Beginning Steak Tour 2011-12

Tonight was the beginning of my steak tour. Yes, I purposely began it during Restaurant Week. I debated for about a week on where the steak tour would start. I was thinking Perry's Steakhouse as I've heard its awesome. But as it IS Restaurant Week I decided to pretty much start at the top. Ruth Chris! They had a set menu which is different for them (and made it semi-affordable). I had a summer greens and watermelon salad, 6oz Filet cooked medium rare plus, fingerling potatos with dijon sause and bacon, and then for dessert strawberry shortcake and dark chocolate truffles. Dude, I am massively full. The salad was good. Didn't finish it as I wanted to have room for the steak. The steak was pretty much perfect. About an inch thick and pink throughout. Good spices. Not too spicy but had more than just butter and pepper I think. And they said 6 oz's but i am sure it was more like 8oz. I did eat the whole thing. Had to let it cool a little as they bring it out sizzling on a 500 degree plate. The potatoes were really good but maybe a tad too spicy. The strawberry shortcake really surprised me. I figured it would be dry and biscuit-like. But it was moist and cake-like and the whipped cream had some kind of liquor in it. Not Kuala. Not sure what it was. Was really good though. The truffles were ok - I actually only ate 1 of the three. Brought the other two home. They are dark chocolate and sortof dry and gritty. Maybe that's how they are suppose to be? Oh, the steak also came with two seasoned and grilled shrimp but I don't eat shrimp so I am guessing those will need to be thrown away, sadly.

The waitress was nice and made sure I had everything I needed. The restaurant ambiance and decor was meh. Didn't have much atmosphere. Guess they concentrate on the steaks. Overall I'd give the whole experience a B+ and the steak by itself an A. If I had been drinking wine instead of a Dr. Pepper I could have maybe passed for a critic. Ha.

And here's a picture. Yes, the plate was covered in butter! :0)


Next on the steak tour will hopefully be III Forks and later this fall - Perry's Steakhouse. And there MAY be a Fogo de Chao visit in there too. :0) Oh, I guess technically I started the steak tour last spring with Fogo but I am not sure I am counting that. Maybe I should though. And I've done Mesa Ranch since then. Did Roaring Folk but had ribs so that doesn't count.

thoughts

I've been thinking of some of this for a while and debating blogging or just keeping the thoughts to myself. As a Christian and growing up in the church I've heard ALOT about heaven. We talk about how perfect it is and how there is no pain, suffering, etc. We sing about how we can't wait to see Jesus and hang out with him/worship him. So, all this makes me view life loosely and wonder if heaven is better than why would I want to stay here. Now I know there are reasons. But lately I keep running up against thoughts of what would I do in a difficult situation and end up thinking - oh if such and such happens I'll just die. And I mean it pretty literally. There has been alot in the news about the economy and then in early August the stock market plunged again and my mom was really upset. And so I was thinking, well, what would I do if I lost everything b/c the economy totally tanks. My solution. I'll just die and say farewell cruel world and spend eternity in heaven. Or when I think of famine or war or crazy governments. I don't feel I have the strength to fight for much of anything and keep thinking, well, I could always just die.

Then I start thinking of why am I single. Oh probably b/c I am going to die soon so God doesn't want to give me a husband or kids b/c I'll just be gone soon. Or I think why get married. He's just going to die too. Wow. That all sounds quite depressing. I think I do struggle with some depression and definitely loneliness. Friday nights and Sundays are the worst. Friday nights I am usually tired from the week and just want to stay in and have someone to detox from the week with. Then Sundays remind me that I don't have a family, and seems like pretty much everyone around me does. Growing up we had most every evening meal together and sundays together. Mom would often cook and we'd hang out in the kitchen with her. Or sometimes Sunday's we'd go get a bucket of chicken after church so mom didn't have to cook. But now I don't have a family of my own and my family is far away and most all my friends have a family and are busy with their own lives. I know thats just how it is. But then that reminds me of all the heaven talk again. We've been taught there is a banquet table in heaven. That sounds much better than the bowl of cereal I often eat for sunday dinner. And I bet at the banquet table there is fellowship too.

I've been thinking of the Hagan/Karina relationship lately. How they voted and made her part of the family while she was in college. So she had somewhere for Sunday dinners, and birthdays, and even vacations. Very cool. I do have a sortof adopted family here so I generally have somewhere for holidays. But its not full-out included in the family. Which is ok. It is a lot of responsibility to be in a family. Many families have a lot of drama. And I don't want to be the semi-wanted stepkid anyway. I was really excited when Liveoak decided to go with a homegroup model. I'd have a little family. And we were suppose to live life together. Well, that didn't really happen and homegroups lasted about a year. So I feel like I am almost back to square one. Do I go find another church? I've prayed about it but don't feel lead to do that. I've visited a few churches. At some people say hi, but I don't really feel that welcomed and they don't invite me out to lunch. Plus I have friends. And I don't make new friends very easily. Maybe its just a busy season in everyones lives. Maybe once their kids are grown it will be different. Ofcourse since I could die at any minute I doubt I'll be around for all that. But fear not. I seriously won't hurt/kill myself or anything. It's just that I get really lonely lately and all the songs and talk about heaven make it sound like a lot better place to be. But then I am also afraid of heaven b/c its the unknown.

There IS some happiness in my life. I am enjoying having time to do glass and pottery stuff. And looking forward to going to Normal in a few weeks for Rudy's ordination. AND I do have great friends. :0)

Roll On Sushi Diner

Many of my closer friends think I am not all that adventurous with food. Most of the time they are right. I like what I like and don't branch out much. Although I have gotten MUCH more adventurous over the last 5 or so years. Well, it might have actually started 14 years ago with that Green Bean Quesadilla. So, anyway. Ran into a friend of a friend this weekend and she was talking about her husband's new restaurant Roll On Sushi Diner that is near Hat Creek and Dickey's on Burnet. And the friend was raving about it. Sounded interesting so I decided to try it out. Everything is a roll. And its some sort of asian-austin fusion. They had the regular sushi place rolls and then some american-y ones like the Cholestra-Roll that has chicken-fried steak in it and you dip it in gravy. It's an interesting concept. It's all diner style and you sit up to a diner style bar to eat. I got my food to go so I didn't get the sitting experience. I ordered 3 things - a pretty typical Philly Roll (salmon, cream cheese, avacodo), a Franchise (ground beef, lettuce, tomato, pickle, cheese), and for dessert a Elvis (PB, Banana, Bacon with choc sauce).

So opinions. I would first say its quite expensive and small servings. The Elvis was especially small and disappointing for the $6. The bacon added an interesting flavor but needed to be crispy. And I totally couldn't taste the peanut butter. It was wrapped as an egg roll and I would recommend more of a wonton shape instead I think. And better chocolate. The other 2 rolls were good. The Philly better than the Franchaise and on both the rice and seaweed with overwhelming. The rolls had almost no filling so it was mostly rice. I could taste everything in the Philly though. The Franchise I really couldn't. Not sure it really had cheese or pickles in it. I would go back but not alone. I finished all but 4 bites but I think it would be more fun with more people but at $1 a bite it adds up! I guess food prices are sky rocketing but I felt the food was too expensive for what it is. Esp as a lunch place.

I will give them points for a creative menu and idea though. So, there is my assessment. I am looking forward to Austin Restaurant Weeks in a few weeks. I'd like to try out some steak places and get this steak tour rollin'. :0)

Goodwill outlet

I had gotten a groupon a couple months ago to the "Goodwill Outlet" in south Austin. Had never heard of it but just figured it was a Goodwill Store, maybe bigger than the normal stores but I was so not prepared for what I experienced. I came super close to just walking out and letting them have the money I spent on the groupon. I will preface this with it was a Saturday so may have been busier than normal. So the "Outlet" - well, I think it's the place where stuff that doesn't sell at the normal Goodwill's go. It was divided into 3 sections. Books, Clothes, and Housewares and everything was dumped in huge rolling bins about 8 feet long, 4 feet width, 2-3 feet deep. And you just dig! Seriously. It almost felt like going to the dump but not quite. I needed gloves. I stayed away from "Housewares" bins as I was sure I'd need a tetanus shot afterwards. So I just braved the clothes and books. Oh, and you pay by the pound. $1.30 a pound I think. First I tackled books and found many treasures actually. A bunch of American Girls books, some Golden Books like Lady and the Tramp and Bambi, a few books I hadn't heard of but looked interesting, Soul Revolution by John Burke (Gateway Church Pastor), and a few classics. All were in good shape so that was surprising as they were just thrown in big bins.

So then the clothes, figured I'd see about getting some stuff for Geneva to cut up and "upcycle" with her sewing skills. Well, I found a handful of baby clothes that were perfectly fine - mainly onsies, a cute toddler dress for fall (Tirzah size I think), and a bunch of stuff for Geneva to cut up (mainly I was just looking for good fabric) - oh and a Limited Too skirt that is Karina size. So, brought everything home and seriously washed it right away. But honestly the stuff didn't look dirty. But I wasn't taking any chances. So everything was washed and I started sorting it and counting the pieces. Everything ended up being about 30 cents a piece including the books. Not bad. But I still don't think I'll go back.

Most people looked like they were there to find stuff to resell. And they were super serious about it. There was one area that was roped off and people would line up and bins would be rolled out then a bell would ring and everyone would rush the bins and grab what they wanted. It was seriously deafening with the housewares bins. I stayed away from that. There were security guards and everything. Was definitively an interesting experience. And even a little scary at times. I totally do thrift stores but this took it to a whole new level. Whoa.