Dinner: Went to Soleil's grand opening party for dinner. The food wasn't as good as the previous visit two weeks ago when they served the food bloggers a specially prepared dinner. We started off at the bar where we had a variety of appetizers.

Once we got to our table, we had a few more appetizers (three different kinds of bruschetta and mussels). The bruschetta were okay, but the bread had gotten soggy while the waiters carried the trays around and the first mussel that I had was chewy and the breadcrumb/bacon topping was too heavy on the breadcrumbs giving it a salty but otherwise flavorless crunch. The ones I had later were better and had a good amount of bacon which provided a nice contract to the mussel flavor (which was tender and not chewy this time around).

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What I Ate: December 15, 2010 (Soleil Restaurant)

Dinner: We went to try Sazon (1816 South Lamar Boulevard, Austin, TX (512) 326-4395) where I started with Empanadas de Huitlacoche which had an excellent light and flaky corn pastry (almost thought it was wheat flour) surrounding the most flavorless huitlacoche filling I've ever had. I love the subtle flavors of huitlacoche, especially when paired with meats, but, in this empanada, I really couldn't taste them at all.

Tina had the Crema de Elote (a creamed corn soup) which she enjoyed quite a bit and I felt was just a pedestrian example of a creamed corn soup.

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What I Ate: December 14, 2010 (Sazon)

Dinner: I had a late meeting and wasn't ready to eat dinner until around 10pm, so we had to find a late night place to eat. I had been meaning to try Justine's Brasserie (4710 East 5th Street, Austin, TX (512) 385-2900) and when we realized they closed at 2am, that's where we went. I ordered the Escargots à la Bourguignonne to start which were tender and sauced with flavorful butter and chives.

The bread was a simple baguette sliced into thin cross-sections served with a very flavorful and fruity olive oil seasoned with black pepper and salt. I asked what brand the olive oil was and it's apparently imported from Bellagio in Italy… I haven't found this oil for sale online yet.

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What I Ate: December 13, 2010 (Justine's Brasserie)

Brunch: We met our friends Tony and Christine who were visiting Austin at South Congress Cafe (1600 South Congress Avenue, Austin, TX (512) 447-3905). We started by splitting an order of their Carrot Cake French Toast which was rich and decadent as usual.

Tina and I split the Roasted Beet Salad which was a tad underdressed but still a great combination of beets and mild creamy goat cheese.

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What I Ate: December 12, 2010 (South Congress Cafe)

Dinner: We returned to Fire Bowl Cafe where I ordered a stir fry with combination chicken, beef, and shrimp (need to remember not to get the shrimp next time as it is Gulf shrimp) with vegetables of my choosing (you just take the bowl given to you and load it up with the vegetables you like - great since I got to get more snow peas than they would have given me and I could mix up the order the way I like it) with Hunan black bean sauce and chow fun. I asked for the sauce to be lighter than usual and it was, but was still a bit heavy (I suppose they needed to make sure all the noodles were properly coated). Tina ordered something similar but opted for white rice and ended up with just the right amount of sauce when she asked for reduced sauce. On the whole, we like the food at Fire Bowl Cafe because it meets expectations and compared to other places serving Asian-ish food, the vegetables are fresh and freshly stir-fried (so not soggy or limp) which makes everything takes a whole lot better.

Dinner: After attending an interesting and funny lecture by Michael Pollan, we headed down to G'Raj Mahal (91 Red River, Austin, TX (512) 480-2255) for some Indian cuisine served out of a trailer. We haven't had Indian food in a while, so this really hit the spot. The food overall isn't close to the best Indian food we've had, but it is good stuff.

Samosas - wonderfully fried, flavorful potato and pea filling, and delicious (sometimes samosas that are poorly prepared and frozen can have a mushy, watery interior and the outside won't be crispy but harder - these exhibited none of those problems)

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What I Ate: December 10, 2010 (G'raj Mahal)

Dinner: I made large crepes to wrap shredded fried chicken, sauteed spinach, and Cholula hot sauce in.

Lunch: I've had a craving for KFC for the last two weeks, so I finally let myself indulge today. I bought a ten piece bucket for $10 and added on a couple sides (cole slaw and mashed potatoes). I had a drumstick and thigh (extra crispy) with some cole slaw (which was underdressed) and mashed potatoes and gravy.

Dinner: We ate dinner while watching The Warrior's Way (a movie which doesn't take itself seriously and if you don't then it could be solidly entertaining - I certainly enjoyed it tremendously) at Alamo Drafthouse. We split a Butter Beer (butterscotch flavored hard apple cider served warm) and I had the Bangers and Mash. Since photography isn't allowed inside the theater… no photo.

Dinner: We were invited to taste the food at soon to be open (by the time this publishes, it should have opened for a week) Neapolitan-style pizza bar called The Backspace (just behind Parkside). They've got a fancy wood-fired brick oven pizza that gets up to 700°F on the floor and over 900°F radiating down from the ceiling of the oven. This lets them cook their pizzas in 1.5 to 2 minutes.

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What I Ate: December 7, 2010 (The Backspace)

Lunch: I made a couple tacos of steak and eggs, rice, and grilled vegetable leftovers from Chuy's.

Dinner: Homemade linguine with shrimp and Johnsonville Italian sausage in a butter and cream sauce with grated Parmigiano Reggiano.

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What I Ate: December 6, 2010