Sardines Around Austin

Here are two of my absolute most favorite blogs EVAR:

Society for the Appreciation of the Lowly Tinned Sardine

and

Mouth Full of Sardines

I love sardines and to anyone in the Austin, TX area who wants to expand their tinned sardine palette, here's where to go for some of the brands mentioned on the blogs above. I'm only noting the ones that got decent ratings. As I write this, I still need to scope out the stock at


Walmart
World Market

but other than that, find, eat and enjoy

HEB
- King Oscar
- Crown Prince Boneless and Skinless
- Beach Cliff (the hot sauce one is really good with avocado)
- Ligo in the Asian section (I know these weren't highly rated, but they appeal to my Filipino sensibilities and are good when cooked)

Specs Liquor & Gourmet Foods
- Roland
- Bela Olhao
- Wild Planet (personal fave)

They're good on carrying a lot of varieties within brands and these are the constant brands I've observed, but I've seen Haddon House before and their website (Specs) shows a lot in terms of variety so the inventory may differ slightly from store to store.

Asahi Imports
- Nissui
- Iwashi

Sasha's Russian Gourmet Market
-Riga

They had more brands, but I was on a Riga mission so I didn't remember the rest.

Sur La Table
-Matiz Gallego


Big Lots
-Ocean Prince Boneless and Skinless in oil (make sure the box reads boneless and skinless, for some reason other ocean prince sardine products don't rank well. I know their kippers taste a little on the medicinal side.)
-Nice: Boneless and Skinless


Go out, eat and enjoy. If you're curious, Whole Foods, and Central Market didn't have much to offer in terms of different brands, both offered Bar Harbor and Central Market had Season. Best selections so far were Specs and HEB.

UPDATE (03/22/2013):

Natural Grocer
Wild Planet (cheaper than at Specs and it's RIGHT NEXT DOOR!)
Raincoast Trading
Crown Prince Wild Caught

Down South an Hour or So

Howdy people interested in Austin. I'll admit I've jumped ship and started a blog about San Antonio. I think most of the people in Austin know that there's usually junk to do in Austin but I haven't come across a blog dedicated to San Antonio the way I have other cities. Everyone knows that Austin is a pretty cool place and it's not hard to find something around the corner. My boyfriend's coworkers usually sigh with boredom over having to go to San Antonio because there's nothing to do when he and I manage to always find something to do. Also, I love San Antonio.

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!!

#29: Menudo-ed Out

So, I've been teaching. This has been my first year and apparently this blog got a case of "Summer Blogging." "Summer Blogging happened so fast..., summer blogging thought it would last..." Yeah.

Anyway, as a result of my new work schedule, I'm use to waking up really early. I can wake up at about 8:00am like it's nothing...on a Saturday! Well, I decided this morning to go to my awesome breakfast place: Mi Victoria Bakery.

The awesome thing about places with the word "bakery" in them is that if you get there early in the morning, it smells awesome since things are still baking. Mi Victoria is also one of the few places I know that actually sells menudo on weekends. I just needed my one fix for the year, because truthfully, even if my mom's version of menudo is not as authentic, I still like it better. There's a good proportion of meat, hominy, and tripe. The one I had today had tons of tripe and very little hominy. I was also thinking of my weight loss plan, so seriously, I'm done with menudo for the year.

Among other things, previously I've alluded to Tan My as being the most awesome pho place. That was until I read an article about Pho Dan. I came to the conclusion that being Filipino, I don't know much about authentic Vietnamese food, I just know what tastes good. Tan My and Pho Dan taste really good, but I defer to Pho Dan. Since they're both good, I have to go for the authentic one, that's what gives it the edge. The broth has flavors that are not overpowered by saltiness and I'm a broth kind of person. Also, Pho Dan is closer to where I live. Vermicelli bowl wise, they're both about the same for me.

#28: Hello again

I haven't eaten for the past few months. What's sad is that statement is half true. Teaching consumes a lot of my time, but I find that there's also a need to de-stress and that's partially what my blogs are for. I'm still in Austin. I still eat in Austin.

Here are some places that will need postings:

Tan My - Best Pho place ever
Uncle Billy's Brew & Cue - 2nd visit
Whole Foods - Awesome Brisket & soups
Asia Cafe - I've never said anything about eating here?
Cupprimo - Better than Nyquil
Hey Cupcake - Crack in the cream cheese icing
Little Deli and Pizzeria - The best
Hop Doddy - Oily love
Mighty Fine - a chain worth eating at
Antoinelli's Cheese Shop - I'm jealous
Mei Lien Bistro - as long as you can't smell the smoke
Buco di Beppo - Kid's lasagne with a glass of wine
Mandola's - I'll take an Orange Gyna
The Upper Crust Bakery - really? I haven't talked about this place either?
Mi Victory Bakery - Menudo on weekends!
Torchy's Tacos - it's open late. Butter in the barbacoa
Billy's on Burnet - overpriced beer, awesomely memorable burger

Just a reminder

Every Friday at the MT Market.

In pursuit of bunly goodness

I love buns. I'm a bun woman. There is really no place in Austin to get fresh pork buns. It's a damn shame, and it's the only credit I give to Houston and their pretty awesome Chinatown.

I was at the MT Market this most recent Friday, oh and I should mention that as of late they've been having fresh rambutan and pitaya on Fridays - go and enjoy it before it stops coming. Fridays are awesome since they have fruit, fresh crustaceans, and a surplus of cakes come in.

One of the reasons why I can spend an exorbitant amount of time in grocery stores is the food talks. "I came from Brazil" "Mangosteen doesn't travel well." And most importantly, "this cake came from Lucky Bakery at 9616 N. Lamar." That was the most surprising information. Normally, the coconut leaf cake (half green, half white) comes from the Hong Kong Supermarket in Houston. It was very surprising to see a local place. There was also more variety, not limited to sweet buns and cakes, but also pork buns. I had to check out this place. For one thing, you never know how long buns have been sitting at the MT Market, if I have the opportunity to go to this bakery and get some fresh pork buns, I will.

I should really take down directions to new places, all I remember was that it was past E. Rundberg. I ended up wasting a lot of gas going up and down a stretch of Lamar only to eventually walk into the MT Market to look at a piece of cake to get the address.

What did I find? Selection is kind of small. But of what the Lucky Bakery does have, it all tastes good. While I could spend all day comparing here and Houston, there's not much I can do about it. Lucky Bakery has the Chinese Bakery monopoly in Austin currently.

#26: The schmucks at Google Maps

It really sucks to be the restaurant that happens to be located right next to one of the top restaurants in the city. Of course, I'm referring to Dynasty Chinese Restaurant which happens to be in the same strip mall as Asia Cafe.

It's like being the average girl that's friends with the hot chick. You have to do waaayyyyy more to get attention.

Today happens to be my sister's birthday and she requested eggplant with garlic sauce from Asia Cafe. My brother-in-law calls in to make the order only to find out later at Asia Cafe that they didn't have an order for him. He shows them the number that he called and it turned out to be the number for Dynasty. Dang! The situation was not cool on so many levels.

Moral of the story: don't put all your faith in Google Maps when it comes to looking up phone numbers.

#25: Why Austin rocks

I'm in Dallas right now. I was trying to find a grocery store earlier and having strong ties to Austin and San Antonio, my first inclination was to search for an HEB. What sucks about my current location is that the nearest HEB is 32 MILES AWAY!!! Pardon me, but WTF?

Next, I resorted to Yelp since it can be pretty useful in these situations. I'll admit, before I was always wondering why people would review simple places such as HEB, or any other regular grocery store. Seriously, I never saw a point in it because it was so common place, but now that I think about it, not all HEBs are created equal, likewise, not all grocery stores are created equal. HEB trumps Albertsons, Kroger, Tom Thumb, and Randalls. There's more overall selection. The produce quality is better. And the prices are much better. Back to Yelp, as a result of the lack of, what I would've considered over-Yelping. WHERE MAH AUSTIN YELPERS AT? Austin's Yelp scene is considerably more fleshed out. Thank You Austin.

#24: Pork Belly

I was at Central Market today looking for pork belly. I was going to attempt to grill it to make my ideal bacon steak...thing. Central market had pork belly, they just had to get it from the freezer (minus 1). After that, I started lurking around for some kimchi only to find that Central Market's Asian section is not as extensive and some of the other regular HEBs.

I ended up going to the MT mart to get my kimchi and then realized that I probably could have gotten better quality pork belly there too given the nature of the task I was going to use it for (minus 1 for me).

If you need pork belly, go to the Asian market.

#23: right-hand man

Truthfully, I haven't been going out much. Last time I went out to eat was, yep, you guessed it, crabs. I can only elaborate on the pleasures of eating crab for so long before I end up writing a manual on the pleasures of eating crab.

What has occurred to me is that there are places that I go out to eat on a pretty regular basis and I never write about them because they're so familiar to me that I don't even notice when I go there. It just happens. For instance, Kerbey Lane Cafe always slips my mind just because I'm there pretty often. It's always open when I'm hungry, and there's usually something on the menu I'll be in the mood for. I much prefer their winter menu with the boar chili and the pozole.

I've also mentioned this before, but Starseeds Cafe has a really good veggie wrap and also good vegetarian tacos. I have a feeling that their specials are no more than tv dinners, but their vegetarian fare is pretty good.

Makeup & Crabs

My sister got married 4 days ago. At this time, 4 days ago, I was dancing to "Rhythm of the Night" by El Debarge. So, I haven't been around for a while. I accept that. I also haven't eaten out at too many new places. Right now I'm addicted to crabs and makeup, so that's where my money's been going to.

Crabs have been my $10 a week habit as of late. See: Crawfish Shack. It's been good to hear that the oil is moving away from the area where they get their Blue Crab from. Silver lining? All I can say is that offshore drilling should be more heavily regulated. It's off shore for crying out loud. Think of those crabs. Please, think of the crabs.

As for makeup, that's something I can review. Lately, I've been finding that Sephora is a place where I can drop $50 real easily. When you're addicted to eyeshadow and lipstick, you can justify buying ANYTHING. Also, I'm at the development stage in my makeup usage where I'm trying to find uses for any color and I'm also developing my eyeshadow color palette. I'm not too picky, I'll pick up any cool color that looks interesting. So why pay retail for that?

Semi-recently, I wrote about the staying power of two different brands of eyeshadow and MAC won over certified organic Smashbox. Aside from eBay and having an insider at MAC, my most convenient option for reduced price MAC eyeshadow is the Cosmetics Company Store. For about $10 a pop (vs. $14.50), I can get eye shadow from previous seasons that's been discontinued or it was a part of a seasonal promotion. No, it is not defective or old, or testers for that matter. It's also very easy to find pink lipstick.

If you live in Austin, you're in luck. There happen to be TWO Cosmetics Company Stores in the outlets surrounding Austin in San Marcos and Round Rock.

When I first started messing around with makeup about 2 years ago, my cousin's boyfriend who's a makeup artist at MAC suggested that I go to Sally's Beauty Supply to get some makeup brushes to practice with before buying the more expensive ones. I was able to get a pretty nice starter set of MAC brushes at the Cosmetics Company Store for $36. Considering that some MAC brushes alone can get that high, it really isn't bad for a starter set. The cheaper prices allow me to get more for my money...it's not like I'm going to spend less anyway.

# 21: WTF Whole Foods

Sometimes, I just don't understand vegetarianism. Food...yes, to a much greater degree, but vegetarianism - not really. Let that be the disclaimer.

I understand liking animals enough not to eat them. I get that some people think eating meat is just so close to eating people, it's like cannibalism. If it's for religion reasons, fine by me.

I understand the veggie wrap at Starseeds Cafe to be a very fine specimen of of good vegetarian fare.

What I don't get is tofu stroganoff. Seriously, it's food like that that gives me the impression Whole Foods thinks vegetarians care more about the statement their food makes than how it actually tastes. For one thing, the stroganoff flavor relies on the beef a good deal. It needs meat. Why would you want something that shows you're willing to stoop to low levels to get something that's so meat like, but probably tastes like ass. I suppose in general, I just don't get meat-like vegetarian products. I understand that some people transition into the lifestyle, but in that case, if there's no appeal in meat, drop it like a bad boyfriend.

#20: It's Blackberry Season!

I feel bad in that I've been slacking in getting out the time sensitive material. Blackberry season is well underway and as such, blackberries are on sale everywhere :D!

The inspiration for this posting is my dear boyfriend who, in claiming that all the berries looked the same, brought home a rather sour pint of blackberries. I, on the other hand, examine the berries, open pints, and (if no one's looking) pick out berries to switch into other pints. It's most certainly a longer process for me. Being someone who's rather anal when it comes to produce picking, for the benefit of everyone:

+How to pick out sweet blackberries+

The main things to consider are:

color
overall berry size
globule size
globule packing

1) Color

~ Look for all black ~

blackberries with any specks of red in them are going to be more sour than the berries that are all black

2) Size

~ the bigger, the better ~

if given a choice between berries with specks of red, the bigger one will be less sour.



3) Globule Size

~ look for big and soft (right) ~

I call each little round fruit that composes a blackberry a globule. Smaller ones are more likely to be sour, uptight, and unpleasant.

4) Globule Packing

~ look for somewhat loose and soft globules ~

In conjunction with the thing to look for above, you'll find that big soft globules are highly incapable of packing as tightly as the smaller, sour, less juicy ones.

Overall, you're looking for something big, all black, and soft.

And now you should be set. I might actually regret doling out this advice since blackberries are always on sale now and I may be left with all the small sour berries if people want to go and test out their berry picking skills. Such is life. Happy berry picking!

Ugh...& Crabs

There might be an observable slow down in the output of this blog only because...bearing the brunt of being a college graduate in a recession, I really just haven't been going out as much for budgets sake. I'm saving up for a rainy day and despite the sunny days we've been having, I'm always expecting rain.

I've been thinking about crabs most of the day. For the past week, I've been contemplating going down to the Crawfish Shack and getting a pound of crawfish and a pound of crab before that mess in the gulf starts to take effect. I had their boiled crab not too long ago and it was awesome! Given that me and my sister are addicted to crab, seriously, at the Crawfish Shack it's like crack. Given my current economic situation, I'm going to have to cold turkey eating boiled crab until my sister offers to pay. (sigh)

You know you're a poor college graduate when you think "hmmm, that dollar I'd spend in the vending machine could buy me 3 apples at the grocery store." I really want to kick this recession's ass.