Lunch: I had store bought frozen tamales from HEB for lunch - three different kinds: pork, chicken, and beef & potatoes.

Dinner: We were going to go to Stubb's for the Austin American-Statesman's Cookie Swap party, but work duties prevented me from leaving. We had leftover materials from Tuesday's hot pot dinner, so we did hot pot again.

It seems that all my waking time is spent either eating or working. I don't know what happened, but I seem to be working all the time now - which means when I get to post my food pictures, I'm exhausted and cannot provide as much feedback as I think the food deserves… today is a prime example - we had a good dinner at Buenos Aires Cafe (1201 East 6th Street, Austin, TX‎ - (512) 344-9198‎). Originally, Tina and I were going to go to Estancia Churrascaria but Victor asked if we'd want to join him to try this Argentinian restaurant in East Austin - going to eat food at a restaurant new to us with other people sounded like more fun than stuffing ourselves with Brazilian grilled meats (which is never a value proposition given how little Tina and I tend to consume at these places), so we joined Victor, Peter, and Teddy for dinner.

We shared several different empanadas - two of each of carne picante, verdura, and pollo. Tina's favorite was the chicken (pollo) and I liked the vegetarian (verduro which had spinach, ricotta, and parmesan cheeses) the best.

Click here to read the rest of
What I Ate: December 16, 2009 (Buenos Aires Cafe)

Dinner: Tina and I prepared Chinese hot pot with an assortment of fish balls, beef balls, fried fish cakes, enoki mushrooms, napa cabbage, shrimp, and tofu.

Lunch: We finished off the clam chowder in another couple of bread bowls.

Dinner: Another one meal day today. For dinner, I ate the leftover Cajun food from Razoo's - andouille sausage, beans, rice with shrimp creole, and dirty rice with crawfish é.

Dinner: after grabbing some Asian groceries at MT Supermarket, we decided to try Korean Grill (10901 North Lamar Boulevard, Austin, TX‎ - (512) 339-0234‎). I got pretty excited by the smells since Tina and I have only had one Korean meal since we moved to Texas seven months ago. We used to live a block from El Camino Real and Lawrence Expressway in Santa Clara, California where there is a high concentration of Korean restaurants and markets - so we've grown to love Korean cuisine.

We started with Pa Jun (Seafood Pancake - Pan fried Korean pancake, vegetables with seafood, $9.95) which was okay, but not even close to the best we've ever had. The flavor was pretty good, but the texture was a tad gooey and the sauce could have been better - the sauce was a bit too sour/acidic.

We also had the Galbi (short ribs cooked in Korean BBQ sauce) ($11.95) which was a bit chewier than I like it and not very strongly flavored (could barely taste the BBQ sauce let along the Asian pear that makes it so special).

Click here to read the rest of
What I Ate: December 13, 2009 (Austin Food Blogger Cookie Swap, Korean Grill)

Dinner: We only got a chance to eat one meal today. We ate at Razoo's Cajun Cafe (201 University Oaks Boulevard, Round Rock, TX‎ - (512) 255-2400) in Round Rock. We didn't have high expectations of the place (with it's neon lit exterior and kitschy interior decoration), but were quite pleasantly surprised by the flavor of the food. The first thing we tried was a sample of their gumbo which was much too salty for us - the small taste they provided came with a lot of white rice - but I could see being in the mood for that in the future (mixing with a lot of rice helps).

We tried the Cajun Combo Skillet ($12) which had Cajun grilled andouille sausage, zesty shrimp creole, crawfish etoufee, red beanz 'n' rice, veggie, w/ toasted French bread. The creole was serve over white rice and the etoufee over dirty rice. Both were spicy with the etoufee the milder of the two. Again, no lack of flavor in any of these components.

Click here to read the rest of
What I Ate: December 12, 2009 (Razoo's Cajun Cafe)

Don't have much time to write right now - spent most of the night baking cookies for a cookie swap on Sunday… I'll try to fill in the lunch pictures a little later.

Dinner #1: We went to Yanagi Japanese Restaurant and Sushi Bar (4404 W. William Cannon Dr. Suite B, Austin, TX‎ - (512) 891-0989‎) for lunch, but ended up there at around 4pm. We tried several sushi items from their happy hour menu (which is about 40% less than their regular menu). We had shrimp gyoza to start (they were the frozen kind, but they deep fried them briefly which made them taste quite a bit better than the other frozen gyoza we keep getting served). We also had salmon, sea bass, and escolar nigiri. The fish was sliced rather thing and narrow, so a tad unsatisfying especially since I thought the fish all could have been a bit firmer. We also had a tempura roll and spicy salmon roll.

Click here to read the rest of
What I Ate: December 11, 2009 (Yanagi Japanese Restaurant and Sushi Bar)

Dinner: I made Clam Chowder and served them in a couple of bread bowls for dinner.

Lunch: I ate a couple of beef and potato tamales that we picked up at HEB.

Lunch: I had the leftover pasta from Natural Planet Grill for lunch.

Dinner: Tina made Oven Baked Chicken and Rice. It came out a little underseasoned - I might have to go back and revise that recipe a little. Otherwise, it was an excellent dinner.

Dinner: I was trying to finish something at work, so by the time I was ready to leave the house to get some food it was pretty late. Escarpment Village is only a few minutes away for us, so we decided to shoot for Natural Planet Grill (5900 Slaughter Ln W, Austin, TX‎ - (512) 394-1111‎) because on our first visit there I had a pretty good experience with their Tuscan Pesto Pasta with Chicken. When we got there, it was exactly 9pm - closing time. I usually don't try to squeeze in at closing because restaurant staff works pretty hard without tardy customers showing up and making them stay later, but the guys at Natural Planet Grill welcomed us in (after checking that the grill hadn't been turned off yet). They said, "the kitchen hasn't shut down yet and you two are hungry, so come on in!" Service was exceptionally friendly even though we were eating after hours. I enjoyed the Tuscan Pesto Pasta with Chicken that I ordered again tonight, but more than that I enjoyed how welcoming and accommodating the staff at Natural Planet Grill was.

Lunch: We stopped in at Texas Pie Company (202 West Center Street, Kyle, TX‎ - (512) 268-5885) for lunch and I had a spinach quiche and poblano potato soup.