White trash food courts

Austin is a fun food town, I judge after spending a single weekend here and eating some below average convention food.  The totally fun part is the kitschy food parks, trucks, and trailers that are throughout the city, including right next to my hotel.

The Austin Food Park, open only a month, I find out, is next to the Holiday Inn where I stayed on Town Lake.  It has about eight of what can only charitably be called food "trailers."  Some of them are more like food "outhouses."  (Said with love and in reference only to their size, not their smell or quality of food.)

Sorry this is so dark.  I got excited and took the picture at night. When my flash went off, the people at the nearby table (not in the picture) laughed because they thought I was taking a picture of the hooker at the bbq joint.  I was just taking a picture of the food park, but the hooker makes for good imagery anyway.

So we ate at the Thai one on the first night, ordering green curry and something with beef and hot peppers in it.  They were both moderately spicy, and I quickly discovered the disadvantage of food parks: no waiters to refill your drink.  But both were delicious and at only $16 bucks for both, a great bargain.

The next morning we got breakfast burritos at a place called "Crucitas Kitchen."  I don't know what that means, but I went on calling it "Cruciatus Kitchen," joking that eating there would be torture.  It wasn't.  Their tortillas and salsas were yummy, even if their offerings weren't anything special (eggs, potatoes, bacon, sausage, cheese, etc.  They did have chorizo as an option, which we got and was fine.)  Still, at only $6 for two to eat breakfast, another bargain.

Two days later I had a burger from the burger outhouse for lunch.  I go the one with chorizo and queso. It was fine, but less of a bargain ($6 for just the burger) than the others.

There was also a chicken place, a bbq place (why would I ever go there when I can go here), and some kind of juicy place that I couldn't figure out and wasn't open when I was at the place.

And there was more down the street.  Rainey Street, to be exact.  It's a street of mostly decrepit old hosues that have been converted into bars, clubs, and restaurants.  But because of a city ordinance requiring that business there can only operate in original structures, the houses are all left in tact, sometimes remodeled, with trailers, tables, and whatnot put in the back or side yards.

Here's one that hasn't been turned into a business yet, just to give you a flavor of the neighborhood.

This one is a sausage house and beer garden.  It was always crowded on the picnic tables in the backyard.

This one is called "The White House," and it's been refurbished in front to look fancy. The sign in front says "United Nations of Food."  Their outhouses include Greek, Mexican, and Vietnamese joints.  There's also a spaceship in front along with a Weekly World News headline telling you that this spacecraft landed at the actual White House.

Maybe this sort of food would get old over time, but it sure was fun to eat at for a visitor, especially when it was sunny and 80 degrees every day.

Sufjan Stevens, the Athiest who loves Christmas

"Sufjan who?" you ask?

And I'll tell you that Sufjan Stevens is the very unique name of a very unique singer and songwriter.  I've decided I like him, even though I can't figure him out at all.

Later he dressed up as a neon unicorn with balloon wings.  I wish I'd gotten a good shot of that.

I went to his concert last night at a club called Emo's, which sounded like it wouldn't be my crowd at all, but it was different than the name made it out to be.  Maybe all the Emos hang out there on weeknights, but on this Saturday, it was Sufjan fans, and I didn't find an Emo among them.

"What's an Emo?" you ask?  Like all things, Wikipedia has the answer.  It's also a genre of music I'm sure I'd hate, but that's not was Sufjan's about.

In fact, this concert was billed as, "The Sufjan Stevens Christmas Sing-A-Long Seasonal Affective Disorder Yuletide Disaster Pageant On Ice ft. SUFJAN STEVENS."  I confess that I was skeptical.  The title sounded a little too tongue-in-cheek to be taken seriously, even though he has made two epic Christmas albums of 5 CDs each.

Happy to be wrong was I, as most of the concert was indeed Christmas music, with about half of it being of the sing-a-long variety.  If you've never sung "O Holy Night" in a room full of drunks, you're really missing a once-in-a-lifetime experience that can create good fodder for your blog the next day.

Sufjan is an enigma. He has great arrangements of Christmas songs, especially "Holly Jolly Christmas" and doesn't shy away from the sacred (see "O Holy Night" reference above.)  In fact, for Christmas he also sings non-Christmas hymns, and last night he did his glorious rendition of "Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing."

This was the Wheel of Christmas.

But as far as I can tell he's an Atheist. The logo for his Christmas concert was a pink unicorn. "What's a pink unicorn got to do with it?" you ask?  Check Wikipedia.  His closing number before the encore was "I'm the Christmas Unicorn."

I'm sure he likes his aura of unpredictability and cultivates it as part of his artistic image.  The concert was a great time, with even most of the drinkers behaving very well.  I'll be buying "Holly Jolly Christmas" for sure.

The lake that's a river

Look on any map and it looks like a river.

There's no getting around it--it's a river.

In fact, it's a river.  The lower Colorado.  In 1960 or so they built a damn and called it a lake.

Whatever it is, it's awesome.

I'm at the Holiday in on Town Lake, which must be a rebellious or Republican hotel because the river has been officially named Lady Bird Lake for some time now.

It has a great running and biking trail running the length of it, with several very large parks as well.  I rode a kayak on it, and it reminded me of being in Foster City.  I kind of want to buy a kayak now, but I have no place in Utah to put it down.

Here's what it was like in Austin:

Not my feet.

That bridge stinks like nobody's business, because a lot of bats live there and keep doing their business under it.

Cheese and chocolate

I started a new tradition on my trip to Austin this weekend.  In cities I visit, I'll find a good local place for artisan cheese and chocolate, then find a park to eat them.

In Austin I found Edis' Chocolates and Antonelli's Cheese Shop.

Edi is fairly short and very friendly.  She makes truffles, cookies, flourless cakes, and even a mini baguette, which I picked up thinking it would go well with the cheese I'd buy later.  I got six truffles: Grand Marnier, Mexican Vanilla, Coconut (not so much for me), Black Salt, Chocolate, and Almond.  Guess what was the best truffle.  Chocolate.

If this is changing between lots of different pictures of truffles, I don't know how, but I like it!

Antonelli's was the best cheese shop I've been to.  Their cheese case is laid out in the order it's best to sample the offerings, starting with fresh cheeses, moving to the softer ones, and then going gradually firmer and sharper until you get to the bleus at the end.  I tried and bought some of the best Gruyere ever, which did go excellently with that baguette.

The staff is smart about cheese and friendly, even offering us a sample of chocolate with almond brittle, knowing that we'd already bought our chocolate allotment at Edis'.  They also had some Beehive cheeses from Utah.  That Gruyere, by the way, was $20 per half pound.  Somehow I didn't notice the "half" on the sign, so it cost twice as much as I thought.  Worth it.

And somehow on December 2, Austin was sunny and 80 degrees, the perfect weather for a great picnic.

It's not a restaurant; it's a litte theme park

When I came to Austin a few years ago, I was a tagalong in a group of people I didn't know very well.  It was for the International Association for K-12 Online Learning conference.  It was early November in 2008, I think.  I saw the bats.

One night the group was going to go out for some barbecue.  I'd been told about The Salt Lick.  But we were with someone who used to live out there, and she recommended another place that left the kind of impression that I can't even remember the name of the place.  I do remember that the head of cattle on the wall would sing Happy Birthday to you if you were unfortunate to dine at this place on your special day.

I wasn't about to go back.  I rented a car for the specific purpose of driving the half hour out of Austin to visit The Salt Lick.  It was worth the drive, the money to rent the car, and would have been so even if I'd blown out all four tires on the way.

It's not so much a restaurant as it is a theme park.  The place is massive, several acres out in the middle of nowhere.  And since the restaurant isn't zoned to serve alcohol, they built a winery next door where they sell booze, and then you have to carry it over to the table.  They allow you to BYOB from anywhere.

It was like a carnival when we got there, with popcorn machines, lemonade stand ($2, and then you walk it over to the restaurant.  They squeeze it when you order it.  Awesome.), and stage for live music--the best we saw in Austin, the live music capital of the world.

And then there's the barbecue.  There are barbecue joints all over here.  There's one just outside my hotel, and I've yet to leave the place when I haven't seen some new one.  I hear that the place over on 11th street has won some awards and love from the locals, but it can't match The Salt Lick for atmosphere.

Our waiter wore a "Salt Lick Eating Crew" tshirt.  We got a sampler of all four available meats--Brisket, Pork Ribs, Turkey, and Sausage.  They have three sides--Potato Salad, Cole Slaw, and beans.  All were good, and none were sweet.  No sugar in the cole slaw, nor any mayo.  It's a barbecue sauce base on the potato salad.  I'm not suggesting it's any healthier, just unlike what you get at most barbecue joints.

It also smells fantastic.

I didn't order one, even though calories are free on vacation.

They have two items for dessert, Pecan Pie or Cobbler (though it comes as Peach or Blackberry.)  I can't comment on them because I didn't order any.  I had to get out to the concert.  I'm in Austin!

White noise

The other day I was staying in a guest house that someone provided me in Moab.  It was a two-night stay.  The view is gorgeous in Moab no matter where you are.

When I got back to the house on the second night after a great hike, the battery in the smoke detector was dying.  You know what that means, right?  Really loud chirps every thirty seconds or so.  I was dead tired from getting in very late the night before, so I really needed some sleep.

I'm in an unfamiliar house, it's ten at night, and I know where nothing is.  Even if I could find a nine volt battery (or go buy one) I couldn't change it because the smoke detector was on the vaulted ceiling well out of reach.

I closed the door to the bedroom.  That helped some, but I knew that I'd be constantly thinking of when the next chirp would come and I'd never get to sleep.

So, if I couldn't eliminate the noise, I decided to try and drown it out.  I downloaded this free white noise app for my iPad.

I tried several of the calming sounds.  I knew I couldn't turn up the volume too loud, or I'd never get to sleep anyway.  The campfire app sounds like a crackling fire with crickets in the background.  I found the perfect volume so that every time the smoke detector chirped, it just sounded like one of the crickets by the fire.

I slept like a baby.

Larry Thomas is who, now?

I met Larry Thomas.  I even got a picture taken with him, though he was ignoring me at the time and maybe didn't actually know.

Larry Thomas played the Soup Nazi on Seinfeld and he came down to the Owlz game a few weeks ago as part of a promotion for Gandolfo's, which wanted to sell some soup. So, they brought in a guy famous for telling people they can't buy soup.

I'm sure it worked, because the line for Mr. Nazi for signing the ladles that the Owlz gave away was super long.

By the way, Larry Thomas has also played Osama bin Laden and Saddam Hussein.

This is Thomas as Osama walking with some schmoe who's playing President Bush.

When I googled Larry Thomas Saddam Hussein, no picture came up of what I was looking for, but I did find this one, which is of neither Hussein or Thomas, but I thought was funny enough to post anyway.

He also told a story about when he was on an airplane and a flight attendant said to him, "I guess no soup for you?"  The guy sitting next to him didn't get it.