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What I Ate: September 28, 2010

Posted 30 September, 2010 at 9:58am by Michael Chu
(Filed under: Food, What I Ate) 2 comments

Lunch: Craving the flavors of the Lox Sliders from Urban, I decided to make my own version.
Open Faced Sandwich of Smoked Salmon, Spinach, and Fried Egg

Dinner: I served up sous vide rib eye steak (55°C) and 24 hour short ribs (57°C). The short ribs were tender, but I cannot say if they were more tender than the 3 hour short ribs from the night before. I wasn't sure if connective tissue had broken down into gelatin or not.
Rib-eye steak and Short Rib

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What I Ate: September 28, 2010

What I Ate: September 27, 2010

Posted 29 September, 2010 at 5:14pm by Michael Chu
(Filed under: Food, What I Ate) 1 comment

Lunch: Leftover egg sandwich and hash browns from Urban. I heated both in a convection toaster oven on a sheet of parchment paper for 12 minutes at 350°F and it worked remarkably well. The cheese melted (causing the egg to slide off a little), toast was toasted again, and egg was hot but still had a flowing yolk.
Leftover Urban Fried Egg Sandwich

Dinner: By request of Papa to see what the minimum time for cooking beef short ribs sous vide, I cooked a couple pieces at 55°C for 3 hours. The result was very tender and flavorful, but the salt doesn't seem to penetrate very far and none of the excessive connective tissue was broken down so there were stringy and chewy bits. Still, if one is not willing to wait a day for sous vide short ribs, it's possible to prepare it in about 3 hours, but I would probably recommend waiting 24 hours. I've got another bag of short ribs in the water bath at 57°C that will have cooked for 26 hours by the time we eat it, so stay tuned to find out if the second bag is better in texture.
Sous Vide Short Ribs

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What I Ate: September 27, 2010

What I Ate: September 26, 2010 (Urban, An American Grill)

Posted 28 September, 2010 at 5:14am by Michael Chu
(Filed under: Food, What I Ate) 1 comment

Lunch: We were invited to have brunch at Urban, An American Grill (11301 Domain Drive, Austin, TX (512) 490-1511) where we had a very good meal of what I would describe as North American comfort food. Chef Mizael Saucido (from Bess Bistro and Fonda San Miguel) puts together a remarkable combination of Southern flavors with interior Mexican flair that really resonated with my palate. The lighting was a 50-50 mix of outdoor sunlight streaming in from the large windows and incandescent lighting which made for some challenging color balance issues when photographing.

Mini Chocolate Croissant. This was a small (but well made) croissant served along side a nutella sauce. Simple, but delightful.
Urban - Mini Chocolate Croissant

Mini Breakfast Tacos and Lox Sliders. Both of these small bites are amazing. The tacos had a perfect balance of eggs, cheese, chorizo, and salsa that allowed you to taste every ingredient without any single one being dominant (and yet all were assertive). The lox sliders were genius - of all the food we tasted, this was perhaps my favorite (the avocado tres leches cake we ended with is the only possible contender). Quail egg, hollandaise, lox, spinach and a honey wheat round - it's the perfect bite-sized Salmon Eggs Florentine.
Urban - Mini Breakfast Tacos and Lox Sliders
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What I Ate: September 26, 2010 (Urban, An American Grill)

What I Ate: September 25, 2010 (Chili's)

Posted 27 September, 2010 at 1:17am by Michael Chu
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Lunch: Pastrami Sandwich and Roast Beef Sandwich from Dai Due and Banana Peppers from Milagro
Pastrami Sandwich and Roast Beef Sandwich from Dai Due and Banana Peppers from Milagro

Dinner: We got hungry heading back to Austin from Kyle and stopped at Chili's in Buda. It was not good. We started with the chicken and chile soup which was much too salty. After asking for a glass of hot water and pouring that into the soup (doubling the volume) it was somewhat edible.
Chevy's - Chicken and Chile Soup

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What I Ate: September 25, 2010 (Chili's)

What I Ate: September 24, 2010

Posted 25 September, 2010 at 8:28pm by Michael Chu
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Dinner: Leftovers from El Pollo Rico
Leftover El Pollo Rico Chicken and Carne Asada

What I Ate: September 23, 2010 (El Pollo Rico)

Posted 25 September, 2010 at 3:06am by Michael Chu
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Lunch: Leftovers from Foreign & Domestic (Mac & Cheese and Crispy Chicken Thigh)
Leftover Foreign & Domestic Mac & Cheese and Crispy Chicken Thigh

Dinner: Picked up a whole chicken and carne asada from El Pollo Rico (704 W Stassney Ln, Austin, TX‎ - (512) 326-1161).
El Pollo Rico - Whole Chicken and Carne Asada

What I Ate: September 22, 2010 (Fogo de Chao)

Posted 23 September, 2010 at 11:34pm by Michael Chu
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Dinner: After not getting enough of the meats that I enjoyed the most the last time I dined at Fogo de Chão (309 East 3rd Street, Austin, TX‎ - (512) 472-0220‎), I decided to eat there again - this time for Austin Restaurant Week where dinner (included dessert) was $35 per person instead of the typical $45.50 (without dessert).

Fogo de Chao - Salad Plate
A plate from the extensive salad bar
Fogo de Chao - Gaucho slicing meat

Gaucho slicing meat

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What I Ate: September 22, 2010 (Fogo de Chao)

What I Ate: September 21, 2010 (Foreign and Domestic Food and Drink)

Posted 22 September, 2010 at 9:57pm by Michael Chu
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Dinner: We paid Foreign & Domestic Food & Drink (306 E 53rd St, Austin, TX‎ - (512) 459-1010‎) a visit for dinner. We started with an order of Popovers ($5). Topped with gruyere, these eggy popovers were delicious.
Foreign & Domestic Food & Drink - Popovers

Crispy Beef Tongue Watercress, Mint, & Horseradish Yogurt ($8). The beef tongue was awesome - great concentrated flavor (especially at the crispy edges) that worked amazingly well with the greens and horseradish sauce. It was so good I was tempted to order another one (but didn't since we had a lot more food to taste).
Foreign & Domestic Food & Drink - Crispy Beef Tongue

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What I Ate: September 21, 2010 (Foreign and Domestic Food and Drink)

What I Ate: September 20, 2010

Posted 21 September, 2010 at 11:36pm by Michael Chu
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Lunch: I had Nong Shim Seafood Ramyun with Napa cabbage and egg
Nong Shim Seafood Ramyun with Napa cabbage and egg

Dinner: Leftover fried catfish from Texas Roadhouse with homemade tartar sauce
Leftover Texas Roadhouse Fried Catfish

How to Reset Your Windows XP or Windows Vista Password If You Forgot It

Posted 21 September, 2010 at 10:02am by Michael Chu

Recently, I had to help someone get back into their Windows XP PC but had forgotten their password. This is an easy problem to resolve if there is another administrator account on the computer for which they do know the password (just login and use User Profiles to edit the password of the forgetten user's password). The next easiest solution involves using a Password Recovery Disk, which is only available if you made one before losing your password (but most people who forget passwords don't plan on forgetting them).

I couldn't use any of those options, so had to resort to other more roundabout methods. In this case, booting from a Linux CD, logging in as root (to have administrator equivalent access), and editing the password (in my case, just clearing it to no password). Once that was accomplished, I booted into Windows, logged in as administrator (with no password), and changed the password to one they could remember. Luckily, Petter Nordahl-Hagen has put together a relatively small CD Image that helps accomplish just this.

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How to Reset Your Windows XP or Windows Vista Password If You Forgot It

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