Eddie V's Happy Hour - Austin,TEXAS

When I arrived home this past Friday evening, after working one stressed out week, I just was not in the mood to cook dinner. Señora Foodblog had already eaten so I decided to head downtown and visit Eddie V’s oyster happy hour. Parking in downtown Austin has become a joke, some sort of crazy dance that involves driving around for 20mins, hunting, searching every side street until you find that elusive parking spot. To top the situation off, most of the time you end up walking five blocks just to reach you final destination. So, I pulled out the wallet and used the friendly and convenient valet to park the car… $6.

Eddie V’s happy hour is served in the bar, to the left of the front door as you enter the restaurant. Seating has never proved a problem for me at Eddie V’s; Señora Foodblog and I quickly found a table near the bar and ordered some beer and wine. I have never eaten in the main room so I can’t tell you about it but the bar area is a dark haven for overpaid, and some would say, under worked lawyers. Very subdued and crispy clean, this has to be one of my favorite watering holes in Austin.

Oysters are .50 cents each during happy hour – I ordered a dozen. Señora Foodblog doesn’t like the oyster, but she does like the steaming hot bread served with every meal at Eddie V’s. The bread is so good, you have to used some real self control not to eat it all before you receive your food. The menu also offers many items at half price including and not limited to the Maryland Style All Lump Crab Cake , Sliced Vine Ripe Tomatoes & Italian Bufala Mozzarella and Georges Bank Scallops in Tempura. All of which I have tried and all taste great. The best part about the happy hour is that if all you eat is a doz oysters, a happy hour half price appetizer, the free bread and only drink ice tea, your bill should come in under $15…that includes tip. Now Señor Foodblog says that is a craaaazy sweat deal. The oysters this night were clean tasting, not muddy at all, defiantly some of the best in town.

Señor Foodblog says two spoons up for Eddie V’s. Wonderful oysters, great happy hour food specials and the kind of top notch service you would expect from a restaurant of Eddie V’s caliber and reputation. If you are an oyster eater, check this place out. I also understand that Sundays are all day happy hour. This sounds like a prime opportunity to settle into possible seafood frenzy and just maybe find some decent parking without having to pay, to boot.


Austin – 2 locations
Downtown
512 472 1860

Arboretum
512 342 46 26
http://www.eddiev.com/

Cheddar's - Austin,TEXAS

Wow, I must be on a roll! During the past few weeks, I have had some of the worst restaurant experiences I can remember in Austin. Dirty tables, poor service, lousy food and just plain foodie chaos. What the hell is going on Austin? I just hate to rag so instead of telling you my feelings, I thought it would be fun to just quote some of my fellow co-workers thoughts about my latest restaurant train wreck…Cheddar’s – 15119 IH-35 North.

Easy to find with lots of parking, Cheddar’s from the outside looks like most other corporate-run restaurants, plain. The inside is nicely put together, casual, warm; the restaurant feels like an ok place to bring the family.

Everything was going fine until we started ordering our meals, receiving our meals and trying to pay for our meals.

Earth Mother – “Experience worse than death”

Cylon – “The twilight zone” and “ That was a strange trip, man”

Romeo – “The worst food and service I have ever experienced”

Vito – “I didn’t think we would ever leave”

MW – “Service deplorable”

So there you have it. Honest true quotes describing our visit to Cheddar’s. What I find interesting is all the positive reviews I found online by locals that really like eating at Cheddar’s. No accounting for taste. I guess what really got us all going was that our waiter didn’t write down any of our orders and then preceded to totally mess everything up. We had to wait nearly an hour for a few hamburgers and a couple bowls of soup. And to make matters worse, the soup was so salty, Earth Mother found it inedible.

All I have to say about Cheddar’s is eat at your own risk. If you do decide to give it a try, make certain the server is writing down your order, otherwise you may just experience the same train wreck my fellow workers and I suffered.

Cheddar’s
15119 IH-35 North
Austin

Cheese Tortellini Soup

Recently, Senora Foodblog and I were invited to dine at Cupcake Kittens home. Now Cupcake is a fabulous cook and always servers the best meals. This night she turned us on to her version of Cheese Tortellini Soup. I don’t know if she invented the soup or if she found it in some recipe book somewhere but the soup was the bomb! I liked it so much Cupcake sent me home with enough soup for a second meal the next day. As it turned out, the soup was even better the second day. After much begging and pleading…lots of hands and knees stuff, Cupcake emailed the recipe which I just have to share with you guys.

I substituted some of the ingredients to stay within Senora Foodblogs heart friendly diet.


2 tbsp Olive Oil
1 package of hot turkey Italian sausage – taken out of casings
1 Onion chopped
6-8 Carrots chopped
4 Garlic cloves, minced
1 ½ Tbsp chopped fresh thyme or use less dry thyme
½ tsp dried crushed red pepper
10 cups Low sodium chicken broth
8 cups chopped kale (1-2 bunches)
1 15 oz of butter beans
1 9oz package of mini light cheese raviolis
1 can artichoke hearts in water chopped
1 cup grated Asiago cheese or Parmesan cheese

Heat oil in heavy large pot over medium-high heat. Add next 6 ingredients and sauté until vegetables are soft and sausage is brown, about 12 minutes. Add broth and bring to boil. Stir in kale and butter beans. Reduce heat to low and simmer until kale is wilted, about 4 minutes. (Can be made 1 day ahead. Cool slightly; cover and refrigerate. Bring to simmer before continuing.) Add raviolis and artichokes to soup. Simmer until pasta is just tender but still firm to bite, about 5 minutes.

Ladle soup into bowls. Serve, passing cheese separately.
Makes 6 serving.

This soup is perfect for these cold days of our 2 week winter. When the soup was cooking, its smell was incredible. The Senora and I circled the cooking pot like hungry vultures. This soup is very easy to make and only take a few mins to put together. I hope you give it a try. Enjoy and stay warm.

Suzie's China Grill & Sushi - Austin, TEXAS

Suzie's on Shoal Creek has to be one of my fav places to eat lunch. I just love Suzie's. This intense gastronomical love affair started with the S. Lamar location. After Mrs. Food trapped me in her net of love, it moved north to the Shoal Creek / Anderson location. Parking is not an issue, but getting a table during the lunch rush usually involves a short wait. I would highly recommend getting to Suzie's before 11:45am for instant seating but after that, you will probably have to wait.

Mrs. Food (light of my life) and I arrived at Suzie's at about 12:20 and added our name to the list. After about a 15 min wait, we were seated in the sushi bar part of the restaurant. One of Suzie's strong points has to be the great, fast service, you don't have to wait or want for anything. The servers are efficient and on the job. We had menus and water upon being seated and the server was right there to take our order. We each started with soup. Mrs. Food likes the egg drop while I am a big fan of the hot and sour, which on this day was pretty darn spicy and perfect for the cooler weather. Talking to our server, Mrs. Food discovered that Suzie's has brown rice, which is great for her diet and matched perfectly with her order of steamed vegetables. Not so concerned with my diet, I always get the sweet and sour pork lunch special. The food started arriving at our table no longer that 5mins after we ordered…a real plus if you have places to go and people to see and don't have the luxury of a long lunch break.

It's like I am just addicted to the sweet and sour pork. The combination of pineapple with the pork just rocks my world. I also like to mix the sauce with my rice…o yea baby. Mrs. Food's plate was heaping with vegetables and was more than enough to satisfy her appetite. The combination of brown rice with her meal made Mrs. Food very happy indeed and when she is happy, I am happy. Our total cost for two hot teas and two lunch entrees (each came with soup) around $20 – not including tip.

Mr. Foodblog gives Suzie's two spoons up. Great food and great service. A friendly, happy wait staff combined with a warm comfortable atmosphere and tasty good food always equals a positive eating experience. Suzie's has three locations in Austin, check out the website for more info. http://www.suzischinagrill.com/ .

Suzie's China Grill & Sushi
7858 Shoal Creek Blvd
302 4600

1152 S. Lamar
441 8400

2745 Bee Caves
347 7077

Cream of Poblano Soup

After my mom died, I was organizing her stuff when I discovered she had some 1960's cook books from Time Life, Foods of the World. The books came as a set of 7, each dedicated to a different county or region of the world. I decided to try my hand and chose a French soup, cream of mushroom, but I wanted to give it a Texas twist. So I got to thinking and ….why not poblano peppers. A great soup when things are starting to cool down outside. I adapted this recipe for garlic once, which I was told was like drinking liquid warmth. If you like to cook like I do, this is a great soup to play with, make it cream of anything, just have a good time, maybe open a bottle of wine. I will bold where I made a change to recipe.

1 ½ lbs Poblano peppers
5 tsps butter
6 tsps flour
6 cups chicken stock
2 egg yolks
¾ cup heavy cream
Salt
White pepper

Rub poblanos with olive oil. Roast poblanos in 350 degree oven for 45mins on a cookie sheet. Turn once or twice. Place hot, cooked peppers in paper bag and seal. Let the bag stand for 15mins before cleaning the poblanos. Discard the poblanos outer skin, seeds and stem. Set cleaned poblanos to side.

Melt 5 tsps butter in 4 – 6 quart saucepan over moderate heat. Add flour and make a roux. Cook about a 1min over low heat, stir constantly. Do not brown roux. Add Chicken stock, beating constantly to blend stock and roux. Stir until this cream soup base comes to a boil, thickens and is perfectly smooth. Add poblanos and simmer on low heat for about 15mins.

Puree the hot soup then pour through a fine sieve back into saucepan. Blend your egg yolks and cream together at this time. Whisk in the hot pureed soup, 2 tsps at a time, until ½ cup has been added. Then reverse the process and slowly whisk the now-warm egg-yolk-and-cream mixture into the soup.

Bring to boil, and boil for 30mins, stirring constantly. Remove pan from heat, taste and season with salt and pepper.

I just love this soup. The creamy poblano taste is wonderful. I also like to sprinkle bacon over the top or maybe diced cooked potatoes. Sorry no picture, I guess I was just thinking about my mom.