Taqueria Arandas Number 5

Taqueria Arandas #5 is a Jalisco-style taqueria just south of Oltorf on 1st Street. I grew up eating Jalisco-style tacos in Chicago, and this place makes me feel right at home.

The menu is big, and you can get breakfast or lunch all day. Someone brings you salsa and warm chips as soon as you sit down. I occasionally get tacos, but my absolute favorite is the avocado tostada. It's smeared with beans and layered with what's probably half an avocado, plus lettuce, tomatoes, Chihuahua cheese, and a big dollop of tangy crema.

They're less than three bucks, and at that price, two people can get in and out of there with a full meal and a couple of beers for under $15. Their breakfast is an even better deal. Plates with eggs, papas, and tortillas are around three bucks.

The food arrives shockingly quickly too. Often, I'll spy the waitress heading toward my table, and I think she must be coming back to ask a question when she's actually carrying my food over.

One word of caution for vegetarians: the bolillos used for the tortas are made with lard. That made for a very sad Mr. M. when he found out.

But my avocado tostadas still make me very, very happy.

Taqueria Arandas #5
2448 South First Street, Austin

Silken Chocolate Corn Chip Pie

At  a recent potluck, the host (my lovely friend at Green Door Hospitality) requested all the guests bring a sweet dish. She provided the savory dishes.

My mother-in-law makes a silken tofu pie that's really delicious; made with just a few ingredients, it's surprisingly rich and satisfying. I've also had vegan chocolate pudding at a couple of potlucks, and liked it a lot.

I knew there would be at least one vegan at the party, so I wanted to make something she could eat. Then I remembered another friend is gluten-free, and I wanted to make something for her too.

So instead of my usual graham-cracker crust, I tried something new: a tortilla chip crust. I looked for recipes online, but didn't find any. So I ended up crushing up the chips finely in my food processor and adding sugar, coconut oil, and a bit of water to bind it. When the texture looked sandy, I pressed it into a pie plate and baked it until golden, about 15 minutes.

While it cooled, I made the chocolate filling. It's a deliciously creamy mixture of melted dark chocolate, silken tofu, vanilla extract, maple syrup, and salt.

The tofu really thickens the whole thing up and makes it very much like a chocolate-mousse pie.

I was surprised and really happy with how well it turned out. The salty corn chip crust went really well with the chocolate, and it didn't get bogged down by the mousse.

Definitely delicious.

Here's the recipe:

Chocolate Tortilla Chip pie
Crust:
2 cups finely ground tortilla chips
1/4 cup melted coconut oil
1 tablespoon sugar

Filling:
2 cups good-quality dark chocolate chips
One package silken tofu (my package was 16 oz, but many are smaller)
3 to 4 tablespoons maple syrup
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon salt

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Oil a 9-inch pie plate. Put all the ingredients for the crust into the food processor and pulse until well combined. Add water and pulse until the mixture just comes together. Press the mixture into the pie plate and bake for about 15 minutes, until slightly golden. Cool completely.

Wash the bowl of the food processor before making the filling. In a large glass bowl, melt the chocolate chips in the microwave in 30-second bursts on half-power, stirring after each burst. Put the tofu in the food processor and process until very smooth. Add the maple syrup, vanilla, and salt and pulse to combine. Add the melted chocolate and puree until smooth.

Pour the filling into the cooled crust. Chill in the fridge for 2 hours before serving.

Tacodeli Lunch

I eat a lot of tacos. Really, I love tortillas and hot sauce, so if I can have those, with some tasty fillings between them, I'm very happy.

Tacodeli, which now has 3 locations in Austin, is one of my absolute favorite places to get them.

I can't speak to the deliciousness of their meat tacos, but their vegetarian options are stellar. On weekends, they serve breakfast tacos all day, with lunch starting at 11. So on weekends, choosing only two (my usual portion) is not easy. They have tons of ingredients, and they're all very fresh and flavorful. It's tough to pick just a few.

Usually, I start with their excellent roasted portabellos, and go from there. Seriously, they're thick cut, juicy, and earthy. Their eggs are really good too. They're from Vital Farms, a sustainable, happy-chicken-raising operation, which I definitely like.

At lunch, there are two mushroom-based tacos: the Space Cowboy, with corn, peppers, fresh guacamole, and queso freso; and the Frontera Fundido Portabello, with onion-and-poblano rajas and Jack cheese. I love them both, but I go more often for the Space Cowboy.

Then there's the Heather, one of my favorite tacos served anywhere. It's got smooth black beans and crisp lettuce, fresh tomatoes, guacamole, and its crowning glory: a big slab of griddled queso fresco.

They don't mess around with the guacamole here, either. It's obviously fresh, and they pile on plenty.

The Papadulce is another frequent choice. It's got roasted sweet potatoes, corn, toasted pumpkin seeds, and a sweet-spicy sauce.

And everything is even better when topped with their Salsa Dona, a creamy jalapeno sauce that's pretty spicy, but super-flavorful.

We get Tacodeli for lunch or brunch once or twice a week, and if they were open for dinner, I'm sure we'd be there twice as often. The food is fresh, local when they can get local ingredients, and pretty cheap for two people to have lunch.

Vegetable Pot Pie

It's been warm in Austin, but last week it was a bit chilly. Chillyish. And when it's warm, I miss baking so during last week's kind of chilly weather, I made a pot pie.

I'd seen a recipe on The Kitchn for a chicken pot pie with a poured biscuit crust. I prefer biscuits to puff pastry, so this seemed perfect. I only had to modify the recipe a bit to use what I had on hand, some seasonal vegetables from the market.

Instead of The Kitchn's veggie blend, I used: carrots, onions, Jerusalem artichokes, Japanese turnips, cremini mushrooms, and shelled edamame. And in place of the sherry, I used 3 tablespoons of vinho verde.

I also used coconut milk in the crust recipe, and almond milk in the sauce recipe, since that's what I had on hand.

The result was crazy good. We ate it for days, even on the warm evenings, and it was just as a pot pie should be: savory, warming, and very comforting.

This one's going into regular rotation during our non-summer weather.

Onion Rolls

Early in our relationship, M and I had a pretty good Saturday morning routine. We'd walk to the Urbana Farmers Market nice and early. There, we'd load up on organic produce, then head over to Mirabelle and load up on pastry.

Mirabelle makes excellent pastries and breads, sweet and savory. One of my regular indulgences was their onion roll. It's a slightly sweet yeast dough rolled around sweet cooked onions, tangy cream, and crunchy poppy seeds.

We haven't lived in Urbana for years, and I've only seen the onion rolls at Mirabelle. With the onions, cream, and poppy seeds, it definitely has an Eastern European flavor to it, which isn't in abundance in Austin.

I thought of the onion rolls a few days ago, and I had to have one, so I took a shot at a recipe.

I made a no-knead pizza dough recipe, which has turned out to be pretty versatile. Then we spread the rolled-out dough with Full Quiver Farms neufchatel cheese and sprinkled on sauteed onions and poppy seeds and rolled it up cinnamon-roll style. (We made another roll with sauteed apple, crystallized ginger, and brown sugar.)

Then we sliced the rolls and let them rise before baking until golden brown with some melted butter brushed over the tops.

The rolls were perfect. The dough was browned on the outside and nicely fluffy and chewy on the inside. The onion filling was creamy, sweet, and satisfyingly poppy.

Onion Rolls
This is a full recipe for onion rolls, though I made half onion, half apple. For the apple-ginger filling, halve the filling ingredients for the onion rolls and substitute with 1 chopped and sauteed tart apple,  2 tablespoons chopped crystallized ginger, and 3 tablespoons brown sugar.

Dough for 1 pizza
2 tablespoons safflower (or other vegetable) oil
2 large onions, sliced
8 ounces neufchatel
1/4 cup poppy seeds
3 tablespoons butter, melted (optional)

Heat the oil in a large saute pan over low heat. Add the onions and cook until very soft, but not browned. This can take 10 to 15 minutes. Set the onions aside to cool.

Roll the dough into a large rectangle. Spread the neufchatel on the dough, going all the way to the edges. Sprinkle the onions and poppy seeds over the cheese. Roll up the dough like a cinnamon roll, starting with one of the long sides of the rectangle. Place seam-side down and cut into 1.5-inch sections.

Preheat the oven to 375. Place the rolls on their sides, almost touching, in a buttered 9 x 13 baking dish. Cover with a clean dish towel and let rise for 30 minutes. Remove the towel, brush the melted butter on the tops of the rolls (if using), and bake until golden brown, about 30 to 35 minutes.

Fall-Time Escabeche

I love all kinds of pickled vegetables. And with all the great produce we get in Austin, I find myself making pickles pretty regularly.

Growing up, I ate a lot of Mexican food at a little neighborhood taqueria in Chicago. The place, called La Fiesta, is open 24 hours a day, 7 days a week (and has been for as long as I can remember).

When you sit down there, nice ladies bring out a basket of chips with a bowl of salsa and a bowl of escabeche, a spicy and sour jalapeno and carrot pickle. A few other places in the neighborhood put in other vegetables, like cauliflower, but I always chose La Fiesta because of their spicier version, as well as their giant burritos (which NEVER have rice in them).

And in Austin, this is the season when carrots and jalapenos are ripe at the same time. And because cauliflower and onions are also in season here, I put those in too.

First, I chopped all the vegetables up. I could only get tiny carrots at the market, but they were sweet and tender.

 

Then I sauteed them in a little bit of olive oil. I got a couple of jars together and put a few peppercorns, a few coriander seeds, and a little bit of dried oregano in each one. (Normally, I'd add a bay leaf or two to each jar, but I was out.)

I made a brine with water, vinegar, and salt and heated it to dissolve the salt. Then I packed the veggies into the jars, covered them with the brine, and slapped a couple of lids on them. When they were cool, I stuck them in the fridge, where they'd start curing.

 

I'll find out in a couple of days how it went. The hardest part is waiting. For the flavors to really come together, it takes at least a few days, but really, it's better after a week or so. It's got to be refrigerated, since the jars are unprocessed, but they seem to keep for a few months. I have a jar in the fridge from earlier in the season (sans cauliflower), and it's really delicious.

Escabeche
This is more of a guideline. You can use whatever vegetables are available, and flavor the brine with different spices. But for me, it always has to have at least carrots and jalapenos.

4 cups bite-size vegetables 
3 to 4 jalapenos, sliced into rings
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 cup water
1 cup vinegar (I used mostly cider vinegar, with a little bit of white vinegar.)
1 heaping teaspoon kosher salt
2 bay leaves
1/2 teaspoon peppercorns
1/2 teaspoon coriander seeds
1 teaspoon oregano

Saute the veggies and jalapenos in the olive until just beginning to become tender, about 5 minutes. Meanwhile, heat the water, vinegar, and salt, stirring until the salt dissolves.

Divide the bay leaves, peppercorns, coriander seeds, and oregano between 2 pint-size jars. Pack the vegetables into the jars and pour the brine over. Cover the jars with lids and allow to cool to room temperature. Let it sit in the fridge for at least a few days before eating. They should last a few months, but they usually get eaten much quicker.

Bouldin Brunch

 

Last weekend, we went to Bouldin Creek Coffeehouse for brunch. It's a place we go to a lot. It's in the neighborhood, the food is really good (plus pretty healthy and all vegetarian), and the staff are nice.

We usually go for dinner, and tend not to even try brunch. On Saturday and Sunday mornings, the place can get pretty crowded. But we decided to chance it, and walked on over. The host told us we'd have to wait about 20 minutes, and we decided that'd be okay. It would have taken us at least that long to walk back to the house, get the car, and drive somewhere else.

So we got one of those goofy little buzzer things and went outside. Our table was ready in about 5 minutes, which was a really nice surprise.

We got the special, which was biscuits and gravy, and a tofu-broccoli salad. The salad is something I get pretty often.

Biscuits and gravy

Tofu and broccoli salad

The biscuits and gravy were really satisfying. The biscuits were light, and the mushroom gravy was rich and savory. The salad was great. I love the salty, sesame-flavored broccoli that's cooked but still nice and crisp. They also put on a ton of sunflower sprouts, which are really fresh and nutty. And the garlic-tahini dressing is earthy and comforting.

To drink, I tried the Kool Keith, made from two shots of espresso and chocolate syrup, over ice. The drink was served in a pint glass, making it much bigger than I expected, but it was sweet and refreshing. And caffeinated.

We'll still be back for dinner probably a lot sooner than we'll be back in for brunch, but I would definitely try it again.

Micheladas at Hotel San Jose

We've been experiencing a little cold snap here, with morning temperatures around 40 degrees. It sort of broke today. Well, it was still 40 degrees in the morning, but it got up to almost 80 this evening. The weather is weird here.

Last Thursday, I saw that the chilly weather was on its way, so I took my sweetie out for a drink at the patio bar at the Hotel San Jose.

Hotel San Jose is on South Congress, and the bar is in a little quiet courtyard next to the pool. The atmosphere outside is relaxed and chic. Tucked away from the noisy avenue, it's slightly secluded and feels fancy.

It's great to sit along the perimeter under the grapevines that canopy some of the tables and people watch (and pooch watch on the dog-friendly patio).

We've never been inside the hotel, but it looks really nice. And kind of expensive.

We each ordered a michelada, a salty-spicy beer cocktail. The San Jose's michelada is delicious, with lots of fresh lime juice and cracked black pepper.When you order one, a glass arrives with ice and the michelada mix, which you pour the beer into.

Salty and spicy

Served over ice, it's an excellent drink for a warm summer (or fall) evening. And at $4 for a michelada made with Modelo, it's not extravagant, even at the semi-swanky hotel.

Passion Vine

When I was in Peru this February, I ate a lot of granadillas, a kind of passion fruit. The flavor was so sweet, floral, and tropical, I knew I'd miss them when I got back home. And because a single passion fruit can cost at least four bucks at the grocery store (when you can get them for about a fifty cents a pound in Lima), I definitely didn't want to buy them.

I found a Texas Maypop plant at the Great Outdoors here in Austin. The Maypop is a native Texas variety, named because they pop loudly when stepped on.

I planted the vine, which was pretty small, in the backyard in early March and trained it on a tomato cage. Now in October, the vine has really filled out. It sends our shoots that can grow a couple of feet in a single day.

And the flowers it produces are gorgeous. They're big and weird, with purple and green petals and something that looks like an alien popping right out of the middle.

Crazy alien flower

A couple of weeks ago, I went outside to tuck the new tendrils behind the wires of the tomato cage, and I was shocked to see a fruit. I'm not sure if it's going to taste good, or if it's going to produce more than just the one, but I can't wait to see what happens.

First Maypop

Green Corn Project 2012 Fall Festival Tickets on Sale

The Green Corn Project's annual Fall Festival is October 28th. Green Corn Project aims to increase access to affordable, sustainable, nutritious food. Entirely volunteer run, the organization does this by installing organic vegetable gardens in folks' backyards, and at schools, community centers, and shelters.

Put on at Boggy Creek Farm, one of Austin's favorite urban farms with friendly farmers and gorgeous chickens, this festival will the fourth one I attend, and it keeps getting bigger each year.

During the festival, chefs and restaurants set up around the front yard at the farm, cooking demonstrations are out on the back porch, and there's a silent auction in the barn. With live music and lots of good food to eat, it's an excellent way to spend an afternoon and a bargain for a fundraiser like this at $35.  Tickets are here.

Delicata Tart

I had several delicata squash on the counter, and some really nice butter in the fridge, so it seemed like the perfect time to make a squash tart.

Delicata squash are beautifully striped and mildly nutty in flavor. They're similar in taste to butternut or acorn squash, and take very well to roasting. Here's what they look like when you roast them and take a scoop out of one to taste it:

We cook a lot at home, and I couldn't believe the effort-to-deliciousness ratio in this dish. It was super-easy to make, and I did it all with ingredients I had on hand. The old man and I ate it for dinner, then for breakfast the next morning with scrambled eggs and green-chile yogurt sauce. I took it to the office and ate it cold for lunch. All good. All very good.

Here's what I did:

After roasting three medium squashes, I removed all their flesh and mashed it with my hands. (Yes, that happened. I forgot the potato masher had broken, strangely enough, and the fork was just too slow.) Then I mixed in two small onions that I'd caramelized in butter, one farm egg, a good handful of grated Parmesan, a few big spoonfuls of Greek yogurt, and salt and pepper.

I prepared a butter-rich tart dough, pressed it into the pan, and baked it.

Before

And after

Then I crumbled a few ounces of blue cheese in the baked tart shell, spread the filling on and baked it until set.

Then I went nuts waiting for the thing to cool. But man, it was worth it. The crust had a wonderfully nutty brown-butter flavor, which went perfectly with the sweet squash. And the piquant blue cheese added really good saltiness. 

Delicata Squash Tart
1 recipe tart dough
3 delicata squash
1 tsp. vegetable oil
2 T. butter
2 small onions, thinly sliced
1 oz. Parmesan, finely grated
1/3 c. Greek yogurt
1 egg
Salt and pepper
3 oz. blue cheese

Prepare and bake the tart dough. Set aside to cool completely.

Preheat the oven to 375. Slice the squash in half and scoop out the seeds with a spoon. (You can bake them like pumpkin seeds, or discard them.) Rub the oil on the cut sides of the squash, and place face-down on a baking sheet. Bake until easily pierced with a fork, about 30 minutes.Remove from the oven, but leave the oven on.When cool enough to handle, scoop the flesh from the skins into a medium mixing bowl and mash until mostly smooth.

While the squash is roasting, caramelize the onions: melt the butter in a large, nonstick skillet over medium-low heat. Add the onions and cook until well browned, stirring often (this can take 30 minutes or more, but the flavor is worth it).

Add the onions to the squash, then stir in the Parmesan, yogurt, egg, and salt and pepper to taste. Crumble the blue cheese into the bottom of the tart shell, then spoon and spread the squash mixture over it.

Bake in the center of the oven until set, about 35 minutes. Cool for 10 minutes, slice, and serve.

Papalote Taco House

 

You can find good food in unexpected places in Austin. In other cities I've lived in, strip-mall restaurants were usually best avoided. 

Here though, strip malls are perfectly good (sometimes really good) places to find restaurants.

Papalote Taco House, which shares a block with a ThunderCloud Subs shop, looks kind of surf-y on the outside, and has very good tacos inside.

For a small place, they have some excellent vegetarian options. Their tortillas are store bought, but the corn tortillas are simple and nice and corny. 

I don't think I've ever left the place without eating one of their Tortas de Coliflor tacos. The tortas are little cakes of cooked and mashed cauliflower mixed with cheese, fried and coated with a bittersweet guajillo chili sauce. Topped with a little bit of shredded cabbage, queso fresco, and a sliver of avocado, they're salty, sweet, spicy, and a little bitter. 

And though the guajillo sauce is spicy, I can't resist a little bit of their green sauce.

Tortas de coliflor and hongos y epazote tacos

The Mushroom y Epazote taco is earthy and rich, with lots of chewy hominy. (I like to mix the red and green sauces on this one.)

A Tumble of Tomatoes

My very sweet friends at Beyond the Green Door recently stopped by and brought us a package of their garden bounty - fresh Roma tomatoes.

A couple of months ago, I saw David Lebovitz's recipe for Oven-Roasted Tomatoes. They looked great, but I don't grow tomatoes, and they're rather expensive at the market. So I hadn't tried them yet. This garden gift gave me the opportunity to roast my own.

I loosely followed David's directions, omitting the herbs and pepper and increasing the garlic.

I sliced the tomatoes in half, cored them, and tossed them with some good olive oil, sea salt, and lots of sliced garlic.

Then I lay them neatly cut-side down.

I baked them for over two hours, and ended up with this: A tangy-sweet and deeply flavored pan of tomatoes.

They were great on their own, with simple bread and butter, and on sandwiches with baked tofu.

Thanks, guys. 

Market Report - July 21

Another light market week, but we got some really good stuff:

Top row:
Cinnamon Sugar Donut Holes from Red Rabbit Cooperative Bakery. They didn't make it an hour past the market. Two hungry market shoppers make quick work of a box of donut holes.
Baby Bella mushrooms from Kitchen Pride. A staple. We get these a lot.
Pluots from Bar W Farm and Ranch. These were much firmer than plums, but very juicy and sweet, with none of the super-sour flavor that plum skins can have.
Whole wheat flour from Richardson Farms.

Bottom Row:
Cucumbers, beautiful eggplant, Sun Gold tomatoes, and spicy Anaheim peppers, all from Tecolote.

Market Report - July 14

I went light at the market this week, only picking up a few things. But they're all very good.

Clockwise, starting at top left:

Kombucha (Cherry Honeydew and Pineapple Super Greens) from Buddha's Brew. It comes in pints, but I got two quarts.The Cherry Honeydew is a new flavor, and it's really, really good.

A fat-stalked, giant tangle of edamame from Tecolote. I've never had it fresh, so I'm excited to try it.

Serranos and sunflower sprouts from Ottmers Family Farm. Delicious in a salad with Tecolote's cucumbers.

Ridiculously juicy and delicious Asian Pears from the friendly farmers at Harvest Time. I thought I'd make a spicy slaw with these and the serranos, but I keep eating them out of hand.

Shallots from Munkebo Farm.

Hungarian medium peppers and juicy, thin-skinned cucumbers from Tecolote.

A Chilaquiles Jones

For our anniversary, my mom got me and M. a gift certificate to Frontera Grill. We went with my mom and aunt one Saturday for brunch, after buying berries and pastries at the Green City Market in Lincoln Park.

Frontera chilaquiles with guajillo sauce. And really good coffee.

I'd had chilaquiles on the brain for weeks, and M. told me I had a chiliquiles jones. He was right: when I saw it on the menu I knew I had to have it. The guajillo sauce was sharp, a little spicy, a tiny bit bitter, and all delicious. The substantial chips were made from the housemade thick tortillas, so they still had some bite despite being drowned in the delicious sauce.

After getting home, I had to make a batch of my own. I found a recipe on Epicurious, which I followed with a couple of exceptions. I used chipotle powder in place of the paprika, and I doubled it, so it cooked longer.

It was pretty easy to make. I soaked a package of guajillo chilies in hot water until they were soft, then roughly chopped jalapenos, onions, and garlic. After removing the stems and seeds from the chilies, I blended everything with drained whole tomatoes and some of the soaking liquid, and cooked  it for about 40 minutes. The heat level was still pretty low, so I added some more chipotle and cooked it a little more along with the honey.

Homemade chilaquiles

I tossed some of the sauce with store-bought tortillas and topped it with some crumbled feta (instead of queso fresco), then baked it until the chips were browned.

With some chopped sweet Texas 1015 onions, lime juice, and avocado, it was satisfying, but pretty different from Frontera's version. This one was more tomato-y and less spicy and complex. Next time, I think I'll try a mixture of dried chilies and toast them before soaking, and reduce the amount of tomato.

I'd assumed the sauce would cook down a bit, which is why I made the double batch. I ended up with four pints, which was a bit more than expected. I'll be making this again soon.

Onions: Milagro Farm

Jalapenos: Urban Roots

Garlic: Buena Tierra Farm

Woodland (finally)

We have lived within walking distance of the Woodland restaurant for more than four years. After having one brunch there right after moving into the neighborhood, we just never made it back in.

Every so often, when we're deciding what to have for dinner, my old man will suggest Woodland. My answer has almost always been no. Then, even less often, I would suggest going, but each time, he wasn't in the mood.

Finally, he suggested and I was feeling it. So we went for a weeknight dinner. And it was not bad. Much better, even, than that long-ago brunch.

The portions at Woodland are large, and the two of us are small and we were determined to end our meal with a slice of Woodland's famous pie, so we ordered an appetizer, a main course, and dessert to share.

But first, there were drinks. He ordered the non-alcoholic cucumber, mint, and soda water concoction. I was dubious, but I took a sip of his and immediately ordered one for myself. It was crisp and refreshing, perfect for one of the several hundred 100+ degree days we had before the temperatures in Austin dipped down into the chilly 90s.


Then came the food. for maximum variety, we got the appetizer and the main course delivered at the same time. We got the corn fritters and the veggie burger with fries. I'd read great reviews of the veggie burger, and I wasn't sure what to expect.

The patty was pinkish, and it had a nice beany flavor, but it was just a little bit dry (and beany) in texture. But the bun, a shiny, rich brioche, made it. The moist, almost sweet bread was excellent with the earthy burger.

Pink veggie burger

The corn fritters were nicely dark, and almost perfectly round. They were served piping hot, and their crisp exteriors gave way to steamy, fluffy interiors. There was definitely corn in there–whole kernels were embedded in the bread–but the fritters didn't really taste of corn. I guess when I think of corn fritters, I imagine sweet, slightly chewy bites with lots of corn flavor, sometimes dusted with powdered sugar. (I'm sure I get this from White Fence Farm, just outside Chicago.) They were good, though not what I expected, and the chipotle dipping sauce was really nice–spicy, tangy, and creamy.

Corn fritters

Last, we got pie. Coconut cream. It was beautiful, with a mountain of whipped cream on top of the sweet coconut custard.

Oh, coconut. (And, aww, dark picture.)

I love popsicles.

I love popsicles. As a kid, I took them any way I could get them. Often, in the summer, that usually meant what we called "freeze pops," brightly hued sugar water that tasted vaguely fruity in plastic sleeves. I was an only child, but on my block, my mom and my friends' parents bought enough so the hoards of playing kids could all have frozen treats without it getting too expensive.

My favorite flavor was pink. I'm not sure what flavor it was supposed to be—maybe strawberry—but I went for those first. I loved letting them melt a bit before sucking the "juice" up the sides of the frozen block, leaving the frozen middle intact. That, and whacking the still-sealed plastic tubes on the counter, or the table, or the front steps—whatever was handy—and creating a "slushy" that could be slurped.

My grandma's sister (who I also called Grandma) lived in the suburbs and had a pool, and she a freezer chest on her enclosed back porch. In it could be found a trove of frozen goodies for all the often-visiting kids in the family. There were ice creams with flavors like heavenly hash, which I only ever had at that grandma's house, enjoyed with cousins who would bit the tips of their sugar cones to suck the melted ice cream from. Not me. I slowly savored the ice cream to maximize the time it was in the cone so it would soften around the edges, eating the softened cone before devouring the still-crunchy pointed tip, filled with melty ice cream.

That grandma had exotic popsicles, too. In addition to the standard flavors—cherry, grape, orange—she always had an extra-special box with a crazy-exciting variety—banana, lime, and root beer. I'd usually choose one of those over ice cream. I loved them all, but my favorite was banana. Deep golden yellow and rich-tasting, they were lapped up, even when I was freezing cold, wrapped in a towel after swimming in her pool that was surrounded by tall trees, in the shade, and always very, very cold.

Back in Chicago in the summer, paleta men would come around. The men pushed white carts filled with Mexican-style popsicles kept cold with steamy dry ice. The flavor variety was dizzying, and included fruits and combinations I hadn't heard of—tamarindo, jamaica, guayaba. I almost always got one of two flavors—sandia, made from fresh watermelon, that had chunks of fruit and sometimes seeds—or arroz con leche—rice pudding. OK. So rice pudding? Not what I'd expect in a popsicle, but after trying it, it became a fast favorite—creamy with a grainy, sweet-rice flavor, flecked with cinnamon, and studded with soft grains of rice.

When I moved away from Chicago, I kind of stopped eating popsicles. I was off to college, in the land of exotic Ben and Jerry's flavors and frozen custards. In grad school in Wisconsin, it was fruit sherbets. (By the way, why is next to impossible to find natural sherbets in Austin?) Sure, there were occasional popsicles along the way, but they'd lost favor to other frozen desserts. Then, I just didn't eat much ice cream at all. A shame really, but I'd buy a pint of the good stuff, have a small serving, and it the remainder would frost over in the freezer before I got to it again.

Lately, I've been eating popsicles again. It started with a box of fruit pops from the grocery. But I've had my eye out for more, and I've been gobbling up Austin-made GoodPops from the farmers market. And I've been on to more. Frozen yogurt, ice cream, and even some homemade treats. And I'm seriously thinking of buying some paleta molds to try to make my own. (This is pretty serious. I am usually really reluctant to buy any new kitchen equipment unless I NEED it, or it's very, very special.)

But making a batch of homemade paletas can lead to its own problems. The most important one is, who's going to eat them? I fear that even homemade paletas, if they number more than a few, would languish in the freezer until they're too frosty to discern their flavor. But I may be up to the challenge.

Bombay Express

I love Indian food. Well, I really love any food that that has lots of different textures and that is sweet, savory, sour, and spicy all at once.

Chaat, or Indian snacks, is a particular favorite. Austin doesn't have many restaurants serve chaat, and none south of the river that I know of, so making the trek to the far north side of town to Bombay Express is always a treat.

Like lots of Austin restaurants, Bombay Express is in a big strip mall, but don't let that food you. They serve amazingly delicious chaat that's really cheap and really pretty.

Every time I go, I have to get two things: a dosa and bhel puri.

A dosa is a very thin pancake made with fermented lentils and rice. Very often, they're gigantic sheets rolled or folded and hanging over the edges of the serving platter.

Bombay Express's version is delicate, crispy, deeply savory, and a tiny bit sweet. The pancake is served perfectly brown with spicy sambar and mild coconut chutney. They're so good that I can't not get one. If I don't I know it might be a few weeks before I can get back to have one and I'll think about it probably the whole time.

dosa

The bhel puri is crazy. It's a bed of crispy puffed rice and crunchy-noodley sev topped with chopped potatoes, onions, and cilantro. The whole thing is drizzled with sweet-sour tamarind and verdant green chutneys, and a mystery hot chili sauce. Really, I have no idea what the hot sauce is, but it's fantastic. All the ingredients together make what is possibly the perfect food. Every bite has a little of everything in it - crunchy, soft, spicy, sweet, sour, and savory. Again, it's something that I want all the time, so I can't not get it when the opportunity presents itself. I've got to learn to make it on my own.

bhel puri

On weekends, they serve a thali plate - a big, round tray with little portions of lots of dishes nestled in it. This visit's had (clockwise from the bowl at the top) kadhi soup, pickle, galub jamun for dessert, cooling raita, cilantro chutney, vegetable pakoras, green beans, paneer curry, rice, roti, and a papadum. All for, I think, $9 or $10? Well, yes. Yes, I will, thank you very much. With that many dishes, who needs to decide that to have? Besides the dosa and bhel puri, I mean.

thali

The restaurant is very casual. Order at the counter, take a number and your food is brought to you as each dish is ready. Bring a friend (or 3, or 4), order a bunch, and share it all as it comes out.

Bombay Express
13000 N. IH 35, Building 12
Austin, TX 78753
Open Tuesday through Sunday, 11a-9p

TRIO Breakfast

After a loooong holiday season that involved my apartment getting broken into, a trip to very cold upstate New York and a missed connection that very nearly required a night spent at O'Hare (thankfully, we were able to get on the stand-by list and make it onto a plane just a few hours after our missed plane left) and some really cold days, things are finally settling back to normal in Austin.

On a recent Saturday morning, the man and I ventured over to TRIO at the Four Seasons for breakfast. Having not been to TRIO before, we both thought breakfast was a fitting introduction to the swanky restaurant.

We were immediately seated, and a waiter brought coffee right away. The coffee was fresh, very hot and strong, and served with heavy cream. Yum.

The menu presented lots of delicious-sounding choices, and waiters carried plates of great-looking food like waffles, eggs and fresh fruit, but I knew what I wanted: TRIO's famous pancakes.

I got the Trio, one banana-blueberry, one gingerbread and one oatmeal-pecan pancake with warm maple syrup, caramelized bananas and candied pecans. Do you see these things? They're the fluffiest, tallest pancakes I've ever seen.

Fluffy, pancakes goodness

And they were fantastic - soft, chewy and piping hot. Of the three, my favorite was the oatmeal-pecan pancake. The soft crunch of the pecans was wonderful with the moist chewiness of the pancake. My least favorite was the gingerbread, but I'm not a big gingerbread fan anyway. In fact, I'm not sure why I got a gingerbread pancake at all.

I was tempted to get an order of their griddled hash browns, too. I love fried potatoes (who doesn't?), and they were hard to pass up, but in the end, I'm glad I did. I couldn't finish my pancakes, and I don't know how I would have dealt with a plate of probably delicious potatoes and a full belly.

The man got the Farmers Market Breakfast, with two eggs, a corn cake with blackberry sauce, a yellow tomato with chevre and herbs and a bowl of grits (subbing grits for the sausage). I tasted all but the eggs, and while the tomato was a little underripe and crunchy, the grits were heaven - luxuriously creamy and covered with sharp Cheddar cheese.

Farmers Market Breakfast

I'm already planning a return trip to TRIO, hopefully this time for lunch or dinner. Or maybe their happy hour, a great deal with half-price bar appetizers.

TRIO at the Four Seasons
98 San Jacinto Blvd