La Sombra

I had been hearing about a new restaurant on Burnet by the name of La Sombra.  We finally made it there on Friday night.  I was there with Jo, Zach and Abby.  As usual, Abby did not want to eat anything.  I am getting used to just going to places whether Abby likes it or not.  Otherwise, I would never get to eat at any restaurants.  I had the Torta De Pescado.  It was very good.  It was beer battered fish, jicama, cabbage and chipolte slaw on a bolillo.  It was a great mix of flavors and textres.  Not fishy at all.  It is served with a side and I chose fried sweat plantains.  They were incredible.

Jo had a torta as well.  She had the Chacarero.  This was a torta with Shiner Bock marinated sliced hanger steak, green beans, avocado, tomato and pickled cucumber on a toasted bolillo.  I tried this torta and it was also a great sandwich.  She had chosen papas fritas as the side.  The fries were very tasty.

Zach had Aji De Gallina Risotto which was a roasted chicken risotto.  He indicated that it was very good as well.  

This experience was a winner.  I will have to go back and try some of the other menu items.  I look forward to having the Risotto in the future.

Doing my part to Keep Austin Weird

Alan

Greek

I had a business lunch meeting at Athena Grill last Wednesday.  I have not been there in a long time.  I had forgotten just how good the food is there.  I had the chicken plate.  It has a small salad, rice, shaved chicken and vegetables with tzatiki on top.  I had a warm peta bread with it.  Everything is full of flavor.  The plate is large enough to feed 2 people.  I have never had dinner here but it is a great place to go for lunch.

Doing my part to Keep Austin Weird

Alan

Thunderbird Coffee

Last week I was out and about and in need of a caffeine kick.  I was driving by Thunderbird Coffee and remembered it is a decent copy of my regular coffee spot, Cafe Medici.  They also make French Press coffee using beans from Cuvee.  I had an iced coffee.  There were a few things that I noticed at Thunderbird that made it stand out.  First, as most of my friends know, I am a snob about sugar in the raw.  Of course they carried it like any legitimate coffee shop would.  But they also had simple syrup which was great for iced drinks.  Sugar just will not dissolve so you are stuck using either pink, blue or yellow.  I have had simple syrup in iced tea before but had never tried it in iced coffee.  It was great.  My friends at Cafe Medici need to take note of this and provide simple syrup as well.  There was one other area that I feel like Cafe Medici could learn from Thunderbird.  I did not have anything to eat but did notice the food options.  Like Cafe Medici, they carry taco's from Tacodeli.  But the pastries looked much better and the selection was larger at Thunderbird.  Additionally, they carry bagels from Rockstar Bagels.  This seems to be the hot bagel supplier.  I am not sure where Cafe Medici gets their bagels.  I will have to ask. 

Well, in summary, it was a good experience at Thunderbird.  I still prefer the regular coffee at Medici but it is good to know there is an option closer to home.

Doing my part to Keep Austin Weird,

Alan

North

I had a lunch meeting at North in the Domain last week.  I had a dilemma, eat what I wanted or try to eat healthy.  It was a tough decision.  There were a couple of pasta dishes that looked very good.  It was very hard to pass up the Baked Ziti or the Chicken Lasagna.  I ended up choosing a Chicken Sandwich.  Staying with the healthy bend, I didn't even pick the potato side instead opting for grilled veggies as the side.  The sandwich was very good.  It was Grilled Chicken, Crescenza Cheese, Tomato, Avocado on a bagel.  Well, a bagel in name.  It was not crusty on the outside.  In this case that was a good thing.  Much easier to eat than if it would have been a real bagel. 

Going to the Domain can always be an interesting experience.  You can always count on seeing the rich and famous and the people that want to be seen.  A neighboring table had 8 Cougars that showed up in a Hummer Limo.  Since I was joined by a couple of twenty somethings at my table, you can imagine the looks we were getting in our direction from the Cougars.  Definitely made the lunch interesting. 

I will have to return to North for Pasta in the very near future.

Doing my part to Keep Austin Weird

Alan

Star Sighting

I still have been slow to remember to blog in a timely manner.  On September 5th, 2010 we had a craving for Mexican food.  Decisions, decisions.  We finally decided that we had not been to South Congress area in awhile so we headed to Guero's Taco Bar.  I know it is a Austin icon but my overall opinion of Guero's is that it is hit or miss.  Luckily that night was a hit.  First while having a drink in the bar while waiting for a table, I had my first Star sighting in Austin, Luke Wilson.  He was at a table with a couple of others.  I figure they always get disturbed while they are trying to eat so we did not go talk to him or take a picture. 

I usually get the chicken Enchiladas Verde but decided to try tacos that night since Taco is part of the name.  I had chicken al carbon tacos.  This may be my new favorite item.  I also think it has to be healthier than a cheesy enchilada.  The taco was just a corn tortilla with white meat chicken that was well seasoned inside.  Very clean and tasty.  I was only partly healthy, I had more chips and salsa than I care to admit.  I would have to say that this visit to Guero's Taco Bar was a hit.

Doing my part to Keep Austin Weird,

Alan