Boots in the Oven

Lenoir Birthday

Lenoir, you little jewel-box of a restaurant... you precious salon. Thank you to you and your chef, Todd Duplechan, and your on-point waitstaff (Hi, Melinda) for making my birthday so wonderful.

Lenoir is pretty terrific, guys. They have a prix-fixe menu, where you can choose three courses for $38. Considering that most of the items are local and everything is so carefully considered and prepared, this is a screaming, honking deal. I don't know how it's possible that we'd missed going here for so long.

Reservations are an absolute necessity because did I mention, tiny? The six of us took over just about the entire center of the restaurant.

Erin and Crystal, adorable as always.

Pose, gentlemen. 

Nat, Logan, and Justin are thinking deep thoughts. 

Much of the menu changes often, and has in fact changed almost entirely in the two and a half weeks since we visited. On the night we were there I fell in love with ceviches and poached char, salads and soups. 

Logan had called Todd before our meal to chat with him about menu items, and Todd pulled out all the stops. WHAT A FREAKING TREAT, GUYS. Can you say quail prosciutto? How about... goat terrine?

Desserts were gorgeous! Panna cotta!

And of course, much birthdaying was had, and the restaurant all joined in. It was... well, embarassing, yes, but also really nice to be in such a comfortable place, surrounded by loved ones, who are all singing ridiculously at the top of their lungs over a strawberry pie.

For special occasions or date nights or, well, just because it's a terrific neighborhood restaurant and you're in the neighborhood, I can't recommend Lenoir highly enough. Go there to find out what's fresh and in season and happening locally. 

Pani Puri at Teji

Erin and Nat are awesome for driving us to the airport when we headed to California on the 18th of February, and even more awesome for taking us to Teji up in Round Rock for their only on Fridays ridiculous goat biryani.  So good, so filling, so much like the most delicious Indian mutton paella I've ever had.

They also have pani puri you fill yourself with masala "water" and mint chutney and tamarind chutney and a modestly spiced mix of potato, onion, and chickpea.  You are supposed to eat this all in one bite.  

So this Friday, do yourself a favor and get up to Round Rock for an order of hyderabadi goat dum biryani.  I know it's really far north, but hey.

Teji's Foods is at 1205 Round Rock Avenue in Round Rock, TX.  512.244.3351.

 

 

 

Fleet of grapefruit? Or a herd of grapefruit?

Murder of grapefruit?  Pride of grapefruit?

I only ask because last week, we were invited to a (fully sponsored) TexaSweet Citrus Marketing dinner at FINO.  We ate probably three pounds of delicious Rio Star grapefruit each AND got cute Lands' End goodie bags to take home with grapefruit and juice glasses and a Le Creuset juicer and an extra-informative pamplet and CD with more grapefruit information than you could shake a grapefruit at. 

We love FINO.  If you use that handy little search thing up in the top right-hand corner of the blog, you'll see three other FINO posts.  So when TexaSweet invited us to have a bunch of grapefruit at FINO on them, well.  We were there fifteen minutes early wearing matching bedazzled grapefruit sweatshirts.

Since it was FINO, drinks were in our hands very extra quickly.  Chef Jason Donoho's 5 grapefruit courses (not including an amuse bouche) were paired with wines and grapefruit-centric liquor drinks by our friend Josh Loving.

The first drinks up were HEY LOOK OVER THERE BECAUSE I FORGOT TO WRITE DOWN THE SPARKLING ROSE CAVA'S NAME DISTRACT DISTRACT and a Hemingway Daiquiri with flor de cana rum, lime, Rio Star grapefruit (what?) and luxardo maraschino, one of our favorite mixing liqueurs.  Refreshing and a good mix of bitter and sweet.

The Hemingway Daiquiri snuggled up nicely to our amuse, a tart tomato-grapefruit gazpacho.

Between the gazpacho and the daiquiri, I was feeling very much like asking for a beach lounger and large umbrella.  Of course, it's Texas, so we're already in the 80's here and light flavors don't seem crazy out of place.

Next up, a delightful salad of beets, grapefruit (Rio Star! I know, I was surprised too!), burrata (swoon), arugula and basil.  

Just lovely.  These are flavors that just GO together.  And I got me some burrata, so I was happy.

Our next drink was called "The Sauce" and was a rich, heady mix of maker's 46, zucca rabarbaro amaro (which we all practiced saying with varying degrees of success), mezcal, grapefruit bitters, and xocolatl mole bitters.  This all came together to form something very Manhattan-like, with a nice bitterness and smoky undertones.

I love that FINO has house-filtered sparkling water.  Natura definitely has a fan in me.

We drank our waters and sauces with a Rio Star Grapefruit Cured Hamachi Crudo with dill, cucumber, and yogurt.  It all tasted very Greek and lovely.  I could eat crudo all day long.

In the brief repreive between courses, everyone hopped on their phones to tweet and blog and talk grapefruit.  I think Teddy of Fun with your Food is adorable.

The wine was GOOD.  The nice, kinda funky flavors went really well with the next course:

Roasted Lamb Chop with spiced carrot-saffron puree and candied rio star grapefruit.

I've never had a lamb preparation quite like this - the sweetness of the accompaniments really played up the sweet flavor of the meat.  I'm not sure that this will be my new favorite way to eat lamb, but I'd definitely try it a few more times to be sure.

Next we were served a little palate cleanser, a grapefruit sorbet with campari.  The picture makes it look a little dinky.  Huh.

And Josh brought out one of my favoritest drinks in the world, a Venetian-style spritz with Aperol.  This drink always makes me want to buy a bunch of Missoni and lounge on the balcony of a palazzo.  This is why I need a sugar mama AND a sugar daddy.  Fatty and Stinky just don't bring in the ducats the way they should.

It's just so simple, and pretty, and ridiculously easy to make at home to wow your guests.  Aperol, prosecco, top with soda water.  Don't go expensive with the prosecco, and feel free to use Campari instead of Aperol; the Venetians to it both ways.

Dessert was vanilla panna cotta with a rio star grapefruit bitters gelee.  That gelee, I could have eaten in bulk; the panna cotta, not so much.

Thanks to FINO, and Jason and Josh and the crack service team there, and to TexaSweet for all the citrus and the adorable goodie bag.  We had a truly lovely evening.  Actually, I think I might go have a grapefruit right now.  They really might be the best thing about living in Texas in the winter (well, that and the 65 degree days, the sun, and the killer Tex-Mex everywhere).

FINO, as always, is at 2905 San Gabriel in San Gabriel's Court.  512.474.2905.

 

La Condesa, Austin - Brunchblog Continues!

POINT THE FIRST:  Shanah Tovah!  Happy New Year!  May everyone be inscribed in the book of life and 'appiness and many, many wonderful things.  

POINT THE SECOND: We like brunch.  It involves eggs, usually lots of them, and is really the only meal where it's not only acceptable, but even appropriate, to start drinking before noon.

Over fourth of July weekend we made a very quick trip to Austin.  We packed in an awful lot of seeing people and running errands and taking care of things.  On Sunday, after a raucous party the night before, we met up with our best neighbor ever, Clare.  She's been keeping an eye on the house and the car and our things for what we thought might be as much as two months but is now inching towards 6.  Jeez is she great people.

The three of us ended up at La Condesa, run by chef René Ortiz of New York's La Esquina.  Logan and I had been there soon after the restaurant opened, when we turned our noses up at charging for salsa and at serving $12 ceviches in downmarket parfait glasses (and didn't know that an egg white is a totally traditional addition to a pisco sour).  But that was well over a year ago and it was way past time for a revisit.

I am so glad we went.

The restaurant is still totally beautiful, and when it's light you can even SEE all the decorations.  Novel.  The presence of the sun also makes these pictures WAY better than the ones from our last visit.  Ah, what a difference lighting brings.

Just like the previous weekend at Publican, we immediately began our collection of drinking receptacles.  Coffee was served with a small, crumbly cookie, which seemed more like an accompaniment for an after dinner cuppa joe. 

We of course had to get one of La Condesa's famous drinks to go with our coffee.  When we're traveling, we call the combo of booze and caffeine the Cooper speedball - gets you ready for all-day-long museums and is much less lethal than the more traditional speedball.

These are breakfast margaritas, according to the menu, with orange marmalade.  They were strong and a bit sweet, which probably shouldn't have been a surprise given the marmalade.

We also ordered the chips and salsa you have to pay for (I think it's like $4?) and I totally take back what I said about charging for salsa.  If the salsas are this awesome and there are multiple ones, you have my permission to ask for my money. Smoky chipotle, tart tomatillo, creamy verde - each one was delicious, and we each had our own favorites.

Also, the chips were good.  Not stale, not crumbly.  Good.

Because we were hungry and had brought along the lovely Clare (who also acted as a third stomach - yay for getting to try lots of things!) we demanded apps forthwith.

(Eggy Eggness and more pretty food after the jump.)

Jezebel. The Restaurant, Not the Biblical Insult.

Eating at Jezebel is like having dinner over at your eccentric uncle’s place. You know, the brash one that can really cook but doesn’t give a crap about the “rules” and happens to have a predilection for erotic art. That’s pretty much chef-owner Parind Vora’s m.o.

You can tell he loves food but you get the sense that he may be a little ADHD. Ingredients that should probably never meet often find themselves snugly sharing a plate - with vastly varying results. Almost every dish sports bright streaks of mango and berry sauces. His menu proudly boasts such odd statements as “our wine list is purposely disorganized to encourage dialogue and discovery” and “it's all about the culinary kismet that can only happen through spontaneity.” Jezebel isn’t so much a restaurant as it is Vora’s own personal little experiment.

We started the evening by having our very French waiter explain that no one would bring us the check unless we asked and no one would take our order until we were ready and no one would interrupt us so just signal for any of the wait staff if we ever needed anything, anything at all. I felt a little like they were going to ask me to strap in and keep my hands inside the cart.

He went on to explain that we could order from the menu OR we could design our own prix fixe experience. Basically, he would interview us and then report back to the chef who would then channel our tastes into a personalized, off-menu, 3-course wonderland. At 75 bucks a pop though, we decided to try some of the classic offerings before jumping in whole-hog.

As we were planning our strategy, a nice hunk of sourdough showed up with a little side plate of oil and vinegar. Some herbaceous baked olives rounded out our fortifying pre-meal snack. With my hunger dulled, I got our waiter’s attention and attempted to order a bottle of Burgundy. Which they were out of. I pointed to my back up bottle. Nope, out of that one too. I guess they were serious about that “purposely disorganized” thing.

Undeterred, Mr. Waiter recommended a significantly pricier alternative. I grumpily agreed since I was really feeling the French pinot vibe. He returned with a lovely ’06 Old Vine Lequin-Colin from Chassagne-Montrachet. And an offer to comp our desserts. Grumpiness abated.

Moments later our first courses appeared- a voul au vents with chicken and smoked rabbit and a ‘ceasar’ with amberjack escabeche and goat cheese.

More delectability after the jump.