Heading home to the Derby City on Wednesday morning, but wanted to report in from Austin, Texas. (I wanted to say "Sunny Austin, TX", but it's raining today.)
Enjoyed several tasty meals here. Cooked a few too. Let's see . . . Where have we been this past week?
Salt Lick BBQ -- Combo plate was awesome with brisket, sausage smoked on site and a big, meaty rib. Mustard-based sauce available for those who like their Que "wet". Thought the coolers everyone was toting was odd but later figured out the place is BYOB.
http://www.saltlickbbq.com/Threadgills -- Austin institution, open 365 days a year. We enjoyed Christmas Dinner here. It was crowded but we only had about a 10 minute wait for an excellent table and superior service. I had the obligatory CFS and my son enjoyed fried oysters, both with all the fixings.
http://www.threadgills.com/Got to see 4 horses and 1 deer (DOR) on the way out to Driftwood, TX. Have seen lots of sand, rocks, cacti and pecan trees. A shocking number of fences too. Haven't seen a cow or a steer yet! Not even an armadillo!
Luby's Cafeteria -- Southern cooking; fried chicken; greens; CFS (chicken fried steak); etc. A Texas institution but fairly standard cafeteria cuisine.
http://www.lubys.com/en/Stuffed -- Visited a Cajun meat market. Picked up some Andouille sausage and shrimp. Made a pot of Jambalaya. To tell the truth, their Andouille is almost as good as my own. Mine has less fat and maybe a bit more smoke. But still, excellent.
http://stuffedfoodstores.com/Jardin Corona Mexican Food -- If you're in North Austin, this place was excellent. We had breakfast tacos, though I passed on the
barbacoa taco (traditionally barbequed cow's head). Everything we tried was excellent. No website, that I could find.
Texas Land & Cattle Company -- Couldn't leave Texas tomorrow without at least one steak under my belt. Don't know how "authentic" it was, but we had a terrific lunch today at TXLC. My son enjoyed a couple of Fish Tacos (fried tilapia) and I had a bacon-wrapped sirloin. That's not my favorite cut of meat, but it was part of their "2 for $25" special. Nonetheless, the sirloin was excellent, very well seasoned and perfectly medium rare. A big thumbs up!
http://www.texaslandandcattle.comAlso dropped in on several
HEB grocery stores ("Here, Everything's Better") in the process of stocking up sonny boy's pantry. In fact, that was the ONLY chain of grocery stores I spotted, other than the ethnic ones.
http://www.heb.comThere are a jillion greyt places to eat in Austin. We drove downtown on Christmas Day, just to do a little mobile sightseeing. Saw the Capital, the Colorado River, the amazing architecture. Saw a few of the food carts that are so prevalent here. Didn't get to enjoy them this trip; maybe next time.
To see and learn more about Austin's food carts, see http://austinfoodcarts.comMy son was off work only on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. He works from 1 PM to 10 PM, which cuts a huge swath through the available hours to do any sightseeing. So, we worked out a compromise. We did lunch together each day before he went to work and I had supper ready when he came home at 10:15 PM. Tonight, we're going go exploring in search of the elusive late-night hamburger or something. I understand
WhataBurger is open around the clock. Available only across the southern tier of states, from Arizona to Florida.
http://www.whataburger.com/Hope to be home Wednesday evening. Good Lord willing! Trusting most of the delays and cancellations caused by the NE blizzard will be cleared out by tomorrow morning.
Lois