What I Ate: March 16, 2010 (South Congress Cafe)

Dinner: We ate dinner with Jeff Potter who is soon to come out with a book called Cooking For Geeks (which I think has a good chance to be on par with On Food and Cooking - keep an eye out for it when O'Reilly publishes it later this year). Originally, we were planning on going to The Odd Duck, but due to the rainy weather, we decided indoors would be better. We went to South Congress Cafe (1600 South Congress Avenue, Austin, TX‎ - (512) 447-3905‎).

We split a calamari appetizer, which, as usual, are perfectly cooked (just long enough to be soft and tender without moving into the chewy stage).

Tina and I split a Tortilla Soup which was quite good, but, unfortunately, not a regular menu item.

Tina had a special - a puffed pastry served with seafood (halibut, mahi mahi, scallops, and shrimp) in a white wine and sambuca. I liked the flake and crispy texture of the puff pastry. The seafood was perfectly cooked and well seasoned.

I had the Venison Meatloaf which was okay. I'd recommend it if you were in the mood for meatloaf, but there are much better dishes available.

I also had the Wild Mushroom Asparus Risotto which I thought was also just okay. I recall that last time I ordered it, it didn't seem as good as I had hoped, but on the second day (after reheating) it was excellent. I'm hoping that's the case as well.

Lunch: We cooked dumplings that Tina's mother brought us (frozen) last week.