No Grocery Store, Day 322 – Slow Food, Big Reds, Fast Bubbles November 19, 2010

Day 322 was a big day, which began with some fresh squeezed tangerine juice.  The tangerines from the farmer’s market are wonderful, and I need to remind myself to freeze some juice for when they are out of season.

For lunch, I had a fried chicken breast sandwich, and sweet potato fries at Monument Cafe in Georgetown.  More details on that adventure in my previous post.

Late afternoon I attended the Slow Food Austin Happy Hour at Peche.  I don’t get down to the warehouse district very often any more, because I get annoyed by the parking situation.  I had never been to Peche, and only thought of it as an Absinthe Bar.  Come to learn, it is also an upscale restaurant that sources ingredients locally, and the menu looked delicious. The passed appetizer that I had was a Braised pork and cabbage crostini, and it was great.

 

Peche

Menu Board

 

 

Local!

Not every restaurant that touts locally sourced status, really walks the walk.  (There are quite a few that don’t).  I didn’t do any homework on Peche, but I have faith that Slow Food did before they brought us here.

 

 

Apps

From Peche, I headed over to the Wine and Food Foundation’s event Big Reds and Bubbles at the Driskill.   I pondered taking the camera in, but was glad I didn’t, because it was very crowded and juggling drinks, food, overloaded purse and the camera would have been a nightmare.  The event filled all of the ballrooms on the second floor of the Driskill.  The first room I wandered into was the Champagne room, wherein most of the food was dessert.  My first bite of the night was a chocolate begniet from Fete Accompli.  These tasty bites made their debut at the SFC Farmer’s Market downtown last week, and will continue.  Next to Fete were the Antonellis, pairing a couple of their popular cheeses with Confituras lovely preserves.  Delish.  Of the dishes I tried, the standouts were a very tasty scallop from Truluck’s, Jack Allen’s Ravioli in cream sauce, Garrido’s beef taco bite, and Moonshine’s mini lamb pot pie.  There were lots more restaurants represented that I didn’t try, lots of sweets, and red wine and champagne all around.  It was a good day.

 

No Grocery Store, Days 160 and 161 June 12, 2010

Day 160 – for breakfast I had raspberries from the Triangle Market.  For lunch, I had leftover chicken with some baby arugula and garden tomatoes.  Dinner was leftover bison, made into a taco salad, and more leftover chicken.  Boring.    This is one of the things I miss about grocery store convenience – this whole chicken deal.  I don’t enjoy breaking down a chicken.  So I cook the whole thing, then just have lots of leftovers.  There is one vendor at a market I don’t go to that I think sells chicken cut up, so I can’t feel too sorry for myself.

Day 161 – Friday.  Raspberries for breakfast.  For lunch, I stopped at Fete Acompli and had one of the best chicken salad sandwiches I’ve ever had.  She sources locally, has a booth at the SFC Market at Republic Square, and makes amazing food.  The chicken salad had nuts and basil in it.  I also got some egg salad made with local eggs.  Amazing.  I had a very impressive dinner at Eddie V’s with my parents.  The hostess remembered us by name, which surprised me.  I was flattered and impressed.  They sat us in a different section than where we normally sit, and when I told the server I was cold, he brought out wraps for mom and me.  The table next to was was wrapped up too.  That is impeccable service.  I had the beef tenderloin “carpetbag” with fried oysters and bernaise and a salad.