Showing posts with label 30 Before 30. Show all posts
Showing posts with label 30 Before 30. Show all posts

Tuesday, October 26, 2010

Let's Talk Turkey Tuesday

For my birthday we tried two new restaurants.

First up, La Condesa for brunch.

I'm sure you gathered yesterday that the key word for my birthday is awesome. And La Condesa was awesome.

Christian and I both had the huevos chilangos because house-made wild boar chorizo with poached egg, arugula, quinoa croquette and avocado salsa sounded too darn good to pass up. If you live in Austin, go. Eat this. This Saturday. If there are two of you, just order one, though, because this thing is huge. The only thing I wish was different is that they would just sprinkle the arugula on top at the end so it would maintain the crispness and flavor. As it is now, it's in the middle of everything else and you don't really get to enjoy the wonderful fresh peppery arugulaness enough.

For my birthday dinner, we went to Parkside. This dinner was heartbreaking. Everything we ate - the garlic shrimp with smoked paprika (much spicier than you think it's going to be), the marrow bones, the pork jowls with polenta, the brussel sprouts and the fries - was awesome.

But, there was a little miscommunication in the kitchen about when everything was supposed to come out and we got the pork jowl entree at the same time as the huge marrow bone appetizer. A word of warning: trying to eat that much meat product in a very short amount of time so your food doesn't get cold (even though it's not your fault there's all this food on the table at one time) isn't a good idea. At all. It made us a little sick. So, we couldn't even finish the marrow bones, which was incredibly sad because marrow makes me happy. And, we didn't have dessert, also incredibly sad because I love dessert and they are supposed to make awesome sweet stuff.

Our waitress and the manager were very nice about the whole thing and took the marrow off our bill and gave us a gift card. We'll go back and give it another shot.

Image via the La Condesa website.

Tuesday, October 19, 2010

Let's Talk Turkey Tuesday

We're not actually going to talk about turkey. One of my 30 Before 30 resolutions is to try 30 new (to me) restaurants or trailers and I love food, so I'm now dubbing Tuesdays "Let's Talk Turkey Tuesdays" AKA let's talk about food I've eaten recently.

Since I made my 30 Before 30 resolution, I've tried one new restaurant: Foreign & Domestic.

I'd been wanting to try it ever since it opened but we just hadn't made it down there. I'm super happy we finally did - it's good stuff.

We had the gruyere popovers, the lardo and I had the mac and cheese for my entree (they had a fancy name for it "ditali and cheddar").

The only part of the meal I was a little disappointed in was the lardo. I had it really built up in my mind, which I totally blame Anthony Bourdain for given his constant praising of lardo. I thought it was going to taste like the best bacon fat I'd ever had in my life, but it didn't. It was still good, and it was still really rich, but just not the scrumptiousness I dreamed about.

The ditali and cheddar, on the other hand, was totally amazing. They use a mild white cheddar (always the way to go), put in oxtails and top the whole thing with a soft egg. Pure heaven. If you get it, don't look at the portion size and scoff as I did. It's plenty.

Sadly, we didn't get to try dessert, which was disappointing because they had a bacon root beer thing that sounded right up my alley. But, we'll save room next time. Clearly, we're totally going back.

Added bonuses: great service, cool space and decor, yummy drinks.

(Image via Foreign & Domestic website)

Monday, October 11, 2010

30 Before 30

I'm turning 28 on October 23 (less than two weeks away - still plenty of time to shop!). With only two more years before I turn 30 (whoa), I thought I would make a 30 Before 30 list. I've seen these on other blogs before and always thought it was a cool idea. So, here's the full list. Some of these are stretch goals, some not as much.

  1. Learn Photoshop
  2. Turn my interest in photography into a real hobby
  3. Make our wedding photo album
  4. Get new pro photos taken of Christian and me (maybe a trash the dress session for me)
  5. Take a rock climbing class (I've already started on this one)
  6. Go kayaking
  7. Establish an exercise routine
  8. Beat Christian at Trivial Pursuit
  9. Cook a Thomas Keller recipe
  10. Eat at the French Laundry or Per Se
  11. Try 30 new (to me) trailers or restaurants
  12. Go on a picnic
  13. Go on the Blue Bell Ice Cream factory tour
  14. Go to Las Vegas
  15. Travel outside the U.S. at least once
  16. Go to Santa Fe Fiestas
  17. Take a roadtrip
  18. Go see at least one Ballet Austin performance
  19. Read 130 books
  20. Take a class - jewelry, language, something
  21. Figure out my 401(k)
  22. Volunteer for Habitat for Humanity (this may turn into volunteer for the Austin Public Library because my home improvement skills have been sucking as of late)
  23. Re-learn how to make my Grandma's taffy
  24. Get our apartment in order and get rid of excess stuff
  25. Keep a houseplant alive
  26. Pay for the person behind me in the drive-thru
  27. Learn how to knit something other than a basic scarf
  28. Get a tattoo
  29. Get a dog
  30. Make a career plan (3 year)