New Toy!

As most of you know, the large majority of the photos for this blog have heretofore been taken with a four-year-old ultracompact camera, my beloved Canon SD800 IS. Despite the fact that - back in February - the flash started to emit puffs of smoke, I couldn't quite bring myself to part with my trusty friend.

But with a birthday on its way, I finally decided that it was time to treat myself to a new toy. I picked it up on Thursday night, just in time for a visit from my dear friend Andi, whom I had not seen since 9th grade (thanks, Facebook!). Between eating my way through Austin with Andi and our Supper Club's October meeting, which consisted of a food trailer tour, I had ample opportunity to play with my new baby. It's still a compact camera, because I need to be able to throw it in my bag and go - but it is still SO much more powerful than my old one. Here are a few shots from its maiden weekend.

Corned beef hash at Zax.


Shot at Lambert's on Auto mode without a tripod. With my old camera, this photo would have been a terrible blur. This camera handles low light shots extremely well for a camera of this size.


Lambert's pork ribs with a ah-ma-zing fennel & coriander rub and a hint of maple glaze. Served with apple & roasted fennel slaw. ($16)


Calamari at Fonda San Miguel.


Lengua tacos at Taqueria Arandas. One of the best bargain meals in town at a ridiculously low $1.60 apiece.


The fragrant Fish Malabar at G'raj Mahal.


Seared Yassa chicken served bunny chow style at Cazamance.


Army of sliders from Along Came a Slider.


Poor Qui buns from East Side King.


Chicken karaage at East Side King.


Brussel sprout salad at East Side King.


The terrifying Baby Rattler, featuring fudge icing, fudge Oreos, and the largest gummi-anything I've ever seen, at Gourdough's.


The Razzle Dazzle (raspberry filling, chocolate icing, chocolate chips) at Gourdough's.

I have high hopes that this new camera will help me bring you a whole new level of food porn. Stay tuned!

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Gallery of Gourdough's

Each day, every city with a Yelp community manager features a Review of the Day for that city. In Yelp-speak, a Review of the Day is also known as a ROTD. A while back, my friend Kimberly coined a tradition amongst the Austin Yelp community called ROTDC, which is a Review of the Day Celebration. If the person who gets Review of the Day wants to celebrate their review, they call an impromptu party at whichever place they'd reviewed for which they'd garnered the ROTD.

On Thursday, Kimberly got ROTD for her utterly hysterical reviews of Gourdough's. Gourdough's is a doughnut trailer which I previously blogged about here and Yelped about here. Kimberly decided to throw a ROTDC party at Gourdough's this morning, so of course it was mandatory to attend. What was great about this gathering is that there were quite a few of us, so we ordered a slew of different doughnuts, and I got photos (and tastes) of all of them. So here, for your drooling pleasure, is a photo gallery of several of Gourdough's offerings.

Starting with the savory doughnuts:

The Flying Pig - Bacon with Maple Syrup Icing


The Mother Clucker - Fried Chicken Strips with Honey Butter. This was INSANELY good. Not too sweet, and the chicken was ridiculously tender and worked beautifully with the buttery, hot, fresh doughnut. Chicken & waffles, move over - we've got chicken & doughnuts.


A special seasonal doughnut, the Gobble Gobble. It's topped with turkey, dressing, mashed potatoes, gravy, and cranberry sauce. We were all sitting around discussing how disgusting this sounded, which for some reason made my husband think he should go purchase one. We ate it. And liked it.

And now for the sweet treats:


The Dirty Berry - Fudge Icing with Grilled Berries. A little sweet for my taste.


The Slow Burn - Habanero Pepper Jelly with Cream Cheese Topping. Tastes pretty much how you might imagine it to taste.


Naughty & Nice - Sugar and Cinnamon. For you old school doughnut fans. Only you may not have ever had one that came out of the fryer five seconds before you ate it. Highly recommend adding some honey butter on the side (pictured).


Margaritaville - Margarita Flavored Filling and Key Lime Icing. Somebody attacked this one before I snapped a pic. Better than it looks (which isn't hard, granted).


Something peach that I can't find on the menu. It reminded me of a Hostess Peach Pie.


The crowning jewel - Mama's Cake - Filled with Yellow Cake Batter (yellow cake batter!!) and topped with Chocolate Fudge. I'm quivering just thinking about this. Or maybe that's my thighs jiggling as a result of eating this...not sure.

We even had sparkling wine to pair with our doughnuts, thanks to the ingenuity of Yelper Hoa N. This practice is highly recommended.



I really can't think of a better way to have kicked off my weekend than a totally over-the-top food outing with some of my favorite Yelp friends. Congrats, Kimberly, on getting ROTD, and throwing a fabulous ROTDC!

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Gorging on a Gorgeous Day - Gourdough's, Bite Mi, and Chen's Noodle House

Ah, Saturday.

I had blissfully NOTHING planned today - I can't even remember the last time I had a day with a completely empty agenda. With all the free time on my hands - not to mention perfect weather, it seemed like a great day to check out some of the eateries on my rapidly-growing "to try" list.

We started at Gourdough's, a little airstream trailer on South Lamar that's been getting lots of buzz for their made-to-order doughnuts in all sorts of wacky combinations. Whether you want Canadian bacon or gummy rattlesnakes on your doughnut, Gourdough's has it all, and they'll gladly pile it on for you.

A freshly-made Gourdough's doughnut, in its purest form.

Three of us tried two doughnuts - the Sara's Joy (coconut flavored filling with fresh coconut and fudge icing) and the Funky Monkey (grilled bananas with cream cheese icing and a brown sugar baste).


Sara's Joy - like a candy bar in doughnut form.


Funky Monkey

The Funky Monkey was by far the crowd favorite - the grilled bananas were beautifully caramelized, and the flavor combination was just excellent. The Sara's Joy was good, too, but so sweet as to be almost too too much. And the coconut "filling," if you could call it that, appeared to be just a sauce on the bottom, rendering the entire thing a gooey, drippy mess.

'Course, we ate it all...so there IS that.

Full Yelp review of Gourdough's here. (4/5 stars.)

* * *

Next up, we decided to try Bite Mi, a new banh mi place on the Drag. Yes, we ate dessert first. Don't try to understand; just follow along.

Full Yelp review of Bite Mi here (3/5 stars), but the short version is that it's OK, not great. Too much bread, too skimpy on the fillings, making for an unbalanced, overly carby meal (unlike those doughnuts, right? Like I said, don't ask too many questions).

Still, not a bad place to tide over those banh mi cravings until you can drive up north to Thanh Nhi and get my favorite banh mi in Austin.




Pretty tasty spring rolls - three for $3.25


#1 Combination Banh Mi - three kinds of ham, liver paste, Vietnamese mayo, a carrot/daikon mix, cilantro, and jalapenos.

After this, a nap was in order.

* * *

For dinner, we drove out to Chen's Noodle House, which I've been meaning to try forever but never seemed to be able to get to. Wow - I was SO glad we finally made it.

Again, full Yelp review here (5/5 stars). This unassuming place and its owners turn out amazing, totally authentic Chinese noodle dishes. I was utterly charmed.


Store front - in an old run down strip mall (same mall as Asia Market/Asia Café).


Order here - in Mandarin if you can!


The owner/chef, expertly hand cutting the noodles and flinging them into the boiling water.


A ton of won ton soup.


Lamb noodle soup.


Extreme noodle close-up!

From the hole-in-the-wall surroundings to the wonderful, authentic food, Chen's made me feel as if I'd been transported to China (without the onerous commute). We are so lucky to have a specialty eatery like Chen's; I hope Austin foodies give them the support they deserve.

Now, has anyone seen my muumuu?

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