For my 30th birthday, I wanted to go to some place new for dinner. Granted, it has been hard for us to get out since the boy was born, so at least half the restaurants in town are “new” to me. I decided to try Annie’s on Congress, and not only because I had recently purchased a Groupon for it.

Beforehand I met with friends at Max’s Wine Dive for their birthday celebration (how could I pass it up since it was on on the same day?!) where we had a few snacks along with multiple glasses of sparkling wines. Once it got too crowded, we headed to what is fast becoming my go-to spot for drinks, Peche, where the sweet bartenders hooked up Amanda with an amazing non-alcoholic blueberry basil milkshake. It was a short walk from there to Annie’s, and we arrived just as it was starting to get dark.

We decided to sit outside on the streetside patio, and I still can’t decide if this was a good choice. I love dining outside, but we were sat at one of the two tables that is literally next to the street. The other tables are close to the restaurant, while we were treated to the traffic whizzing by. Thankfully on a late Tuesday evening there isn’t much traffic, but still… odd.

We didn’t order any appetizers, which turned out to be a good thing because our dinner portions were enormous. I ordered another glass of Prosecco to have with the dinner, which at that point I drank s-l-o-w-l-y due to our pre-dinner events.

I had the Pan Roasted Rabbit, which comes with spaetzle, haricots vertes, and carrots, served with a whole grain mustard sauce. I thought this was fantastic. I was worried that the mustard sauce would be too powerful, but it was very mild and along with the rabbit juices served as an amazing accompaniment to the spaetzle. The vegetables were cooked, but still crispy, just the way they should be. I only made it about halfway through the plate, and the rest was a nice lunch the next day (reheated perfectly, by the way).

Amanda ordered the Moules Frites, a gigantic plate of mussels and another of fries. I can’t comment on the taste as I’m leery of mussels, but Amanda was putting away as many as she could. This really seemed like a dish to share, especially because mussels don’t reheat. So many mussels had to remain uneaten that night.

As it was my birthday, of course I had to order dessert! I decided on the espresso creme brulee. Now, creme brulee is pretty much my favorite dessert, although I don’t order it all the time. The flavor of this was good, but I felt like the cream should have been a little thicker or set than it was. Also, it was quite large, which I suppose should have been expected after our dinner plates!

It was an enjoyable night and I do plan on returning to Annie’s. I’m still sad I didn’t get to try the tomato brie soup, so at least I’ll have an excuse!

© Megan Myers, stetted, 2010. | Permalink | One comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: Austin, dinner, mussels, rabbit, restaurants, Reviews

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For Valentine’s Day this year, we decided to celebrate early, avoid the crazy crowd, and head to Parkside.
I had been wanting to go to Parkside for a while, but with a strict budget and a toddler, we don’t get out to restaurants without kid menus very often. We splurged precisely because of that – who knows when we’ll get to do it again? – and had a fantastic meal.

I’m one of those people who researches the menu before I go to a place, so I already knew what I wanted to order. Our waiter Mo did a great job of telling us about the menu, confusing me on Prosecco, and overall being jovial and attentive. It probably didn’t hurt that I purposefully made the reservation for 6:30, before the crowds would be showing up.

Starting off we had two incredibly strong cocktails: the Dirty Tito (Tito’s Vodka, olive juice, dry vermouth) and the Wild Basil (Leblon Cachaca, Pernod, grapefruit, and basil). They were good, but because they were so strong we moved on to Old Speckled Hen beer (for him) and Prosecco (for me) when our cocktails were finished.

(Apologize in advance for not having photos of my husband’s food, and the poor picture quality. I need to learn how to take photos better in low-light situations!)

My first course consisted of diced raw salmon belly, pineapple, and mint, topped with a caramelized pineapple chip and green onion shavings. It was a little sweeter than I had expected, but it was a very light and refreshing way to start off the night. In contrast, my husband had braised baby back ribs served with sofrito (tomato and onion sauce) and a cilantro-onion salad.

Next up was a surprise – the chef sent out butternut squash soup with brown sugar (brown butter? I can’t remember!) swirl, topped with a bacon marshmallow. Now, I adore butternut squash, so I might be a teensy bit biased, but this was my favorite dish of the night.

For my main course I chose the braised pork jowl with ras el hanout spices, polenta, and micro greens. The pork was so wonderfully tender and buttery that I had no problem eating the entire thing. It did seem a little heavy on the salt, but that was easily cut with the simple polenta. My husband had what my other choice would have been the venison steak served with brown lentils and bacon lardons. We each tried the other’s dish and declared our own the best. Also not pictured were the Brussels sprouts with bacon, which came in a completely adorable mini Le Creuset cassarole. The thing I appreciated most about the sprouts is that they came late. Why is that a good thing? Because our original order was held back – they weren’t up to the chef’s standards. And for something as simple as Brussels sprouts, I think that says a lot about the quality of the kitchen.

We ended with dessert consisting of a chocolate-peanut butter concoction (I can’t remember the name, sorry!) and milk sorbet. Chocolate and peanut butter are a favorite combination, and this didn’t disappoint. It was a great finish to one of the few and far between date nights we get. I definitely plan to return.

© Megan Myers, stetted, 2010. | Permalink | 4 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: Austin, restaurant, Reviews

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Hot dogs are one of those things that I’m never sure about. When you stop to think about what goes in the average store-bought dog or remember reading The Jungle, it takes a while before you actually can bring yourself to eat a hot dog. But I might be able to get past those thoughts much quicker, now that I’ve been to Frank.

Frank is a new restaurant in downtown Austin that serves all manner of hot dogs, sausages, and other things in a bun. Basic options start with an all-beef dog ($3.00) that can be covered in slaw, chili cheese, jalapenos, or done up Chicago style. If you’re feeling crazy you can have your dog stuffed with cheese, wrapped in bacon, and deep fried for an extra $1.75, but I get the feeling you’ll want some antacid at the ready.

Now, being a mom and working full time I didn’t know when I’d be able to visit Frank again, so I went all out on my order and got the most ridiculous thing I saw: the Jackalope. This is a sausage made of antelope and rabbit, topped with sriracha aioli, applewood smoked cheddar, and huckleberry compote. I loved it. The sausage has a really nice flavor, and the spicy-sweet topping was great, although I would have appreciated less compote, as it was a bit messy to eat. It is fairly expensive for a “hot dog” at $7.00, but the ingredients more than make up for it.

I’m sorry to say that we weren’t very impressed by the vegetarian options we chose. I had two vegetarians in my group, so we split some vegetarian sides to go with the dogs. We chose the chili cheese waffle fries (with veggie chili), plain waffle fries with horseradish and buffalo bleu sauces for dipping, and the corn cup. For the veggie dogs, one chose the Chicago-style and the other a dog with veggie chili. Aside from the Chicago dog coming out as a meat dog the first time, the veggie dogs themselves just weren’t as good as those we’ve gotten from the street carts. No one really liked the vegetarian chili either – it seemed like someone had just tossed Smart Ground, tomato sauce, and “chili” spices together.

The fries were just fries, nothing special, and it’s obvious that the sauces are meant to be the standout. I liked the buffalo bleu sauce, which is just what it sounds like, wing sauce in a creamy base. One friend who is a wasabi fiend thought the horseradish sauce could have been more powerful, though. Frank has five other sauces, including something called Punchy Sauce, so next time I’ll try something else.

The standout of the sides was the corn cup ($3.00). A bowl of grilled shucked corn flavored with chile, lime, cilantro, and cheese, this was the most amazing corn I’ve ever eaten. There was a wonderful slight sweetness to it and the char from the grill gave the entire dish a fantastic flavor. I honestly kept eating it even after I was full because I didn’t want it to go to waste.

We didn’t try the other sides, but they also have ranch style beans, broccoli salad (not vegetarian), corn dog bites made with li’l smokies, and even Canadian poutine.
Frank is also the place to go if you’re jonesing for some liquid bacon. The reason I first wanted to go to Frank was because a friend had tweeted about her bacon-infused Maker’s Mark. Unfortunately when I got my Militia Manhattan ($7.00, bacon Maker’s Mark, sweet and dry vermouth, brandied cherries, lemon) I couldn’t taste bacon at all. Frank adds the bacon flavoring in house (they make bacon-infused vodka too), so it’s possible I got a bad batch, as my friend said she could definitely taste the bacon on her visit.

Since not everyone is in the mood for meated liquor, Frank has many other specialty drinks, a variety of beers, all-natural sodas, and the famed Dublin Dr. Pepper.

If you aren’t interested in the regular menu, they have specials that change daily – one of the specials for September 12 was an appetizer of croquettes made with alligator boudin. Specials are kept up-to-date on the website in case you’re like me and like to choose your food ahead of time. Also according to the website, they will soon be serving a Sunday brunch and are currently at work building a deli grocery in the back of the restaurant. If they sell their jackalope sausage, I’ll be first in line.

Frank is still relatively new and working out the kinks, but if you like hot dogs, you’ll want to give this place a try before finding a seat becomes impossible.

Frank is located at 4th and Colorado in downtown Austin. Open Monday through Wednesday until midnight, Thursday through Saturday till 2 a.m. Open Sundays 11-3 and 5-10.

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© Megan Myers, stetted, 2009. | Permalink | One comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: Austin

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I drink coffee every day, as much for the warm and cozy factor as the caffeine, so whenever I try to switch to something more healthy like juice for my morning drink, it never lasts long. I love wrapping my hands around a mug and staring off into space (or attempting to get work done). But coffee isn’t all that great for you. It’s not the worst thing I could drink, but sometimes I need to switch it up a bit.

I first heard about Choffy from Simple Mom. I love chocolate, but ground cacao beans made like coffee sounded a bit gross. But then I remembered that coffee is just a different kind of ground bean, right? So I ordered up a bag of Ecuadarian cacao.

Choffy is coarse ground, which makes it perfect for use in a French press. The aroma is amazing – it smells just like a bittersweet chocolate bar. It tastes a lot like it too. Honestly, the taste of Choffy is hard to describe. It’s not like hot chocolate, because it isn’t full of sugar, but it doesn’t have the same bitterness of coffee. I do like to add a tiny bit of sugar and some half-and-half to my Choffy, but that’s more of a personal preference because it’s how I drink coffee. I suspect the more I drink it the less I will add.

The cool thing about Choffy is that it has less caffeine than coffee. As in, almost none, depending on the sample of cacao beans. Apparently in cacao is a chemical called theobromine that is similar in effect (and structure) to caffeine, but it is much more gentle as a stimulant.

One problem I noticed is that brewed Choffy gets cold pretty fast, no matter what kind of cup I use for drinking. That’s annoying, but nothing a trip to the microwave can’t fix.

It’s also too bad that the only place to get Choffy is on the company website. I don’t expect to see it on the huge supermarket shelves any time soon, but it seems like something that Whole Foods would be interested in carrying, and that would certainly make it easier for me to recommend to others!

For me, Choffy is a treat. I don’t know that it will completely take the place of my morning coffee, but I love having the option.

I’m currently thinking of some recipes to use brewed Choffy in. Banana-Choffy muffins? Oh! I wonder how it could work as a mole sauce for chicken. Has anyone out there tried cooking with Choffy?

© Megan Myers, stetted, 2009. | Permalink | One comment | Add to del.icio.us
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