Day 183, my half way to a year point, was Saturday. I started off at the downtown Farmer’s Market with a couple of missions, purchase a whole chicken, purchase Kocurek ribs for a party on Sunday, and have a hot Dai Due breakfast, on the next to last week they will be available this year, unless the City changes its ordinances. For breakfast, Dai Due chorizo, duck egg breakfast taco on El Milagro corn tortilla. Perfect. I picked up the ribs from the Kocureks, as well as some other tasty things, coffee from Texas Coffee Traders, and sadly no Bella Verdi lettuce. The chicken was last, and it was a doozy, 6.5 lbs, from Smith and Smith Farms. I also got some eggs from them.
Huge chicken
One of my goals going forward, is to find solutions to my perceived problems with buying everything at the farmer’s markets and local farms. Saturday was the day I was going to teach myself to properly break down a chicken. I’ve done it before, find it difficult, and have had very lopsided results. So today, I was prepared to take my time and follow instructions.
Cut up chicken
I succeeded, although I think I want a cleaver to break the bones easier. So for dinner, grilled chicken, and grilled corn, onion and tomato salad.
Oh, I forgot lunch. Pizza at Enoteca Vespaio. I’m ruined for pizza forever by Austin Food Journal’s, Christian Bowers’ perfect pizza. What I’ve come to learn from eating his pizza regularly, and taking his pizza class, is that most restaurants pay little attention to the crust, deeming it just a vessel for the toppings. Tasteless crust covered with too much greasy cheese was the failure at Enoteca, a pizza I used to like, before I knew better. When I picked up my first slice, the pizza slumped over and everything slid off, leaving a greasy mess. Christian’s pizza is the perfect balance of crispy, full flavored crust, the perfect amount of toppings that to not overwhelm the crust. Balance and flavor, and its just perfect.
Day 184, 4th of July. Breakfast, 2 scrambled eggs with garden tomatoes. Then early afternoon, off to a party and rib competition at a friend’s house. Dinner, the best ribs I’ve ever eaten. There were 6 entries in the rib competition, and 2 in the mac and cheese competition. The first rib I ate was the best rib I’ve ever had. The second was even better. The third rib I ate was shockingly better than the first two. Crazy. I don’t even think I had one of the winning ribs.
Day 185. Breakfast, 2 scrambled eggs with garden tomatoes. Lunch at Z Tejas with mom, trout salad. Dinner was leftover chicken and arugula salad (Boggy Creek) with garden tomatoes and CKC Marinated Feta.
Austin Urban Gardens 