Lunch: We went to Chinatown Restaurant (3407 Greystone Drive, Austin, TX (512) 343-9307) to try out their weekend dim sum.

Most of the items were pretty decent.

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What I Ate: November 28, 2010 (Chinatown Restaurant)

Dinner: Tina made rotini pasta with roasted broccoli and prosciutto.

Lunch: Costco Carne Asada Bake. It's new, so I had to try it. It's better than the chicken bake, but still too doughy and too cheesy for me (by the time I got to the final few bites, I just couldn't eat anymore).

Dinner: Microwaved Pork Tamales

Dinner: Since it was just the three of us (Tina, me and Tina's dad), I decided to just cook a couple of turkey thighs instead of a whole bird. (Truthfully, I wasn't even planning on doing a Thanksgiving dinner since I was too busy to even think about Thanksgiving until two days before. Definitely, no time to buy and thaw a turkey, so getting turkey thighs was the best option.) I brined the thighs in a salt solution of 1 gallon water with 1/3 cup salt and a few tablespoons of lime juice for about 10 hours (in the refrigerator). After rinsing, I vacuum sealed the thighs with salt, pepper, thyme, and a tablespoon of butter each. I then cooked them sous vide at 80°C (176#176;F) for five hours to break down as much connective tissue as I could. After that, I took them out of the bag to air dry and poured the resulting liquid into a pan to make into a gravy. The thighs were finished in the convection oven at 500°F (260°C) for about 10 minutes - enough to brown and crisp up the skins.

In addition to the turkey thighs, we steamed the rest of the frozen Alaskan King crab legs we had in the deep freeze.

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What I Ate: November 25, 2010 (Thanksgiving)

Lunch: Leftover lamb shank and roasted potatoes

Dinner: We had a craving for The Best Wurst and headed back downtown (this time much earlier in the evening). We shared a Smoked Italian Sausage sandwich and a Bratwurst sandwich. I have to say that it's not the same eating sausage sandwiches just before 10pm versus at 3am when everyone on the street is stumbling around and drunk.

Lunch: Subway Oven Roasted Chicken Sandwich

Dinner: Little Bacon Cheeseburger with the works and jalapeno peppers

Lunch: I ate leftover fried rice and drunken chicken from Pao's Mandarin House for lunch.

Dinner: We needed a quick dinner before a movie, so we tried to get some food at Taco Cabana. I ordered their new street tacos (three small beef tacos) and Tina got a beef burrito. We disliked the food so much we left most of it and found another source of fast food.

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What I Ate: November 22, 2010 (Taco Cabana, Schlotzsky's)

Lunch: After church, we took my parents to eat at Pao's Mandarin House (2300 Lohmans Spur # 134, Lakeway, TX (512) 263-8869) in Lakeway.

First we were "greeted" by a waiter who clearly did not want to be there. What actually happened was that the waiter was doing something at the front counter with his back to us (not turning after hearing the door bell ring as we entered). Then he finished what he was doing and glanced at us briefly as he turned to walk back to the table he was handling. We then waited for him to do whatever it was he was doing (it would have been nice for him to say, "wait" or something to acknowledge we existed) before he came back and asked us brusquely in Chinese "How many?" then plopped us at a small four top (we had four in our party) which wouldn't be enough space for Chinese people to eat family style (it would be enough if everyone ordered one of those Americanized Chinese lunch combination plates, but not large enough to share food. There were only 3 placesettings (flatware placed directly on the oil streaked table surface) so he came back and practically slammed the extra fork and spoon on the table. My thought was - oh, our waiter was trained at Din Ho BBQ… anyway, we asked to be moved to a larger table and the waiter said he didn't want to earlier since there was a large party in the other room where the bigger tables were and thought the waitress wouldn't be able to handle it.

Yang Chow Fried Rice - came with stale ham. First of all, why is ham in there? Second, well - it was stale… gone bad… made the thing taste like crap. Sent it back; asked for it without the pork. They brought it back and said they remade it with fresh ham. It was edible, but not a good example of Yang Chow Fried Rice. They also brought us a pitiful tiny dish (2-in diameter) of dried bean curd and anchovies (a classic Chinese small plate) on the house as an apology - to bad it just made them look stingy and didn't taste good.


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What I Ate: November 21, 2010 (Pao's Mandarin House)

Dinner: My father cooked his specialty - mian ge da which is like a hand cut noodle soup where the noodles/dough is often compared to spaetzle.

We also had zucchini…

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What I Ate: November 20, 2010 (Fortune Seafood Chinese Restaurant)

Lunch: Nong Shim Seafood Ramyun with mushrooms and Napa cabbage. We also each had a 65°C egg with our ramen.

Dinner: Alaskan King Crab, baked sweet potato, sauteed turnip greens, and mashed potatoes.