Boots in the Oven

Ryu of Japan (of Austin)

A few days ago I was being extra whiny and totally indecisive about what to eat. After bouncing around between pizza, Korean, tex-mex and gumbo from my freezer, I finally settled in on general bitching and lamenting Austin’s lack of an izakaya. Just as I was hitting a particularly impressive stretch of fruitless grousing my lovely lady wife poked up her head and asked, “What about Ryu?”

“What about Ryu indeed” I thought. I know it’s not a real izakaya but I also knew that it was nearby, byob, and they had served me a really nice chirashi-zushi for lunch one day. It didn’t hurt that the place seemed to be run by Japanese folks instead of by a pack of teenage Romanians. I was sold.

A few minutes later we (and our bottle of sake) arrived at the brightly lit but comfortable little restaurant that holds down a corner spot in a shiny new strip center on north Burnet.

We were greeted by a super sweet waitress (later identified as Tomo-chan) and given our choice of seats. As we perused the extensive menu, two tiny bowls of well fried shumai made an appearance to fortify us during the decision making process.

We opted to stick to the “From the Kitchen” part of the menu and save the sushi for another time. We started with one of my favorite drinkin’ snacks, ankimo or monkfish liver. Think goose liver terrine but denser and less buttery.

This excellent version was sitting in a splash of ponzu and accompanied by shredded daikon, beautiful dulse seaweed, lightly pickled cucumber, grated daikon mixed with sriracha, and a sprinkling of sliced scallions. I love interactive eating.

Wendish Noodles

It's been said lots of times (including repeatedly and possibly annoyingly by us) that one of the best ways to learn about a people is through their food.  Last week, Logan was doing some movie scouting a couple of hours east of Austin when he stopped for lunch in Giddings, Texas.  While eating his sandwich, he noticed a couple of ladies from the Texas Wendish Heritage Society selling dried noodles in little bags.  How could he resist?

As soon as I saw these noodles, I fell in love.  I mean, the Wendish!  Their name sounds impossibly exotic, like a people from a fantasy novel who have the ability to communicate with ponies with rainbow manes.  As it turns out, Wendish origin is a tad more prosaic.  Wends are Slavic, from Lusatia in eastern Germany, and in a detail that makes me love them all the more they are today known as Sorbs.  

In September, the Wends (Sorbs?) of Texas hold a Wendish Festival, where you can enjoy demonstrations of the Wendish arts such as batik egg dying and sausage and sauerkraut making.  For the kiddies, there's Kletternpfosten, which turns out to be greased pole climbing, and stick horse racing.  I am so there in September 2010.

Until then, I'll just console myself with their tasty noodles, which stand up nicely to a hearty boiling.  In fact, we found that they're the perfect chicken noodle soup noodle.

Last week, Logan made a simple and truly delicious dinner for the two of us.  He started by warming (and diluting) some of his chicken stock, which he then cooked the Wendish noodles in as instructed by the package.  Carrots and shallot went in, too, and were cooked until soft.  Then he put in a poached egg, just because a poached egg is the right thing to finish off just about any soup from pho to navy bean.  Garnish with dill.

This made a ridiculously good chicken noodle soup, thanks in no small part to the Wendish noodles.  They stayed starchy and kept their bite even after the 10 minutes of prescribed vigorous cooking.  Yum.

Today is a definite soup day (it's 35 here in Austin again!), so I'm going to go make puppy dog eyes at Logan and request soup for dinner.  I start another season of test-grading tomorrow, so a soul-warming soup would not go amiss.

To find out more about the Wendish and their history, check out the Texas Wendish Heritage Society here.

Winter Luau Tiki Hour at the East Side Showroom, Austin

It's been a really tough week around here, and that's all the explanation I'll put you through about our blog silence.  Therefore, I'm heading over to the East Side Showroom in a couple of hours to have a tiki drink or two, mixed up by our friend David Alan of the Tipsy Texan.  If you've been wondering what a piña colada or a mai tai made with real juices tastes like, now's your chance to taste one.

Every Monday from now until... well, David isn't sure when, but at least through the winter, East Side Showroom will be a tiki luau heaven.  Head over there between 5 and 9 PM for drinks like the Fogcutter and the Navy Grog, garnished with David's flair for the fun and dramatic.

And if you're feeling particularly festive, order the Back in the ESSR, David's homage to both the tiki drink and the East Side Showroom.  It's a luau-flavored rum and juice drink made with local Balcones Rumble and about twelve other liquors, and it arrives in an actual fishbowl.  I highly recommend you share this with a friend if you prefer to remain coherent and/or upright.

The East Side Showroom is at 1100 E. 6th St. in Austin.  Any day of the week, stop by for carefully crafted cocktails that are invariably beautifully done and sometimes take a heckuva long time to make their way out to you.  The food is locally sourced and often quite good, as well.

A Pop Quiz from Hog Island Deli, Austin.

Here's something a little superficial to lighten up your Martin Luther King, Jr. Day.  It has to be superficial, because I'm doing laundry while I write, which means that every 24 minutes I have to jump up, run to the laundry room, and switch out a load of clothes.  I kinda miss having a washing machine in the house.

And gotta run out again!  Sheets are due to go in the dryer!

And I'm back.  It's a regular Fractured Consciousness Monday around here.  (That would sound better were it a Friday.)

Anyway!  Pop quiz, suckas!  Look at this menu, and then tell me, is the Old Italian sub served hot?  How about just the regular Italian?

If you said yes, Hog Island thinks you're a fool.  But don't worry, they don't have a high opinion of us, either.  We went to Hog Island Deli on Saturday, wanting a good sub with nice, Italian-dressed deli meats on a toasty length of bread, but that's not what we got.  Instead, we got Boar's Head on a gummy cold roll dressed with limp lettuce, plain balsamic, and a way too-healthy shake of oregano.

When our sandwiches arrived, we were momentarily pleased at their appearance.  That is, until we touched them to discover their chill.  

I went up to explain to the guy behind the counter that we were a little surprised at having received cold sandwiches, given that the ones we'd ordered were listed under "Hot Stuff."  His verbatim response: "yeah, some retard listed those under 'hot stuff', I guess because they're hot sellers.  I've been asking them to change it forever now.  Sorry."

So there you have it.  If I were Hog Island Deli, and this was an ongoing problem,  I think I'd tell people who ordered things listed under "hot stuff" not to necessarily expect a hot sandwich.  Or if they were surprised at getting a cold sandwich when they thought they'd ordered a hot one, and they TOLD ME ABOUT THE PROBLEM, perhaps I'd, I dunno, offer to TOAST the stupid thing for them!  (And I probably wouldn't call someone I work with a "retard," while I was at it.  That insult is so '90s.)

I guess I wouldn't care a whole ton, except that for somewhere around $18 for two sandwiches and a soda - I enjoyed my delicious root beer, thanks! - I felt like we'd paid enough to get a good sammich.  Guess not.

Lesson learned.  If what we're really craving is a tasty dressed Italian sandwich on a toasty fresh bun, we should just freaking go to Home Slice.  Logan said he wouldn't have another desire to cheat on their subs anytime soon.

Hog Island Deli is at 1612 Lavaca Street in Austin.  

Recipe! Caramel Fish Fillets, from Mark Bittman

One of the reasons I'm so glad to have bought Mark Bittman's revised tenth anniversary edition of How to Cook Everything is because of dishes like this.  Earlier in the week, Logan thawed a couple of Louisiana redfish fillets his folks gave us while we were there over Christmas.  He cooked one of them, but then he needed an interesting and easy workweek-friendly recipe to apply to the other one.  I hauled out m'Bittman, handed it over, and moments later heard the boy exclaim "Ooh!  Caramel Fish Fillets!  YES!"

This is actually really similar to a pork dish we ate in Vietnam near the Cambodian border a couple of years ago called Thịt Kho Tộ (here's the post, which includes a visit to a floating market).  Apparently if you use fish instead of pork, it's called Cá Kho Tộ.

This is not caramel in the traditional French sense, made with milk or cream or just tons of sugar.  The liquid in this caramel is water mixed that full-of-umami Southeast Asian condiment, fish sauce.  It adds a giant hit of flavor to anything, and Logan likes to keep around a couple of kinds.  He even has some he brought back from Vietnam, but he's hoarding it.  

The dish is super-simple (I mean, as simple as making a caramel can be - careful with that boiling sugar, people!).  Bittman even stamps it with an "F" for fast.  The whole thing comes together in about 30 minutes, so you can be making rice on the side.  And the flavor here is amazing; deep savoriness, with a bit of sweetness.

Recipe, and step by step pictures, after the jump:

A Roundup of iTunes Apps!

I was totally inspired by Crystal's post yesterday at poco-cocoa, where she shared some new iPhone apps she's discovered and is using a ton.  Awesomely, Logan gave me an iPhone for Hanukkah 2009 - you may have noticed, because it's allowed me to do things like create a moblog (Boots on the Side) and update it from the road.

Er... if you don't have an iPhone or an iPod Touch, you might not find this post particularly useful.  So sorry.

In the almost exactly one month I've had the iPhone, I've tried out 33 apps (not to mention the ones that came with the phone, that I use all the time - like Maps).  Some of them I found useless and deleted almost immediately, and some of them I come to time and again.

Most of these are free, because I'm sort of cheap.

The applications I use most often are the social media ones, which allow me to keep in touch with friends and keep up with news while I'm out and about.

• Facebook, of course!  Don't forget, you can be a fan of the blog there, too.
• Tweetdeck - are we following each other on Twitter?
• Gowalla: This is sort of an online scavenger hunt that allows you to check in at spots around town while collecting objects.  It's lots of fun, as long as you don't let it take you away from the people you're physically there with!  If you'd like to be my Gowalla friend, I'm here.

Then, there are the apps I use for blogging.

• Typepad's app lets me update any of our blogs from the road, though I usually just email posts to the moblogging email address, which seems easier.  This app does let me edit posts, though, which email doesn't let me do.  There are similar apps available for other blogging platforms, like Wordpress.
• Flickr.  I LOVE the flickr app!  I can upload pictures from my phone, or easily email Flickr pictures to people.
• Best Camera.  Not technically a blogging app, but Best Camera really extends which iPhone pictures I feel comfortable blogging by making them look, well, better than the ones straight out of the phone.  I'll run pictures through here before uploading them to our moblog, if I have time!  It's $2.99, but I think it's worth it.

There are also informational apps that I find myself referencing often.

• IMDB has a great app that lets you look up movie showtimes in your area, quickly access reviews, and see box office revenues.  It also has a television component and even a doodad that shows you which stars were born today.
• I also use Wikipanion a ton: - basically, it's just quick access to a mobile-formatted version of Wikipedia, but it also lets you jump around the site easily.  I only have the free version, which seems like plenty.
• Yelp's app is nice, but not quite as useful as the actual site, for finding interesting restaurants nearby wherever you are.  It's especially good when traveling, as is the next app:
• Urbanspoon.  I think my favorite thing about this app is how easy Urbanspoon makes it to find blog posts about particular restaurants.  I tend to trust blog posts more than individual Yelp reviews, though not always!

And travel apps!  Or apps for planning travel.

• Kayak's  free app lets you easily search for plane tickets all over the world, as well as hotels and car rentals.  When I get bored, I love planning trips to odd places.  Upgrading to the paid app lets you search for 1st class and business flights.
• Southwest's app (also free: ) not only lets you search for tickets anywhere Southwest flies, you can also have it push fare alerts for routes you're interested in to your phone.  This lets you know right away if that flight to Portland has suddenly become affordable.  You can also check in for Southwest flights online, which is pretty sweet.  
• The Currency app  lets you track just how weakly the dollar has been performing against your choice of currencies.  I have it set for the Euro, the Pound, and the Yen right now.  All depressing.
• The Kindle app lets me read all the books on my Kindle, even if I've forgotten my ereader at home.  And I think it counts as a travel app, since there are more and more travel guides available for it.  And even if you don't have a Kindle, you can still use the app to buy and read books on your iPhone!
• And don't forget the Google Earth app!  Hours of fun for your five year old nephew.

I don't know whether to call these next two fun apps or shopping apps.  I've never used RedLaser for anything but fun, though if you were a powershopper this would be a seriously empowering app.

• ShopShop is another free app (I hate paying for apps!) that lets me write out my grocery list and then put satisfying red lines through items when I've picked them up.  I've used it a couple of times and love it.  I know there are more powerful grocery shopping apps out there that let you track pricing, plan out the store, blah blah blah, but I don't think those are necessary for me just yet.
• RedLaser uses your iPhone's camera to scan bar codes and then gives you pricing for the item you've scanned both online or in nearby stores.  Fun for seeing how much of a markup you've paid on your bottle of wine.  

And then purely fun apps, the kind that make me happy there are people out there writing code like this.

• Shazam!  When there's a song playing (as long as the background noise isn't too loud) that I simply MUST know, I use Shazam.
• Battery Magic lets me see just how much charge I actually have in my phone.  Can I really play FloodIt for the next hour, without my phone dying?  Why, yes!
• Flood-It.  What a wonderful, yet completely frustrating game.  I still haven't graduated from the tiny board yet.

Dang, I somehow ended up with a list of 20 apps that I use just about daily.  And a post that took considerably longer to write than I thought it would.  Crazy iTunes links!

Though these are my current favorites, I'm totally open to and excited about finding new apps.  Apple's Genius is pretty good for that, though it keeps wanting me to download a bunch of instant messenger apps.  But of course, the best recommendations come from people who've actually been using the application in question.

So, alla y'alls, are there any apps you'd recommend for me?  If any spring to mind, please drop us a line in the comments or by email.  

And I'm already starting on a new apps post for next month.  In fact, I just downloaded Wallace and Gromit 1: the W files, which was a free e-comic.     Dun dun dun.... (cymbals crash).

Aviary, Austin TX - Home Decor and/or Wine

Last month, we stupidly tried to go see a movie at the Alamo Drafthouse South Lamar without buying our tickets ahead of time.  "Hey," we said, in the manner of morons, "The Fantastic Mr. Fox has been open for three weeks!  Surely," we continued, while chewing our cud like particularly dumb cows, "Surely, the 7:00 show on a Saturday won't be SOLD OUT, not at one of the most popular theaters in TOWN."

And guess what?  Sold out!  Who woulda guessed?  So we bought tickets for the 10:00 screening and retreated to the Highball to ruminate over how to occupy ourselves for three hours.

Over passable Manhattans, we talked about options in the neighborhood.  That's when we remembered the wonderful Victoria at La Boîte (another place we desperately need to revisit and blog) telling us about the brand new wine bar at a home decor store a few blocks away called Aviary.

So down the street we went. I've never been in a wine bar that sells decorative pillows and lovely furniture, or for that matter, a home decor store with a bar selling intriguing wines from Argentina and beers from Alsace.  But now that I've been to one, I highly recommend others follow Aviary's lead.  

The store is supercool, selling all sorts of little knickknacks and beautiful things for people with homes in need of decoration.  They also have a huge collection of those awesome bags by Harveys made from recycled seatbelts, which I would totally have a collection of if I had money falling from my ears.

And of course the place has a cute little bar right in the middle.  And if the bar is full, you can sit in one of the other seating areas on stylish chairs that are, incidentally, for sale.  I asked Logan to peruse the beer and wine menu while I took a look around.

Aviary has a small selection of beer and wine for sale, along with plates of charcuterie made by Daniel Hunt of A Noble Beast.  Daniel just so happened to be there that night, and we chatted with him for a while about his preserved meats.  He sources only locally, from places like Richardson Farms (who is popping up more and more, it seems) and Sebastian at Countryside Farms.  His business is brand new, and I wish him well!

Actual Charcuterie after the jump:

Blogkeeping Notes

Happy Monday!

While I work on some pictures to be blogged over the next few days (I have pics from Aviary, Odd Duck Farm to Trailer, G'Raj Mahal, the Carillon, the Soup Peddler, Gonzales Food Market, Swad, Sarovar, Fortune Chinese Seafood, the Highball, and FINO, not to mention like twenty other places here in Austin, and oh yeah Luke, Cure, and Huevos in New Orleans, HOLY GARGLEGAAAAAH BLOGGING PANIC ATTACK) I wanted to direct your attention to a couple of new things I've done to the blog recently.

First, because Austin is suddenly this city with a super-vibrant and delicious trailer cuisine culture, I've put our food trailer reviews into their own category.  We're very lucky here to be able to get just about any food we'd like from a trailer, from tacos with lengua to Momofuku-inspired pork belly buns, with stops in between for bacon-topped doughnuts and fish curries from Goa.  From now on, our visits to Austin's trailers will be found here: Food Trailers of Austin: from tacos to tongue buns. (oops - link fixed.)

Also, this is something you guys may have already seen since we've had some signups, but I'd like to draw your attention to the "enter your email" box on the upper right-hand corner of your screen.  This is a service provided by google's Feedburner that allows you to get our posts as an email digest the night they're published, if you so desire.  We'd had several requests for something like this, and I can attest from personal experience that it's working well and will not get you sent a bunch of spam.

Signup is simple - just enter your address, and you'll get a confirmation email.  Respond to the email, and that's it!  Boots, straight to your inbox.  Damn, we're fancy.

OK, all, back to work!  Or errands!  Or catching up on your daytime TV!  In my case, I'm going to put the computer down for a second and run to the grocery store.  Then back to my sea of photos!

Los Huaraches, Austin: Huaraches R Us

This is what happens when I spend time editing and organizing pictures!  It's amazing how quickly they build up when you photograph most everything you eat, you know?  I already have this computer down from 3,500 pics (since we bought it just before the Hawaii trip at the end of August) to 2,983, so - yay?

While I was editing, I found some pictures I really like from a meal we ate back in November during the East Austin Studio Tour.  They brought the memories right back.

Los Huaraches is a dingy dive over on East Cesar Chavez.  On walking in, I was expecting their menu would be limited to huaraches.  The word is used to mean a particular type of Mexican sandal, but here more deliciously refers to a flattened masa oval topped with your choice of meat, then lettuce, avocado, tomato, and sour cream.  It's sort of like a sope (which we fell in love with at Taqueria la Canaria), but here at least the masa shell was thinner.  

Of course, Logan knew immediately what he wanted to order: Huaraches, duh.

I took a little more time dithering, because that's what I do.  Lots of dishes on the menu looked tasty, and everything was super cheap. 

Some actual huaraches after the jump:

Spartan Pizza (Trailer), Austin

Let's say you really have a hankering to eat at a trailer tonight or this weekend, but then you look at the mercury and hey!  IT'S 14 FREAKING DEGREES OUTSIDE!  WHERE DO WE LIVE, MINNESOTA?  I DID NOT GO THROUGH 68 DAYS OF 100-DEGREE PLUS TEMPERATURES ALL LAST SUMMER SO I COULD BE G$%^%$N COLD DURING THE WINTER!

OK, composure.  I know it could be way worse.  For one thing, we don't have an ice storm predicted, which frankly is an enormous relief.  

So, back to my original point, which in case you forgot is: you want to eat at a trailer, but it's way too cold outside.  Well, friends, may I ask you to consider Spartan Pizza?

Yes, it's true you will have to stand outside to order (unless you plan ahead and call in your order on the way down), but then you can move your freezing self over to the nice warm Red Shed Tavern (also on Facebook), where you can order a beer and wait for one of Spartan Pizza's friendly owners to deliver you your trailer pizza.  While you stay warm.

And this isn't just any pizza.  Jeremy, Nicole, and Kelly have come up with some truly interesting combinations on their pizzas if you're feeling like something a little out of the ordinary.  For instance, how about a Pegasus pie, with cilantro pesto, buffalo chicken, red onion, banana peppers, and blue cheese?

When we visited back in December, we had the eponymous Spartan pizza, which is a little tamer.  Tomato sauce, crunchy green bell pepper and white onion, fresh garlic, and red pepper flakes.  Yum.  

We were totally surprised by the quality of the pizza, too.  Look at those crust bubbles!  Now THAT is a welcome pizza on a freezing day like today.  This is the 10 inch pizza, but you can also order a 14-incher.

So, do not despair, lovers of trailer food!  The kind folks at Spartan Pizza are ready to pizza you up!  (Is that a saying?)  And their menu is even available online on their website, so you can plan out your order ahead of time - or even call in when you're on your way down, so you barely have to get out of your car.  

Let me know if you try the Apollo (roasted garlic spread, spinach, mushrooms, artichokes, kalamata olives, herbed ricotta cheese) because it is TOTALLY next on my list.

Spartan Pizza (also on Facebook) and the wonderfully welcoming Red Shed Tavern are located (way) south at 8504 S. Congress.  If you'd like to call your pizza order in ahead of time, dial 512.484.0798.  Spartan is currently closed Sunday and Monday - hours on their pdf menu.