Poco-Cocoa – Page 170 – Things & Stuff

Austin Restaurant Week: Parkside

Okay, first of all, we’ve just moved in to our lovely little home! So everything (including my brain) is quite scattered. Justin and I actually moved all of our belongings by ourselves. We’re so exhausted! This morning I woke up and looked at the clock and couldn’t figure out how to tell time. I actually counted the marks on the clock to figure out what time it was. Tired brain = no common sense.

Anyway, we were able to splurge a little tonight on a lovely dinner at Parkside. I know I’ve mentioned before how much I love Parkside, but it bears repeating. We went with some friends for Restaurant Week, and had a great time. It was “Martini Monday,” where everything in a martini glass is just $4. We tried talking them into pouring wine into a martini glass for the discount, but that didn’t work. 😉

Justin and I shared everything – this way we were able to taste more menu items! We started with the raw bar tasting and the calamari. The raw bar tasting consisted of three gorgeous oysters with the appropriate dipping sauces (cocktail sauce, horseradish, lemon) and a small glass of raw salmon tossed with pineapple and jalapeno. The oysters were so fresh and delicious… they tasted like the ocean itself. The salmon was incredibly good… sweet and spicy. The calamari was perfectly battered and fried, tiny rings and tentacles seasoned with salt and paprika, and served with aioli.

Next up were the entrees…I had the ricotta ravioli, which was excellent. The ravioli were tender and mild, tossed with fresh herbs and gorgeous mushrooms. Justin had the flounder, which was topped with capers and was also quite delicious.

Of course dessert was wonderful, too… Justin opted for the doughnut holes… it’s just not a complete visit to Parkside without the doughnut holes. They come served in a tiny brown paper sack, dusted with cinnamon sugar with three dipping sauces: bourbon cream, apple butter and butterscotch. I had the peanut butter-chocolate terrine, layered with phyllo dough and served with banana ice cream and peanut brittle. This. Was. Amazing. I probably would have licked the plate if I wasn’t in public.

We only made it to two restaurants for Restaurant Week – with moving from one side of Austin to the other, we’ve been quite busy and extremely tired. Even so, it was fun to get out and try something new, for a fairly low price. It was a great experience!

March 9, 2009

Austin, Edibles
Austin Restaurant Week: Jeffrey’s

Tonight was our first night to enjoy the low-cost wonder that is Austin Restaurant Week. We’ve made several reservations during the next two weeks to take advantage of high-class meals for a measly $35 each. Now if we can keep from ordering cocktails and wine and coffees, we can actually stay within our budget! Good luck to us.

We made reservations for two at Jeffrey’s this evening, and we were seated promptly when we arrived. We ordered wine (the Tolosa Chardonnay – Edna Valley 2005 for me at $10/glass, and the Esoterica Petit Verdot High Valley-Lake County 2004 for Justin at $9/glass), and both my white and Justin’s red were delicious. I was so excited that my wine was ice-cold… I prefer my white wine to be as cold as can be.

We were brought rosemary bread, fruity olive oil, and a flavored compound butter to nibble on while we waited for our food. We were also presented with a teeny tiny plate covered with a teeny tiny silver dome, an amuse bouche of deep-fried carrot-coconut-ginger soup. I have no idea how the chef encapsulated a liquid soup into a ball of batter, but it was very interesting. The burst of soup when you popped the tiny ball in your mouth was fun, and the soup was full of coconut and ginger flavor, but I felt the batter was lacking flavor.

For my first course, I chose the Crispy Bone Marrow, sauteed bone marrow with house-made pickles, fine herb salad, house-made Dijon mustard and salsa verde served with toasted thinly sliced bread. The marrow was creamy and delicious, and was perfect with a bit of salsa verde and a bite of pickle.

Justin started with the Southern Style Oysters, which were breaded with sesame and thyme and served on “bacon royale” with a house-dried tomato vinaigrette. These were crunchy and smooth, and Justin really enjoyed them.

Next up for me was the Marinated and Baked Halibut Cheeks, on sweet pea glacage, with celery remoulade and pea-mushroom relish. This was interesting to me… a bit on the sour side, and the remoulade was a bit too mustardy. The halibut cheeks were surprisingly chewy, but the peas were perfectly fresh. It was a mish mash of good and just okay. It did have one glorious bite of pork belly, though, which of course made me very happy.

Justin feasted on the Burgundy Pastures Short Ribs, served with caramelized potato galette, persillade and a grilled date salad. The short ribs were tender and tasty, and the dates added a nice sweetness on the side.

My favorite part of the meal was dessert. I ordered the Inverted Coke Float with Pineapple “Fries.” This came with a small glass of Coke sorbet topped with creme anglaise, and it was so amazingly good. Imagine a Coke-flavored Icee that’s just a bit over-frozen, and top it with a smooth, creamy vanilla sauce. I nearly finished it, and the serving was pretty large. Then there were the pineapple fries. These were strips of fresh pineapple, batter-dipped and fried, and served with three dipping sauces: butter-rum, cherry-wasabi, and coconut-curry. Surprising and tasty, but not as good as the Coke float.

Justin tried the Meyer Lemon Crepe Dumplings with burnt caramel bay leaf ice cream and blackberry brandy sauce. These were also very tasty, though his serving was much smaller than mine. By this time he was full, though, so it didn’t matter much. We ended the evening with cappuccino and cafe au lait.

I’m glad we finally got to try Jeffrey’s for dinner… we’ve both been there for different work occasions, but never just for dinner in the dining room. I think we’ll definitely be back for happy hour, when appetizers are half-off at the bar, but we probably won’t rush back for dinner soon. It was a good meal, but not a fantastic one. Still, at $35 each, it was worth it… the short ribs alone are $35 on the regular menu.

Tomorrow, we’re off to Aquarelle!

March 2, 2009

Austin, Edibles
Just for fun

I’ve been having fun creating little updates for my blog, which you can find in the sidebar on the right. Basically, sometimes I don’t have time or energy for a full post, and so I fiddle with small things. I know that many of you are internet-saavy and have probably already perused these doo-dads, but I wanted to note these changes for my mama and others who might be reading. 🙂

From top to bottom:

Twitter
What I’m doing, in brief, usually updated daily.

Goodreads
The most recent books I’ve read. Click on the GoodReads link and you can see books I’m currently reading and books I want to read.

Flickr
The most recent photos uploaded to my Flickr page. I don’t update this as often as I’d like.

Movies I’ve been watching
The four most recent films I’ve watched, with links to their imbd.com pages.

Eating and drinking lately
Recent meals or snacks or other interesting foodstuffs that may not make it to a full post.

Under the heading poco-cocoa stuff:

Music I love
A playlist updated semi-regularly of songs I’m currently listening to. What I like about this playlist is that you can actually listen to all the songs in full, for free.

My Daily Mugshot
I haven’t been doing this as religiously lately, but usually this is a daily photo of yours truly. You can view this as a Mugshow, which will flip through the photos continuously, or in Mosaic View, where you can enlarge each photo as you go.

February 28, 2009

Random Thoughts
Hamburger Macaroni
I’ve been drooling over this Hamburger and Macaroni post for ages, and finally, finally, I decided to actually make the darn dish. I LOVED it. It’s simple and all-American and hearty and delicious.

Of course I changed a few things, which are reflected below. I served it topped with some grated cheese, steamed broccoli and simple roasted sweet potatoes (just tossed with a bit of olive oil, salt, and freshly ground pepper and popped in the oven for a bit). As with any pasta dish, I liked this best the night I made it… by the next day the pasta was soggier, but still delicious.

I used to make something like this that we absolutely loved, but somehow I’ve lost the recipe. It was called something like American Goulash, and it was from Mr. Food’s short-lived magazine. If any of you ever run across that recipe, please send it my way! I think it was less healthy… I seem to remember some Velveeta in there.

Did I tell you all that I got on A on my first organic chemistry test? I’m pretty excited about that… and I’ve allowed myself a whole week without studying. So tomorrow night (Sunday is my study day), it’s back to the books. But today, I’m all about getting outside in the nice cool weather (before it’s back at 82 degrees, as it has been all week), making up a grocery list, and watching more Lost. We’ve never watched it before, and Justin and I have now seen the first five episodes of Season One. We’re liking it! Just don’t tell me what happens. 🙂

Hamburger and Macaroni
- 1/2 pound lean ground beef
- 1/2 yellow onion, diced
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1/2 teaspoon seasoning of your choice (I used some Mrs. Dash)
- Dash crushed red pepper
- 1/2 teaspoon celery seed
- 1 (28-ounce) can diced tomatoes with garlic and onion
- 1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
- 1/4 cup chopped parsley
- 8 ounces uncooked whole wheat shells or macaroni
Cook the pasta according to package directions.

In a large skillet over medium heat, cook ground beef and onion until beef is cooked through and onion is softened. Drain the fat off. Add salt, seasoning, red pepper, celery seed, diced tomatoes and Worcestershire sauce. Bring to a simmer and cook for 5 – 10 minutes. Stir in pasta and parsley.

Makes 4 – 6 servings.

Adapted from Simply Recipes.
February 28, 2009

Recipes
Salmon on sale
So Central Market is the best grocery store EVER. Not only do they send me coupons in the mail for things like “$10 off produce” or “$10 off fresh sausages” or “1 pound Atlantic salmon for free,” they also have the nicest employees.

Case in point: Sunday I was moseying through “protein alley” (as the employees refer to the meat section) when I noticed blueberries in my cart. I didn’t put blueberries in my cart. So I asked around, hoping to find the owner of the blueberries, but no luck. I left them there, intending to put them back in the produce section later, and continued shopping. Somewhere in the dairy aisle I reached for my purse, which was sitting in my basket (I know, I know, lesson learned). And my purse wasn’t there. And I realized that all this time, I was pushing someone else’s cart.

So I hurried over to the catering desk and frantically told them my dilemma, and they sent me to the customer service desk, where several employees calmed me down and immediately spread out and searched the store for my basket. One manager stayed with me the whole time, pushing my basket and staying in contact with the other managers while I wrung my hands and fretted. We did find my basket, and my purse… the woman I had switched baskets with got all the way to the cashier before she realized that my purse (and my avocados, and my bell pepper) were in her basket. So we switched produce and I was happily on my way. With my purse on my shoulder.

So yay for Central Market and nice people who return purses!

Anyway, I got a pound of salmon for free this Sunday. And so I decided to try one of Nigel Slater’s recipes from his food memoir/cookbook The Kitchen Diaries. These salmon cakes are so delicious. I served them with thick plain yogurt with fresh dill stirred in, and roasted potatoes and carrots. I highly recommend trying this recipe, and shopping at Central Market. 🙂

Salmon and Dill Cakes
- 1 pound salmon, skinned and finely chopped
- 1 large egg white
- 1 small bunch dill, finely chopped
- 1 tablespoon flour
- 1/2 teaspoon mustard
- Juice of 1/2 lemon
- Salt and freshly ground black pepper
- Olive oil
Beat the egg white a bit until frothy. Mix in a large bowl with the salmon, dill, flour, mustard, lemon juice, and a bit of salt and black pepper. Form salmon mixture into about 8 patties.

Heat oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Place the salmon patties in the pan (probably in two batches) and cook for about 3 minutes, or until the underside is golden. Flip the patties over and cook 3 minutes more, or until underside is golden and salmon is cooked through (check by cutting into one with a knife).

Serve with lemon wedges and some thick yogurt mixed with fresh dill.

Makes 3 – 4 servings.

Adapted from The Kitchen Diaries by Nigel Slater.
February 24, 2009

Austin, Recipes

Austin Restaurant Week: Parkside

Austin Restaurant Week: Jeffrey’s

Just for fun

Hamburger Macaroni

Salmon on sale