phoeniciansailor's Profile
Maoz coming to Triangle
Great news. I've had Maoz in Amsterdam and thought it was incredible. Can't believe my luck, having one open right here in Austin (like you say, there are only a handful in the US). Since Amsterdam I've tried making my own, with never the same good results (and too much effort). I've had falafel elsewhere in town (including Central Market, ha, ick) but none has been as crispy and hot as Maoz. Remembering back, I think that pickles and tzatziki (and carrots?) were my preferred condiments.
bjs brewery coming in march 11 to the north austin
I loved BJ's deep-dish pizzas when i was in college in San Diego back in the early 90's. Totally unhealthy, but a delicious, guilty pleasure. I guess I was eating at one of the original half-dozen or so stores, according to their web site. Maybe that's why I thought it was good (or maybe it was simply better than eating on-campus; or maybe it was because I only knew Round Table and DiGiorno for comparison). I actually ate at the same San Diego store again, maybe 6 years ago, and still enjoyed the deep-dish pizza.
I recall mostly pizzas on the menu, not the smorgasbord I see on their web site now. Will probably try it here in Austin, for old-time's sake, but now that it appears to be a mega-chain -- and so far from home -- I fully expect to be disappointed.
Where to get Caputo Tipo 00 Flour in Austin?
i've seen it at central market (north) with the other flours. it's not there all the time, they must get small shipments of it. maybe 1 out of every 2 times it's out of stock. i think it's $3-something for a bag (smaller than a regular bag of flour).
New Olive-Oil only store in The Arboretum?
Saw this place today, it's by Restoration Hardware. Didn't go in, however. Looked like it might be too pricey for me, but that's just a feeling.
Lookin' for a Special Kind of Falafel Sandwich...
Ever since trying Maoz falafels in Amsterdam last year I have wanted to find something similar locally. Hot, crunchy fried (small) falafel balls, fresh pita, fresh veggies and tzatziki for dressing. No luck so far. Looks like the closest Maoz is NYC or San Francisco, ouch. http://www.maozusa.com/
Madam Mam's Anderson Now Open!
Did you happen to see if there were vegetarian options on the menu? Would like to try it out.
House Pizzeria on Airport Blvd.
Is it normal to tip at order-at-the-counter places like this and Mandola's? I'm never sure. We had 2 pizzas, one salad and 1 Coke here the other day, and it was $27, or $32 with tip. Sort of pricey, but not tipping would make it a little easier on the wallet. :)
The pizzas were pretty good. I think my partner liked it more than I did, but it certainly wasn't bad. Someone has put some effort into making this a nice place, and I appreciated that. The potato pizza was good (if you like rosemary!), but without any sauce it got to be pretty doughy/starchy. I can't imagine eating all 6 slices myself, but fortunately we also had an arugula pizza. That was good as well. Next time we'll try two different pizzas though.
I think I'd still rather eat at Homeslice, but that place is always so crowded that we never go anymore. We've started making pizza at home these days, which has worked out great. :) Cheap, and I get all the asparagus I want for toppings. :)
best chocolate candies
thanks. "roscar" gave me a unique word i could search on, and turned up this thread:
http://chowhound.chow.com/topics/407196
lots of good information there.
best chocolate candies
since moving to austin, every christmas season i've gone to lamb's candy and bought a box of their chocolate truffles and turtles (and whatever else looks good at the time). back in california, i'd do the same at see's candy.
this year, for both myself and for gifts, i'm open to trying something different, especially if the chocolate is better -- or more interesting -- elsewhere. does anyone have any suggestions? we can keep the discussion open for all of austin, but personally, i'm in north-central. :)
Quick notes on Kona Grill for lunch [moved from Austin board]
Just got back from a business lunch at Kona Grill up at The Domain. I talked to a few of my co-workers afterward, and the reaction from all was fairly negetive, and we all agreed we won't be going back.
I tried the avocado roll, which didn't seem to be much more than warmed avocado in some sort of (fairly greasy) dough. I also had the grilled asparagus salad, which was mostly lettuce and dressing, with spears of asparagus underneath. They weren't flimsy or overcooked (so, that's good), but they were served with the woody part of the asparagus left on several spears, which necessitated spitting those out into my napkin. So .. awkward, and unnecessary. Other than that, there were a few slices of tomato and a slice of grilled onion off to the side, which weren't really integrated with the rest of the salad. Other meals on the table were the margarita pizza (reaction: "eh"), the creme brule (reaction: "ew") and the key lime pie (reaction: pretty good!).
With dessert, we ordered coffee, and had to send it back, because apparently there was a LEMON in the coffee pot. Which -- as it was explained -- was used to clean the coffee pot the night before and apparently not removed. The waiter had to come back and ask us how to make the Americano we ordered, and when it arrived, came served as a watered-down shot in a espresso glass.
New Austin Restaurant Review: Sampaios
My partner and I tried Sampaio's last night for dinner for the first time. I'm a vegetarian, he's not, but we'd heard good things about the coffee-crusted pork disk, so decided to give it a shot. It was a Wednesday night (Halloween -- we were avoiding the neighbourhood kids :) and we arrived around 6. We'd made a reservation, but there wasn't a person in the place. We decided to sit outside, since the weather's been nice lately. Not the best choice, since Burnet is right there, and fairly noisy (for our entire meal). There was music playing to help drown out the traffic noise (?) but it just added to the general noise level, making it difficult to casually talk to each other during the meal. Over the hour+ we were there, a few other couples joined us outside, and one ate inside. Overall, business was very slow.
The waitress we had (dressed as a nun) was friendly and it felt like she was enjoying her job. We didn't ask a lot of her, and our service was good.
Started with some iced tea and the fried rice balls (we don't drink, but they had a few alcoholic drink choices which would have qualified for the pre-6:30 happy hour). The ice tea tasted like a powdered mix, unfortunately. Of course, not sure if it was, but that was both of our impressions. We mostly stuck to water, after drinking half our glasses.
The rice balls were fried perfectly and showed up very hot at our table. The texture/crunch was great. The flavour was acceptable -- sort of like a mildly-flavoured risotto on the inside. The tomato-cream sauce was were the real flavour was, and made it enjoyable enough. But in the end, after 1.5 balls each, we'd had enough. The flavour had gotten boring.
My partner got a house salad, which was wrapped in a zuchinni slice. He said it was pretty good. I later had a bit of this with my main meal, and I found it to be all right. Extremely oily (too much dressing), but not bad if you like that kind of thing. It was a regular mix of greens, finely diced tomatoes, green olives, and hearts of palm.
I got the pear-walnut salad, which was easily the dog of the evening. The lettuce on the salad was a small handful of greens on 4 giant leaves of -- spinach? Basically the large, tough outer leaves from the head. On that was an ENTIRE poached pear, and some candied walnuts and a little cheese. Drenching the entire thing was a dressing which was predominately made up of mustard seeds. Had a very tart, unappealing flavour to it (though at least it was different; some might like it). The real mistake, for me, was the thick warm poached pear, which had a rubbery texture and an unappealing flavour. I tried to muscle through it and appreciate it's "uniqueness", but had to stop, I was ruining my appetite. On the plus side, the candied walnuts were enjoyable, but probably store-bought (the glaze on them didn't look clear/fresh).
My partner's coffee-crusted pork dish arrived with the rice and a cherry sauce on top. It looked great, but I did notice the pork looked over-cooked (to my vegetarian eye :). He says it was actually cooked all right inside, but that it had been over-charred on the outside, giving it a burnt flavour. Not sure if that was the coffee-crusted flavour or not, or how much each was contributing. In the end, he nearly cleaned his plate, so it couldn't have been bad, but he said he wouldn't get it again (if we ever returned).
My vegetarian meal was a vegetable medley mixed with mashed yucca root and a curry sauce, all wrapped in a banana leaf. Everything arrived very hot. The sauce was rich and tasty, the yucca had a nice flavour to it, and the vegetables -- though I couldn't tell you what they were -- were the right complement. The rice served on the side had a very nice flavour to it (couldn't tell you what was in it), but it was overcooked and very slightly crunchy in places. Overall, a decent meal. If I went back again, I'd try something different, hoping for something better, but this wouldn't be a bad back-up.
All in all, our meal came to $50-something for two people. I'm not sure we'll be going back any time soon, but it wasn't a bad experience all-in-all. I just think there are probably better ones for us. :)
