Food-wise, I'd rate this week 10/10. Chris' dad was in town and so on Wednesday he threw a Hainanese Chicken Rice party at my place for all of us impoverished, starving college kids, complete with cabbage+fishball soup and beef+kailan. Very, very nice. Unfortunately we didn't take many pictures so unless someone puts them on Facebook you will just have to imagine the blissful looks on our faces. We ended up playing really dumb JC Orientation-type games after dinner like the one where you have a blanket dividing two groups and then the blanket drops and you have to guess the name of the person opposite you... yeah. Um. Guess you had to be there.
The weekend rolled around and on Good Friday, we caught the Easter play at Victory Christian Center in which Andre was the token Asian Nerd... haha not really; he was just one of those hyper-analytical coffeehouse intellectual types. Close enough. Then we headed off to a Vietnamese restaurant called Sunflower despite my protests of "No more Asian food!" It wasn't a life-changing gastronomical experience, but I have to say the crispy egg/flour dish with the tougay, mushrooms and sweet sauce and the crispy calamari salad were superb. Everything was served with loads of onions and fresh lettuce which really brought out the taste of the dishes. We then headed to La Tazza Fresca for coffee. Upon entering, our ears were immediately assaulted (and no, that isn't an exaggeration) by the sounds of a very drunk accordionist who was yelling his heart out. It was terrible! We were about to leave when he sunk into a more mellow tune, which was still awful but at least we could now hear each other. I got myself a very nice mug of minty mocha which was an interesting hue of grey-green. It looked gross, but tasted great, which is the case for many things, I realize.
On Saturday the city Austin woke up to crazy freezing weather, because the cold front came in. Don't ask me what that means. I just say it because that's what everyone says. The cold front came in. Yup. Anyway, that kind of ruined our plans of swimming in Barton Springs. We headed to Andre's with our own piping hot sandwiches from Quizno's and made sundaes. There's something curiously nice about eating ice cream on cold days. I remember gelato never tasted better than when I ate it on the wintry streets of Sydney in June 2005. So we crushed oreos and graham crackers and cornflakes and added sprinkles and fudge and caramel and whipped cream and made our creamy creations just how we liked it. It was great. That was followed by a game of Cranium, which provided a lot of laughs and Fun Factoids and taught me how to spell 'minotaur' backwards. And guess what: the eating didn't stop there! Chris, Arlena, Becks and I headed to Sao Paulo's for some good Brazilian fare. I got a bean and cheese quesadilla and some really thick, hearty, chock-full-of-homemade-goodness chicken chipotle soup. Great for a cold day. The four of us split the moist-as-heaven Tres Leches cake, which was soaked with three types of milk. Mm.
Today is Easter Sunday. After church, Kirsten, Kenaz, Craig and Tamra (our college group leaders), their four kids and I headed to Buca Di Beppo's which is the coolest, quirkiest Italian restaurant I've ever been to. It's a family-style place, and their walls are literally covered with all sorts of weird pictures. The most striking was one huge blow-up 1940s/50s black-and-white shot of all these pretty ladies in dresses eating spaghetti with no hands. Some had sauce on their faces and it was just such a fun picture. There was also this picture of the famous portion of Sistine chapel, but in this case Adam was handing God a can of Parmesan cheese. Hehe. The food was served family-style, and what was supposed to be a 'sampling' of manicotti, stuffed spicy sausage shells, baked ravioli and chicken cannelloni fed four adults. Also outstanding was their Caesar salad, which I think was more oil-based, and was served with anchovies (they taste like wet ikan bilis) and the fat garlic bread drizzled with herbs and mozzarella.
The weekend rolled around and on Good Friday, we caught the Easter play at Victory Christian Center in which Andre was the token Asian Nerd... haha not really; he was just one of those hyper-analytical coffeehouse intellectual types. Close enough. Then we headed off to a Vietnamese restaurant called Sunflower despite my protests of "No more Asian food!" It wasn't a life-changing gastronomical experience, but I have to say the crispy egg/flour dish with the tougay, mushrooms and sweet sauce and the crispy calamari salad were superb. Everything was served with loads of onions and fresh lettuce which really brought out the taste of the dishes. We then headed to La Tazza Fresca for coffee. Upon entering, our ears were immediately assaulted (and no, that isn't an exaggeration) by the sounds of a very drunk accordionist who was yelling his heart out. It was terrible! We were about to leave when he sunk into a more mellow tune, which was still awful but at least we could now hear each other. I got myself a very nice mug of minty mocha which was an interesting hue of grey-green. It looked gross, but tasted great, which is the case for many things, I realize.
On Saturday the city Austin woke up to crazy freezing weather, because the cold front came in. Don't ask me what that means. I just say it because that's what everyone says. The cold front came in. Yup. Anyway, that kind of ruined our plans of swimming in Barton Springs. We headed to Andre's with our own piping hot sandwiches from Quizno's and made sundaes. There's something curiously nice about eating ice cream on cold days. I remember gelato never tasted better than when I ate it on the wintry streets of Sydney in June 2005. So we crushed oreos and graham crackers and cornflakes and added sprinkles and fudge and caramel and whipped cream and made our creamy creations just how we liked it. It was great. That was followed by a game of Cranium, which provided a lot of laughs and Fun Factoids and taught me how to spell 'minotaur' backwards. And guess what: the eating didn't stop there! Chris, Arlena, Becks and I headed to Sao Paulo's for some good Brazilian fare. I got a bean and cheese quesadilla and some really thick, hearty, chock-full-of-homemade-goodness chicken chipotle soup. Great for a cold day. The four of us split the moist-as-heaven Tres Leches cake, which was soaked with three types of milk. Mm.
Today is Easter Sunday. After church, Kirsten, Kenaz, Craig and Tamra (our college group leaders), their four kids and I headed to Buca Di Beppo's which is the coolest, quirkiest Italian restaurant I've ever been to. It's a family-style place, and their walls are literally covered with all sorts of weird pictures. The most striking was one huge blow-up 1940s/50s black-and-white shot of all these pretty ladies in dresses eating spaghetti with no hands. Some had sauce on their faces and it was just such a fun picture. There was also this picture of the famous portion of Sistine chapel, but in this case Adam was handing God a can of Parmesan cheese. Hehe. The food was served family-style, and what was supposed to be a 'sampling' of manicotti, stuffed spicy sausage shells, baked ravioli and chicken cannelloni fed four adults. Also outstanding was their Caesar salad, which I think was more oil-based, and was served with anchovies (they taste like wet ikan bilis) and the fat garlic bread drizzled with herbs and mozzarella.
So the point of this extremely over-long entry was to tell myself that over this weekend, I ate enough to last me the rest of my time here in Austin. From now until I get home, which is roughly one month, I will eat less and lose the pounds I've packed on since I got here. It won't be easy, but I don't want funny stares at the airport. Here I go! Miss you all and can't wait to see ya.
Update: Okay, some of the restaurant links don't work and I can't figure out why. You can always Google them if you're interested.
Update: Okay, some of the restaurant links don't work and I can't figure out why. You can always Google them if you're interested.
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