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What I Ate: July 31, 2009 (La Condesa)

Posted 31 July, 2009 at 11:55pm by Michael Chu
(Filed under: Food, What I Ate) 3 comments

Lunch: I made a couple of shrimp rolls for our lunch.
Shrimp Rolls

Dinner: After attending a "Flavor Tripping Party" where we tasted various foods after eating a miracle fruit, we went out to dinner at La Condesa (400-A W 2nd Street, Austin, TX‎ - (512) 499-0300‎). Our table of six shared a whole bunch of dishes including fried crickets.
Chapulines Taquitos toasted oaxacan crickets, avocado salad, salsa de chipotle ($12). The crickets were crispy and salty, but didn't contribute much flavor. With not much else except avocado and salsa to go in the corn tortilla, I thought the dish was a bit too simple in both texture and flavor.
La Condesa - Chapulines
La Condesa - Chapulines Taquitos

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What I Ate: July 31, 2009 (La Condesa)

Flavor Tripping - The taste altering Miracle Fruit

Posted 31 July, 2009 at 11:54pm by Michael Chu
(Filed under: Food) 5 comments

Tina and I were invited to a "Flavor Tripping" Party by Jennie Wang. At this party, the participants are granted one miracle berry which, after chewing and sloshing around the tongue for a minute or two, alters the way your taste buds react to sour/acidic foods for a little while (about 15-30 minutes). Instead of registering as sour, they register as sweet.
Miracle Fruit

We popped the fruit into our mouths.
Miracle Fruit

Then we chewed it into a pulp and swirled it around for about two minutes. It tasted slightly tart, like a really mild cranberry.
Working the miracle food around in my mouth
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Flavor Tripping - The taste altering Miracle Fruit

Tax Holiday!

Posted 31 July, 2009 at 1:28am by Michael Chu
(Filed under: Texas) 1 comment

Apparently, one weekend per year, Texas has a tax holiday - three days where you don't pay sales tax on most clothing! This year (2009) it's going to be on August 21 through 23.

http://www.window.state.tx.us/taxinfo/taxpubs/tx98_490/tx98_490.html

What I Ate: July 30, 2009 (Brick Oven)

Posted 31 July, 2009 at 1:28am by Michael Chu
(Filed under: Food, What I Ate) No comments

Dinner: We were in Austin photographing the post-tension cables and the positions they are laid in our foundation, so we went somewhere close by for dinner. We tried Brick Oven (9911 Brodie Ln # 600, Austin, TX‎ - (512) 292-3939‎) and despite some mixed reviews online, we really liked it.

We started off by splitting their Greek salad. They split the salad for us, so the photo is of my portion. The salad was average - nothing special - except they were very generous with the marinated artichoke hearts.
Brick Oven - Greek Salad

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What I Ate: July 30, 2009 (Brick Oven)

What I Ate: July 29, 2009

Posted 29 July, 2009 at 10:37pm by Michael Chu
(Filed under: Food, What I Ate) 2 comments

Dinner: Tina cooked traditional-style sweet and sour pork ribs and served it with mixed vegetable stir-fry of carrots, onions, celery, bamboo shoots, and woodear.
Sweet and Sour Pork Ribs, Mixed Vegetable Stir-Fry

Lunch: Tina whipped up a quick angel hair, prosciutto, cherry tomato, garlic, and olive oil dish that we both wolfed down for lunch.
Angel Hair Pasta with Prosciutto and Garlic

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What I Ate: July 29, 2009

What I Ate: July 28, 2009

Posted 28 July, 2009 at 10:33pm by Michael Chu
(Filed under: Food, What I Ate) No comments

Dinner: Tina made a green Thai curry from scratch and served it over rice. It was really good - I thought it was as good as any decent Thai restaurant.
Homemade Green Thai Curry

Lunch: Some leftover homemade Indian food (paratha and aloo gobi) and Chinese braised pork and collard greens.
Leftovers

What I Ate: July 27, 2009 (Olivia's)

Posted 28 July, 2009 at 12:10am by Michael Chu
(Filed under: Food, What I Ate) No comments

Dinner: Tina and I joined a few friends at Olivia's (2043 S Lamar Blvd, Austin, TX‎ - (512) 804-2700‎) for dinner.
Olivia’s

We started with fried local chicken livers guacamole, flatbread, bbq sauce. The livers were mild in flavor and excellently fried. The guacamole paired very well with it. I wasn't so sure about the BBQ sauce which tasted like a sweet cocktail sauce.
Olivia’s - Fried Chicken Liver

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What I Ate: July 27, 2009 (Olivia's)

What I Ate: July 26, 2009 (Church's Chicken)

Posted 26 July, 2009 at 8:30pm by Michael Chu
(Filed under: Food, What I Ate) 4 comments

Dinner: I pan-fried a Kona Kampachi fillet and served it with capellini tossed in extra virgin olive oil and topped with buttered grilled mushrooms and fresh gulf white shrimp. The greens are collard greens which I blanched for two minutes and then sauteed in olive oil with garlic and kosher salt.
Pan Fried Kona Kampachi Fillet, Capellini with mushrooms and shrimp, Collard greens

Lunch: I had a craving for fried chicken, so I decided to try Church's (a fast food chain that I had not yet tried). I ordered the three piece spicy chicken combo while Tina got the two piece original. The regular or original flavor was a bit bland, but the spicy was okay. Overall, I prefer Popeye's spicy crispy fried chicken over Church's and doubt I'll go back. For fast food fried chicken, I currently prefer KFC (unless I'm looking for spiciness and crunch).
Church’s Fried Chicken

What I Ate: July 25, 2009 (Mr. Spud's, Azul Tequila)

Posted 25 July, 2009 at 9:31pm by Michael Chu
(Filed under: Food, What I Ate) 2 comments

Lunch: We tried a new place that just opened last week in Kyle - Mr. Spuds (where they serve baked potatoes, sandwiches, and salads). I had a club sandwich on 6-in. white bread. It was somewhat similar to Subway - nothing really special.
Mr Spud’s - Club Sandwich

Dinner: We were in the area near Azul Tequila (4211 S Lamar Blvd # A2, Austin, TX‎ - (512) 416-9667‎) where we had dinner last year around Christmas time. We started by sharing an order of the ceviche costeño. The fish was precooked (which was a bit weird to me) as was the shrimp, but it tasted
Azul Tequila - Ceviche Casteno

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What I Ate: July 25, 2009 (Mr. Spud's, Azul Tequila)

What I Ate: July 24, 2009

Posted 24 July, 2009 at 11:46pm by Michael Chu
(Filed under: Food, What I Ate) 1 comment

Lunch: Tina cooked up some parantha and kheer and served it with the leftover Indian food we had (aloo gobi, dal, and a chicken with tomato dish)
Indian Food

Dinner: We haven't had Chick-Fil-A since we moved to Texas, so we grabbed deluxe (with tomatoes and lettuce) chicken sandwiches (and waffle fries) from the closest one to us. The brest patty was juicy, tender, and flavorful as usual. I am a big fan of this sandwich and it seems that Chick-Fil-A really does make the best chicken sandwich that I've had in the various fast food restaurants. The waffle fries were a bit bland, but they really grew on me. I kind of wish we got a larger order of them.
Chick-Fil-A - Deluxe Chicken Sandwich with Waffle Fries

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