Austin360 blogs > Dale's Table > Archives > 2006 > October
October 2006
Keep in the spirit with Drakula
It’s pure coincidence, but I ate at Drakula for the first time just in advance of Halloween. Although I’ll save most of the details of the hearty meal at the casual Romanian restaurant for an upcoming review, I will say that the stuffed cabbage and homemade pickled vegetables were so good that I’ll be heading back to the North Austin eatery (8120 Research Blvd, Suite 104b) for more. As a big fan of pickled vegetables, I adored the vinegar-soused cucumbers, green tomatoes, cauliflower, carrots and green beans that made up this reasonably priced ($2.50) side dish.
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More steaks for downtown
The Second Street entertainment district gets a new dining destination with tonight’s opening of III Forks, a high-end steak house across the street from City Hall. The area, already home to Taverna, Jo’s and Cantina Laredo, has become a popular culinary junction. The III Forks — the original is in North Dallas — has a great line-up of prime beef items, ranging from beef tips in red wine sauce ($24.95) to a New York strip ($36.95) to a filet mignon with crab cake ($45.95), all served with potato, vegetable, tomatoes and spring onions. The seafood section includes Norwegian salmon ($26.95) and Dover sole ($32.95), served with potato and vegetable. With that menu, III Forks’ arrival represents an increase in competition for Ruth’s Chris, Sullivan’s and Fleming’s, downtown’s other top-of-the-line steak houses.
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Pizza pondering
Is there some contagious culinary condition I haven’t been told about? This afternoon, while dining at Southside Flying Pizza (2206 S. Congress Ave., 442-4246), I watched three men in their early 20s devour pizza — to within an inch and a half of the edge. They each discarded the thick, doughy pizza rim, which, for me, is one of the best parts of the pie. What prompts this behavior? What about an appreciation of the yeasty goodness of quality dough? Is this yet another failing of the education of our youth? Or, will I be hit one day by a spreading pizza plague, leaving behind that which I now adore?
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High over the vineyard
Even without a helicopter or plane flying over the Hill Country, it’s possible to get a bird’s-eye view of the appellation’s wineries west of Austin. AppellationAmerica.com announced today that its Web site has satellite maps of over 3,500 wineries across North America. The new feature uses Google Maps technology and months of programming to bring satellite imagery to each of its winery pages at its Web site. However, the address used to pinpoint the winery on Google maps might not nail the vineyard exactly. At Fall Creek Vineyards, for example, the wine bottle symbol designating the winery is actually a bit down the road from the facility. Still, the aerial views of Hill Country wineries are intriguing and give you a chance to see how widely they vary in relationship to other surroundings.
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Aging gracefully
Attending a luncheon at Green Pastures today, and listening to the other participants praise the 1890s home-turned-restaurant and its food, I was reminded what a lovely location the South Austin facility is for a special lunch or dinner. This year marks 60 years since Mary Faulk Koock turned the downstairs of the home into a restaurant and built a reputation as one of the fine-dining leaders in Texas in the 1950s (along with Neiman Marcus food service director Helen Corbitt). Now, after six decades, the food is modern American cuisine with touches of the old Koock kitchen — such as the cheese crackers served with the salad. Green Pastures also played an important role in the social development of the city. Although the restaurant had Southern roots, it was anti-segregation, allowing anyone to dine there from the day it opened. It also hosted special events for African American school groups when the school district was still officially segregated. It’s no wonder that so many people have fond memories of meals at Green Pastures, a place that’s as inviting today as it was in 1946.
Ready for cloned steak?
There’s big food news on the cloning front. In case you missed the story this morning, the Food and Drug Administration is on the verge of endorsing the marketing of cloned animals for public consumption. It has been three years since the FDA initially suggested it might allow the sale of meat and milk from cloned livestock. Although there is still significant public opposition, with continuing efforts by groups and companies to forestall the decision, FDA action is expected by the end of the year, the Washington Post reported. The FDA’s likely position, the paper said, is the result of new data showing that meat and milk from cloned animals do not pose unique risks to consumers. “Our evaluation is that the food from cloned animals is as safe as the food we eat every day,” said Stephen Sundlof, FDA chief of veterinary medicine. Hmmm, that certainly is reassuring, isn’t it?
Mercury misgivings
Another national chain is weighing in on food safety. Bon Appetit cafes, with 400 locations in the United States, announced today that it is working with Gotmercury.org to highlight the concerns over the level of mercury in fish. In an information campaign that launches with signage in all Bon Appetit restaurants on Nov. 15, the chain will advise customers of the dangers of mercury in fish and urge them to use the mercury calculator at gotmercury.org. The calculator allows a consumer to put in his or her weight, the type of seafood and how much he or she plans to eat. Hit calculate and you get the percentage of safe weekly intake that the meal represents. For example, a 130-pound woman who plans on eating 6 ounces of ahi tuna (bigeye type) would be consuming 260 percent of her weekly total of mercury recommended by the Food and Drug Administration, according to the calculator. That same calculator shows clams on the other end of the scale, with undetectable levels of mercury. It’s fascinating to look at the levels of mercury by fish type, one more indication of ways in which we should be knowledgeable about what we are consuming.
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Bordeaux plus one
This is one wild horse that anybody can ride with confidence. The 2004 Paso Robles Cabernet Sauvignon from Wild Horse Winery & Vineyard in California takes a traditional Bordeaux blend of cabernet sauvignon, merlot, malbec, petit verdot and cabernet franc and gives it a twist by adding syrah to the mix. As a result, the wine (with a suggested retail price in the low $20s) is rich and satisfying, with distinct notes of black cherry and anise on the nose and the palate. The acidity that it shows also makes it a good wine to pair with food, especially a grilled steak.
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More food for thought
Food safety issues continue simmering. First, spinach. Then beef. Now lettuce. All facing recalls due to confirmed or reported contamination from the E. coli bacteria.
It certainly raises serious questions about the safety of the food supply, as well as what additional oversight is needed. The recent confirmation that a toddler died from E. coli after his mother served him a smoothie made with fresh spinach may make it much more difficult for the commercial recovery of a product that for decades was the symbol of healthy eating. How confident are you that no contaminated irrigation water is being used on another field in California? Confident enough to serve bagged fresh spinach to your 2-year-old?
New York City’s recent steps to ban trans fats from restaurants clearly are the harbinger of diet changes. Uno Chicago Grill announced today that it is eliminating trans fat from its French fries at its 200 locations nationally, claiming to be the “first national casual dining chain to eliminate the chemically modified fats from its French fries.” The chain said it took a year of experimentation to find a frying oil that would impart the favorable taste it expected in its fries. Look for more chains to follow that direction.
Iron Chef recount needed
It wasn’t Florida 2000, but the balloting on the Iron Chef America program aired Sunday night sure needed a recount. Challenger David Bull, executive chef of Austin’s Driskill Grill, lost to Iron Chef Bobby Flay in the match featuring wild boar as the secret ingredient. While I wasn’t there to taste the fare and can’t dispute the judge’s conclusions on that point, Bull clearly should have outscored Flay on originality (Flay fixed barbecue and pork cutlet, after all, compared to Bull’s carpaccio and roasted loin) and presentation (Bull’s plating was far more artistic). So, balloting aside, we know who the real winner was.
Chicken-fried vegetarian
The comment on Moonshine’s chicken-fried steak prompted an intriguing (well, at least to some of us foodies) discussion over whether anyone makes a chicken-fried vegetarian entree. (Do you know of anyone that does?) That sparked debate over what nonmeat product should be used. Tofu? Portobello mushrooms? Personally, I’m in favor of eggplant. After all, it already has a history as a substitute for veal and chicken in the classic Parmesan dish. Batter it, fry it and top it with cream gravy and you just might have a winner there. (Have a better idea?) The difficulty, of course, is making the dish vegan. Gravy made with soy milk is a whole other animal, as far as I’m concerned.
Chicken-fried heaven
Moonshine’s chicken-fried steak zoomed near the top of my list today after I dined on it for the first time at lunch. It’s a thin, tender steak covered with a thin batter — more of a country-style steak than the heavily battered beef found in many restaurants. The lunch-only steak ($11.95) was topped with a chipotle cream gravy, which gave it a nice zing without overwhelming spice. It was accompanied by carrots, green beans and the side of my choice: roasted sweet potatoes. Now, Moonshine (303 Red River St.) will be a highly recommended spot for CFS.
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Panera entering Austin market
The area’s first Panera Bread bakery-cafe will be opening soon, and I envision it developing a legion of loyal child-fans who encourage their parents to dine there frequently — if other kids are like my 7-year-old niece, Jamie, who adores the Panera near her home in Rochester, N.Y. Her favorite breakfast is a bagel — one half toasted, the other half plain — and a chocolate brownie. (Hmmm, throw in a latte and that does sound pretty good.) The local Panera, scheduled to open in November, will be in the Mira Vista shopping center at 2805 Bee Cave Road in Rollingwood. It is the first of 15 locations earmarked for the Austin and San Antonio markets for the national chain, which has more than 900 locations across the United States.
Huitlacoche empanadas
Stop by the new Sazon on South Lamar Boulevard and you may be as pleasantly surprised as I was. The interior Mexican restaurant (1816 S. Lamar Blvd.) is serving huitlacoche empanadas, one of the few places in town where you can find the corn fungus on the menu. With an avocado sauce accompanying them, the warm empanadas were delicious. They also were expensive — $9.99 for three — another indication of the spread of upscale living in that stretch of South Austin.
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A wok among the crowd
The new Chinatown Center drew a huge gathering to its grand opening festivities Saturday night in North Austin. In fact, the crowd was so big it was tough to even find a parking spot behind the 180,000-square-foot center at 10901 N. Lamar Blvd. Besides highlighting the wonderful cultural diversity of Austin, the evening brought my quest for a wok to a close. As Jack suggested in a response to an earlier blog, I found the round-bottom, carbon-steel, 16-inch, unseasoned wok at M.T. Supermarket, an impressive Pan-Asian grocery store with well-marked, wide aisles holding an amazing array of food items. In addition to the supermarket, Chinatown Center is home to seven restaurants, ranging from a small take-out spot to a large Chinese barbecue place. Returning home (after dining with an out-of-town friend on Vietnamese hot-and-sour chicken soup, lemon grass beef and spicy green beans at Le Soleil in another strip center on Lamar Boulevard), I followed Jack’s other suggestion and thoroughly washed the wok to remove the oil before seasoning it. Now, I’m ready to cook. I just need to find a good, basic Asian cookbook. Any suggestions?
