What I Ate: May 24, 2010 (Jeffrey's)

Dinner: We ate dinner at Jeffrey's (1204 West Lynn Street, Austin, TX‎ - (512) 477-5584‎) where former First Lady Laura Bush was also dining (she was eating at a table in the bar while we chose to dine in the dining room - they even offered us a table in the bar but we turned it down not realizing we were standing in a room with someone famous while inspecting our tables).

Crispy Oysters - Octavia on house-made Sea Salt Potato Chips Bacon Royale with "Overnight" Tomato Vinaigrette. Very good - crispy with a clean flavor and well-balanced with the tomato dressing.

Pork Belly Steambuns Two Steambuns with slow-roasted Pork Belly, Asian Pear Kim Chee & Avocado with Citrus-Nuoc Mam Extremely well prepared pork belly, but not properly balanced. The steam bun was a tad too dense and too thick which caused the flavors to be a bit muted.

Short Ribs Braised, dry-aged Short Ribs with Horseradish Creme, Pommes Dauphine & Persillade Excellent. This was probably my favorite dish out of everything we had. The texture was firm yet tender and there was a wonderful flavor that permeated throughout the short rib pieces.

Fried Soft Shell Crab with slow-roasted Pork Belly, Spring Vegetable Gribiche, roasted Tindora & local Asparagus Crispy and delicate. I liked how the mild crab was paired with the strips of pork belly and giant asparagus.

Porcini-rubbed Filet Mignon Dry-aged 8 oz. Filet on Kennebec Potato Butter with braised Beef Debris, Maiitake Mushrooms, and grilled Boggy Creek Farm Greens Sometimes filet mignon can be tough or underseasoned due to its leanness. Here it was perfectly cooked rare and fully flavored with rich butteriness and decadent mushrooms. This is one of the best preparations of filet mignon I've tasted in a long while.

Jeffrey's Burger Wood-grilled 6 oz. Burger on Foie Butter-rubbed Sesame Seed Bun with hydroponic Red Romaine, and grilled Onions, with sides of Grain Mustard, dried-Tomato Relish, Aioli, & Pommes Frites (I added Foie Gras to this burger.) The burger is fairly small. The patty is loosely packed and flavorful, but overall this isn't worth $20 when you can get a comparable burger at Casino El Camino (sans foie butter bun). However, adding the $8 foie gras option makes this burger amazing. The small foie piece is just enough to add a ton of flavor and lubricate the ground beef.

Caramelized Green Beans & house-cured Bacon I forgot to taste this side dish until the end of the evening (and by then all the bacon had been cleaned off). The green beans were decent, but I heard the bacon was excellent.

Lunch: I sliced up some homemade corned beef (brined for ten days and then cooked sous vide for 48 hours at 55°C (131°F) without nitrates - that's why the color isn't pink/reddish orange) and made sandwiches with pumpernickel rye bread. The beef came out a little too salty which I think can be solved by boiling or simmering the beef instead of cooking it in a vacuum bag. I'll have to try it again - I might even smoke it to make pastrami instead.