Boots in the Oven

How about some Jalisco-style Mexican before I make like a tree and leaf?

Right now, I'm supposed to be packing and cleaning and doing whatever the final quazillion things are that need to be done before we leave town tomorrow.

Yes, tomorrow morning we're picking up a rental car, shoehorning ourselves, our cats, and most of a Thanksgiving meal for 12 into it, and driving to Lake Pontchartrain's North Shore.  But that's AT LEAST twelve hours from now, and I really wanted to tell you guys about this amazing Jalisco-style Mexican restaurant we found, so screw it.

Taqueria Chapala is on east Cesar Chavez, in a part of town fairly bursting with Mexican food.  We found it during the East Austin Studio Tour last weekend.

I thought I knew Mexican food, but apparently I know squat about food from Jalisco. 

Husbear ordered one of the specialties on their brightly-colored menu - the tacos de carne adobada, or stewed chile-marinated pork.

They come three to an order.  A healthy (in size, not in lack of grease) portion of tender shredded braised pork comes wrapped in two tortillas.  It seems that the tacos are thrown on the griddle for a second after being prepared, since the outside tortilla is nice and crispy while the inside one stays soft.  I think this is the effect Taco Bell is miserably failing to achieve with their Cheesy GorditaBean Fatass Cruncharita.

And they're served just how Husbear likes them - with a large array of condiments.  Two kinds of onions, grilled and raw, a fried jalapeno, cilantro, and lime.  The pork is stewed with sweet spices like clove and cinnamon, which go oh so well with the bite of the raw onion and the punch of tart lime.

For $5.75, this is a seriously hearty and delicious meal. 

I went with one of the weekend-only specials, posole.  You know, I don't think I've had posole before?  It's a fairly simple meal in a bowl.

The broth is sweet-hot, with similar spicing as the pork in the tacos, though less aggressive.  Nice kernels of hominy and pieces of braised pork give it some texture. 

Apparently, it's supposed to come with some shredded cabbage and lime wedges, which our apologetic waitress deposited on our table after several minutes.  Sure!  I dumped the cabbage in the bowl and squeezed in some lime, which is probably exactly what you're not supposed to do.

Not only did our lunch come with the ubiquitous chips and salsa, we also got another basket of starch when our order was delivered.  The tortillas were soft and had great corn flavor, and I actually preferred the giant chips to the smaller ones that came with the salsa. 

This was a seriously good lunch, but they are open for dinner, too.  I'll definitely be back - they have lengua on the menu, which I haven't had since Italy!

Happy Thanksgiving, wherever you'll be celebrating.

Taqueria Chapala, 2101 E. Cesar Chavez, 512.320.0308

Can We?

In the face of all the whining and complaining (and rejoicing, from some quarters) about Texas' declining star on the national and international stage, it appears that some Texans are feeling... dare I say... HOPEFUL?

I wonder how many people nationwide have composed Obama-themed folk or square dances?  This was at the Downtown Farmers' Market last week.

Keep Austin Weird!

Austin Locavores Unite Around Seven Courses of Pig

There's a snap in the air here - actually, an unseasonably cold one - which means it's time for the food artistes at Dai Due to break out, and then break down, a whole pig!

You may remember us attending Dai Due's Whole Hog Boucherie dinner last year, after Husbear spent a day learning the tricks behind pig processing from Jesse at Dai Due.  Well, those crazy folks are at it again.

Though Dai Due held all sorts of wonderful food events this year, a confluence of laziness and our own scheduling irregularities meant we hadn't attended a single one.  What the hell, right?  It took out of town visitors coming in specifically for this event to get us to finally commit.

Anyway, in a repeat of last year, there we were in the late afternoon at Rain Lily Farm, holding an aperitif, watching a chicken riding a goat, wondering what lovely pigginess Dai Due had in store for us.

This chicken hopped from goat to goat, but managed to stay on as long as it wanted to.(Note: this chicken made my month, possibly my adult life. Holy balls is there anything more awesome than a chicken riding a goat?! -L. Pants)

Homestyle Thai in My Mouth

Everyone who's not currently sitting in Madam Mam's Westgate location eating the Special Beef Massaman Curry needs to get off their ass and drive there immediately.  No excuses.  If you are currently at Madam Mam's but eating something else, dash your food to the floor, signal your (now angry) waitress and tell her you need a heaping helping of P50.

I love Thai food. Heck, I flew over there just to stuff my face.  But when it comes to Thai food here in Texas I'm usually a bit on the disappointed side.  Like many ethnic foods round these parts it often suffers from the General Tso's Chicken Syndrome.  That is it's been dumbed down a bit or Whited up if you will.  It's a lowest common denominator problem where they feel like the market can't handle all that wacky authenticity so they stream line it; cut out some ingredients, pull back from sour, bitter and heat, sweeten it up and double the portions.

God bless you Madam Mam.  I knew we where in for a delicious treat as soon as I saw the large hunks of slow braised beef nestled up beside some whole golden potatoes and half a tender stewed onion. Big rustic chunks of food is almost always a good sign.

I felt like I was over at my aunt's house if my aunt were Thai and a great cook. The curry had a rich slightly sweet smell with toasted peanuts and tangy tamarind. The vegetables were perfectly done, holding their shape and texture but fork-soft all the way through. The beef was moist and flavorful with that great mouthfeel that you get from all of the connective tissues breaking down while being cooked long and slow.  I wanted to hug somebody.

I will leave you with a warning though.  Madam Mam's has two beef massaman curries. The one on their regular menu is the run of the mill standard version that gets cranked out all over town.  While it may be perfectly serviceable, the one you want is on their specials menu (last listed as P50). It's $12.50 and worth every penny. Get out there and help me support the real food scene in Austin. If they take this off the menu I'm going to hold you personally responsible.

Madam Mam's Noodle & More II

4514 Westgate Blvd. 78745

(512)899-8525

Is it the end?

Polls are starting to close.  As of right now, Vermont's been called for Obama, and Kentucky for McCain. 

Here's my polling place, just after 5 today.  Over 50% of Travis County Precinct 242's registered voters voted early this year, including me and my husband, but poll workers told me lines have been steady all day.   My precinct is heavily Democratic, in a very liberal city in the middle of a deeply conservative state.  Texas will almost certainly go for McCain, but that's not discouraging Texas Democrats.

I don't know if my heart will make it through tonight.

Chen Noodle House is... in the house?

What's the fastest way to get me or the Mr. excited about a new restaurant?

Drop the phrase "all noodles are handmade" onto the menu somewhere, and you're just about guaranteed we'll be there within the week, elbowing small children out of the way so we can order first.

There's a new Chinese noodleteria that just opened in late September out in the same strip mall that holds Asia Cafe.  And look at Chen's Noodle House's menu!

We were there immediately, ordering about half the compact menu.  Shoulda gone for the side dish, but we didn't.

I think I made a new friend!

101708, 291/366: Looks can be deceiving., originally uploaded by Boots in the Oven.

I've discovered something about myself in the last week. Not having Internet doesn't mean I magically become more productive, though I did read a book I'd been wanting to read, and I did catalog October's pictures.

I didn't, however, clean the house (beyond the six loads of laundry and folding I did yesterday). Nor did I work on blog posts to be, do any research for our possible trip to New Mexico this December, or make any of a dozen phone calls I really, really should have made. Oh well.

I did some work, notifying residents of upcoming filming in their neighborhoods, but when you're up against a menacing beast like this one it makes your job a tad more difficult and dangerous. Luckily, I do like living on the edge. Do you feel lucky, pup?

A Trough of Friday Fajitas at Trudy's

We first moved here to Austin in 2001, and maybe a week after arriving, discovered Trudy's.  Not that it took that much work - the three locations of this restaurant are some of the most popular places in town, especially with college students and young twentysomethings.  Once a month or so, there we'd be, waiting an hour or more for a table so we could eat huge fried chiles rellenos stuffed with mushroom fajitas or softball-sized fried avocados stuffed with chicken or plates overflowing with enchiladas in cream sauce, and wash everything down with Austin's signature drink - a martini shaker full of margaritas called a Mexican martini (limit two).

I like to think I put on my mid-twenties twenty-five pounds when I quit smoking and got a desk job, but in hindsight, Trudy's just may have had something to do with it.

When we moved out of that early twentysomething demographic, Trudy's started to lose its luster.  The drinks tasted sweeter every time we went.  The menu never changed.  The place was loud, and cavernous, and it started to become more and more difficult to overlook the ridiculous unhealthiness of 90% of the menu.

But it's been a stressful few weeks for the hubs around here with this new movie he's working on, and he came home on Friday craving a bowl of cheese and a Mexican martini, perhaps not in that order.  So, off we went!

Wednesday Night... what IS that?

Not that this wasn't delicious.  It was, in fact, TOTALLY delicious.  But this was also a decidedly weird meal, made of a motley collection of leftovers.

When Husbear got home from work on Wednesday, he already knew what he'd be making.  A list tacked to the fridge said "Spaghetti squash, mushroom and eggplant fryup, macaroni and cheese souffle, salad with flowers."

The excitement of leaving your house - and, are you registered to vote?

I remember the thrill of springtime in Chicago, April or so, when you could finally venture timidly outside without experiencing extreme discomfort, freezing of the teeth, stabbing pain in your exposed eyes, and numb toes.

Well, in Texas, that season of wonder and delirious enjoyment is autumn.  It was a hellaciously hot summer, so hot that I couldn't wear dangly metal earrings because every time I got in my car, they'd burn welts into the side of my neck.  Finally, our highs right now are in the upper 80s to low 90s, and in the evenings, it's positively temperate.  We went out to eat a snickeringly strange meal downtown on Friday (I'll blog it tomorrow or Wednesday) and then spent an hour wandering around, just relishing the novel sensation of not bursting immediately into rivers of sweat.

It doesn't feel like a stereotypical Northern pumpkin bread and braised meats and cinnamon type autumn, yet, but Austin probably won't feel like that until December.

We really could use some rain, though.

On another subject, if you're in Texas, today is the LAST DAY to register to vote in the November elections!  Check here to see if you're registered, and if not, there is a voter registration drive going on all day at all Thundercloud Subs and Blockbuster Video stores.  Please register and vote - it's so important this year!