torchy's tacos

austin, tx

website

forgot to mention, before we picked up y+a+n from the airport, jinny and i got a snack of guacamole and freshly fried chips from torchy's. (perhaps freshly fried is the theme of my austin trip?) the next day, we decided to get takeout from torchy's for the whole gang. torchy's is austin hipster mexican. colorful chalkboard menu? check. ironic hipster decorations? check (a red devil wearing a diaper is their logo). ironic hipster names for their menu items? check.

i ordered a "mr. pink" taco - guajillo seared ahi tuna, cabbage fresca, cilantro, and queso freco - and a "trailer park" taco - fried chicken, green chilies, lettuce, pico de gallo, and cheese on a flour tortilla. there's an option to make the "trailer park" taco "trashy" by replacing the lettuce with queso, but i passed. we also ordered, for the gang, a small bowl of queso and more freshly fried chips. tacos were pretty good - fresh, quality ingredients, but the queso was amazing. definitely my favorite part of the meal.

cypress grill

austin, tx

website

y+a+n finally arrived in austin, so we all went out for dinner. after all of the doughnuts, we decided to move onto something with a little more substance. still deep-fried, though, it is texas after all. jinny and kurt are excellent tour guides - we simply select a cuisine and they find us a restaurant with great food and atmosphere. at cypress grill i ordered the fried oysters, served with fries. pretty solid food.

kc donuts

austin, tx

link to yelp

you might think that getting a freshly fried doughnut topped with bacon and maple syrup icing would satisfy our doughnut cravings for at least 24 hours. you would be wrong. the next morning, jinny and i headed to the very popular kc donuts for doughnuts and kolaches. completely unassuming, tucked away in a strip mall, no fancy chalkboard menu, and no hipster decorations (ironic owls, anyone?). it's just a mom-and-pop (sometimes mom-and-son) shop. i ordered two doughnuts to go with my coffee - one sugar and one with chocolate icing - both delicious. nothing fancy about these doughnuts - they are simple, but perfect. fresh, soft, and with just the right amount of sweetness. yum.

gourdough's

austin, tx

website

believe it or not, we went to get doughnuts after eating at the hula hut. and not just any doughnuts. we went to gourdough's - a famous austin gourmet doughnut truck. it's located in one of the food truck parking lots which dot the austin landscape. (can we start doing that here in palo alto, please?) i ordered the flying pig - a freshly fried doughnut topped with several strips of bacon and maple syrup icing. the doughnut itself is the highlight for me, it's fried perfectly - crispy shell on the outside and soft and chewy on the inside. the toppings were a bit too intense for me, but still delicious.

hula hut

austin, tx

website

this place will always hold a special place in my heart because it is where jinny and kurt introduced me to QUESO. sure, i've had chile con queso at chevy's, but that doesn't count at all. in austin, queso is a magical molten concoction - creamy, cheesy, spicy. and its always served with freshly fried crispy tortilla chips. so good. jinny and kurt are queso experts - they know where to find the best queso in austin and hula hut is one of them. so good. did i say that already?

there was other food on the table as well. pictured is the texas-sized roasted chicken pipeline enchilada. no, that's not a typo. they really call it an enchilada. it's coated in "queso blanco" sauce which tasted like gravy. it was pretty good, but very heavy. frankly, at this point i was so full of queso it's a wonder i managed to take a single bite out of this behemoth. thankfully, jinny and kurt took me on a short tour of beautiful lake austin after dinner to walk off the meal. although perhaps it was so i could be ready to consume even more food. just wait till you see the rest of my austin eating tour ...

hong kong flower lounge

millbrae, ca

website

back to millbrae to drop stacey off at the airport. first, however, we stopped for dim sum. hong kong flower lounge was recommended to us by april and lennon - and they know good dim sum. this place gets very crowded very quickly - so its best to arrive shortly after they open - anytime between 10:00 am and 11:00 am is usually safe. otherwise you could end up waiting an hour for a table.

giant multi-level complex with carts, trays, and food stations. we don't bother with the food stations - we prefer the food to come to us. all the usual dim sum favorites are excellent here - shaomai, ham sui gok, congee, deep fried taro dumplings, turnip cakes, tofu skin rolls, and egg tarts. if you're a fan of ma la gou - malaysian yellow cake - be sure to special order it because it rarely shows up on the carts.

millbrae pancake house

millbrae, ca

website

stacey finally came to the bay area for a visit! we picked her and her friend up at the airport and headed directly to millbrae pancake house. okay, maybe not directly - our GPS decided to take us through san bruno first. anyway, we eventually arrived around 11 am and there was already a crowd lined up outside. we grabbed a number and waited about a half hour before our table was ready.

the restaurant is basically a huge diner with a giant menu of breakfast options. the chatty waitstaff refers to everyone as "dear" or "darling." it was very difficult to decide, so i just ordered everything - chili cheese omelette, side of hash browns, side of swedish pancakes, and biscuits and gravy for the table. the omelette was massive and delicious - chili had great spicy flavor. everyone at the table agreed that the swedish pancakes - crepes served with strawberry butter - were amazing. great food, great atmosphere, close to SFO - we'll definitely be back.

village pub

woodside, ca

website

like derek, our friend rajesh knows good burgers. he's been telling us to try the village pub burger ever since we moved to the south bay. our earlier attempts had failed, but derek made reservations for yet another anniversary dinner. (it's our first anniversary, we're allowed to have more than one celebratory meal, right?) so we got all dressed up and were ready to dine with the moneyed, hedge-fundy, venture-capitalisty elites that populate woodside. the average age of the village pub dining room was definitely up there, but i suppose derek and i are no spring chickens either.

despite the white tablecloths and formal atmosphere, service was incredibly friendly and gracious. the burger was not on the dinner menu, but we were allowed to order from the pub menu. i can't remember what appetizer i ordered but it probably involved caviar of some kind and was probably amazing. derek thought the village pub burger was delicious. i ordered the steak frites with bone marrow because i can't pass up anything with bone marrow. very very good - my only complaint is that they pre-sliced the meat and drenched it with sauce. i'm a grown woman, i can slice and sauce my own steak, thankyaverymuch.

ad hoc

yountville, ca

website

derek and i had just been to french laundry over new year's, so we decided to try its less expensive and less formal sister restaurant, ad hoc, for our anniversary dinner. ad hoc has a very casual atmosphere - waitstaff in jeans, loud classic rock/soul music, and no tablecloths on the tables. we were planning to order their famous fried chicken, but it turns out that it is only available on certain monday nights. instead, they had a set menu to be served family-style: a salad, an optional shrimp risotto, tri-tip steak, vegetable sides, a cheese course, and ice cream sundaes.

we weren't really in the mood for steak and the tri-tip was sadly overcooked. also, despite being served in a baking dish, it got cold quickly. the only highlight of the meal was all of the vegetables - incredibly fresh (from the french laundry garden, perhaps?) and well-prepared. the fennel, in particular, was amazing. derek was bewildered as to why i kept raving about the fennel, but it was seriously delicious. the sundaes were underwhelming - while the chocolate sauce was terrific, we didn't drive all the way up to yountville and make reservations weeks in advance to get ice cream sundaes for dessert. sigh.