Lunch: I met up with some friends for a lunch at Pao's Mandarin House (2300 Lohmans Spur, Lakeway, TX‎ - (512) 263-8869‎).

Dinner: We ate the last of the leftover kale soup.

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What I Ate: August 15, 2010 (Pao's Mandarin House)

Dinner: We decided to go to Enoteca Vespaio (1610 South Congress Avenue, Austin, TX‎ - (512) 441-7672‎) for dinner. We started with an order of fried calamari. The breading on the calamari was salty and flavorful while the calamari was a mixed group of slightly chewy and perfectly tender. It was hard to stop eating these (mainly because there were a few perfect ones and I had to keep eating until I got another one).

Tina had the Rigatoni con Polpette (rigatoni w/ pork meatballs, arrabbiata, pecorino romano & melted fresh mozzarella) which had dense, hearty meatballs, huge rigatoni, a spicy and flavorful tomato sauce, and nicely browned mozzarella.

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What I Ate: August 14, 2010 (Enoteca Vespaio)

Dinner: I had a craving for fried chicken and it was too late to try to go to Nubian Queen Lola's, so I picked up a bucket ($10 for 10 pieces right now) of KFC along with mashed potatoes, cole slaw, and potato wedges. After ordering, I realized that back on the menu were the hot wings that I liked so much (but were discontinued for the last couple years). I ordered 5 pieces of that also.

Lunch: I ate the leftover pork chop with broccoli and corn.

Dinner: I had a couple bowls of kale soup along with a couple cong you bing.

We went to the 2nd Anniversary Austin Cake Ball celebrating Austin Cake Ball's two year anniversary. Cake balls are made with crumbled cake blended with frosting and formed into balls and dipped in chocolate. This results in a dough-like texture instead of anything that resembles a cake. The cake balls from Austin Cake Ball are different - they've worked out the perfect ratios of cake crumbs and wet binder (frosting, caramel, etc depending on flavor and recipe) to make cake balls that taste like moist, delicious cake. (Co-owner Ben worked for Dell for ten years and took his detail oriented approach to flavor and texture development; this is why all their cake balls come out with perfect texture and exactly balanced flavors.)

The cake itself isn't very sweet, but when eaten with the chocolate shell the sweetness level is perfect. Each flavor is excellently executed - our favorites were salted caramel, chocolate espresso, and mojito (excellent lime flavor). We don't normally eat a lot of cake, but we tried each of the seven flavors they had at the event. For future reference, eating two balls is probably the right amount. Unfortunately, for photography, the lighting was very poor (lots of light coming from windows, some colored, some clear, as well as interior lighting of varying color).

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What I Ate: August 11, 2010 (Austin Cake Ball)

Lunch: A Kiolbassa brand smoked sausage

Dinner: Sous vide pork chop (60°C) seasoned with smoked salt and dried rosemary. The pork chop was served with grilled corn and sauteed broccoli and garlic.

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What I Ate: August 10, 2010 (Sous vide pork chop)

Lunch: I ate a couple of zong zi for lunch.

Dinner: We had leftovers - carne guisada, risotto, and "Shepherd's Pie".

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What I Ate: August 9, 2010

Dinner: We went to Zoot (11715 Bee Caves Road, Bee Cave, TX‎ - (512) 477-6535‎) where we had our first so-so meal. We started with seared quail livers on toast with caramelized onion jam, sweet corn and fresh thyme which I loved. The livers were mild and smooth which matched very well with the sweet caramelized onions and crunchy (and still hot) crostini. The addition of crispy pickled red onions was the part that made this dish go from good to great.

We then had two soups. The first was the chilled smoked corn soup with basil and peanuts which wasn't as strongly flavored as we had hoped. The soup was mild and sweet but the peanuts were a little overwhelming. After a couple peanuts, the soup was almost flavorless. In the middle of the soup was a nice piece of sweet cornbread.

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What I Ate: August 8, 2010 (Zoot)

Lunch: I had pizza and salad at Cannoli Joe's (4715 U.S. 290, Austin, TX‎ - (512) 892-4444‎) for lunch as part of my Defensive driving class with Happy Time Defensive Driving.

Dinner: Two days ago I had prepared pork baby back ribs and bacon (just wanted to see what that would be like) in two separate bags to be cooked at 68°C for 24 hours. I had seasoned the ribs with a simple rub of salt, brown sugar, and cayenne pepper before sealing it in the bag. We were out last night, so I ended up cooking the ribs and bacon for an additional 24 hours. I wasn't happy with the texture of either of the meats - they bordered on mushy (too long in the water bath) and were too strongly flavored by the salt and sugar (too long in the water bath).

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What I Ate: August 7, 2010 (Cannoli Joe's)

Lunch: I ate garlic chive boxes (jiu cai he) that Tina's mom brought over the day before along with some left over sauteed spinach for lunch.

Dinner: We went to Azul Tequila (4211 South Lamar Boulevard, Austin, TX‎ - (512) 416-9667‎) for dinner. We started off with their Pozole Mexiquense (Red hominy pork soup, served with lettuce, radish, onions, avocado, and oregano.) which they only serve on Friday through Sunday. This is one of the best soups you can get - mildly spicy, rich flavors, and huge chunks of tender pork. Having a spoonful of the soup with a piece of avocado which melts in the mouth and some hominy is awesome.

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What I Ate: August 6, 2010 (Azul Tequila)