How do you batter...?

Here's some advice I learned from a not so recent trip to San Antonio.

"How do you batter your mushrooms/pickles?"

This can be one of the best assessments of the burger place you are about to try out. If the best judgement of an Asian restaurant is their rice, then the best judge of a burger place is how it treats its sides.

Walking into one burger place, and looking at the menu, I wanted to try out their fried mushrooms, but Frederick was quick to stop me saying "this place? Fried mushrooms? (whispering) they probably come off of the back of a truck." I asked the girl at the counter "how do you batter your fried mushrooms?" She responded "they come prebattered." I went with the fries instead even though they probably came precut. How did this reflect on the burger? The meat was finely ground and we assumed, came as a pre-formed patty. Mine didn't taste bad, but it's a matter of quality. The burger was also a little on the greasy side.

A few trips later, I asked the batter question to the counter girl at one of my usual SA haunts and get the reply "we dip them in butermilk and dredge them in flour." That is a much better answer. Needless to say, the burger was well made and not a greasy meat sponge.

Email me if you want to know the first place, but I'll say that the second place was Sam's Burger Joint.

Cuban Sandwich Cafe

Salam and Mabuhay to the most commonly viewing countries for this week (not including the US). Now, onto a major pork sandwich. 

"I'm foreseeing a future of colorectal cancer." This sandwich here is my magic ball. Among other interesting but off topic ideas, it's not hard to predict the future from your diet, but for obvious reasons, I think most Americans would not find that fun.

Frederick and I decided to try the Cuban Sandwich Cafe near Longspur and Rutland. It tasted good and was amply seasoned but I think I've altered my palette too much to find something like this enjoyable. I finished it out of obligation, but I feel like I gave up a month of my life for this. I should be wary of a sandwich that has both ham and pork on it, but being Filipino, I'm naturally attracted to anything that describes itself as lechon. This sandwich had more meat on it than anything else. It could have stood to have more pickles or something close to a vegetable.

Now, I'm not saying this wasn't good. And I can't gauge authenticity either, but I am almost virtually a vegetarian writing about a Cuban Sandwich. The bread was good and I wish there were more pickles. My suggestion for trying this would be to share a sandwich.

Wait for it...

First off, semalat pagi and sawatdii kha for the majority of this weeks visitors!  My main advice, if you come to Austin TX from Thailand, Indonesia, or Malaysia: eat and enjoy your mangosteen and rambutan there as the imported things really are not as good quality - especially the mangosteen. 

I've been working full time for the past year pretty much. Currently I work from home which is nice, but I lack the ability to escape from work and when that is combined with my workaholic tendencies, life gets exhausting pretty fast. Anyway, I've discovered a new tidbit:

I generally like eating at the same places and getting the same dishes generally because I know they're good but also as a gauge of consistency. Given this, I was really surprised one night at Opal Divines when I had a remarkably good serving of fish & chips. 

Fish & chips is my default pub food. Usually it is the first thing I'll try. What made this an occasion was that I have had the fish & chips before and did not remember it being as pleasant, but more along the lines of greasy and bready. I had gone back again during lunch time on a Wednesday, ordered the fish & chips and got fish that felt like they were encased in hush-puppy. I ABHOR hush-puppies. I'm pretty sure the day cooking staff is different from the night cooking staff, possibly even the week staff may be different from the weekend staff. After coming to the conclusion that the chef who makes the excellent fish & chips most probably worked weekend evenings, I decided to try a fish sandwich on a Saturday night. It was the same - light batter, flaky, and lightly fish flavored. To get good fish & chips, I have to wait until the weekend evenings. 

Maybe it's the anticipation that enhances the experience, or just the thought of knowing "limited time window this week (every week)" for the good fish & chips. It's really not too different from seasonal fruit if you think about it. Fado's has a good fish & chips too, but the trade off would be time and paying for parking downtown. 

I think the general message is that there's always a sacrifice when it comes to good food. This is a sentiment echoed in Dan Barber's Surprising Parable about Foie Gras. which reflects on the origins of foie gras. One could assume that initially fois gras was a seasonal thing before it's industrialization due to increased demand, that geese naturally ate more and fattened up during a certain time of the year. Citrus tastes more tart in the summer, and berries are rather sour in the fall and winter. Is it really that much of a sacrifice to wait to eat something when it is at it's best? Impermanence is something to be taken advantage of rather than changed to suit our needs. It leaves something to appreciate rather than something to take for granted.    

Mangosteen in Austin?

Heck yeah!

So, the MT Supermarket and Hana World Market have been selling these for a while now. Since they keep getting them, I have to assume people buy them. I've been suspicious though because I know how far these things need to fly to get to the US. On top of that, they need to be quarantined for a period of time as well. I figured that I may as well try them. They were my favorite fruit back the Philippines. I remember that they had to be soft enough to be pressed apart, so, in a move of sheer jerk-dom, I pressed a few of them to see if they would split, and they DID! I got excited and then quickly unexcited as the price per lb is $6.99 making each bag about $13-$14 :(  

You can crush them between your palms or between your fingers, the hard outer rind will crack like above. 

When you pull the rind apart, you get to the segments in the middle. You just pick them out and eat them. Compared to the fresh ones, they were a little gummier, and gooier. Not bad. The flavor is not quite how I remember, they tasted like blend of a grape and a banana when I remember them being more like grapes. It could just be the lag time. Fresh is always better. These were not bad, but not worth $14 either.

#31: Uchi...a learning experience

I just reviewed my eating experience at Uchi on Yelp.

I don't know what I was expecting to get out of it. Perhaps I came in with an already biased opinion because of how many people rave about it and how my flavor palette doesn't always agree with that of the general public.

I could rely on the ingredients being high quality. I could also count on them wanting me to eat a bunch of things at once to achieve a kind of flavor bouquet. Pork belly, because pork belly is trendy.

For a moment, I just came to the conclusion that I didn't like Japanese food as much as other kinds, after all, I'm Filipino (Bataan Death March people!!), I like Korean, Chinese, Thai, and Vietnamese food - so either SE Asian food or food from countries disposed to hating the Japanese. One thing that sticks out from this assumption is my liking of Niki's Tokyo Inn in San Antonio, TX. It's hole in the wall and very traditional.

Sushi had an original concept. It was fast food originally and in modern times, it's gone on steroids. Most of the time it feels like something you have to wait a long time for and pay a lot more for since it's gone over a crazy American makeover.

#30 Austin on the Cheap

I have not been eating out as much lately. I'm making a big effort to bash down my credit card bills before they start charging interest, so eating out has not been too much of an option. Just when it is a special occasion.

I've been living on a ramen diet. It's not so bad as I make ramen according to these specifications. I shop at the MT Market now more than ever. A lot of the things that I eat most often are just cheaper there, the best example being fresh shitake mushrooms. The Chinatown square is a real life saver for those who have to live on the cheap. My latest intake: Banh Mi. I feel like I'm getting a good dose of all the food groups when I eat a Vietnamese sandwich. I generally get annoyed buying sandwiches when I know nearly all of the ingredients are far below the cost of the sandwich, but at $3.50 a pop, I don't feel too shabby. What makes it so fab over the average sandwich? I'd be lying if I didn't say price, but also fresh crunchy ingredients, none of the average meat and cheese taste, and overall just a really awesome flavor. Go Baguette House!!