Dinner: Tina and I were joined by Gary and Mary at the Backstage Steakhouse & Garden Bar (21814 State Highway 71 W, Spicewood, TX‎ - (512) 264-2223‎) about 7 miles west of Bee Caves, Texas. Backstage supposedly serves the best steak in the Austin area. So, I ordered the 20 oz. Bone-in Cowboy Ribeye ($39.99) cooked rare with a baked potato (with bacon bits) and onion rings.

The steak was excellent - tender, juicy, and cooked a little blue. I had it heated up a little bit and worried about them over doing it, but it came back medium-rare - just a little past the sweet spot that I personally look for. Still, the steak was of good quality and was pretty close to flawless both when blue and when medium-rare. They know how to cook a steak and not over do it here.

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What I Ate: July 10, 2009 (The Backstage Steakhouse)

Lunch: I ate left over Salisbury steak with rice, spinach, and an avocado half.

Dinner: Tina braised a whole trout in a soy sauce, vinegar, garlic, and black bean chili sauce (there's more stuff in there, but I'm too lazy to list it all).

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What I Ate: July 9, 2009

Dinner: Tina made soy sauce braised pork (hong sao rou) and served it over white rice along with fresh spinach and an egg & tomato soup.

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What I Ate: July 8, 2009

Dinner: Technically, I didn't eat at Coyote Creek Farm, but my dinner was heavily indebted to it. This dinner tale begins at 6:00am when I got up to drive out to Elgin, Texas to visit Jeremiah Cunningham at his farm: Coyote Creek Farm. My persistent readers will remember that I've been raving about the eggs from Coyote Creek (see the last paragraph of this post), so we had to see for ourselves. After corresponding with Jeremiah via email, we arranged for Tina and me to arrive at the farm at 8:00am.

It turns out Jeremiah is doing a lot more than producing incredible eggs. He's trying to encourage sustainable and organic farming in Central Texas in whatever way he can. His main business now isn't the pastured eggs or the grass fed beef - it's organic feed. This service has a greater impact than one initially might think. Jeremiah operates one of the only organic feed mills in this area of Texas (Coyote Creek was the first such mill in the entire state of Texas). The existence of his mill provides a market place for organic corn, flax seed, oats, alfalfa, and other grains enabling and encouraging local farms to use non-pesticide, environmentally friendly and sustainable techniques.

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What I Ate: July 7, 2009 (Coyote Creek Farm)

Lunch: Zong zi with leftovers - kale and bean curd.

Dinner: I coated some chicken parts (drumstick, thigh, drumette, and wingette) in bread crumbs (made from old olive bread) with paprika, salt, pepper, garlic powder, and coriander seed. Tina made a stir-fry from chicken breast, onions, and red bell pepper as well as a napa cabbage and bean thread dish.

Lunch: Tina had never been to a California Pizza Kitchen, so we went to the one in The Domain (2901 S Capital of Texas Hwy, Austin, TX‎ - (512) 327-6905). We ordered Avocado Club Eggrolls as an appetizer. The mix of ingredients - avocado, bacon, chicken, tomatoes, and Monterey Jack cheese in a crispy fried wrapper - is a good idea, but the execution included way too much cheese.

We then had a pizza made that was half The Works (sweet Italian sausage, pepperoni, Canadian bacon, Capicola ham, julienne salami, Mozzarella cheese, and tomato sauce) and half Italian Tomato & Basil (Imported Italian tomatoes [canned of course], Mozzarella cheese, and tomato sauce topped with fresh basil and Parmesan cheese). The crust (which we can only assume is their normal crust) was much too sweet, soft and spongy. It was like eating a really thick, untoasted, sweet pita bread with toppings. We love all sorts of pizzas, but this crust was not to our liking. Also, the toppings were so-so, and not nearly good enough to redeem the pizza crust.

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What I Ate: July 5, 2009 (California Pizza Kitchen)

Lunch: We headed to Luling's City Market (633 E Davis St, Luling, TX‎ - (830) 875-9019‎) which is supposed to be one of the best barbecues in Texas.

We ordered 1/2 pound brisket, 2 pounds spare ribs, and 1 sausage ring for Tina, myself, and Tina's parents.

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What I Ate: July 4, 2009 (City Market)

Dinner: Indian Taj Palace (20323 Huebner Rd # 107, San Antonio, TX‎ - (210) 497-4800‎) with Braden, Kelly, and Dan in North San Antonio for dinner buffet. I was quite happy with the food - lots of great flavor, just enough spiciness, and an ample mix of vegetarian and non-vegetarian favorites. I had tandoori chicken, okra, samosa, aloo gobi, saag paneer, vegetable biriyani, chicken tikka masala, chicken curry, vegetable vindaloo, and finished up with a few desserts (kheer, mango pudding, and some soft cheese thing in sweet milk).

Lunch: We were late going down to San Antonio, so we grabbed chicken nuggets from Wendy's and ate it in the car. I, uh, forgot to take a picture.

Lunch: Had a late lunch and had to scrounge around in the freezer for something I could heat up quickly. Ended up with a batch of fish sticks and a pork zong zi (sticky rice with a filling cooked in bamboo leaves).

Dinner: I had a previously cooked ribeye steak in the refrigerator but nothing to eat with it. So, a few minutes before 9pm (when everything in Kyle is closed except the What-A-Burger), I ran out to the Railroad Bar-B-Que and picked up cole slaw and potato salad. I really liked the cole slaw (not too sweet) but the potato salad was a little too mustardy for me.

Lunch: I ate some left over deli items we had - mortadella, black forest ham, head cheese, cucumbers, and rosemary and olive oil bread with an egg fried sunny side up.

Dinner: Tina cooked an oxtail with daikon soup.

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What I Ate: July 1, 2009