Dinner: We headed out to the outskirts of Wimberley, Texas to Montesino Farm for a Venison dinner with Dai Due Supper Club.

At this dinner, a sixty-pound field harvested deer from Broken Arrow Ranch fed thirty-five diners. The deer was dressed and butchered the day before as part of a Dai Due workshop on how to process deer and utilizing the whole animal. (Unfortunately, our schedule was such that we could not attend this workshop.)

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What I Ate: October 18, 2009 (Costco, Dai Due Venison Dinner at Montesino Farm)

Lunch: We tried a Thai and Vietnamese restaurant in Escarpment Village - Blue Bamboo (5900 W Slaughter Ln, Austin, TX‎ - (512) 288-8688‎).

I started with the shrimp spring rolls which I thought were not bad. Often spring rolls are filled with water logged rice noodles and completely flavorless despite the shrimp. These were pretty decent and had excellent texture. Each rice noodle was discrete and cooked just right so a whole clump of them didn't taste like a clump - it tasted like it was supposed to. The peanut sauce was also quite good. Tina's unfortunately had a hair in it (which she wasn't going to say anything about since she views it as a mark of an Asian restuarant) but I mentioned it to our waiter who brought her a replacement and took the spring rolls off our bill.

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What I Ate: October 17, 2009 (Blue Bamboo, Red Robin)

When I started the day, I had no idea that it would be a day full of fried foods.

Lunch: I picked up lunch from Gill's Fried Chicken (101 Hall Professional Center, Kyle, TX‎ - (512) 268-1357‎). I got several pieces of dark meat, fried okra, gizzards, livers, and corn. The gizzards and livers were quite good - full of flavor and nicely textured. The chicken was pretty decent as well - better than the other chicken places we've tried since we moved out here (Church's and Golden Chick, both of which had bland flesh). The corn was waterlogged but the fried okra was pretty decent.

Dinner: We headed over to the Kyle Fair & Music Festival for some street fair food.

I started off with a corn dog (always have to get a corn dog). This picture is of the corn dogs on display - not the one I ate. I drown my corn dogs in yellow mustard - one of the only times I enjoy yellow mustard.

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What I Ate: October 16, 2009 (Gill's Fried Chicken, Kyle Fair & Music Festival)

Lunch: Grabbed a foot long Oven Roasted Chicken Breast sandwich from Subway to split with my wife for lunch.

Dinner: I had some chicken thighs defrosted in the refrigerator, so I cut them into small strips, marinated in sesame oil, soy sauce, ground white pepper, garlic powder, and salt for fifteen minutes, and stir fried with julienned broccoli stalks. I cooked the broccoli florets with ground black pepper, dried porcini salt, and a little olive oil in the microwave for two minutes.

Lunch: After going through our pre-carpet walkthrough/inspection of our new home, Tina and I went to check our a new Santa Rita Cantina (5900 W. Slaughter Lane Ste 550, Austin, TX‎ - (512) 288-5100‎) that opened up in Escarpment Village just two months ago.

I ordered the Fish Tacos where were quite good. Tillapia is grilled (not fried) and served with lettuce and pico de gallo on corn tortillas. A spicy, but incredibly flavorful avocado-lime sauce comes on the side.

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What I Ate: October 14, 2009 (Santa Rita Cantina)

Dinner: We've been driving by a restaurant called Cannoli Joe's (4715 U.S. 290, Austin, TX‎ - (512) 892-4444‎) for months now, so we decided to stop and and see how it is. We expected it to be like an Olive Garden, but instead it's an Italian-themed buffet. Dinner during a weeknight is $14 (we then got 20% off with our GoLocalAustin card) and the food is worth it. There restaurant is split up into different stations, each decorated like a Disneyland version of different Italian food vendors or cafes. There are a bunch of dining rooms too, each one themed in a different manner.

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What I Ate: October 13, 2009 (Cannoli Joe's)

Lunch: We ate left over eggplant and pork over white rice.

Dinner: I whipped up some troffiette with wilted arugula, habanero sausage, and crushed guanciale (like pancetta but made from pork jowl instead of belly) that I had crisped. I also put a couple pieces of crisped guanciale on top as well as raw guanciale.

Dinner: Tina's mother made jiu cai he (garlic chives with egg and mung bean noodles wrapped in a flour pocket and pan fried). They were very tasty.

Lunch: We tried Z'Tejas (1110 W. 6th Street, Austin, TX‎ - (512) 478-5355‎) for brunch. The server recommended Eggs Benedict which I decided to go with (since I really enjoy a well made Eggs Benedict). The hollandaise sauce was smooth, creamy, and buttery. The eggs were poached very well with a fully runny yolk but solid whites - however they were a bit messy looking. A little trim would have been good. The ham was very thinly sliced and cooked until crispy and set ontop a very thin English muffin half. Both the ham and the muffin were too thin contributing only the crunchy and crispy texture and none of the chewiness that helps make Eggs Benedict that wonderful combination of all sorts of textures. I could have also used a light sprinkling of salt. The roasted potatoes that came on the plate were very well crisped but lacked flavor. I could barely taste any potato flavor and there was no detectable salt.

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What I Ate: October 11, 2009 (Z'Tejas)

Lunch: We were going to Costco, so we decided to try the P. Terry's Burger Stand (4228 W William Cannon Dr., Austin, TX‎ - (512) 358-0380) just across the street from the Costco shopping complex. I ordered "The Double" (2 100% all natural black angus beef pattys, American cheese, lettuce, tomato, special sauce) with fries and a drink. I had the burger with lettuce, tomatoes, onions, and pickles. When my order arrived it was all wrapped up.

Once I unwrapped it, I found that it looked remarkably like an In-N-Out burger, so I got my hopes up. Unfortunately, it wasn't as tasty as I had hoped. The meat patty was actually quite bland - applying salt helped quite a bit. We tasted each other's burgers and felt that neither one had patties that were browned enough to bring out that extra beefy flavor we look for. Tina examined her patty and saw coarsely ground bits of white and black all over the patty. It didn't look like it was just black pepper (plus we couldn't taste pepper or any other discernible spice) so we wondered what it was. I looked up to see if anyone was not busy so I could ask, and noticed that the guy manning the flattop was grilling a whole lot of burger patties and then stacking them to one side of the flattop. I pointed it out to Tina and we both wondered if the burgers were cooked to order or precooked and allowed to sit there. So, we watched and waited. We finished our burgers and there was still a small tower of hamburger patties next to the flattop. I grabbed my camera and decided to take a picture.

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What I Ate: October 10, 2009 (P. Terry's Burger Stand, Nordstrom's Cafe Bistro)

Dinner: Tina and I headed over to South Congress to try eating at Vespaio Enoteca again (tonight was pretty chilly and Tina was wearing long pants so we thought the change of mosquitoes was minimized). However, they were packed, so we walked up and down South Congress trying to decide where to eat. Finally, we decided on Southside Flying Pizza (2206 S Congress Ave, Austin, TX‎ - (512) 442-4246‎) which received a good review from the Fearless Critic. Usually, we agree with the Fearless Critic, but there are some times where they're a bit off. This is one of those times - the pizza was good, but not as good as they made it sound.

We ordered a half Southsider (chopped pepperoni, canadian bacon, sausage, red onions, bell peppers, and mushrooms) and half Margherita Pizza (Roma tomatoes, basil, garlic, olive oil, romano and mozzarella cheeses). The Fearless Critic review compared Southside Flying Pizza directly to Home Slice Pizza (futher north on South Congress) and pointed out that the crust was more flavorful at Southside. This was NOT the case for us. We found the crust undersalted and not worth eating with out a bowl of marinara sauce for dipping. The portions of the pizza that were topped were fine - the margherita had a decent amount of garlic flavor which makes up for the fact that there was a lot of shredded mozzarella and no sliced mozzarella.

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What I Ate: October 9, 2009 (Southside Flying Pizza)