Oh snap! Piggy and Beer (or Wine): aka Barley Swine

In the next couple of weeks I will attempt to visit and sample as many Austin foodie favorites as I can before I head back to San Antonio. That's right. An opportunity arose for me to move back to SA and work as the archaeological Project Manager there. I'm excited! I will miss my ATX peeps dearly though. It's been a good ten years in this town and lots of friends to show for it...so before I start tearing up lemme return to the previous topic at hand. Eating my way through Austin.

My girl Lisa (A Fictional Blog) hosted a farewell party for me this weekend at her cute abode. But prior to the shenanigans that ensued which involved corn hole and water balloons, we had to do it right for dinner. Now Lisa along with my other core Austinite girls love, love to eat. But we like to eat "fancy." I'm talking small plate courses with good wine and cheese and cutesy cocktails. We don't do it all the time but we all share this love of fine dining. We try not to be pretentious about it though, 'cuz we've all met and known those people that are total douches talking about what foodies they are. So we keep it real by talking about really crass, disgusting, and vulgar things during our delicious dinners of cute tiny portions. Not on purpose, mind you, it just never fails that when you get the five (six with Nesvecil) of us together the conversations get pretty low brow. Whatevs.

Anyway, so we decided to head to go the hip Barley Swine. It's oh so popular right now and we had to get our asses there early before there was a two hour wait. Yes, that's right, two hours. We found out why soon enough.

BARLEY SWINE:
So if you haven't already heard seating is Euro style where they pack you in to a table with other patrons. Not the place if you wanna get all romantic or if you wanna break up with someone in a public place since you'll be all up in everybody's business at the table. I recommend going with a posse so you can take over the table and intimidate the other patrons. Sounds bitchy but then you won't feel so bad if your party gets a little bit rowdy and loud since there'll be more of you. The tables seat eight and there are about six tables overall with a bar. Super tiny place, but there's an awesome view of the kitchen. And it's a fantastic kitchen.

Another advantage in going with a posse is that you can just order the whole menu. They are small plate offerings so they recommend getting two or three per person. The menu varies so there are usually eight to nine entrees (not including dessert) plus another three special items of the day not on the menu. So the girls and I got the whole menu which contained entrees with goat, lamb, pork belly, scallop, shrimp, pig face...yes pig face. Hot damn it was good. So good, we had trouble sharing. Each of us kept eyeing the last piece of each entree with no shame at calling out dibs for it. There were a couple of instances of some fork fighting be we managed to keep it civil. I wan't a fan of a few plates, particularly those without any meat, but overall the courses were delicious and pretty good lookin'. My favorites in no particular order:

Pork belly, zucchini, with pine nuts and niciose olives

Hmmm. The piggy was cooked perfectly and the bits of charred fat made you wanna sit in a corner by yourself and have a personal moment.









Chopped pig face in a cornmeal with pickled veggies and some sauce.

This was one of the daily specials so I forgot to take a picture of the ingredients, but that doesn't matter. What matters is that eating this made me happy. Really happy.









Chicken fried chicken egg with grilled rabbit, hay grits and mustard seeds.
I was so angry and happy at the same time. Happy because it was so yummy it made me cuss, gawd dammit. Angry cuz I had to share it.

So yeah, Barley Swine may be trendy and you have to wait forever, but hot damn its good. The food combinations were totally unexpected but you totally get over it once you put in your mouth. You'll drop some Benji's for sure but you should know its totally worth it. I do miss their trailer for sure tho. The pork belly slider was 4 bucks and cooked just the same. Oh well.

After the meal we headed back to the party pad and Lisa hooked it up with Bacon Cupcakes. Yeah, that's right, bacon cupcakes. And hell yeah they were good.

Thanks girls for sending me off right. Till the next time.

Been a long time.....but let's DISH: Elizabeth's on Elizabeth and So1st

So I've been a bad blogger. Bad, bad! But life get's in the way as always. Plus, other than family outings and work trips I haven't really traveled. So this next post is a different take on my "exploring" adventures. I'm talking about food. I mean why I haven't I thought of this before?! Y'all know how much I love stuffing my face. So now I'm gonna start trying to post my "reviews" if you will, of any new places I've explored in the realm of food. So here goes:

ELIZABETH'S Noodles and Bahn Mi Boulangerie 

http://elizabethstreetcafe.com/

This just opened up on the corner of South 1st and Elizabeth Street just north of Freddy's. So I've been wanting to check it out since I'd seen it during the Nosh Food Trailer Tour me and girls did about a couple of weeks ago. I had a bit of a hangover today and I was craving some Pho. Good Pho. I figured I'd give it a try.

They  have pastries, Vietnamese coffee and tea bar, noodles (Pho and Bun), and Banh Mi. Banh Mi are of course the Vietnamese sandwiches made with classic French bread. Well, I went for the Pho with the braised short ribs and some BBQ pork spring rolls. Needed something comforting and soupy.

It wasn’t too busy and although it was a pretty day I wanted to sit inside. Wooden floors, coffee bar along the back wall with a semi-open view of the kitchen, about 10 small tables on the inside, and then another marble bar table along the windows with high stools. I sat here so I can have a view out toward 1^st street and the small porch area.  I started out with the spring rolls served in twos. Perfectly wrapped and served with three different sauces. Classic peanut, a green mint/garlic sauce, and chili oil. The presentation is very French classic. Cute small bowls and with a cute ceramic spoon. The pork was good but didn’t taste particularly BBQy. I’m used to a more charred taste with a little more seasoning.

#30C Braised Short Ribs Pho

After I inhaled these the pho showed up with the fixings. Very clean broth, super thin rice noodles, and nice chunks of the beef. The bowl was a bit smaller than what you normally get at a Vietnamese place. Now in a “normal” Vietnamese place this portion would run you about 5-7 bones. This was 14. And the spring rolls would be 1.50 each. These were 3.00 bucks each. I’m thinking your paying for the freshness of the ingredients. I could tell the broth was “new” or made that day at least. That’s what I mean by clean. I’m not saying that the other places aren’t clean, but it seems their broths are a bit heartier. Either because they use it longer and keep stewing additional beef in the same broth daily or they reuse the broth from the day before. Not that it’s bad, because for some reason broth seems tastier the following day.  This broth seemed healthier. None of the rich fat that usually shimmers at the top of the broth, but still tasty. Of course, that rich fat is pretty awesome. But for a healthier pho, Elizabeth's hits the mark. The fixings were pretty much the same as always…bean sprouts, thai basil, cilantro, jalapeños, and lime. They also had little slices of radishes.

So overall it was good. The atmosphere is not what I’m used to when I go out and eat pho, though. This was “fancy.” No bad just "fancy." Almost felt a little self-conscious slurping the noodles. Most pho places are mom and pop joints. This place is actually owned by the Lambert group. Uber trendy. Plus, the seats/stools were not so great. I mean they were small stools, cute stools, but too small for my huge ass. They are obviously meant for skinny hipster/hipsterette butts. And they were high, which meant my short legs were hanging helping to cut a bit of my circulation.  Even with this criticism, I’d totally go back.  It feels really girlie and fun and fresh. Want to try the Bahn Mi next time. And next time gotta get the girls to come with. Exploring more horizons….

Non-stop since Spain

Sooo...it's been a while. And I still haven't posted my last day in Spain pic's. Bad, bad, bad...i know. I will update those photos soon enough. It has been a bit crazy since I've been back. I've been pretty much in the field in Hill Country for March, a bit of April, and then back on the big bad "project." That's where I'm at right now. Back in Oklahoma, almost three years to the date of when we started this crazy project. Three years!!

I was so used to do doing "normal" archaeology for the past two months and then I'm back to the absurdity that is "the project." In the Hill Country, we knew where had to go via a phone call or an email from our land agent, got in our trucks and traveled to those areas, and then we surveyed. Just like that. No 15-30 min meetings going over where we were going, what we were doing, with an exhausting discussion on safety issues that everybody knows how to mitigate with a useless middle man who usually doesn't know or doesn't even care to inform himself of the project. Plus I was luckily enough to work on a section of the Hill Country project that had fantastic archaeology. One site had 20 projectile points scattered on the ground surface with countless (really, countless) stone tools. And burned rock middens on two other sites!! I love me some burned rock middens! Which are basically, for those who don't know, hearth features that have been extensively used through time creating a "midden" or concentration of rock and charcoal. Plus the surveying in the Hill Country is beautiful. Wide open skies, usually easy terrain with manageable vegetation, and awesome creeks and rivers. Even when it gets bad its good. But alas, I then get pulled back into the "project."

First of all, I went back to East Texas. Which if fine since I usually get to see my girl, JP in Lufkin, but I missed her this time around. The survey wasn't difficult and we did some BHT (backhoe trenching), but the CF that the "project" is just keeps it from being efficient. But...overall, we try to make it fun as much as we can within the limitations and frustrations that we experience. You have to after a while. No point in being a debbie-downer about it. It is what it is. Like here in Oklahoma, right now. Yes, the usual BS creeps in. Last-minute work, frustrating communications, and borderline incompetence. Then I realize we have great overall survey areas, awesome field peeps to do the survey with, and fantastic weather thus far. Even if it was crappy survey areas (i.e. Blowmont, aka Beaumont), a socially inept and inexperienced field crew, and freaking extreme weather....I still wouldn't be doing anything else. You make the most of what you have. Whining and complaining about some our realities in the field just brings the rest of the group down. It's a lot better to make fun of it and laugh about the absurdity (Safety up, F*ckTards!) than to dwell on a project's soul crushing intent. So I will vent every once in a while. But the truth is I have it good. And I'm grateful I get to do a job that I still love. In spite of the some of the BS.