fooooood

so this weekend i went to three new restaurants (#18: try ten new restaurants in austin), which means i only have seven left to go. technically, i went to four new places, but i didn't eat at one of them, so it doesn't really count. anyway, considering how much i love food as well as supporting local businesses, i can assume i'll end up going to way more than ten, but ten sounded like a reasonable number at the time. maybe 20 is what i should have aimed for? i guess i can always change it. but i digress; on to the food! 

friday night/early saturday morning, i went to 24 diner with lauren. i had been playing catch up with her for a few hours and by the time it was midnight, lauren was ready for dinner. i had already eaten dinner at santa rita with lynne, jerry, and the kids, but after a couple glasses of wine with lauren, i felt up to eating again. so, off to 24 diner we went. i liked the interior a lot; it was quite different than what waterloo used to look like but it still felt the same in terms of how it was set up. our waiter mj was extremely nice and upbeat, considering how late (early?) it was, and he even gave me a few restaurant suggestions when i told him i had the goal of eating at ten new places. as an appetizer, we ordered the swiss chard and artichoke gratin, which is a spinoff of spinach artichoke dip. it was good, but nothing to write home about. plus, the bread it came with was more like croutons, and i don't particularly like croutons. for our meal we split the pulled chicken breast sandwich, which had goat cheese and avocado, two of my favorite things. we were going to get the fries, but mj suggested we try the macaroni instead, so we did, and we were better for it. the sandwich was delish, and really, with the appetizer + mac n cheese, it was more than enough. i always love splitting dishes because it keeps me under portion control and keeps the bill low! it was tough trying to decide what to order because everything sounded great. it's like diner food with an austin twist, which obviously makes it better. next time i go i'd like to try their breakfast, which is served all day. love that!

saturday afternoon i went to red's porch with brian, imogen, and jessica. i didn't order anything here, but their menu looked great and jessica's shrimp po boy made me want one, so, back i'll go someday. plus, it's so close i could walk from my apartment and the view of the greenbelt is fantastic. can't beat that.

saturday evening i went out with cheryl for her (57th!) birthday. we went to a small, blink-and-you'd-miss-it place in a strip mall on burnet called simplicity wine bar. it opened about a month ago and it's owned by the same folks who run jezebel on soco, and although i've never been there, i know it's legit so i figured this place would be, too. simplicity is a tapas bar where all the tapas are $3.95 and all the glasses of wine are $8 or less. cheryl and i had a hard time deciding which tapas to order, so we just ordered all the ones we wanted, which resulted in a very (almost uncomfortably) full belly. the pinot noir i ordered was so good (and only $5 a glass!) that i ordered another glass and so did cheryl. to eat, we ordered goat cheese with chipotle oil, crab croquetas, roasted poblano and cheese croquetas, roasted garlic spread, andouille sausage, and cajun spiced edamame. it was more than enough food, but she and i tore into it. everything was spot on. the most interesting thing we got was the roasted garlic spread: i was expecting something along the lines of hummus, something spreadable, but instead we were brought two full bulbs of garlic, still in the skin. we had to fish out the cloves with a little spoon, and it was delicious. i mixed the garlic with the goat cheese and spread it on bread, and i ought to be shot for how many of those i ate. for dessert, although we probably didn't need it, we ordered the nutella spread with cocoa nibs, and even though i said i wouldn't eat any, i big fat did anyway. it was a very satisfying meal, and relatively cheap considering how much food we got. i think it'd be better to go there with more people, though, since all the tapas are so easy to share. cheryl and i could have easily shared our meal with two other people, even though we managed to eat everything ourselves (hello, remember portion control?). i forgot to take a picture of all the grub, but oh well. the lighting in there was dim anyway, so i doubt my iphone would have done it much justice. OH and another reason why this place is awesome is because they are extremely eco-friendly. everything is served on compostable and recycled dishes (made of bamboo and corn), and even the little spoons we used were made of corn starch! our waitress said they save about 25,000 gallons of water a week by not having to wash dishes, and they recycle everything - the dishes, the utensils, even the glass wine bottles! i like that very much indeed.

on monday, i had the day off so i made plans to go running with laura around one and then do lunch after. the run was great; i haven't run since the beginning of november, so getting after three miles on my first go wasn't so easy, but i did it. still feeling the burn today, actually. anyway, after we ran we decided to go check out snack bar, the new place on south congress where la luna y sol used to be. i hadn't eaten yet minus a kid's cliff bar when i stumbled out of bed at 11:30, so i had breakfast on the brain. again, this is another place where everything on the menu looked tempting, but i love eggs and i love bacon and i love sandwiches, so i ended up ordering the sunny side up sandwich. it also had lettuce and cheddar cheese, and it was on toasted sourdough, my favorite! i debated with whether or not i should get it, since i try to order things at restaurants that i can't/won't/don't know how to make at home, but it just sounded so good and it totally hit the spot. i took the picture when there was only about two bites left, but you can see my plate had yellow yolk smeared all over it. so good! i wish i knew how to make sunny side up eggs; laura said you have to cover the pan when they cook so the yolks cook too, so i'll need to try that one of these days. laura got these teeny tiny little belgian waffles and blueberry yogurt, and she let me try some of her housemade chicken apple sausage. i'd never had chicken sausage before, and it was yummy. it was sweet because of the apples, and although i don't typically like sweet sausage (see: jerry's blueberry sausage from central market), this was so different i almost had to like it. anyway, this is another place that i'm sure i'll go back to, even though the dinner menu gets considerably more expensive. i reaaaaaally wanted a mimosa, but i figured post-run i should just stick with water (which, by the way, is served in a beaker, a la high school chemistry). it was the perfect austin afternoon, sitting outside, eating lunch and catching up with a good friend. i've got it pretty good.

on a totally unrelated note, i wish all weeks could begin with a monday off. i came back to school yesterday feeling refreshed and rejuvinated, and the kids were excited to be back, too. i think it'd be beneficial for everyone to have a monday off: it would give teachers the time to relax/plan and kids more time to be with their parents. wouldn't that be nice?