Lunch: We ate at South Congress Cafe (1600 S Congress Ave, Austin, TX‎ - (512) 447-3905) for the first time today and really enjoyed the entire experienced. We arrived quite late to avoid the huge crowds that we faced last week - around 2:45pm - and got seated immediately. We knew we had to try the Carrot Cake French Toast, so we ordered a single slice of that (a normal order has three slices, I think). It was incredibly good and not overly sweet (when you don't apply the delicious but decadent cream cheese pecan sauce that it comes with).

Tina ordered the special which was a brisket hash served with eggs over easy. The eggs were perfectly cooked - a lot of places have runny whites as well as yolks when you over the eggs over easy, but South Congress Cafe got it right. The brisket in the hash was outstanding and much of it simply melted in our mouths.

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What I Ate: September 26, 2009 (South Congress Cafe)

Lunch: Coming back from doing a walkthrough of our new home, we stopped at Pho Thaison (9500 S I H 35 # L800, Austin, TX‎ - (512) 280-2060‎) because Tina felt like Vietnamese vermicelli noodles. I wasn't in the mood for that so, I ordered the combination fried rice - which I found to be inedible due to a taste in the rice. I don't know how to describe it except that I could taste the water used to cook the rice. It wasn't too much water since the rice wasn't water logged or soggy, but it had a taste that I've had at other subpar Chinese restaurants. (I'm going to have to do a test one day cooking rice with purified water like I normally do and with hard water from the tap. I'm guessing it's the minerals in the hard water that gives the rice the bad taste - but I can't know for sure until I do this test.) After a few bites, then a few more after pouring soy sauce on it, then a few more after mixing sriracha sauce into it, I gave up.

I walked across the parking lot to Chick-Fil-A where I had a Chick-Fil-A Deluxe Chicken Sandwich and cole slaw.

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What I Ate: September 25, 2009 (Pho Thaison, Tapioca House)

Lunch: Tina made a ground pork chili and we ate it with bread.

Dinner: After eating at Texas Roadhouse twice, I had people ask me why I didn't have a steak there since that's why people go to Texas Roadhouse. I hadn't known that was the reason to eat there, so I decided to go back and order a steak. I started with a house salad.

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What I Ate: September 24, 2009 (Texas Roadhouse)

Dinner: We joined Peter at Perla's Seafood and Oyster Bar (1400 S Congress Ave, Austin, TX‎ - (512) 291-7300) for his birthday dinner (as well as our final Austin Restaurant Week dinner for the year). We enjoyed the food very much and will be dining here again in the future. (I should also mention that Perla's should get extra bonus points for changing the menu to accommodate our group. Today's Austin Restaurant Week menu did not have the Lobster Roll on it and many of us wanted to eat it - so they made it available to us for the evening.)

Appetizers
Salt and Pepper Fried Calamari with Green Sauce and Marinara The calamari was fried just enough to give it a tender texture (that sweet spot between mushy/chewy and tough/chewy). The light batter was nicely seasoned, but some parts did take on a bit more grease than I would have liked. Overall, it was quite good and for an appetizer, the portioning was generous.

Bay Scallop Pozole Verde This scallop and cilantro soup was excellent. The radish and hominy added to the texture and flavor while the soup was warming, pleasing, and maybe even a little smokey. I can imagine a future meal where we just order of the pozole and been happy for the rest of the evening. Delicious.

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What I Ate: September 23, 2009 (Perla's Seafood and Oyster Bar, Los Vega Restaurante)

Dinner: We headed off to Aquarelle (606 Rio Grande St, Austin, TX‎ - (512) 479-8117‎) for our second to last Austin Restaurant Week dinner.

After ordering, we received an amuse bouche of broccoli something or other. I would know what it was called if the waiter who dropped it off hadn't mumbled the name while walking away from us. (Our server was great - reseating us and adjusting the thermostat when we found the room too cold.) I think it was a broccoli mousse. It was made with broccoli, cream, salt, and a touch of truffle oil. We didn't much like the taste or consistency (Tina's was a bit wet - like there was water on it or something).

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What I Ate: September 22, 2009 (Aquarelle)

Dinner: Tina and I headed over to Frank (407 Colorado St, Austin, TX‎ - (512) 494-6894‎) for dinner. We had gone in expecting to order from the Austin Restaurant Week menu but realized that given the regular prices of some of the items it wasn't always a good deal to order from the ARW menu unless we got certain items that we weren't sure we wanted. So, we ordered a la carte (skipping the deserts and trying a couple sides instead).

Canadian Waffle Poutine Fries with brown gravy and cheese curds Their take on the Quebecois gravy smothered French fries and cheese curds was pretty tasty. I felt the waffle fries were a little undercooked rendering them softer than they would have been (even drenched in the gravy). Some bites were a bit overly salty with both the salted cheese curds and the brown gravy, but overall it's a pretty tasty way to eat fries.

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What I Ate: September 21, 2009 (Frank - Hot Dogs Cold Beer)

Lunch: Before church, we stopped at The Mighty Cone (1603 S Congress Ave, Austin, TX‎ - (512) 383-9609‎) for some brunch. We intended to go to South Congress Cafe across the street, but they were packed. Since The Mighty Cone's trailer was nearby, we ordered a Purple Pig Cone (pulled pork with red cabbage cole slaw) and a Cone Dog (venison sausage).

Dinner: We had pho at Pho Thaison (9500 S I H 35 # L800, Austin, TX‎ - (512) 280-2060‎) in Southpark Meadows.

Lunch: Ate lunch with Tina's old boss and Jack from Eating in a Box at Chuy's Restaurant (4301 W William Cannon Dr, Austin, TX‎ - (512) 899-2489‎). I ordered the Chuychanga and it was really good. Tina had the chile relleno with shrimp and I had a taste and really liked the flavors and textures of that dish as well.

Dinner: Tina and I stopped at Chi Chinese Buffet (9900 S I H 35, Austin, TX‎ - (512) 292-0303‎) for dinner before watching Jennifer's Body (2.5/5.0) at the theater next door.

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What I Ate: September 19, 2009 (Chuy's Restaurant, Chi Chinese Buffet)

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)

Lunch: More errands in the morning, so we stopping in at a Serrano's on our way back. I ordered the Tacos Grandes with Spanish rice and charro beans. The tacos were quite large, crispy, and stuffed full of ground beef and fresh vegetables (crisply shredded lettuce and chopped tomatoes). The beef wasn't as flavorful as I would like taco meat to be, but it was fine. The charro beans were decent and the Spanish rice was pretty good as well.

Dinner: After a couple hours of yard work, Tina pan fried the leftover dumplings we had from dinner at her parent's place.