Boots in the Oven

Korean Grill, Chinatown Center

Has it been a bit of a week!  Let's see... I've got Logan back, for one thing.  Yay!  And I've started another one of those enervating test-grading jobs that leaves me too strung out and insane at the end of the day to blog.  

I meant to talk about this giant collection of tastiness during our last cool snap, but missed out, so I'm hoping you guys will file this away under "good stuff for cold weather" for next time it's in the 50s and raining.  We should have at least one more of those times before spring, right?

Korean Grill is one of the many outposts of insane deliciousness up in the Chinatown Center.  Every time we head up there to shop at MT Market, I'm always drawn towards one of these restaurants.  We've got a Chinese BBQ, a pho place, a takeout homestyle Viet shop, bubble tea, two banh mi joints, a dim sum/Chinese seafood place, and two noodle houses.  Not to mention the Vietnamese beauty shop, bank, and video rental store... (those are three separate establishments, yes.)

Early last week, it was rainy and gray, and I was on a mission to buy several bags of frozen dumplings at MT.  But it was lunchtime, and I was cold, and I was in the mood for:

A big spicy steaming bowl of kimchi jjigae, or hot pickled cabbage stew with pork.  For less than $10 with tax, I got what you see above: nice, hot hot hot porky Korean cabbage stew, a scoop of rice, and a completely awesome assortment of side dishes.  There was omelet, and tofu, and bean sprouts, and fish cake, and osmanthus, and MORE kimchi, and cooked greens with sesame oil.  Total heaven, and it warmed me right up from the inside out.

These guys also do all sorts of other lunch specials, like bulgogi and bi bim bap, and thank goodness they are NOT a Korean/sushi joint.  They're sticking to straight Korean tasties and doing a solid job.  Next time you find yourself with a hankering for Korean food in North Austin, you could certainly do worse (Oh, wait, Koreana burned down.  ZING.)

Korean Grill is in the Chinatown Center at 10901 N. Lamar. 512.339.0234.

Now, Logan and I have the entire weekend together for the first time since... mid-September!  And we're off to FINO to meet up with Crystal and Justin.  And have one of Bill's drinks specials, the kickass Manhattan!

Rain Lily Farm and Farmhouse Delivery's Cuban Pig Roast

If you're wondering why I feel the need to make healthy weeknight dishes with lots of beans and no meat (reference last post), well, it's nights like the one I'm about to describe that pushed me over the edge.  

Squeamish?  Sorry.  I am a bit too, but had to get over it quickly.

For once, I'm posting something timely and topical, too!  Several weeks ago I went to a Cuban pig roast at Rain Lily Farm on the east side of Austin.  Rain Lily and Farmhouse Delivery (an awesome local produce delivery service) are owned by the same people, and are starting a fall season "farm membership" for an 8 week winter season running through November and December.  For $35 a week (or $37 if you'd rather get deliveries every other week) you get a bushel of local produce from places like Rain Lily, Tecolote Farms, Montesino Farms, and other little guys around town.  It seems like a good deal, and with Logan working and us likely not having the time or the inclination to head to the market every week, I decided for the first time in my life to sign us up!

The reason this is topical and not a giant digression is that the deadline to sign up is TOMORROW, 10/30.  Membership in the farm will also give you access to information on the wonderful events they have, like this Cuban Pig Roast I'm eventually going to talk about.  Go here (link) to order, if you're interested.

Lentils and Potatoes with Curry a la Mark Bittman

Finally, we're done with our 68 days of 100 degree plus temperatures here in Austin, and we've moved into our fall.  This is the time of year that reminds me why we all put up with the hell that is summer; finally, we have endless days of 70 to 80 degrees with nights dipping down into the high 40s.  It's sunny and glorious outside most of the time, with the occasional booming thunderstorm and downpour - but I like those too, after the drought we've had (and are still having).

The cooler temps mean it's the perfect time of year to try my hand at some of the easier recipes in my new How to Cook Everything book from Mark Bittman.  I have been worshipping at the altar of @bittman (as he's known on Twitter) ever since my book arrived back at the beginning of the month.  I've made beans, pastas, sauces, and even a sort of kickass set of lemon bars, if I do say so myself, but this recipe for curried lentils and potatoes is one that I know I'm going to come back to again and again.  

It's easy and takes about an hour, most of which is inactive time.  Best of all for clumsy ninnies like me, the only thing you have to cut to make this dish is two potatoes.  It makes your house smell like warm spice and sticks to your ribs, but is remarkably healthy.  I think I'm going to make it to welcome Logan back to town next week.

This recipe is vegetarian (if you don't use a meat stock to cook the lentils) and could be vegan if you omit the yogurt garnish.

Recipe after the jump:

Fortune Chinese Seafood

Austin has another dim sum place!  I'm just happy about the dumpling explosion we're going through here in town.  

Fortune Chinese Seafood had a bunch of Austin bloggers and assorted VIP's out a few weeks ago for complimentary eats to introduce their restaurant.  I'd been to the location when it was Kim Son, and didn't see a huge difference - it's still a giant ballroom of a Chinese restaurant, awfully like a few of the places we went in Hong Kong (here, for instance, though Fortune isn't as blindingly bright.)  

We were offered a selection of their more common dumplings in steam carts.  Though the restaurant does a dim sum menu during the week, the weekends are reserved for multiple carts making their rounds.

Tomo Dachi, Austin

Tomo Dachi might be one of our favorite restaurants in town, and not just because we're suckers for a good sushi joint.  The fish is all impeccably fresh, you can order their real wasabi for just a little upcharge, they usually have a couple of things we've not seen before in our local susheterias, and the folks behind the sushi bar are always friendly - if a little tipsy.  But then hey, so are we!

If I had one complaint about the place, it would be that depending on how you order, you might end up with lots of dishes flavored with sriracha, yuzu, and cilantro.  I love those ingredients, just not when half my raw fish tastes like them.  But that didn't happen the last time we were there.

It was a busy Friday, and we had a late show of Inglorious Basterds to catch at the Alamo.  We were seated right away at the bustling sushi bar, and just a few moments later were relaxing with our sake and our first bites of nigiri.

Their specials board is always worth a look, and two of these three items were on it.  From left, we have "live" octopus (which I think means it's transported live, but I'm not certain), which had a nice springiness and was complemented by the slight heat of the sriracha and the minty strength of the shiso.  The hamachi toro (yellowtail belly) in the middle just melted everywhere - and that's their fresh wasabi on top.  It's more floral-tasting, without that ridiculous burning of fake horseradish wasabi paste.  On the right is kohada, a silverskin fish with that oily slight fishiness of mackerel.  I loved it, but our sushi chef did say it's not for everyone.  Look at that knife work!

And on to Roy's

Back to Austin Restaurant Week, yeah.  Logan was only home for a little over a week before heading back to Hawaii for 5 weeks, so we were trying to see as many friends as we possibly could in the little time he had left here :sniff:.

We met the always-awesome Crystal and Justin at Roy's.  Roy's might seem like a bit of an odd choice - I mean, it is a big, expensive chain restaurant, and these aren't normally at the top of our dinner list - but Restaurant Week and its $35 3-course meals make all things possible, and, perhaps, more likely.  Plus, all four of us were freshly back from (separate) trips to Hawaii, so when better to give the place the ol' Boots look-see?

I have to say, the company was BY FAR the best thing about the place.  (Thanks, guys!)

First, a round of drinks at the bar.  The mai tais were meh, too sweet, but my lychee martini was OK.  Still sweet, yes, but with a serious and much-appreciated tropical lychee flavor.  

After being seated, we went off the Restaurant Week menu and ordered an extra appetizer, Roy's Yellow Ahi Poke, with hearts of palm, avocado, wasabi aioli, and truffle oil.  It also came topped with a seaweed salad and what I think was flying fish roe.  Very pretty presentation, with nicely fried wonton chips.

This was easily the best thing I tried that night.  Everything here balanced well, from the fresh fish to the slight heat of the wasabi and the crunch of the fish eggs.  The hearts of palm and avocado got right in there with the textural contrast.  The truffle oil thankfully stayed in the background.  I wonder what Tanioka's on O'ahu would think of this take on poke?

Green Pastures for Austin Restaurant Week

Green Pastures.  Restaurant Week.  If you follow Austin blogs, you already know that this combination was pretty popular last month - I'll throw in a partial list of other local bloggers that tried the place out at the end of my post, if you want other perspectives.

Why was it so popular?  Well, the most important thing to know about ARW (as we bloggerati :kof kof: called it) is that participating restaurants could choose to serve either a $25 or a $35 3-course prix fixe menu.  As I'm sure you can imagine, $25 menus are hard to come by in the fancier places, and Green Pastures is one of a few serving the less expensive option.  Plus, the place has peacocks! But it was too dark while we were there for us to appreciate that.  

Green Pastures is in a home built in 1895 on land just south of town.  It's since been swallowed up by the city, but still manages to be a beautiful little oasis.  It's been a restaurant since 1946.  Logan and I met our friends Andy and Jackson there for some tastiness and catchup conversation.

We were totally impressed with their warmed, soft, sweet bread rolls.  Such a nice start, with good butter!

Justine's

Huh. I've had these pictures up since (last) Tuesday?  You don't say!

This happens more often than I'd like to admit.  We go somewhere cool, I edit the pictures, put them up on Flickr, and then can't think of a good way to open the post.  Sometimes, I'll just skip talking about the place, but Justine's was so much fun that I can't possibly do that!  

Justine's is brand new, WAY far over on the east side of town, and too cool for school.  I wish they were a little closer to us, because it's open hyperlate - dinner until 1:30 in the morning!  We went to check it out on our friend Susie's birthday a couple of weeks back.

Unfortunately, I have to apologize for the quality of these pictures.  The place is dripping with ambience.  Sexy, dark, photography-unfriendly ambience.

Susie and I grabbed a tall table on which to rest our purses while we waited for a place to sit, and Logan went to locate us a drink.  A round of French 75's, please!

Mine even came with a lemon seed garnish.  Not delicious.  The drinks were fine, lemony and fizzy.

After a relatively short wait, we were led to a table up at the very front of the restaurant.  The extremely harried waitress greeted us with a "Well, this has been a terrible night.  Do you see how busy we are?"  I appreciated the honesty.

Frank. Frankly, well...

Frankly, I thought I'd be able to get a little further into my review of Frank, the new(ish) hot dog restaurant downtown, without resorting to puns.  Oh well.

Before I launch into my brief discussion of bacon-infused this and huckleberry compote-drowned that, I want to alert you guys to an event coming up later this week that looks frankly awesome.  (There, did it again.)  In the interest of full FCC-style disclosure, I should tell you that I'm going to be going for free as a media person, but still - the Wine and Food Foundation of Texas is holding a party this Thursday (10/8) that will throw together more than 100 wines from around the world and 24 of Austin's best chefs.  Sounds fun, right?  If you go, find me.  For tickets, go here.

Back to Frank!

Last Hawaii Post! Wow.

Before I get started showing you this last batch of Hawaii pictures, let's pour out a little of our aperitivi for Gourmet Magazine.  It was announced today that after 68 years the mag will be ceasing publication with the November issue.  LAME.  I love Gourmet!  Most insulting is the fact that Bon Appetit will live on, stumbling into the future with its gross gimmicky pictures and boring recipes.  Poot.

And now, here's a rundown of my last few hours in Hawaii, which were, holy crap, almost a month ago.  Oops.  I REALLY need to get better at this realtime blogging if I have any hope of doing it when we take our big round the world trip.

After visiting the Pu'uhonua, our next stop was the southernmost point in the 50 United States.  Because I'm a geography dork who always insists we visit places like the confluence of the Ohio and Mississippi rivers.

The southernmost point, called Ka Lae,  is at the tip of a dry, windswept plain populated by rusting windmills and scrubby bushes blown completely sideways by the relentless blasts.  These windmills are part of an array that was shut down in 2006 to make way for newer models that sit nearby.