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?

Day 7: Calamari, Caprese, and Couture

"Pairing" is a common occurrence in many fields. Accessories with dresses, wine with food, curtains with bedspreads, songs with dances but not many people mix-and-match. I find a good and complete experience to come with combinations of happy experiences- certain music with the perfect snack or a pot of tea with reruns of your favorite show. So why can't a perfect pair involve clothes and food? Or wine with earrings? Bedspreads and dances? Curtains and songs?  My day wouldn't have been the same without hitting the spot with a perfect dress and just the right food.

South Congress is pretty much the perfect place to satisfy any kind of food and vintage shopping pairing needs. This time Jackie and I were in the mood for some light fare at South Congress Cafe. It was exactly what we wanted: two cups of coffee, a calamari appetizer, and two caprese salads.

This was probably my favorite. They use calamari steaks- nice, thick, meaty pieces fried with an Asian sauce of orange and ginger. It was light and bright.

Then comes another light and bright and pretty caprese. The proportions were perfect of heirloom, mozzarella, a thick balsamic glaze and a garlic and basil puree. I thought I was thoroughly satisfied until Jackie found this little number for me:

Ah- vintage finds are so satisfying and this one also quite pretty and light and bright. It all rounded each other out and I don't think one would have been perfect without the other.

Day 15: Impatience..

How do you deal with impatience? I have a dear, dear friend from college coming into visit this weekend and I'm currently trying to occupy my time while I wait to pick her up from the airport from a very late arrival. Yes- her flight comes in at 1:47 am. I am beyond excited as this girl, Kris and I have been across the world and back together, lived in New York and Brooklyn together, and now after two years, we'll be seeing each other in whatever new lives we're living- mine here in Austin and hers in Portland. (She opened a school bus-restaurant, more on that later. She's a rockstar.)

So I have all night and day just waiting until I get to leave to the airport and what better way to do that than treat myself to breakfast for dinner. As I've stated before how much I like pairings, this to go with the season finales of The Office and Parks and Rec. I have to say my cooking is out of practice and I did a horrible job of multi-task flipping but everything tasted pretty fantastic.

Two over-easy eggs and this recipe:

• 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 3 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 tablespoon white sugar
• 1 1/4 cups milk
• 1 egg
• 3 tablespoons butter, melted

Directions

1. In a large bowl, sift together the flour, baking powder, salt and sugar. Make a well in the center and pour in the milk, egg and melted butter; mix until smooth.
2. Heat a lightly oiled griddle or frying pan over medium high heat. Pour or scoop the batter onto the griddle, using approximately 1/4 cup for each pancake. Brown on both sides and serve hot.

courtesy of allrecipes.com

Day 14: Waiter Rant, Part Deux

When you go into a restaurant as a customer, please be aware that a lot of procedures in wine and cocktail service are generally done for a reason. Here are some of them and yes, I had to grin and bear through all of these in one nice 13-hour day:

1.  When you order a red wine at a restaurant, they are sometimes chilled down to the correct "cellar" temperature of 55-65 degrees. Most restaurants are not kept this cool. We are bringing your red wine down to a correct temperature so you can enjoy all the fun flavors that come out as your bottles warms up from 60 degrees. When your waitress says she is chilling your red wine, why don't you ask why instead of telling her she's wrong.

2. If a cocktail is made with mostly liquor, it is usually stirred. If it is made with a juice or mixer of any kind, it is generally shaken. Both of these methods are generally done so that alcohol is not diluted and not filled with ice chips. Please read my last post and listen to President Bartlet. He's never wrong.

3. Don't look at your waiter dumbfounded when she mentions the word "vermouth" when you order a martini.

4. When you're asked to taste a bottle of wine, just do it. It's done so you don't get a bottle of wine that tastes and smells like cardboard and wet newspaper. Make sure it doesn't smell like that and you're good to go. Also, don't smell the cork. It's traditionally put in front of you so you can check to see if it matches the bottle. This is so you can make sure we didn't fuck you over and put a cheaper wine in a more expensive bottle (which we don't really care to do).

5. If you're the last people in the restaurant and everything else around you is put away, it's time to go.

I knew very little about wine and cocktails earlier than a year ago. I have no right to be telling anybody how to go about and do this. I didn't even know how open a damn bottle of wine before last July and I'm pretty sure I still ask dumb questions but I'm pretty proud of how far I've come. So this is me sharing my knowledge with you so that none of us look like idiots when we go out to eat.

What I'm basically saying is know what you know and own it.
Be cool, humble, and open and please don't tell your waiter how beautiful it was when you went to "Vin de Pays."

Day 13: Sighs

Today was a little bit of a breakthrough day. I feel a lot of relief, fear, excitement, and anxiety. It is kind of amazing that after a long time I've been waiting for something to shove itself into my face and say hey do this, it's happening. I spoke a lot about the Texas Baker's Bill and for any of you following, the Texas legislative session ends on May 30th. One of the bills, HB2084 made it onto the Local & Consent calendar to be voted on but still has not been put on any calendars. There is an inkling of hope but it's time as a business to be pressing on to find other ways to make something work.

Which leads me to today where I met with a commercial kitchen willing to take on Jackie and me for a very affordable price. This is very good news and I am stoked about it but it's real. Today shook me out of my funk and made me realize that all of the sudden I have a small business to start, a bar's worth of knowledge to learn, and a blog to write. Since I've been in Texas and decided to get involved in food, I've dreamed of reasons to be running from one meeting to the next or one appointment to the next shift and now I'm finding that I need to fight the sleep and spend some late nights up no matter how badly I want to close my eyes. The reality of possible failure and the risk of starting a business has also started to set in but it's too early to be there either. I felt a nice and swift kick in the head today looking forward to a lot of work in the near future but I think more than anything, I'm excited to put my nose to the grindstone.

There's a lot of sighing in all different kinds of expressions- relief yet worry with a little bit of a smile. So here it is- the transcript for the journey I'm about to embark on.

Day 12: In honor..

of my 2nd training session behind the bar, my quick conquering of the stir, and my first-crafted cocktail- some pop culture references I've come to appreciate:

President Josiah "Jed" Bartlet: Can I tell you what's messed up about James Bond?
Charlie Young: Nothing.
President Josiah "Jed" Bartlet: Shaken, not stirred, will get you cold water with a dash of gin and dry vermouth. The reason you stir it with a special spoon is so not to chip the ice. James is ordering a weak martini and being snooty about it.

Third one down-
http://eater.com/archives/2011/05/16/treme-watch-alan-richman-gets-a-cocktail-thrown-in-his-face.php

Day 11: Pieces of the Puzzle

About a year ago, I moved to Austin. Not quite long after that I started a food blog. June 10th I think was my first publishing. I also wanted a blog but never really knew where to put my efforts. It made sense once I moved to Austin to make it about my journey with food so I wrote this: my first post.

The point of all of this is to figure out where in the world of food I fit and funny enough- the more open to ideas you were so against in the first place, the more you kind of figure it out. I still feel like there's much more learning about myself in this foodie world to come but I do feel like some of the pieces to the puzzle are coming together.

I spent my first half of the day training behind this bar realizing that I may have found something to appease the way my brain works. I like end products and to-do lists. I like producing food and drink that people consume and appreciate. I tried working in the kitchen but I'm not a back of house kind of girl. Hosting, just ugh and let me tell you that this waiting tables gets kind of old. There's no craft to throw myself into. No specialization. Managing, no thank you. Never again. A bar? Hmmmmmm...

I've been a little obsessed with baking lately which I find strange but Jackie explained baking to me once as a lot more satisfying sometimes than cooking. There are directions to follow, a little allowance for creative freedom, and a final end product. Really it's not just the cookie or the cake, it's enjoyment from the beginning planning stages, the journey through the process, and satisfaction with the end product. My new obsession with baking reminds me a lot of my excitement of getting behind the bar.

There are recipes to follow, creative freedom, final drink products (that are yummy and alcoholic), and still just enough interaction with the general public to satisfy my social yearnings. If I could just wear a vest and tie, I'd be completely sold on this for a while.

This figuring out where I fit in food seems to slowly be coming together. I don't feel fully cooked yet but I'm going through the motions to get there. Just like I enjoyed baking these peanut butter cookies this evening whose dough turned out too crumbly. It's trial and error but I'm enjoying the process: