We had the members of the Austin Fearless Critic council who were available over for dinner. It had been over two years since we last entertained, so we were a little bit rusty. In the end, it worked out well and everyone seemed happy with the meal. I started the day by trimming a USDA Prime rib-eye roast that I had been dry aging for the last few days (didn't have time for more since we were traveling) down to about eight pounds. I then seared it on the grill before slow-roasting it in the oven for a few hours.

My oven runs hot. (About 50 degrees hotter than expected according to the digital air temperature thermometer and data logger I hooked up to collect accurate temperature readings - because baking during the last six months has been hit or miss, I suspected the temperature was off even though Whirlpool claims their appliances are perfectly calibrated and perhaps my old ovens were off and I was used to that, ugh.) I started with the oven set to 185°F (but, in actuality, it cycled between 235°F and 200°F). At 1:10pm, I dropped the temp to 175°F (170 is the lowest setting my oven goes to) and continued to track the temperature increase inside my prime rib. The temperature drop resulted in a temperature swing from 230&176;F to 193°F which was a little better but not even a full ten degree drop as I would have expected from lowering the target temperature by ten degrees. At around 3pm, I shut the oven off entirely and turned it on two more times briefly to help keep the oven at around 130°F so I could hold the roast at an internal temperature of 130°F until we got closer to serving time. I then turned the oven on to 170°F to finish off the roast (stopping at an internal temperature of 133°F). The oven cycles between 222°F and 186°F when set to 175°F. The air temperature probe was positioned in the center of the oven rack about one inch below the sheet pan holding the rib roast.

Oven Temperature

Internal Roast Temperature

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What I Ate: June 12, 2010 (Prime Rib Dinner)

Lunch: I ate a Costco Polish Sausage.

Dinner: In what is becoming a tradition, Tina and I went to Joe's Crab Shack after seeing a musical performance (this time it was Pink Martini performing with the Austin Symphony). I had the Crawfish Half & Half (Our famous crawfish etouffee and crispy crawfish tails.) with dirty rice instead of white rice. I thought it was tasty, but not anything special. Tina thought it reminded her of Gulf shrimp and didn't want anything to do with the dish.

Lunch: Tina made a chicken salad out of the leftover rotisserie chicken and placed it with fresh avocado slices on bread to make a sandwich. I ended up splitting it in half and spreading the salad over each of the bread halves to make two open faced sandwiches.

Dinner: Tina sauteed fresh spinach with prosciutto and garlic.

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What I Ate: June 10, 2010

Lunch: I ate the rest of the dumplings for lunch.

Dinner: We had a late dinner at Red Robin where I ordered the Whiskey River BBQ Chicken Salad.

Lunch: I brought home a Costco rotisserie chicken which we ate with a bowl of cherry tomatoes.

Dinner: I had a Cobb Salad from Central Market Cafe at closing time (we always seem to show up just before 9pm) before grocery shopping to restock our fridge.

Lunch: Right before going to the airport, we tried to dine at Hard Knox Cafe () again. This time we were successful and the food was just as good as we remembered. Excellent fried chicken, rich and delicious ox tails, and fresh, hot corn muffins. The sides have never been their strong point and the rice was a little gummy, but the corn was pretty decent today.

Corn Muffins

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What I Ate: June 7, 2010 (Hard Knox Cafe)

Lunch: After church, we went to the Mitsuwa Marketplace (675 Saratoga Avenue, San Jose, CA‎ - (408) 255-6699) to eat ramen at Ramen Santouka ((408) 446-1101). I had the spicy miso ramen while Tina had the miso ramen, and we shared a bowl of pork and rice. Like last time, it was excellent. I still think it could be the best ramen I've ever had. Tina agreed.

Dinner: We met up with Dave and Rachel as well as Dave M. and Christina at Shanghai Flavor Shop (888 Old San Francisco Road, Sunnyvale, CA‎ - (408) 738-3003‎). We ordered a bunch of stuff that we used to get and as usual the Shanghai pan fried buns, the Diakon Radish Buns, and Red Bean Buns were the best.

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What I Ate: June 6, 2010 (Santouka Ramen, Shanghai Flavor Shop)

Today's meals were devoted to Chef Daniel Patterson.

For lunch we ate at Il Cane Rosso (1 Ferry Building # 41, San Francisco, CA‎ - (415) 391-7599‎), a quick serve rotisserie and sandwich restaurant created by Daniel Patterson and Lauren Kiino. Their chef, Douglas Borkowski is doing an excellent job at providing delicious "quick food".

Roasted Beets & Farro kale, feta, olive oil. Delicious if you like beets, but mostly farro (which tastes great with the beet juice, olive oil, and mild feta) with just a few pieces of beets.

Garlic-Roasted Potatoes. My favorite thing here - the roasted potatoes are good, the roasted whole garlic cloves are excellent, and eaten together, this simple dish is unbelievable.

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What I Ate: June 5, 2010 (Il Cane Rosso, Coi)

Lunch: Rachel, Tina, and I headed into San Francisco to have a dim sum lunch at Hong Kong Lounge (5322 Geary Boulevard, San Francisco, CA‎ - (415) 668-8836‎). We had a huge assortment of dim sum (first time I've over ordered at dim sum and was unable to finish all the food).

The good stuff that we had (roughly from best to least good):
Pork Siu Mai - one of the best examples of shao mai out there
Dried Shrimp & Shrimp Siu Mai
Pan Fried Chives Dumpling
Shrimp Dumpling
Pan Fried Tofu Skin Roll - stuffed with shrimp
Pan Fried Turnip Cake - had larger pieces of extremely soft and nicely flavored chunks of daikon in the wonderfully textured turnip cake
Egg Tart - a wonderful example of this dish - the custard is light and flavorful and the crust is thin and flaky
Coconut Red Bean Cake - this dessert was awesome; the first bite is a little strange as you get used to the dense coconut gelatin which mixes with the bottom layer of red bean custard, then it's hard to stop eating this dessert
Pan Fried Onion Cake - an interesting version of cong you bing where the outside of crispy and the inside was a bit gummy, but the whole thing had great flavor
Deep Fried Chives Dumpling - a beautiful round grooved round ball (king of reminded me of the sprials of the Guggenheim Museum) with a nice filling; a tad greasy
Steamed Pork Buns
Steamed pork dumping - a Shanghainese steamed dumpling (xiao long bao) what is okay
Water spinach - a bit bland, but not bad and had good texture
Fried sesame ball - an average example of this sweet fried dessert

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What I Ate: June 4, 2010 (Hong Kong Lounge, Dragonfly Restaurant)

Lunch: We drove to Woodside to visit Cliff and have lunch with Fanpop. We ate at The Village Pub (2967 Woodside Road, Woodside, CA‎ - (650) 851-9888‎) where the food was delicious, but had a few execution problems.

Tuna Carpaccio / Grapefruit and Fennel / Avocado The citrus paired perfectly with the mild fish and creamy avocado balls. Good appetizer.

Sweet Gem Lettuce / Shaved Spring Vegetables / Ricotta Salata Fresh sweet and crisp lettuce with shaved asparagus and other vegetables made this an excellent salad course.

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What I Ate: June 3, 2010 (The Village Pub, Old Port Lobster Shack)