Dinner: I seasoned two veal rib chops with garlic powder, dried rosemary, and salt and vacuum sealed them into a bag and cooked it sous vide for 4 hours at 55°C.

I then seared the chops and served with grilled broccoli, grillled shiitake mushrooms, and mashed potatoes.

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What I Ate: April 30, 2010 (Sous Vide Veal Rib Chops)

Dinner: We headed up to Fortune Seafood Chinese Restaurant (10901 North Lamar Boulevard, Austin, TX‎ - (512) 490-1426‎) for an event they were holding. The event was bridal focused, but we were there to try the food. They served honey walnut shrimp, fried squid, beef with mushrooms, chicken & shrimp with snap peas, and shrimp fried rice. The beef and squid were much too salty, and the chicken & shrimp with snap peas were quite bland. We've had dim sum at Fortune before and tonight's food wasn't up to the same quality. It will be interesting to eat there for dinner one night to see how the execution is.

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What I Ate: April 29, 2010 (Baguette House, Fortune Chinese Seafood Restaurant)

Lunch: We had a quick lunch at Schlotzsky's where I had a medium sized "The Original" sandwich.

We had Hairy with us.

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What I Ate: April 28, 2010 (Schlotzsky's)

Lunch: While running errands at Costco, we grabbed a quick lunch. I had a Chicken Caesar Salad (here's a shot after eating half of the salad).

Dinner: We tried Back Spin Bar & Grill (5000 Slaughter Lane West, Austin, TX‎ - (512) 282-9206‎) for dinner. I started with chips and salsa.

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What I Ate: April 27, 2010 (Costco, Back Spin)

Lunch: I ate leftover chili with freshly baked cornbread for lunch.

Dinner: Since the weather is starting to get pretty hot, we're considering having Hairy come and stay inside again. We've been keeping him outside since he prefers the cooler temperatures outside (he is the product of at least two cold weather breeds after all), but we think it's time that he stays indoors with us except for bathroom breaks and exercise. In preparation for this, we decided we needed more pet gates to block entrances and get him used to staying within the boundaries we set for him (which will be useful when we have guests over). One of the problems we faced is that we need a gate that spans nearly eight feet and those aren't too common (and the few that exist are very expensive). We went to Home Depot to pick up some parts to build out own gates and, afterward, ate dinner at Mighty Fine where I had a Jr. Cheeseburger with bacon and grilled jalapenos.

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What I Ate: April 26, 2010 (Mighty Fine)

Lunch: I cooked some chili con carne for lunch and photographed it for an upcoming recipe for Cooking For Engineers.

We went over to a Chocolate and Cheese party held by our friends Jennie and John for Mouse the Dog's (their beautiful Greater Swiss Mountain dog) retirement from competition. I brought chocolate peanut butter fudge.

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What I Ate: April 25, 2010 (Homemade Chili)

Lunch: We took Hairy to the Sunset Valley Farmer's Market. I picked up a few food items from the Dai Due booth. We started with a shrimp po' boy which was very good. Often Gulf shrimp has a flavor (some would describe as iodine or bromine) which we strongly dislike, but in these shrimp it was relatively mild and actually worked to the benefit of the sandwich with the remoulade.

We also shared a cup of Duck, Sausage, and Oyster Gumbo (served over rice) which we thought was a bit mild in overall flavor. The oysters were excellent in the gumbo though.

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What I Ate: April 24, 2010 (Dai Due)

Lunch: We went to Get Sum Dim Sum to try their dim sum. We ordered an assortment of various dim sum items and found all of them extremely underwhelming. Previously, we had stated that Shanghai's dim sum was mediocre, but many in Austin consider Shanghai one of the best at dim sum. Given the quality of dim sum at Get Sum Dim Sum (which the Chronicle had called "great"), I can imagine how Shanghai could be considered excellent. Our Chinese broccoli was overcooked (gone from the bright green of perfectly steamed to the dark yellowish green of soft, soggy, and flavorless), dumplings all had chewy skins (especially the potstickers which was like eating a lump of dough), and vegetable fillings were gooey and gummy. The only things passable are the shrimp dumplings and the shao mai, but even those are a pale imitation of the real thing. Drive ten more minutes to Fortune or Shanghai for your dim sum and avoid Get Sum Dim Sum. You won't be catching us there again. What I would give Get Sum Dim Sum on a scale of 0-10: 5.5

"Siu Mai" Pork - Steamed Pork & Shrimp Open-Faced Dumpling.

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What I Ate: April 23, 2010 (Get Sum Dim Sum, Sous vide rack of lamb)

Lunch: Tina's mom brought over dumplings which Tina pan-fried and we had for lunch.

Dinner: We ate at Azul Tequila (4211 South Lamar Boulevard, Austin, TX‎ - (512) 416-9667‎) where I ordered the Antojitos Mexicanos (Combination of sope, quesadilla, tostada, taco crudo and chile manzano, garnished with lettuce, radish, avocado sauce and cream) which was very tasty.

Dinner: After my HOA meeting, I drove over to KFC to try their new sandwich - the Double Down. The Double Down has two pieces of fried chicken breast (also available with grilled chicken) instead of buns and sandwiched in between is a slice of cheese, a couple of thin strips of bacon, and some secret sauce of some sort. The sandwich was pretty decent but I didn't much care for the sauce. I felt the fried chicken went well with the bacon (although I would have preferred some tastier bacon instead of the super thin yet limp bacon that fast food places always seem to serve) and cheese, but the sauce was a bit too salty and I didn't much care for the slight sourness to it.

There's been a lot of stuff written about the burger and how it's a "heart attack" waiting to happen, but it is my belief that most of these "articles" have been written because it's low hanging fruit. I mean, if you describe this sandwich to anyone, it has to sound like it's the most unhealthy thing in the world, right? So, these reporters jump on this since it's an easy story to write. Unfortunately, it's a bit misleading. The Double Down is no more worse for you than a bacon cheeseburger or a Big Mac or your typical restaurant ordered Chicken Caesar Salad. I put together a quick and dirty comparison chart of some of the published nutrition information for your comparison.

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What I Ate: April 21, 2010 (KFC's Double Down)