earlier. I also cooked some broccoli to go with it.

Lunch from Mehfil's - two items so I could taste both. I wonder who writes their descriptions everyday because they always make me want to try new things:

(1) JEERA ALOO
(Potatoes cooked in red onions and roasted cumin’s)
Haryana the city of agriculture has its old traditions of cooking; here cumin’s are the specialty and you can find cumin in every dish. The base is prepared with red onions, tomatoes, garlic, ginger, and several other spices and a touch of Asafetida. After cutting the potatoes into cubes they are sautéed with the base and roasted cumin’s.
$5.00

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What I Ate: March 27, 2008

Almost forgot to photograph my lunch. The description that Mehfil's had for today's lunch special that I ordered follows:

(4) MEATBALL MASALA (CHEF’S SPECIAL)
Home madeBeef meatballs Braised in Fresh garlic, ginger, onions, and Roma Tomatoes Finished in a Masala of roasted Cloves and
Cinnamon Bark. AN Excellent infusion With an Indian Flavor.

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What I Ate: March 25, 2008 (Mehfil Indian Cuisine)

Papa and I did take out from Mehfil Indian at 2nd and Folsom. I got Meatball Kadahi. The menu explains it as:

(Beef Meatballs cooked with green and red bell peppers and onions)
The big iron wok known as ‘Kadahi’ is used as it gives the best flavor as it keeps all the nutrition’s and the moisture sealed. Meatballs are added to the thick gravy made of onions and bell peppers and are cooked till the oil separates.

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What I Ate: March 18, 2008 (Mehfil Indian Cuisine, Bombay Oven)