What I Ate: June 6, 2009 (Home Slice Pizza, Asia Cafe)

Lunch: Home Slice Pizza (1415 S Congress Ave, Austin, TX‎ - (512) 444-7437). We had two slices - a margherita and a white spinach. Both were fantastic! They had thin crusts that were crispy on the bottom and not overly sauced (not soggy and wet) but still full of flavor.

The margherita had tomato sauce, mozarella, garlic, and basil brunoise which was baked. I think I prefer my basil fresh (placed on top after the pizza has been cooked), but this was still very good and had a wonderful aroma.

The "white pie with spinach" was even better then the margherita. It featured an olive oil base with garlic, mozzarella, ricotta, provolone, romano, and (of course) spinach. The flavors of this pizza were both strong and mild (the cheeses were subtle while the garlic just tied together the spinach, ricotta, and mozzarella). We're definitely going back (maybe every week since I get my biodiesel from Ecowise nearby).

Dinner: Asia Cafe (8650 Spicewood Springs Rd, Austin, TX‎ - (512) 336-8888‎). Took both my parents and Tina's parents to Asia Cafe tonight. Overall, the food was excellent with only one dish I didn't like.

Bean Curd with Whole Fish ($12.99) - The tilapia in this dish was tender and delicate which matched perfectly with the silken tofu it was served with. Smothered in a sweet and spicy chili sauce, the fish was a pretty big hit.

Braised Pork with Preserved Vegetable ($8.25) - Salty and fatty (without feeling oily), the execution of the ko rou (braised pork) was near perfect (perhaps missing a tad of sugar to balance the saltiness of the pork and acidic saltiness of mei cai (preserved mustard greens). (The preserved mustard greens are piled into a bowl shape and then the sliced braised pork belly is laid on top to form the dome in the picture.)

Kung Pao Chicken ($7.95) - I had a problem with this dish since it was neither spicy (which is odd since this is a place specializing in many forms of spiciness) nor salty. It was quite sweet and possibly tomatoey. When I asked, they said that's how they make it - with a sweet sauce. Who knew… I used to think I could judge a Chinese restuarant by how well they execute Kung Pao Chicken (and whether or not they use frozen peas and carrots in it among other things) but I never expected that Asia Cafe would be so good at other dishes but totally suck on this one. Others may like it, but it's not for me. It was the only dish that we had leftovers of.

Green Bean with Garlic ($7.25) - Lightly stir-fried with garlic and oil, the green beans still had snap and tasted great.

Braised Sea Cucumber & Oyster Sauce ($12.50) - It looked like they used two kinds of sea cucumber. There's the dark ones (that I'm used to having) and the light colored ones. They were tender (sometimes sea cucumber can be tough and chewy) without any fishiness (a sign of cucumbers going bad). The sauce was well balanced and not overly salty like other oyster sauces can be.