Bamboo Garden

Bamboo Garden

625 W. Ben White

(512) 444-6022

I've been looking around for a new place to get a good Sesame Chicken lunch, and today my search brought me to Bamboo Garden in south Austin.  I cannot really claim to like Chinese food, but I love Sesame Chicken, and Hot and Sour Soup.  I've tried the Magic Wok and Sun Hing on the north side of the UT campus, and they are okay, but not really good enough to get my repeat patronage...at least not very often.  My favorite is China Wall, in Round Rock, but that is a pretty far drive from downtown, when I am looking for lunch.

I tend to order to go, because I rarely care for sitting by myself...in any restaurant.  I ordered the Sesame Chicken lunch, with Hot and Sour Soup.  It also came with an egg roll, and two fried wontons.  I called ahead and the order was waiting for me and without a drink it was $7.04, so quite reasonable.

Everything was very hot.  The egg roll and wontons were in a small paper bag within the plastic grocery bag, and not in the hot food container.  That is one point to Bamboo Garden.  It is a terrible idea to pack anything crispy in with a pile of hot chicken with sauce and rice.  If you carry it back home, your crispy egg roll is now a steamed egg roll.  Yuck!

In the standard styrofoam plate was a good pile of Sesame Chick, a large scoop of rice, and three or four broccoli florets.  Another point to Bamboo Garden, for leaving the broccoli on the side.  I can always push an unwanted bit of broccoli to the side while eating, but I get annoyed when some of the delicious sauce is clinging to the broccoli and I don't get to mix it into my rice.

The Sesame Chicken was well cooked, not perfect, but better than a few I've had.  The sauce was a little spicier than most places.  Nothing wrong with that, it gave it a more distinctive taste, and it wasn't overly sweet, which can be a problem sometimes.

The rice was fried, and one point against Bamboo Garden for not giving me an option when I called.  The rice was nicely prepared, but was somewhat unusual in not seeming to have anything but rice and seasoning.  There were no vegetables.  I didn't mind.

The eggroll was nice and crispy and tasty as well.  The wontons were unusual.  They were just two flat fried wonton wrappers.  I'd never seen that before.  They were sort of dry and tasteless...well, not completely.  They just didn't have any sort of seasoning on them.  They were okay, sort of like a piece of bread to push things around with.

The Hot and Sour Soup was excellent.  I'd almost go back again just for that.  I think I would have to rate it just below the Hot and Sour soup at China Wall, but not by much.

So, the conclusion?  The Sesame Chicken was good, the rice was good, the egg roll was good and the Hot and Sour Soup was excellent.  I won't mind going back.

Original Brooklyn Pie Co.

Original Brooklyn Pie Co.

8127 Mesa Dr.  B-202

Austin, TX 78759

I was out one day wandering, which I tend to do in my car, when I say this near a burger place that I intend to review sometime in the future.  It's in a strip mall, which isn't always great, but you never know, so in I went.

It's a small restaurant, not pretentious, but not bad, very casual.  I arrived after 1pm and they were doing a steady business without being full.  They have wireless, but they also have a network key that is 26 characters long.  That seemed a bit much and the waiter had to bring it to me on a piece of paper.

I ordered a slice, but it was a really big slice, about 1/4 of a large pizza.  With one topping, a drink and tax it came out to $7.08.  How do I say this without making it sound like I thought it was too expensive?  I don't consider that a budget price, but it was okay.  It was less than a most places for a sandwich, chips and a drink.

I chose Italian Sausage for my topping, but it turned out to be sweet, and I really prefer hot.  I could have gotten pepperoni and saved nearly a dollar, but I think that was the deal of the day.  It's a thin crispy crust, with plenty of toppings, but do yourself a favor and grab a knife and fork.  You may not want to eat your pizza that way, but it would take the skills of a native New Yorker to fold that giant slice.  The crust is foldable in the best New York tradition.

Actually, I should point out that I have never been to New York, and I don't know any New Yorkers, so I do not really know what a New York pizza should be like, and I have never eaten one that I could verify was authentic New York pizza.  Everything I know comes from TV.  Based on that information, this seems pretty authentic to the New York pizza tradition....but, I don't know for sure.

The pizza was very hot when brought to my table and it was very good.  It wasn't a drippy pizza, all the parts of the pizza could be tasted, nothing got lost in the mix.

The Original Brooklyn Pie Co. is a little out of the way, up on Mesa Dr.  It seems more like a neighborhood pizza place, which may fit very well with the New York tradition.  I cannot say that I would drive out of my way if I were hungry for pizza, at least not just to get to the Original Brooklyn Pie Co., but it is good, and if you want a place with a nice, casual, neighborhood feel, and good pizza, you could do much worse than the Original Brooklyn Pie Co.
 

Bread, the Missing Element

If you do a tour of American Sandwich Shops and Burger Joints, you could easily come to the conclusion that the only reason for bread is so that you do not have to handle the meat and cheese with your fingers.  Rather than being an important part of the sandwich, they seem to have become little more than the delivery system.

Burger Joints were probably the first purveyor of this tragedy.  Of course, that might be because most of the big burger chains got their start in the 1950s, when Wonder Bread was king.  Wonder Bread, and most buns seem to be mostly flour and air.  They have no body, or true texture.  They add nothing to a sandwich, except something to grab it by.  Very occasionally, you will see somebody try putting a burger on better bread, but the big chains never get the message, and so none of them are any different from the rest.

Some get the idea, like Schlotzkys,  Their sourdough roll is a joy, it has bite and flavor.  I sometimes wish that I could just buy the rolls, and it is even better as a pizza dough.  I keep wondering why no one has stolen that idea.

Some don't get the idea, but they try.  Subway offers a selection of breads, but no matter what you order, you are getting Wonder Bread with flavors added.  It tastes good, but there is no body, no bite, nothing to chew.  It's a little sad really.

Even good sandwich shops can suffer from this problem.  They take the time to find the best meats, and good cheeses.  They procure good, flavorful condiments, and then when it comes to bread, they seem to think any old thing will do.  Even when the bread isn't bad, like at Jimmy Johns, it isn't really good either.  I will take Jimmy Johns over Subway any day, because they are a little better at each and ever aspect of the sandwich, but not enough to make me go out of my way.

So, to all you sandwich makers out there, give a little more thought to your bread.  I have some ideas too. 

Pretzel Buns might be nice, but remember to get a really chewy pretzel dough if you are going that direction.

How about a Rye Bun?  I think this would be phenomenal with a good Hot Dog.

Bagels anyone?  They are already round, just like your hamburger buns.  I would suggest a bagel on the lighter end of the spectrum.

Ciabatta's been used, but it would be better than Wonder Bread...much better.

So, be creative, make your sandwich something unique.  Don't follow the present trend of putting meat and cheese between two pieces of cardboard and hoping people don't notice.

The Great Austin Burger Hunt - Hatcreek Burger Co.

Hatcreek Burger Co.

5400 Burnet Rd.

Austin, TX  78756

I've been doing the Great Austin Burger Hunt for a while now, and to be honest, I have been pretty disappointed.  You may have seen my ranking of the first ten, but so far I have really found a burger that wowed me.  I've had some good burgers and some a little better than that, but nothing that I would call great.  I don't know if I think this one is great, but it did give me a wow.

I ordered the Big Hat Burger with two patties, and cheese.  I did my usual and had them leave off the onions, pickles and tomatoes, and then I went and sat down.  Like Whataburger, they will bring you your burger when it is ready, only instead of giving you a number, they ask for your name.

My burger came quickly with a big tied bag of fries.  I took one bite and....WOW! and definitely a good wow.  Just about the first thing I noticed was the cheese.  Now, that is a surprise most of the time.  Usually, it is hard to tell a cheeseburger from a hamburger.  There was nothing really special about the cheese, it seemed to be cheapo American Cheese, just like you get most other places.  I cannot really say exactly why the cheese was so noticeable.  I don't think there was more than you get elsewhere, and it wasn't special cheese, but it really stood out.  I think they did a better job of getting it melted, but I just cannot say for sure.

The meat certainly did its part.  It was spiced differently, but it was good.  This was something else that Hatcreek did better than other burger joints, and yet I cannot say exactly what it was.  The meat really tasted good, and the burger was juicy without being too messy.

They use Iceberg lettuce, but in whole leaves.  One critique is that they use all of the leaf down to the big thick woody part of the base of the leaf, which is a less than wonderful experience.  Which leaves only the bun, and here is where they let me down.  When are American sandwich shops, and especially burger joints going to learn that the bread needs to more than something to separate your fingers from the meat.  Nothing wrong with the bun, just nothing really right about it either, so while they get a very high score, it isn't a perfect ten because of lackluster buns.

So, on to the fries, which were plentiful.  They were well cooked, in fact a little too well cooked in my opinion.  They looked pretty awful, and I was expecting them to be rather greasy and lifeless.  Well, I was wrong, they were crunchy and quite tasty.  They were skin-on fries, which I don't mind, except that it looked like about 2/3rds of my fries came from the outside of the potato, and most had one long side that was skin.  I don't mind potato skins, but this was a bit much.  I expect my skin-on fries to have a ratio of one-side skin-on fries and end skin-on fries to be about equal to a large potato.  This looked more like they gave the center of the potato to someone else and gave me all the ones around the outside.  They also had good legs.

So, I would have to put Hatcreek Burger Co. right at the top of my burger list so far, but there is still room to improve.

Breakfast Taco Shootout

Taqueria Morelos

3100 S. Hwy 183

Austin, TX  78744

(512) 386-7863

EastSide Tacos

4602 Tanney St.

Austin, TX 78721-2526

When I take the bus, I end up walking up 17th Street from San Jacinto up to Brazos, where I can get into the back of the William B. Travis Building, where I work.  Back more at the end of summer, there were two competing taco trucks on 17th Street.  Now, don't think big food truck, these were both pickup trucks selling tacos.

Now, my breakfast taco preference is for egg, bacon and cheese, but neither had that, so I had to get potato, egg and bacon.  Morelos didn't have any cheese, and Eastside had cheese on the side, but I didn't get any.

Size and Price

Morelos was the larger of the two tacos and it was $1.50.  Eastside, smaller and $1.75.

Presentation

East Side had bags, and red sauce.  They also had a big sign that stood up out of the back of the pickup bed.  Morelos has a sign on the door of the truck.

Taste

I tried them first without sauce.  Morelos was really more like eating a potato taco.  That was the overwhelming flavor.  It wasn't bad, but you could barely taste the egg or bacon.

The Eastside taco was smaller because there was less potato.  There was more egg. but not enough bacon.   The sauce was good.  I was not offered cheese, which was offered to the gentleman in front of me.  So, they lose a point for customer service.  The taco was a little tasteless.  I could barely taste the potatoes and there is something the tiniest bit off about the eggs, not necessarily bad, just a little funky.  It might be the tortilla, but I cannot tell.  This slightly funky flavor mixed with the egg is the major flavor, and there isn't enough bacon.  I also noticed that the bacon is a little pink, which suggests that it wasn't cooked enough. 

When I was eating the Morelos taco, I thought that the Eastside Taco had to be better, but then as I ate the Eastside taco I wasn't so sure.  But....I cannot really recommend either of them.

Deviled Eggs

Okay, I've been gone for a while because I haven't felt like cooking, or writing. ...but, I'm back.

About 15 years ago, I was working for a State Agency where the office had a lot of potluck lunches, and I got tired of bringing store bought cookies, or kicking in on someone getting some fried chicken. I wanted something that I could make with my own hands that others would love...and of course that I would love too.

There are two things that I always wanted to like, but that I rarely like the way other people make it, deviled eggs and potato salad. I have yet to find anyone who makes potato salad without onions, and deviled eggs with pickle relish make me weep from sadness. My wife suggested that I use her recipe for deviled eggs, because it did not include pickle relish (this despite the fact that my wife likes pickle relish). The problem came when I asked for the recipe, because she didn't have one. She liked to wing it. Well, I decided to give it a try and it turns out I am pretty good at it. So, here is the mugshot of my line up of ingredients.

And here is the cast list:

• Mayonnaise
• Mustard - two kinds in tonight's show
• Worcestershire Sauce
• Vinegar - in this case a new player, Rice Vinegar standing in for plain White Vinegar
• Tabasco
• Salt
• Pepper

Each of the players brings something to mix.

• Mayonnaise - Creaminess
• Mustard - Spice
• Worcestershire Sauce - Savory Tang
• Vinegar - Tart bite
• Tabasco - a little heat
• Salt and Pepper - rounding out the ensemble

Obviously, the eggs get cut and the halves get placed into the neat egg trays that my wife found and you will see below.  Each egg tray holds 20, so I have an extra container for the leftovers.  I usually mangle a few eggs while peeling or cutting and I use these for testing, with my wife and son as my taste testers...well, those I don't try myself.

I used about a cup of Mayonnaise because I started off with 28 eggs, meaning 56 finished deviled eggs.  Mustard comes next, then a healthy splash of Worcestershire and a smaller splash of Vinegar.  A few drops of tabasco is all you need, and salt and pepper to taste.  After the first tasting, I added a bit more salt, and a little mustard.  Next I added a bit more Worcestershire Sauce and a little more Vinegar.  That got it about right.

I use a fork, and I don't worry about getting things completely smooth.  I start with the Mayonnaise and Mustard and then start mashing.  Other ingredients hit the pot and the mixing/mashing continues.  By the time I declare it ready, it is usually fairly smooth, but never perfectly smooth.

Now, for the delivery.  Getting that mash of egg yolk and ingredients into the eggs could be a messy job, but once again my wife came to my rescue.

Yes, that's a cookie press.  My wife had one, and it loads up fairly easily and makes a pleasant design on top of each egg.  It usually takes filling it two or three times to finish all the eggs and then they look like this.

A little paprika as a garnish works nicely, and sometimes, I even use a slice of olive, though never for all of them, since I don't like olives.

Well, that's it.  The moral of today's story, is that you can make things that you don't like into things that you do like.  Just be creative, and hold the onions...or the pickle relish in case.  One of these days I have to try making potato salad, and then I really will hold the onions.

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.