Central Market Trip

Central Market

4001 N. Lamar Blvd.

Austin, TX 78756

(512) 206-1000

I love Central Market.  I don't get down there very often because it is rather expensive, but I love the selection.  Today I was looking for something a bit French, something to remind me of things that I used to buy 30 years ago when I spent two years in France.

Strangely enough, I ended up with nearly as many English things as French things, but oh well.

Cheese

I love any store with a wall of cheese.  Okay, maybe it's not a wall, but there is a good twenty feet of cheese, on two sets of shelves, surrounding a central island that included more cheese.  If you love cheese like I do, then this is one of the Austin Meccas.  Cheeses from all over the world, and lots of them.  So, here is what I got.

• Red Dragon
  English Cheddar Cheese with Wholegrain Mustard & Ale from Somerdale

This is a wonderful cheese.  It isn't too strong, but the mustard seeds give it a distinctive flavor.  You can melt this over a burger and you won't need to put any mustard on it.  It is whole mustard grains, so there is also an occasional, but wonderful crunch in the cheese.  My personal preference is just to eat this cheese, no burgers, no crackers, just cheese.

• Clawson Dairy Stilton

I am not a big fan of blue cheese, but I have always wanted to try Stilton, since watching the show Chef. 

"Stilton is Cheese 1.  Everyone knows that."  -Chef Gareth Blackstock (Lenny Henry)

It was good, very blue-y, but not so strong that I turned away immediately.  I ate a few little bits and left the rest for my wife.

• Life in Provence
  Camembert

I remember going into grocers in France and seeing a wall of Camembert, not just a wall of cheese, but a wall of Camembert.  I remember one Super Marché with a staggering amount of Camembert.  Dozens of brands, and dozens of each of those brands.  You pulled off the little wooden box and put a thumb gently to the middle of the cheese to judge how hard it is.  The softer the cheese, the stronger the taste.  My general tendency was to buy a hard mild cheese and then let it ripen in the fridge.  A week later that cheese would be oh so runny and smell strongly of wet diapers.  Only someone who has tried a ripe Camembert can understand the wonders of the taste that goes with that diaper smell.

Central Market only had two brands.  I would have been disappointed, but they were both from France.  Finances got the best of me.  I bought the cheaper Camembert, but it turned out okay.  I remember buying Camembert in France and I rarely bought the most expensive brand then either.

• Black Pepper Paté de Campagne
  Central Market Deli

I have always preferred Paté de Campagne to the more common Paté de Foie.  I prefer the texture and the taste.  This paté has a layer of peppercorns on the top, but there aren't many mixed into the paté.  This makes the paté itself quite mild, with a nice kick, if you want it.  I was very happy with my choice.

I wish I could have found a better loaf of bread to go with my treats, but the Central Market Baguette wasn't bad.  They have a large selection of breads, but nothing really seemed to catch my fancy today.  Bread is the best accompaniment to Camembert and Pate.  A smallish baguette, no more than two inches across, works well.  You cut the baguette into slices half an inch thick and spread cheese or paté on each one.

A wonderful treat, and something more common to the gourmet than the gourmand.

The Great Austin Burger Hunt - Top Notch

Top Notch Hamburgers

7525 Burnet Road

Austin, TX 78757

(512) 452-2181

Top Notch Hamburgers came highly recommended, and I finally got a chance to try it out.  The location on Burnet Road has a well worn 50s feel to it.  I look back to a time just before I was born, and I imagine a lot of places that looked just like Top Notch Hamburgers.  Some of them became the big chains of today, McDonalds, A&W, Whataburger.  Others either didn't expand into chains, or they may have for a time and then collapsed back into one location.  I imagine this as the history of Top Notch Hamburgers.

Top Notch Hamburgers has old style order screens, and you park under an awning.  I should have taken a picture.  I don't think the style of the menus has been updated since the 60s, though the prices certainly have.  Now, don't take that to mean that Top Notch Hamburgers are over priced...well, at least not by much.  Then again, I am old enough to think everyone's burgers are overpriced.

I ordered a Cheeseburger (#3) and Fries.  Because they are not a big chain and really aren't trying to compete with the big chains, Top Notch doesn't do combos.  You order everything a la carte.  They offer tomatoes, onions, pickles and lettuce on their burgers, standard, so of course, I asked them to leave off the tomatoes, onions and pickles.  It seemed to take rather a long time, but still not as long as Whataburger.

Oddly enough, I am going to start with the Fries.  The person who spoke so highly of the burgers did not have good things to say about the fries.  In fact, he orders Onion Rings with his burger.  The fries were forgettable.  They weren't bad, but after trying them, I doubt I would ever order them again.  They do not add to the experience.  They were dry, and slightly overcooked.  They had a little bit of crunch to them, but it was not a snappy, smart crunch, more like a tired crunch, if that makes any sense.  I cannot recommend them.

On the other hand, the burger was quite good.  My one complaint was that it wasn't very big, but knowing about the fries, next time I will skip the fries and get a double cheeseburger.  The bun wasn't anything special, but it was fresh and slightly toasted.  The meat is charbroiled and quite tasty.  If you like Burger King, then you should try Top Notch, it has the same charbroiled flavor, but at Top Notch it tastes like it was just cooked, not pre-cooked.  The lettuce was shredded and crunchy.

Of course, lettuce can be a problem on a burger, because it wilts so fast.  When ordering a burger for my reviews, I am careful if I order it to go.  I try to pull the burger out immediately, so that I can experience the lettuce before it wilts.

So, the Top Notch burger is a good burger.  It wasn't the biggest burger I have ever had, and it left me a little hungry.  The price is on a par with Fast Food chain big burgers, and what it lacks in size, it makes up for in taste.  I can definitely recommend Top Notch Hamburgers.

Hold the Onions

Oh look, another food blog.

Like the world needs more of those.  I've been blogging for a few years now, and I noticed that many of my posts concerned food.  Enough so that I decided to start this new blog which will only be about food.

I thought about it for several months, and my food related blog post ideas piled up.  You'll see that I will be posting rather often here at the start.  I just hope that I don't let my other blog go fallow.

Now, there are a few things you should know, here at the start. 

• I live in Austin, Texas, and I don't travel much, so if I review restaurants, they will almost always be in the Austin Area.

• I don't make a lot of money.  Why is that important?  Because you won't see many, possible even as few as zero, reviews of fancy restaurants. 

So, why "Hold the Onions"?  Well, that's simple.  I don't like them.  Now, I should explain more, because It isn't really onion flavor that I dislike.  It's the texture.  Okay, sometimes it is the flavor, but only when it is unusually strong.  Onions in quiche is something I cannot abide, but mostly because of someone who filled a quiche with so many onions that even the egg tasted like onion.

But, that is a story for another time.

For now, you should know that I love to eat, and I enjoy writing about it.  I am not a gourmet, but a gourmand.  And yes, I spent time in France, and I speak the language fluently, and I know the difference.  I love to eat, and not little bits of nothing on huge plates, but big slabs of pizza, on a napkin.  I'd rather eat barbeque than chateaubriand.

But, two big things that I brought back from France is a love of good bread, and good cheese (I'd have added the wine, except I don't drink)  and I'll be proving it in the weeks ahead.