What I Ate: October 17, 2009 (Blue Bamboo, Red Robin)

Lunch: We tried a Thai and Vietnamese restaurant in Escarpment Village - Blue Bamboo (5900 W Slaughter Ln, Austin, TX‎ - (512) 288-8688‎).

I started with the shrimp spring rolls which I thought were not bad. Often spring rolls are filled with water logged rice noodles and completely flavorless despite the shrimp. These were pretty decent and had excellent texture. Each rice noodle was discrete and cooked just right so a whole clump of them didn't taste like a clump - it tasted like it was supposed to. The peanut sauce was also quite good. Tina's unfortunately had a hair in it (which she wasn't going to say anything about since she views it as a mark of an Asian restuarant) but I mentioned it to our waiter who brought her a replacement and took the spring rolls off our bill.

I then had a pretty good Chicken Green Curry (Green curry with bamboo shoots, bell peppers, and zucchinis) which came with white rice. The curry was flavorful but a bit too spicy for us to eat all at once. We were very happy with the dish.

We also had the Charcoal Shrimp and Pork Vermicelli Bowl which was the best that we've had since we've come to Austin. The fish sauce was nicely spiced, the rice vermicelli was perfectly cooked (again, not waterlogged), and the grilled pork was really tender and very tasty (a departure from the other grilled pork we've had with vermicelli bowls - dry, crusty, or cardboard-like).

Blue Bamboo might have the best Thai food and Vietnamese food that we've tried in South Austin - we'll have to go back and sample some more dishes.

Dinner: After a long day, we had a late night dinner at Red Robin (4809 W Highway 290, Austin, TX‎ - (512) 891-7331‎) where I had a Royal Red Robin Burger.