Boots in the Oven

Hot Breads, Austin (Northwest)

Oh my glarb, you guys, we've been so sick here! The Mother of All Colds set up residence in Logan's lungs, and then jumped to mine after a week. Lo, the house has echoed these many days with the racking coughs of an unhappy couple.

Basically, it's been disgusting here for, like, three weeks, and we are SO ready to be DONE.

A couple of weekends ago, we were really feeling something comforting. And the dish we find most comforting on the weekends is Hot Breads' pesarattu upma. Hot Bread's version is a dosa, or Indian crepe, made from a green lentil batter and filled with upma. I think of upma as Indian cream of wheat. It's a thick porridge of semolina (usually, though in Mumbai our sweet hostess made us one with oats), usually flavored with curry leaves and/or peppers and/or mustard seeds, with a few small lentils and maybe a cashew or two thrown in for flavor. The pesarattu upma is served with a couple of chutneys and a sambhar. We destroyed it quickly, while the dosa was still crisp.

On the side we had a heaping dish of gobi manchurian, fried perfectly, nice and spicy and a little sweet. This is one of my favorite Indo-Chinese dishes anywhere.

 

Lastly, a dish of chicken tikka kebab. I don't know if this is just our luck, but generally we've been happier with the vegetarian dishes we've ordered at Hot Breads. The chicken was pretty dry, but wrapping it in a little naan with some chutney and a sliver of onions improved things a bit. We ended up taking most of it home, where Logan turned it into a weeknight curry.

The people that run Hot Breads have been generally quite nice to us. When we were there, a young couple was having trouble calming their unhappy baby, and the manager brought out a free slice of cake for him.

Often, there's terrific Bollywood dance numbers on the TV, too. A little ambience for the customers.

Over the last few months, Hot Breads has become one of our weekend go-tos, even though they're a good 20 minute drive from us. This is due to the strength of their dosas, idli, and Indo-Chinese food, but we're happy with each visit to branch out a bit further onto other parts of their quite large menu. We'll definitely be back, perhaps this weekend.

Their website says they're super proud of their baked goods, but we've never tried them.

Hot Breads is at 7318 McNeil Drive in northwest Austin. (512) 249-9109. 

Salty Sow, Austin TX

We haven't been eating out much lately, due partly to the holiday money crunch and partly to the Logan working time crunch. When we do go out, there's a bit of a push and pull between going back to places we know and love (Bufalina, Barlata, Maudie's, Ramen Tatsu-ya) and trying somewhere new. Who wants to spend hard-earned dollars and hard-won free time eating a meal that isn't all that fun or delicious?

We ended up at Salty Sow last week. Foursquare informs me that we'd been there once before, about a year ago. I remember a reasonably priced, heaving charcuterie board and lots of things in jars.

Though their website says the menu changes often depending on what's seasonal and local and blah blah pigdishes, we recognized most of the offerings from our last visit. We were seated within 10 minutes on a Friday evening, which was just enough time to order a drink at the bar but not enough time for it to be prepared. (They were delivered to the table. Logan's choice was spiked with beet puree and was the better of the two drinks we tried.)

Charcuterie board to start. All of the meats were cured in house. The chicken liver mousse was ridiculously rich. Gah I love liver.

 We split an entree and a side. The serving sizes at Salty Sow are completely out of control. Logan and I had considered splitting an appetizer of french fries fried in duck fat, until we saw it delivered to the table next to us. It was easily a pound of fries. Entrees were no different. I swear we saw an entree delivered to another patron in a freaking SAUCEPAN, and the chicken thighs we chose came three to an order with six or seven fingerling potatoes. Three thighs! We ate one each and took the last one home, along with a couple of potatoes. Logan chopped it up and served it as a pasta sauce a couple of days later. Logan is the King of Leftovers. All bow to him.

Oh, how'd it taste? Quite nice! The chicken skin was crisp and seasoned well, and the meat was tender and moist. The gravy seemed like it had been built with a heavy glug of heavy cream, which we also noticed in the cauliflower and wild rice casserole. Salty Sow is not afraid of gigantic servings OR of butter and cream.

Dessert. We almost never order it, but the butterscotch budino leapt from the menu and metaphorically grabbed me. I'm so glad we got it - this dessert made Logan SO happy! It was crazy creamy and a great mix of sweet and salt. Salted caramel is my nectar.

All this, plus our two cocktails, plus a bottle of Les Vignes de Bila-Haut Côtes-du-Roussillon Villages from M. Chapoutier, plus tax and tip, set us back about $120. Not cheap. Still, it's a nice night out. If you go, dress up a bit, as the crowd (at least that night) was one of the better-dressed ones we've seen in this laid-back town. And definitely try that budino for us.

Salty Sow. 1917 Manor Road, Austin TX (there's a new location in Phoenix, too.) Website. Reservations encouraged but not a must.

Tomo Redux

We had a pretty ridiculous weekend. Things got off to a bang with a sushi blowout, continued with an art crawl, and ended up with a trip to the races! The Formula One races in Austin, that is!

First, though, sushi. I took too many pictures to relegate this to my journal-blog, which you'll find over here. (It's called Classy Otter because reasons.) These pics are all taken with my new phone, so YAY 5s! 

We hadn't been to Tomo in a while, and I'm not sure why. They just keep on turning out amazing, fresh sushi up on Parmer, and we continue to let them do that without darkening their doorstep. Based on our experience Friday, we should be going much more often (and probably ordering less food, though that's sort of true whenever we go out).

Here's Tomo in 2009, the last time I wrote about them.

I called on Friday to see if I could make reservations for omakase at the sushi bar and was denied very politely and kindly. It seems they don't take reservations for 2. But then I got a call back that they were running a 3-course lobster special, and if we were willing to reserve one of the lobsters they could accomodate a reservation. Sold!

The first lobster course was lobster sashimi. The lobster tail was plunged into cold water until it firmed, and then sliced thinly and topped with a spray of yuzu, a drizzle of olive oil, and a dot of sriracha. Apparently, they still love the sriracha at Tomo Dachi.

The second lobster course I forgot to take pictures of, becuase I usually leave these things up to Logan and he declined to be the food paparazzo for the evening. It was the lobster claw and knuckles, sliced and laid atop rice for a nigiri plate. Lovely.

Course three was sumptuous but looked hilarious. They took the entire front half of the lobster and mashed it into a miso soup, which became incredibly rich and lobster-y. The tiny claws and tentacles sticking out of the broth were a bit unnerving, though, and not edible one bit. I know this because I tried.

Our ongoing lobster bacchanalia attracted attention. People around us kept pointing at our plates and muttering, and several asked Lee, our sushi chef, what was going on and how they could order a lobster. They were told you had to be on a list. I didn't have the heart to pipe in "Or just accidentally call on the right day!" We only saw one other lobster go out after ours.

Our omakase didn't end there, though! No! Next we had a platter of nigiri.

"Eat it like you read," said Lee. So, top left to bottom right: jap tai (sweet snapper) with shiso, young grouper with hot oil, ginger, and sesame, sea bream with ankimo (monkfish liver), amberjack, bonito, and house-cured salmon with 6-month house-aged tofu. 

These tended towards the subtle in flavor, with the exception of the salmon. The aged tofu had a definite cheese-like texture and flavor, so along with the cured salmon that bite was happily remeniscent of lox with cream cheese. The jap tai was light, sweet and fresh, and the disk of monkfish liver atop the sea bream melted into a sauce as soon as it hit the tongue. Basically, they were all great in their own way.

but then!

Platter 2, more strongly flavored:

I love oily fish, so it was difficult for me to choose whether I preferred the kohada (gizzard shad, upper left) or the aji (horse mackerel, upper right). The aji was some of the freshest and meatiest I've ever had; I guess I'd gotten used to it in more downmarket sushi joints, where it's often started to dry out and concentrate in flavor. On the bottom right is anago, salt-water eel; it's served warm and topped with yuzukoshu, which gave it a bright, lightly peppery flavor.

And the uni. OMG the uni. This sea urchin was so fresh and sweet and creamy it was almost like taking a bite of fresh creamery butter. It coated my entire mouth in sweetness and was *almost* too rich for me. This is probably the best Japanese-style uni I've ever had. Now I get it. (Previous favorite sea urchin dishes: Italian style spaghetti ai ricci and Chilean style erizos in salsa verde. Yeah, I like me some uni.)

One last nigiri:

Negi toro. Very finely chopped tuna with thinly sliced green onions and a dab of wasabi. Rich, mouth-filling, incredible.

You'd think we'd be done, but I wasn't, quite. I wanted a hand roll, and when Logan mentioned this to Lee, Lee's eyes lit up and he ran to the back.

HAND ROLL!

Salmon skin hand roll, to be specific! They use the skin from the house-cured salmon you met above, so this tastes basically like a salmon bacon. It's super-crunchy and just a little fatty and exactly the right amount of salty. Also, when you eat it you feel a little like a squirrel, which is clearly a plus. 

And then Steve, the owner, made us do a sake bomb. We do not have pictures of that because nobody looks graceful or cool doing a sake bomb. Instead, you get this, which is pre-sake bomb, actually way back peri-lobster.

Hi! 

Tomodachi Sushi (aka tomo), if you'd like to go to there, is at 4101 W. Parmer Lane in what feels to me like pretty durn far northwest Austin. You can do omakase, or they have an actual menu full of tasty dishes of varying levels of sushi adventurousness, from cooked mayonnaise-drenched rolls (which I am assured are delicious) up through live octopus. Call (512) 821-9472 to see if they're holding back any lobster you can get in on.

Thanks, Tomo! We'll be back, hopefully in less than 4 years!

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.