Day 16, 17, and 18...

Last weekend my dear friend Kris was in town last weekend from Portland and frankly, I didn't really ever stop moving as I was hanging out with her and serving freshly graduated UT students and their families for three days straight.

Kris and I have some stories to tell, traveled together, were roommates at one point while in Brooklyn, and now after not seeing each other after two years are meeting up in Austin and sharing our strange and lateral love of food and the crazy idea of working for ourselves and starting up food businesses.

First up- we had some catching up to do with Jackie.. at Perla's where the patio is perfect for long updates. We talked about travels, friends, new babies, master's degrees, and cross-country moves all over a crab louie, fried green tomatoes, and a shrimp caesar salad:

With old friends comes new friends as I introduced Kris to two of my favorite people in Austin, Dennis and Phil over dinner and drinks at Haddington's. After loudly sharing my love of the last cocktail I had there, The Devil's Mustache (owing to a weird obsession I have with non-tequila agave-based spirits aka Mezcal in this case), the creator of the cocktail thanked me and made me something he had in the works: The Thirteenth Floor.

 I probably shouldn't indulge too much information but it involves mezcal, ginger liqueur, and aperol. Oh yes. It went down way too easy. We then sat down for dinner and my fellow ex-vegetarian and I enjoyed ourselves some baby lamb's tongue salad, duck and foie gras meatballs, and some sweetbreads. Most of the appetizers were a little salty with exception of the meatballs which was probably my hands-down favorite.


Main courses included scallops and beef cheek cannelloni. The cannelloni was rockin' – really tender, flavorful, and full. My scallops were a little underdone for my taste but the flavors were nice. It was unfortunately a rushed experience as I had to get Kris to the airport but the great service, good drinks, and company were thoroughly enjoyed.

beef cheek cannelloni

So yes darn. My 30-day blog challenge fell to the wayside. I skipped one day which turned into two days which turned into a week and here we are. To be quite honest, I feel okay with that. I won't give any excuses about running fevers, working doubles, cancelled flights, and a whirlwind trip to DC. It also doesn't give me excuses to stop but I do feel the point of this challenge. There isn't a need to make entries perfect for publishing or done by a certain time at a certain place about certain things. This blog is about sharing how I feel about something I love, documenting the journey, and putting in the effort. Allora, soon will come culinary adventures of New Jersey. How can that not be intriguing?