Cheese Sticks

When I was in France, almost 40 years ago, I remember buying these delicious cheese sticks. I remember them being crunchy and light and filled with Swiss cheese flavor. One of many fond memories of France.

Fast forward some 20 or so years, and I remember a bakery in Austin, Texas, Upper Crust Bakery, that had these delicious Cheese Sticks. They might have called them Cheese Twists, and they were nothing like the ones from France, except that they were crunchy and light, just not as light as the ones from France. Upper Crust Bakery used a Cheddar, at least I think that was it, and they were delicious. I used to stop in there when I passed and buy as many as I could afford, or as many as they had left.

One day, they stopped having them. Now, I wasn’t able to get there as often as I would like, and I have checked back several times, and nothing.

Now, as you might imagine, I have been looking for a way to get these delicious things that I remember, and not long ago, I watched the Hairy Bikers making something and it sparked my imagination. They made twists, with Parma ham and gorganzola, and you can find the recipe here.

I tried this once before using Philo Dough, but that turned out to be way too much work and while the result was edible, even approaching tasty, it was not really a success.

This time I tried Pepperidge Farms Puff Pastry sheets and some Extra Sharp Cheddar. I unrolled the dough, spread on some butter and then sprinkled on cheese. I folded it, rolled it out, trying to get is to the original thickness and then repeated the process about four times, using about 4 oz of cheese.

Now, one problem is that I was doing this on Super Bowl Sunday, and my Niners were playing, so I was not in the mood to experiment with backing. I cut the dough into strips, attempted to twist them, and loaded up our baking stone at 350 degrees.

When I checked on them later, they had sort of fallen over and partially opened up, and the grease dripping from them was phenomenal. They did not look too appetizing, so I tried flipping them over. That got both sides crispy, and they were pretty good.

I have still got more than a little way to go before they match my memories, but I think I might be on the right trail. Next time, no butter, more cheese, and I am going to experiment with cooking, both on a pan, and on the baking stone. More news at 11.

Rice Bowl Café

So, actually I headed off to try to find Mandarin House Chinese Restaurant. Funny thing, I called the number and it was answered, but with a different name that I did not catch right away. I got my order placed, and headed off to the address on the website, and it isn't Mandarin House anymore. So, I called again and I wish I had paid attention to the name they said as they answered. I got directions and headed off to what I assumed was the new location, which was a couple miles up the road. But, when I arrived there, no Mandarin House. I called again, and this time I heard it, Rice Bowl Café, which I had seen where they said they were. Turns out that Mandarin House has been closed for two years. They need to shut down their website.

 

So, this review is about Rice Bowl Café, not Mandarin House.

 

Rice Bowl Café

11200 N. Lamar Blvd.

Austin, TX 78753

(512) 835-8888 (number on the banner on the end of the building)

(512) 837-6361 (the number on the Mandarin House website)

 

After the mix up over the restaurant and the location, I was amused, which would normally put me in a forgiving mood. I picked up my order and headed back to work, as I always do. Sesame Chicken, lunch portion, Fried Rice, Egg Roll and Hot and Sour Soup. And I would have been in a forgiving mood, until I paid the bill, which was over $9.00. That is a lot for a Sesame Chicken Lunch. Unfortunately, it got worse.

 

So, the first demerit comes for putting the egg roll in with the steamy rice and chicken. I did not wait all that long, but it was awful. The egg roll was completely limp, with no crunch to it. It was the worst egg roll I have ever eaten. Now some might argue that the restaurant cannot be responsible for the egg roll going limp in a to go order, but I disagree. All they need to do is drop the eggroll into a bag, say one just like the bag of friend won ton strips that came with the lunch and were not in the styrofoam container with the rice and chicken.

 

Now, there was one good thing about the eggroll. It wasn't loaded down with onions. As you can imagine, things loaded down with onions do not rate highly at Hold the Onions. There were onions in the sauce. There were onions in the Fried Rice. There were onions in the Hot and Sour Soup. I have never seen onions in at least two of those items. Now understand, I don't mean a few finely chopped onions, I mean massive slices of onion in massive quantities.

 
 

It got worse. The sauce was full of both onions and some sort of relatively small, but whole peppers. This made the sauce hotter than most I have tasted, but not by a lot. The real problem was that the sauce wasn't very sweet. Actually, thinking about this now, while writing this review, it was sweet....for barbeque sauce! Actually, it wasn't even very sweet for barbeque sauce, but you get the idea. It was savory, and not completely bad, once you separated it from the onions and peppers, but it wasn't very good. Also, the sauce was gloppy and unappetizing to look at, with a gelatinous consistency that spoke of too much cornstarch being used to thicken the sauce.

 

When you combine less than stellar sauce with overcooked chicken you get a fairly unpleasant combination. The chicken was chewy in a bad way, and over cooked or dried out until parts of it were stringy. Things are not looking good.

 

The Fried Rice was overloaded with onions, though onions in Fried Rice are fairly common. Once you separated the Rice from its onion prison, it wasn't too bad, but in a meal that is really suffering, it did not shine out either.

 

So, at last we come to the Hot and Sour Soup, which was also loaded with onions. Now, I generally only want the broth anyway, so I did not really suffer too badly from the onions in the soup, and finally, it seems like they got something right...well, almost. The soup was a little bland, though tasty, without the kick of spice that helps clean out the sinuses while eating a bowl of Hot and Sour Soup.
 

 

So, in conclusion, we have a limp as a rag eggroll, overcooked chicken in gloppy unappetizing sauce with a side of bland friend rice followed up by a mediocre soup, every last bit of buried in onions, as if that could save it, and the whole thing overpriced.
 

Needless to say, I will not be going back to Rice Bowl Café.

The Great Austin Burger Hunt - Moonies Burger House

Moonies Burger House
13450 Research Blvd.
Austin, TX 87850
512-257-9000

 

I had seen this place before, it is just across the street from Half Price Books at 183 and Anderson Mill. Other times I was not ready to stop for food, but finally, I decided to stop, after spending some time at the bookstore. In a first for the Great Austin Burger Hunt, I am trying sliders, because that was the special. They offer a variety of burgers, with a selection of cheeses, American, Cheddar, Swiss, and Pepper Jack. The sliders came with American cheese and grilled onions, which I asked them to leave off.

 

Now, let me ask a question. What is the use of placing a special order, if they ignore it? That's right, none. The special was for sliders with grilled onions, and obviously, as the proprietor here at Hold the Onions, I asked them to Hold the Onions. So, what did I get on my sliders...yes, you guessed it, onions, so big point against them.

The sliders come dry. Now, that might be okay, except that the first thing I thought when I bite into was...this is dry. The meat is dry, and that is not a good place to start a burger, and I say that with the admission that I generally like dry burgers. The tiny bit of american cheese is barely noticeable. The bun is soft, but not too soft. In fact this is a pretty good little slider roll. It probably deserves a better piece of meat. In fact, the roll is the best part of this slider. Now, I do not want anyone to think that the meat was bad. It was a bit over cooked, but it was tasty and had a nice char on it. It isn't bad, it just isn't great and they are changing a good bit for this burger. I expect more at this price.

The fries are good. There are breaded and quite crispy. They are no spiced, but they are excellent with catsup. They have good legs, as they were still crispy, even when they were cold.

Their only diet drink was Diet Coke, which I count as a point against them.

It looks like a sports bar, but none of the TVs were on when I was there in the afternoon.

 

I cannot really say what the regular size buns are like, but the ones I saw go past my table certainly looked like the ones on my sliders and I think that is a good thing. The sliders are on the high side of average, with an extra point for the nice buns. I won't skip Phil's Icehouse for Moonies, but I wouldn't mind coming again.