Hungry for Fajitas

I can't say I noticed any difference in the entrees. The salsa bar is much smaller, but it still has the same options. The service was incredibly slow when I was there (late on a Sunday night, IIRC) because there was only one server.

thrackle in Austin

DiMassey's Mediterranian Restaurant

I tried it when it first opened, and thought the food was over-salted and mostly dried out from sitting on the buffet table for too long. I went back after the re-opening; the food was the same. The setting seemed a bit shabbier, though, e.g., the florescent lights at the end of one of the buffet tables had a seizure-inducing level of flickering, and the floor was greasy.

If I wanted a Mediterranean buffet, I'd drive down a bit further down183 to Mopac, and eat at Alborz.

thrackle in Austin

Chupacabra Burger - Cat Mountain Grill - Anyone else had this?

Has anyone had both the chupacabra burger and the fire burger at In The Buns (which has serranos, pequin, habanero, and ghost chiles)? I'm curious how they compare.

thrackle in Austin

Chinatown-Mopac, Asia Cafe, or Din Ho tonight for excellent food?

What isn't greasy at Asia Cafe? I love the food, but my favorite dishes (mapo tofu and crispy fish) come swimming in oil.

thrackle in Austin

Healthy prepackaged meal joints springing up... any comments?

My company has My Fit Foods as one our daily catered lunch options. I can’t say I’m a fan. Many of the items are astoundingly bland and flavorless. Also, I’m suspicious about their freshness claims. The beans are either canned beans, or cooked to be perfect simulacra of canned beans.

A couple of the things I tried were, rather than being flavorless, so salty that they were inedible until I diluted them with other food. I say that as someone who absolutely loves salt. If a normal person thinks a meal is fine as it is, I’ll probably add salt. If they think it’s a bit too salty, I’ll probably add salt. If they think it’s oversalted to the point of being inedible, I’ll probably still want to add salt. Their chili was so salty that even I couldn’t eat it.

In the unlikely event that their nutrition information is accurate, their meals barely even count as snacks. They print calorie information on the side of their meals; the average of the ‘medium’ sized meals that I tried was about 350. I normally burn about 4000 calories a day, and (thankfully) I didn’t drop any weight when I substituted one of their ‘meals’ for my lunch, so I have a hard time believing that their calorie count is accurate (not to mention their sodium).

thrackle in Austin

Mang Dedoy or other Filipino?

I ate here for dinner last night. I'd definitely recommend avoiding their steam table (combo) option if you go for dinner, since it will have been sitting there since lunch. Some of their stew-y options aren't bad after sitting out all day, but the noodles were dried out, and the rice seemed like it had been sitting a while, too. I'm reserving judgement until I have a chance to stop by for lunch.

thrackle in Austin

Thai House (at Burnet & Research)

What happened to the buffet at Thai Cuisine? Did they shut it down?

-----
Thai Cuisine
4101 W Parmer Ln Ste F, Austin, TX 78727

thrackle in Austin

Any Vietnamese Bakeries?

Did you ever manage to find good bánh bao here in Austin?

I just picked up some from Tâm Deli. They weren't bad, but they weren't quite was I was looking for: I'm used to getting a lot more filling / less flour, and quail egg instead of regular hard boiled eggs.

thrackle in Austin

2010: Hatch Chile Peppers are Back

They were .89/lb at CM North when I was there the other day.

thrackle in Austin

Elephant Yam [konjac] in Austin

I'm think I've seen konjac noodles sold at MT Supermarket, and at the Whole Foods downtown, but I haven't paid attention to where I've seen 'em, because it's so much cheaper to just make your own (http://forums.egullet.org/index.php?/topic/62709-how-do-i-make-shirataki-konjac-noodles/).

thrackle in Austin

Help Me Like Sam's Club

I prefer Costco to Sam’s, but Sam’s has a better return policy.

Costco will let you return electronics up to ninety days after purchase and anything else any time, but Sam’s lets you return computers up to six months after purchase, and anything else at any time.

thrackle in Chains

Weekday Lunch Spots Near the Domain?

I really like Ryu of Japan (discussed here: http://chowhound.chow.com/topics/673484)

thrackle in Austin

Today's Austin Food-Related Groupon

Thanks for posting these! I've been wondering if I should sign up, since there's no way (that I can tell) to browse old groupons to see if I should bother without signing up and giving them my email.

thrackle in Austin

Funazushi / Narezushi / 熟れ寿司 in Austin?

Is there any place in Austin where I can find this stuff? If not, how about other fermented fish (like surströmming or rakfisk)?

thrackle in Austin

Dinner between College Station and Austin?

I'm headed to A&M tomorrow for Aggie Pumpfest. I'm probably going to head back to Austin sometime between 6 and 8pm. Any suggestions for dinner on the way back?

Normally, I'd stop by Crosstown BBQ, but I heard they closed (say it ain't so). I suppose I could detour to Snow's, but I'm carpooling with a buddy who probably isn't going to want to drive that far out of the way (and they're not even open for dinner, are they?)

I'm open to (and would actually prefer) something besides BBQ. I just listed Snow's and Crosstown because those are the two places I know of that are near my route.

thrackle in Austin

RIP part III: Austin Restaurant Closings

Sorry! Slip of the toungue, brought on by commenting in the 'authenticity' thread. Let me change that to read "Completely unlike the bánh mì I've had anywhere else" :-). The crust wasn't as 'crusty' as most I've had, and the bread was denser.

I'm not sure it even makes sense to talk about the authenticity of bánh mì: I'm sure you know as much as, if not more than, me about the origins, but it's a 'fusion' dish that was invented during the French occupation of Indochina that's been evolving ever since. No one talks about the authenticity of other fusion cuisine, so why worry about the authenticity of this, youknowhatimean?

thrackle in Austin

RIP part III: Austin Restaurant Closings

Seriously? They had my favorite bánh mì in town. Completely inauthentic, but oh so yummy!

thrackle in Austin

Authentic everyday Vietnamese

The tàu hũ nước đường at Fresh Tofu is divine. It seems to have become trendy to complain that you can get a more authentic version of the same thing in NYC, SF, or what have you, but this Austinite will take an order their sweet and custardy ginger caramel tofu any day.

Just one word of warning: they don't take credit unless you spend more than $10, and it's hard to spend $10 there -- their tàu hũ nước đường is only $2. Even after throwing in a couple of pastries, and a block of fresh tofu to cook up for dinner, I still didn't hit $10. :-)

thrackle in Austin

Ryu of Japan (sush restaurant) - a review

I'm liking their nigiri, too.

I picked up a quick snack there when they first opened, and the items came in a Wal-Mart bag! I didn't mind: I put tastiness of food above all else, but I thought it was funny, considering how nice their interior is.

thrackle in Austin

Madison favorites

Thank you so much for posting that compiliation! I'm headed to Madison for the Holidays, and between rossmeissl's post and your links I'm pretty much set.

I just have one question: which restaurants will be open over Christmas and / or where can I go for a 'nice' Christmas dinner?

thrackle in Great Lakes

Natto

scrumptiouschef's post on sichuan peppercorns inspired me to stop by MT Supermarket (in the chinatown center). They have by far the widest selection of natto (both in terms of the selection of brands and types) I've seen* in Austin.

They don't have black bean natto, which I haven't seen anywhere in Austin, but they do have hikiwari (split bean) natto, which I hadn't found anywhere else.

* the other places I've looked are Han Yang, Asahi Imports, Asia Market, and the Vietnamese market on 183 that's in the same complex as Din Ho.

thrackle in Austin

Sichuan peppercorns

I thought I saw these at Asia Market last time I was there; I haven't been to MT supermarket, but I would be shocked if they didn't have them (although they didn't have Kampyo when I called and asked, so who knows?).

thrackle in Austin

Hard Hat Report Volume 2

I should for the asked when I called -- the person I talked to mentioned the menu on the website, and I just assumed I'd be able to google it up, but I couldn't find it. I don't think Google will index it until someone links to it.

thrackle in Austin

Hard Hat Report Volume 2

The preview of Canción del Cuerpo wrapped up more quickly than we expected so we stopped by here on the way back; we'd already eaten, so we just grabbed a Kampyo Maki (not on the menu, but available if you ask for it), which was decent. I'll write up a real review some time after eating an actual meal there.

Also, I wish chowhound allowed edits. That should read Ryu's *is* open now, obviously :)

thrackle in Austin

Hard Hat Report Volume 2

Ryu's open now. I called (973-9498‎), and they said that they do lunch until 3:00, and their official dinner hours are 5:30-10:00, but that it looks like they'll be open from 5:00-10:00 at least for now. They also mentioned that they were still changing their menu, so the menu on their website won't be up to date for a few days.

A friend of mine stopped by and said that it was a "real" Japanese place, and not another Korean or Chinese place that does Japanese, whatever that means. If I hadn't just eaten, I'd check it out right now.

thrackle in Austin

Self Checkout at Costco.

Yeah, we've had 'em for a year here in Austin.

The only thing I don't like about the setup is that there's an enforced delay between scanning items (so that only one item is on the loonnnng conveyor belt at a time); you can't do rapid-fire scanning the same way a checkout clerk can, so it ends up being slower when you have a lot of items, even if the lines are shorter.

thrackle in Chains

Vodka pastry help

This response is a bit late, but the ingredients are:

2 1/2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour (12 1/2 ounces)
1 teaspoon table salt
2 tablespoons sugar
12 tablespoons cold unsalted butter (1 1/2 sticks), cut into 1/4-inch slices
1/2 cup chilled solid vegetable shortening , cut into 4 pieces
1/4 cup vodka , cold
1/4 cup cold water

thrackle in Home Cooking

Beets Cafe

Anyone been here? Can you suggest a dish?

I'm not really into the raw/living foods thing, but I got a coupon for this place, so I might as well go see what the fuss is about.

thrackle in Austin

Pao - right in the kisser! (review)

Just had dinner here with a large group. I wish I had an excuse to make it out to lakeway more often. The tea smoked duck was good (personally, I prefer crispy skin, but this skin was soft and tender), and I loved the jellyfish appetizer. I don't have any frame of reference for how jellyfish should be served: I was expecting something a bit chewy, like squid, but it was soft and a bit sweet.

My friends all ordered generic Americanized dishes; I've got nothing against Americanized Chinese, but all of the dishes they got were poor (and expensive) by Americanized Chinese standards.

-----
Pao's Mandarin House
2300 Lohmans Spur, Lakeway, TX 78734

thrackle in Austin